With the exception of Ajax who managed to pierce the heads of two wolves, not one managed to kill one either. Still, they weren't useless either. Their strikes did manage to occasionally injure the wolves and keep them at bay, but if they were alone, they would have been overcome.
Fortunately for them, they had Raban and three other veterans helping them. While actively attacking and killing the wolves, they also advised the trainees. It was helpful, but not much for kids their age. They were more afraid of the wolves to be able to actively observe and learn, but still there was improvement, but not much.
"It is their first fight. A couple more and they will get used to it," thought Ajax as he saw his peers frightened.
Most newbies behaved the same in their first fight. However, much they sparred in training, the first time they came into an actual life or death fight, the fear kicks in. Some persist, some don't. But those who persist and decide to not give up almost always get used to it and rise to become adept fighters.
Though it was only a minute since the fight started, some were already showing signs of faltering. Glen had his spear stuck in a wolf's body while another jumped at him from the side. He was thrown down with both the wolf and him falling behind coaches as a loud yell escaped from mouth of Glen.
Being thrown on to the ground by the wolf, Glen was stunned and felt groggy. Luckily, with the wolf pressing down on his chest and the force of the fall, Glen felt the bitter taste of bile in his mouth roused him back.
Though he was surprised, he managed to pull his sword from the waist and push it through the neck. It only took a couple of seconds, for the wolf jumping on him and him killing it.
"Haha," he chuckled faintly, glad that he was still alive. He tried to pull the sword from its neck but he was tired and couldn't. Then he realized something much more serious. He noticed that he was stuck under the wolf. With a body which weighed close to 200 kg upon him and without a good grip, he could hardly push it away or move from underneath it.
It was the first point of failure. If they didn't react, there would be move wolves coming through the gap left by Glen.
As expected, a second later another wolf jumped through. It landed beside Glen. It had a look at its dead comrade lying upon the boy. It was the sword in its neck and then the boy stuck beneath it and unarmed.
As it lunged at him, it suddenly found two pairs of hands clasped around its jaws. Raban easily held its jaw open before it could bite, he quickly twisted its head breaking its neck and killing it. Then, he threw both the dead bodies at another wolf which was jumping through the gap left by Glen.
He pulled Glen up who was awestruck by the sudden rescue with his mouth ajar. Raban made a quick check and threw a pill in his mouth.
"You are fine. Just a bit tired," said Raban. "Follow me."
Raban went to the gap left by Glen and out. He pulled out the spear left by Glen from the body of a wolf. With three quick swipes, he frightened the wolves that wanted to come close.
"Continue the fight. You pushed it too deep into the wolf. Just swipe at them, frighten and hold them back," said Raban giving the spear back to Glen. "You don't need to kill. We four will do that."
After that, Raban jumped back onto the roof of a coach and everyone continued as before.
When Glen fell down, it wasn't just he was afraid. All the other trainees were afraid too and were concerned that they might be next. They also faltered and got stuck. If it weren't for Raban and other three experience hunters who managed to compensate for their lack of attention when the heard Glen's shout, there would have been more than one gap.
The trainees were quickly reprimanded before they continued to guard their position. Ajax was the only one who didn't turn back to look. He heard Raban moving towards Glen and let him handle it. He knew that if Raban wasn't fast enough to help Glen, none of them would be of much use either.
The fight was chaotic with each hunter fighting at least 3 opponents. These seasoned hunters had experience such odds before. Though hard and not at an advantage in numbers, they knew how to adapt and counter to such scenarios.
Their main advantage was that they were all much faster with better armor and weapons. Even though a couple of hits struck them, they didn't cut flesh and only caused slight bruises. But when their strikes and shots hit the bandits, one could always see the splash of blood. Still, they were not without problems.
The main problem that the hunters were having was to counter the bandit archers. These bandit archers ran around trying to take shots from their blind spots. These archers were managed to injure a few with their arrows sticking out from their limbs making it much hard and painful for them to move.
Ajax was also observing the whole thing from the coaches. Though he didn't have a high enough vantage point as Raban, he could get a decent view. At the start of the battle itself, he saw that the archers on their side had better equipment and were much faster able to easily kill wolves moving at a faster speed. In seconds, they killed more than 10 wolves, but after that their speed inexplicably reduced and weren't able to land head shots on the human bandits.
There was also a discrepancy on the side of the bandits. He could see that the bandit leader was still not moving from the wolf. The fog around the camp wasn't dispersed like they are hiding something else. There was also another man standing beside him watching the fight. These two were just standing there still as if they didn't care about the rest.
With his huge size and the big wolf beneath him, the leader could make a significant difference. But he stayed put and was calmly watching like if it was just some play happening in front of him.
Moreover, he could clearly see that all the bandits were barely early knight stage cultivators. So, were the wolves that accompanied the bandits. Ajax also knew for a fact that Syam was at the peak of baron stage and a limit breaker. Killing a few knight stage cultivators should only require a few seconds. But they weren't doing so and all showed a strength similar to middle or early-stage knight, but almost all of them were peak knight stage cultivators.
Ajax as a prince had the chance observe many knight and baron stage cultivators. At knight stage, most techniques involve imbuing weapons or similar mediums with mana to perform their attacks. It is much harder to control mana outside the body directly. For that, one would need more talent or practice. As one reaches the peak of knight stage or into baron stage, they are able to more easily use their mana without external mediums. So, he could clearly understand that all the members of the hunter division here, were holding back.
It was like they were stalling and waiting instead of attack at full strength. For a second, he thought that maybe they were giving a chance for the new trainees to get used to the fighting. But when he saw one of them swinging his sword with two arrows poking out of his arm, he was sure that it wasn't so. No one would fight bearing such pain and difficulty just to train a few new recruits. It wasn't worth it.
"So, Syam and others are waiting for these guys to make their move," thought Ajax while keeping an eye on them.
This continued for about two minutes
"Syam," yelled Raban who was observing the whole battle. "We have injured. It is those archers. Finish them first."
Nodding, Syam pulled out a thick rectangular shield about 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide from his storage. He jumped ramming the shield into their faces easily pushing away anyone who came close to him. Within 5 seconds, he managed to get near the bandit archer closest to him.
The archer tried to whack at Syam with his bow, but found it pulled out of his hand by Syam. Before he could react, he found that his view changed. All he could see was the dark sky as he was thrown down on his back.
Syam was looking down on him from top. He lifted his shield up and slammed it down with force with the bottom edge aimed at the archer's neck. A small crunching sound was heard as the archer lost his life due to a broken neck.
Ajax saw the move and approved such a way of killing in his mind. In a batter, especially in an ambush such as this, it is always good to frighten the ambushers. Using a defensive tool to kill a person is a good way to do that. It is unexpected and gives the ambushers a strong impression of strength and lowers their morale.
New and unknown things always frighten people. Bandits and thugs usually kill others. They also expect to get killed. They expect to be inflicted with sword and blade wounds and even die, but when they see something new, they also feel uneasy and reluctant to fight. Also, most bandits and criminals prefer to rob, attack and kill the weak. When they think their opponent is stronger than them, they try to run away or make stupid mistakes.
It was clear to Ajax that Syam was frightening them for the same reason. It is one of the oldest psychological tactics, but it almost always works. And it did. When Syam approached the next archer, the man couldn't even drawback his bow string before he found his neck crushed under Syam's foot.
The next archer had lost his life with quick punch from Syam to his neck and then, it was a sword slash that beheaded the next archer.
It was at this point that the bandit leader finally reacted. He slammed his staff on the ground making a large noise. All the fighting suddenly stopped. The wolves moved back distancing themselves a few feet from the hunters. The bandits held their places. It was clear that their leader wanted to talk.
"Black claw mercenaries, I have an offer," said the man standing beside the leader as he stepped out of the shadows. He was middle-aged with a rectangular face and shaggy beard. He had brown eyes with a cross shaped scar across his fore head. He was clearly acting as the spokesman for the leader.
"Keep talking," said Syam.
"We want the Creek boy," said the man. "Our leader is even willing to compensate for your losses with gold and food."
"Gold and food?" chuckled Syam.
"You are asking us to give you a viscount's son for gold and food? Are you crazy? We will be hunted in the kingdom and will need to run away. Unless, you can provide protection for us, we are not going to agree," said Syam.
"There a couple of peak stage knights and the rest are even weaker," said the man. "If we both join. You are bound to lose."
"Why don't you try and see?" mocked Syam.
"Let it be, Miruban," came a gruffy voice as if it came from the fog surrounding them, but all of them knew that it was leader. Hearing it, the bandit spokesman nodded his head and went back to the fog.
"Since, you think we aren't strong enough, why don't we show him our true strength?" mocked the figure as the wolf walked forward bringing him out of the fog into the clear view of others.
As the wolf walked forward, they noticed that the one seated on the wolf wasn't a human at all. It was humanoid, but had some other features that deviated significantly from a human. He had tusks that grew out from his lower jaw, thick dark blue skin like the night sky and his ears were like a beasts pointed upwards. Its body was filled with large muscles like and it wore a leather tunic
As Ajax looked at it, he realized that he had seen something like that before.
"Is it an orc?" mumbled Ajax. In his past life, there were many fantasy movies and stuff like orcs, elves were common elements of them.
"What do you think now? human," said the orc as he swung his staff in a circle dispelling the fog.
As he dispelled the fog more of the dark blue skinned orcs appeared each about 8 feet tall, armored and ready to fight. Unlike the leader orc, these didn't hold staffs, but large weapons like swords and battle axes that matched their sizes.
Fear crept into Ajax's mind as saw their hulking figures. He instinctively took a large gulp as he saw them brandishing their weapons, snarling, ready to fight and kill.