Chapter 78: Night Raid

Xia Duo knew exactly why he had fled from his shop, not to mention that he had previously instigated that foreign Mage named Kenni to ambush and kill Xia Duo.

Although the ambush failed, it made Lao Neil even more concerned, and he had been carefully investigating Xia Duo's whereabouts these past few days.

Yet, as soon as Xia Duo returned to town, he stayed in the Military Camp, and even when he went out, he was always accompanied by four or five soldiers, which directly dashed his thoughts of ambushing him in town.

But whenever he thought of Xia Duo's potential retaliation, Lao Neil felt a chill run through his entire body and could not sleep at all.

The next day, the exhausted Lao Neil received news again—Xia Duo had left town, which couldn't help but give him an idea; he subconsciously looked toward the room of that foreign Mage.

However, after hesitating for a moment, he still didn't go over; after all, the cost of hiring a Mage was not generally small, and he was still weighing it.

……

On the other side, Xia Duo was leading a team out again to clear out the remaining Orcs, and on the way to the Green Pearl Forest, Jibu told Xia Duo about the front-line battle situation he had inquired about.

The Orcs' lair had been destroyed, and a large number of their able-bodied men had died on the main battlefield; after this battle, the Orcs were no longer a major threat to the Savile Territory.

As for the losses of the Territory, Jibu didn't say much, but Xia Duo could roughly guess that it was nothing more than killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of one's own, or even killing eight hundred at the cost of a thousand.

There might even be Jibu's friends among them, so Xia Duo didn't ask further, but instead asked about the situation of the other Apprentices leading their squads.

Upon learning that the others also had their own gains, Xia Duo calculated silently in his heart, feeling a bit more confident about whether they could safely survive this Orc Tide.

……

As soon as they approached the forest, everyone immediately entered a state of vigilance; perhaps having recovered from their previous defeat, the Orcs they encountered this day were mostly filled with violent murderous intent.

As soon as they encountered them, they would fight to the death, rarely retreating or fleeing, and compared to the previous few days, the frequency of encountering Orcs had clearly increased.

On the first day out, Xia Duo's squad encountered more than ten Orcs, which made their clearing work exceptionally difficult; as for Sami's side, it was about the same, only a few less than Xia Duo's side.

However, Sami's squad had not replenished the reduced team members during their previous rest, so it was hard to say which side was more difficult.

At night, Xia Duo reported their respective positions to Sami as usual before starting to set up a Temporary Camp, with only one campfire and a simple fence on the perimeter.

Xia Duo and Dien occupied the positions closest to the campfire, while the other team members were in a circle on the outer edge, huddling together for warmth.

After eating something haphazardly and arranging the night watch, Xia Duo went to sleep early; during the day, besides maintaining contact with Sami, he had also used Spells to assist in attacks when encountering Orcs.

After all, the Scrolls issued from above were very limited, so they still had to be saved for truly critical situations.

And in the wild, even with more than twenty companions around, Xia Duo still slept very, very lightly; he didn't know how much time had passed when, in a daze, he heard a voice: "Alert, Orcs are coming!"

Xia Duo was startled instantly, immediately rolled over and jumped up, kicked Dien, who was still in his dreams, and shouted: "Get up! Dien!"

The other team members didn't even react as quickly as Xia Duo, but it could still be considered a timely reaction; they took out their weapons one after another and stood guard all around.

"Mage Xia Duo, there are six Orcs in total, presumably attracted by the firelight." Aiwa appeared from somewhere and reported the number of attacking Orcs to Xia Duo.

"Continue scouting."

There were only six Orcs, still within the squad's ability to handle, but where there is one, there will be two; who knew how many more Orcs might have been attracted!

Xia Duo immediately cast 【Light】, and the awakened Dien also cast 【Light】 under Xia Duo's order; the two balls of light appeared unremarkable against the backdrop of the campfire.

But next, Xia Duo ordered people to extinguish the campfire and then began to set up a temporary position under the illumination of the light balls, preparing to engage the enemy; the brightness of Light was limited, and because it was gathered from Positive Energy, its actual propagation distance in the dark night was also quite limited.

Soon, just as they had finished preparing to engage the enemy, Xia Duo heard the roars of Orcs, and they were getting closer and closer.

"Everyone, prepare!"

Just after he finished speaking, he heard a dull thud; an Orc running in the front was tripped by a trap, and immediately after, before it could climb up, it was knocked over by its companions behind it.

The shield-bearing team members on Xia Duo's side immediately followed up, and at the same time, multiple Long Spears thrust out from the gaps in the shields; just one round of attacks directly reduced the number of attacking Orcs by two.

But the other Orcs seemed to have fallen into madness, completely disregarding whether they were being attacked, and were determined to hack their Shihu at the humans, even if they were hacking at the shields, they did not change their approach at all.

This kind of enemy was one Xia Duo liked very much; apart from those Orcs without any will to fight, this kind of completely crazy one was the easiest to deal with.

What was truly troublesome was the kind that was both crazy yet maintained a certain rationality, looking just like a Warrior full of fighting spirit, knowing how to attack, likewise knowing how to defend, and even knowing how to retreat when outmatched.

Hatred for humans was the root of their madness and also the root of their rationality.

Such an enemy was the most terrifying.

However, right now, these remaining four crazy Orcs were quite simple, and they were all killed in just the second round of attacks.

Whew—

Xia Duo let out a long breath, ordered people to quickly clean up the battlefield, and move the Temporary Camp.

Xia Duo worked until the early morning before he fell asleep at the new camp, and just as dawn broke, he was woken up again; this state of sleep deprivation made Xia Duo feel very uncomfortable.

Not to mention the state of Spellcasting, even without considering Spellcasting, he felt he couldn't hold on for many more days like this.

"Captain Jibu, try to clear a longer distance today; we will leave the forest to rest at night."

"Alright!"

The others had no objections to this; they were also not very willing to spend the night in the forest, especially when there were Orcs who would rather not sleep at night just to come and disturb them—how could anyone stand that?

Afterwards, Xia Duo contacted Sami's side again and mentioned his temporarily changed advancement plan; although Sami hadn't encountered any Orcs last night, he agreed to change the plan.

Thus, both sides accelerated their clearing speed simultaneously; of course, to be more precise, it was their marching speed, as the clearing mission spent most of its time on walking!

And as soon as dusk fell, Xia Duo ordered them to return, going all the way back to a small village closest to the Green Pearl Forest; the people in this village had long since fled for their lives, and Xia Duo randomly chose a spacious civilian house to use as a Temporary Camp.

Just like this, Xia Duo led people into the forest to clear Orcs during the day and returned to the village to rest at night; although the efficiency was lower, it greatly improved safety.