Xiao Yu used the stealth travel skill to get closer to the two gnoll sentries and made a hand gesture to An Yu as he hid in the grass.
"Let's go. Be careful of the crossbow on that sentry tower. Don't get caught up in the fight, and try to kill one gnoll sentry. We'll retreat after we draw out the gnolls," said An Yu in the voice system of the team after he saw Xiao Yu's hand signal.
Xin Huo, the thief, drew closer to the gnoll sentry on the other side of the camp entrance and arrived about three meters away from the gnoll sentry using stealth travel.
An Yu and Fan Ye had settled into their own attacking positions.
"Attack!" An Yu yelled.
Upon hearing the command, Lei Tin, the thunder mage, swung the magic staff in his right hand and struck the gnoll sentry with a thunder magic attack. The electric bolts bounced around the gnoll's body, along with explosive cracking sounds.
The gnoll sentry on the left was shocked by the thunder magic.
Sneak-attack!
Evisceration!
Xin Huo, the thief, suddenly leaped up into the air and thrust the dagger in his hand at the sentry who was being attacked by Lei Tin.
Charge!
Charge!
An Yu and Fan Ye dashed forward like two flying arrows and were headed for the gnoll sentry. The four of them attacked the gnoll sentry all at once, surrounding him in the middle.
The gnoll sentry shrieked in a strange voice, seemingly cursing out An Yu and his teammates.
The other gnoll sentry saw the scene and quickly ran to the camp while shouting in a plain but loud voice.
"Let's hurry up and kill this gnoll sentry, then retreat immediately," An Yu ordered. The other sentry who ran into the camp must have done so to call upon the other gnolls, so many gnolls would rush over soon.
A crisp "whoosh" sound could be heard in the distance, which was followed by the sound of an arrow cutting through the air.
"Damn! It's the crossbow." An Yu looked at the sentry tower and saw a big arrow flying over, the tip of it emitting metallic flashes of light reflected from the sunlight.
The arrow flew toward them, but An Yu couldn't tell who the exact target of the arrow was.
"Let's all retreat quickly!" An Yu shouted.
Hearing the command, the members of the team didn't continue the fight and left as quickly as they could.
Thunder magic!
Bang!!!
Just when the gnoll only had a sliver of health left, Lei Tin sent it flying with his thunder magic attack.
"Done!" Lei Tin claimed with a faint smile.
An Yu and the others retreated as quickly as they could. The arrow shot from the tower quivered and let out a whooshing noise. After brushing past An Yu, the arrow struck the ground with a loud bang and created a deep pit. The rocks on the ground were broken into pieces by the striking arrow, and debris splashed up in all directions. Some of it even hit An Yu and the others, which caused a barrage of 10-point damage values to emerge from their heads.
The crossbow arrow brushed past An Yu's face at high speed. He was horrified because he could still feel the cold sensation on his cheek.
"I almost got sent to meet the Grim Reaper." Judging by the power of the crossbow arrow, An Yu would have been dead for sure if he were struck by it.
Ten seconds later, a large group of more than 10 gnolls rushed out from the camp frantically. When they found the corpse of the gnoll sentry on the ground, they roared angrily.
The gnolls searched the surroundings for the invaders. After seeing An Yu and the others in the distance, each of them shrieked in a strange voice, and then all of them rushed over while swinging the chain hammers in their hands.
"Lei Tin, try to draw the attention of the monsters away to create an opportunity for Xiao Yu," An Yu spun his head around and said to Lei Tin.
"Alright," answered Lei Tin, the thunder mage. He swung his magic staff, and a barrage of thunder magic was sent toward the gnolls.
Those gnolls rushed out of the camp at a fast speed. Xiao Yu estimated that this group of gnolls was about five or six meters away from the entrance of the camp.
"This is a good opportunity." Xiao Yu found a window of opportunity and snuck into the camp through the entrance.
The gnolls charged toward An Yu and the others while shouting in a strange voice. All the while, An Yu and the others were rapidly retreating. Lei Tin, who was retreating along with An Yu and the others, didn't stop unleashing his thunder magic attacks, which still landed on the gnolls. Lei Tin didn't focus on one specific gnoll; he struck each one of them in an effort to draw away their hostility and to prevent them from paying attention to the camp entrance.
One of the gnolls got left behind and stood three meters away from the entrance.
"Coward!" Lei Tin changed the direction of his thunder magic and threw a thunder strike at the gnoll. After being attacked, the gnoll charged forward with a strange shout.
An Yu and the others tried to draw the gnolls farther away from the camp. However, the gnolls stopped short when they were about 10 meters away from the camp. All they did was wave their weapons at An Yu and his teammates while making angry, shrieking noises.
"A bunch of cowards. They don't want to come out. So be it, but we can take our time dealing with them," remarked Lei Tin. Thunder magic bolts left his hands one after the other.
After seeing the gnolls being drawn away by Lei Tin, Xiao Yu drew closer to the entrance of the camp. Five meters… three meters… As he was about to enter the camp, he suddenly noticed some commotion inside the camp. It looked like a large group of gnolls was heading toward the entrance. Xiao Yu quickly hide behind the wooden fence, waiting quietly in that spot.
More than 10 gnolls rushed out of the camp.
"Luckily, I didn't run into them." Feeling fortunate, Xiao Yu looked at the hands of these gnolls and found that they all held a short crossbow. These were probably going to be used to attack An Yu and the others.
"Be careful. More than 10 archers are coming out. You'd better leave the place." Xiao Yu told An Yu and the others via a secret code. The attacking distance of these archers was even farther than the mages, and so more than 10 of them could pose a serious threat to An Yu and the others.
After the archers ran past him, Xiao Yu took the opportunity to sneak into the camp. After that, he looked ahead and found an open square in the middle of the camp with white tents surrounding it. Though many gnolls were drawn out of the camp, there were still quite a few gnolls patrolling inside the camp. The number of gnolls in the camp was more than he had assumed.
"The southeastern corner." Xiao Yu fixed his sight on a silvery-white tent in the southeastern corner. It was different from the regular tents and was situated by itself in the southeastern corner.
Xiao Yu looked around, sweeping his sight over the sentry towers by the fence.
"One… two… seven." After counting, he was certain that there were seven sentry towers in total. Then he reminded himself that he had to try his best to avoid being discovered by the sentries in the towers. He would be safe if he could move in their blind spots.
Xiao Yu crept behind a tent and hid in a corner. His stealth travel was over, and his concealed state disappeared. He gradually materialized, but he had no choice but to wait until the cool-down of stealth travel was over to take further action.