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Chapter 9 - Chapter 9 - Follower of Judas

Ulf was getting near to the main entrance of the village. He was expecting the tribe hunters to be on the wall and throwing the arrows and fighting against the enemy. However, nothing like that has taken place in front of the opened gate.

There was only uproar, rather than shouting and fighting. Soon Ulf saw the real situation when the people made a way to let someone come through the gate. Due to it being nighttime, Ulf could hardly see who was coming in. However, when others had gotten close to his position, the reason for the uproar was clear.

The person coming in was the chief and the 3 leaders behind him. The most noticeable was the condition of the chief. He was gravely injured in his abdomen and blood was gushing out from his left shoulder. It was a horrifying sight to see. There was one person who was helping Olaf to move faster. He was Gobron, the group leader who had followed out of the village. He also had wounds, but none of them was deep and his strong body could endure them.

Nevertheless, it was a miracle for the village head that he could still walk with those severe wounds. It seems they were going to the shamaness, at least to stop bleeding from the injuries.

Everyone had a horrified look. However, no one dared to utter a word, in front of the chief, when he was in a critical situation. When the chief had left the entrance, part of the crowd followed him behind. Others stayed and went to the hunters, who also had come back together with the chief, and bombarded them with the questions. All of them wanted to know what had happened.

First of all, why did the chief leave the village? Where was he going to go? What had caused him to be injured? Ulf was not far away and he had been listening to the hunters' story. Bit by bit he got the whole picture of the real situation.

Everything started when the tribesman came today morning. It seemed he had been part of Bjorn's group.

'Hah, unfortunately, I was right. Something went wrong in the north.' sighed the Ulf. First, he remembered, at this time was his sad mother, who had been waiting for Bjorn or some information about him. Of course, Ulf wouldn't want anything to happen to him.

He has brought a piece of bad news. The vice-chief's group had been on their way back to the village when they got under the sudden attack of the beasts' horde. The beasts' horde was part of the 'monster tide' or a mini version of it. The group understood that they didn't have a chance to win against the few hundred beasts.

Bjorn had ordered the warrior rank hunters to scatter and retreat, he and the leader rank hunters would stall the beasts for some time, in order to let others escape and bring the information to the village. After that he should have also tried to escape. However, only one was able to come back to the village.

The chief was first astonished about the appearance of the beasts' horde. The end of winter was still not too near, so the creatures should not have started to migrate to the south. However, as there wasn't time to think, he decided to gather some strong hunting groups to move fast toward the north, to save at least those who had survived.

"We were running as fast as we could toward the destination. Harl had told the chief that, by running, we would need one day to reach there." said one of the warriors.

'His name is Harl, one who came back?' Thought Ulf.

"Our plane was like that: We would be running from the morning till deep night. After resting for a little time to regain the energy, we would go again. For the morning we should have reached the place, which Harl had described." Told another warrior to one of the villagers.

"The afternoon was about to start and we were running. We got near the Devil's Swamp. It is known to everyone that every strong creature avoids this place for some reason. Maybe it was because of the terrifying smell or that there wasn't anything valuable to look for, except the swamp. This place is also famous, that there is almost always darkness and the light hardly reaches there, because of the dense forest. However it was a short way and with no danger till now, So we believe there would not be any danger to use this way." continued the warrior from the other group.

"Our groups, which had gone in the north, have used this route many times in the past and was always peaceful. Nothingness, where we least expected danger, we were ambushed. However, it wasn't the beasts' horde, but humans. It was sudden. They had been hiding in the swamp. After they jumped out, we were surprised and couldn't even understand who they were. Their bodies were covered with mud, had animal skins on their faces and there was also darkness in the forest." The warrior had an angry expression when he was speaking.

"They had two times more hunters than us. From the start, two peak captain rank hunters directly targeted the chief. The village head was able to handle them, but the destruction caused by their fight was enormous. Chief Olaf didn't want to implicate us in his fight and let us take care of others. One was clear that they were a bit tired like us. Some of them also had wounds."

"They were more, but we aren't warriors of Hadda for nothing!! We still had some advantages. However, things changed on the chief's side. He had been fighting against 2 opponents when he was ambushed by a third peak rank captain rank hunter. He wounded Head Olaf with the spear in the abdomen. As the chief lost balance, he was injured again by one of two opponents, who the head had been fighting against." Explained Njal, one of the three group leaders who followed Olaf.

"When we saw it, every one of us was enraged by the enemy's cowardness. We broke out the siege around us, in order to help the chief, but then they suddenly retreated. We wanted to follow them, but the chief's wounds were serious and some of us too had several injuries. That's why continuing the way was meaningless. That's why we decided to come back."

'So, what happened on the father's side is still unclear?' Ulf sighed.

"However, on our way back we met Ashot and his groups, which contained 25-30 hunters." After hearing Njal, everyone was astonished.

'Ashot? Isn't he the leader rank member of Bjorn's group?' Ulf remembered.

" Ashot told us that, on their way back to the village, their group was also ambushed like us and it didn't have any connection with the beasts' horde. However, the enemy had more hunters than against us. Due to the reason that the vice-chief is a genius hunter of our village, who had reached not long ago the peak captain rank, he could somehow hold against three opponents on the same level. However, those guys clearly targeted him and others were trying to obstruct his group to help the vice-chief."

" Only leader Khaldu could free himself from the opponent to stop the attack of one of the captain ranks, who was going to stab the vice-chief. However, he also died in the process. At that time, maybe captain Bjorn understood that the enemies wouldn't go back till his death. He had ordered others to run and scatter around to bring the information to the village, then he ran toward the north and three opponents also followed him."

There were many loopholes in the story.

'How did the opponents know about the exact time and route of the father's group? They also seem to have information that the chief would go out and what kind of way he would use. Enemies knew just too many about the tribe's hunters. And the last, Harl. The report he gave to the chief was clearly false.' Thought Ulf.

"IT WAS BETRAYAL!!!!" shouted Njal, who had been so angry, that the veins almost popped out on his face.