Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 279 - 45 Fourth Night_1

Chapter 279: Chapter 45 Fourth Night_1

""See, she gets it." Pannis recoiled from Catherine’s beating, "This means the ending of the story is quite reasonable, ah, stop hitting me."

"You’re talking about the lifespan issue, right," Catherine said. "Elves’ lifespan is two thousand years, and humans only have one hundred years. The concept of time differs twenty times. Often, a brief moment in the Elves’ perception of time could actually be several decades."

"Go apologize to all the girls who yearn for romances between elves and humans, you jerk Pannis," Lina cursed angrily. "Give me back my teenage dreams, you damn guy."

"In a sense, the ending of this story is actually quite close to reality. It is said that the customs of the elves are indeed like this," Vivian added. Having heard many fairy tales or love stories during her bedridden period, she too had once been a daydreaming young girl and said somewhat regretfully. "But, beware of the elves who would be desperate to assassinate you over such a story. Hmm, the President of Antuin is an elf."

"Don’t worry, this story was originally created by the elves themselves, for self-deprecation." Pannis said unconcernedly, exuding nonchalance. "They’re singing it with such fervor and it expanded much farther than my version."

"Thank you, Mr. Pannis." Outside, everyone was having a good time, while Freya suddenly whispered in the carriage. "I’ll remember your words."

"Thank me for what, telling stories?" Pannis asked blankly. "And what advice, I didn’t say anything."

"Well, let’s just say it’s like that. Maybe, the seemingly perfect love isn’t so perfect after all. Perhaps, the perfect love may not be the kind of love suitable for oneself, or maybe, sticking to one’s own ideas and habits in love could often lead to a tragic ending, right?" Freya’s voice was a bit gloomy but not hopeless. "Mr. Pannis, not only are you the first man who dislikes me, but also the first person who tried waking me up from my dream. However it is, I’ll accept this goodwill."

"You’re overthinking it. I just told a story," Pannis shrugged and looked up at the sky. "It’s good weather today, perfect for sleeping. I’m out, time to go back and sleep."

Freya didn’t make a sound to stop Pannis from leaving. She just watched his retreating figure through the carriage window and softly said, "Big sister, you guys are so lucky to have such a kind team member."

"I also think we’re quite lucky." Catherine nodded, "Even though I can’t fully understand all the implications hidden in your dialogues, I want you to know, Freya that his words do sometimes make sense and he isn’t always joking around. So if you’ve understood something, I hope you would seriously consider it."

"I do need to give it serious thought." Freya was silent for a while before speaking, "Perhaps some things, I indeed did wrong. But since I’ve come this far, even if I’ve been wrong, I can only keep moving forward. Hopefully, he won’t disappoint me. As long as I can keep moving forward, I will definitely correct my previous mistakes."

"You should rest early. We have to continue our journey tomorrow." Catherine patted the carriage door as a parting gesture, "We’re off, goodnight."

As soon as she returned to her tent, she saw Ayrland discussing something quietly with Pannis. Upon getting closer, they appeared to be arguing about the action plan for the next day.

"Is there something special?" Catherine asked, "What are you arguing about?"

"Nothing." Pannis replied, "Captain Ayrland just proposed that we quicken our pace and reduce the number of scouts tomorrow. I don’t quite understand his reasons, so I’m asking."

"Tomorrow?" Catherine was stunned before realizing. "So, we have arrived at their territory."

"Who are they?" Pannis asked perplexingly, "Some special magical beasts?"

"Just a couple of armored bulls." Catherine answered without paying much attention, "Legendary rank armored bulls."

Armored bulls are a very distinct magical beast with unique features. They usually stand about one hundred and seventy centimeters high and approximately three meters long, with a horn protruding at the head and a thick chitinous skin covering the whole body, leaving out no weak spots except for the eyes. They are gentle in nature, rarely attacking humans, even when provoked by humans, they tend to avoid conflicts. But they prefer tranquility, and large noises might make them grumpy and irritable. Their mode of attack is straightforward — they use their horn and the heavy body, weighing over three thousand kilograms, to directly charge and trample over their enemies. The higher the rank, the stronger the impact. However, this is not their defining uniqueness. The truly special thing about them is despite being plant-eating magical beasts, they could advance to the legendary rank, which is an extremely rare case among magical beasts.

In reality, this species of magical beast is abundant, predominantly dwelling in the Beastmen Prairie with scarce presence elsewhere. Pannis never expected to see more than one in Rhea’s plains, let alone encroach upon their territory.

"Their presence is the reason why I suggested we speed up our pace," Ayrland explained. "We are already going quite fast, but since we don’t know how many more attacks will come, which may delay us in the coming days, I suggested we should press on as fast as possible. This area is the best place to save time."

"The territories of the armored bulls typically don’t host powerful magical beasts, or even many at all. Unlike humans, magical beasts cannot control their noise output, especially during hunts. This makes it difficult for other magical beasts to survive in the same territory as the Armored Bulls. Therefore, we need not worry about attacks from magical beasts as we traverse the Armored Bull’s territory," Ayrland detailed thoroughly, concerning Pannis might not understand the implications and would cause some trouble the next day. "We need not worry about attacks from humans either, unless they wish to perish alongside us. No one would be willing to launch an attack in the territory of the Armored Bulls, it is exceedingly perilous."

"But what if we get attacked by Armored Bulls themselves?" Pannis questioned.

"Armored bulls seldom attack humans on their own accord," Catherine explained on behalf of Ayrland, "Armored Bulls are an interesting species of magical beasts. They share quite a good relationship with humans. It is said that in the Beastmen Prairie, some beastmen tribes coexist with herds of Armored Bulls, who even tolerate the noise produced by these tribes. However, they remain suspicious of unfamiliar humans and will actively avoid and quietly observe them from their hiding place, never initiating an attack."

"No, you’re misunderstanding," Pannis shook his head, "I know assuredly that Armored Bulls are not provocative towards humans. However, do you recall an instance of a classic encounter from the Beastmen’s Prairie just 160 years ago?"

In the summer of the 3532nd year of the Continental Calendar, a minor disturbance spread across much of the Beastmen Prairie. Dozens of small to medium-sized tribes had minor friction which turned into a low-intensity local war. These types of local wars are in fact common on the Beastmen Prairies, they serve as a routine procedure for the tribes to develop their warriors. Every once in a while, they would create reasons to initiate war even when there were none.

In the early phase of that war, everything was going as per normal. The death toll of warriors was within the tribes acceptable casualty count. Hence, the Beastmen’s three major tribe alliances didn’t intervene, allowing the war to proceed naturally. This state of normalcy persisted until September of 3532.

That month, the war situation between two tribes that despised each other spiraled out of control. The struggle seemed on the brink of evolving from a local conflict into an all-out war. One of the tribes, supported by several friendly tribes, composed a collective force of 6,000 troops, geared towards directly attacking the opponent’s base on the Prairie, aiming to obliterate their hereditary enemy. The opposing tribe, which had only 2,000 individuals, could not resist this overwhelming allied force and suffered heavy losses. They had no choice but to temporarily evacuate their prairie. The tribe had dwindled to fewer than 800 members during their retreat.

On the third day after their departure, and while the mediators from the tribe alliance had not yet arrived due to the long-distance, four young people who had lost their homes and loved ones to the enemies, hatched a plan.

Three people infiltrated the enemy troop, while the fourth remained outside. Among the three infiltrators, two were quickly detected and killed, but a third managed to survive. One of those killed was dispatched by the hands of the survivor. Consequently, individuals from the strange opposing tribe didn’t suspect him of being an enemy agent; he was momentarily safe from exposure. Hence, the remnants of the 5,000-strong allied army unsuspectingly walked into the trap laid by four people, got too close to a habitation of Armored Bulls.

Tribe members on the Prairie were used to the presence of Armored Bulls. Sometimes, they hunted Gold-ranked Armored Bulls as emergency food and hence, were not wary of them. However, the person in the exterior, taking advantage of the Armored Bull’s characteristics to avoid strangers, meticulously calculated the angles and locations so as to artificially direct the Armored Bulls closer to the enemy’s troop.

Upon a certain proximity between the two, the infiltrated young warrior triggered a mechanical device on his person. The device was an ancient artifact excavated from the goblin ruins. It had a simple function of playing loud sounds, which equals to practically no use in normal times. But this unproductive cacophony was the death knell for the over 5,000 warriors bet during such a special time. The noise was deafening continuous, and the tribal members found it impossible to locate the source during their march. Irritated by the loud noise, the normally docile Armored Bulls turned into killer chariots and rushed upon the allied force, ringing in a deathly crumble.

What happened next is hard to describe properly, but the outcome was staggering. The 6,000 strong allied army suffered fewer than 500 casualties in the war but left over 4,000 corpses in the aftermath of the Armored Bull’s charge. Only a few hundred members had the luck to escape back to their tribe. This catastrophe led to the tribe’s rapid decline, and they were soon swallowed by the other tribes.

From that time on, this instance where four people faced 5,000 has been touted as a classic example of exploiting the environment, a case that has not been trumped to date.

"Are you saying that they might use a similar tactic?" Ayrland asked.

"It’s a possibility," Pannis replied, "We should always be prepared."

"The chances are low. They wouldn’t want to kill us. If they use this method to create chaos, we wouldn’t escape the attack of the two Legendary magical beasts considering our luggage," Catherine reasoned. "But we should not ignore Pannis’s worries, it’s better to be cautious."

"Alright then." Ayrland accepted everyone’s suggestion. "We will continue to march at the usual pace tomorrow, with additional scouts deployed to monitor the Armored Bulls’ movements." (To be continued. If you like this novel, please come to qidian.com to vote for it. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)