Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Professionals

"What time is it?" Ivan asked, rolling out of the blanket and doing a big stretch. "Dawn came hours ago," Danica replied grimly, cursing herself secretly for being stupid enough to be the last watchman. "You should have woken me up," Ivan grumbled.He tried to sit up, but changed his mind and slammed back on the bed. "I called," Danica spat, though the dwarf was no longer listening. "Six times!" "But I don't want to bark anymore," the fiery woman whispered.This time she was prepared.She took two small buckets and filled them with icy water from a nearby stream.She sneaked up next to her dwarf brother, whose bedding was tangled up in a heap from their disorganized sleeping positions at night.Danica undid the bedclothes and pushed back the blankets, revealing their shaggy napes.

Pikel is more of a problem because he has his beard pulled back and braided with his hair (he only recently dyed it forest green) hanging down his back.Danica carefully brushed her disheveled hair aside, causing the snoring dwarf to let out a half-conscious "hee hee," before she held up one of the buckets. Then the roar of thunder echoed through the small camp, causing animals within a mile radius to frighten and seek cover.Even a fat black bear, which got up early in the morning to bask in the sun, rushed to a big oak tree in panic, sniffing the air quite nervously. The two dwarves ran around in circles and bumped into each other several times, throwing the blanket into the air.

"Where's my weapon?" Ivan cried in distress. "Ooh!" agreed Pikel heartily, unable to find his own tree-trunk club. Ivan calmed down first, noticing Danica standing next to a tree with her arms folded across her chest, a smile that stretched almost from ear to ear.The dwarf stopped suddenly and looked at her with eyes like two sharp arrows. However, he should be looking at his brother, not her. Pikel bumped into him from the side, and the two dwarves flew into a pile of thorny bushes.When they finally got out of there and staggered back to camp, their beards were all messed up and their pajamas looked shaggy with burrs.

"Good job you did!" Ivan yelled at Danica accusingly. "I hope to reach Calaton by tomorrow." The woman replied equally angrily. "I welcome you to come together, but I don't know if it will turn out to be past noon every day! Aren't dwarves always very efficient?" ?” "Oh." Pikel moaned, feeling very embarrassed about his laziness. "It's not our fault." Ivan spat out the words, defending himself. "It's the ground's fault," he blurted out. "Yeah, it's the ground. It's hard and comfortable enough for dwarves to get out of bed in the morning!"

"You're not allowed to eat breakfast!" Danica snarled. "Unless halflings start shaving their legs!" Ivan yelled, and Danica figured—rightly—that she was going too far.It was one thing to pour a bucket of cold water down the necks of sleeping dwarves, but it was quite another, and a very dangerous one, to keep them from eating. "Just grab a quick bite then," she concedes, "and off we go." After eating sixteen trout, four large glasses of ale (each), half a sack of buns, and three baskets of berries (each), the dwarf brothers packed up and hopped after Danica. Bouncing down the mountain trail.Whenever they came to the open ridge, Lake Impesk was clearly visible.And at the far foot of the mountain, Kara Dun also came into view.

Although Danica wanted to speed up, the three of them were very careful on the trek.The Snowflake Mountains itself is a dangerous place, even in the south, so is the area under the control of the Mengzhi Library.With the war brewing in the north and the war going on in West Meista to the west, the three companions had to imagine that the pass would be even more treacherous at this moment. Danica led the way, stooping to inspect every footprint, every blade of fallen grass.Ivan and Pikel ran up and down behind her, Ivan wearing his antler helmet and Pikel wearing a dented soup pot because he didn't have a helmet.Though Danica checked the ground as she walked, the fast-footed monk always easily passed her dwarf brothers, urging them to hurry up to keep up.

Danica slowed suddenly; Ivan and Pikel nearly stepped on her. "Ooh," Pikel spat out, seeing Danica's strange expression. "What did you find?" Ivan asked quietly, pulling his brother behind him. Danica shook her head, not sure. "Someone walked down this road recently," she asserted. "Avery and Rufo," Ivan replied. "A closer thing," Danica said, straightening up again, looking sharply at the nearby bushes for a long moment. "To this way or that way?" Ivan asked. Danica shook her head, not sure.She was confident her guess was correct, but what troubled her was the appearance of the footprints: there were scratch marks on what should obviously be boot prints.If anyone had walked this way that morning, they had gone to great lengths to cover their tracks.

Ivan looked down at the unremarkable ground, scratching at the yellow beard in bewilderment, and found a thorn fruit stubbornly left inside. "I don't see any footprints," he puffed. Danica pointed out a small, barely visible indentation in the ground that she thought was the shape of a brush brushing the ground. Ivan snorted in disbelief. "Just for that?" he asked aloud, no longer feeling the need to keep his voice low. Danica didn't tell him to keep his voice down.She was still confident in her judgment; she could only hope that it was some ranger, or Ebereth's elf companions, operating in the area.If it wasn't a ranger or an elf, Danica was sure the trails were left by someone who wanted to cover their tracks.

In this wilderness, that's not good news for travelers. A few hundred yards further down the trail, Danica spotted more signs of someone passing by.This time, even Ivan couldn't deny the obvious bootmarks imprinted in the soft soil, although half of them were obviously brushed off as well. Looking around with his hands on his hips, the dwarf noticed that one of the low branches above the path was bent. "I see some rocks along the path a few dozen yards away," the dwarf began. "Ooh," Pikel spat out, guessing what his brother was up to. "Find some branches big enough to support the path," Ivan continued, missing Pikel's uneasy sigh.He looked at Danica, who didn't seem to understand what he was up to.

"We can set a trap," Ivan gushed, "We can drag a rock up a tree and—" Pikel slapped him on the back of the head. "You've tried it before," Danica deduced, seeing the sour look on Pikel's face. Pikel groaned and Ivan glared at him, but the yellow-bearded dwarf spared his brother.They had indeed tried that trap before.While Ivan insisted rather stubbornly - and he didn't really believe much in his heart - that the trap was a success (they did knock down an orc with a rock), Pikel insisted equally stubbornly, which is pitifully rare. The result is not worth the effort to get the stone up the tree in the first place.

Ivan knew there would be another witness this time, so he was about to take a step back from bringing up the trap thing and Pikel's insult—it was just a slap anyway—but suddenly, Pikel didn't After half a sentence, he swung his wooden stick to Yiwen's face.Danica, who was standing next to him, watched as Pikel tried to stop the force of the club, stopping before it hit Ivan, but the club still hit Ivan's big nose.He was knocked back several steps, a stream of warm blood running down the dwarf's bearded lips. "What are you doing—" Ivan stammered, barely believing the attack would happen.He picked up his double-bladed axe, snarled, and took a step towards his panic-screaming brother. Pikel couldn't explain his actions to Ivan or Danica, but he managed to turn the huge club around in time for them to see an arrow pierced deep into the thick stick. Now it was Ivan's turn to help his brother.He looked towards the thick undergrowth near Pikel, where the warrior's instincts immediately told him the arrow had come from, and he saw a crossbow raised in Pikel's direction. A tall figure leaped from a branch and landed lightly behind Danica. Ivan pointed in a direction, causing Pikel to turn to look. "Ooh," the green-bearded dwarf squeaked, knowing he had no time to hide. However, Yiwen bumped into him just a second before his complaints, and a grapple threw him to the ground, causing the arrow to fly past.But Evan didn't stop there.As he rolled, he lifted Pikel up, and Pikel, knowing the tactic, lifted Ivan on top of him as well.So, like a rolling stone, the dwarf brother rolled into the bush with such force that it took both men who were hiding there with them. The Mask of the Night assassin, who had fallen behind Danica, drew his sword and held it high, thinking that the woman - who must have been watching her dwarf brother intently - didn't even know her own death was imminent.But he was startled when Danica bent down quickly and kicked a foot backwards, hitting the man in the chest. He fell back several feet, slamming into a tree trunk, but grabbed the fallen sword just in time.Raising his alertness this time, he began to back away defensively, stepping away from the attacking range of the dangerous woman. Danica suddenly started running, attacking quickly and furiously, but suddenly she dropped to her knees, head down, as another assassin emerged from behind the tree trunk, swinging a club from shoulder height.The weapon hit the tree trunk hard, and some trunk fragments sprayed out. Danica slid one foot back under her body and kicked out with the other, trying to break the second foe's knee.But he parried the blow with his club just in time, and returned several times with sharp and violent angles. The young monk knew immediately that he was in trouble.These were no ordinary highwaymen, although their attire looked ordinary.When another enemy's sword came towards her head, she dodged in time, but was hit in the hip by a fast-flying wooden club. She backed away several feet from the two men, carefully weighing their experienced attack patterns, hoping to find an opening, but that was an almost impossible task. ※※※ Ivan took a hard bite, and continued to bite, until he understood from the constant "whoosh" that it was Pikel's thick hide - not the enemy's - that he had in his mouth. The dwarf struggled to stand up in the crowded place, branches and thorny vines wrapped around him every time he moved, and at the same time, the man closest to him punched him more than three times on his already injured nose. When Ivan and Pikel finally both stood up, with their weapons in hand, Ivan slammed the tomahawk, but his arm slid across another thin but tough branch, shortening the range of his attack and preventing him from Hit the man. Pikel yelled in terror, then ducked and ducked aside, as did his brother, nearly hitting him with the flying tomahawk.Once again, Ivan inadvertently saved his brother's life, for as Pikel jumped aside, another crossbow arrow flew over, whistling through the dwarf brothers, and hit the face hard. Ivan's shoulder. Both brothers stopped and looked back at the crossbowman, who was frantically reloading his arrow.Pikel turned back for his attacker, who managed to free himself from the tangle of undergrowth, while Ivan turned to face his nearest enemy. The enemy was gone, and Ivan knew from the still trembling undergrowth that the man had been struck down.The dwarf, always receptive to good fortune, gave a growl and turned in the other direction, trampling underbrush to find his way to the crossbowman. ※※※ The man with the sword was wounded, at least that was the outcome.Danica's kick obviously had some effect, as he grimaced with every step.However, Danica already knew that the one who attacked with the club was the harder of the two.His grizzled hair spoke of experience, and his perfectly balanced footwork told her that this man had been training in the martial arts his whole life.Compared with the other man's longsword, his club seemed less powerful, but in his hand it was almost a deadly weapon. A slash from the long sword caused the woman to lower her body; the wooden club pinched her shoulders, forcing her to retreat sharply, and she rolled back just in time to narrowly avoid the next fatal blow. hit. Danica uses rolling to her advantage.Halfway through, she rolled her body into a ball while drawing a crystal-bladed shortsword from the scabbard of her boot. The man with the sword bullied him again, seeming more confident. Danica kicked her right leg forward and, using it as a prop, spun her left foot back high and hard as she spun.She knew that her spin attack could only deflect the man's sword outward, but she also knew that she was being exposed to another enemy's attack.She kicked the supporting leg up from below as well, completed a full circle and slammed into the ground, and she could hear the swish of the stick passing inches above her head. Danica reached out with one hand to stop the downward impact, keeping her body at the same height so that she could move her other hand quickly under her body and shoot the dagger.After the short sword flew a short distance, it sank into the abdomen of the man holding the sword, and then he fell backwards, his eyes widened in disbelief, and then his mouth opened wide to let out a silent scream. The man with the club smiled, applauding Danica's deception, and struck mercilessly. ※※※ The man who attacked Pikel also took a club, but he faced two serious disadvantages.First, Pikel's club was much larger than his own, and second, he couldn't use the blunt weapon to inflict serious damage on the thick-skinned, hard-headed dwarf.The man hit Pikel twice on the shoulder with lightning speed, and once on his head with the pot on, making a loud clatter. Pikel didn't care, willing to take three hits for one.His stick as thick as a tree trunk hit the man's exposed side, sending him flying from the bushes, rolling and crashing into the roots of a tree. The man, tied to a stake and placed in front of a galloping horse, couldn't have looked more terrified as Pikel charged after him, his pot helmet all over his face , but his club still hit the man with precision, squeezing him between the club and the tree roots. The man rolled aside, and Pikel rushed up, snapped the sapling, and fell in its entirety. "Oh," the dwarf grunted as he slid to a halt along the gnarled trunk.Then there was another loud clang, as the stubborn foe came running back and struck his helmet hard with both clubs. ※※※ Ivan learned that he couldn't get there before the crossbowmen fired again, so he raised the ax above his head with both hands and spun, "You're dead, sneaky lackey!" Then he threw the weapon. The man fell back, holding the crossbow in front of him as a makeshift shield.The tomahawk hit it hard, knocked it out of the man's hand, and spun it around until the two weapons tangled and hit a tree.The crossbow was split in two, and the tomahawk sank several inches into the trunk. Ivan slowed the charge as the man regained his feet, as the man drew a long, thin sword and was not at all confused by the earlier swinging axe attack.In fact, the killer laughed loudly at the now defenseless dwarf. "I might be wrong," Ivan admitted quietly, stopping his violent sprint suddenly. ※※※ Danica landed punch after punch, and both hits were parried by the small wooden club without causing damage.The foe went on the offensive, delivering a straight thrust, and Danica raised her arms just in time at the last second to deflect it away from her face.She responded with a quick kick, but the foe quickly retracted the club to parry the attack, slowing her down without actually hurting him. A groan distracted Danica.The man with the sword stood up, finally reaching Danica's bloody dagger with trembling hands.The man's face is contorted with obvious pain, but anger is also visible.Danica guessed he might be back to join the fray soon.No matter how weak he might be now, Danica felt that she might not be able to take on two killers at once. The momentary distraction took its toll; the club hit her side.Danica rolled to the side, undermining the force of the painful blow, and rolled around, grabbing her other boot and crouching down. The club-wielding man jumped to his feet and made a defensive move, anticipating the possibility of another short sword flying towards him.Danica snapped her arm several times, changing the angle subtly each time.But every time her opponent blocked or dodged her attack. This person is very good. Danica adjusted herself carefully, then snapped her arm again, and threw the dagger.The club-wielding man stepped aside easily, with a look on his face that showed his bewilderment that this skilled woman could be so horribly off-point.It took him a moment to understand why, as his companion moaned loudly. The trembling hand of the sword-wielding man slid away from the golden tiger hilt on his abdomen, and slowly lifted up to another hilt with a silver dragon carved on his chest.Helplessly, he fell back toward the tree and slid to the ground. "It's just you and me," said the club-wielding man, and then, to prove his claim, he lunged forward and danced a dizzying web of attacks. ※※※ Pikel looked sadly at the tree he had broken, and when he paused sadly to think, he received another loud blow on the head with the soup pot. The dwarf with the heart of a druid felt a surge of rage welling up in him.Those who knew Pikel thought that the dwarf was the gentlest of men, the least prone to anger.But at this moment, he just killed a tree. He killed a tree! "Whoa!" came out of his trembling lips, gnashing his teeth. "Whoa!" He turned back to face his opponent, who took a step back just seeing the furious look on the dwarf's face. "Whoa!" Pikel sprinted forward when he tripped over a fallen tree trunk, sending him headlong forward.His opponent turned to run, but the sprawling dwarf grabbed his ankle.The man's wooden stick kept hitting Pikel's fingers hard, but Pikel was so angry that he couldn't feel the pain. Pikel dragged the man down, grabbed him with both hands, and held him high in the air.The powerful dwarf straightened up, held the man above his head, and looked around curiously, as if he didn't know what to do next. Then the club clattered into Pikel's pot helmet again. Pikel decided he had had enough.He smashed the man against the jagged edge of the broken trunk. ※※※ Yiwen hurriedly took out the backpack, and when the enemy rushed over, he was still struggling with the straps.The dwarf blocked a longsword thrust with his knapsack and wrapped his straps around the blade just in time to draw a well-wrapped six-inch wide package from the knapsack. The man with the sword pulled the sword out of the backpack violently, and then looked back at the dwarf curiously. Ivan had already opened the box and took out its contents: a toy he'd been working on building for Cadderly since his heroic defeat of the evil Barjin. The black, solid rim of the Frisbee is a stunning contrast to the relatively less precious crystal center.The man holding the sword paused for a moment, not knowing what the purpose of the frisbee connected by a small wooden stick in the center was. Ivan fumbled his fat fingers through the coils of the little stick.He had seen Cadderly play with this toy a thousand times before, and he was always amazed at how easily the young priest could roll the Frisbee to the end of the string and flick it again wrist, let the Frisbee spin and fly back to his waiting hand. "Have you seen this thing?" Ivan asked the curious sword-wielding man. The man charged; Ivan threw the Frisbee at him.The man parried with his sword, then looked at his weapon in disbelief, at the wide nick that had been punched by the hard edge of the disc. But Ivan didn't have time to be complacent about his superior skills.He threw the Frisbee hard enough, but unlike Cadderly, he had no idea how to get it back.They hung near the end of the string and flew sideways. "Whoa!" Pikel rushed over from the side and made the sword-wielding man turn around.He strode past the enraged dwarf, then regained his footing, while Pikel spun around, pivoting with one foot on the ground, before unleashing another furious charge attack. This time, the green-bearded dwarf stopped before passing the man, delivering a barrage of violent blows with the heavy club.The sword-wielding man resisted hard and narrowly escaped. Ivan shouldered Pikel away. "This is my prey!" explained the gruff dwarf. The sword-wielding man smiled at the dwarf's apparent stupidity—the two could easily finish him off if they cooperated. His smile disappeared - literally - as Ivan suddenly spun the launch pad again.This time, astonishingly, the small weapon did not reach the dwarf's finger, but sliced ​​through the futile resistance of the sword-wielding man without hindrance. The man's head was suddenly thrown back violently, and his face was almost blown away when he was hit by the hard Frisbee: his teeth were blown away, his nose and cheeks were crushed, and his upper cheek was broken from his upper jaw. The inside is neatly rolled up. "You don't think a dwarf can throw something like that, do you?" Ivan growled. The man stood there, staring in disbelief as his sword dropped to the ground. "Oh?" Pikel spat, as the man's head fell limply to one side, and only then did the brothers realize that Ivan's powerful blow had knocked the man's neck bone apart. interrupted. Ivan responded to Pikel's cold thoughts. "Oh." ※※※ Kicking, swinging, hitting, and stabbing hard. Danica and the club-wielding man fought with deadly coordination, striking and parrying each other with incredible speed.Seconds turned into minutes, and neither man hit the other. However, in fierce fighting, adrenaline is secreted quickly, so neither of them feels tired at all. "You're very good, lady, you should be called..." the man with the stick dance said, his voice gradually trailing off, as if he meant to say more than that. "Just as I thought." Danica could barely answer.Did the man say her name on purpose to provoke her?How could he know?Many possibilities flitted through Danica's mind, but suddenly it occurred to her that maybe the ambush was more than mere chance.Is Cadderly all right?she guessed frantically.And what about Avery and Rufo?They had just passed this same road a few days ago. Thinking she should be distracted, the "Mask of the Night" killer went after her viciously. Danica dropped straight to the ground and kicked out, hitting the man's knee hard enough to stop his charge. Danica took a step forward, facing the man head-on.She took a hard blow to the shoulder for the move, but got one herself, slashing the man's throat with a hand knife.At that moment, the man was forced to stop and gasp for air as Danica put one hand on his cheek and the other reached behind his head to grab a handful of hair. The man dropped the club and grabbed Danica's wrist with both hands, trying to stop her from twisting his neck.They froze in that position for a while, because Danica wasn't strong enough to do it. Realizing he had the upper hand, the man smiled evilly. Danica didn't let go of her hands' grip, jumping up and over his shoulders, letting her weight do what her hands couldn't.They twisted and squirmed, and Danica bent her knees to let her weight fall entirely on the pull of her hands.The man wisely fell to the ground, but Danica rolled again, going sideways, changing position to wrap her forearm around the man's neck. Gasping for air in vain, he grabs and grabs Danica's arm, and he pokes his hand into Danica's face, aiming for her eyes. Danica felt a rock beneath her hip and quickly changed position, bringing the man's head over.Frantically and ferociously, the young woman adjusted her grip on the man's hair, exposing the back of his head and slamming him against the rock. He still couldn't breathe, and the whole world disappeared in a cloud of black mist. "He's dead!" Ivan yelled, and Danica realized that the dwarf had said it over and over. Terrified and aching all over, she let go and rolled away from the man, trying to hold back the nausea. "That will die soon too." Ivan said calmly, pointing to the man lying near the tree roots, with two short swords stuck in his blood-stained torso. "Unless we tend to his wounds." The man seemed to hear these words, and looked at the three people pleadingly. "We have to do this," Danica explained to the dwarf, returning calmly. "I think this man knows my name. There may be a conspiracy behind this, and he..." She pointed to the man leaning against the tree Said, "—can tell us what it is." Ivan shrugged and agreed, taking a step towards the man, who seemed relieved to know that he might survive.But there was a clicking sound from the side, and the man twisted violently, and a crossbow arrow was stuck next to the silver-hilted short sword. ※※※ The only surviving "Mask of the Night" killer, wounded by a crossbow arrow in his shoulder, was stumbling through the undergrowth, nearly unconscious from burning pain and blood loss.There was only one thought on his mind: that his mission had failed.But at least he stopped that cowardly comrade from leaking more information - that's the number one rule in Heartless. The man didn't know where to flee.Van der Roo would have killed Maupostant knowing he was still alive—a man who now regrets taking his last arrow to kill the potential informer instead of trying to kill Danica again .Then he reminded himself to take courage: if he could shoot Danica, if he could kill her, the other two dwarves would catch the informer, and the grand plan to get rid of Cadderly might be revealed. Still, the man regretted his decision, especially when he heard the sound of someone chasing him.Even though he was wounded and weaker, he still had the confidence to run faster than the shorter-legged dwarves.However, when he turned his head to look back, he saw the young monk leaping through the bushes almost effortlessly, approaching him steadily step by step. The trees and undergrowth dwindled away, and the terrain became barren and rocky, and the desperate man smiled as he remembered the terrain ahead.After all, he is a member of "Night Mask", loyal and full of pride.His missions, though often sinister, were his entire life, and he devoted himself almost obsessively to their accomplishment. The ruthless monk was only a few steps away, and he knew it. With great loyalty and pride, he made his way to the hundred-foot cliff, and when he leaped into the air, the scream he let out was triumph, not fear.