Several more days passed without any trouble in the horizon and their reconnaissance mission on the southern side of the forest was coming to an end, but there was one last stop for them, a lone village technically under the jurisdiction of the Blue Tiger Kingdom called  Stonemound village. It was a village populated by the indigenous people of this land who mere not very fond of the Blue Tiger Kingdoms rule, but they behaved and paid their taxes.

Fortunately for them, or maybe now for the kingdom, the village was situated near a strange stone mound witch was rich in metals,  especially iron,  some gold and silver, but the most valuable was crude 'Blazing Iron'. It was only found in trace amounts,  but it was very valuable, 10 times more than gold. It was a good weapon creating material for cultivators of a certain stage, but much expensive for lower tier cultivators and somewhat useless.

"So, this is the village huh....its so strange." said Heng to no one in peculiar,  and Yin Hai who was next to him nodded. 

"It's indeed something one wouldn't expect in this place,  but it's like it's own world. With the rich metal deposits around its architecture,  culture and even economy is unique."

"I can see that..." smiled Heng as he looked at the village and its somewhat small but sturdy houses. Compared to the wooden houses of the camp they resided in, the houses of the village were made of wood and metal. It was strange to look at it, almost like he was in a medieval stem punk setting. Still this was not what they had come here for. Squad Commander Li departed towards the village leaders house with two soldiers, and the rest of them stayed on a wide clearing which was the middle of the village. 

They were somewhat anxious,  but also curious about the village,  but they weren't the only curious ones. The children of the village would gaze at them from some distance away, but never approach or speak to them. This made Heng a little uncomfortable as he felt like a animal on a zoo. Still it was not bad as Heng couldn't help but look at the children of the village who were equipped to the teeth with weapons. Each of them held at least two daggers on their waist,  and all of them wore intricate metal necklaces. This made them look like little warriors,  something Heng tried to put on the back of his mind.

.........

About an hour passed as Squad Commander Li spoke with the village leader,  and brought an unwelcome news with him.

"Listen here men, " spoke Li with a calm but loud voice" I know you expected to depart as soon as possible,  but it seems that the village has some pest problems, and as were here,  we will solve that problem. So you better wipe the happiness out of your face, and get ready to set camp here tonight. "

"Yes sir!" Responded all of them,  but inside they were cursing him. On the other hand they were also wondering what this pest Li was talking was, and soon they would find out.

.............

That night instead of setting their camp inside the forest,  they did it just outside the village. It was much safer here than in the forest as not many animals dared to come here,  but they still kept alert as it was an order by Commander Li. And so, the sun set , replaced by the silvery crescent moon making the soldiers who had been marching all day sleepy.  Even Heng was beginning to drift off into sleepy land, but the sudden narrowing of his vision woke him right up.

"What....was that?" said Heng unconsciously , and the others heard him, but only Hai noticed Heng's change in expression.

"Heng,  what is it? Did you notice something?" 

"I..think, I didn't know.....I'm not sure?!" answered Heng as he took the small crossbow he had hanging on his side and pointed it forward. He closed one his eyes and took aim, and almost shouted as his vision narrowed on several places . With the naked eye Heng couldn't see anything under the blanket of darkness,  but he was certain that enemies were there.

He looked sideways at  Yin Hai who was also looking at him, and mouthed those words to him ' They are coming.' It was a chilling statement that made Yin Hai to tighten the grip on his spear, and in the next moment almost throw the spear as a shout from behind startled him.

"Get ready!" came the loud voice of the Commander Li ,  and everyone became alert as several shadows came running towards them from the darkness.

"Attack....

"Uooooo....

The clash happened quickly as both sides didn't hesitate. Steel rang, flesh was torn, and bone broke in a deadly symphony as they clashed,  but it wasn't that easy.

"Diee...." shouted one of the soldiers as he speared one of the attackers on the gut , feeling it clearly penetrate deep.  He retracted his spear,  knowing his enemy was about to die soon,  but something he hadn't expected happened. Exept from some staggering steps , the man that attacked him didn't seem to care about the deadly wound on his belly,  and pushed forward again 

"Whaat!?" exclaimed the soldier as he was quickly tackled to the floor,  and it was then when it hit him. The foul stench of his opponents open mouth made him almost vomit, but he didn't have the luxury of time as the enemy was overpowering him. Fortunately a fellow soldier was nearby,  and he stabbed the enemy once again on the back. With those two wounds even a stubborn ox would die, but not the thing before them. He kept struggling to claw the soldier on the floor as the other stabbed him repeatedly with a spear. It would be pretty funny if it wasn't so terrifying.

Not  far away,  Heng was also fighting one of the attackers,  having stabbed him in several places multiple times, but to no avail  as he kept commig. It was very terrifying to experience something like that,  but he didn't give up and his experience as someone from 21st century earth , he went for the head. "HUAAPP.....

Firstly  he tripped the thing,  almost loosing his spear on the process,  got on top of it and stabbed his spear with both his hands. The sound of the skull cracking was clearly heard as the spear penetrated deep inside the skull, and it finally stopped moving. 

"Hah..hah..hah..

Heng breathed hard as he looked at the now unmoving body,  hesitating to remove the spear. A shout of his name from Hai though made him change his mind as he went to help him.