The Revolving Trap
"Hurry up and get ready, Shrakhim. Didn’t you say your pride was hurt because they had a knight doing beast-cleanup work? Since it was your wish, I gave you something more important. So why the long face?"
Ho-yeong had promised that he would send the dispatch guard back to their posts once the tactics were over. The troublemakers he had assigned to the Monster Management Team, Shrakhim included, were now being used as a separate strike force.
"Ah, yes. I trust you will keep your promise, Lord."
"Don’t worry. Once we catch the Hogriffon, I’ll send you back to your territory. How many times do I have to say it? We’ve got priests here too, so should I make a holy oath or what?!"
"I-I will believe you, Lord."
"If I listen to Lillian, the monsters raiding the Kihara territory sound like centaurs or something... I doubt you lot will help much, but whatever. Not my problem."
They were bait for luring the Hogriffon into a trap. No, more precisely, it would be more accurate to say that the horses they rode were the bait.
According to Wyatt’s advice, the Hogriffon’s favorite food was horses. White horses, in particular. Most of the dispatch guard’s warhorses were white, which made this a stroke of luck for Ho-yeong.
- Snort.
"What is wrong with these horses? Why won’t they listen all of a sudden!"
It was not exactly good news for the horses.
Sensing the approach of their natural enemy, the warhorses had begun to panic badly.
If the horses get scared, the whole baiting plan is dead. We can’t fail before the operation even starts.
Communion and Wide-Area Edification
Ho-yeong cast both skills at once.
"You poor things, suffering because you’re carrying a foolish master. Of course you’d be frightened. But if you hold steady and see this through, I’ll give you all the sweet fruit you can eat! I’ll even upgrade your stable, so let’s do this properly."
「The warhorses of the dispatch guard have calmed significantly, and their edification has improved considerably.」
- Hee-hiiih!
"Good. That’s the spirit."
「Achievement [Combination] attained! Your guardian’s sense stands out for using an active skill and a passive skill together. Reward: 10 EP gained.」
Just as Ho-yeong was thinking about how he suddenly wanted pizza because of the achievement name, the status window rang out again.
「Ability level increased! Passive skill Communion has risen greatly from level 2 to level 4.」
「Skill tree generated! You may choose and learn an additional effect of Communion. Please select one of the following two options.
(A) Remote Command: You can issue orders to allied monsters and animals from a distance.」
(B) Precision Command: Only when making physical contact with a monster, you can issue more complex and difficult orders.」
Remote control or face-to-face consultation...
After a brief moment of thought, Ho-yeong chose Remote Command.
The convenience of giving orders from afar without any contact is way more valuable right now.
He then gave Shrakhim and the rest of the strike force exact instructions on what they needed to do.
"Listen carefully to what I’m about to say."
Most of them had low intelligence stats, so they needed especially thorough guidance.
"Step 1. Charge straight through the middle of the Hogriffons. Line up side by side so those bastards can see you, no, the horses, clearly."
"W-wait, the middle—"
"Don’t interrupt me, Shrakhim. Step 2. Turn to the right. Make sure you leave some distance before you turn. After that, keep dragging them along so they end up following your tail. Circle around in a wide loop. Understood?"
"I understand, Lord. You mean we should keep turning in circles so we don’t get surrounded by them."
At least as a former guard captain, Shrakhim proved a little sharper than the others.
"That’s right. For a pig, you’re smarter than those boar-eagle bastards. Barely, but still."
"...Oink!"
The Hogriffon pack charged across the broad plain in a horizontal line.
There wasn’t enough time or manpower to spread the traps out wide. If they wanted to drive the Hogriffons into the limited traps available, they had to turn the beasts’ formation from a horizontal line into a vertical one, like children playing train.
"Final step, step 3. I’ll send a signal with a light orb, and when you see it, turn back. Remember this. Don’t stop until you see the signal. And unless you’re absolutely forced into it, no fighting. Understood? Why aren’t you answering?!"
"Y-yes, understood!"
[Operation Overview]
● : Hogriffon
○ : Strike Force
※ : Traps
Step 1
●●●●●
●●●●●
↓
↑
○○○
Step 2 A
●●●●●
●●●●●
↓
○○○ → → →
Step 2 B
●●●●●↘
●●●●● ↗
↘ ↗
○○○↗
Step 2 C
●●●
●●● → ○○○ → ⊂⊃ repeated rotation
●●●
Step 3
●●●●● ●●●●● → ○○○ → ※※※
While the strike force was getting ready, Lillian approached.
"Is it really all right to give such an important role to those cowards?" she asked, looking genuinely worried.
"It’s fine because they’re cowards."
"Pardon?"
"Look at that guy stuffing his pockets with Blink scrolls. Since it’s not his money, he’s taking every expensive thing he can get his hands on."
Ho-yeong pointed at Shrakhim, who was gathering emergency scrolls, and answered.
"As you said, all of them are cowards. They have no fighting spirit at all when it comes to facing the Hogriffon. Well, I wasn’t going to order them to fight anyway."
"Then why...?"
"Because cowards are good at running away. If they want to survive, they’ll run at full speed. That makes them perfect bait. Heroic spirit isn’t needed for this role. In fact, it’d only get in the way."
Lillian asked herself whether she could have ever given up all fighting spirit. Whether she could have devoted herself completely to luring and escaping.
She already disliked the act of retreating, even in pretense, and she regarded traps as dishonorable tactics. So this baiting operation itself sat ill with her.
The lord knew that, and that’s why he didn’t assign the lure to me.
For a moment, she resented her own stubborn fixation on straightforward honor.
"But even with traps alone, we won’t be able to wipe out all the Hogriffons. The moment will come when spears and claws have to meet."
Ho-yeong turned away from Shrakhim and placed a hand on Lillian’s shoulder.
"And that’s when the hero steps in."
A warm sensation spread through her, loosening the tension in her rigid shoulder.
The exhausted lord’s touch was faint and light, but it carried trust so heavy it felt boundless.
"I will bring out my courage."
Lillian extended her left fist straight ahead in a salute.
* * *
Perhaps because of the wide-area edification, the strike force was doing better than expected.
"Huff, huff. Run faster!"
What a false retreat needed most was realism. Because the strike force’s flight was genuine, the effect was striking.
What surprised Ho-yeong was something else entirely.
- Hooogrri!
"Those pig-eagle bastards don’t even look tired."
The Hogriffons’ seemingly endless stamina.
The strike force’s baiting mission had two goals: first, to draw the Hogriffons into the trap in a straight line; second, to wear them down along the way.
"Shouldn’t they be collapsing by now after running for hours with bodies that huge? They’ve slowed a little, but still."
Their hulking charge kicked up clouds of dust. Two forces kept it going: the instinct to pursue prey fleeing across open ground without turning back, and the fact that the prey happened to be the very food they loved most.
"I don’t think making them run in circles longer will tire them out all that much, but it’s bought us some time."
Time to place the traps and troops with greater precision.
「Achievement [Let’s All Take a Walk Around the Neighborhood Together] attained! If there isn’t enough time, then you just make it. Your guardian’s disgusting little idea is annoyingly brilliant. Reward: 10 EP gained.」
By the time the snow-white foam of sweat from the northern warhorses had stained the ground,
"I suppose it’s time to signal. Number Eight, call out!"
- Kyaaaaargh!
Along with the vigorous starting cry of Mandragorani Number Eight, the mana-clay orb burst into blinding white light.
It was time to make the Hogriffons stand in a vertical line and play train.
"Huff, huff. Now we need to lift that with a antigravity spell... and scatter the light by the wave, but... I don’t have any mana left, Lord."
Sicoop was utterly exhausted. Even with the help of mana clay, creating multiple magic circles one after another seemed to drain mana heavily.
"That’s the problem with mages. They want to solve everything with magic."
Ho-yeong tossed the orb high into the air.
"You could just throw it as hard as you can. Why waste mana on something like this?"
"Ah."
Antigravity spell, physically.
"If the body is weak, the brain suffers. So make sure you train your stamina too."
When the light orb shot to its highest point, Ho-yeong signaled to Baunal.
"Leave it to me, sir!"
The stone hurled from the spinning sling struck the light orb dead on.
"Nice shot."
The orb shattered, scattering fragments of light in all directions.
Light-shatter spell, physically.
"T-the signal!"
The strike force, who had been savoring the thrill of bullfighting, no, boarfighting, immediately turned.
"Good, keep running! Rubia, please."
"Let the solitary blaze of passion be taught to burn itself down."
Rubia conjured holy flame and raised a wall of fire. Of course, she left one side open so the strike force could pass through.
- Hogrri?!
The Hogriffons, who had been starting to break formation, balked at the flames and clumped back together in a line.
"Lady Rubia, was it? That’s some impressive divine power," said Jea, admiring the display as a fellow priestess.
"But, Lord Byeonbangbaek. If those Hogriffons were to get scared of the flames and give up their advance, or even run away, what would you do?" asked Pierre.
"Then I’d say thank you! If they retreat on their own, that’s a lucky cookie fortune cookie, isn’t it~"
"...Pardon?"
"Ah, I mean I’d be relieved not to have to fight them."
Wyatt tilted his head at that.
"But wouldn’t that make all the traps you prepared useless? Chasing down fleeing beasts would be difficult in many ways."
"My goal is to defend the territory, not to beat those bastards into the ground. It’s the same with the traps. If the best outcome is that they work well, then the best of all is that they never need to work at all."
The explorer seeks adventure in danger.
The guardian takes out insurance because of danger.
"That’s a fair point. I was too narrow-minded. Still... with that level of divine power, couldn’t you have used the flames themselves as a trap? Your strike force already lured the beasts together so neatly in a line."
Ho-yeong stared at the flames without answering.
"...Lord Byeonbangbaek?"
"You’re right. That would’ve been far more efficient. Why didn’t I think of that?"
"Pardon? Ah... well, even if the fire caught, the ground’s all dirt, so if the beasts rolled around, it might go out quickly, I suppose."
"Exactly. That’s what I was worried about. Yes, well. Right. Anyway, let’s watch for now. We’ll have to see whether they withdraw or not."
The lord prayed desperately.
Please, just go out. That way we save resources and avoid a lot of trouble...
But Ho-yeong’s hope of getting things for free did not seem likely to come true.
Only a few beasts at the front flinched for a moment, and then the pack rushed toward the empty opening.
"They’re not backing down. Tch. We’ll have to do it the planned way. Horses, turn off to the side!"
Ho-yeong issued the command to the strike force’s warhorses.
He was making good use of the skill tree effect he had just learned, Remote Command.
This is convenient. Rather than making the dispatch guard individually check and avoid the traps, it’s better to command the horses directly.
The riders only had to follow the horses’ route, which would be easier for them as well. With giant monsters chasing their tails, it was hard to keep one’s eye on the dust-covered ground.
"Back to the center!"
This was to keep allies from blundering into the traps.
- Hoooguk!
With a thunderous blast, the Hogriffons’ legs and bellies exploded.
"Nice!"
Berneval shouted with delight loud enough to match the explosion.
The first trap was buried explosive stone. It had been recovered from the ones previously laid to deal with the hobgoblins.
- Hogrk!
The impact needed to trigger it was easily supplied when the Hogriffons’ heavy bodies stamped the ground.
"Now that’s it, that’s it!"
Because the explosive stones had been planted at intervals, there was little wasted firepower.
The Hogriffons are huge per unit area. Rather than inflicting shallow injuries on several of them with one blast, it’s better to put one down decisively with a single hit.
Those who sensed danger began to leap into the air.
"I’ve heard of a joke about flying pork cutlets, but seeing a wild boar actually fly is something else."
But that too was within Ho-yeong’s calculations.
- Hogrri?
A whirlwind rose from the ground.
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