"Odysseus, we met here, so let's part here!" Han Shuo smiled faintly as he looked at Odysseus in the spot where they'd first met.
This was close to where the forest trolls lived, and after the healing properties of the Medusa's essence blood kicked in, Odysseus could be assured of a full recovery from his injuries. After a few days of recovering, Han Shuo's injuries had also mostly healed. There was no danger to him leaving now, and thus Han Shuo has raised the suggestion of departing.
All good things must come to an end. Odysseus and the others also knew that this location was relatively safe. After Han Shuo voiced his proposal, Odysseus nodded with resignation and said, "Since this is the case, then let's part here. I hope we will be able to meet again in the future."
Everyone bade Han Shuo and Trunks farewell a bit reluctantly and slowly left the area, moving to the outskirts of the Dark Forest as Han Shuo and Trunks waved them onwards.
It wasn't until Odysseus and the party of six had vanished from sight that Trunks finally said, "You no longer need my protection with your current body condition, it looks like it's time for me to leave!"
Han Shuo looked at Trunks and shook his head, smiling, "You can't leave yet."
"Why?"
"I'm quite furious with the injuries that the McGrady Guild has gifted me. My anger won't be assuaged before that earth adept mage Leon has died by my hands. Heh heh, I've discovered that you and the manticore have been disappearing for certain periods at a time recently. Have you already discovered traces of the McGrady Guild and are planning on slowly making a move against them?"
Trunks said with a dumbfounded look when he heard those words, "It looks like there is indeed something mysterious about you. It's like there's nothing I can hide from you. Indeed, I am planning on making a move against the McGrady Guild, but there's an archmage holding down the fort within it. They also have a lot of helpers, so I can only make moves in the darkness and wouldn't dare to be an openly declared enemy of theirs. You're currently injured, so if we were to start fighting, you won't have much of an effect. That's why I ruled you out."
Looking deeply at Trunks, Han Shuo mused silently for a bit and then opened his mouth to say, "I have a way to handle the McGrady Guild, and I also know that they'll pass through here. It will be tough for me to handle an archmage. As long as you help me handle the archmage, leave the rest to me."
"Are you crazy? The McGrady Guild is traveling on the back of earth dragons, and all their followers, guards, and others add up to a hundred or so in number.There are sixty to seventy guards of various professions within this powerful group, do you think you can handle so many with your power alone?" Trunks stared at Han Shuo and exclaimed in bafflement.
Smiling slightly with great meaning, Han Shuo said, "Don't worry about that. You'll understand why I can handle them after I appear. From now on, just follow the McGrady Guild. You'll see how heavy of a price they will pay after a while."
Han Shuo didn't stay for further questioning after saying his piece and left with a long laugh, walking in another direction and leaving behind Trunks with a face full of confusion.
After arriving at the forest trolls' sacred ground, Han Shuo summoned the little skeleton and took out the raft that the forest trolls had hidden here, taking him downstream to the forest trolls' residence.
When the little skeleton appeared, the silent forest troll tribe immediately sank into a panic. The forest troll warriors who led the way in immediately ran inside after arriving, and the excited old priest came scrambling out shortly thereafter, falling to his knees in front of the little skeleton and started genuflecting loudly.
"The great Datara commands you to fully equip and ready yourselves. The great Datara plans on leading you into battle to rob a large human merchant train passing by." Han Shuo threw his head back and issued orders in a proud fashion.
All of the forest trolls, whether the elderly, women, or children, immediately became excited when they heard news of a robbery. They waved the weapons in their hands and shook the pockets that were always on their bodies, yelling loudly. It looked like this race's innate nature to steal was something that no one could change.
"Many thanks to the great Datara, many thanks to the great Datara's guidance!" The old priest was beside himself with excitement as he immediately turned to the strong forest troll chief running in from the distance and started giving instructions in a mumble.
The head of the forest trolls raised a spear and stood at a high vantage point, mobilizing everyone. All the various young and strong forest trolls within the tribe automatically lined up in long columns, with the combinations of hunters and priests automatically splitting up. Five to six hundred forest trolls were standing at the ready after not too long.
Seeing that they were all ready, Han Shuo nodded and didn't say much else, giving an order to the little skeleton. The little skeleton was in vigorous spirits and stood from a high vantage point like the forest troll chief, waving the bone dagger in his hand high above his head.
The little skeleton, wearing the pirate's eyepatch, did indeed have a few traces of a robber's demeanor at the moment. Under the old priest's calls, the carriage that had been used to carry the little skeleton was once again brought out, and the little skeleton took up residence within. Han Shuo took out a black magic robe and completely wrapped his body and head with it, walking towards the road that the McGrady Guild was sure to take.
Because the forest trolls truly did have such a horrid reputation, it would bring him some trouble if other people discovered that he'd gone raiding with them in the future. Therefore, after considering for a while, Han Shuo decided to conceal himself to the best of his abilities. He'd diverted Odysseus and the others away because he knew that they were too kind and simple. Not only would their existence not prove to be much use, but it might impact him and thus he had them leave halfway through.
From the observations of the original demons, Han Shuo was quite clear with regards to the McGrady Guild's location. He brought the five to six hundred forest trolls to a mountain valley. Under Han Shuo's orders, the forest trolls started adeptly setting traps and rocks that would impede forward movement. When all was ready, the forest trolls stood to the side amongst the trees and shrubbery, becoming one with the foliage with their oily green skin. It would be difficult to detect them without taking a close look.
Trunks rode on the manticore and followed this group of people behind from quite a distance away. Because there was an archmage within the company. Trunks didn't dare make any rash moves either. He only followed them according to Han Shuo's earlier instructions.
After half an hour, the group of people, with the earth dragons leading the way, slowly began to appear. The earth dragons plodded in front, the goods on their bodies swaying back and forth. Guards of all sorts of professions walked in front, patrolling the surroundings with wary eyes. Two of them were quite familiar with Han Shuo, they'd been amongst the group that had attacked him in the swamp.
Apart from the two earth dragons, this group of people from the McGrady Guild also had several enormous lizard pack animals. Several opulently dressed merchants were sitting on top of them, surrounded by highly experienced guards. No wonder Trunks didn't dare to make a move.
When they walked into the valley, some of the guards scouting ahead suddenly sank into the traps. Rocks rolled down the small slopes of the surrounding hills, completing blocking off their paths. Spears and javelins were hurled out from the sides, nailing the ground at these people's feet.
Enormous cheering sounds suddenly sounded from all directions. The excited forest trolls flung off the concealing props and charged over to encircle the caravan and surround the people from the McGrady Guild.
"Datara, Datara!"
At this moment, the forest trolls discovered that this group of prey was indeed very large. They all felt that that this was the gracious bestowment from the great Datara and started yelling out involuntarily. The old priest even knelt reverently in front of the little skeleton's carriage and started offering thanks in an ancient language.
"Damn it, it's the cursed forest trolls!" All sorts of complaints sounded from the McGrady Guild train. When they saw that the attackers were forest trolls and in such large numbers, the McGrady Guild people also felt that this was an extreme inconvenience. The way forward and backward for the train had been blocked off and a conflict seemed inevitable.
A beautiful woman with fey features and a fully rounded body slowly walked out from one of the carriages in the back, wearing a luxurious magic robe and holding a magic staff embedded with many gems in her hand. The emblems on her magic robe testified to her status as an archmage. She walked over merrily and used a soft voice to call out, "Hello, is there anyone I can talk to?"
"Liaison, do we talk to her?" The old priest, who was still genuflecting to the little skeleton, looked involuntarily at Han Shuo, hidden in the corner of the carriage and wrapped in a black magic robe, when he heard the woman's call.
"Go see what she wants." Han Shuo nodded and opened his mouth.
Under Han Shuo's orders, the old priest stood quite a distance from the beautiful woman, under the protection of the forest trolls. The old priest opened his mouth to say, "Ugly human female, what do you have to say?"
The woman had been smiling merrily when her face immediately darkened as she heard the old priest's words. It was only for an instant however, and her facial expressions quickly recovered and a smile made its way onto her face again. She opened her mouth to say, "We're people of the McGrady Guild and know the strength of you forest trolls. So, we'd like to enter a transaction with you. We're willing to pay ten thousand gold coins in exchange for our safety in leaving this place. We have many people on our side as well and you're sure to suffer injuries if we fight. What do you say?"
"Ugly human female, don't you know that the appetite of our race has always been big?" The old priest looked arrogantly down at the mature, alluring woman as he spoke with a stiff, cold voice.
To Han Shuo's eyes, the woman had a curvaceous body and strikingly beautiful features, and was full of a mature feeling. She did possess a high amount of allure for ordinary humans. However, the old priest was a forest troll and had completely different standards of beauty compared to humans. A beauty in Han Shuo's eyes had rather turned into another word for ugliness in his.
Beneath the repeated blows of "ugly human female", the beautiful woman took in another deep breath to control herself, but her gaze was no longer as friendly. She stared at the old priest and opened her mouth to say, "Then what do you want to do?"
The old priest puffed out his chest and was about to open his mouth to respond when he suddenly recalled Han Shuo's existence. He said, "We need to discuss this."
The old priest walked quickly towards Han Shuo after this and several forest troll warriors blocked Han Shuo from sight so that those around them didn't learn of Han Shuo's existence. The old priest came to Han Shuo's side and looked at him, "Liaison, what do we do now?"
His brow furrowed as he looked into the distance. Han Shuo saw Leon appear in the back. The McGrady Guild specialized in smuggling and had some conflicts with Phoebe's Boozt Merchant Guild, not to mention their crimes earlier had offended Han Shuo. He hesitated only for a slight moment before opening his mouth to say coldly, "There's nothing much to say. Rob them all according to the rules of our tribe. Kill anyone who resists!"
The old priest immediately exclaimed excitedly after he heard these words, "The liaison is wise and great! The liaison is wise and great!"
The old priest didn't say much else as several forest troll warriors walked out from the huddle and nodded to the forest troll chief in the distance.
The forest troll chief raised the spear in his hand and gave a charged, high cry as forest troll warriors rushed out from all sides, charging the Guild's guards with a death defying attitude after the priests had cast their magics on them from the back.
"Damn these greedy forest trolls! We'll fight them to the death!" Various furious mutterings came from the Guild's party.
The smiles on the fey, mature woman's face disappeared at this time as she chanted a magical incantation. A grey cloud of air flew out from her staff as she waved it around, transforming into the head of a demon in mid air and rushing forward to entangle the forest trolls that were rushing over.
More than ten grey clouds continuously changed shape within the air, sinking into the bodies of the forest troll warriors with no resistance. Their fast dash forward suddenly slowed down as mutations seemed to occur within their bodies. Tumors quickly appeared and looked quite frightening as they expanded and pulsed.
Pfft, the tumors on the first forest troll's body burst open and a dark black liquid oozed out. As the liquid remained on their bodies, it brought with it an incomparably strong corrosive effect, causing a round of wild shrieks and howls to sound from the forest trolls as their bodies slowly turned into liquid.
White smoke also arose from the other forest trolls that were sprayed by by the liquid, and they appeared to be in great pain.
Standing behind the others, Han Shuo recalled some of Fanny's magic teachings when he saw the archmage attack. He recognized that this was the advanced dark magic, "Demon Entanglement", and finally understood that this fey, mature woman was a frightening dark archmage.
The gruesome death of the first ten or so forest trolls caused a certain amount of panic to the forest trolls, but it was a good thing that this race had also lived in the midst of cruel raiding. Although they panicked briefly, but they continued forward due to strength in numbers.
A shrill piercing sound suddenly sounded from Han Shuo's mouth. Trunks, hiding in the shadows and observing everything, didn't quite understand things because Han Shuo's whistle came from within the forest trolls. No matter how Trunks envisioned things, he hadn't thought that Han Shuo would be in the company of the forest trolls.
But due to his trust in Han Shuo, Trunks still abruptly dashed out of his hiding place according to their previous agreement and made for the dark archmage who was torturing the forest trolls.
Riding on his manticore and longsword in hand, Trunks set his sights on the female archmage. He made use of everyone being in a frantic mess to charge directly at the female archmage. He planned on taking her down first because the power of her dark magic was simply too strong. Any ordinary person simply couldn't defend against it.
"It's that Trunks! Everyone stop him and don't let him come near me!" The female dark archmage had actually discovered Trunks and immediately called out.
Five or six senior swordsmen, plus archers and other mages, immediately ran over from all directions to block the path to the female dark archmage when they heard her yells. Attacks poured out from from this group of people, making it so that Trunks couldn't approach easily.
The female archmage didn't pay any attention to Trunks as she stood with her back to him and sent out wave after wave of dark magic with enormous destructive power, sweeping across the more than ten forest troll warriors who were dashing over. They fell down one by one, with not a single one being able to approach the female archmage.
"Liaison liaison, what do we do now?" The old priest scrambled to Han Shuo when he saw the forest troll warriors die one by one and asked in extreme panic.
Staring at the frightening female archmage for quite some time, Han Shuo felt that he would still be hard pressed to escape death if he rushed in. The invasion of the dark magic was simply too horrifying. It looked like only the little skeleton, that made entirely of bone, would be unafraid of the dark magic's invasion.
"Look, the great Datara has already come out." Han Shuo reassured the old priest as he pointed at the little skeleton that had stepped out of the carriage.