Dark Moon Era

Dawn was just around the corner.

The wolf attacks were nearing its end. Other than the Uvandidi tribe and Barbarto Village, all the other villages were at their last stand against the wolves.

When the bloody wolf attacks were at its end and the villages were just shy from victory, it was also the climax of the dark and bloody symphony. Many villagers would lose their lives during the climax, but someone else would replace their position and continue what they failed to finish. The fight continued. No one would care about who stood beside him or her.

“Kill, kill, kill! Hold on until first light!” The last bit of faith steeled within everybody’s hearts.

Other than Barbarto Village, the other villages compromised and accepted help from the Uvandidi tribe. They had paid a great price for protection and the grievance was tremendous, so the villagers ought to vent their grudge and hatred on the wolves.

Another of Wodino’s comrade-in-arms died beside him. Quietly, an unfamiliar figure appeared beside him and exterminated the wolves with ferocious blows.

Wodino spared a glance at him. He was just a young kid, but when he thought about the fact that the kid was from the Uvandidi tribe as one of the young seedlings that would be trained into a warrior who might oppress villages in the grasslands in the future, his gratitude died.

Pui!

With that in mind, Wodino spat bloody foam from his mouth. He was not moved by the young kid’s help to fight off the wolves. Instead, mixed feelings arose in his heart.

He knew that after the wolf attack, the Uvandidi tribe’s elite troops would be officially stationed in the village. Officially, his village would be taken over by the Uvandidi tribe. From there, the elite troops would eat the cattle that the villagers herded and rule over the villagers with an iron fist.

Once again, Wodino was saddened by the future.

“Haaa!” he shouted as a sign of exasperation and kicked the wolf in front of him. It was at that moment that a long and loud alarm wailed from across the grassland.

What happened? Everyone in battle was startled by the alarm. Even the wolf king that led the wolf pack was stunned.

The alarm blared louder and showed no signs of stopping. A dazzling light then appeared in the sky, followed by heavy flapping noises as several helicopters arrived above the field in front of the village.

They were helicopters from the old civilization! A handful of people in the grassland recognized the high tech air transportation. The helicopters were not flying high while the huge searchlight equipped in front of the bodies of the metal birds were scanning the grassland back and forth.

A voice boomed, “Villagers, stay where you are and wait to be searched.”

What?

The villagers failed to respond as they saw even more lights appear further away.

As the rumbling of engines entered their ears, someone realized that the lights further ahead were cars from the old civilization! Some with better knowledge knew that the car models were off-road military vehicles.

Every single vehicle was equipped with a searchlight with similar intensity, and there were at least six or more fully armed soldiers in each vehicle. Every one of them was equipped with firearms.

The vehicles drove forward as the soldiers were shooting at the wolves. Even though the villagers had heard about the firearms from the old civilization, seeing them in action with their own eyes was astonishing.

The wolves did not stand a chance against the bullet storm. In less than two minutes, numerous wolves were killed.

The wolf king sensed danger. In this game of werewolf, every year there would be some powerful new players that ignored the rules and interrupted the game to assist the humans and disrupt the balance, so the game could no longer continue. It howled to retreat, and all the wolves fled like the subsiding tide.

No one expected the wolf attack to end so abruptly. However, even after the wolf attack was over, the troops that arrived unannounced did not show any intention of stopping. The helicopters spread out to the east, the west, and the south. A dozen off-road military vehicles shot the wolves to a retreat before they too split up in three directions, driving off quickly.

That was not the end of it. Mountain bikes then appeared after the vehicles were gone. More than a hundred bikes appeared in the grassland in groups. A group of bikers rode similarly in the three directions, but this time, around ten of them stayed behind and rode toward the village.

Who were these people? What were they trying to do?

Most of the villagers were still standing under the barricade with swords and arrows as they watched the scene dully and a complicated feeling arose in their hearts. A lot of them also showed reverence and were pressured by the unannounced arrival because they saw that the uniform on these men had stars.

Were the people with the stars this powerful?

Given this ridiculous amount of firepower and manpower, would the resistance from the six villages in the grasslands be a total joke?

Tssssk! The group of bikers pulled up in front of the villagers. Ten soldiers came down from their bikes, and the leader of the group pulled out a gun at the villagers. “No one moves, or I will shoot without a second thought.”

No one dared to even budge a muscle to the satisfaction of the leader. He then fished out a scroll of paper, unrolled it, and shed a bright torchlight over it.

“Has anyone seen this man?”

It was an exceptionally realistic portrait that was almost similar to a photograph. The portrait even captured the person’s temperament and expression, so he did not look dull and lifeless at all. Therefore, as long as any of the villagers had ever seen the person in the portrait, they would be able to tell at first glance.

Wodino had the urge to raise his hand, but he quickly felt a cold and sharp object seize him by the waist.

“I can kill you before you make a noise. Wanna bet?” The voice was cold and somewhat frivolous as if the owner of the voice did not care about the ongoing situation.

Wodino’s palms were clammy and his forehead was dripping with sweat as he subtly glanced around. There was a villager that he knew standing around three meters from him while two more people from the same village and an unfamiliar person from the elite troop of the Uvandidi tribe was five meters away from him. Other than the mentioned, he was at least 20 meters away from the other villagers.

The walls of Bibino Village were long and all of them were in a curved shape. They were not exactly neat and some were as arched as the crescent moon. The whole village was built beside a giant rock called the Moon God in the grassland.

Every time the wolves attacked, during the climax of the battle, Bibino villagers were usually extra nervous due to the terrain. This time, if not for the help from the Uvandidi tribe, each squad might have been a lot further away from each other.

Therefore, Wodino could not hope for others to notice his little movements and the person behind him. Moreover, if the person behind him attracted this much attention from the people with the stars, how powerful could he be? Wodino could not have possibly fought back. Not daring make a sound, he stood quietly.

The other villagers had never seen the person in the portrait either, so how should they answer the leader of the soldiers? He repeatedly asked the question thrice but got no answer.

Would he take his men away then? Impossible, they were here to carry out a Class 1 priority operation!

The leader signaled his men and the other nine soldiers spread out, walking towards the bottom of the walls.

“Comply with our orders and nothing will happen. We are here only for the person we seek,” said the leader. He then added in a softer volume, “If he isn’t under the walls, search the whole village. I suppose I don’t need to tell you what the consequences of missing the target are, do I?”

“Yes, Sir!” the soldiers heading to the bottom of the walls replied in unison.

It was at that moment that the villagers saw five purple streaks of light flash across the grassland and headed south. Before they could react, another five purple streaks flew towards the west and five more to the east. All the purple lights appeared in a flash and disappeared into the night.

Are they…human?

Some villagers were hunters with extraordinary eyesight. Despite the grassland being lit up like daytime by many unknown light sources, the hunters identified that the 15 purple streaks were all human.

Humans possessing such ridiculous speed overwhelmed the knowledge of the villagers and hunters of the grassland. As a result, even heavier worry, fear, and pressure drowned them.

The soldiers soon reached the bottom of the wall and started their search. Every one of them had a copy of the portrait in their hand as they compared it with the villagers. One after another, the villagers were free from suspect though they were not allowed to move just yet. The atmosphere was unusually depressing and nerve-wracking.

Wodino was unusually high-strung. While he might not be the suspect, he was being seized by the suspect! Judging from the situation, it was difficult for the suspect to escape the search. If the suspect was caught, would he fight back and kill Wodino along the way?

Wodino trembled almost feverishly. The soldier who was closest to him was only 50 meters away. In less than two minutes, the soldier would arrive in front of him and the suspect.

“Calm down,” said the person behind him. Wodino tried to control his body to stop trembling.

The soldier was 30 meters away, and five more villagers were free from being a suspect.

20 meters and nothing had happened yet.

If the three people who were five meters away from him were clean, Wodino would be next.

The soles of his feet started to sweat, so his boots became slippery inside and he could barely stand properly. To his surprise, the person behind him suddenly turned around and he heard the sound of water splattering out.

Is he peeing? He’s really peeing! 

It was actually not surprising, like how one would have to pee after consuming too much alcohol, but the suspect could calmly pee in such a tense situation! How calm was the suspect? Judging from the portrait, the suspect was very young. He was probably just a boy. Should a boy not wet his pants instead in such a situation?

The little commotion attracted the soldier’s attention quickly while he was checking the last of the three villagers. Everyone that he checked revered his presence and dared not move a muscle, yet someone was peeing beside him!

“Hey, what are you doing?” the soldier roared. The three people that he checked were innocent since they looked very different from the portrait.

“I couldn’t hold it, so…” the person who peed replied nervously.

The soldier walked up to Wodino and checked him first. A quick comparison later, Wodino was also free of suspicion.

The orders the soldier got from his superior was to ignore the shape of the face and capture anyone with the same eyes and brows. Wodino’s eyebrows were thick, so he was clean. Thick brows were actually a typical feature of the grasslanders.

“Turn around,” the soldier shouted at the person who was behind Wodino.

“Right away.” The person slowly turned around, sounding meek and in reverence, but he did not look revered at all. As he turned around, he glanced over Wodino with a piercing gaze as a warning.

Wodino was actually hesitating whether or not to expose him because the brows and eyes were very similar to the person in the portrait! However, after the warning gaze, he dared not speak at all.

“I’m telling you to turn around!” Provoked, the solider grabbed the person’s shoulder and spun him around. At that very moment, maybe because of the slippery ground or the body of a dead wolf next to him, he suddenly fell down.

“You bas—” Before he could even finish cursing, he dragged the person to the ground with him.

“What happened?” asked the leader who was supervising the search when the soldier fell.

“I’m fine. I just tripped on a wolf’s body.”

The leader roared angrily, “Can you be any more stupid? Search quickly. We are entering the village next.”

“Yes, Sir!”

It was just a little episode between the search that no one paid attention to except for Wodino. He stood right beside the soldier and the person, so he saw everything with his own eyes.

When the soldier fell and dragged the suspect down together, the soldier managed to utter, “You bas—” before his throat was slit in a clean and quick way. After the leader asked what happened, it was the suspect who had mimicked the soldier’s voice and it somehow sounded similar!

How bloody bold is this guy?! 

Wodino’s eyes widened at the suspect’s ridiculous speed as he ripped the soldier’s cap off and wore it on his own head. He then took the top off the dead soldier and wore it before arming himself with the gun. He then raised the gun and pointed at himself. Then, he kicked the dead soldier’s body and said loudly, “You can only pee when I tell you to! You’ve made me fall on the ground, you bastard!”

The thick bushes around the walls blocked his lower body, and as he kicked the body, he quietly swapped his shoes and pants with the dead soldier.

The leader of the soldier did not say anything about the display of public violence either. Half a minute later, he grew impatient and commanded, “Enough.”

The suspect stopped and fixed his eyes on Wodino who trembled and shook his head, signaling that he would not expose him. Somehow, the suspect let him go despite such a simple promise.

When the suspect walked past him, he whispered, “Keeping a promise is a virtue. If you tattle on me, you will pay the price.”