Chapter 604: Delay
Chapter 604: Delay
Next day...
"Master, I feel scared..." Natalie muttered as she hugged Evan more tightly around the chest, while sinking her head beneath the blanket.
Right now, Leo and Lily were in the 2-hour window where they could rest inside the moving carriage. Needless to say, there were 8 other people alongside them in the same carriage, and unfortunately for Natalie, all of them were men.
And being the only woman in a men’s carriage sure attracted attention. But even more attention was directed toward Evan, with whom Natalie was pressing her body beneath the blanket.
But the men were trying their best not to make it obvious because Evan was the strongest among them; getting on his bad side would surely be disadvantageous—or even dangerous.
"Oi, look! There’s some movement under the blanket!" a man whispered to his partner when he saw the blanket near Leo’s abdomen shift.
"Man, fuck it! Strong men have it all; only we are the unlucky ones..." his partner cursed, convinced it was exactly what he thought.
It was a common sight to see people playing around with their slaves out in the open to break them further and satisfy their twisted desires, so for the men, this sight was rather common.
But contrary to their expectations, Leo and Lily were communicating, with Lily forming letters on Leo’s body. Leo did the same by tracing letters on her back—which made it seem like he was lovingly stroking her.
Leo didn’t know why, but unlike the Master-Servant bond, the Soulmate bond didn’t allow mental communication in its preliminary stages, prompting them to communicate in this manner.
They were communicating about the impending conflict they would find themselves in when the beasts that had been trailing them from an extreme distance finally attacked during the night.
"Mhm... Master, this position is uncomfortable," Lily muttered.
Leo immediately shifted, allowing Lily to put her leg over his and rest her head on his shoulder before closing her eyes as if pretending to sleep. Though the content smile on her face said she liked this position quite a lot.
The others watched the scene from the corners of their eyes.
"Did she drink it? What the fuck? Does that even happen?"
"Fuck, my wife doesn’t even use her hands..."
Since both men were under one blanket, the other man simply held the first man’s hand beneath it.
"Oi... will you try it—Puh!"
The man received a punch, and the next instant, the one who threw it simply got out from under the blanket and lay down facing the opposite direction.
"Fucking weirdo... Stay 10 meters away from me."
This marked the end of the second day with no attack on the caravan, and they had already travelled more than 110 kilometres unhindered.
There had been a slight delay when the scouts ahead suggested a change in route because of ferocious beasts migrating in the distance.
Right now, a night camp had been set up with all the goods in the centre while the adventurers, hunters, and mercenaries surrounded it to protect them from unexpected attacks.
People were also starting to have bad premonitions because there had been no attacks. Generally, with so many corpses—even if scent-suppressing magic had been used—there should already have been 1 or 2 beast group attacks, but there had been none.
Meanwhile, Leo and Lily were eating inside their makeshift tent.
"The beasts will attack tonight when half of the caravan is sleeping. Make sure to act scared and stay behind me while we defend the caravan."
Lily nodded.
"Alright, I will make sure to stay alive by hugging my master’s lap!" she said enthusiastically, making Leo shake his head wryly.
Following that, midnight arrived in no time.
Be it lucky or unlucky, it was Leo and Lily’s turn to keep watch over their area, and just as Leo had expected, the beasts arrived.
"Wolves? Now Nyxa might have enjoyed suppressing them, but I guess next time," Leo muttered, casually strolling past the tents alongside Natalie, ignoring the approaching wolves because they were still quite a bit too far away for ’Evan’s’ senses and eyes to notice.
"Wow... what’s the scale of this pack? Seems like all the packs in this region have united after smelling the bountiful loot in this caravan..." Lily muttered after realising there were more than a hundred wolves approaching from all directions.
Then, just as the wolves came within around 100 to 200 meters of the group, Leo, along with many others, noticed them at the same time.
"BEAST ATTACK!!!"
"EVERYBODY WAKE UP!"
Dong! Dong! Dong!
Warning bells rang loudly, and shouts echoed throughout the camp. Within seconds, everybody was ready. They didn’t even take 1 minute to get fully equipped and rush out.
Clang!
"Arghh! Fucker!"
People had already started clashing with the beasts.
Razerfang Wolf (Mid 1-star - High 2-star) — Ordinary - Mortal Bloodline
The wolves varied in size from 1 meter to 3 meters in length and stood around half a meter to 1.5 meters tall.
Not even a minute passed before a full-blown battle erupted.
Fwwoosshhh!
Shreya’s fireball directly struck a wolf locked in combat with Patric.
Thung!
Liam bravely blocked the assault of a huge wolf before hacking at it with his sword in the same instant, forcing it back.
Junni and Waisal were equally useful, distracting the wolves coming in as reinforcements and keeping the overall situation balanced while the other adventurers drew the excess wolves’ aggro.
"Master! To the right!" Natalie shouted.
Evan slashed blindly in that direction, driving his sword’s blade halfway into the neck of the 3-meter-long wolf.
"Oops..." Evan uttered because he had exerted far more strength than his Mid 2-star body should have been capable of. Which became immediately apparent because—
"How did you do that?!" a hunter fighting beside him asked with wide eyes as he finished off a Mid 1-star wolf.
"Uh... it’s my special skill," Leo replied, casually slicing through the neck of a 1-meter-long wolf.
Hearing that answer, Leo could practically see the man seething with jealousy. Being a hunter, he was talentless and thus couldn’t acquire a skill unless he was extremely lucky.
Leo had made sure Patric’s party wasn’t around when he spouted such bullshit because his talent related to levitation shouldn’t have been capable of this. Well, of course, even if he really got caught, he could always spout another piece of bullshit—which he was a master at.
"Master, careful!" Natalie shouted while hurling a small fireball at an equally small wolf that was about to bite off Leo’s calf.
The wolf was immediately engulfed in flames before Evan’s blade sliced through it.
"Good job, Natalie. Keep paying attention to the surroundings."
"Yes!"
And just like that, the battle continued for half the night, claiming the lives of a couple of weak hunters. Some of their bodies were even snatched away by the wolves.
But overall, the defence was successful, with no loss of goods.
As for people being sad about the deaths, there were few to almost none. If they died even here, they were bound to meet a far more gruesome death ahead. There was also the fact that people barely knew each other, and taking up this mission had been their own choice.