The strange liquid that covered the arrow was poison that could kill anything living or undead... But since the intention of the archers seemed to be to capture Hajime rather than to end him. They used a weak version of the poison that was enough to end him if it got to his heart.
"That was easier than I thought."
A moment later, after the poison had completely settled into Hajime, the two archers appeared.
Their faces were unclear, and one of them wore armor that possessed chainmail underneath.
The armor was colored silver and looked quite similar to the Knights in Dol, the only difference being that this one appeared to be focused on sword play rather than handling power arms.
"It's just a kid." One of them said as they approached Hajime's unconscious body.
"Yeah... But it's better than capturing nothing." The other replied as he wrapped his hand around the arrow in Hajime's back and pulled it.
"I guess... But we can just leave him here and look for some more... I mean, look at him. Will he even sell at a decent amount of veyr? And I highly doubt that we can find anything else here." The first one said, his gaze darting to his sides.
The other turned as he removed Hajime from the ground while holding the arrow he pulled out of him.
"...No, no, and you're right. You know why?"
He started to move away from where his friend was standing, carrying Hajime on his shoulder.
"I don't have decent equipment on me because of our last fight with those Avalon knights. So, imagine for once, if we go where this kid came from, we will surely be cooked, cause the knights we faced last time came from the same direction," He paused.
"If I'm guessing right here, I think those Avalonian knights were coming from Melcelut, which means something is up." He added, looking at some moonlight bugs on a fallen tree.
"Yeah, something's definitely up, but you worry too much... Remember, I can take down those Kingdom knights if I just tried."
"I know that you can try to take them on yourself. But think of this for a sec... Lately, Melcelut has been holding these secret gatherings with other kingdoms, and no one knows the specifics of the meetings, since they're a secret and all
Now, if you could imagine how many knights from Melcelut and other kingdoms are in the location the kid is coming from... They could be running some sort of test in that small village. Meaning if we go in headfirst, we'll surely be captured and imprisoned in Kingdom."
The other archer stayed silent for a moment, wondering about what his friend had explained and weighing their chances of survival. Still, he couldn't understand exactly his friend stated.
"What's that supposed to mean... You know I can do more than fight." He became slightly furious.
His friend didn't reply but just ignored him by looking the other way as he muttered, "I knew you were dumb, but I figured you'd be a little smarter than this," with a soft sigh.
"Are you ignoring me on purpose?"
"I am."
Suddenly, a gust of immersive mana blew past them like the wind.
"D, did you feel that?"
The armored archer asked, his hand suddenly stiffened as his legs subtly began shaking like he had seen the ripper standing before them.
The crossbow he was carrying slipped from his fingers and fell on some bushes with a faint switch.
"Something's wrong?" The archer with Hajime uttered.
Silence suddenly fell between them.
His armored friend didn't utter immediately. He appeared to be frozen by the immersive Mana.
"...Let's get out of here..."
"What? Did you come back to your senses?" His friend asked, with an almost teasing, awkward smile, as his friend swiveled, picking up his crossbow, and started approaching him.
"No... But it's a bad idea for us to stay here any longer. C'mon"
He passed him without looking at him neither the direction the mana had come from.
His friend didn't notice that the other archer was shaking in his boots. He just started following him as they both kept their mouths shut.
◇◇◇◇
A few minutes later.
The two archers came across a dirt road that separated the left woods from the right. And from a short distance on this road, there was a wagon tied to a single horse sitting on the side of it.
"I'm sure the fletchers are gonna be pissed if they hear that we covered the arrows in poison." The archer carrying Hajime said.
They approached the wagon without hesitation, and weren't even phased by it.
The archer with the armor took the lead as his friend followed.
After reaching the wagon, the archer with Hajime placed Hajime inside it, and proceeded to sit in front of the wagon as the driver. The armored archer was inside with their captive.
"Where should we head first?! The border or home?!" The archer in front asked.
"I was thinking the border to drop him first!" He added as he turned, looking behind him.
"...Great idea. But we should go to the nearest river first to clean the smell of blood from the wagon—it reeks." The armored archer replied inside the wagon.
"You're right! We should head to the nearest river first, and when morning arives, we'll proceed to the border!" He stopped for a moment, turning and facing the horse.
Then he continued, "Hold on tight!" As he smacked the horse to start moving.
With that, they were on their way.
◇◇◇◇
Back in Dol.
On the training ground. Reiko's barrier was still up, and she and the others were still waiting for Xuo to return together with Hajime.
Reiko appeared to be anxious, as Rica looked worried, while Zuo was sitting on a tree lying on the ground with its roots out. He was hitting his right foot down in anticipation of Xuo's safe retreat.
He had been holding onto a black crystal on a necklace, as a small amount of sweat streamed across his face.
He was worried for Xuo, since Xuo was his older brother and he had never been late to anything if he said he could do the thing. But with him gone for so long, he couldn't help but worry.
"Come on, where are you?" He muttered softly.
Suddenly, as he was about to look at the crystal, giving himself force hope that his brother was going to return, the crystal cracked open, and in the blink of an eye it turned white before it turning into a normal rock.
"...What...?" He uttered, staring at the rock on the necklace.
"...This can't..." He continued with a murmur.
Reiko and Rica turned their attention to him, wondering what was up. But the moment Reiko had swiveled, her eyes wandered straight to the necklace.
The moment she had made contact with it, she knew that...
Xuo wasn't coming back anytime soon.
She raised her thumb close to her mouth and, with a grave look in her eyes, bit it before looking away from him, facing the village, as Rica looked at her with a confused but worried expression.
Rica had understood most of what was going on, yet she couldn't help but feel sorry for herself.
"...Xu, Xuo's dead..." Zuo continued, tears streaming down his face.
The necklace snapped, and before long, turned into dust that was blown away by the passing wind.