Since that day, Take and his men had stopped bothering Esdeath, keeping to themselves during their daily hunts.
It was unclear whether they had been scolded by their families or if they simply realized their previous actions were beyond their capabilities.
As long as they didn’t cause trouble, Esdeath ignored them for the time being, focusing on leading her team to hunt Danger Beasts and ordinary animals.
Due to the need to stockpile food, the weekly hunting schedule was adjusted.
What was originally twice a week was increased to four times.
Relying on the exceptional tracking and detection abilities of the Eye of True Sight, Esdeath led this newly formed squad to victory after victory, capturing a large amount of prey every time.
By the pre-winter season, they had hunted most of the creatures in the vicinity.
The food was salted and stored in the warehouse, enough to last until spring.
Because they were consistently successful and received large shares of food and resources, the dozen or so young tribesmen in the squad shifted their attitude toward Esdeath from mere obedience to genuine loyalty.
It was a clear, snowy day, and Esdeath stayed in the camp practicing archery.
The tribesmen, who were too lazy to go out in winter, played various games, and archery was one of them.
To make it more interesting, they added small stakes, betting a few copper coins at a time.
Watching them compete, Esdeath felt an itch to join, but no one was willing to bet against her.
Perhaps they were afraid of losing all their pocket money.
Esdeath sighed inwardly, left with no choice but to practice archery by herself.
While Esdeath was experimenting with trick shots and practicing firing three arrows at once, a youth of fifteen or sixteen named Jietan, one of her subordinates, rushed into the camp on horseback and found her.
“What’s wrong?
Weren’t you and Staven out hunting?” Esdeath vaguely guessed that something bad had happened, but her face remained very calm.
Jietan and Staven had wanted to hone their hunting skills, so they had gone out together on their day off to find Danger Beasts.
Jietan recounted the events to Esdeath with panic and anger: “Captain Esdeath, Staven and I couldn’t find any Danger Beasts nearby, so we wanted to go a bit further.
We ended up chasing a Long-Tusked Wild Boar and accidentally ran out of our territory.
We figured we’d just hunt it and leave.”
“But we ran into some people from the Chinubi Tribe who were camped there.
As soon as they saw us, they said we had entered their hunting grounds and attacked us.
I managed to escape with my life, but Staven was hit by an arrow and captured by them.”
Jietan was extremely anxious.
The Chinubi Tribe was known for its overbearing behavior, especially toward the Barutesu Tribe, who lived right next to them.
The two sides had a long-standing grudge.
It was easy to imagine that if Staven fell into their hands, he would not only find it hard to survive but might also die after being subjected to torture.
“Captain Esdeath, what should we do?” Jietan and Staven had been friends for many years.
When trouble struck, his first thought was to seek help from his captain rather than the elders or the tribal chief, which showed the trust he had developed in Esdeath.
Esdeath rubbed her chin, lowering her head in thought.
What should be done now?
Actually, the preferred method would be to report it to the tribe and let her father and the elders decide.
That way, whatever decision was made would have nothing to do with her.
Such things had happened before, where tribesmen out hunting had their prey stolen or were injured by the Chinubi Tribe.
Back then, Alei chose to settle matters peacefully because he was busy preparing food for the winter.
This time, the Chinubi Tribe could use the excuse that her people had trespassed onto their hunting grounds to escalate things.
Matters between two tribes were no longer just personal friction; a single misstep could trigger a tribal war.
However, a war in this kind of snowy weather was likely impossible.
The weather was still decent today, but a blizzard would hit in a few days.
Every year at this time, everyone huddled in their tents.
It was difficult for even ordinary people to go out, let alone fight a war.
Esdeath felt that if she reported it to the tribe, the likelihood of them going to rescue Staven was slim.
After all, Staven had gone out on a non-hunting day and trespassed into Chinubi Tribe territory.
Those elders would spend half an hour arguing over a decision; by the time they sent anyone, the body would already be cold.
“Jietan, how many Chinubi Tribe people are stationed there?”
The Chinubi Tribe was a large tribe, unlike the Barutesu Tribe.
In addition to their main central camp, they had over a dozen camps scattered around their territory.
Communication between the various camps only happened every two or three days, and they didn’t rotate guards frequently.
Jietan tried to recall: “I don’t remember clearly.
They came out to chase us, and there were three or four of them.
That camp wasn’t small; there might be ten or twenty people inside.”
Esdeath slung her bow and arrows over her back and picked up the blood-drinking mad blade.
“Go notify the others in the team to assemble at the clearing outside.
We’re going to rescue Staven.”
Jietan was both happy and worried.
“Really?
Don’t we need to tell the tribe?”
“Just listen to me,” Esdeath said.
“If we go to their camp now, the people there probably haven’t had time to report this yet.
Kill them and come back.
No one will have evidence that it was us.”
“Okay, I’ll go right now.”
In less than five minutes, everyone in the Seventh Hunting Team except for Take and his group had assembled fully armed under Esdeath’s command.
This level of efficiency was the result of Esdeath’s intentional training over the past several days.
This was a private operation led by Esdeath, deliberately avoiding the rest of the tribe.
The dozen or so youths stood in neat ranks with their warhorses in the clearing outside the woods.
Esdeath stood atop a large boulder at the front, looking down at them.
“I have some news for everyone.
Staven from our team was unfortunately captured by the Chinubi Tribe while out hunting.
His life is now in grave danger.”
“If we report this to the tribe now, by the time they reach a decision, we will have lost the best opportunity to save Staven.
Therefore, this operation is my personal decision.
Anyone willing to follow me to slaughter the Chinubi Tribe and rescue Staven, follow me now!”
Jietan hadn’t expected Esdeath to actually be willing to lead the team into Chinubi Tribe territory just to save Staven.
He was instantly moved and exhilarated.
Ibia and the other two obeyed Esdeath’s orders unconditionally, being the first to respond: “We’re willing!”
“I’ve been annoyed with the Chinubi Tribe for a long time!”
“I don’t know what the others in the tribe are thinking, being afraid of this and that!”
The youths were full of vigor.
Hearing that a companion they had hunted with for many days had been captured by another tribe made them extremely agitated.
Combined with Esdeath’s rallying call, every one of them had a fire in their chest that needed to be vented.
A secret mission, infiltrating the Chinubi Tribe, rescuing a comrade—such words undoubtedly made these loyal youths, who wanted to achieve something great, eager to try.
Once the people of the Barutesu Tribe got fired up, few feared death.
“Good, let’s go!”
Esdeath still led the charge at the front, with Jietan following a half-length behind her to show the way.
“Captain Esdeath, can Staven really still be alive?” Although he had rallied the Seventh Team, Jietan didn’t hold much hope for Staven’s survival.
He believed the enemy would likely kill Staven immediately.
To him, this mission felt more like revenge.
“Right now, we can only hope that those Chinubi Tribe people want to torture Staven or need to ask for instructions from their superiors, so they won’t kill him just yet.”
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”