Fargo and the others raised their weapons in tension, ready to defend as they heard the soft sound of Aka’s head rolling down to the damp soil, leaving a bloody trail in its wake.
When the aborigine’s head stopped rolling to the foot of the tree, the rustles of plants sounded around them—soon revealing several figures.
This was Garan, Mao, and a few others, totaling to about 20 people.
As for the rest, they were either guarding the other gate (Sammy) or guiding and protecting the hundreds of slaves from the mine back to Fargo’s wall. Now that it was safe to go back, they naturally didn’t want to keep them outside.
Anyway, when they received the aether letter, they were already separated into groups with Garan’s and Sammy’s teams were in-charge of capturing the escapees at different gates.
They were not surprised to know that they had won—they weren’t being arrogant or complacent, but they knew the strength of Altera. What surprised them was the following sentence saying that Fargo was going to exit the territory alive with approximately 60 people. They were a little shocked, but they adjusted quickly.
It wasn’t difficult to trace their tracks since they were in the area anyway. Of course, Garan and the others watched them struggle with the monster mob first before making any moves.
They watched undetected the whole time because they were using their binoculars and a tool from the Research Center called Parabolic Reflector. This functioned as a non-electric sound attenuator (which works opposite the sound amplifiers), which allowed them to hear clearly hundreds of meters away. It was a little bulky, yes, but they had space for it.
The mob that attacked Fargo’s party wasn’t a very strong one. It only averaged at level 7 or 8, but Fargo’s team had been greatly weakened, and the soldiers knew they had a good show to watch.
At the same time, they also took this time to study their enemies, ready to call on the others if they were needed. They were greatly outnumbered, after all.
Fargo’s team comprised mostly of level 10s and 11s, not including the Terrans who managed to tag along. There were also two people beyond the level cap walking right next to Fargo as well, one of whom was a level 20.
In contrast, the Alteran team was much smaller. Gill was with the ’slaves’ heading to the safety of Fargo, also tasked to help out with the cleanup there. Sammy and Chris were leading the capture team in another area (which was fruitful by the way, with the capture of 20-plus citizens and 10 mercenaries).
This meant only Garan, Mao, and Rowan were the Alterans beyond the level cap in this area, with the rest at level 10 or below. Them versus a 50-or-so team of level 10s would definitely be a challenge.
"Should we get some help?" Mao asked, and Garan paused in thought.
"They would take a while to get here."
There was no real-time pinging yet. They could ’pin’ a spot on the map, but they wouldn’t be able to mark the varying locations of people like in Terran.
They still sent Sammy an aether note though, but they doubted they’d arrive here on time. If they waited, Fargo and the others could be gone.
Anyway, they watched a handful of weaker mercenaries and Terran died early on in the mob, while the rest of them managed to fight back.
This was not surprising. After all, most of the people who managed to get enough energy and strength to come with Fargo were all relatively high-leveled men. This meant that the mob could be dealt with with ease.
By the time the mob was cleared, another handful had perished, leaving several men gasping for air before continuing on their way to a town, heading towards a place called Basset Town.
This was apparently one of the nearby bases of the Rongo Mercenary Team, and Garan recognized the place because he bought an updated map from Oslo. They had apparently gone through the town heading back to Altera. This also meant… that the place wasn’t very far.
They noted this and listened for more information, but then they realized Fargo was heading where they were! In the end, they stayed put and waited for them to approach, ready for battle at any time.
But then one of the men started to badmouth a woman—a woman who could only be sister-in-law! It wasn’t a surprise that the captain just beheaded the guy without another word, preventing him from desecrating sister-on-law’s name.
Mao cleared his throat and appeared, crossing his arms and looking quite smug.
"Funny of you to decide to throw yourselves in our paths," he said. He looked arrogant but his eyes assessed their enemies closer. Except for Fargo and a few others, the rest were very injured.
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