Chapter 18 - The Rabbit Hunt!

As Theo and the gang marched inside the forest slowly, he began to put orders for them to mark the trees behind them. Should these henchmen of his turns out to be unreliable, total noobs and can't even hunt properly, they will use the tree marks as route for their escape.

After all, in a panicky situation, a full retreat made by noobs wouldn't be able to keep their formations up as they ran with tails between their legs. So to prevent these plebians from running elsewhere spelling their own damnation, they should still be sane enough to remember what these marks represent. Or else they would be beyond saving.

After getting a bit further inside, they finally caught sight of a [Mad Rabbit] hopping around merrily eating wild carrots.

"First victim." said Theo with his lips curled into an evil grin.

He ordered the groups to get into position and sneak into the nearby bushes. He slowly raised his right hand with two fingers pointing up. He had already instructed them that this hand signature represents the role of archers to get ready to shoot as soon as these two fingers pointed forwards.

Waiting for the rabbit to box into their centre, Theo finally pointed his two fingers forward. Three arrows were simultaneously released from their bows from three different direction, North, West and East. Sounds of air splitting could be heard as these arrows flew through the air heading towards the unsuspecting rabbit. These took some time to describe, but in fact happens in less than a second.

'Tak! Tak! Tak!'

The three arrows perfectly penetrate the body of the rabbit. Blood splattered out from the wounds of the rabbit like a fountain, however its still alive although the flames of life in its eyes began to dim as it humpered forward weakly trying to escape.

'shinggg!' the sound of metal could be heard vibrating through the air as Theo stepped forward and unsheathed his sword. His lips curled into a smile.

"Your species innate abilities of calling reinforcement upon your death at firsthand are truly troublesome. Unfortunately, you met the Great me! Thus, that abilities of yours will be your own undoing as it cursed your whole species to become our food."

As Theo finish speaking that sentence out, his sword slashed onto the neck of the rabbit in a clean, one sweep motion. The rabbit was instantly beheaded. Then came the faint blue aura spreading out from the dead rabbit.

"All groups, prepare for battle!" Theo shouted out.

'Swishh! Swish!' sounds of rustles could be heard from the distance as it seems the rabbits are on their way to avenge their fallen kin. In less than 10 breaths, 10 rabbits quickly appeared and surrounds the gang.

Each of the men from the three teams started to form beads of sweats on their forehead as they got nervous being surrounded by the rabbits. Theo however quickly shouted out to them to focus and remember the plan he laid out for them. In which they started to calm down a bit.

"Remember! DO NOT kill the rabbit! Get into formation!"

The men started to clench their teeths and gripped their swords tight!

"RAAAAHHHHHHH!" they shouted out ontop of their lungs as they move to agitate 2 rabbits from each group and moved forwards 10 pace to sparse a bit so that their distance between each group wouldn't allow the rabbits to switch target to other members that would cause chaos in their formations. Whereas the remaining 4 rabbits are split between Theo and Jerald where they agitate two rabbits each.

Sounds of clashing and warcries could be heard in the forest as they fought valiantly against the rabbit.

As each group other than Theo comprised of three members, two swordsmen and one archer, one of the swordsman would obstruct one rabbit while another swordsman and the archer would pin down the other rabbit and whittle down its HP into the critical level, after which the swordsman would drag that rabbit towards Theo and Jerald to knock it unconscious and the other swordsman and archer continues to ram down the other rabbit.

After a few minutes of battle, Theo and Jerald managed to knock out the 4 rabbits they were fighting with and put them into a sack. From Theo's previous skirmish with these rabbit, he could already analyze their attack pattern which is too simple for him to exploit, thus enabling him to knock them out with a little bit of effort. In Jerald's case, he already had entanglements with these rabbits in the past, thus coupling with his brute strength, it only took a while for him to knock out the rabbits.

Next, in a few breaths of time, the swordsman from each group moved towards Theo and Jerald with their rabbits in bay, after which the rabbits were knocked senseless.

"Fall back ten paces!" shouted Theo towards each of the group.

This is because they are getting ready to retreat once the final rabbits from each team are knocked out. Theo knew that in the heat of battle, especially the final moments, people would tend to get more nervous and thus the men might put in more force in their attack unconsciously which might lead to the death of the rabbits. That would definitely call for a scramble, therefore is the whole point of that 10 paces backwards.

After the 10 paces retreat, each of the team now are very close to each other and thus they are less nervous than they were before. After all, more people in a battle would reassure morale to be higher.

Slowly, they drag their battles outwards leading to the exit of the forest. After they are close enough, Theo shouted a command.

"The exit is now closeby, knock them out and quickly sack them into your bag!"

In a sweep motion, each of the swordsman quickly move to surround their rabbits to knock them out.

"Full retreat!" shouted Theo after all the rabbits were sacked. Time were of the essence as he was afraid the other knocked rabbits would soon awake or they died prematurely in the sack. That would bring them endless troubles.

After running towards the exit, they made it out and crossed the bridge to the opposite side of the shore where the villagers are waiting with bright eyes amd eagerness. After they made it, Theo shouted out.

"Pull up the bridge!"

'Clank! Clank!' the wooden bridge slowly lifted up as the villagers who were tasked to rope it in pulled hard until the bridge no longer touches the shore leading towards the great forest, effectively cutting the only path of pursuit from their enemies should they come.

As Theo look towards the bridge raised up, he nodded in a satisfied manner and slowly instruct the men to walk towards the river.

"Now, it only came down whether drowning these rabbits would attract the other.. if they don't then its good.. if they do.. that would be quite troublesome.." thought Theo in his head while closing his eyes. Seemingly like a sage doing an augury.

The men are now looking towards Theo for him to give them his command. After contemplating for awhile, he suddenly opened his eyes and gave them the order to drown the rabbits!

"Drown them!"

In the ears of the people, his voice carries the firm resoluteness of a wise ruler. Thus, even if there were 100 rabbits rushing towards them when these rabbits are drowned, they were confident that the great man in front of them could handle it with a flip of his palm.

Little do they know that, Theo had no more backup plans other than acting tough.

The rabbits in the sack started to wake up one after another from their knocked out state after being submerged into the water and struggles weakly.. soon, they were all drowned.

At that moment, not a single soul made any sound and their hearts thumped nervously in anticipation, Theo included.

After 10 breaths of time passed, no blue aura whatsoever could be detected emanating out from the drowned rabbits. In fact, this only happens because the rabbits were panicked as they were submerged into the water to be drowned and the sack effectively blinds them. Their innate ability depends on their eyesight, nose and ears to mark their enemies before death, in which their blue aura would then surrounds its assailant after its death.

However, being submerged into the water effectively cuts its eyesight, sense of smell and hearing, thus making it unable to unleash their innate abilities.

After some more time passes and no sign of reinforcement came, Theo's smile curled wide and he slowly giggled before uttering one single phrase in a calm and domineering manner.

"Success!"

As if a single domino fell resulting in complete falling out of the other dominos in succession, massive outburst of cheering reverberated throughout the crowd!

"YEAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

"FINALLYYYY! THOSE DAMNED RABBITS ARE OUTSMARTED!! HAHAHAHAHA!"

"WE CAN EAT RABBIT MEATT FROM NOW ON! HAHAAA!!"

...

The rest of the men also joined in the cheers and huddled together with their fellow comrade in a show of comraderie. Jerald didn't join the cheering but a smile could be seen on his face and his fists clenched tight, as if suppressing his excitement.

[Ting!]

[Congratulations! Your influence in Kol's Village has reached 100%!]

[Congratulations! Tier 2 of the ability [Ruler's Kingdom (Lv1)] has been unlocked!]

...