Savage Forest - Chapter 127.1
The rain, which had seemed to pause for a moment, was now pouring down viciously as if determined to flood the entire world.
The whole of Nervana forest was groaning in the rain.
Cugnac was kneeling on the wide rock, his limbs bound, unable to move.
“D*mmit…”
As blood trickled from the broken skin of his lips, his body was bound, leaving him completely immobile.
Cugnac’s sharp gaze swept over the grim scene before him.
Ever since Tarhan and Enya had fallen beneath the waterfall, everything had taken a grim turn. He then shut his eyes tightly as he remembered the terrifying events.
‘How did it come to this…?’
Cugnac’s mind drifted back in time.
It happened when Tarhan, leading Cugnac and the other young men of Nervana, reached the base of the waterfall. The enormous tree that had fallen across the wide rock, pinning several soldiers beneath it, was already a grim omen.
But the real danger lay beyond the other side of that tree.
Amidst the heavy rain, he spotted the shadows of three figures locked in a fierce battle near the edge of the cliff. His eyes immediately darted toward Tarhan.
Tarhan was already rushing toward the edge.
“No, Tarhan!”
Naturally, Cugnac, Zechariah, and Leroi tried to stop him. But even with the strength of three sturdy Nervana men, they couldn’t overpower the man.
‘No matter who he is, if he leaps from that cliff, he’s dead!’
He had a gut feeling that the man would die. However, his expectations were shattered when he saw Tarhan calmly weaving together vines around the cliffside, descending toward the waterfall below. At the same time, he was stunned.
‘He still has the presence of mind to think logically…’
But then, as he looked at Tarhan’s expression, he realized that Tarhan was far from being in a rational state.
He was acting purely on instinct, a reflex honed by life’s relentless lessons. There was no logical thought functioning in Tarhan at that moment. Without hesitation, his body moved swiftly, descending the cliff until he disappeared from Cugnac’s view.
The group stood frozen in shock, staring at the spot where Tarhan had vanished. By the time they finally regained their senses and began to consider how to resolve the situation, it was already too late.
The surroundings were too dark, and the pouring rain made it impossible to see even a step ahead.
Whoosh!
Arrows flew from all directions.
“Anyone who wants to live, drop your weapons and raise your hands! I repeat! Drop your weapons!”
It took a moment for Cugnac to realize that the group gathered on the wide rock had already been overtaken by a new force.
* * *
Back in the present, Cugnac’s gaze focused forward. At the end of his line of sight, a redhead, nearly brown from the soaked rain, could be seen.
‘Perugia’s Avisak.’
Cugnac muttered a quiet curse under his breath, using a familiar Nervana-style curse before he scanned his surroundings.
As expected, it was a complete mess.
German’s forces, who had been stationed on the wide rock, were almost completely wiped out.
Cugnac clicked his tongue as he looked at Gernan, who was passed out in a ridiculous position far off in the distance.
‘What a pitiful sight until the end.’
The woman, Silanda, who had caused Gernan to end up like this, was undoubtedly somewhere nearby, bound and tied up as well. He soon noticed Reyhald, who was sprawled out somewhere nearby, still unconscious.
It was typical of that fool, and it didn’t surprise him at all.
Yaru’s group had also been defeated in the same way.
When Cugnac, Leroi, and Zechariah had arrived, they, too, had been bound and captured by that cunning red-haired woman.
Perugia’s forces, led by Avisak, had been lying in wait, watching for the perfect opportunity. When Gernan’s forces took Enya’s group as hostages and began their duel with Yaru’s forces, Avisak’s group refrained from intervening.
It wasn’t until Servia threw a spear at Senu and knocked him off the cliff and after Tarhan had descended that they finally made their move.
The result had been a resounding victory for Avisak.
“Hey, boy.”
A voice calling Cugnac broke his thoughts. He turned his head, already guessing who it was. After all, there weren’t many people around here who would dare call him ‘boy.’
As expected, a familiar face was staring at him.
Yaru, with a wound on her cheek.
Next to her, he could see her partner, Nihitan, and Aquilea’s Rigata, both tied up as well.
“Yaru. What happened? You’re not the type to end up tied up like this.”
Cugnac grumbled with a hint of mockery.
He had known Yaru since her younger days. Though her face looked youthful, like a girl’s, he knew she was much older than that. Cugnac, who had admired her as a child, was now quite disappointed to see her so helplessly bound.
“Cugnac. Watch your mouth.”
He heard Nihitan’s quiet warning from beside her.
Cugnac immediately fell silent.
Though he was raised as the leader of the next generation of men, he was still in front of Yaru and Nihitan, just like a child.
Yaru snorted in frustration.
“That red-haired woman has the anti-magic stone she stole from Aquilea. That’s why Perugia’s army has been hiding around the wide rock, and we never noticed. The movements of the monsters around them were subtle, and we couldn’t sense them.”
Her sharp senses usually allowed her to detect monster movements and changes in the forest with ease. But this time, the anti-magic stone that Perugia’s army carried prevented them from detecting anything.
As a result, the main forces of Nervana Forest had fallen victim to Perugia’s army.
“Kasar, that bastard.”
Yaru muttered angrily to Nihitan.
“I knew they’d try to save themselves and back out. They call themselves desert warriors, but damn, the habits of Garganta’s slave traders are impossible to shake off.”