Once the Barbarian Race mercenaries suffer a defeat, they need to plunder the empire's people to restore their morale.
This is an age-old tradition of the empire.
Those Barbarian troops must first burn, kill, and loot to regain their combat strength. If during wartime the empire's military pay cannot keep up, they can directly slaughter nearby villages and towns to gather the necessary supplies on the spot. For some of the empire's higher-ups, perhaps the Barbarian troops have a higher cost-effectiveness because sometimes they don't need to issue military pay.
These enemies have a numerical advantage, but they don't launch a direct assault.
Because the caravan's guards still possess a certain level of combat power, a strong attack would likely incur significant casualties.
The leader of the mounted guards shouted to the distance, speaking in the northern Barbarian language. The caravan had been traveling for years and was skilled in multiple languages; the general meaning was to leave them half of the goods and let the others have a way to live.
These Barbarian deserters refused.
A fierce man who appeared to be a leader stepped out, draped in bear skin, with a vicious expression, and said in a deep voice, "Leave all the goods and women, and I'll let you go."
It turns out the Barbarian scouts, with their sharp eyes, noticed there were actually some women in the group, causing the Barbarian warriors to be restless.
The people of the caravan hesitated upon hearing this.
Whoosh!
An arrow suddenly broke through the air, directly exploding the head of the nearest Barbarian deserter, instantly breaking the negotiations, and the battle was on the verge of breaking out.
Duncan saw it clearly.
The arrow suddenly flew out from the crowd. No one was seen drawing the bow, it was as if the arrow appeared out of thin air, making further negotiations impossible.
The witch did it.
There were only a few women in the caravan. As soon as the other side mentioned wanting goods and women, a Barbarian deserter was immediately shot dead.
The enraged Barbarian army began their assault.
They seemed to be a scattered hundred-man squad, numbering around thirty, with varied equipment. Unlike the empire's troops, most were in beast-hide medium armor, some even bare-chested, wielding two-handed war axes or two-handed swords, like deserters from different units gathered together.
But these guys ran extremely fast!
If previously, the Knight that Duncan and the King of Qin evaded around the pillar had their running speed, he would likely be out of action by now.
"This speed is almost like a hundred-meter sprint!"
"Is the Barbarian's physical strength really this strong?"
If they managed to charge head-on, except for a few skilled mercenaries who might withstand it, the rest would probably collapse instantly.
"Give me the war bow!"
Without a word, Duncan put down the inferior hunting bow in his hand and directly reached out to grab the northern war bow from a nearby guard. The caravan guard was also a bit stunned and hadn't reacted yet when the war bow was already seized by Duncan.
"Take this."
He tossed the inferior hunting bow over, instantly drew an arrow and nocked it. The war bow was drawn to full moon, and the bowstring was taut. His physique after the crossover was good, allowing him to fully draw the war bow. On the projection interface, the crosshair swayed constantly, but with the experience of playing games for more than ten years, Duncan managed to aim and lock the target despite the inadequate archery skills by relying on the swinging crosshair.
Whoosh!
A Barbarian Berserker charging at the front was instantly shot in the head, a health bar briefly appeared and then vanished, clearly longer than those seen before.
But still within the range of ordinary humans.
"As long as there's still crosshair correction."
"My skill remains!"
This shot stunned the others on the battlefield, and the Barbarian deserters also showed expressions of fright. The person who died should have been one of the leaders, or perhaps a warrior from the Barbarian hierarchy, akin to a noble Knight of the empire.
These High-Tier Warriors, rumored to be blessed by the Shaman, had vitality far beyond ordinary people, and it was nearly impossible to kill them without fatal injuries.
In the battles where the empire conquered the Barbarian Race, they even dared to charge directly at the empire's Forbidden Army.
"One kill!"
Duncan calmly drew another arrow, paying attention to the changes in the Energy Bar. Drawing a heavy bow expended quite a bit of energy. Perhaps because the previous shot was so accurate, the fluctuating crosshair stabilized significantly. Based on previous gaming knowledge, as archery improved, the aiming crosshair should stabilize more and more until it became a precise crosshair that could hit where it pointed.
Maxing out archery would result in a flurry of shots, but if the skill was insufficient before then, one could only rely on personal operation, estimating through feel and aiming.
Forget about aiming speed for now.
"Boom!"
Another arrow broke through the air, and another Barbarian warrior draped in bear skin was shot in the head on the spot. The Barbarian Race liked to charge in front, with poor discipline and courage as their priority. There were often cases where core members of the army charged too recklessly and were killed, but their will to fight was high, and they believed dying on the battlefield was the only true manly way—dying in bed of illness was for cowards. So even if their officers died, they could keep fighting; after being scattered, they could regroup their remnants to fight again, with morale far surpassing that of the empire's army.
However, losing two officers in a row still made them fearful.
The deserters had already suffered a major defeat, and their morale was not high.
When Duncan drew his bow again, some of the Barbarian deserters visibly showed fear, and actually turned to flee.
One arrow, one kill.
This was terrifying!
"A sharpshooter!" The caravan leader was astonished, and in joyful surprise, he had two guards protect Duncan on both sides, seemingly afraid that he might be taken out by the Barbarian archers.
In small-scale localized battles, the deterrent of a sharpshooter is quite tremendous.
"The feel is still there!"
Duncan gradually regained his composure.
If he had to personally engage, by now he'd likely be trembling so much that he couldn't draw the bow smoothly. But within the God view interface, even the momentum of fighting a hundred enemies as he did in gaming days was surfacing.