System's POV
chapter-482-2

"They're almost here," Thirteen said.

Subconsciously, the Wanderers who had accompanied him firmly grasped the weapons in their hands.

The sixteen teenagers, including Sean, Heidi, and his three subordinates, hid behind the trees, closely watching the muddy path their wagons had passed half an hour ago.

Their plan was to ambush the Lizardmen using the strategy Zion had formulated.

Although they were still uncertain if it would work or not, they had no choice but to implement it to the best of their abilities.

Their goal was simple.

To successfully act as decoys so that the non-combatants that were hiding inside the cave wouldn't be targeted by the Lizardmen.

Tiona's clone, who had spied ahead, informed her Master that there were forty Lizardmen currently headed in their direction.

The Captain of the Lizardmen was a Rank 3 Monster, and his six direct subordinates were Rank 2 Monsters. The rest were peak Rank 1 Monsters. Overall, they were considered a sizable hunting party among Lizardmen.

With this information in mind, Thirteen deemed that they had a fighting chance if they managed to ambush the Lizardmen and decrease their number to even up the odds.

Standing on the tree next to him was Sherry, who was holding a bow and arrow in her hands.

She specialized in short swords and daggers, but she also had a knack for archery.

Among the sixteen teenagers who were waiting to execute an ambush, six of them were holding bows in their hands.

Their role was to draw the enemy's attention, forcing them to come to the trees and fight them in close quarters.

The ten remaining teenagers would then engage the enemies in close combat once they had reached their hiding place.

Thirteen would prioritize targeting the stronger Lizardmen in order to lessen the burden for his team.

As soon as the Lizardmen finally appeared in their line of sight, the archers nocked the arrows on their bows and took aim.

Since they were at a higher vantage point, while the Lizardmen were only looking at what was in front of them, the latter didn't notice them right away, giving them the element of surprise.

Thirteen had told everyone to only let loose their arrows once the first Lizardmen crossed the first tree in front of them.

When their target finally came within the decided striking range, six arrows flew in unison, their sounds being masked by the rain.

But out of the six arrows, only three found their targets.

Unlike the others, Thirteen could accurately target his opponent and make sure that his arrow would land at the place where he aimed at.

With the element of surprise in their side, his first arrow hit the eye of one of the Rank 2 Lizardmen, while his second arrow hit its comrade's neck.

Thirteen was firing in rapid succession because he needed to take down as many Lizardmen as he could before they regained their bearings.

The monsters didn't expect that an ambush was waiting for them, so the moment their members got hit by the arrows, they hastily retreated to take cover.

Thirteen was able to take down three Lizardmen with his accurate shots. On the other hand, Sherry took down one and injured two more. As for the other archers, they didn't manage to kill any of the monsters, but they still managed to land some good hits at their enemies.

"Plan B!" Thirteen ordered, and his team hastily retreated from their hiding spots.

He had made several plans depending on how the enemy would react to their ambush.

If their enemies charged at them, Sean and the other Wanderers who had Avatars would summon their Avatars, and fight the Lizardmen in close combat.

But since the enemy didn't charge at them and chose to retreat right away, it meant that they were able to assess that it was dangerous to blindly charge at the hiding spot of their enemies without understanding how many they were.

"Captain, what should we do?" one of the Rank 2 Lizardmen who survived Thirteen's ambush asked.

"We'll go around and ambush them from behind," Sharroc ordered. "Half of you will circle around them. The rest, follow me!"

The Lizardmen entered the forest cautiously. They assessed that at least two of the archers were proficient in ranged combat and could effectively kill them if they were careless.

Because of this, they used the trees as cover, while heading deeper into the forest.

Thirteen, who was sharing his vision with Tiona's clone, drew his bow to its fullest before releasing an arrow.

A pained cry spread in the forest as his arrow pierced through the eye of another Rank 2 Lizardmen, killing it instantly.

While their scales were hard and could resist sword strikes to a certain extent, their eyes were not as protected as the rest of their bodies.

Other archers would find the feat of targeting the Lizardmen's eyes from a distance extremely hard, especially with the rain and the cover of the trees obscuring their vision, but Thirteen didn't have this problem.

He would simply calculate where the Lizardmen would go and release his arrow accordingly.

After becoming a Rookie, he was now able to endure extensive calculations without suffering a backlash.

Because of this, he didn't have to worry about pushing himself too much, allowing him to become a truly dangerous threat to his foes.

Sharroc, who saw the man standing next to him die, hurriedly hid behind a tree and raised his hand.

He also communicated with the others using the language of the Lizardmen, thinking that their ambushers couldn't understand them.

"Crawl on all fours, and lay as low to the ground as possible!" Sharroc ordered. "They have a good marksman with them!"

Crawling on all fours wasn't a problem for Lizardmen. This was something they were used to doing, especially when sneaking into the Ratmen Settlements in their territory.

However, no matter where they hid, Thirteen knew where they were. His Parade of a Hundred Demons were also around the forest, watching their every move.

Sharroc thought that he made a good decision, but a few minutes later, screams were once again heard on the side of the forest where the Second Team had gone earlier.

Sherry, Sean, Heidi, and the others went to work and attacked the Lizardmen alongside their Avatars.

Only Thirteen was left to face off against Sharroc's team, distracting them from the true plan that he had in mind.

Because the Lizardmen Captain was spooked by the unknown Archer's accuracy, he ordered his direct subordinates to follow him, leaving the rest of the Rank 1 Lizardmen to group together.

However, all the Wanderers who fought against the second party of Lizardmen had Avatars.

Since the enemy was now outnumbered two to one, the teenagers felt more confident that they could win against them.

Of course, Tiona's subordinates were also paying close attention to the battle, ready to help if one of the Wanderers were about to get seriously injured, or worse, lose their lives in the skirmish.

Sharroc screeched and ordered for his men to charge forward to where the sounds of screams were coming from.

But, at that exact moment, he heard a subtle whistle, which made him forcefully raise his shield to block the arrow that was flying in his direction.

Thirteen's arrow embedded itself on the Lizardmen Captain's shield, who didn't even bother to stop crawling on the ground in order to head to where his subordinates were.

While he was still wary of the archer attacking them from a distance, he was more worried about his subordinates whose screams were sounding increasingly desperate with each passing second.