Chapter: 446
“Good to see he’s changed” Jay quietly mumbled to himself, glad to see that he was seemingly a better person now.
Some people would respond poorly to a thorn in their side, sinking into despair – others would be changed and become stronger.
The figurative thorn in Stephen’s side was of course what Jay did to his achilles tendon. Soon he would learn how to heal it, but for now he had a painful limp.
Either way, Jay didn’t care. Stephen would sink into despair or become a better person, either way it was a win-win to Jay. The old sneering know-it-all version of Stephen was slowly dying, replaced with a more reserved person.
As Jay and his new troops waited, they all began to talk quietly while still roughly standing in formation, remaining prepared for battle.
“Nice axe. You must have high strength.” one nodded approvingly..
“Thanks, yeah. Nice mace… got any passives?”
“It causes bleeding” He cheekily smiled back.
The dagger girl turned to Jay, “So, you’re a one-handed swordsman huh?” she smiled.
“Oh, how did you guess?” Jay said playfully as he raised his sword-wielding hand and scratched his head with a single finger.
“Well, I’ll trust you to have my back.” The girl chuckled, glancing at the gauntlet Jay had before turning to chat with the others.
Jay didn’t have his shield out for obvious reasons – it would scare the shit out of everyone and probably raise far too much suspicion.
After all, what kind of level 9 adventurer would have a semi-sentient bone shield that made people feel anxious when it stared at them with its hollow beady eyes?
Jay only planned to take it out when absolutely necessary, and stash it away before people would even notice a greyish-white spot appearing in their peripheral vision.
Thankfully Jay had also learnt the passive parry ability which had a 2.25% chance to activate – however, this didn’t mean he couldn’t actively try to parry too. For now this was a preferable alternative to using the shield.
The dagger girl turned back to talk more, but Jay heard something.
“Hang on a second,” he held his hand up, silencing her as he stared into the forest.
A few leaves shifted, blowing out of the forest on the edge of the farmland. It appeared normal but he was sure he heard something.
“They’re coming.” Anya said, gazing down the sights of her crossbow while pointing it at the forest.
The sounds were now getting louder, and soon enough they could all hear it.
*crrrr~ …. Squeak!~ Burrr~*
It sounded like wood rubbing against wood, large branches twisting against each other, groaning sounds of bending tree trunks in heavy winds.
Next, it sounded like rain. Heavy rain – despite the bright sunny day.
Millions of tiny pattering sounds of leaves and twigs on the forest floor all soon creating a crescendo of white noise.
That’s when they saw the first enemy emerge from a woodline, then the second, then there were hundreds of them all swarming out.