Free Web NovelChapter 164: Encounter
After Zorat retreated into his own tent, he decided it was best to rest for the remaining hour or two before sunrise, when they would be getting back on the move.
After exactly two hours, the call for packing came from one of the knights on the outside, and just like the others, Zorat too got to packing up his sleeping gear in preparation for their continued advancement through the forest.
Usually, an extra one-hour window is allowed for everyone to freshen up in their own way before they get back on the road.
They all freshen up in different ways; some use stored up fresh water from their water bags, filled at several streams they pass through, using their own makeshift restroom....
While others take the effort to locate a nearby stream to bathe in at night when they are not nested close to streams or rivers.
Zorat’s way of freshening up actually isn’t that different from the others; At times when they are situated next to a stream, he picks out a restful hour to go for a relaxing dip....
And for times such as this, when they are nested away from direct water sources for safety reasons.....such as the water source being in the immediate area of a territory lord beast.....
He would simply retrieve a fanciful wooden bath from his spatial repertoire and soak in like he was in the stream; something only his own spatial storage is capable of. Most spatial storage artifacts can’t hold that much stuff, especially when they are so large.
Unsurprisingly, saintess Sylvara’s own conditions were even more unique.
She literally has a dedicated tent for her to freshen up, with things inside that the heroes can only assume were just as luxurious.
In a short while, everyone was ready to get back on the road.
Around them from several different angles were corpses of stray beasts that had wandered into their settlement at night, but were easily handled by the royal knights on duty.
And weirdly, this doesn’t count as a dereliction of duty by the heroes since technically these beasts do pose a threat to the saintess they were escorting....but they were allowed a rest period, it seems.
As Usual, Urasmus set the path they would be taking, and they soon resumed their usual formational arrangements, only this time, like the day before.
As they slowly cleared their way through the forest of no return, Zorat found someone was acting a little out of character, and that person, strangely, wasn’t Lilly.
Lilly, on the other hand, was sticking to the role of trying to befriend Zorat, but he could tell from a mile away that her actual emotions still weren’t positive towards him.
"There’s something I would like to talk to you about, Caleb....."
"...In private."
Lilly whispered in her small voice to Zorat’s ears as she rode her horse steadily beside his.
Oh?......
"Of course we can talk, Lily.... where do you want to have this talk?" Zorat said to her, a soft smile on his face.
"Well... maybe I could come over to your tent?" she suggested.
"Hmm.....I see no problem with that."
"Great... It’s a date then. Hahaha..." Lilly muttered teasingly as she bumped lightly on Zorat’s shoulder in a playful manner.
Zorat did have someone else on his mind as his next target, but since Lilly was being so proactive, for reasons that weren’t that hard to predict, he decided she was just the perfect victim to deliver him his seventh divine authority fragment.
Lilly’s desire is a rather special one, and depending on the situation, he would have to make some notable effort or do close to nothing at all.
Either way, she has been marked at this moment as his next target.
They continued on their way through the forest, with the heroes going on a rotational battle formation as usual.
It was Ava, Erica, Broddy, and Roberto for the first rotation. Ariana, Andrew, Julia, and Jacob for the second. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
When one team rotation battles for a few hours, they rest and, if needed, receive healing from Lilly while the second team goes into battle.
It was on Andrew’s rotation that Zorat picked up some life signs of exactly three people who appeared to be running in their direction, some far distance away.
But Zorat said nothing. How was he supposed to explain him sensing people that were still several hundred meters away? After all, they would see them soon enough.
However, a few minutes later, Sylvara suddenly turned in the same direction where Zorat had perceived those coming at, and she casually informed the captain royal knight who was leading the knight party to be alert.
Not long after that, a trio of haggard-looking young men and a gorgeous young woman ran into the front of their advancing group, taking the team of heroes and knights by surprise as they leveled their weapons at them.
They looked like they had just come out of some war, even looking worse than the heroes who had been fighting beasts since the morning they awoke.
Their clothes were torn in several places, with several light injuries and cuts all over their body.
Their breathing was fast and ragged, panting as they looked on to the heroes with a mix of great relief and lingering on their faces.
"Stop right there, or we’ll attack!"
True to their training, the heroes, with Andrew taking the lead, yelled at the advancing group, with them all going into their attack stances.
"Please!..... Please help us...."
"It’s after us..... Our party leader is..."
The young man in the lead spoke frantically, trying to describe the danger they were in, as they all knelt begging.
And as the leading young man made mention of their leader, the faces of the other two grew grim as they occasionally turned back in sadness and fear.
"Speak.... What is it that is after you?!" Ariana said calmly to the young man, but her guard was still fully up.
The colors on the faces of the trio dried out as they looked at each other nervously before the lead young man answered with fear in his voice....
"A beast..... A territory lord beast is after us!"
