The best trackers and warriors of the Abu Serra steppes come from a tribe called the Absgunti. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Just as the West Coast is home to the West Waliers and the Avenella, Ridaila, and Solatin, the vast Abu Sera savannah is characterized by considerable differences in ethnicity and customs between ethnic groups in all directions, and the Absgunti are the most typical of these.

The word "Absgunti" comes from the Lamani abbreviation, which stands for "Los-Absto-Agunti" - meaning "the one who hides behind the bushes" It is a veritable representation of the group that lives in the forest-steppe-shrub area of the Kursim region, and we can see in a literal sense that the Lamanites who migrated westward may have gained some terrible memories here, so much so that the term that was left behind to refer to a particular race still retains the meaning of "the strongest hunter of the steppe" in civilized society.

Absgunti are small, and although the vast majority of steppe people are only around 1.7 meters tall, Absgunti are even lower in this standard. Most of the men were only 1.5 to 1.6 meters tall and weighed no more than fifty-five kilograms, while the women were probably even smaller - which may have been an important factor in why they were able to hide behind the bushes and surprise the Lamanite ranks, but perhaps more than these typical outward traits were their reputation for being able to fight and be good at tracking.

- Our protagonist, Henry, is perhaps a pretty good stealth and a master of tracking, with enough experience and keen observation to keep off most hunters from all over the world. But this is not his home turf after all, and no matter how experienced he is, an outsider will never be able to match the locals, let alone the Absgunti who have almost reached the level of a master in tracking skills.

There is a proverb to describe the Absgunti, also invented by the Lamanites and accepted by the Soladin and the Southlanders who have been at war with them for many years: "Even a spider that reweaves its web can tell them that someone has recently passed by." This detail is a very visual indication of their meticulous observation and immersion into their environment, and as the main object of the numerous losses of the Soladins in the past, their appearance is naturally impressed by the civilized world, at least the Soladin and the South.

Let's shift the camera to the three protagonists.

Twenty-one days had passed since they had escaped from the Red-billed Finch Clan's camp, and after discovering the hut and recuperating for a few days, the group of three had resumed their journey and walked for several days. At this time, it is already the beginning of January, and even if the Soladin region is not as cold as it is further north due to its tropical location, the cool breeze that blows from time to time and the days that become shorter can still give people a real sense of the change of seasons.

They had now actually entered the inhabited area of southern Soradin, and had seen many small villages in the distance along the way. But the sage did not intend to travel to those places to buy supplies - even when traveling to the northern part of Soradin and other parts of the west coast, all the villagers of the mercenary kingdom of Cori Conrad were very accustomed to trading with mercenaries, but in the south, where the war between the steppes and the mercenaries was tormented, the inhabitants still stubbornly stayed here and did not move or go to the fortified castles, but existed in the form of small villages, and their existence was extremely complicated.

In the eyes of these people, neither the mercenaries nor the steppe people are considered good people. The war had burned their homes, and the vast and rich forests and shrubs that had beenfront them had disappeared, and it would take at least a century for humans to regrow them. And in the years of war, when there is a need for supplies, the mercenaries always force the local residents to donate voluntarily, if they refuse to help, they will be called complicit with the steppe people, lose everything and become slaves, and force the local people to live in poverty.

The so-called steppe people encroached on the Soladin region and attacked the good settled peoples. But it has been around for thousands of years, just as bandit groups can exist within sedentary peoples. It was none other than the missionaries of the White Church and the local nobles, lords, and mercenaries who had plotted against Absellah or wanted to make a fortune from the war, and their high-profile claims that they had waged war against the evil and savage steppes in order to protect the inhabitants of northern Soladin from the steppes would not even be believed by the mercenaries themselves. In fact, most of the small villages that still stay here have negotiated and compromised with the steppe people to a certain extent, and in case of war, they will also selectively help the steppe people, in exchange for the peace that will not be disturbed.

In these villages, which have no good feelings for mercenaries, Henry, who looks like a mercenary and wears a mercenary badge, and the three of them will be greeted not by food, shelter and bonfires, but by bright and piercing hostility.

It was a good habit for Henry to carry a lot of gold coins and to carry them in a small leather bag on top of the belt rather than on horseback, as important things as flints and steels. But to resupply, replenish their lost bags and other belongings, buy new clothes, and walk the real road instead of the mountains and wastelands, they need to reach a real castle built by mercenaries and nobles.

After more than two months of walking in the field, it has not been replaced, and the horseshoe of the two horses has worn out considerably. Even though they are walking on dirt rather than stone roads, the shoes are quite useful. In addition to protecting the horse's hooves during high-intensity exercise, specially shaped shoes such as spiked shoes can also enhance grip in mud or frozen soil, making it more difficult for horses to run when they wear out, and they have to worry about slipping and falling when sprinting at full speed.

There are many things that want to be done, but planning is always too bad to keep up with the changes, and before worrying about a series of other problems, the three people who still stay close to the edge of the forest out of vigilance to use the terrain to avoid the grassland people in time to avoid tracking them have discovered a new problem.

It was an unexpected encounter, on the afternoon of the twenty-second day of escaping from the camp of the Red-billed Finch Clan, a group of three people who happened to ride into the forest to find a place to camp, and more than 20 meters away, saw a wild boar of a small size rushing out of the bushes with a cry, and then fell to the ground and died of exhaustion without running a few steps away. The sharp-eyed Henry saw a few white arrows on the top that were thinner than ordinary arrows, and immediately frowned: "Turn around and run back." He said this in a rather serious tone, so that Mira reacted decisively, and the moment they turned their horses' heads, a rather short, brown-skinned man dressed in animal skins ran out with a small bow.

"Is it the pursuer of the steppes!" Avenella's horse's ability to speed up was of the highest level, and they quickly pulled away and ran out of range of the small bow that was obviously poisonous, Mira asked, and Henry nodded: "And it's the best, I don't know what Ebenny is capable of finding these people, but he did it anyway." ”

He said, and the group of three ran away quickly, until they had reached a considerable distance, and Henry gradually slowed down.

"That's the Absgunti. He glanced back behind him, then continued, "The best trackers in the whole of Absera, although they look thin, they are like the ponies of the steppe, with great physical strength and stamina. ”

"And they are from the Kursimu region, which is different from Absera, and there are many forests and shrubs. In the original war with the Soladin mercenaries, the steppe people invited these people as guides, and with their ability to track through the jungle, they were able to draw with the southern border and the army of Soladin, and even have the upper hand. ”

"Hurry, the Absgunti are sparsely populated, and are mainly employed as experts among the great clans of the steppe. But even if they faced the stone castle, there was nothing they could do but retreat, as long as we reached the castle and it was safe. Henry said as he directed the horses on, and they proceeded at controlled speed and methodically, having determined that the pursuers were those of these master hunters, and that the sages no longer intended to hide their tracks in the jungle - they would meet these men here apparently never really dumped them, perhaps once at that time in the cabin, but were quickly pursued again when they were back on the road.

The men even managed to get in front of them, apparently intending to intercept them before they reached the town, only to be discovered by a coincidental encounter on a hunt. Otherwise, in the face of the ambush of these skilled masters, I am afraid that even if even a sage, with only one of the three people is not an effective combat force, and Mira has lost his main weapon and is not well rested to deal with it, he will be dead and dead.

Rao is a tall horse and a great skill, and a dozen or twenty Absgunti Henry can easily deal with it in close combat, and these great steppe hunters possess a weapon that any strong mercenary and knight would be afraid of.

Due to their size, the Absgunti were unable to use the curved bow common in the steppes or the longbow of the West Coast. Their small bows were shorter than the arms of a grown man on the West Coast, and they could not have enough strength to take down the enemy with the lethality of the bow itself, so they went to the other extreme, using venom extracted from insects, tying thin hemp rope to the back end of the small arrow arrows, and then dipped the hemp rope in the twine.

This method is more effective in maintaining the activity of the venom than ordinary steppe people, and it is better to avoid poisoning and death if you accidentally cut yourself, and you need arrows to shoot into the prey to attack-and they use enough toxin to take down a large game weighing 300 kilograms, even if you use more of it, the strong Avenella warhorse.

These were extremely dangerous and extremely sophisticated opponents, thin but deadly, and very good at making trade-offs - three minutes after Henry and the others had run out, the three men, who no longer intended to hide their tracks, ran on the wide plain, and sure enough, they saw a dozen figures behind them.

Apparently they had given up their newly acquired prey to track down their group.

The skinniest figures on horseback from a distance were clearly Absgunti's trackers, while the rest of the ten or so were dressed as ordinary steppe warriors they had seen before, presumably from the same clan, and then for some reason split up before joining forces - they had to hurry up anyway.

"Teacher, castle!" Mira's voice rang out beside her, and the girl's voice couldn't help but carry a faint excitement when she saw the stone building that she could enter as a symbol of civilized society. Unrecognizable nobles or royal flags fluttered fiercely at the top of the castle, and the sentries on them apparently spotted them "Take off the mercenary badges." Henry said this, and then took off the badge from his waist, and then raised his hand and shook vigorously the jewel-reflective thing—a common rule in the civilized world, to identify oneself and tell them that there was no hostility in order to be able to enter the city—but it was evident that it did not always work.

“...... This bunch of cowards. Henry smacked his tongue, for he clearly saw that the gate of the castle in the distance was slowly closing, and the castle built by the mercenary groups and nobles who fought in this place was 100% hostile to the steppes, but the problem was that there were only a dozen steppe people chasing after them, and although this castle was not particularly large, it was only three times the size of the original Ellen Outpost in Arvenella - almost the smallest castle - But there are also three or four hundred people stationed in it, and the steppe cavalry facing more than a dozen people is like a frightened bird, which is simply not too embarrassing.

"Don't stop, keep running!" said Henry, turning back to Mira, the area had become forested, and the grasslands and plains behind him had already shown the familiar scenery along the Tambur Mountains, and if they continued to run forward, they would be able to meet another castle, so the three of them had no intention of slowing down, and seeing that the castle was getting closer and closer, they could almost see the moss on the limestone surface of the buildings above.

"Bang-bang-grab!" the earth splattered, and a small crossbow fell into the ground beside them.

"......" the people of the castle fired their ballistas at them, and the slightest mistake was that they had to be killed on the spot with men and horses, "Don't come any closer! don't lead those steppes to us!" shouted the West Coast lingua franca in Soladin's accent, and a large group of mercenaries with bows and crossbows appeared in the battlements above the castle.

"Teacher!" Mira's voice quickly changed from a mixture of relief and excitement to worry and disbelief and hidden anger, and her beautiful eyebrows furrowed together, and Henry glanced at Lena behind her, whose expression was more apprehensive.

"Turning their heads, they mean it. Henry said this, and at the moment when the three men and the two horses turned in the other direction, a dozen steppe pursuers officially came to them.

The steppe pony, whose pace was much smaller than that of the Avennella horses, slowed down rapidly with small steps, and seventeen steppe light cavalry paced slowly in front of the three of them in a semicircle, and the other twelve steppe warriors all but four Absgunti and the other one drew their bows and pointed in their direction. And the only one who was neither a steppe warrior nor a master stalker, a short-haired steppe girl of Mira the same age as Mira, who was smaller than the Absgunti and who was clearly of their blood, smiled and drove the pony slowly up.

"It looks like you've been abandoned by your own people, as always, mercenaries. She spoke, speaking in Lamani, with a strong accent but pronounced and dictioned far more formally than Mustafa.

"Don't try to resist, or you'll be shot through the heart and captured. The girl said, and Henry raised his hands and motioned for the two beside him to do the same. (To be continued.) )