In the deepest hours of the night, beneath a sky shrouded in darkness
a thick blanket of clouds obscured the moon's dim glow, casting the world in an eerie stillness.
The somber atmosphere enveloped the slumbering camp, where only the faint sounds of restless sleepers stirred in the gloom.
Yet, amid the silence, a group of six students remained wide awake, their forms illuminated by the dying embers of the nearby campfire.
Surrounded by barbarians on all sides, they found no solace in the quiet of the night.
"Did you hear that strange sound just now?" a female student whispered, her voice barely audible as she glanced furtively at her companions.
"No, I didn't hear anything," came the hushed response, each student shaking their head in confusion.
"But I have exceptional hearing," the female student insisted, her eyes darting around the darkness as she strained to listen.
"I definitely heard the sound of bones cracking in the distance."
"Perhaps it was just a barbarian gnawing on a bone in the night," one student suggested, his voice trembling with fear as he tried to dismiss the ominous thought.
"No, the sounds came from far away, and there were hundreds of cracks," the female student countered, her brow creased in concentration.
No sooner had she spoken than a sudden rain of arrows pierced the darkness, tearing through the sleeping barbarians with a sickening thud.
The students, their hearts pounding in their chests, watched in horror as the barrage of arrows found their mark, leaving a trail of death in their wake.
A cacophony of shouts and cries erupted from the chaos,
"Oghh..."
the Blood Barbarian leader rallied his forces, leading a massive contingent of barbarians in the direction of the unseen archers.
The ground trembled beneath the thunderous march of the enraged horde, their bloodthirsty battle cries mingling with the sounds of conflict that now engulfed the camp.
As the arrows continued to fall like rain from the heavens, the students found themselves caught between the terror of their captors and the hope of rescue.
With the scent of battle heavy in the air, they clung to one another, their eyes fixed on the shadows, praying that salvation would emerge from the darkness that surrounded them.
Despite the Blood Barbarian's decision to lead a significant portion of his forces in pursuit of the mysterious archers, a lingering sense of dread persisted among the students.
A force of two thousand barbarians remained, their hulking forms standing as imposing sentinels around the captives, effectively quashing any hope of a swift escape.
As the students' initial elation gave way to despair, a second volley of arrows rained down from the heavens, their deadly arcs come and aimed from a different direction.
Before the unseen archers could loose another wave of destruction, a thousand barbarians charged forward, their ferocious roars drowning out the chaos around them.
With less than a thousand barbarians now surrounding them, the students' eyes widened with a mixture of fear and confusion.
It was then that a new force emerged from the shadows, their forms moving with a precision that spoke of unwavering discipline and purpose.
Armed skeletons, wielding iron swords and bearing black-colored chest armor,
advanced with a speed that belied their meticulous military formation.
Their unyielding march cut through the darkness, their skeletal visages casting an eerie glow in the flickering light of the campfires.
The students watched in awe, their hearts pounding with the faintest glimmer of hope, as the relentless skeletal force closed in on their captors.
The barbarians, their attention divided between the sudden onslaught of arrows and the disciplined march of the skeletal warriors, found themselves caught between two formidable foes.
As the sounds of battle intensified, the students clung to the fragile hope that these skeletal soldiers would prove to be the saviors they so desperately needed.
With the tide of battle shifting around them, the students found themselves thrust into a chaotic symphony of clashing steel, battle cries, and the harrowing screams of the fallen.
As the brutal battle unfolded, the skeletal soldiers proved to be a formidable force, their prowess and discipline overpowering the barbaric horde.
One by one, the remaining barbarians fell to the relentless onslaught of iron and bone, their cries of defiance fading into the cacophony of combat.
Soon, the last of the barbarians lay vanquished at the feet of their skeletal conquerors.
"Respected lords, please come with us," the blood-drenched skeleton commander implored
his skeletal visage a stark contrast to the relief and gratitude mirrored in the students' eyes.
"We must make haste before the main army of barbarians returns."
The plan of rescue had been a calculated risk.
a three-pronged ambush designed to draw away the majority of barbarians and leave only a small contingent guarding the students.
The first wave of archers had served as the primary diversion, allowing Long Su to thin the barbarian ranks before swiftly summoning them back to the World Seed and joining Zhang Han in his daring escape.
The second wave, composed of five hundred skeletal slave archers, had been deployed with a similar purpose in mind.
Their valiant sacrifice had bought the students the precious time they needed, even as their own lives were extinguished in a hail of barbarian fury.
The final force, the elite skeletal soldiers led by two sceleton commanders, had been tasked with securing the students' freedom.
Their unwavering loyalty to Long Su and their willingness to lay down their lives for the cause had proven to be the decisive factors in the success of the daring rescue mission.
Compelled by the reverence shown by the skeletal commander, who had addressed them as "respected lords," the students followed his lead without hesitation.
The title, an honorific used by creatures summoned by human lords when encountering their peers,
had instilled within them a sense of camaraderie and unity; finally, someone rescued them.
As the skeletal soldiers escorted the students away from the scene of the bloody conflict, the dark veil of night gradually gave way to the first rays of dawn.
Their escape had been a narrow one, but the impending sunrise heralded a new day and a renewed sense of hope.
At last, they reached the barbarian village where Long Su had first struck a decisive blow against the forces of chaos in this accursed dungeon.
Weary but steadfast, the students found themselves on the precipice of salvation
their hearts filled with gratitude for the unlikely heroes who had risked everything to ensure their freedom.