Where the merchant road passed through the forest, Ron, with Lawrence’s assistance, organized the refugee team to quickly pass through the woods.
Arriving at the place of the fierce battle, several roadblocks were still lying across the road, but there was no sign of anyone alive on either side—that fellow named Noy had long since ridden away, disappearing without a trace.
After Ron directed the refugees to move the roadblocks, he was led by Lawrence to a dirt embankment by the road, where they found a corpse with an arrow piercing its chest and back, dead on the spot, and a bandit who had been knocked unconscious by a heavy hammer.
Ron drew his short sword, walked forward, hesitated for a moment, then hardened his heart, and with a swift move, delivered another strike to both the unconscious bandit and the dead body, ensuring the breathing one died and the dead one was truly gone.
The hair on everyone behind him stood on end.
“Brother Lawrence, quickly collect the weapons on the ground, strip them of their clothes, take everything useful, and by the way, pick up some dry branches and firewood to load onto the wagons.” With that, he returned to the refugee team, urging everyone to pass through quickly…
____________________
In the gently undulating forest stretching east to west, the boring chase continued endlessly.
The two groups played a game of cat and mouse: if you stopped, I rested; once I rested enough, I chased; if you chased, I ran; if I ran until I was about to vomit blood, then we both stopped to rest.
Art had regained his composure; his and Odo’s wounds were bandaged and bleeding had stopped, and with the running and resting, their physical strength had recovered somewhat.
Aside from the annoying pangs of hunger from their stomachs, they were already numb to fatigue.
“We’re about to shake them off,” Art said to the three people slumped on the ground.
Bass propped himself up and glanced at the pursuers lying scattered at the other end of the forest, asking, “How can we shake them off? Those Bastards are still following so closely~”
Art swallowed a mouthful of melted snow, pointed to the sky that was already turning dark gray, “Because it’s getting dark~”
At the other end of the forest, the roar of the bow-wielding leader resounded again: “Get up, quick!! If you don’t catch them before dark, I’ll shoot through your heads!!!” Saying this, he drew a heavy arrow and aimed it at a comrade who was lying on the ground refusing to get up.
He had gone mad!
“Kazak, get up, those lunatics are f***ing chasing us again~” Bass pulled up Kazak, who had injured his foot by kicking a stone while fleeing, and got up to continue running west.
Art looked at the sky, then at his surroundings, stopping them from continuing west, saying, “Wait, we’re not running west anymore, run north, then turn east!!” Odo and the others didn’t understand Art’s intention, but they still followed him.
By the time the bow-wielding leader arrived, Art and the others’ figures had already appeared to the north.
Art glanced back at the pursuing tail while running, urging, “Run south, faster, even faster, we must reach the southern treeline before dark.”
Art told Odo and the two others to run south with their last ounce of strength; as long as they created enough distance from their pursuers, they would be able to shake them off.
So, seeing a glimmer of hope, everyone seemed to grow two more legs, running faster and faster, and the distance between the two groups grew wider and wider~~
“We can’t see those guys anymore, what should we do?” A small henchman, licking his dry, purple lips, ran behind the bow-wielding leader and asked.
His meaning was that they couldn’t catch them, and this farce should end.
“Are you blind!! Can’t you see them, can’t you see their footprints? You stupid pig, hurry up and chase them.” The bow-wielding leader stared at the henchman with bloodshot eyes, and the henchman, startled, quickly ran away.
Thus, they accelerated for another half an hour, and the two groups had opened up a distance of nearly half a mile, at which point night began to spread through the forest~
The outline of the southern wilderness of the forest was already vaguely visible through several rows of birch and pine trees.
Art changed direction again, running eastward, parallel to the edge of the forest at a distance of less than fifty paces.
After running for a while, seeing that it was about right, Art shouted to the others beside him: “Odo, you and Kazak stop, quickly find a large tree branch, preferably with leaves.
Bass, you continue running a bit further with me.
Hurry up, we are about to escape.”
Odo and Kazak stopped, took off the short swords at their waists, ran to a short pine tree, and cut off a branch with large, dense pine needles.
Art, meanwhile, took Bass and rushed about a hundred paces further in an east-northeast direction, then suddenly stopped, holding back Bass who had followed, and said, “Take off your boots and put them on backwards!”
“Ah? Sir~”
“Take off your boots, put them on backwards, quick!!” Art was already sitting on the ground, forcing his deerskin boots onto his feet backwards.
Bass also followed suit, taking off his rabbit fur winter boots and putting them on his feet backwards.
“Let’s go, run back!!” With that, he dragged his unsteadily worn boots and limped back.
“Quick, quick, head south, out of the forest, onto the wilderness, Odo, you lead, everyone else step in Odo’s footprints, quick!!” Saying this, he put his boots back on, snatched the branch from Kazak’s hand, and as he retreated, he used the branch to sweep away a row of footprints heading south in the snow.
A moment later, looking from here, the figures of the group were already obscured by the dense forest, leaving only four rows of messy footprints leading northeast into the center of the dense forest.
After a long while, the bow-wielding leader finally caught up with his winded henchmen.
Using the last bit of light reflected by the white snow before nightfall, he roughly distinguished the four lines of footprints on the ground, “They ran into the middle of the forest, chase them!!! Kill one, and get two hundred fenny reward.”
The sky was completely enveloped in darkness, and the four had already run a mile into the wilderness from the forest edge, dragging a large tree branch with pine needles behind them.
“Bastard! Bastard! Cowards!!! Ah~~~”
A heart-wrenching roar came from the forest.
Art finally couldn’t hold on, slumping to the ground, muttering, “Finally shook them off,” a gurgling laugh escaping his throat~
The string in everyone’s hearts snapped with a “bang,” and they all collapsed into the endless night, the survivors of the ordeal chuckling softly.
After lying in the snow for a long time, the melting snow carried away the burning heat from their bodies, and their sweat began to freeze.
“Hmph~” Art, curled up in the snow, shivered from a chill.
He looked around, struggling to get up.
“Get up, guys, we need to leave.” He woke up Odo and the others who were sleeping.
When soaked through, people sleeping in a snowdrift often don’t wake up.
“Damn it! It’s really cold,” Bass woke up, his whole body starting to tremble.
“Sir, where do we go? It’s too dark, we can’t see the way.” Odo took off his boots and continuously rubbed his numb feet with both hands.
“Yes, Sir, it’s pitch black all around, we can’t tell directions or walk, unless we have torches for light.” Bass and Kazak also imitated Odo, rubbing their frozen hands and feet.
“I can see a little.” Art stood up and adjusted his armor and weapons.
Odo and the two others looked at Art, finding it incredible, “Sir, do you have eagle eyes?”
“No, I can’t see clearly either, but maybe a little better than you all, I can see general outlines.” Art didn’t intend to explain what night blindness was to them.
Art led the way, Bass brought up the rear, and Odo, with his injured arm, and Kazak, with his injured foot, walked in the middle.
The group walked step by step in the vast night in a direction that was roughly southeast.
Thus, the footprints that had disappeared for a long time reappeared behind them…