A group of eight people carefully hid behind the hillside, waiting for the best opportunity.
The sky gradually darkened. The trolls who had been hunting outside successively brought their prey back to the camp, and bonfires were lit in the camp.
Except for a few trolls standing guard around the perimeter of the camp, the remaining trolls were scattered around the bonfires resting, and in a corner, several trolls wearing gray linen cloth were preparing food.
At the largest bonfire in the center of the camp, several trolls wearing leather armor and carrying axes at their waists were hunched over, surrounding an elderly troll wearing a wooden mask.
One of the tallest troll warriors respectfully reported the day's gains to the masked troll: "Lord Hex'jin, today we captured eighty highland spiders and twelve velociraptors, collected the spider venom sacs, and hides. We also captured nine highland velociraptor cubs and several velociraptor eggs."
Hex'jin was the leader of this hunting party and also a troll witch doctor of the Witherbark tribe. He wore a white wooden voodoo mask, with long emerald green hair messily draped behind his head, and two huge fangs protruded from his mouth, making him look particularly ferocious.
After listening to the report from the great troll warrior, Hex'jin slowly nodded, glanced at the trolls sitting around him, and said: "The spider venom sacs are our priority this time. Our brethren in the Hinterlands are having some conflicts with the Revantusk tribe, and they need these venom sacs to make holy medicine to enhance their strength. And we also need to bring the prey back to Witherbark Village. The little ones at home need more meat. Since that whelp from the Trollbane family named Danath appeared in the human army, our success rate in attacking human villages has greatly decreased. The chieftain needs our hunting party to hunt in this area to alleviate the food pressure within the tribe."
"Lord, why don't we launch a large-scale attack on the human farms and kill all those red-robed humans? We can not only eat them, but also obtain their farm's crops and livestock."
"Yeah, Lord, Trollbane is the mortal enemy of us trolls. We should kill him and declare to the humans that we trolls are not to be trifled with."
"Kill humans, kill, eat, kill!."
Listening to the noisy shouts of the warriors below, the warrior who had reported earlier felt a faint anger rising in his heart. He glared at the trolls who were shouting the loudest and roared: "Shut up! The temporary truce with the humans is the decision of the Great Chieftain and the High Priest. It's not up to you. Be quiet! Continue listening to Lord Hex'jin."
This warrior clearly had a lot of prestige among these trolls. One sentence silenced all the trolls. The few trolls who had just said they wanted to start a war and eat humans shrank their necks and squatted back down.
Witch Doctor Hex'jin cleared his throat: "The truce is only temporary. The Revantusk tribe in the Hinterlands are too crazy. When they sacrifice to the gods, they actually capture people from our Witherbark tribe and the Smolderthorn tribe as sacrifices. The conflict with the Revantusk tribe has consumed most of our tribe's energy. When we free up our hands, we will teach the humans a lesson."
As a witch doctor, a rare spellcaster in the tribe, Hex'jin was considered a mid-to-master member of the tribe and knew much more than these grunts. Not only was the friction with the Revantusk tribe consuming the Witherbark tribe's energy, but the tribe also had other big plans.
Hex'jin then instructed the great troll warrior: "Drek'maz, our hunting mission is almost complete. The main task later is to capture live prey as sacrifices. The tribe needs live sacrifices to my lord Shadra."
Galen and his party did not know that there was a master warrior in the troll team. He was a troll who had been hunting outside earlier and only returned to the camp after nightfall.
However, this did not hinder their sneak attack plan. As midnight approached, Galen and the others prepared to take action.
The night was heavy, and the moonlight in the sky was blocked by clouds, with only sparse light shining on the Arathi Highlands. The group smeared themselves with the prepared grass juice, then dispersed. With Galen, Omar, and Varokal as the front row, and the five guards in the rear, they slowly approached the brightly lit troll camp on the highlands.
In the troll camp, only the largest bonfire in the center of the camp was still burning, occasionally making the crackling sound of burning wood exploding. Most of the trolls had already entered their tents to rest. The camp was very quiet, and the sound of snoring could be heard rising and falling. Two troll headhunters, carrying spears, were on guard on either side of the camp.
The dense grass of the Arathi Highlands provided them with good cover. Galen crawled forward in the grass, stopping when he was nearly a hundred meters away from the camp. According to the plan, it was now Omar and Varokal's turn to perform.
On Galen's sides, Omar and Varokal also stopped at about the same distance. Omar took a military crossbow from his waist, gently placed a crossbow bolt on the bow arm, and slowly cocked it. After preparing, he made a sound imitating a frog's "Croak, croak."
On the other side, Varokal had prepared the crossbow bolt in his hand and was aiming at the troll sentry less than a hundred meters in front of him. When he heard the "croak" signal, he also responded with "ribbit, ribbit," then silently counted to three in his heart, and his finger pulled the trigger. The crossbow bolt shot out with a whoosh.
Just as the sound of crossbow bolts flying out was heard on both sides, the two sentries in the troll camp each had a crossbow bolt stuck in their necks, and then there were two thuds. The bodies of the two troll sentries fell to the ground like rags.
At this time, in the troll camp, in a tent in the very center, the great troll warrior Drek'maz, who was sleeping, suddenly opened his eyes, deftly stood up, rushed out of the tent, and saw that the two sentries had already fallen. He immediately roared, "Enemy attack!!" Then he turned around, grabbed his great axe from the tent, and rushed out.
The shrill roar immediately alarmed the trolls resting in the tents. Some immediately got up, picked up their weapons, and rushed out of the tents. Some poked their heads out of the tents, and only after seeing others getting up did they belatedly rush out.
Galen and the others' goal was to sneak into the camp, but they didn't expect there to be such a vigilant warrior in the camp. Although the goal was not achieved, they were already less than a hundred meters away from the camp. When the troll Drek'maz roared "Enemy attack!" Galen and the others knew that the sneak attack had failed. Either they retreated, or they could only force a breakthrough.
Galen did not hesitate, stood up, drew the two-handed greatsword from his back, glanced at both sides, and saw that Omar and Varokal had also stood up like him, casually dropped their military crossbows, and drew their respective weapons. Then he roared, "Brothers, follow me! Charge!"