A Fortunate Meeting
Hogrifon packs had a habit of putting the largest individuals in front.
The ones in the rear could only run after them, their view blocked by the sheer bulk of their own kin.
- Hoog?!
It was only after being sucked into the dimensional gate that they sensed something was wrong, but by then it was already too late.
The twenty-ninth one to leap in was knocked back when the gate closed, never making it through.
The thirtieth Hogrifon in the rear failed to keep a safe distance and ended up burying its beak in a companion’s rump.
- Hooook!
- Hogr, hog!
Neither side found the experience pleasant.
The irritation of the one pecking and the one being pecked quickly escalated from squabbling to outright beak blows.
- Rani, rani-rani. Rani? (They’re fighting over who’s a “boar-brained bastard” and who’s a “birdbrain.”)
Mandragorani No. 8’s translation left the people staring blankly for a moment.
“Captain of the Guard, what should we do? Please give the order.”
“Atta... no, wait.”
Lilian, who had inherited command in the lord’s absence, was about to give the order to attack when she paused.
She signaled the others down to the ground, telling them to keep low and out of sight so the Hogrifons wouldn’t spot them.
“We’ll stay concealed until those beasts finish their fight.”
“You mean...?”
“If we attack now, they’ll join forces and counterattack. But if we let them beat each other senseless, one of them may end up seriously wounded. At the very least, they’ll wear themselves down. So we wait. When I give the signal, attack.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Deputy Guard Captain Dranius was a soldier who never questioned an order.
Still, even he was puzzled. The Lilian he knew would have charged without hesitation in a moment like this.
So this is what you meant, Lord Ho-yeong.
Watching the Hogrifons lash out not only with beaks but with claws as well, Lilian recalled a conversation they had shared one night on the road to Tamer Territory.
“To make criminals into territory citizens and even borrow the hands of monsters... The lord you used to be, no, the company commander you used to be, would never have used such a power even if you had possessed it.”
“Because it would have gone against a knight’s honor?”
The lord, who valued honor above all else, had added,
“Honor doesn’t feed the people of the territory. It can’t protect them, either.”
At first, she had not understood what he meant.
But I think I do now.
For Lilian, honor had meant something to be upheld.
For the lord, by contrast, it had always been about insisting that the territory’s people must be protected.
While I fought to defend honor, you fought to defend people. Not as a knight or a warrior, but as a guardian.
Deeply moved by everything he had done since becoming lord, Lilian clenched her fist.
For me, honor was a yoke. I was obsessed with glory and renown, and I never understood what I truly had to protect.
Watching the Hogrifons fight, she found herself thinking suddenly,
What are you fighting for?
The brawl, which had begun simply because they were in a bad mood, had already turned into a brutal bloodbath. Feathers were torn out and stained with blood, and murderous intent burned in their glaring eyes.
For a Hogrifon, which had no nest and no territory to defend, the concept of protecting something was nearly nonexistent. Still, there was one thing even they had to safeguard: their own lives.
In that sense, those beasts might be better than I once was. Unlike me, who used to boast about never holding back my body, they’re at least struggling to keep themselves alive.
Lilian tightened her grip on the spear.
But now I, too, have something to protect. A place to protect.
She had resolved to change for the sake of the precious territory she served, just as the man she admired had done.
- Hooog!
The fierce struggle ended with victory for the twenty-ninth Hogrifon, the one that had failed to catch the last dimensional gate. Soon after, it came to its senses.
What am I doing? Sudden move. Strange place. Where am I? Where’s the prey?
“Archers!”
When blood loss from the fight and the confusion in its mind had slowed its movements.
“Shoot its wings!”
Lilian ordered ranged fire instead of a charge.
The arrows that flew out struck the Hogrifon’s wings, but failed to pierce its hide. Even so, Berneval’s axe throws and Dranius, whose raw strength was the best in the company, managed to inflict considerable damage with his oversized bow.
The Hogrifon was left stumbling, unable to fly or charge.
- Ho...hoogr!
Lilian raised her spear and drew in aura.
“Hah!”
She sent the resentment she had been carrying into the tip of the spear and hurled it with all her strength.
- Hoog!
The spearhead struck the throat of the wingless monster.
It shuddered and made a gurgling sound, but it did not die outright.
“Bera! The one who cuts off that beast’s head will be praised by the lord.”
The captain left the finishing blow to her subordinates.
A little while later, a heated debate broke out over whether Wyatt’s greatsword or Berneval’s axe had delivered the final strike.
* * *
At the moment when the two left behind had met their end.
The other twenty-eight were still in full pursuit. Their entire attention was fixed on the white horses fleeing ahead of them, and they paid no mind to such trivial matters as spatial transfer.
“T-this is Kihara Barony, isn’t it?!”
For the dispatched guards, however, it was a shock. They had unexpectedly come all the way back to their homeland.
“Don’t stop! Keep running for now!”
Ho-yeong ordered the horses to charge straight ahead.
Is that the fortress of Kihara’s territory up ahead? It’s fairly large, and it looks sturdy.
It was nowhere near the royal castle in the capital, Kainea, but compared to the broken outer wall of Tamer Territory, the fortress walls here were far more solid.
All right, then. Let’s find the Centaurs.
The reason Ho-yeong had come to Kihara Barony was to make use of the monsters here.
According to Lilian’s report after she had gone to capture the deserter Ullaehim, dozens of giant monsters were converging on Kihara Territory.
“From their huge horse-like bodies, I can’t be certain, but I believe they are probably Centaurs.”
Even if Centaurs were half human and half horse, they were still horses. He had figured they would be perfect for drawing away the attention of the Hogrifons, which had been fixated on the humans.
There they are. But something about them looks strange... Wait, the lower half is a horse, and the upper half is a bull?
They were Centaurs, but not ordinary Centaurs.
Those are Mino-Centaurs!
Mino-Centaurs. As the name suggested, they looked like a blend of Minotaurs and Centaurs. With the Centaur’s mobility and the Minotaur’s monstrous strength combined, even a Famous Sword-class warrior could not guarantee victory against them.
Why are monsters that usually live in deep dungeons or on high plateaus suddenly joining a raid? No, that’s not the important thing right now. But seeing them in person, the pressure is no joke. Look at those horse thighs, those biceps.
The beasts were circling the outer wall, swinging massive weapons.
The fortunate thing for Kihara Territory was that unlike the Hogrifons, the Mino-Centaurs had no wings to carry them over the walls.
Those weapons look like they weigh as much as a human body, and they’re just swinging them around like bats? How strong are they?
One could not really call hammers and axes siege weapons. It would be a stretch to describe as proper siege tactics an assault that amounted to little more than swinging heavy iron with brute force.
But the walls were still breaking apart.
“Damn it all, what the hell kind of disaster is this?”
Shrakhim wore a miserable expression.
The soldiers atop the wall fought back with every means they had, pouring boiling oil, hurling stones, and firing fixed crossbows, but nothing worked well. The Mino-Centaurs weren’t just standing in one place and mindlessly swinging their weapons; they were using their mobility to move from spot to spot.
That must be the Baron of Kihara. So he really is from a mage family. Looking at the size of that fireball, he’s probably twice as good as Sicoop.
A mage dressed in fine clothes was hurling large fireballs from the keep. But the spell required a long chant, and with the Mino-Centaurs moving around near the walls, his accuracy seemed poor, so even that wasn’t doing much damage.
“My lord, what should we do?!”
“We’re going toward the Mino-Centaurs.”
“What?!”
Not only the dispatched guards, but even the handful of soldiers from Tamer Territory they had brought with them, turned pale.
“I have a plan. If we break formation to save ourselves, we’ll get caught in the monster horde and die. But if we keep our line, no one will die! So trust me and follow.”
The Guardian’s firm will calmed the soldiers and the horses. Ability level up!
Duration: [Time remaining]
Having shaken off their fear, the soldiers charged forward as ordered.
- Minoo?!
The Mino-Centaurs noticed the group and were startled.
“Stop now! And gather here.”
Ho-yeong was preparing the next step of the plan.
“Shrakhim, most of those horse-men seem to be clustered to the west and south. Which direction has a gate we can enter?”
“If you head east, there’s the main gate, sir. But what do you intend to do about the Mino-Centaurs? I’ve only seen one before, but even I know this much: in a burst of speed, those beasts are faster than horses!”
Shrakhim displayed unexpected knowledge of monsters.
“You’re not planning to fight them head-on, are you? I know Your Lordship is a famous knight, but that’s too much! One or two, maybe, but to face more than a dozen of those brutes... There’s no chance of winning with blades and spears!”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of a duel, and I’m not planning to play tag with them either. Don’t be scared and hand over the speed scroll, no, the acceleration spell scroll. Give it to Yak.”
Though trembling, Shrakhim obeyed.
“Yak, when I give the signal, you tear the scroll immediately. Understood?”
“Y-yes, sir! But why give it to me...?”
“Among us, you’ve got the most potential as a mage. Even if you’re frail, your mana is surprisingly high.”
“W-what?! H-how did you know? When I was little, I actually showed talent for magic, and my parents once took me to a magic academy. Of course, we were thrown out because the entrance fee was too expensive, but still.”
“Tsk tsk. It would’ve been better if you’d become a magic soldier like Sicoop. Anyway, just understand that and get ready.”
He had checked the stats and handed the scroll to the one with the highest mana.
To use a magical item, the user needs at least a little mana. If your mana is zero, like mine, you can’t use it at all. Then wouldn’t the opposite also apply? If the mana stat is high, the effect might get a little stronger. There was even a mage trait in the game called [Scroll/Potion Effect Increase].
Ho-yeong’s guess landed perfectly.
Achievement [Pass the Scroll Carefully] achieved! As you guessed, the effect of magical items is slightly influenced by the user’s mana. A big round of applause for the Guardian’s insight. Reward: 10 EP.
And there was better news still.
He had learned a new ability! The active-passive hybrid skill Blooming. The Guardian who had uncovered Yak’s hidden aptitude had shown strikingly keen eyes. You can now train Yak, a mid-level soldier, to become a mage!
Using Blooming, you can increase a target’s various stats or raise the proficiency and power of an existing ability. Depending on how it’s used, it can even awaken a target’s hidden talents, so keep that in mind.
Oh? Blooming. In simple terms, that means upgrading. Should I test it? It’ll cost 5 EP to slightly increase Yak’s mana... I’ve got 450 EP right now, so let’s go for it.
Yak’s mana rose from 15-19 to 18-23.
Reward: 15 EP. If you complete “restore the mana of a being that has lost its mana,” you can achieve the advanced feat [Mana the Gathering] and receive a very large reward. You have now met two conditions: “generate mana in a monster through edification” and “increase mana through blooming.”
But there was no time to celebrate leisurely.
The Mino-Centaurs, who had been eyeing the stationary humans with suspicion, began to close in.
“Stay calm. Just a little longer, just a little. If we move now, the timing will be off.”
Ho-yeong was waiting.
- Hooog!
For the Hogrifons that had been chasing after them to appear.
“Now. Yak, tear the scroll! Shrakhim, take the lead! Guide us to the main gate.”
Thanks to the awakening of Yak’s aptitude for magic, the acceleration scroll proved even more effective than usual.
The monsters, seeing the party shoot forward like arrows, were taken aback. Both the Hogrifons and the Mino-Centaurs.
As they turned their heads, the two groups finally came face to face.
- Hooog?
- Minoo?
The Hogrifons’ favorite prey was, needless to say, horses.
Meanwhile, the Mino-Centaurs who lived on the plateau hated eagles the most. The birds stole their prey after it had already been caught. On top of that, they felt a kind of kinship with horses and other beasts, so there was no reason whatsoever for them to look kindly on monsters that hunted horses.
- Hoook!
- Minoooo-cent!
A fateful meeting of preference and aversion.
The monsters forgot their original targets and charged at each other.
* * *