Seeing the signal black smoke rise, Linde was not in a hurry. Instead, like his predecessor hunting the mountain bear, he re-entered the forest where he had set traps, carefully checking the status of each trap, adjusting and repairing any that might malfunction, and then returned to his ambush point, staring at the narrow mountain path leading to the smuggling route.
As time passed, the light rain of the early morning not only did not weaken but grew heavier. The dense curtain of rain obscured distant objects, and the sound of raindrops covered any unusual noises. Even Linde's enhanced hearing could not distinguish any sound other than the falling rain.
This was both a good thing and a bad thing for Linde. The good thing was that the heavy rain could help him conceal the traps in the forest, making it impossible for passersby to guard against them. The bad thing was that he could not use his already extraordinary hearing and vision to understand the enemy's situation.
He didn't know if it was due to the heavy rain or if the battle on the battlefield had ended, but Linde could no longer see the signal black smoke rising in the distance. However, he was not affected; he simply changed his posture, stretched his stiff body, and continued to wait quietly at the ambush point, even as the rainwater soaked into his clothes.
About half an hour later, Linde seemed to hear something in the rain. He subtly turned his head towards the forest where he had set traps, pricking up his ears and concentrating, listening to the various sounds that entered them.
He didn't know if it was his illusion, or if his extraordinary hearing gained some kind of power boost in this state of concentration, but he felt that the previously muddled sound of heavy rain suddenly became like a well-organized library, with each different sound separated into individual entries. He could clearly distinguish the details of each sound.
However, this extraordinary state only lasted for a few seconds before quickly returning to normal, but those few seconds were enough for Linde to understand the situation in the forest ahead.
"Twenty-three people in total, thirteen injured, seven seriously, and another six caught in traps, who should be beyond saving." Linde drew his weapon from his waist, analyzing the information contained in the sounds he had just heard, muttering to himself, "Two of them are wearing plate armor, possibly true knights, they'll be difficult to deal with."
After a while, Linde saw some blurry figures appear from one end of the mountain path. As they drew closer, he gradually made out who they were, though the rain curtain obscured his view, allowing him to barely distinguish their numbers and equipment.
Just as he had analyzed from the sounds earlier, among this group were two warriors or knights in plate armor. Their status must have been high, as they walked in the middle, protected by the others. The rest were dressed ordinarily, with only a few wearing leather armor, and the others in common clothes. Their weapons were mostly spears, with only a few carrying longswords.
However, what differed slightly from his previous analysis was the number of people in this group, which was fewer than he had estimated. But he quickly understood that the missing few must have fallen into the traps in the woods.
After emerging from the forest, this group did not stop. Instead, they assessed their surroundings, found the mountain path leading to the smuggling route hidden in the tall grass, and then walked onto it, quickly heading towards the smuggling route.
Perhaps at that moment, they only thought of escaping to a safe place as quickly as possible, or perhaps the night-long flight, battle, and subsequent escape had left them physically and mentally exhausted. They did not consider whether the traps on the path they had just taken were meant for them, nor did they think about whether there would be more ambushes ahead. They simply lowered their heads and hurried forward.
Soon, they arrived at the foot of the small hill where Linde was ambushed. Due to the cover of grass and trees, combined with the heavy rain, they did not notice a person ambushed nearby.
Linde had no intention of letting these people pass and then tailing them, ambushing them one by one from behind. Because, judging from the current state of this group, they were already extremely exhausted, and their remaining combat power was not much, so he could completely deal with them head-on.
Therefore, when the two plate-armored warriors, who were guarded in the middle, came in front of Linde, Linde, who had been accumulating strength for a long time, pushed off forcefully, and his entire body shot out like an arrow released from a bowstring, reaching the two plate-armored warriors in the blink of an eye.
Linde's speed was simply too fast, and with the cover of the heavy rain, the two plate-armored warriors did not detect the approaching danger at all. When they did notice something amiss, they only saw two flashes of light from sword blades, followed by a chill at their throats where the helmet met the plate armor. A sense of powerlessness spread throughout their bodies, and combined with their inherent fatigue, they immediately collapsed to the ground, their bodies twitching unconsciously.
After successfully dispatching the two plate-armored warriors, the other bandits nearby had not yet reacted to what had happened, and Linde's attack did not pause. He rotated his body in an exaggerated half-circle, swinging his arm, and slashed towards several other bandits who were carrying longswords.
The rotating blade landed with incredible precision in the gaps of the bandits' leather armor. The sharp edge cut through the target's flesh like a hot knife through butter, leaving an unhealable wound in a vital spot. And before blood could spurt from the wound, the blade was already moving to the next target.
As Linde fully absorbed the combat experience of the Peace Envoy, he gradually understood that the Peace Envoy's fighting style could be summarized in just four words: weak point attack.
In a direct confrontation, the Peace Envoy's strength was only slightly greater than that of an average person, but his extraordinary agility and speed, combined with precise control over weak points, allowed Linde to efficiently and quickly reap lives like a grim reaper. In less than ten seconds, five fully armed warriors had already fallen beneath his hand-and-a-half sword.
"Enemy attack!" The bandits in the back, seeing their leaders fall and a strange figure appear where they lay, immediately realized what had happened. Instinctively, they let out terrified shouts, both to warn those ahead and to bolster their own courage.
However, their loud cries did not affect Linde. At this moment, Linde was like a cold killing machine, charging into the group of spear-wielding bandits in the back according to his planned sequence. His hand-and-a-half sword swung, precisely cutting at the weak points of their necks. With every swing of his sword, a person fell, each life as fragile as weeds by the roadside before him.
Even though the bandits realized they were under attack, they couldn't organize an effective defense. This was partly because their commanders were dealt with by Linde immediately, but more so because the spears in their hands were completely unsuitable for close combat. They could neither attack the enemy nor defend against enemy attacks, and could only passively watch the enemy's attacks land on them.
Moreover, the enemy's attack speed was simply too fast. All they could see were flashes of metal, not even a complete sword blade. Let alone their bodies being already exhausted, even when full of energy, it would be difficult to dodge such rapid attacks.
The five bandits scouting ahead, upon hearing the shouts and commotion behind them, immediately gripped their weapons with practiced efficiency and turned to check the situation. The scene before them stunned them all.
In the heavy rain, their more than a dozen companions behind them had all fallen to the ground, blood continuously gushing from their wounds, mixing with the rainwater, and thoroughly staining the mountain path beneath their feet.
And amidst this pile of corpses, a figure wielding two swords stood there. The heavy rain obscured their vision, preventing them from seeing the opponent's face, but they could feel an icy gaze piercing through the rain curtain, a gaze that made them feel as if they were being targeted by a legendary Other.
Fear instantly spread through their hearts. They no longer had any intention of resisting, and one by one, they turned and ran frantically along the mountain path, even pushing each other to get ahead. Each of them thought that as long as the person behind them held off for a while, they could escape successfully.
If these five people could have cooperated, perhaps with their spears, they might have been able to create some obstacles for Linde. When they reached the narrow smuggling route carved into the cliff, Linde might not have risked continuing to pursue them, letting them go.
But now, they were each looking out for themselves, neglecting the others, and even attacking each other in their panic to escape, exposing their backs defenselessly. It was as if they were inviting Linde to kill them.
Faced with such an invitation, Linde naturally would not let them go. In the end, these five only ran less than ten meters before all dying under Linde's sword.
After dealing with this group, Linde carefully checked their condition again, and only after confirming they were all dead did he relax slightly. He then rested for a bit, and without clearing the battlefield, he got up and entered the forest, checking the status of the traps one by one.
As a result, most of the traps he had set had been triggered, and all of them were lethal traps. There was no chance for anyone hit by them to survive. Roughly counting, fourteen people had died in these traps.
He did not clean up these bodies, nor did he reset the activated traps. Instead, he hid near the outermost trap, quietly waiting for prey to come to him.
About half an hour passed, and two more groups, of seven and thirteen people respectively, escaped from the battlefield ahead. It seemed the heavy rain also affected the allied forces' encirclement of the bandits, otherwise, with Joel's battlefield arrangements for each team in the Steadfast Hold council hall, it would be impossible for so many to slip through the net.
These bandits were fortunate to use the cover of the heavy rain to escape the battlefield's slaughter and reach what they considered a safe zone. There were no pursuers behind them; as long as they passed through a not-so-large forest, they could reach the smuggling route and completely escape this dangerous place.
But the moment they stepped into this forest, they never came out. Linde, hidden in the woods, appeared silently like a ghost in unpredictable locations, killing them one by one, while simultaneously driving the living into deadly traps.
Because so many people had died, the forest was already permeated with a bloody scent, which also attracted some carnivorous animals, making this forest even more dangerous.
Roman Weber was Viscount Linden Weber's son, and the cousin of Aymond Weber, the current Lord of Cold Howl Keep. With his long face, he had the nickname "Mole" in The Reach.
This nickname meant that Roman Weber usually hid in his estate, living his own life, only poking his head out when there was some commotion outside to see if there was profit to be made. Just like this time, the encirclement of the bandits was a profitable opportunity for him.
Although Roman Weber's nickname "Mole" was not very pleasant, those familiar with him knew very well that if anyone underestimated him, they would certainly suffer greatly at his hands.
His task this time was to lead a hundred-man company to patrol the outskirts of the battlefield, hunting down any who slipped through the net. The core mission was to prevent the few loyalists of the Dragon House among the bandits, who had previously had contact with House Weber, from escaping the encirclement.
If everything had gone smoothly, they should now be celebrating the successful end of the encirclement of the Red Lake Forest bandits and the Dragon House remnants. However, the sudden heavy rain in the morning created many loopholes in the entire encirclement operation, especially in the offensive line where various formations moved at inconsistent speeds due to the muddy ground, leading to numerous gaps.
The bandit leader was also excellent, dispersing his people into smaller groups to break through the various gaps.
Although most of these people failed to break through and died on the battlefield, some were lucky enough to escape the encirclement. Roman was originally supposed to clear out all these stragglers, but due to the heavy rain, his movement speed was also affected. After clearing out some of the bandits, a portion of them escaped under his nose into the mountainous forest near Steadfast Hold.
If they were just ordinary bandits, he might have let them go, but he saw two people in plate armor among the bandits who had fled into the forest. For bandits to wear plate armor, their identity was definitely not ordinary; they were very likely people who knew some secret matters.
For this reason, after clearing out some of the stragglers, he did not rest but led his subordinates to pursue them along the various traces left by the fleeing bandits. He soon caught up to them in the forest where Linde had set traps.
When they were very sure that the bandits had fled into the forest, Roman immediately led his men into the woods. He had to catch up with those people as quickly as possible and eliminate them.
However, not long after they entered the forest, they involuntarily stopped, because they saw a corpse hanging from a tree with its feet off the ground, a tree stump piercing through its chest. From a distance, it looked as if the trees in the forest had killed him.