In the shadows of a ruin somewhere in the swamp.
Four figures sat scattered around without a fire.
There was no light from a campfire, nor its warmth. Only the damp, cold air of the swamp, thick with the smell of rotting organic matter, rolled in from all directions.
All four remained silent. Occasionally, someone would shift to change their sitting position before falling still once more.
The hunter captain leaned against a broken stone pillar. Holding a palm-sized raw fish, he sliced it into small pieces with a dagger and popped them into his mouth to chew slowly.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
“Captain, I'm back,” Shadow said.
“Good work. What did you find?” the captain asked, swallowing the fish in his mouth.
“It should be our targets. A dwarf and a knight. However, I didn't dare get too close; I only observed them from a distance.”
“How strong are they?” the hunter captain asked.
Shadow organized her words. “I don't know about the dwarf. But that female knight is very strong. My intuition tells me she is a very troublesome opponent.”
The captain nodded. “Lady Anna said the target is dangerous. It seems she was right.”
“Captain, what do we do next?” a young man beside him asked.
The captain glanced at him. “We watch and wait for the right moment.”
He tossed the fish bones aside and wiped his hands. “Even though the environment here is extremely complex, it works to our advantage.”
“Shadow, keep monitoring them. Report back immediately if anything happens.”
“Yes, sir,” Shadow replied. Without another word, she turned and melted back into the shadows.
The captain turned back to the young man. “Hawkeye, you and Gopher will move together and thoroughly scout the area.”
“Understood!” the young Hawkeye replied.
The other thin, short man also nodded. The two stood up and quickly departed.
In the makeshift camp, only the hunter captain and another burly man remained.
“Captain, you seem to have a lot on your mind,” the burly man remarked.
The captain fell silent for a moment before speaking. “I've known Lady Anna for a long time. She rarely speaks so highly of anyone. This mission might be quite troublesome.”
“Captain, when has any of our missions not been troublesome? Didn't we solve them all successfully anyway?”
The burly man chuckled and added, “There's something I want to tell you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I met a woman.” The burly man's voice carried a rare softness. “She's beautiful and very gentle. I want to retire after this mission is over.”
The captain looked at him, his gaze pausing for a fraction of a second before he nodded. “I will report this to the Count and have him arrange a new identity for you. How about captain of the guard?”
The burly man smiled. “Thank you, Captain. That's exactly what I want.”
The captain reached out and patted his shoulder. “Then do your best to finish this last mission.”
“Understood, Captain,” the burly man nodded.
...
The campfire had already gone out, leaving only a pile of white ash.
Rosie tightened the straps of her backpack and looked back at the dwarf.
He was using a thin vine he had found somewhere to tie the crab-shell pot to the outside of his backpack, looking like he was wearing a turtle shell on his back.
“Ready?” Rosie asked.
“Let's go.” The dwarf gripped his axe, full of energy, showing no signs of having been poisoned and unconscious earlier.
The ruined architectural complex in this area was quite large. Although the stone roads were covered with weeds and vines, the roadbed remained flat and solid, so they didn't have to worry about stepping into a swamp trap.
“Where are we going now?” the dwarf asked, walking behind her.
“The buildings around here are all ordinary, nothing special. We can't search every single one of them anyway, so let's go straight to the major facilities,” Rosie said.
“Makes sense,” the dwarf agreed.
The two made their way along the road, one after the other.
After walking for only a short while, a familiar damp, cold sensation seeped through the soles of their boots.
Rosie sighed. “Ugh, what a pain.”
The dwarf didn't reply.
Instead, he suddenly whispered, “We might be being followed.”
Rosie didn't stop. She slightly tilted her head, using her peripheral vision to scan the tall grass and the shadows of the ruins behind them.
She found nothing.
“Can you spot them?” she whispered.
“No,” the dwarf replied in a low voice. “They're hiding very well.”
“Then how did you notice?” Rosie straightened up and continued walking forward.
“Intuition,” the dwarf said briefly. “I've been watched too many times during my years of exploration. I'm all too familiar with this feeling.”
Rosie didn't ask further.
She hadn't sensed the other party at all; this was probably the gap in experience.
After all, she had never fought thieves or assassins before.
Although her plate armor provided excellent defense, it also isolated her from some sensory feedback from her surroundings.
It was a double-edged sword.
“What do you plan to do?” the dwarf asked.
“Keep moving forward and adapt,” Rosie replied.
Boom!
Just then, a loud explosion echoed from ahead, shattering the silence of the swamp.
Rosie stopped in her tracks.
A plume of black smoke was rising in the distance.
“An alchemical bomb!” The dwarf's expression changed.
“Give me the pot,” Rosie said, reaching out.
The dwarf untied the crab-shell pot from his back and handed it to her.
Rosie took it and held it across her body. The massive crab shell was just large enough to shield her torso and most of her legs.
Holding this "pot shield," she commanded, “Let's go!”
The two pressed on. They hadn't gone far when the grass ahead suddenly rustled violently.
A four-legged crab lunged out from the undergrowth.
Spotting Rosie and the dwarf, it immediately brandished its two massive pincers and charged at them.
“Watch out!” the dwarf shouted.
Before Rosie could respond, several more crawled out of the grass.
“Dammit! Some bastard must have done this on purpose!” Rosie cursed.
She raised the crab-shell pot and charged forward.
Bang!
The two crab shells collided.
A dull vibration traveled through the crab-shell pot, leaving Rosie's hands slightly numb.
The four-legged crab also paused, its two large pincers snapping in the air, seemingly surprised that its "kin" was so hard.
“Die!”
The dwarf lunged from the side, swinging his axe horizontally. With a sharp crack, he severed one of the crab's legs.
The four-legged crab instantly lost its balance. Its heavy body tilted to one side, thrashing on the ground as it struggled to stand back up.
Seizing the opportunity, Rosie stepped forward and thrust her meteoric iron sword into its exposed underbelly, twisting it deep inside. The four-legged crab convulsed violently before falling still.
The other four-legged crabs had already closed in.
Rosie raised the crab-shell pot to block. One of the crabs slammed its pincers heavily against the shell with a dull thud, but it left only a shallow scratch.
The dwarf took the opportunity to swing his axe at the crabs' legs.
The two coordinated with perfect chemistry.
One blocked from the front while the other crippled their legs from the side. Before long, all the four-legged crabs lay dead.
Severed legs were scattered across the ground, and brown bodily fluids pooled everywhere, filling the air with a fishy stench.
“Let's go,” Rosie said.
She didn't harvest the crab meat. With the stalker still nearby, they didn't have the luxury of time to clear the battlefield.
The two quickly departed.
A moment later, Shadow appeared beside the carcasses of the four-legged crabs.
She glanced down at the remains, then looked up toward the direction where the two had vanished, before resuming her pursuit.
...
Inside the hunters' temporary camp.
Hawkeye hung his head like a child who had done something wrong. “Captain, I'm sorry. I messed up.”
The captain didn't respond immediately.
“Captain, it's not actually Hawkeye's fault. Those strange crabs suddenly burrowed out of the ground to attack us. I had no choice but to use the bomb,” Gopher, the short man, quickly interjected.
The captain glanced at Gopher, then at Hawkeye, who still had his head lowered. “As scouts, failing to notice danger right beside you is a dereliction of duty.”
Hawkeye lowered his head even further.
“Captain, Hawkeye is already the best scout among this batch of recruits,” the burly man spoke up on his behalf.
“No matter how excellent he is, it doesn't change the fact that he made a mistake,” the captain said. “The targets will definitely be on high alert now.”
A figure emerged from the shadows.
“Captain, the targets have entered a massive ruin,” Shadow said.
The captain looked at Shadow, who had returned to report. He fell silent for a moment before instructing:
“Forget it. Our mission this time is to gather intelligence and buy time. Since we've been exposed, we'll look for opportunities to harass them.”
“Yes, sir!” the others replied.
The captain turned to Shadow. “Find a way to figure out what they are doing inside.”
“Understood.”
Shadow nodded. Without another word of nonsense, she turned and vanished into the shadows.
Rate on N.U.
