The day everyone in the village has been waiting for had arrived. Thought their training was only short, they knew that they had improved their capabilities greatly. This was especially the case for those that had gone hunting within the forest under the guidance of Faruth. Not only had they began to strengthen their foundations, they had increased their levels to go along with these foundations.
Amongst the group, Alneth and Marth now peaked at level 9, only a short step away from evolving into a higher existence. While this was the case, the two strength focused twins both sat at level 8, slightly further behind the two. What surprised Faruth the most was Marth's pro-activeness when hunting the forest's beasts.
Usually, he seemed to be less enthusiastic than the twins when it came to training, resulting in him falling quite considerably behind the two in their foundations. So when they were chosen to hunt within the depths of the forest, Marth falling behind the two must have been pushing him forward to breach his current limits and beat the two in strength. All things considered, the competition was a healthy one. The looks they shot about proving that they considered the other their rival. Faruth was pleased with their growth as a team.
But topping even this was the surprise brought on by Rath and Drath during their own combat against the beasts. Though Faruth didn't notice at first, he quickly caught on to something remarkable when seeing the two fight. Even when they were slightly outnumbered by the beasts, the two stuck together and fought their way out. It might seem like a normal thing given their strength but that was not the part that drew concern, it was the fact that neither had gained even a single wound!
As Faruth observed their battle just slightly ahead of him, he realised that the two could co-ordinate with each other better than anyone he had seen at this point. The two perfectly reacted to situations and covered the others strength in full, resulting in a near perfect fight.
As to why, Faruth again found the answer by using [Appraisal] on the two. He had his suspicions to begin with, but this only served to completely support his theory. It seems that during the battles before this one, they had gained a skill that allowed them to communicate with each other mentally, simply named [Telepathy]. Though it seems to be an overpowered skill, it wasn't as strong as it sounded, of course it was still formidable however.
The activation conditions required the two to be in the same battle together to even activate. On top of that, the skill would stop working if the two got more than 5 metres from the other one, balancing it a little bit. It did have unprecedented room for improvement though, since these were only the attributes of the skill at level one.
Alneth and Faruth were the ones to mostly sit back during the fighting, only stepping in when a powerful beast appeared. The most common beasts that they fought were Black Wolves, looking exactly like the wolves Faruth remembered from Earth, the only difference being that they were 2 metres long and covered with jet black fur. However intimidating they may seem, they had Stats comparable to the non-combatant members of his village, making them easy pickings for his elite team.
Other than them, the group encountered several Demon Bulls, Nightmare Foxes and Shadow Leopards, but they only had similar Strength to a pack of Black Wolves, making them just as easy as they were solitary Beasts. The only dangerous Beasts that required Faruth and Alneth's help were two that appeared later in the days of hunting. A Blue Lion and a Crystal Mammoth.
The Crystal Mammoth wasn't actually made out of Crystal, the Crystal came from the Multi coloured tusks that sprouted from its face. Even then, it stood at roughly 5 metres tall, dwarfing even the tallest of the group. Faruth resorted to letting the Mammoth charge towards them and concuss itself on the trees as it did so, which gave the remaining ones on the ground ample time to finish it off, it was also the kill that brought Marth to the peak of a Stage 1 creature.
The Blue Lion on the other hand, was a much more difficult fight. It had higher Strength and Endurance than Faruth, meaning that even he had a hard time confronting it directly. They defeated it in the end through a difficult battle of attrition with Faruth dodging and occasionally parrying its attacks, creating an opening for the others to strike at its sides. In the end, the one who took the kill was Alneth, boosting him to halfway through level 9, meaning he was the closest to evolving at the moment.
After this, even Faruth agreed he couldn't handle anymore hunting for a while, luckily, that was the day that Rose and Wulfarth returned with their own group of hunters with information on the village.
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Faruth stood at the entrance of the cave with his villagers below him, looking up at him with deep reverence in their eyes. His Elite group of soldiers stood at the front, with the non-combatants just behind.
As the sun blazed on their backs, Faruth opened his mouth and began to speak.
["My soldiers, my elite warriors, the day has finally come! The day has come that we repay the atrocities of the vile Lizardmen in full!"] {Faruth}
This caused all of those below him to break out into a feverish cheer, shaking the woodland around them.
["They torture our kin, our families! Are we just going to sit by whilst they do so, like cowards?!"] {Faruth}
["NO!!!"] {Everyone}
["Should any of them be forgiven? Should any of them be spared from out wrath?!"] {Faruth}
["NO!!!"] {Everyone}
["Are we going to stop there, are we going to wait for them to rebuild their forces and strike back?!"] {Faruth}
["NO!!!"] {Everyone}
["Then lets go to them! Let them hear our battle cries and despair, let them and anyone else know the true horror of messing with a Gnoll!!!"] {Faruth}
This final shout caused the soldiers to reciprocate with their own Battle cry, visibly shaking the dirt beneath them in its fury. He wouldn't doubt it if someone said that the Lizardmen could hear it from their own village, but its too late now.
["Men, let us go!!!"] {Faruth}