Four dragon hunters moved silently through the darkness, their faint shadows flowing over the valley like water. When the leading rider raised his hand high, the knights halted sharply, turned direction in unison, and dismounted swiftly. With one hand on his sword hilt and one leg swinging over the leather saddle, Brand heard Romantic beside him complaining incessantly while swaying on the dragon's back:

"Brand, riding this thing is so uncomfortable—" the merchant girl said, frowning with one hand supporting her neck. "It's not exciting at all."

Brand smiled, walked over to help the young lady down from the dragon's back, thinking to himself that he had better not let someone like 'our Lord Roman' get too bored; dragons, being bipedal reptiles, have spines that twist in an 'S' shape while moving, making it extremely uncomfortable for riders without proper training. Otherwise, why would he have wasted dozens of experience points learning this technique from captured lizardmen?

He had fallen for it once in the game before and had no intention of stepping into the same pit twice. But seeing his companion's pale face, the young man felt a bit of pity and gently replied, "You go ahead and rest." After all, Romantic wouldn't be able to participate in the upcoming battle.

"Then I'll go to sleep—" Romantic jumped down from his arm and blinked at him. "I'll pray for you, Brand."

"In your dreams?" Brand asked irritably.

"Yes, in my dreams." The girl nodded earnestly. She smiled, her bright eyes narrowing into crescent shapes, and left looking as if she had won a small victory, passing by Rubis who emerged from the forest. Brand couldn't help but smile to himself; he admired her optimistic spirit that remained unbroken even in adversity, just like that first night in Buqi when Romantic's initial actions had captivated him deeply.

He couldn't deny that he had inherited Brand's feelings, but the merchant girl had also conquered his modern side.

He took a deep breath, the cold night air penetrating his lungs and calming his heated mind. Among the mercenaries approaching him, he spotted Hu Que and, after a brief pause, gestured to the experienced mercenary captain: "Return and prepare; the enemy is less than five miles away! Speed up, over two hundred lizardmen—I want every single one of those experience points." Brand disliked wasting words before a battle; everything had already been explained clearly. This was just a small ambush.

Compared to the larger scale team activities in his past gaming experiences, this was nothing.

"Experience?" Sanfde, dizzy from dismounting the dragon, only caught this incomprehensible term. Hu Que glanced at the young man and sneered; he had long grown accustomed to the strange words his Lord occasionally used. In fact, anyone who spent some time with Brand would get used to it and even learn a few things.

"I mean the enemy," Brand corrected himself seriously.

The Silver Elf Commander glanced at him, a barely noticeable smile at the corner of their mouth.

Brand's orders were quickly executed—

The group returned to the forest on the hillside where the young man began to strategize. Facing the level twenty group-type enemies, Brand decided to use their most common tactic from past games—divide and conquer. He, Hu Que, and the Silver Elf Commander hid in the woods, watching as the Silver Elf Guard and the mercenaries took their positions. As the most professional warriors from the Saint War, the elves' armor had been treated with a matte finish by experienced elf craftsmen to prevent reflection under the moonlight. The mercenaries mostly wore lightweight leather armor, and even those with lock armor had it painted black, eliminating any concerns of reflections.

The elves crouched behind the bushes in rows, pressing down on their double-headed swords, which were buried with dead leaves to avoid any reflections. Behind them, about thirty feet away, the mercenaries nervously held their short bows or crossbows ready, not daring to make a sound. Brand did not want any casualties in this battle, so he arranged for the elf guard to take the melee front, while the mercenaries were responsible only for remote suppression and killing.

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