Chapter 128 Traitor?
After several days of trekking through the wilderness, the survivors of Golden Harbor were exhausted.
The carriage team stumbled along the dusty dirt road, each step carrying a heavy numbness.
The nobles had long lost their original dignity, their gorgeous robes were covered in mud, and their exquisite hairstyles were messy, but a glimmer of hope began to burn in their eyes.
Because, at the end of the horizon, the outline of a human city is clearly visible!
It was a medium-sized kingdom city called "Orsay".
It is not as close to the sea as Golden Port, but it is also vibrant due to its geographical location connecting several trade routes.
The towering city walls glowed grayish-white in the sunlight, and the city gates were wide open, revealing the buildings and pedestrians behind the gates.
All these indicate one fact - it is safe here!
"Look! It's the city of Orsay!" Baron Fabio was so excited that he almost jumped out of the carriage, with uncontrollable ecstasy on his fat face.
His voice trembled, as if he had seen redemption.
"Finally... finally we have arrived at a safe place!" Count Reinhardt also breathed a sigh of relief, and his heartstrings, which had been tense for many days, finally relaxed a little.
After so many days of running around, at this moment, the existence of this city itself is a huge temptation.
The private soldiers and guards also cheered up, and smiles of surviving a disaster appeared on their tired faces.
The taverns, hotels, clean beds and hot food in the city all tempted them.
Benjamin stood at the front of the team. He stopped and looked calmly at the city ahead.
"Sir, can we enter the city to rest and restock some necessary supplies?" Count Reinhardt cautiously approached Jemin, his tone pleading, "The horses need feeding, and we're running low on rations..."
Benjamin nodded silently. He knew that this group of nobles really needed rest and supplies.
"Yes," Benjamin replied briefly, "but not all of the troops can enter the city. Your carriages and most of the people will remain outside the city. Send a team of elite guards into the city to purchase supplies. The rest of you, rest here and stay alert."
Although the nobles did not understand Benjamin's caution, they were all intimidated by the strength Benjamin had shown before and agreed one after another - after all, they were sure to be able to enter the city and enjoy themselves.
Soon, the nobles formed a large team of nearly a hundred people, leaving behind most of the guards, and rushed towards the distant city in a mighty manner.
As soon as they stepped into the city, they were hit by all kinds of noise, which made the nobles, who had been running in the wilderness for several days, burst into tears and wished they could find a better hotel to rest.
However, something unexpected happened!
"kill!!"
A roar filled with murderous intent suddenly erupted from the city gate!
Immediately afterwards, more than ten black shadows suddenly rushed out from the city gate like ghosts, as fast as lightning!
They were dressed in uniform, and what they held in their hands were not common swords, but daggers and short spears with a faint green light.
This assassination team, with a clear goal, headed straight for the noble carriage in the center of the team!
They were nimble and agile, dodging the guards who tried to stop them and attacking directly like poisonous snakes.
"It's an assassin! Protect!" General Brandon roared.
The guards around him also reacted quickly. These guards might be vulnerable against orcs, but they were very professional when it came to assassination.
Unfortunately, the number of guards who followed the nobles into the city was too small, and the number of assassins was far beyond imagination. Soon, many assassins rushed over, breaking through the guards' obstruction.
Count Reinhardt and Baron Fabio screamed in terror in the carriage, and the women were so frightened that they huddled together and burst into tears.
An assassin had rushed to Count Reinhardt's carriage, the poisoned dagger in his hand flashing with a cold light, piercing the curtain of the carriage.
"court death!"
Benjamin's voice came from the side.
He had already discovered these assassins lying in ambush at the city gate and had anticipated this.
In just a blink of an eye, he rushed to the front of the team.
Before the first assassin touched the curtain of the carriage, Benjamin appeared behind him.
He stretched out his left hand and grabbed the assassin's head.
Snap!
With a crisp sound of bones breaking, the assassin's head twisted at a strange angle, his body softened and turned into a pool of mud, and the poisonous dagger in his hand fell to the ground with a "clang".
Without even looking at them, Benjamin flashed again, like a blurry black shadow, weaving through the crowd.
"ah!!"
Screams rang out one after another!
These professional assassins seemed as fragile as paper in front of Benjamin.
This unequal killing lasted less than a minute.
When Benjamin threw the last assassin to the ground like a rag doll, all the men in black had fallen in a pool of blood, none of them survived.
They died with their eyes wide open, filled with confusion and fear.
Benjamin calmly walked up to an assassin who was not yet completely dead. The assassin had blood gushing from his mouth and his pupils were dilated. It was obvious that he would not live long.
Jieming squatted down, seemingly checking the other person's condition.
A glimmer flashed in his eyes, and powerful mental power penetrated through his fingertips and directly invaded the assassin's mind.
"Soul searching."
He forcibly read the fragments of the assassin's dying memory.
Scenes flashed before Jieming's eyes like broken glass.
In the grand aristocratic mansion in the royal capital, in the banquet hall filled with toasts and conversation, several men and women in luxurious clothes wore false smiles on their faces, but were secretly discussing something.
Judging from the patterns on these people's clothes and the ways they address each other, they are relatives of Count Reinhardt, Baron Fabio and others.
With greed gleaming in their eyes, they discussed how to "reasonably" inherit the titles and wealth of these exiled nobles.
This assassination team was assigned by the relatives of the royal nobles. After confirming the whereabouts of the fugitive nobles, they took the opportunity to ambush and kill them, intending to create an "accident" so that they could inherit all the inheritance with full legitimacy.
When the assassin died, Benjamin stood up with an expressionless face.
He was not at all surprised by the information he had just seen. He had anticipated this before leaving the city.
In fact, it was not just Benjamin. The moment they saw these assassins, all the nobles present immediately thought of this possibility.
"We can't go into any city! No city!" Count Reinhardt grabbed the corner of Jemin's clothes, his old face filled with despair, his voice trembling with hoarseness, "Those jackals in the capital will eat us alive! They know our location, everything about us! We must avoid all towns and go straight to the capital!"
Other nobles also echoed this. They would rather sleep in the open air in the wilderness and endure hunger and fatigue than step into any city where there might be traps.
Jieming nodded: "Then you guys go back first and let the guards go buy supplies first."
"Okay! Okay! Let's go!"
The nobles hurriedly abandoned the mess, arranged for a few stewards to negotiate with the nobles in the city, and then left the city and returned to the team outside the city.
Being forced to give up the decision to enter the city for rest and recuperation made the atmosphere of this noble team extremely depressing.
…
…
When the first rays of sunlight in the early morning tried to penetrate the dense fog, the team led by Jemin had already entered an area where a mist-shrouded wetland and dense forest met.
The air here has become extremely humid, with the smell of rotten leaves and soil mixed with a sweet floral scent that makes people feel a little uncomfortable.
The branches of the tall trees were twisted, blocking out the sun, so that the marching team could not feel the warmth of the sun. Only the dim light danced in patches in the forest.
"Stop!" Benjamin suddenly raised his hand.
The team behind him stopped immediately, the horses neighed nervously, the wheels stopped turning, and only the heavy breathing and violent beating of the guards' hearts were left.
Everyone felt an inexplicable oppression, as if something terrible was hiding behind the mist, peeping at them.
In this deadly moment...
Crash!
A loud noise broke all the silence.
The calm swamp water surface not far away suddenly exploded, splashing mud and water everywhere.
A breathtakingly huge beast rose from the ground like a hill and broke through the water!
That's a giant python!
Its dark green scales were covered with disgusting mucus, reflecting a cold glow in the dim light.
Its torso was unusually stout, its head was even bigger than a carriage, and its amber eyes were filled with bloodthirsty ferocity.
Foul-smelling saliva dripped from its bloody mouth and fangs, corroding the ground it touched and emitting hissing white smoke.
As soon as it appeared, it opened its huge mouth without hesitation and pounced directly on the nearest noble carriage. Its poisonous fangs were enough to tear a horse and carriage into pieces in an instant.
The guards raised their swords in fear, but their bodies trembled slightly in fear. Facing this behemoth, they seemed so small and powerless.
At the moment when the giant python's huge head was about to touch the carriage, Benjamin appeared beside the giant python like a ghost.
He gathered strength in his right leg, concentrating all his strength on one point, and kicked the side of the giant python's huge head like thunder!
Bang!
There was a deafening roar, like a thunderclap out of nowhere.
The giant python's huge body shook violently, and its hard skull was kicked so hard that it was obviously dented.
Viscous blood mixed with brain matter gushed out of the wound like a fountain, dyeing the surrounding mud and water a shocking dark red.
The giant python let out a painful and shrill roar, and its huge body twisted wildly, stirring up the water in the swamp and causing the trees to shake.
Its huge tail swept across like a whip, breaking the surrounding trees and making a series of "crackling" sounds.
However, Benjamin seemed to be stuck to the giant python and remained unmoved.
Without giving it any chance to breathe, Benjamin plunged his hands into the python's neck.
"Open it for me!"
He exerted force suddenly, his muscles expanded, and his arms expanded like steel bars.
Swish!
Under everyone's horrified gaze, the head of the poisonous swamp python, which was bigger than a carriage, was torn off from its body by him!
Accompanied by large amounts of smelly blood and mucus, the swamp python's head was violently torn into two halves by Benjamin.
The huge headless corpse jumped around for a moment, then collapsed to the ground with a loud bang, stirring up a huge cloud of mud that crushed the surrounding bushes and trees.
All the nobles and guards were pale at this moment, their eyes filled with incredible fear and awe.
However, just when everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the giant python's death and felt relieved that the danger was over, Benjamin suddenly stopped smiling and looked in one direction.
"Not good!" he growled, "Protection!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sound of breaking air suddenly rang out!
A rapid and dense rain of arrows, with cold light, shot accurately towards several noble carriages in the center of the team.
"It's an ambush!" General Brandon roared.
Although Benjamin had given warnings, many unlucky nobles were still shot to death on the spot.
Then, from deep in the woods came the sound of hurried footsteps and a low growl like that of a wild beast.
An elite team of orcs, numbering about fifty people, wearing simple but tougher leather armor, armed with short spears and axes, actually attacked the carriages of the core nobles from the depths of the swamp and the flanks of the dense forest.
These orcs were different from the wolf cavalry they had encountered before. Their actions were more covert and their tactics were more clear.
They abandoned their attack on the ordinary guards and headed straight for the carriages of Count Reinhardt, Baron Fabio and General Brandon.
"Fabio! Protect the Earl!" General Brandon roared, drew his sword and rushed towards the orcs.
The guards and adventurers fought desperately, but they soon fell into a disadvantage in the face of this well-trained and tactically clear elite orc squad.
The tips of the orcs' spears glowed with a faint green light. Once they hit someone, the person would immediately fall to the ground, twitching and foaming at the mouth.
The nobles in the carriages were so frightened that their faces turned pale and their bodies trembled. Baron Fabio screamed, "How is this possible?! How did they know our exact location? How did they know which carriage we were in?!"
Count Reinhardt clutched the inner wall of the carriage tightly, his old face twisted with fear, his eyes flashing with a terrifying light as he looked towards the distant capital.
"This can't be a coincidence... These bastards know our whereabouts inside out! Someone in this team tipped us off!"
Fortunately, Jemin, who had just dealt with the giant beast, had rushed back and instantly rushed into the elite orc team.
Bang!
With a straight punch, Jemin smashed the head of an orc vanguard who was trying to jump onto the carriage, and red and white objects splattered and fell to the ground.
Blood splattered in the dense forest, broken limbs and arms flew everywhere, and screams and wails rang out one after another.
Soon, this elite orc team of more than 50 people was completely slaughtered by him.
When the last orc's neck was twisted by Jemin and it fell to the ground with a bang, the forest fell into an eerie silence again.
General Brandon reacted the fastest. He ignored his injuries and carefully checked the condition of these orcs.
Soon, he pulled a blood-soaked parchment from the waist of an orc.
The drawing style of this parchment is obviously that of a human!
It clearly marked their route and the subtle features of the appearance of several carriages!
"This..." Count Reinhardt's expression was somewhat grim. "There is a traitor in this team!"
"Damn it! Who on earth is it?!"
"We have to hurry up, otherwise it will be even more troublesome if the orcs behind us catch up!"
The news of the traitor's existence quickly spread throughout the convoy. Looking at the somewhat confused nobles, Jemin leaned against a tree with his arms folded, an expressionless face.
However, no one noticed that the corners of his mouth slightly raised when he saw the parchment scroll.
(End of this chapter)
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