Chapter 30: The Expedition Team’s Crisis!
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Having gone on many missions, Golan had grown considerably more comfortable leading the team. He was no longer the person who tensed up the moment he stepped outside the protective barrier's borders. He had learned to deal with the unknown with cool nerves and calculated caution.
He wished he still had his old team. Their collective coordination had developed greatly over the past period — but the Lord had appointed their former archer Laura as commander of the second expedition, and had also sent the other spear-carrier to complete that team's formation.
Fortunately, the member assigned as replacement in his team was also an archer, which meant his team still possessed long-range capability.
For the record, all elite soldiers were roughly equal in strength — with ranged fighters being slightly weaker in direct close combat. But the reason for their importance was that their tactical advantage was greater. For example, adding one to the team gave Golan far more flexible tactical options.
The journey was quiet. Golan didn't like talking much, especially during expeditions. Getting absorbed in conversation would lower the team's alertness, and that could cost them dearly.
"Do you hear that?" Suddenly, Golan raised his hand signaling the expedition team to stop, and whispered.
When the sound of the team's footsteps ceased, a distant sound became barely audible — but it was there.
"Tap… tap… tap…"
The archer also whispered: "I hear a distant rumbling… it's coming from this direction."
The team members nodded. They could hear it too.
"Lower your footsteps and advance." Golan indicated the direction the archer had identified, and they began moving forward slowly, their eyes sweeping the horizon.
They were at the crest of a small hill. Golan carefully extended his neck and looked toward the source of the sound. It was, in fact, the sound of trees being chopped.
"Are those… humans?" Golan murmured.
In the distance before him, a team consisting of three soldiers and several villagers were cutting down trees. They looked exactly like them. Golan studied the soldiers' weapons and simple armor and concluded they were mere militia soldiers. He judged that their current team could kill them with ease.
As for whether they were fellow humans — Golan wasn't particularly concerned about that. They were enemies like any other. In his mind, anyone who did not belong to the Lord's territory was an enemy — plain and simple. Nevertheless, he did not order an attack.
The reason was the Lord's instructions: gather information without unnecessary engagement, so as not to alert the enemy.
On top of that, the distance between them was considerable, and there was no good cover from which to launch an attack. If they moved now, the enemy would have a strong chance of successfully escaping.
So for the time being, Golan waited. He followed with his eyes the route the villagers took as they returned carrying felled tree trunks on their shoulders. The distance wasn't long. He watched them disappear inside the protective barrier, then emerge again a short time later after unloading their cargo to resume work.
Golan committed the coordinates of the enemy territory to memory. Then he whispered to his companions to withdraw without drawing attention, and they continued their scouting journey.
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On the other side, the team led by Laura was operating in an environment entirely different from Golan's.
Laura noticed that after roughly two hours of marching, she and her team had encountered nothing. No enemies from other territories, no monsters. Nothing — the journey had been completely smooth.
This had helped calm Laura, who had been a little tense at first since it was her first time commanding a team. But this suspicious quiet was making her feel that something was not right.
The area was far too still. Based on her experience from previous expeditions, they should have encountered at least one or two monsters by now.
Laura signaled the team to stop. In the valley before her, a primitive forest occupied the entire location — a forest of large, dead trees hanging under a heavy silence. There were none of the sounds of life that typically emerge from forests: no chirping birds, no rustling of leaves in the wind. It gave the place a thoroughly bleak and desolate feel.
Laura felt a faint sense of danger emanating from this forest, which deepened the feeling of crisis already present in her heart.
"We're entering this forest. Everyone raise their alertness to the maximum. I have an ill feeling about it."
Despite knowing this forest most likely contained some form of danger, Laura didn't choose to avoid it. She took her team and they entered decisively — they were soldiers, and their job was to be the first to face danger.
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Inside the forest, Laura and her team members stepped on dead branches and leaves as they explored. Though they had not yet encountered any form of threat, Laura was extremely cautious, watching in all directions — for she felt predatory eyes watching her from the shadows.
Laura trusted her instincts more than her eyes. So an arrow was already resting on the bowstring, waiting for the enemy to show itself.
The rest of the team needed no further warning. They were all elite soldiers. Even if the enemy was skilled at concealing itself and its movements, it couldn't erase the presence they could all sense.
"Enemy above!" Laura suddenly cried out. She aimed her bow upward and released an arrow without hesitation.
"CRACK!"
The arrow struck its target squarely between its eyes, and disgusting green blood poured from its head. The targeted monster was a black spider with eight bloodshot red eyes — enormous in size.
But Laura did not smile at her success in hitting the target. The reason? There was not just one spider. At that moment, a massive number of spiders were raining down on them from the tops of the tall trees.
There was no route of retreat — they were surrounded from every direction.
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— End of Chapter Thirty —