Rise of the Blood Sovereign

73  Beating the Hawks, Resuming the Journey

The Tier I hawks were bigger targets compared to the other ones, but they were also much faster and had better eyesight, which made it extremely hard to hit them, even for the Tier I long-range combatants.

Their intelligence was also a notch above the other hawks and they didn't come too close to the caravan.

They didn't merely fly around without doing anything, however, as they actually attacked back. By using their lightning, the hawks were able to send out small magic missiles coated in lightning. They would launch the missiles from their mouth, and their accuracy was frighteningly high and they could hit the Tier I long-range combatants easily.

The long-range combatants would be forced to dodge the missiles, but sometimes they simply had no space to do so, which led to them either using a nearby shield to protect themselves, or they would attack and try to hit the missile before it arrived at them.

The battle between them was currently a draw since each hawk was fighting against one long-range combatant by themselves.

The peak Bronze Knight saw it and decided to help them out.

There were enough Bronze Knights to take care of the 3 remaining hawks, and the long-range combatants were also focusing their fire on them, it wouldn't be long before they were all dead.

"I'll take care of the defense, you focus on another hawk, try to bring him down together!" The Knight told one long-range combatant as he stood in front of him and used his sword to slash and destroy a magic missile.

The archer simply nodded at him before changing targets and aiming at the nearest hawk. With two Tier I archers attacking the hawk, it was becoming evidently harder for the monster to evade the attacks and it soon started getting damaged.

The damage at first came from the hawk not being able to evade the attacks perfectly and they were mostly scratches, but as time passed, the wounds became bigger and more dangerous, until one of its wings got hit.

Even though the hawk was still able to move the wing and fly, the speed with which it do so was affected. With that one injury, the hawk now had a much harder time evading and it finally tried to escape.

That was the moment that the two archers were waiting for. The moment the hawk turned to escape, the two of them, together with the remaining two long-range combatants, all focused fire on it.

The hawk was unable to see all the attacks, and with its side open to them, the hawk found itself hit multiple times before plunging down to the forest.

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The men didn't cheer as the tactic came with a price.

The other two hawks that were left alone for that split moment immediately went on the offensive and attacked, which forced the two to evade and block the attacks.

The hawks used that to escape.

They immediately turned around and flew back, escaping from the area in a couple of seconds.

Still, even though three monsters had managed to escape, the defense was a huge success. The caravan paid the price of losing one of its long-range combatants, but it was able to neutralize all the enemies and paid no further price.

The other fighters weren't injured in the slightest, and everybody was in their peak condition.

That allowed the caravan to immediately resume its trip and not slow down.

Still, the atmosphere had changed as the adventurers now knew just how dangerous the trip was. One monster had managed to sneak up on them in such a manner and kill a person without any of them even noticing it.

If a Silver Core enemy were to appear, they probably wouldn't even have time to respond to it before dying. Not to mention the incredible speed that such a monster possessed, it would make it almost impossible to be stopped once it made a retreat.

They had 3 Silver Knights in their midst, but nobody knew their strength and what they specialized at.

They had briefly seen them before and knew that one used a sword and shield combination, which could mean that he was either a speed-focused combatant, or more of a balanced type that didn't really peak in any areas, but was not bad in any either.

One had a large axe, which made it obvious that he was a strength-focused combatant that used his incredible physical prowess to obliterate anything that stood in front of it, while the last one didn't seem to have any weapons at all, which made him a complete mystery to them all.

The only thing they were all certain of, was that if a Shadowless Tiger truly was to appear, some of them would definitely die. Even if one of the Silver Knights was a speed type, it would be incredibly difficult for him to notice the tiger before it appeared since the monster was a stealth type and could easily get close to the caravan without being seen.

The adventurers and mercenaries were now obviously more alert and observed their surroundings with incredible detail. They didn't want to miss a single thing, less another monster was able to sneak up to them and claim another life.

Their vigilance proved to be correct as they had managed to spot another Tier I panther lying in wait along the mountain.

The panther was immediately targeted by all the Bronze Knights, and it was once again the lighting user that claimed its life. His speed was above all and he was able to appear in front of the monster before the latter had managed to move a full 5 meters away from the caravan. His strikes were equally fast and deadly, and one strike was enough for him to kill the monster.

'A lightning user that was a peak Bronze Knight, he also seems to be quite young, in his early twenties.' Lyle thought to himself as he glanced at the knight.

'How come I never heard of him, somebody like him is definitely not an unknown character and should be known by quite a lot of people.'

'And yet, I don't remember ever hearing of such a person.' Lyle was confused by that, he was certain that he knew of all the upcoming talents of the empire.

He made sure to keep track of the people that were talented in case he was to ever meet them during any of his missions. Knowledge was power, especially in his line of work.

By knowing people, he would be able to come up with plans during missions. If one of his targets was to be guarded by a notable character that he knew about, then he would be able to better prepare an assassination plan and would have a higher chance of success.

But for some reason, the lightning user was a mystery to Lyle. It didn't help that the man's helmet fully covered his face, even his eyes were hard to see.

Hours passed and no monster appeared to attack the caravan. They had already passed half the road and they had about 10 hours more before arriving on the other side of the mountain.

This was where things would become more dangerous as the forest on the other side was home to more powerful monsters. Weaklings below level 40 would rarely appear, and if they did, it would be in larger groups that were led by Bronze Core monsters.

Bronze Core monsters would also appear more frequently, and Silver Core monsters could also appear. Everybody in the caravan knew that which led to everybody getting serious and making sure to observe their surroundings with greater detail than before.

Any monster that would appear from this point on would be more difficult to deal with compared to before. Even the monkeys that could also be found here were bigger and stronger compared to the counterparts they faced in the beginning.

One mistake would lead to a person dying, everybody knew that. The monsters were merciless and would rip apart any person they would be able to get their hands on.

Morning was slowly approaching and that would actually make it harder as more monsters would appear. Waking up from their slumber, the monsters would be very hungry and they would be very eager to charge at them and rip them to shreds.

It wouldn't happen before they reached the other side of the mountain, which means that they would mostly be safe from that since not that many monsters would appear on that side of the mountain.

Once they reached the forest, they would be faced with powerful predators since it will be nighttime. The predators would pose a large threat to the caravan and all the combatants since most of them not only had great eyesight but were very good at sneaking around and attacking when the prey least expected it.

More enemies like the panther would appear, and there was a serious chance of a Shadowless Tiger appearing and attacking them as well, which was one enemy that all of them were very deathly afraid of.