Chapter 28: For a Blue and Pure World
Yarpen's eyes widened.
"Are you really a Witcher? Even professors from Oxenfurt University couldn't say something so profound and so concise. They'd only make the simple complicated and prattle on about any rubbish at all."
Lynn smiled: "By the way, Yarpen, why don't you and your friends play?"
"My card abilities are ordinary, I cannot win every time like you. The best way not to lose is not to play. Allowing the cards to others win a little less, but I like a sure-win deal."
The two chatted happily, like old friends who had not seen each other for years.
Since arriving at the caravan, Lynn was the first interesting person Yarpen had encountered.
And Lynn liked this dwarf as well, so he was happy to talk to him.
After a brief exchange, Yarpen simply let out a sigh of relief: "Luckily, we're not in Kaedwen's territories."
Lynn immediately sensed the underlying meaning in his words.
"Are you scared of the Scoia'tael?"
As Kaedwen's discrimination and oppression of non-human races were extremely serious, they spawned many non-human races that were dissatisfied with the situation and rebelled.
Most individuals thought that uprisings of non-human kinds happened only in Kaedwen.
But what they did not realize was that turbulences of non-human races did not happen only in Kaedwen.
It also included the entire Northern Kingdoms.
Yarpen was stunned, then stroked his beard and cried out.
"Scoia'tael? They do have squirrel tails or furs on their head or clothing as ornaments, the name suits them well, though I have heard them call themselves 'Children of Freedom' many times."
In fact, the name Scoia'tael officially entered the history scene during the First Northern War.
Up until now, it has not yet become famous.
But Children of Freedom?
Lynn curled his lips.
Tsk tsk, they really know how to gild their own faces.
Looking at Yarpen's solemn face, Lynn half-joked.
"If I recall correctly, their motto is 'Drive humans back into the sea', doesn't it not mention dwarves?"
Yarpen shook his head.
"It's not that easy. I know humans call dwarves and elves the Old Races, but dwarves and elves have never had any common purpose."
"To be precise, the only difference between elves and humans is that their White Ships arrived on this ground a thousand years before human beings."
"Don't glance at them smiling over at us now, calling us compatriots, calling us kin."
"But before humans came, they were firing their arrows at us. Now all of a sudden we're brothers again? Sorry, at least me and my companions don't think so."
Lynn asked in a questioning manner: "But I remember, didn't there just so happen to be some dwarves who joined their uprising?"
Yarpen breathed heavily.
"That's true, after all, every dwarf has his own idea."
"I must say, some dwarves, despite not being young, are still hotheads, and some passionate slogans can easily exploit their stupidity and naivety."
"But to me, we have to learn how to live peacefully together."
"Dwarves and humans, come on, we're not that different, we bleed the same blood, drink the same water. Humans aren't monsters, and neither are dwarves."
"The world is so wide, it can hold humans and dwarves. well, and elves, if only they were not so fanatical and extreme, we."
Yarpen's words were cut off by an arrow shot from the wood.
Arrows, like flying birds, kept shooting from the wood, in the caravan's direction.
One of the guards sitting by the carriage shouted.
But it stopped shortly.
An arrow hit his neck, and he rolled off the carriage.
The surprise attack left the team bewildered.
An arrow swooshed down out of nowhere into the back of the pony.
The pony whinnied and fell on its side.
Yarpen had no chance to leap from the saddle.
He could only stand by helpless as he was pushed to the ground by the falling pony.
And at this critical moment.
A hand quickly grasped the back of his collar and pulled him up just in time.
Yarpen was shocked, but he did not forget to thank him.
Being trampled by a horse on this insane battlefield meant death.
He put Yarpen on the ground.
He also got off the horse.
It was not suitable to ride a horse through the jungle.
He slapped the back of the horse and released it. In the meantime, he and Yarpen took cover behind a wagon.
Istrad's horses were all well trained, so there was no worry that they would lose their way. They simply had to be called back later.
The two utilized the wagon as cover to take shelter.
Arrows whizzed past, whistling through the air, and the sound of them striking the wagon continued to ring.
Lynn gestured Yarpen to hide properly.
Then he put on a Quen shield and looked outside.
The caravan had stopped.
The ground and wagons were laden with arrows.
The caravan guards showed the professionalism of their trade.
After the initial confusion, the remaining guards relied on the wagons to defend themselves with crossbows.
But Lynn soon concluded after a brief observation:
From the number of arrows fired by both sides, it was clear that they were outnumbered.
And the foes were penned in the forest, and they were on the road and couldn't move.
If the foes made a circuit to the forest at their rear and shot arrows behind them, they would perish.
Taking advantage of the fact that the foes hadn't circulated yet, escaping to the forest at their back might give them a chance of survival.
Was he going to leave him and escape alone?
Lynn knew Geralt's character very well. If Geralt was a coward, then he would have been killed with a pitchfork in the original novel.
Given this, he did not waver.
He faced the dwarf and spoke.
"Yarpen, you stay here."
Yarpen was surprised: "What? Witcher, where are you going?"
He took out a potion from his pouch.
This was a potion he had brewed during his downtime on the road. With limited facilities in the wilderness, he could not brew potions in bulk as he used to do in Kaer Morhen.
A few bottles did suffice, however.
The one in his hand was named "Blizzard".
It would trigger adrenaline secretion and stimulate the nervous response system and enable him to get into a bullet-time-like mode for a brief period.
He drank the potion in one gulp, the liquid gushed down his throat and covered his entire body. The potion took effect quickly, and Lynn felt a prickly and numb sensation on his face simultaneously.
Especially around his eyes, the numbness was even stronger.
In Yarpen's eyes, Lynn's facial blood vessels puffed up simultaneously, visible to the naked eye, and made his originally good-looking face look terrifying.
This sudden contrast shocked Yarpen.
Lynn ignored Yarpen's reaction, uttered the words again, and then jumped out from behind the cover wagon and ran toward the forest like a savage ice wolf.
The caravan path across the forest was only forty or fifty meters away from the forest where the foes were hiding.
Even ordinary folks would not take long to walk this distance.
And a Witcher, whose body was stronger than ordinary people, would need even less time.
But as soon as he moved away from the wagon, the enemies saw him.
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