Wolf pack hunting is very tactical.

Unlike other fierce beasts, which do not stop pounce on each other, wolves will analyze the weakness of the prey through observation when faced with powerful prey, and make the prey tired and weakened through harassment, and finally wait for the opportunity to launch a fatal blow.

Proper opportunist.

Now, they are no exception to the attacks that have been launched since the morning.

Wandering on either side of the caravan, they kept howling and intimidating the caravan's pack horses, and when they saw a few pack horses showing restlessness, they saw an opportunity to rush over and try to throw the caravan into chaos.

But it's still a temptation.

When they rushed into the range of the bows and arrows of the caravan guards, and when the arrows and spears were full of the long wind, they quickly turned around and ran back.

This trade route has been opened for more than two hundred years, and the Loki daran wolf has become familiar with human defenses.

As if playing a game, the wolves rushed up, the caravan guards shot arrows and threw guns, the wolves retreated, and the caravan guards continued to be on guard......

Over and over again, over and over again.

But the caravan guards and the travelers on the periphery knew that the wolves were eating down their long-range advantage.

For example, the wolves that were shot or crucified to the ground, with their thin bodies or slightly gray and sparse hair, were all old, weak, sick and disabled in the wolf pack, and there was not a single female wolf.

It's just that they know this, but they can't do anything about it.

Before the wolves approached the caravan thirty meters, there were already many pack horses in the caravan screaming in terror, and if they were not driven farther away, I was afraid that the pack horses would get out of control and bring an avalanche effect to the entire caravan.

As time passed, the arrows fired from the caravan became more and more sparse, and the guns were no longer visible, and the result was only scattered wolf carcasses along the road. Some of them were still struggling before they died, and the terrible howls of grief continued on the great wasteland, making the women in the caravan pale with faces, and some of them were sobbing intermittently in terror.

The man's face was also solemn.

Without an abundance of arrows and javelins, it means hand-to-hand combat with wolves as big as calves, and it also means that the number of casualties will increase dramatically tonight.

It's time to camp again.

The principals of the various small groups of the caravan had a tacit understanding to keep each other's camps farther away.

The reason for this is also to avoid the avalanche effect.

Mercenaries and caravan guards are all in the service of gold coins, and there is no sense of honor in their hearts. Once their own small group is crushed by the onslaught of the wolves, they will follow their survival instinct and rush into another small group to seek refuge under the drive of the wolves. In this way, they will also disrupt the other party's deployment and bring disaster to the other party, and become accomplices of the wolves in disguise.

Each fights for itself, and each has a destiny.

As for which small group will be attacked by these wolves, and who will die under the wolf's kiss, then pray to their respective faiths.

Luck is also one of the necessary conditions for business.

The Guardians commanded the fed Kodo Beasts to lie on the ground, and blindfolded them with a thick impermeable cloth, fearing that they would be disturbed by the wolves' attack.

Once such a behemoth was frightened and went on a rampage, it would be a disaster for the entire caravan.

No one had the heart to go out hunting in front of the huge wolves, the girls no longer gathered in twos and threes to talk and laugh, and the rough men no longer stared at the white ravines, but they raised the fire in silence, munched on dry food and waited for it to get dark, waiting for the wolves to attack. The remnant sun was like blood, staining the sky and clouds red, and shrouded people's bodies, making the worries on everyone's faces clearly visible.

Chris held a piece of jerky in his mouth, gently sharpening the blade with the stone he had picked up.

The almost sleepless tiredness of last night lingered between his brows, but at this time he felt not sleepy at all, and was a little excited to look forward to the nightfall.

Stemming from his past of often hunting alone in Eton territory, he was not nervous about the impending danger; And his mother Avril's encouragement and expectation of "bravely facing any difficulties" before her death made him even more motivated.

Grandma, I'll never lack courage.

He muttered silently in his mind, put down the stone and gently tested the blade with his thumb.

This calm demeanor fell into the eyes of Jacob, who had been secretly observing him, and made him raise his eyebrows, "Dear little Chris, it will be dark soon, aren't you afraid?" ”

"The men of the north never know what fear is."

Chris looked up and gave him a roll of his eyes, corrected him very seriously, "Also, I'm young, but not small." ”

"Men?"

Not surprisingly, Jacob instantly showed a playful expression, "Oh, the god of fire is above!" Are you sure you're not a 'boy' who hasn't experienced a woman? ”

This damn fly!

Chris flickered in his hand, then put away his knife and got up to find Theon.

After many days of partnering, he learned that the best way to get rid of this fly is to ignore it.

Not long after they set up camp, Theon and Atwood led their pack horses to the Kodo Beasts, but for some reason they never returned.

Passing through four or five fires, before he could get to the Kodomon, Chris saw Theon's figure.

At this moment, he was clasping his hands to his chest, watching Atwood arguing with the mercenary leader who was responsible for the safety of their small group.

He was also joined by a number of caravan guards and mercenaries.

"Theon, why are they arguing?"

Squeezing through the crowd and walking to Thorn's side, Chris asked softly with some curiosity.

"Hey, why are you here too?"

Sien was surprised, and without waiting for him to reply, he explained in a low voice, "Atwood suggested that the principal drive out everyone's pack horses now, but the mercenary leader was unwilling. ”

Oh, I see.

Chris understood what was going on as soon as he heard it.

Driving the frightened pack horses out will help you avoid the internal hazards of the wolves, and will also make it easier for everyone to narrow their defenses and survive the night.

And the mercenary leader did not agree to Atwood's proposal, so he was naturally reluctant.

After all, the mercenaries' guard duties are limited to the Great Wasteland, and there are many people, and the commission is not much when it is evenly distributed to everyone.

"Damn it!"

"A bunch of bastards who want money and don't want to die!"

The dispute didn't last long, and Atwood, who had an angry face on his face, turned around and walked back with a scolding grin, and squinted his eyes when he passed by Chris and the two, and scolded the two of them too, "Look at what! You two aren't much better! ”

It seems that he can't convince the mercenary leader, and he can't convince the head of the caravan group.

Well, Chris and the two of them, who were tragically affected by the pond fish, looked at each other helplessly and smiled bitterly, and also turned around and walked back.

Soon, though, Chris felt inexplicably relieved.

Because when Jacob saw Atwood's angry face, he asked "what's wrong" very uninterestingly, and then was scolded back by the latter's "It's your business".

It didn't take long for night to fall as scheduled, and the most painful moment finally arrived.

The clouds were thick tonight, and the absence of both the Silver Moon and the Blood Moon made some people even more frightened, even though the camp was littered with burning fires and torches.

Chris formed an inverted triangle of five, Jessica standing in the innermost, the quiver on her back had long been thrown to the ground, the arrows were plunged head-on into the dirt, there were less than twenty, and the rest had coped with the wolves during the day. It earned her the respect of all the mercenaries and caravan guards, and she almost didn't miss out, returning a Lokidaran wolf to her ancestors with every arrow.

Whew~~~

The howls of the head wolves of each pack rose and fell, kicking off the prelude to the killing.

"Jessica, as long as these bastards are near the fire, they'll run out of arrows!"

It was Atwood who spoke.

"Huh?"

Jessica remained silent, looked sideways at him, and expressed her doubts in a single byte.

The guard fire was a full thirty paces away from their position, a distance that even if she was confident in her archery skills at night with poor eyesight, she could not guarantee a single kill.

"It doesn't matter if you can't shoot or not, just make them feel like we're going to have a hard time breaking through here."

As if he understood Jessica's doubts very well, Atwood immediately added, his voice still flat.

This also made everyone's faces a little strange.

Because the wolves will definitely attack them, and according to their hunting habits, if they find it difficult to break through here, they will naturally move to another place to look for opportunities, so Atwood's intention is to "sacrifice others for themselves".

"Good!"

Jessica's answer was still succinct.

And Jacob and Sien didn't say much.

just silently cast his eyes on the guard fire, counting how many green wolf eyes there were.

Only Chris, who has always grown up sheltered in his father's wings and is not yet fully familiar with the rules of the jungle, feels that this kind of selfishness, even blaming others, is cold-blooded.

"Well, Atwood, isn't it a bit bad for us to do that?"

He looked sideways into Atwood's eyes and asked softly.

"Huh, not good?"

Sneering and asking rhetorically, Atwood also stared into his eyes, letting his saliva overflow, "This is the Great Wasteland!" You know, Great Wasteland! The Great Wasteland where many people die every time you walk through! It's spring, and it's time for Loki Daran to raise their cubs! These brutes won't give up their raids until they have hunted enough food! We are all prey, if others don't die, you have to die! Got it? It's you who die! A rookie with a beautiful face, there are no heroic deeds told by your nurse, and there is no heroic hymn to the shit knight! If you don't understand this, go back and continue to feed! ”

Visible to the naked eye, Chris's face was crawling red.

Since he was a child, no one has scolded him so mercilessly in person, although the other party scolded him rightly, he still couldn't accept it for a while.

"Hold on to your knife, Chris."

Sien, who had been guarding Chris behind him, stepped over at this time, separated Chris from Atwood with his body, and gently patted Chris on the shoulder, "The wolves are coming soon." ”

Call~~

Chris exhaled deeply, trying to squeeze a smile out of Theon's face, "Okay. ”

And Atwood, who had finished scolding, had long been staring at the outside of the guard fire.

Oh~

Whew~~~

With a howl, a Lokidaran wolf appeared, and the vigilant fire stretched its figure very long, highlighting the miserable white canine teeth clearly visible beyond the wolf's snout, like the smile of death.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow soaked in the evening breeze and plunged deep into its head from its eye, as it began to run for an attack.

It was Jessica's masterpiece and the clarion call for the subsequent wolf pack attack.

Three more came from the darkness, smashing their teeth wildly over the fire, clever enough to know that humans could not see in the dark.

But they also became convulsive corpses on the ground.

Jessica shot all the arrows in one go, turning two wolves into hedgehogs and the other dead at Jacob's hands. Hit by four or five arrows, it still kept rushing wildly, but at some point, Jacob, who had a delicate small crossbow in his hand, shot the crossbow into its cracked mouth.

The wolves weren't as frightened as Atwood had hoped, but went even crazier.

The head wolf, hidden in the darkness, let out a terrible howl, and more and more wolves rushed towards them across the fire that had a remnant of the light.

The way they attack is still very tactical.

It's all three or four for a group, and some pounce to attract people's attention, so that the rest of the partners have a chance to bend over and bite people's calves and knock people down.

Chris and Theon also have a tacit understanding.

The hammer, which weighed more than fifty pounds, was danced like a light embroidery needle by Sien, completely blocking the wolves' intention to get close by inserting needles; Chris, on the other hand, is only responsible for wielding a knife and hacking to death.

"Jump!"

Chris slashed hard at the wolf's head, making a dull thud.

The long knife did not split the head of the Loki Daran wolf as expected, but was bounced off by the huge reaction force.

Fortunately, Tsien's early teachings taught him to retain his strength at all times, so that he did not lose his center of gravity and fall out of the formation. The Loki Daran wolf who was chopped was just lying on top of it and rolling a few times, but immediately stood up and shook its head, and the white hair in the middle of the narrow wolf's face was stained red by the blood gushing out.

The reason why the Lokidaran wolves were feared by the caravans was not only because of their size and large numbers as large as calves, but also because their skulls were as hard as iron and difficult to hurt by swords.

But obviously, neither Chris nor Theon knew this.

"Don't chop their heads, your knife has broken their heads!"

Atwood, who had been directing in the middle and preparing for the rescue, stepped forward in time, and before the wolf could stand firmly, the long sword in his right hand provoked its chin, and the short sword in his left hand instantly slashed through its neck and brought a rain of blood.

After doing all this, he was still in the mood to turn around and say disdainfully at Chris, "You unweaned little rookie!" ”

The difference between a rookie and an old bird is not only the understanding of the enemy, but also the ability to grasp fleeting opportunities.

Sometimes, though, the old birds stumble.