Chapter 118 – Smoke
Translated by Sunyancai
Every day, the five hunting groups would send people to check the situation of the giant pit. There was still no news of the three missing men from Cheng’s hunting group since.
The warrior checking on the giant pit would always observe from afar, as they did not have the chance to enter the caves of those bats. There were flying bats everywhere around the cave’s entrance, and it was a lot more than those around the crevices in the giant pit.
It had already been seven days. According to the people’s speculation, those three missing men had slim chances of survival. However, since it concerned the Fire Crystal, and that now it was a joint operation of five hunting groups, it was impossible for them to act impulsively without sufficient preparation. Or else it won’t be just three men that they lost. It probably would be three teams that went missing.
“A lot of prey was brought inside, but nothing could be seen to have been tossed out.” A scout from the giant pit said.
Those bats would never take away the things that they already chewed on. Besides, they had never finished eating any creature, because it was the blood that appealed to them. Once they finished draining out the blood, they would lose their interest in it.
During these seven days, Shao Xuan went to the giant pit together with the most experienced and excellent warriors. That was an even more careful mission.
Shao Xuan carefully checked a few spots, and he only found one place with the Fire Crystals buried close to the surface. They would have to dig deeper for the rest.
When they dug out the one that was near the surface, of course they disturbed those big bats and were chased after for some while.
However, oddly enough, this was not the same as the last time. If the warriors hadn’t created a diversion half-way, it would have been difficult to get rid of those bastards. But this time, Shao Xuan noticed that those bats gave up chasing after them after a short while. It seemed that the people in the hunting team were only minor issues in their minds, which was basically nothing.
Presumably, the big bats were slowly gathering together in the hill with that giant pit. All bats in the neighborhood came together gradually.
The good thing was that most of the bats were not smart, and they could only be considered as relatively-dangerous beasts.
Shao Xuan thought about making some big nets that could capture the bats. However, due to a lack of raw materials, he had to give up on that plan.
In the end, the five group leaders decided on a plan that they would use smoke.
There were only less than two hundred warriors if all five hunting groups were combined. However, in that hill with the giant pit, there were thousands of big bats. Moreover, based on the information that their scouts delivered, more and more bats were constantly joining the crew every day.
Well, not every bat was as giant as the one that they encountered inside the giant pit. Many of them were of the same size as the one that attacked Caesar.
It was easy to deal with one bat, but quantity was a serious issue that they had to handle.
Now, the target of the hunting team was to dig out more Fire Crystals and find those missing men. At the same time, they would love to try to avoid face-to-face combat with that bat army. No matter which target their priority was, they had to drive those bats away for some time. To smoke them away was obviously a smart move.
The people in the hunting team would often use some plants to make a smoke for their benefit, such as clearing out bugs and driving away animals. Well, this time, people planned to try to use smoke also.
They needed to carefully select the plants that they would use to make the smoke. They would be messing it up if the smoke they used harmed their teammates instead of hurting those bats.
The group leaders of the five hunting groups compared a few kinds of plants that they used for making the smoke, and selected the best ones.
“Those things are disgusted by that smell a lot. Yesterday, I tossed them a small ball of it, and they ran directly.” Lang Ga said with pride.
Yesterday, Lang Ga encountered a few bats which were hunting. They had almost succeeded, when Lang Ga threw a ball of smoking herbs at them. It landed near the prey, which had already lost its moving ability. It was not able to run or even move anymore. However, a moment earlier, the bats couldn’t wait to enjoy their feast, but once the smoke from the herb ball spread to the near surroundings, they immediately fluttered their wings while screaming. They disliked the smell of the herb ball very much.
“Excellent! Then we will have more chance in succeeding.” Said Mai.
Aside from choosing the right herb to make the smoke, they had to prepare for other herbs and medicines, in case that they got bitten and became paralyzed, or were harmed by the smoke. People could tolerate the smell, but it won’t be comfortable since they would be exposed to that smell for a long time.
Under Shao Xuan’s suggestion, people in the hunting team knit a kind of mask from vines with refreshing effects, so that they could wear them when entering the bat caves. The refreshing smell of the vines would help people stay sober, even in the thick smoke.
“Boss, when will we head out?” Someone asked as they were still in the first holdout. Now, every day, they needed to rob their food from those big bats. Many beasts and other animals had left the territory, and it was hard for warriors to find the right meat. In the meantime, they had to get the food before the bats did.
“Soon.” Said Cheng.
They had prepared the stone tools, the herbs, and other medicines that they would probably need. Now it was time for action.
Shao Xuan sat in a corner, listening to their talk about the coming mission. He looked at his hand, in which he held a tiny red crystal. It was dug up on their previous trip to the giant pit. There were two pieces of crystals near the surface, and both were not big. One was kept by Cheng, and the other smaller one was in Shao Xuan’s possession.
This little Fire Crystal was a little bigger than a rice, and it was much smaller than the first Fire Crystal that he dug up. Because of that, the other group leaders had no problem with Shao Xuan having this one in his possession. In their eyes, what was important were the ones still buried in the giant pit.
Feeling the heat from the palm, Shao Xuan became a bit confused. Mai and the others had said that the energy in Fire Crystals could only be absorbed after it was burnt in the flame. However, ever since he first held a Fire Crystal in his hand, he felt that he absorbed a little energy from it. It was not a lot, but it was obvious. This time, he wanted to make sure, so he asked to keep the smaller piece for himself.
In his sea of consciousness, he could see traces of red “threads” coming together to the totem, and then mixed with the totem. Even though the Fire Crystal was little, it contained far more energy than Shao Xuan had ever anticipated.
If he looked at it with his other view, Shao Xuan could see that the Fire Crystal in his hand was “burning”. The red energy from the flame would take a detour in the air, and then drill into his hands, arms, or other parts of his body, before it finally got merged into the totem itself.
……
Two days later, the five hunting groups began to march.
The work assignments had been made and people had their own task to be in charge of.
Shao Xuan followed Mai and some other warriors to a bat cave. They originally intended to go inside from the crevices in the giant pit, but the proposal was rejected because it was too hard to hide themselves around the giant pit. Moreover, the bats in that giant pit were much larger than elsewhere, and it would be easier for them to detect abnormal smell. Compared with that, the other bat caves in the hill would be a much easier access. Bats in there were simpler to handle, and the plants nearby offered them bunkers and shelters.
“The stone crevices and other caves in the hill should be connected with one another. Let’s go inside from one of the caves.” Mai spoke to his guys.
Everyone was wearing the face masks made by vines. It was not comfortable, but was quite practical. The mint-like scent of the vines calmed their impatience and anxiety.
After checking the direction of the wind, Mai indicated people to start the action.
Some people were hiding behind bushes and other plants, with grasses on their bodies, while the others approached the cave with smoking herbs.
They all had long thin spears in their hands, all made of wood. Balls of smoking herbs were tied on the spearheads.
They lit them up, and when the fire was burning, they put out the fire to let it smoulder, and thick smoke instantly rose above.
“Shoot!”
The long thin spears were thrown out. Like arrows flying out from the bows, they were shot towards the bat’s cave.
One shot after another, dozens of long spears, with balls of smoke herbs tied at the front, flew into the bat cave within a few breaths.
Soon, thick smoke rose from the bat cave.
They had taken the direction of the wind into consideration when choosing this bat cave. Right now, the wind was blowing inside.
Some of the smoke got out from the cave, while most of the smoke went inside.
Scree, scree, scree~~
Loud screams came out from the cave, and they were heard by Lang Ga and the others.
Seeing that the smoke began to fly out, people knew that that the bats inside were fluttering their wings.
The warriors, that threw the spears before, were ready.
Whoosh, whoosh…
One after another, bats quickly flew out from the cave, and there were hundreds of them in the blink of an eye.
The bats were not happy about being driven out from their caves. Some of them were screaming aloud. They looked around and saw a group of people standing there.
Screee!
Together with the sharp screams, those crazy bats flew towards the warriors that threw the spears earlier.
“Run!!”
The few warriors that did the throwing were the fastest among their peers. They saw the bats coming, and instantly started to run.
Along their direction of escape, there was a grey zone. In the past, Cheng took the hunting group there to show the area. They knew that a group of giant spiders were living in the gray zone. It was not in their hunting route. So normally, they wouldn’t be there. However now, they used those giant spiders.
They planned to lure the bats over there, so that they could fight with the giant spiders.
When large batches of bats chased after the people afar, warriors that were hiding behind the bushes came out and entered the cave. Before they went inside, they did not forget to throw more smoking herbs at the entrance of the cave.
Normally, in such a sunny day, with sunlight shining down on the ground, all those bats should be hiding deep inside the caves, resting. However, now it was totally different.
Some bats were already flying outside, while some of them just came out and chased after the warriors. The rest of them flew to the deeper part of the cave, so now there were only a few bats left.
They were not difficult to dealt with. Mai took a torch and put down the bats in the cave easily together with some other warriors. Those bats had big round eyes, but their eyes were not useful in that dark cave. They relied more on their good sense of smell and hearing.
The hunting team warriors wore thick leather shoes. Many warriors were not used to wearing shoes, but they were forced to put them on before the mission.
Thick layers of bat feces were covering the ground, in which there some small insects crawling around.
Puff!
Lang Ga speared a coming insect into two pieces. Frowning his eyebrows he said, “This place stinks!”
Mai said nothing, but led the others deeper into the cave, with a torch in his hand. When clearing out the bats, they would toss out some balls of smoking herbs.
Just like Mai and his companions, people in the other four hunting groups were entering different bat caves. They hurried in case of unforeseen changes.
All of them marched down quickly as they were putting up with the smelly scent in the cave together with the smoke of the smoking herbs. It was not smooth inside, with stones and rocks lying around everywhere. Some of them were very sharp. If there weren’t a torch lighting up the path, they wouldn’t have been able to move.
Before, people guessed that the stone crevices were connected to the other bat caves. Well, not for long, they heard the voices from the other hunting groups.
“As expected, they are all connected inside.”