"Let's hear it." Rushdi plainly said.
They already had experienced the quick wit of this young mercenary boy and had to admit he was not stupid at all. Even more, in this case he could just leisurely defend while wolves took away few horses and servants and no one would blame him. But he and his colleagues protected every caravan member like it was their own mother. That was to the point where Rushdi even had to consider changing his general opinion on mercenaries in general.
"These beasts are smart, but they are beasts after all. Let's use it and create a trap. The main bait will be us since they will hold a grudge, but we'll increase it manyfold by stacking up terrified dumplings and grease them all over with a paste that I'll make a bit later." Nick grinned.
"Dumplings?" Rushdi was confused.
"Let me explain. You probably have several guards who are due for some kind of punishment. There is five hundred of us and I bet at least twenty have done something wrong during the last month." The Qi masters around nodded and Nick continued, "You will tell them they'll act as the main bait for the wolves tonight and take off their armor and make them look like they are simple servants. The panic these people will have will attract the predators on the instinctual level. In addition, I'll cover the wagon or the carriage they will sit in with a special paste which should be an irresistible delicacy for the wolves – I need to do a bit of research, but till dusk it'll be ready."
"Hmm, unfortunately there are no women or children." Nick pretended to be pondering deeply, but then his eyes lit up, "But we can pretend there are! I will put the Hyena brothers within that pack of the punished guards and they all together will have to act like scared women and it will increase the effectiveness of the trap! In addition, my people will be able to protect the guards if any wolf somehow reaches the carriage!"
"Now – for the main part. We will have to do this around the spot where I am posted, because the wolves will definitely come for me tonight. To kill all of them in one swift motion, you will join us, but don't charge out en masse as soon as they appear – let the fight go the same way the last one did. You guys dash out from time to time, kill one or two and then instantly fall back to protect our bait. We'll have a bit more horses and less civilians around the trap, but the rest of the guards still have to be on their regular positions to guard against any unexpected incidents."
They discussed for an hour more and in the end agreed to test out this strategy. In fact, there was almost no downside, but if by paying with lives of few horses in addition to few peed pants of some sinned guards they could get rid of a serious problem, it would be a great boon. The most attractive thing was that the main target of the attack would still be Nick as the despicable 'murderer' and the Qi masters had to come to help only from time to time.
Thus the plan was made and Nick went back to refine the 'magic' lure. After explaining his idea to his friends, he persuaded YunYun and Clayton to sleep for a few hours to be in top shape during the night. He himself followed their example and had a good night's sleep.
During the day there were no attacks and the caravan was on its way peacefully, but for some reason the surrounding woods looked much more scary to the merchants and their servants. Howls were heard all around as well as the sounds of branches breaking close by, although no wolves showed themselves.
By the time the sun set, one of the closest merchants emptied his wagon and Steven was put in there along with the girls. Some time later around fifteen panicked guards in servant clothes arrived and with pitiful looks joined the group. Even Nick could smell the fear from them, not to speak about the wolves hidden behind the nearby trees.
To increase the temptation, Nick pulled out few dried pieces of meat, covered them with his newest creation and strapped around the carriage. It now looked like an unwrapped Christmas present which every wolf pup could long for and the intensified rustling between the trees confirmed it.
According to Nick's instructions the Hyena brothers started their 'acting' and the three girls could finally cry their hearts out. Even though most of the trip was leisure and even cheerful, the bandit attacks and Steven getting heavily injured last night has piled up enough sadness and now they could release it without holding back.
The punished guards on the carriage were shocked to their bones about the acting qualities of this bloodthirsty trio and soon started to sob along – they obviously had their own pain to cry about.
With the nightfall the Qi masters replaced the merchants and their servants one by one and only few were left to take care of the horses after the attack commenced. Wolves didn't let them wait for long as well. Maybe it was the grudge or the delicious bait, but even the bonfires were not properly lit around caravan yet when the first black head popped out between the trees.
But all the wolves saw was Nick carelessly organizing the regular bonfire and sometimes he even came dangerously close the trees, probably only few meters separating him from the hidden wolves. Finally some of them couldn't hold back anymore. Two at the same time leaped at the small human while three others charged in a lightning speed towards the carriage.
Nick was waiting for this moment and easily rolled away while cleaving one of the attackers in two and then dashed towards the second one, decapitating it. Meanwhile Clayton and YunYun easily dealt with the other three who blindly tried to reach the pieces of meat on the sides of the carriage. There was a moment of stillness after the first failed attack and the three of the them gathered the bodies of the five attackers in one pile and went back to their positions.
Then, to the great shock of all onlookers, Nick came back to the bodies of the dead animals, took out his manhood and drawing an elegant curve in the air started to urinate all over them elegantly swinging his but from side to side.
But after few seconds he deeply regretted his creativity. A terrifying howl of an unknown number of wolves broke the silence and the servants barely managed to hold the horses in place at the both ends of the caravan. The howl echoed for tens of kilometers and every living thing felt their heart stop for a moment. Even the Qi masters near the carriage paled understanding the implication – there won't be any mercy tonight.
Nick barely managed to put everything back in his pants when dozens of two meter tall shadows darted from the darkness and without any intention of defending tried to rip him in pieces. What followed would in later years be described by caravan guards as 'The dance of the Southern mercenary' when they retold this legendary tale in taverns over and over again.
For over thirty minutes Nick rolled, jumped, dashed while relentlessly waving his Wakizashi. From time to time he jumped on a tree trunk just to propel himself back in the flock of wolves and then step on their backs to flip to the side while slashing another random nearby wolf in halves. Tens of wolves attacked him simultaneously, while he continued to dodge their attacks and pile up their corpses.
YunYun and Clayton picked up the ones that were further away one by one and the kill count steadily increased while the other Qi masters mostly watched the event with open mouths. The crying and sobbing in the carriage stopped and was replaced with a collective shock. Luckily nobody had time to notice the expressions of Hyena brothers, because everyone was afraid to miss the performance near the bonfires. It was almost crime to blink as you could miss another thrilling near-death roll or flip.
When there were only around ten crazed animals left, the old Qi masters finally sprung in the action and together with the trio finished off the rest.
While everyone stared at Nick in disbelief, he dropped down on his butt, panting heavily, but YunYun walked past him and started to finish off those wolves who were still breathing.
Nick's style was just too cruel. During his 'dance' not only heads, but mostly extremities or even tails were mercilessly cut off and flew around while the crippled animals were simply unable to run away afterwards. Watching their kin getting mutilated, the other wolves fell in even deeper frenzy just to get killed or disabled soon after.
Of course, the loudest were the howls and roars of anger, but in the chaotic skirmish they masked multitude of whimpers. Thus the fight ended only with the souls of wolves escaping while their bodies had to remain on the bloody, but weird battlefield forever.
The main actor of this play soon recovered his breath and, after checking his surroundings, got up to help Clayton to gather the beast cores. Girls recovered from their shock as well and, while Conny remained 'to guard' Steven, the others started to bash the wolf heads to get out the cores. They lacked the strength and couldn't open them in one clear cut, therefore the spectators could see annoyed and frustrated Hyena brothers venting their anger for not taking part in the spectacular fight.
"Sigh, I'm too old for this." Qi master Zaki shook his head and slowly proceeded back to his post in the front of caravan. Hawi joined him, taking out a bottle of booze from his bag and sharing with his friend. They already knew Nick's guess was correct and after this night there wouldn't be any serious attacks.
These three people with that agile monkey in the lead killed over seventy rank three wolves and there was no way for such dangerous pack to gather in the few next days – it might even take years for them to recover. Now they were certain about another thing – there was at least one rank four beast commanding all these, maybe even few, but they managed to stay back and didn't come out. When the fight entered it's tragic finale, they tried to call out their kin, but the attackers had already lost the remaining sanity and only wanted to bite Nick to death. He was right though – these animals were highly intelligent, but the intelligence was their downfall, at least this time. The insult they experienced was simply too much for the proud rank three beasts who arrogantly tricked and assaulted caravans for years.
"Eighty one." YunYun finished counting the beast cores. Her heart was still beating wildly – she couldn't replicate what Nick just did and had even bigger inspiration to relentlessly train. Actually, if she asked, Nick could also tell her he was not confident in repeating his feat, in fact, he would rather prefer to follow the original plan.
"How is he?" Nick came to the carriage, but Conny could only sigh. Steven was sleeping and Nick's medicine was miraculous, but her heart was in pain every single moment.
"You should worry about yourself. Bandage up and stop scaring people." Clayton half-jokingly whispered from behind.
Only now Nick noticed his own condition. He was almost naked with blood and organ parts covering every single spot on his body. He wasn't clear if or where he himself was injured.
It took a while and help of the punished guards to clean up the battlefield. They decided to not burn the corpses now as the huge pile would stink way too much, but burning after they left was not acceptable as well since it could cause a wildfire. During the next days vultures will have a feast.
Nick didn't care at all. After washing up he was looking at his body in shock – he didn't have any spot without a scratch. Some wounds were so deep that the bones could be seen.
'Probably adrenaline.' He understood the reason for not feeling the pain.
With YunYun's help he covered himself in a thin layer of healing paste and wrapped up in the bandages to become a second mummy of the group. Then he drank a healing elixir and sat to practice Qi. He was still too excited to sleep, but the practice not only could calm him down, but hasten his recovery as well.
The news had already spread to the both ends of the caravan and one after another the more nosy people came to take a look. Of course, they went back so shocked they couldn't really explain to others what they saw. The piles mostly consisting of mutilated bodies of the large beasts were too traumatizing for anyone's mental stability.