The pitch-black, stormy night shrouded the land. Deafening thunder shook the sky, the whole firmament humming as if it were alive. Spiderweb-like lightning kept tearing it open, turning night into day in sudden, blinding flashes that chilled the heart. Bean-sized raindrops pounded down, drumming on the vast primeval forest with a crackling roar, adding a few more degrees of horror to this dark, mysterious sea of trees.
In a patch of dense jungle, countless shadows flickered, rapidly closing in on a military camp. Using the lightning for illumination, they ran like leopards, bodies bare, only a rough hemp cloth wrapped around their lower halves. Bows and arrows in hand, quivers on their backs, their hard, corded muscles stood out starkly under the lightning, as if packed with inexhaustible power.
