The Elite Team made its way through the west side of the village. Along the way, they cleaned up any beast that came their way. With Bhirl and his big ass tower shield at the front there was barely any damage coming through to the healer. However, they were not without problems.
At the beginning, It was really hard for Rahz to get his timing right. Blaire had to stand max distance to land her spells and stay out of Rahz's Axe. She thought that Rahz was playing when they started hunting. For every three swings, Rahz landed one on the beast and it didn't have any momentum.
" Seriously Rahz, how hard is it to hit a slowed down beast ? A one handed, blind cyclops could swing an Axe way better than you. It is not even attacking you".
"Hey!! is a lot harder than it looks. It is like chasing a bouncing ball down the road. It is a lot easier when they are attacking you, that way you get a better feeling of the distance. Also I didn't want to ruined the pelts, my style is pretty bloody".
"Well get it together!!! At this rate we will get there in a year."
After listening to their banter for a while, Bhirl finally stepped in and started to communicate with Rahz about the problems he was having. As it turn out Bhirl was also responsible for their failure as he was not taking into consideration the angles at which Rahz could attack.
In order to limit the damage, Bhirl sometimes deflected the incoming beast to the opposite side where Rahz was positioning making it impossible for Rahz to take a swing without having to worry about hitting his teammates.
Little by little, Rahz and Bhirl started to get their timing right and their clearing speed shot through the roof. Their speed increased to the point that Blaire was getting bored. There was no damage to heal and casting icy winds and weakness on the enemy got tiresome after a while.
After seven hours of hunting they finally made their way to the outskirt of the mine. They decided to set up camp about 500 ft away from the first group of Kobolds and rest for the day. Fortunately for Rahz, Bhirl and Blaire didn't really value the pelts from the beasts. So far, they had all being ruing by him. Missing limbs, belly wounds and half bodies were current occurrences after his swings.
The group set up shop at a fair distance outside of sight of the group of Kobolds in the outskirts of the mountains. The group of Kobolds varied from LVL 4 to LVL 6 and there were 6 of them. most of the Kobolds had the same specs as 4 of them were melee and 2 were range.
It was safe to say that their classes were quite particular on their own. The range Kobolds hurled stones at their attackers, while the melee ones launch strikes with their pickaxes. There was no mystery or difficulty in slaying Kobolds outside the mine but very few Barbarians wanted to go inside the tunnels. Kobolds were highly social creatures, all it took was a wrong step for Rahz and them to piss off more than one group and be overrun by numbers.
Bhirl and Blaire were really surprised at the experience Rahz was showing when surviving in the wild. Rahz knew how to set a cooking pit as well as how to separate the best meat from the beast they had killed before.
Rahz only had a small pouch to store his necessities but he seemed to have everything they need it. His Dad had taught him everything he need it to know about being in the wild and his teammates were benefitting from it.
They chose a good place to rest and started to cook a meal, Rahz had brought salt and was in charged of cooking dinner. He had salted some of the meat from the vanquished creatures in order to cured it and preserved it. When Rahz was ready to cook the chunks of meat, he removed some of the salt and place the pieces over the fire.
Blaire was quite surprise that Rahz had those cooking skills. During her test, she had 3 days of dry food and water. It was truly a nice surprise. Bhirl on the other hand was not surprise that Rahz had some sort of knowledge about cooking. His Mother was an excellent cook and he was sure that they imparted some knowledge on him.
As they waited patiently, the smell of the food was driving them mad. The fat dripped from the chunks of meat on the fire causing sizzling noises that were music to their ears. They all pledged to be the first to grab a piece and if anybody were to stand on their way they would be destroyed.
When the meat came of the fire, it was devour extremely fast. Rahz was surprise how fast Blaire was putting down the steaks. Rahz and Bhirl couldn't keep up with the her speed at all. At the end of the day Rahz had to cook some more to satiate their hunger.
The Elite team decided to take the rest of the day off and look for places to sleep. They set up a quick rotation among themselves to guard the camp while the other members slept. Since Rahz had slept for 3 days straight and wasn't tired at all he took the first shift. In order to past the time, Rahz did maintenance on Mr. Choppy while his mind was immerse in the memories of the fights that happen during the day.
The Elite Team's teamwork was still lacking a little but Rahz was not dishearten, in fact he was pretty happy. Despite the energy gather from the kills being lower than when they were hunting alone during the test, having comrades to rely on and talk to made the experience a lot more pleasant.
Rahz Wisdom and intelligence was being elevated every time he level up and now he was starting to enjoy the benefits. He not only remember details of the fight but he was also starting to understand the things that they did wrong and how to improve on them.
Time came and went with Rahz fully immerse on his thoughts. He had new ideas for the team and was eager to communicate them in case they were gone in the morning. Inadvertently, it was time to wake up the next person in the guard rotation.
He quickly woke up Bhirl and was about to start to tell him his wonderful ideas but was stopped by his team leader.
" Rahz you really need to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of killing and you don't want to be slowing us down".
Sigh... OK.
With a dejected look Rahz climbed a tree and went to sleep.
Back at the village, the team responsible for communicating with the Orc Clan was put together. It consisted of 5 people and it was very similar in composition to any other Adventurer party. Since they needed it to talk to the Frostwolfs and try to understand what was going on, The first Elder was nominated to represent the Village on this particular trip.
Alongside the first elder was Rahz's Teacher. He was one of the best Guardians in the village and was not easily rattle. Aya was the third member. It was her job to bring the news back in case something went wrong. The final 2 positions were given to a Female Beastlord that had a Snow Leopard for her Warder pet called Spots and a pretty decent Berzerker that liked to used 2 1 Handed Axes.
Since the group were going in a official business endeavor, they had to take the official roads in order for the Frostwolf Clan to prepare for their arrival. The proper procedure was to let the Frostwolfs' scouts see them and relay their intentions to their Clan.
The whole trip was scheduled to take about a week. With some luck everything would go alright and a crisis would be avoided.
" LETS GO!!! Remember to be Alert at all times and DO NOT get provoke into fighting".
As their silhouettes dissipated in the the distance, another shadow also left following and unconventional route. With some luck, the ones responsible for the attack would try to sneak on the group heading to the Frostwolfs or accidentally show themselves while trying to tailed them. It was the shadow's responsibility to follow and investigate the group responsible for the beast attack on the youngsters and then report any findings to the higher ups of the village.