The Witcher: Darkness Falls

In an inn in the village of Carman, Maddison spread a map of the Grampian region on the table.

On the map, the areas to the south and east of the Grampian region have been circled with a dozen charcoal circles.

Lyon pointed to these circles and said to Madison and the two captains: "The town of Ryan was not attacked, and the other two villages that were massacred were located to the east of the south side of the Grampian city.

The other villages that reported being attacked by goblins were also located to the east and south.

Besides, there is this place.”

He pointed his finger to the north-eastern area of ​​Grampian City, which was the abandoned Donic Castle, where he and the Iron Forest mercenary team were besieged by goblins.

"Now we can roughly confirm that these places are the areas where the goblins are active, and they seem to be fleeing to the north." Lyon drew a line with his finger, made a circle and said.

After half a month of investigation, Lyon and his team had a rough idea of ​​the goblins' activity area.

It is the southern, eastern and partly northern parts of the Grampian region.

As for the east side, basically no traces of goblins were found. There are some larger towns there, close to the Alba River.

There are large areas of forests and swamps on the south and east sides, which are perfect for goblins to hide.

More than four hundred years ago, the Nilfgaard Empire was just a small country located at the southern tip of the ancient continent.

At that time, the southern end of the continent was synonymous with backwardness and barbarism in the eyes of the northern countries.

Until the black flag of the Nilfgaard Empire fluttered on the south bank of the Yaruga River, and crushed Cintra with great force, crossed the Yaruga River and reached the Soden area.

The northern countries realized that Nilfgaard had grown into a behemoth capable of destroying the entire North.

That is the only empire in the world!

However, there are still large areas of swamps and forests in the main area of ​​Nilfgaard that are difficult to develop, so most of Nilfgaard's population is concentrated in the west, near the Alba River.

It is not difficult to understand why the goblins' activities are concentrated in the east.

"Is their nest here? There is a large forest and swamp here." Madison pointed to an area in the southern part of Grampian and asked, "To the south is the Nilfgaard region, and to the north is the Grampian region. There are a lot of human villages on both sides."

Lyon shook his head. He pointed to a place slightly east of Grampian, moved his finger upwards and said, "I think it's more likely to be here, or even slightly north."

"Why?" Madison was a little confused, as the population in the south should be more densely populated.

"Intuition," Leon said.

Madison immediately stopped asking questions.

They admired Lyon's intuition very much.

In the past half month, they have investigated many villages. Some villages have experienced goblin attacks, but no one reported it.

These were all discovered by Lyon using clues that they could not see.

So, when Leon talked about intuition, they naturally believed that it was a natural ability of the demon hunter and would not think of digging into the root of the matter.

In fact, Leon made this judgment not because the demon hunter's tracking ability saw something.

Instead, when he was in Nilfgaard City, he found the sheriff of Nilfgaard through Mrs. Evertson and asked some questions. He learned that there had been no cases of monster attacks in the Nilfgaard area in recent months.

Some of the deaths were caused by neighborhood conflicts, drunkenness and drowning, etc. There was nothing special about them, and the frequency was not high.

If the goblins' lair is in the southern part of Grampian, where it borders Nilfgaard, then it is impossible for these goblins to only attack Grampian and not Nilfgaard.

That's why Lyon judged that the goblins' nest was in the area south-east of Grampian, or even further north.

"Then the next search will focus on this place!" Madison drew a big circle in the southeast corner of Grampian with his finger, and turned to the two captains beside him and said, "Notify the team to assemble, we are going here!"

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, the two captains immediately left the inn and went outside to gather the soldiers.

"Everyone assemble! It's time to set off!" a captain shouted loudly.

The soldiers who were resting in the village immediately stood up and gathered together, leading their horses.

Madison and Leon walked out of the hotel together.

"Everyone, pay attention! Our work will not be so easy from now on.

We will face hundreds of goblins. Those bastards are mean, shameless, and extremely poisonous. Once you let your guard down, they will pounce on you with their fangs and claws bared!

So, sharpen your swords for me, and cut off the heads of those beasts with one strike!

Do you understand? !”

"I understand!" the soldiers were excited.

They could finally go kill the goblins, not because they wanted to make a contribution to Earl Grampian, but because killing the goblins was considered a military achievement!

Gaining military merit is the fastest way for a soldier to be promoted. However, except in wartime, military merit is hard to come by. Most soldiers will only be able to become a team leader in their lifetime.

And now, they can gain military merit by killing goblins, how can they not be excited?

In addition to the soldiers, some stragglers nearby also gradually came over.

These people came in groups of two or three, or alone. Most of them were idle scoundrels who wanted to follow Madison's army to get some benefits.

Madison did not drive these people away, and even condoned their existence.

For him, these people can be used as cannon fodder at critical moments, which is much more cost-effective than sacrificing his own soldiers.

Of course, if these people disobey orders and hinder him at critical moments, he doesn't mind feeding these hooligans to the goblins first.

"you!"

Madison glanced at the stragglers gathered nearby and was suddenly attracted by a guy with a unique temperament.

Unlike the other stunted guys, this one is no worse than him in terms of physique.

Moreover, this guy was wearing light armor, with a long sword hanging from his waist and a dagger, and he looked much more energetic.

"Me?" The man obviously didn't expect to be noticed by Madison.

"Yes, it's you. What's your name and what do you do?" Madison asked.

"McLaren Francis, a bounty hunter, sir." McLaren said with a slight salute.

"Bounty Hunter, good, it's you!" Madison nodded, and he turned his gaze back to the hooligans around him and said, "I know what you want to do, I won't stop you.

But listen to me, if you want to get some benefits from following us, you must be obedient!

Now, you all listen to the bounty hunter. If anyone dares to mess around, don't blame me for being rude!"

"Yes! We will definitely obey!"

"it is good!"

……

But there are also discordant voices.

Someone immediately objected: "Sir, we can listen to you, but why should we listen to him?"

Madison turned to McLaren and said, "Tell him why!"

McLaren obviously also wanted to lead this group of hooligans, so he walked out with a smile on his face and looked at the person who had just spoken with a bad look.

"Don't... don't think I'm afraid of you! We have a lot of people!" The gangster who expressed his objection stuttered.

Although he was overwhelmed by McLaren's momentum, his partners behind him also gave him support.

As he said this, three companions behind him came forward.

McLaren pointed his finger at the four people in front of him with disdain and said, "Come on together! I'm in a hurry."

"Teach him a lesson!"

"Go on!"

"Haha, there's something interesting to watch!"

……

The people behind started to make a fuss and made room for them.

As if feeling humiliated, the gangster rushed forward yelling and waving his fists.

McLaren was agile, moving between the four men like a rabbit, and with just a few punches he knocked the four thugs out of their wits.

"beat him!"

"Knife! Where's your knife?"

"Shh!! Two of you hold him, and the rest hold the knives!"

……

The onlookers shouted loudly, and the soldiers on the side also watched the performance with great interest.

Someone got anxious and pulled out a dagger, trying to attack from behind. McLaren seemed to have a premonition and twisted his waist to avoid it, then clamped the opponent's wrist tightly.

Click——

The sound was crisp, and he actually broke the opponent's arm directly!

"Ah!!!" the gangster screamed and the dagger fell.

McLaren stretched out his foot, caught the dagger with the instep, then lifted it up and grabbed the dagger in his hand, and cut towards the bastard's neck.

"Enough!" Madison stopped him in time.

The dagger was about to cut the gangster's throat when it was suddenly retracted.

McLaren kicked the thug away, and he smiled while playing with the dagger and looking at the remaining thugs.

For a moment, there was complete silence.

Madison said coldly: "Is there anyone who objects?"

The gangsters looked at each other, not daring to speak.

No one expected this guy to be so powerful!

"Very good, McLaren, lead them and follow closely!" Madison nodded with satisfaction, then jumped on the horse and waved his hand, saying, "Let's go!"