“What happened to them?”
Eritrea showed the letter in the palm of her hand. “They were ambushed by mountain lions in the deep hours of the night.”
Asher’s eyebrows furrowed even further. Without those soldiers at the mountaintop, they would be blinded to an incoming wave of beasts. That would prove catastrophic, as Silverleaf might fall and he would lose a good portion of his men and maybe his own life.
Eritrea went on one knee.
“I request to go rescue them.”
Asher looked down at her.
“Take 10 rangers with you.”
“Mn,”Eritrea nodded.
She stood up, turned, and left with large strides.
…..
Wu~
Wu~
The cold wind caused Eritrea’s coat to flutter. She held onto the mountain and looked down. Below her were 10 other rangers, and they were about 400 feet high!
Sweat beads coated her forehead, and she bit her lower lip. After checking the state of her rangers, she continued her climb until she got to the mountaintop, and with a soft grunt, she lifted herself to the flat top, breathing heavily.
Not long after, the 10 rangers appeared at the top.
Grr!
Eritrea swiftly nocked her bow and aimed in the direction she heard that cat-like noise. Not even a minute later, a mountain lioness walked out from behind the tower. She looked bony, a visible sign of her days spent without food.
Upon seeing them, the mountain lioness licked her lips.
Following the mountain lioness were 15 other lionesses, prowling in the uneven mountain top. The first lioness dashed toward the rangers, causing Eritrea to unleash an arrow that struck the lioness right in the eye!
Other lionesses dashed out. Five rangers went on one knee and positioned their bows horizontally, while the other five stood behind them with their bows vertically positioned.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Their arrows moved like white phantoms as they tore through the air. The force of one arrow took a lioness’ forelegs off the ground, as right at that moment, three more pierced its abdomen, causing it to tumble backward and fall.
The moment a ranger shot an arrow, she would swiftly nock the second one, aim, and fire. Bronstrike rangers specialized in aiming. They were built to deliver sure kills, not aimless firing in hopes of a kill.
While this style would normally make an archer inefficient in a massive battle, the bonstrike rangers were an exception. They had mastered this art to the extent that one bonstrike ranger could launch 30 arrows in a minute at their peak state!
But to achieve this, a bone-strike ranger had to become a marksman, which was the knight version of a sharpshooter.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Before the rangers could kill the fourth lioness, Eritrea had killed eleven and even delivered the killing blow to the fourth lioness the other rangers wanted to kill.
The mountain lionesses had thick skins; their skins were so strong that a casual arrow wouldn’t go deep, which was why the rangers had a tough time, but Eritrea’s arrowheads were of the gold rank, so each of her arrows pierced through their thick skins, and yet Eritrea wasn’t satisfied with killing them with one arrow.
For this reason, all the lionesses she killed had about four or five arrow holes in their bodies.
She approached the tower and discovered the rangers were not inside; instead, it was another lioness.
Grr!
It lunged at her almost immediately. Eritrea swung her bow at the Lioness, and it pierced through the Lioness’s neck!
The impact stopped the lioness midair, and it fell on her.
Thud!
A small dust fog rose up, and a grunt rang from within. Other rangers ran in and pushed the lioness off Eritrea before helping her stand up.
“You killed a silver-ranked beast at such close range.” A ranger gasped.
Eritrea simply patted her body, checked her bow, and turned to distance.
“Spread out and search for them. We need to return before nightfall.”
After saying that, she moved out alone while the others went in pairs. While searching the mountain, Eritrea found a cave. At the mouth of the cave, she squatted and gazed at the deep human-sized footprints on the snow.
Squinting, she looked into the cave.
‘They should be in there.’
….
Eritrea was shocked to discover that the cave was just the mouth to a big cavern that even had stalagmites that twinkled softly. Cold kept disappearing the deeper she went.
After a while, she heard sounds of fighting and dashed toward the location. By the time she arrived, Eritrea found the two rangers they were searching for fighting against a cave lion pride.
Cave lions were rare beasts with an aggressive temper and dangerous fangs. Two canines protruded downward, and another two went upward.
One bite was all a cave lion needed to kill a human.
Upon seeing her rangers fighting for their lives, Eritrea picked an arrow from the quiver strapped to her waist, stepped on the wall, and leaped over them. Midair, she released three arrows at once, and as she landed, she rolled backward, narrowly evading the claws of a lion!
The lion’s claws sank into the stone ground!
As Eritrea got to her knees, she had already nocked her bow with another three arrows!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
The lion and two lionesses that were about to lunge for her had arrowtails dancing on their foreheads as they slumped to the ground, ushering deep, dull sounds that echoed in the cavern.
Hu~
She breathed out.
“Commander!”
The rangers bowed as she got to her feet.
“Where’s your falcon?” Eritrea asked.
Both rangers lowered their heads.
Eritrea shook her head and led the rangers out of the cavern to the tower where other rangers had gathered.
“Commander, you found them.”
“I did.”
Eritrea looked at the darkening skies and continued walking toward the cliff.
At the cliff, she looked down with a solemn expression. Other rangers felt something was wrong, so they also went to the edge and saw the beasts prowling in the forests, heading toward Silverleaf Bastide.
“Are those…?”
“Carnivores.”
Eritrea replied in a solemn tone as the breeze whipped her hair about.
