Chapter 177
Chapter 177 Bait
Colca Village had become a ghost village!
This colossal news started to spread quickly through Blue Hillock City. Soon, it found its way to Ninther’s ears.
According to mercenaries who frequently entered Greenland Forest, the Colca Village, near the edge of the forest, had become a ghost village overnight. All the villagers had vanished! More surprisingly, everything within the village had been untouched. Be it food, clothing, the houses, or even the animal leather and mountain herbs treasured by the villagers- all of it had been left where it was. The only thing missing was the living.
From villagers, hunters, all the way to the hunting dogs, the cows and the sheep- as long as it was a living thing- everything had vanished, with not a single track that indicated that they had left.
The few mercenaries that passed by were terrified, and blamed it all on the supernatural. Immediately, they ran all the way back to Blue Hillock City and reported the incident to the castellan.
And so, in a single day, all sorts of rumours took Blue Hillock City by storm!
Some said that a monster had appeared in the forest. Some claimed that the villagers were infected by some sort of plague. Some were even more preposterous, spreading the news that some terrifying heretics had appeared there……
“Chase!” Ninther waved his arm vigorously, and turned his head to shout backwards, “Edward, you lead the army forward. I’ll go intercept him with some troops!”
Having said that, Ninther brought along seven or eight companions. They drove their magic steeds to their limits and quickly disappeared into the dark woods.
The red sun was already halfway past the horizon. The darkness in the woods was slowly receding.
The thin mist slowly dissipated under the sunshine, spreading moist air inside the forest.
The mysterious silhouette constantly flickered in the depths of the woods far away. Ninther had shot several flame arrows with his bow, but the shadow had managed to dodge them all while still retaining its speed.
The magic colts were like terrifying demons, dashing through the woods, scaling cliffs and crossing rivers with ease. The magic colts only needed to jump, aided by the boost of their sharp claws, to cross a small hill nine meters high. The colts could run as if they were in flight, regardless of how rocky and uneven the roads were, as if they were sprinting on flat ground.
The well trained witcher-knights bent their bodies and leaned onto the backs of the magic colts. They rode on the colts as they jumped and sprinted across vines, bushes, and woods with weeds half the height of a human, closely tracking the mysterious flickering silhouette.
This was not recklessness or fearlessness on the part of the witcher-knights; rather, it was part of their combat style and methods.
On the Continent of Witchers, the heretics were few in number and always the targets of pursuit and chase, never able to form an organized or powerful force. Thus, the witcher-knights would always track the heretics relentlessly once they found them, rarely wondering about boring and pointless things like the possibility of the opponent setting a trap.
Yet they had no idea that as they were riding on their horses and speeding across the dense woods, several other mysterious silhouettes was already on their tail, quickly approaching them from above the forest canopy.
This was a group of odd bloodsucking bats.
They had wide bat wings and agile movements, effortlessly weaving through the dense foliage, silently closing in on the group of witcher-knights.
The knight at the rear of the formation was a veteran. His magic colt was already fairly old, and it couldn’t keep up with the stamina and explosive movements of its companions. Seven minutes of riding had put a distance of a dozen meters between him and his companions in front.
With the speed of the magic colts, this distance could hardly be called falling behind. But even so, this distance still caused him to be caught in an ambush.
Even though he hadn’t heard anything, the senses honed from numerous years in the service alerted him to something odd behind him.
Vigilant, he grabbed the hilt of his sword, bent his body, and turned around slightly to look.
There was no movement at all in the dark woods. Not a single enemy appeared in his sight.
Was the bad feeling in his heart just him being oversensitive?
Just as he was hesitating, he caught a glimpse of something odd above him from the corner of his eyes.
The enemy was above!
A bloodsucking bat that had swooped down in front of him suddenly charged forward before he could do anything. In a fraction of a second, Its furry body transformed into a young man with blood-colored eyes and sharp claws.
The young man in the air knocked the witcher-knight off his magic colt, and the two started a savage fight as they tussled. Before they had even landed, more bloodsucking bats charged forward, transforming into vampires. They ignored the knight’s attempt to resist and struggle, quickly leaping on him.
In just a few seconds, the witcher-knight had been drained of blood and killed, savaged by the attacks of half a dozen vampires. Just then, the witcher-knight closest to the rear of the group up ahead faintly heard the sound of savage fighting and thrashing behind him as he rode. When he turned back to look, all he saw was a mouth lined with sharp teeth rapidly closing in on him.