Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 293: Day 7

Chapter 293: Day 7

The next day dawned clear and bright. The group, rested and ready, began their preparations. Kazi had Remmy train up Kibiwott on how to deal with an archer. That meant Kazi had to pick up the slack in terms of destroying nests and planting traps. Not an issue since his mind and body worked at super speeds.

"Oh." Suddenly, he slowed down. It was Pauline, glancing at her surroundings anxiously. Summoning up a smile, he appeared from a tree and waved at her. "Pauline! You alright?"

His presence made her brighten up. "O-oh, you’re here. I was searching for you." Since Pauline was bad at making traps, he told her to stay at the village and protect it.

"What’s up?" Kazi went ahead and opened up his inventory. The wooden wire trap was an on-the-fly invention that he created and, admittedly, the same as a thin wooden plank. The only difference lay in its usage.

Pauline hesitated for a moment before speaking. "I had something to ask, that’s all."

"Uh-huh, go ahead."

"Shouldn...should we not send someone with Kibiwott?"

Kazi jumped to the top of the tree, not immediately responding. Adjusting its placement, he asked. "Why’s that?"

Pauline hesitated again, gathering her thoughts for her explanation. "Well... you said the Archer taught the Fating’ho, right? And that the Archer killed the pack leader and blamed it on you. S-so there’s a good chance that the Fating’ho are still loyal to the Archer."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Kazi’s lips. "You have a good head on your shoulders, Pauline, but sometimes, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do."

Pauline tilted her head, not understanding in the slightest.

"It’s a joke, sort of," Kazi explained, leaping to the other side. "What I’m trying to say is that Kibiwott is hungry for XP. He has a dream and, even though he follows my orders, he does it out of obligation. If you want respect, you need to cater to the needs of your best people."

Pauline frowned, still unsure. "But what if he gets hurt? Or worse?"

Kazi jumped down, finished with the wire trap. "Don’t worry, I’ll be there. If I sense too many of them, I’ll abort the mission."

"And if reinforcements are called?"

"They won’t be."

"How do you know?"

"Because I trust Kibiwott will kill the Archer before that happens. In battle, there’s never a guarantee. There’s always something that is going to make you anxious. That doesn’t mean you should stop. And if you can’t believe in yourself, believe in your comrades. You’ll realize just how amazing they can be."

***

"You ready?"

"Yes."

Night time had not yet settled. The world was in a haze of orange, the sun setting but the moon not yet rising. Remmy was able to drill into Kibiwott the amateur habits of archers. He figured that since the Archer was fighting from so far away, it was not confident in close range. Many archers were like that. To compensate, they trained their legs to be able to dodge, jump, and weave. For a dweller in the woodlands, there was a higher chance of incredible running speed rather than parkour or anything of that sort.

In that case, Kibiwott would need to learn to throw his sword and to dodge arrows during a chase. Kibiwott managed to learn the first part but the second was difficult. Kazi had to heal him thirty-nine separate times from the thirty-nine arrows that Remmy managed to hit him with.

Kazi was already sitting with his legs-crossed. For half an hour, he had been searching.

"Anyone want gum?" Emma asked.

"I’ll take one," Sylvia said.

"Me too," Jackson added.

Searching, searching, searching...

"Still nothing?" Kibiwott asked.

The woodlands were a frightfully vast area. The lesser the light, the greater the monsters. Soon, night began to fall. Kazi took a long, deep breath, hands resting on his knees. He opened and closed his eyes and focused, reaching out with the utmost limit of his senses to locate the Archer. The ambient mana in the forest pulsed softly. Slowly but surely, he discovered the hidden stone partridges underground.

’They sleep underground as literal stone pebbles. No wonder I couldn’t find them before.’

The other players began to come around. Foots were tapping. Anxiety was spreading.

"I knew it," said Sylvia. "I knew we should have sent him earlier."

"If we did that, he would have died immediately. He needed the training," Remmy said.

"Or we could have ganged up on him!"

"And leave the village defenseless and without traps?" Jackson retorted.

"The Fating’ho are not nocturnal," Kazi stated, eyes still closed. "So regardless of if the Archer is human or not, if we tried fighting in the day, it would mean more disadvantages for us. The Archer is comfortable, has a complete viewpoint of our location from roughly four kilometers away, and can call for back-up with ease. At night, we’re on even ground. The arrows are harder for us to see, yes, but on the flip side, our bodies are harder for the Archer to see and the Fating’ho are going to take longer to come as back-up for the Archer."

The southern man scoffed. "That’s still a big fucking gamble."

"I was training blindfolded. I’ll be fine," said Kibiwott.

Gradually, Kazi felt a focused point of hostility and precision, something quite like the Fating’ho yet not.

Hrn. Not four kiloemters, five kilometers. Its mana levels were stronger and more denser. He couldn’t make out a shape but he didn’t need to.

"I’ve got the Archer’s location," Kazi said, opening his eyes. "Northeast, about five kilometers. It’s moving slowly. It’s alone. I think it’s coming here too."

Kibiwott equipped his sword. "I’m on it."

Kazi watched as Kibiwott sprinted into the woodlands, his form quickly swallowed by the darkness. The hope was that he would return in half an hour. The time to ambush them was soon. Without Kibiwott, taking down the stone partridges was going to be tough.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.