Berserk: The Prophet

To facilitate their raids, even the black-armored archers were each equipped with a steppe horse. Perhaps it was just a misperception, but the further north they went, the shorter the days became.

As night fell completely, Green's vision remained unaffected, as if he had shared the dragon's night vision ability, and his guards only needed to follow his scent.

The totem on his chest flickered with a faint flame, and the familiar touch stirred restlessly on his chest; it seemed he had woken up.

The little red dragon emerged from the gap between the cotton armor and the breastplate, perched on Green's shoulder, and gazed at the snowy night.

"You're awake? This time it's been half a year."

Xiao Long tilted his head, his eyes, which seemed to flow with gold, surveying his surroundings. He stuck out his tongue and tasted the snowflakes, seemingly filled with curiosity about the silvery snowy night.

It gently flapped its small wings, creating a breeze that blew a few snowflakes off Green's shoulder.

"Gurgle, gurgle." The little dragon made a soft gurgling sound, squinted its eyes and rubbed against Green's helmet, as if responding to Green's words.

...A rather interesting little thing.

Immediately afterwards, Beligat climbed onto Green's head without any hesitation. Its tiny golden dorsal fins shone brightly, and the little dragon gradually grew to a meter in size. Its wingspan was more than two meters long. With a roar, it seemed to be announcing its awakening to the world.

Green naturally felt the heavy pressure above its head, but fortunately, it kicked and flew into the sky.

I never imagined it would grow so big. It was just a tiny little thing, no bigger than my palm. If its core strength wasn't more terrifying than that of many adults, it probably would have kicked me off the horse with just one kick.

The warhorse beneath him neighed, clearly frightened by the unintentional pressure emanating from the dragon.

"drive!!"

Green quickly calmed the warhorse and continued leading the team at high speed across the snow.

The little dragon was leading the way in the sky in front of Green, and the next moment, Green felt its gaze.

As if switched to a massive map perspective, his squad became scattered black dots, traversing the endless snowfield.

Further away, a frozen river and a frozen sea awaited them. And at the edge of their vision, the faint outline of a large group of people could be seen with their campfires slowly rising.

"That should be the Fierce Bear Gang. Belial, go check it out."

As if communicating through some kind of telepathy, his communication with the little dragon was unimpeded.

"Whoosh~" Belial's throat bobbed, as if responding to Grin, and he flapped his wings with all his might, flying there like a bolt of lightning.

......

Guts had been taking care of Gambino ever since he broke his leg.

After all, he was a former mercenary captain. Even if he could no longer go to the battlefield, he still had loyal comrades in the team looking after him. Moreover, the newly appointed Captain North also respected this old friend very much. After all, there were many things to learn about being a mercenary captain, and he still needed to consult Gambino.

No one was so ungrateful as to cause trouble. Guts did not slack off on his sword practice even though there was no fighting. Gambino was drunk again tonight, completely wasted.

Gus was in a bad mood. After practicing his sword in the middle of the night, he lay on a large rock and looked up at the night sky.

Given the size of the Fierce Bear Gang, no refugees or bandits in the vicinity would dare to come looking for trouble, so apart from the campfire, there were only a few soldiers on night watch... who were even dozing off.

The winter nights were eerily quiet except for the cold wind. Guss was lost in thought, simply gazing at the moon.

He missed Xisi a little, even though the woman had become a faint memory of him.

"Whoosh—" The faint sound of some flying creature flapping its wings was caught by Guts' ears in the excessively quiet environment.

"Whoosh—" The little dragon's figure overlapped with the moon in Gus's vision for a moment before disappearing in an instant.

"Huh?" Guts rubbed his eyes, but he couldn't spot the little dragon with his naked eye.

Only the cold wind under the night sky remained, howling and biting.

.........

As dawn broke, Green and his group had already crossed the frozen river basin. A hundred miles further north lay the coastline, which even Belial could not see the end of, with only a portion of the seawater frozen over.

The Fierce Bear Gang is heading west; we should be able to catch up with them tonight.

"Hiss, hiss—"

The warhorses pawed restlessly, exhausted from marching all night.

"Phew, let the whole army rest for a while."

At Green's command, everyone dismounted.

The soldiers found a sheltered spot, sat down, and took out rations and water from their bags to replenish their strength.

Green walked to the side, gazing at the distant coastline, and took a bite of smoked venison, chewing it as he pondered what identity he should assume when returning to the Fierce Bear Gang.

Belial flew back, but the dragon's form was too conspicuous. Just as Green was getting annoyed by it, the little dragon's back spines rippled with a cluster of golden light, as if it had cast some kind of magic, turning into a red-feathered falcon with golden claws and beak, slowly circling above Green's head.

"...Not bad."

Green stretched out his right arm, and Belial landed steadily on it. It was quite heavy; those powerful claws would have easily scratched a hand without protective gear.

"You must be hungry after just waking up, right? Here's a treat for you."

Green fed it a piece of cooked venison from the food bag. Eagles don't need to chew; they swallowed it whole, their large golden eyes still scanning the surroundings.

Through its line of sight, one can vaguely see figures fishing on the frozen sea in the nearby river basin. They might be fishermen who once lived here, or perhaps refugees and fugitives.

People began to appear on the river they had just crossed, wearing the fur of some unknown wild beast. They were very wary of Green and his group, but Green's group had already begun watering and feeding their horses.

After observing for a while, they gradually began to break the ice on the river, taking out bait, fishing lines, landing nets, harpoons, and other equipment to prepare for fishing.

Green looked at these people, pondering their identities.

For ordinary fishermen, persisting in fishing in this freezing weather, with groups of bears lurking around, must be an extremely difficult life.

If they are refugees or fugitives, they might know something about the Fierce Bear Gang, and we might be able to get some useful information from them.

“Jacob.” Green decided to send someone forward to investigate.

The two exchanged a glance, and Jacob straightened his disheveled cloak, then stood up and slowly walked towards the group.

As they saw Jacob approaching, the men's already wary eyes became even more guarded, and they unconsciously tightened their grip on the harpoons in their hands.

Jacob smiled kindly and said in as gentle a tone as possible, “Friends, don’t be nervous. We’re just passing by and saw you fishing. We wanted to ask about the situation around here.”

A burly man with a full beard sized Jacob up and down, then asked, "Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going?"

Jacob replied calmly, “We are a group of adventurers on a journey. We originally planned to go north to visit relatives who do business there, but we encountered some trouble on the way, which delayed our trip.”

The bearded man frowned slightly upon hearing this, seemingly trying to discern the truthfulness of the other's words. After a while, he slowly said, "This area isn't safe. A while ago, a gang of bandits called the Fierce Bear Gang came and committed all sorts of atrocities, burning, killing, and looting. They even stole all our food. If you don't want to cause trouble, you'd better take a detour and leave this place."

Jacob feigned surprise and asked, "The Fierce Bear Gang? We've never heard of them. Where are they now? We'd like to avoid them."

The bearded man pointed to the west and said, "They went northwest and should be camping near the sea. Don't go that way, or you'll be in big trouble."

This information matched what Beligat had seen about the troops. Jacob then asked, "And what about you? Why are you still fishing here? Aren't you afraid of running into the Fierce Bear Legion?"

The bearded man shook his head with a wry smile: "Where else can we go? In this freezing cold, leaving without enough food is certain death. Besides, if we're careful, they shouldn't find us."

Jacob nodded, chatted with them for a few more minutes, and then took his leave and returned to his group.