Book 4-3.3
“Mm, there shouldn’t be any issues, right?”
Seeing Yulian worrying about the warriors who left to escort Edwin half a month ago, Runa confidently answered.
“Aren’t they the best of the Red Storm? Do not worry. I’m sure there will be no problems.”
“There better not be any.”
Yulian had sent the trio of Haisha, Shubeon, and Thrint with 500 warriors each to protect Edwin.
At first, he had planned on sending all of the Red Storm, however, Runa asked him not to do so, in order to keep some of them at the construction site and training grounds.
The Red Storm was already the symbol of Pareia’s warriors. The efficiency and morale of the warriors tended to go down when all of them were not around.
That was why Yulian had sent the trio after discussing the situation with Runa. It was a way to train them to become Greatest Warriors by having them lead a brigade of warriors.
Of Pareia’s third generation Greatest Warriors, Trebol had already lost his life at war. In addition, Egane and Vibli were getting older and older. So when thinking about the future of Pareia, it was time for a changing of the guards and train new Greatest Warriors.
“Warriors who cannot be touched in the desert will be the same in the continent. Even in the desert, the only ones who can defeat them are the Glow, Greatest Warrior Vibli, and a small handful of other Greatest Warriors.”
Yulian decided not to worry too much since he trusted the warriors he had sent.
“Their skills have strengthened lately that other than myself and Greatest Warrior Vibli, there probably isn’t anybody who can defeat them.”
“It makes me happier the stronger they get, of course.”
Yulian thought that he had said something he didn’t need to say once he heard Runa’s answer.
Many people were struggling under the intense heat and humid desert air. The workers who had gone through the desert many times were relying on their know-how to persevere, but for the people who were going through the desert for the first time, it was painful.
The only thing to make them feel better were the desert warriors who were slowly guiding their pirmas around them.
Their eyes seem to radiate as they looked around, and each of them seemed so valiant to the point that you could tell they were not your average person.
It was not just in their physical appearance. They had handled all of the monsters and wild animals they ran into along their journey.
Of course mercenaries could handle those type of issues as well, however, the desert warriors made it seem like it was part of their typical hunt and managed to kill them with a single arrow, or even a single slash of their sword. It was no wonder the new merchant workers were amazed.
The three of them who seemed to be the leader were holding onto two greatswords each that seemed like normal people would never be able to even lift, and managed to split a Giant Scorpion in half with a single slash. The new workers could not stop themselves from being filled with awe.
Being protected by warriors like this, they didn’t need to worry about thieves or monsters. Thanks to that, they were able to sleep peacefully at night.
“The workers seem to be struggling quite a bit.”
Shubeon started to talk to Edwin. Edwin and Shubeon surprisingly had similar personalities and quickly got close with each other.
“There are a lot of them who have never gone through the desert before. Well, the majority of those workers are part of the nobles’ guilds, but it is not like they did anything wrong to deserve this. It is making me feel a little bad.”
“If we go a little further, we will see the last oasis before we arrive at the continent. If we rest there overnight and travel three more days, we should be able to reach the Basara Kingdom.”
Since Edwin had been on this journey many times already and knew about the oasis already, he just nodded his head without saying anything.
“The question is whether we can make it through.”
Edwin motioned for him to not worry as Shubeon’s words were full of concern.
“We just have to tell them that you are mercenaries. This caravan has a mountain load of items from the nobles of the Inama Kingdom, so there shouldn’t be much issues. I didn’t expect them to be of assistance for this though. Hahaha.”
While the two men were chatting away, they arrived at the oasis and prepared their campsites. Pareia’as warriors set up their paoes and created a reconnaissance team and a boundary team before getting ready to rest.
Once everyone finished eating dinner, Haisha called the lead warriors over to chat.
“I’m sure you are all aware that the protection of this caravan is very important for our Pareia as well. Please make sure that nothing goes wrong.”
Haisha was the overall commander, however, the lead warriors were all veteran warriors who were older than him. Because of that, Haisha showed them respect whenever they were alone, and the lead warriors followed him with their whole heart because of it.
Haisha sent the lead warriors away before calling over Shubeon and Thrint.
“Who shall lead the reconnaissance and boundary teams first?”
Thrint opened his mouth.
“I will go first. You all rest up.”
“Work hard.”
Once Shubeon and Haisha went into the paoe to rest, Thrint guided his pirma to slowly roam the boundary of the camp.
He was not very happy. And on days like this where he was not happy for no reason, things always went wrong in the past. That was the reason he had volunteered to stand guard first.
One moon … two moon … until the third moon was up in the sky, everything was peaceful. However, Thrint still had a bad feeling like something was going to happen.
He started to check in with all of the warriors standing guard. As he did that, he noticed a warrior who had fallen asleep while standing guard.
“Hey.”
Plop.
The moment Thrint tapped the warrior’s back, the warrior fell down to the ground without moving.
“Oowoooooo!”
Thrint started to yell in response.
Thrint’s voice instantly rang across the campsite. Almost instantly, the lights inside the paoes and tents started to light up. Some veteran warriors even came running out of their paoes naked while holding just their shamshirs.
Thrint continued to yell as he started to think.
‘The enemy must have been hiding here before we arrived. We have over 50 warriors on reconnaissance; there is no way we would have missed them while looking through this small area. Plus, even I did not hear anything. Seeing the injury he has, it was a sosoonta type of weapon.’
After inspecting the dead warrior’s body, Thrint realized that it was not your typical band of thieves. He started to feel rushed. It was because he didn’t know how many of them were already attacked. He got on his pirma and looked around as fast as he could to try to find the enemy.
Shoooooooooong.
At that moment, a long strand of light shot up into the sky.
A bright glare.
Thrint was able to see a man completely clad in black running around with a weapon that looked like a sosoonta.
“You bastard!”
Thrint shouted out loud. He rushed the pirma and lifted up his greatsword into the sky.
The black-clad man felt an overwhelming presence behind him and started to roll without even looking behind him.
Slash!
‘Huh…I rolled on the ground……’
The black-clad man felt his felt his neck become cold and felt like his body was suddenly flying up in the air.
Thrint smirked at the black-clad man who decided to roll on the ground against his greatsword and cleaned the blood at the end of his sword.
The black-clad man’s head, which was separated from his body, was looking toward Thrint with the eyes still open.
If he had looked back and seen Thrint’s long greatsword, he wouldn’t have done something as stupid as rolling on the ground. If he was still conscious, that was probably what he would have thought.
The moment Thrint started to look for any other enemies, he could hear the sound of blades clashing in multiple locations.
Since all of the warriors woke up, the assassins were all discovered. Thrint moved around left and right taking care of the assassins one by one.
“Oowooo! Ohhhhhh!”
At that moment, he heard a loud yell coming from one direction. Thrint gasped and started to run toward the origin of the yell.
The shouts which became a type of code for Red Storm held different meaning based on the tone. The one just now was the one asking for help. However, they had never heard this shout before. Until now, there had not been anyone that the Red Storm could not handle.
As workers and warriors were gathered in front of him, Thrint jumped off his pirma and started to run toward the location that Shubeon shouted from.
