The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 362

Chapter 362: Alexis Outdoors
Princess Alexis stopped as the last of her expanded team entered the woods.

She had planned to escape and go hunting with just her Royal Guard, but she had managed to attract a few Royal Guards from each of the delegations, as well as a few officers from the armies, and a mute hunter, who had his tongue cut out at some point in the past and only communicated with the hand signal gestures.

[Bugbears, one kilometre ahead, see the traces?] He signalled.

Alexis smiled and gestured for everyone else to be silent.

Bugbears were somewhat intelligent, surely as intelligent as Hobgoblins, and they operated in packs. But they were also capable of making their own weapons. Unfortunately, they were also incredibly aggressive, and liked to eat humans.

Unlike the Trolls, they weren’t anything that could be negotiated with.

Looking like the uglier cousin of a Hobgoblin and a dire bear, they walked upright, but their build wasn’t quite right for it, and they were nearly completely covered in fur, except for the wide flat skulls that always reminded her of a Hobgoblin that had been kicked in the face.

The team readied rifles and checked their swords, while the three Royal Guards from the Princes teams moved forward with their shields raised.

Unlike Alexis’s team, they didn’t have magitech rifles. They would fight up close when the battle started, but as much as Alexis wanted a good fight, she knew better than to skip the ranged attacks.

If they damaged their gear now, they would have to go home early.

The sound of the Bugbear camp became clear as the approached, and Alexis called everyone to a halt as she listened to their conversation. She didn’t speak bugbear, but the sound of excitement was universal, and they were making plans to do something.

There was only one thing that could get them that excited in the area, it had to be the scouting teams that they were targeting.

[Move forward and engage.] She signalled.

Moving silently, the team rushed forward, and Alexis raised her rifle to her shoulder.

The leader of the tribe was a larger than average Bugbear wearing what appeared to be Dagos army uniform pants with bones tied into the fur on his chest.

That was her first target, and Alexis stopped running to get a good shot.

The crack of her rifle shot was the signal for the other riflemen, and a dozen Bugbears fell in a few seconds before the others could react.

Arrows raced their way in return as the tribe howled in rage as they charged at the intruders.

They had gotten too close by the time that they had a good shot, so the Royal Guard switched to pistols to get a few more shots off before they changed to sword and shield.

The hunter retreated to the back of the team and pulled himself up into a tree so he could shoot over the melee.

The tribe was larger than it had looked, and more were appearing by the second.

“Find where they are coming from!” Alexis directed.

“Got it. They’ve dug nests underground. Fresh dirt near where they’re appearing.” Colonel Wilkes called.

[Ten den holes.] The hunter signed, but nobody could see him, and he sighed in frustration.

What good was knowing how to communicate silently if nobody could see you doing it?

But he could see them from his tree perch, and if he kept shooting, everyone else would figure it out.

They wouldn’t be in the forest itself, only in the large clearing, where the bugbears didn’t have to dig through a web of roots. Their tools tended to be primitive, and solid stone or tangled roots would make it difficult for them to establish a long-term camp.

Alexis drew her sword and equipped her shield to move to the front line.

A muttered prayer brought glowing golden light to her blade, and she sliced deep into the shoulder of a Bugbear that was going for the soldier on her right.

“Damn, these things are tough.” One of the officers complained.

“Do you not have a proper weapon?” Someone shouted back.

“Shut up. It’s a level five Uncommon blade. It’s fine.”

Alexis laughed as she parried a stone axe.

The soldier wasn’t wrong. That was a good weapon for an average officer. But not even close to the standard of the gear that the Royal Guards had.

The spell gem on her necklace glowed as Alexis activated [Holy Slash] and cleaved a Bugbear in half with a single strike.

With the physical enhancement spell gems that everyone had, the advantage the Bugbears had in physique was minimal, and they couldn’t simply smash the Paladins to the ground.

Plus, they had to fight through [Consecrated Ground], which was burning their fur and weakening their legs with every step.

“Push forward. Shield slam Pattern Three.” Alexis ordered.

The Royal Guard charged two steps forward into the Bugbears, slamming shields into the monsters’ chests, then slicing low with their blades, under the shields.

Unable to defend, a whole row of Bugbears were cut down, and the tribe was thrown into chaos as the Royal Guards were given room to spread out and engage.

The survivors of the tribe were fleeing now, exiting the burrows to escape the fight.

With most of their warriors gone, the tribe should retreat from the town, and wouldn’t be a threat for some time. But they might have had something on them that would give a hint as to whether they had been gathered by the Dagos aligned mages, or whether they were a wild nomadic tribe.

“Princess, I’ve found it. A communication token and a map. They were definitely brought here and told to stay.” Ella called.

“That was fast.”

The Guardswoman smirked. “The first ones we attacked, the ones who were arguing, had it laid out on the ground between them. We trampled it a little, but it’s still mostly readable. I will try to clean it up some. Perhaps we can find out who gave it to them, and when they were planning to return.”

That was a big “Maybe.” But it was better than nothing.