Arcane splendor begins with the throne

Chapter 56 Hunting Ogres

The night was dark, with a half-cold moon hidden in jagged clouds.

Bryan followed Torviel's footsteps, walking in the rugged bushes, surrounded by shadowy trees and knee-high grass, so that the road was hazy and difficult to distinguish.

In the depths of the dark woods, occasionally some kind of creature whimpers in pain, as if its life is in its final dying struggle, or a few strange bird calls, making this wild forest even more eerie.

Aware of Toviel's gradual slowing down, Brian approached quietly. He reached out and brushed aside a vine protruding from the shadow of the treetops, and said softly, "Do I need to give you light?"

Torviel's whole body was wrapped in a forest-colored cloak, and in the dark forest shrouded in night, he looked like an erratic ghost.

The reason why Brian was able to spot her was not because he was close to her, but because of the faint smell of mint grass that Toviel exuded.

This smell was like a woman's perfume, lingering in his nostrils from beginning to end, allowing him to easily lock her position even if he closed his eyes.

Otherwise, in this pitch black night, if the two are far apart, it is very easy to lose track of them.

As an experienced adventurer, Brian knew very well that if he cast lighting spells in this dangerous forest, it would undoubtedly attract the attention of many evil creatures.

But the two had walked for nearly an hour in the grove where he had almost lost his sense of direction since they left the elf camp. He was a little worried that the female ranger would lose the ogre due to some negligence.

After all, in the previous battle with the wolf, the opponent's combat performance was almost like a novice.

If she hadn't been able to bring herself here unimpeded all the way, Brian would have labeled her as a 'novice' long ago.

In this regard, Brian can only think that the female ranger in front of him is a qualified tracker, not a hunter.

In fact, Brian also knew very well that tracking prey at night was not as simple as imagined, otherwise he would not have left this tricky job to the female ranger in front of him.

However, fortunately, from the current point of view, whether it is the messy trampling marks on the grass on the ground by Torviel, the footprints on the soft ground, and the faint smell of blood in the air.Her judgment can be called a qualified ranger, even if he is allowed to do it, it may not be better than the other party.

Therefore, he believes that when necessary, lighting up a little light in the dark night can still play a vital role in tracking.

Although this could easily lead to disaster, compared to the value of the ogre wizard, Brian felt that it was worth it.

Upon hearing this, Toviel stopped in her tracks.

She reached out and stroked some strands of hair that were wet with mist on her forehead, turned to Brian and shook her head gently, signaling him to be silent.

Then he pursed his lips tightly, held his breath, and stared intently at the bushes about [-] meters ahead.

Brian noticed that the female ranger in front of him was frowning and her expression was serious, so he kept silent with interest, and looked at the blurred outline of the bushes against the pale moonlight with her.

He saw pairs of green or scarlet vertical pupils flashing in the gap between the trees, as if they were quietly dormant, and he even heard the sound of some kind of predator approaching the dense bushes. Rustle.

Brian didn't care, because he was still very confident in his stealth skills, and he wasn't worried about those hunters, who could find the hidden figures of the two.

Not long after, the bushes made a creaking sound, and Brian's expression moved, and he instantly judged that it was the sound made by a small branch being trampled off.

Immediately afterwards, on the treetop above his head, an owl made an angry and noisy cooing sound, and several nightingales nearby also flew up, flapped their wings, showed their taupe feathers, and disappeared into the night.

Looking at the change in front, Toviel subconsciously glanced at Brian, and secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

She straightened the old, smooth leather gauntlet on her left forearm, and was about to reach behind her back and draw a sharp arrow from her quiver.

However, just as she raised her left hand, she suddenly felt that her wrist was tightly clasped, as strong as iron tongs.

Torvel looked at Brian next to him in confusion and blinked at him in confusion.

"Don't act rashly, let's follow along and see where this cunning ogre wizard's lair is." Brian suggested to the female ranger in a low, inaudible voice.

Seeing the other party nodded subconsciously, Brian let go of her wrist.

"Doing this...would it be too dangerous?" Toviel hesitated for a moment, approached Brian, and asked softly.

When the other party asked if she needed spell lighting, she faintly felt a hint of impatience in the tone of the half-elf in front of her when she spoke.

It meant that he had doubted his tracking skills a little, which made her feel very uneasy, worried that her mistakes would leave a bad impression on the other party.

Now, she finally found the trace of the ogre wizard and was about to hunt him down, but the other party suddenly proposed to follow the ogre's lair.

Such a dangerous move made her feel uneasy inexplicably.

Bryan smiled, briefly and without warning, and then said confidently: "Don't worry, nothing will happen."

In fact, he originally thought that under the tracking of Torviel, the two of them would find the ogre's lair directly.

Who would have thought that after following all the way, until the scene he found in the bush just now, he realized that this ogre wizard was still on the way to escape.

It can be seen from this that although the ogre wizard killed the three elf rangers, he must have suffered injuries of varying degrees, which allowed them to catch up.

If not, this stupid big man would not have been robbed of the spoils by a group of small-scale wargs.

Therefore, Brian didn't intend to kill the ogre on the way, but wanted to follow behind and find the ogre's lair.

After all, evil humanoid creatures like ogres, in the wild forest, due to their irritable and irritable character, it is difficult to live a group life like other humanoid creatures.

At most, he could live with his spouse and children, so he didn't have to worry about encountering hordes of ogres.

Moreover, an adult ogre's biological level is at least around level 5, and the experience of killing an ogre is much more cost-effective than a pack of wolves.

Killing one is killing, and killing two is also killing. Naturally, Brian doesn't want to give up this opportunity to gain a lot of experience.

Toviel secretly glanced at Brian, seeing his confident expression, for some reason, her slightly uneasy heart quickly calmed down.

So she quickly focused on the traces left by the ogre wizard, while Brian stood behind him, keeping quiet and waiting patiently.

Toviel was not in a hurry to set off, but lowered his eyes, recalling the nearby terrain, the density of the jungle, and the few stretches of low mountains that he might pass through in his mind.

Soon, Toviel, who had already memorized the escape route of the ogre wizard, immediately judged the approximate location of this evil creature's lair.

So she turned her head and showed a slight smile to Brian, then quickly withdrew her smile, signaled him to follow her with her eyes, and chased forward cautiously.

This time, Brian clearly felt that Toviel's speed had increased a lot.

Bryan and Toviel didn't go far, and the nightingales behind them flew back again, making melodious chirps at night.

The two tracked down the ogre's trail and moved forward along the jungle, crossing a swamp and spring connected to a stream, and several rolling low mountains gradually emerged from the darkness.

At the same time, Brian found a cave glowing with fire at the bottom of the hill directly opposite him.

Obviously, that cave is the ogre's lair.

In this way, the two cautiously approached the cave in the dark.

In a bush not far from the cave, Brian, who was crouching on the ground, stretched out his hand and gently brushed aside the bushes, looking in the direction of the fire.

Vaguely, he also heard the roar of the ogre coming from the cave. This sound was not caused by the irritable temperament of the ogre, but more like an instinctive roar due to pain.

Moreover, from the intermittent voice, Brian also judged that there were only two ogres living in the cave, which made him both rejoiced and a little disappointed.

Brian and Torviel were not in a hurry to attack, but hid in the bushes, like experienced hunters, patiently waiting for the arrival of their prey.

Not long after, in the bright light filled by the bonfire outside the cave, a huge and hideous black shadow was projected on the ground.

Accompanied by the sound of panting from time to time in the cave, Brian saw a fat figure over 10 feet tall wandering out of the cave and walking towards a bony skeleton outside the cave.

Through the bright firelight, Bryan saw an ogre appearing in the line of sight of the two men.

Under the ogre's long, disheveled, greasy black hair was a ferocious face covered with jet-black fangs, and his shirtless skin was pale blue.

Most importantly, this ogre has a pair of protruding milky white short horns on its forehead.

From the pair of short horns, Brian judged that this ogre was the ogre wizard who killed the three elf rangers, because this represented the symbol of the ogre's ability to cast spells.

Although the ogre is a very stupid evil race, very few ogres can count from one to ten even with their hands in front of their eyes.

But it is in this stupid race that ogre wizards, a subspecies that are quite dangerous to any race, occasionally appear.

Ogre wizards are the smartest, most greedy and brutal subspecies of the ogre tribe.

Not only do they have strong physique and strength, but they can also fight with the magic-like abilities awakened by their own blood. They belong to Blackman, one of the most difficult evil creatures to deal with in this wild forest.

However, facing the ogre wizard in front of him, Brian was not worried at all.

Because on the light blue skin of the ogre, he found five or six blood holes left by sharp arrows, and two of them were inserted too deep, causing the arrows to break directly inside.

In other words, the ogre wizard that Brian was about to face had already suffered serious injuries from the previous battle.

He was even able to infer that the spell-like spells mastered by the ogre wizard were likely to be exhausted in the previous battle.

Otherwise, even if this grumpy guy had a slight chance to cast a spell, he wouldn't be driven away by a group of wolves.

The only thing that made Brian feel pity was that apart from the blood holes left by the arrows, there were also many bloodstains on the ogre wizard's light blue skin.

This made Brian, who planned to use the ogre wizard's skin to make magic equipment, very depressed.

However, Brian understood that now was not the time to think about it.

Thinking of this, he turned his head and explained to Toviel next to him: "Stay here and don't move around, I'll deal with them."

"Could it be that I can't help a little?" Toviel heard the words, clenched the longbow in his hand, frowned and asked, with a bit of dissatisfaction in his tone.

"Ogre wizards are very powerful." Brian pondered for a while, then found an excuse, and said, "Besides, such a dangerous battle is not suitable..."

"You want to say that it's not suitable for women, right?" Toviel suddenly looked at Brian stubbornly, she threw back her long black hair that fell on her shoulders, and said:
"Although I am a young female elf, I wear a wolf fur coat instead of soft rabbit fur. You don't know me at all, so don't think I am a coward."

"..." Bryan looked at her helplessly, and said, "Forget it, then follow up, and don't shoot arrows at me during the battle."

In fact, Toviel really misunderstood what he meant. What he actually wanted to say was that it was not suitable for a ranger like her who did not have the ability to cast spells.

However, at this moment, he was too lazy to explain to the other party.

With the addition of the female ranger, although his battle will be relatively easier, he will also face the risk of being robbed of his head and losing experience, so he can only be extra careful.

Afterwards, Brian watched the ogre wizard dragging his seriously injured body towards a skeleton on the ground, while thinking about how to deal with the ogre wizard in his mind.

After thinking for a while, he made a gesture towards Toviel beside him, and the two of them immediately took advantage of the night to move silently towards the ogre wizard.

The moment the ogre wizard walked up to the skeleton, Brian's figure suddenly jumped out of the dark night and rushed straight towards him.

Looking at the black shadow that suddenly appeared, the ogre wizard looked startled, and instinctively raised the skeleton on the ground to block him.

——"One-ring spell: colorful spray!"

Accompanied by a few whispers, Brian's fingertips suddenly burst into a dazzling light, covering the unprepared ogre wizard.

The ogre wizard wailed in pain because of the stinging eyes. He threw away the useless bones, covered his eyes with palms the size of cattail fans, and subconsciously turned and ran towards the cave.

Naturally, Brian would not let go of this opportunity. With his vigorous figure, he charged forward and blocked the path of the ogre wizard who was temporarily blind.

Then he jumped up, and when he was at the same height as the ogre wizard's burly body, he drew out the sharp sword at his waist like lightning, and with a precise slash, he directly tore open his bucket-thick throat.

When the ogre wizard looked down, the sharp blade had already drawn a painful bloodstain on his throat, and scarlet blood spattered out.

The huge body of the ogre wizard fell heavily to the ground, and died soon after.

"Roar!"

Just then, an almost primitive roar came from the cave.

An ogre dressed in animal skins and covered in all kinds of terrifying accessories picked up a stone javelin, wrapped in a disgusting stench, and moved towards Brian, who had just landed, violently. Rushed forward.

"call out!"

The stone javelin ripped through the air, aiming for Bryan's back.

Brian, who knew he couldn't dodge it, activated the "Mage Armor" prepared by the arcane with a thought.

A nearly invisible protective force field instantly covered his whole body, successfully helping him block the fatal blow of the javelin.

However, this violent ogre had already taken advantage of Brian's opportunity to block the javelin and was about to charge close.

The female ranger Tovel, who had been waiting for a long time, saw the right opportunity, calmly aimed at one of the ogre's eyes, and instantly released her fingers from holding the bowstring.

"Pfft!"

With strong force, the sharp triangular arrow accurately shot the ogre's right eye.

Specially made arrowheads spin deep like screws, destroying muscle tissue, severing blood vessels, and shattering bone.

The charging ogre felt a heart-piercing pain in his eye sockets. He ignored the approaching Brian, grabbed the sharp arrow that had sunk deeply into his eye sockets, and tried to pull it out.

——"One-ring spell: Lesser Flame Ball!"

Brian turned around quickly, and a ball of flames shining with white light emerged in his palm, dragging a slender tail flame, and smashed towards the howling ogre.

The moment the flame ball hit the ogre, the hot flame spread all over his body at an extremely fast speed, licking his thick and strong body.

The ogre wrapped in orange flames wailed and fell to the ground, the scorching smell filled the surrounding air.

(End of this chapter)