"Ha~..."
Sat atop the fallen Blue Ape, with it's blood now all over him, Gaston let out a deep sigh.
Even the initial kills that always ended up being the easiest were for whatever reason, posing them trouble right now. Albeit the trouble was slight, it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"That's half of them dead. Let's go finish the job and get out of here as fast as possible. Something bothers me about this ambush."
Placing his punch dagger back in its place, Gaston got off of the Blue Ape and said to the other two men that were with him. After that, he went to grab his halberd.
Neither Ruben nor Hasso felt that there was anything different about this ambush, but they didn't think to slow down and have a discussion with Gaston about it.
In times like these, they would take Gaston's word for it for the moment, and then when they were in a more secure area, Gaston would take the initiative to begin the debrief.
A very modern concept, the leader explaining the thoughts behind their actions, but one past Gaston had apparently decided to implement. It was probably wise given that the four men with him were not really his subordinates.
Rather than beneath him, they were apex predators themselves that happened to respect him enough to let him keep the position he had naturally obtained when he was the only one in the Qi Refining stage.
In hindsight, if this new continent wasn't so ridiculously dangerous, where Blue Ape's even stronger then them kept appearing in a never-ending stream, the four of them would probably not have agreed to be led by Gaston so easily.
Especially so after they broke through in their cultivation and became Qi Cultivators just like him.
Then again, he doubted his past self would have been so generous so as to hand out his magic techniques at the Qi Refining level for free, like he had done if he weren't forced by the circumstances either.
Even though the only two magic techniques he had for Qi Refining Cultivators were the most basic ones, "Element-based Strengthening" and "Consciousness Transmission", they were still regarded as priceless ancient treasures back where they came from.
Regardless of what would have been, bound together by their current circumstances, they had now spent several months in their new relationship.
After Gaston grabbed his halberd and Hasso grabbed his spear, the three of them, including Ruben who didn't get to do anything before the fight ended, headed towards Nicolaus and Siegbert.
It didn't take more than a few seconds of running however, to discover that the two of them had gotten themselves entangled with the remaining pair of Blue Apes.
Both Ruben and Hasso were both about to head over there on instinct and help them finish the job as quickly as they could, but Gaston held them back.
Suddenly stopped in their tracks, the two of them were confused by his actions, looking at Gaston with a questioning look on their faces.
Seeing that he would have to explain himself, he quickly stated, "the other four Blue Apes that move without partners usually lag a bit behind the four pairs of Blue Apes, but not this far behind.
"They must have discovered by this point that this is an ambush. If we go help Nicolaus and Siegbert now, we'll be in trouble later."
Explaining his thought process to both reassure them, but also as a way of thinking out loud, Gaston had them hide behind some trees nearby, not revealing themselves to their two friendlies.
After listening to the transmitted thoughts, Hasso looked to be deep in thought where as Ruben still had questions to ask.
"Do you think they're lying in wait for us to try to help Nicolaus and Siegbert?"
Shaking his head in response to Ruben's question, Hasso was the first one to respond to him.
"No Ruben, if they could have gotten here before us they definitely would have tried to surround and kill the two isolated humans."
This response only prompted Ruben to continue however, "then why aren't we doing the same? After killing the two in front of us, there will only be four split up Blue Ape's left. It should be easy pickings for us by then."
Judging from past experience, Ruben and Hasso were about to go into a long back and forth process of questioning and answering, but Gaston knew that there was no time for that.
With that in mind, he interrupted them and cut to the chase, "because by the time we do that Ruben, the four split up Blue Ape's will gather together, and then we will have to engage in a real battle with them.
"We will outnumber them by one, but so what? With depleted energy reserves and time pressure, it will be difficult to even end up as winners, let alone exterminate them with no casualties and escape before their reinforcements arrive."
Pausing for a moment to look at the battle between Nicolaus, Siegbert and the two Blue Ape's, Gaston then continued.
"The two of them look to be handling their own to me. If we try to transmit our thoughts to them we'll be immediately discovered by these perceptive creatures, so we're just going to have to trust them on this one.
"In the meantime, the three of us should split up and kill the lone Blue Apes before they gather together."
Both Ruben and Hasso nodded their heads in response to Gaston's plan.
Naturally, this didn't mean that they both agreed with it, but that they would do as he said. If they had any questions, they would ask them in the post mission debrief, a term taught to them by Gaston.
In times like this there was little to no time for communication, which is why they came up with such a process of handling things.
As they were about to discover however, even the two seconds that they had spent from spotting their two friendlies to thinking and coming up with a plan, were two seconds too many.
Before they had even separated from each other by more than 20 meters, an accident occurred.
'Gaston, it's too late! Two of them have already found each other and are both running towards us. We're going to be engaging in combat in a few seconds!"
Even thought they were only separated by a little over 20 meters, it was still too long of a distance for them to transmit their thoughts.
In this case, Ruben shouted out loud as soon as him and Hasso, who were both still within each other's sights, saw that they had been discovered first by the Blue Apes.
Gaston turned around immediately after he heard shouting, but after listening to what Ruben said, a chill went up his spine!