Chapter 274: Camping and Ambush

Noah and his subordinates felt their bodies slowly sinking in the marsh. The Alligators slowly approached them while opening their mouths and showing off their deadly teeth.

"Oh no! The alligator is about to reach me. Save me, master!" One of them shouted loudly.

Noah turned his head in that direction, and a sharp sword qi was shot at the Alligator.

The sharp sword qi swiftly and effortlessly pierced the Alligator's head. The warrior who had screamed for help earlier breathed out in relief.

Soon, Noah heard multiple shouts for help.

"Help us, master. We are slowly sinking in this marsh! Even after using my Ardor, I can't get out of this place!" One of them shouted with a frightened expression.

Another one shouted as he looked at the other Alligators, "These Alligators are still approaching us! We can't fight them in this marsh!"

"…You are right. We need to deal with this irritating marsh," Noah whispered to himself.

"Sword Domain!"

Suddenly, an intense amount of sword qi leaked out of his sword, and it began to slice apart the swamp.

The sword qi slicing the swamp was so great in number that the marshy area itself had stopped restricting Noah.

Noah soon controlled his sword qi and sword domain and helped out his subordinates.

The Alligators sensed a deadly feeling from that Sword Domain. Most of them paused at their spots while a few stupid ones still approached Noah's subordinates.

They were all sliced apart without any exceptions.

When the remaining Alligators realized what had happened to their comrades, they immediately fled in the opposite direction.

This was a wise decision since Noah's subordinates were getting out of the swamp one by one. They all stepped onto the nearby land and then looked around.

Once they were all standing on the land, Noah appeared and instructed them, "Let's go. We need to find the other groups."

These subordinates used their Ardor to jump over the marsh and land on the other side. They were following Noah's lead as they moved ahead while maintaining a spear-headed formation.

The ones in the rear were all proficient in ranged magic. Naturally, they were much better in close combat, but their long-range support was more useful in a battle.

However, even after roaming for a couple of hours, they found no group.

Noah's group came across many kinds of beasts. They slaughtered them before continuing their walk.

When Noah looked at his subordinates, he noticed that their movements were rather sluggish. They were tired, hungry, and even thirsty.

"Let's set up a camp here," Noah spoke while pointing in a large tree's direction.

The tree was huge and thick that it could provide shade for the entire Heretical Paladins group.

Soon, the entire group sat under that huge tree. A few individuals stood up and began to set up the tents.

The first tent was pitched for Noah. Then for the other members of this group.

They even lit up a bonfire to heat up their food. Naturally, this group carried the supplies with them and was prepared to live in this forest.

The same was true for the other groups.

All the groups were aware of how large the Cranian Forest was. They naturally had to prepare sufficient supplies for when they lived in this forest.

Most of them carried supplies that could last an entire month for their group. This was a rough estimate about how long it would take for a winner to emerge, considering the size of the entire forest.

And even if the time exceeded one month, they were confident in filling up the supplies from the forest.

There were many kinds of healthy fruits, vegetables and other kinds of food in this forest. As long as they knew where to look, they could find everything they needed to survive.

Naturally, this placed a huge emphasis on their knowledge, leadership, and luck.

Noah and his group were peacefully enjoying their meal. After that, Noah decided to take some rest before moving forwards.

They rested in that location for an hour before they were on the move again.

Noah and his group walked for multiple hours, but once again, they found no other group.

It was the nighttime now. Noah chose another spot and decided to camp there for the night.

They lit up a campfire and then cooked their food. It was a delicious dinner, and all of them were pretty satisfied with the taste.

Soon, Noah gathered them all and assigned them the patrol timings for the nighttime.

Currently, 10 warriors out of the 50 warriors were assigned on the night patrol.

They were each handed a bell, which they were required to use as soon as they noticed something in the vicinity.

Noah began to meditate in his tent while using the Mysterious Qin Technique.

He was delighted to find out that the absorption of the Spiritual Ardor was much quicker in this forest.

It was approximately twice as quick when compared to the normal speed.

The reason was quite simple. The Mysterious Qin Technique's speed depended on the Spiritual Ardor in nature.

If nature was saturated with Spiritual Ardor, the body would absorb more of it while utilizing the same suction force as before.

There was no upper limit for the rate of absorption for the Mysterious Qin Technique. It depended more on how much the user's body could handle.

Currently, Noah's physique wasn't strong enough to handle this amount of energy. He had only recently advanced to the 4 Star Rank.

Even though he possessed a solid foundation to advance to the 4 Star Rank because of the pellets, but this rate of absorption was still too straining for his body.

He had to make his physique stronger to handle this absorption rate and take full advantage of his Mysterious Qin Physique.

Suddenly, Noah heard a loud bell's sound. Not just him, but the entire camp heard it.

All of the warriors who had been asleep abruptly awoke. They knew this was the signal for an enemy attack!

Noah immediately rushed out of his tent, and the same could be considered true for his comrades.

As soon as Noah was out of his tent, he saw multiple arrows launched at him and his subordinates.

These arrows were too quick, and Noah couldn't deflect them all.

Noah immediately shouted, "Roll out of the way!" He also released his Sword Qi at its full potential and deflected as many arrows as he could.

"Immediately take cover behind the trees." Noah's next instruction resounded in the area.

However, he was startled when he sensed the attacks from behind him too. When Noah turned his body, he saw multiple arrows were launched from that side as well.

'We are surrounded!' He realized with a grave look on his face.

"There are enemies at the back too. Go and slaughter them!" Noah spoke as he suddenly used Phantom Steps to run on a tree.

He was climbing the tree to look at the entire scene from above.

After climbing the tree with 300 meters of height, Noah finally saw all his enemies. He also noticed a man standing a bit farther away from Noah's camp.

The man was a 4 Star Warrior, and he appeared to be actively concealing his presence there. Noah understood that this was the enemy leader.

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