Chapter 64
Chapter 64
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Kun Tribe Hunter
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The names of the tied-up Kun tribesmen were Barshu and Chakan.
Barshu was able to move immediately after receiving Saf's treatment, but Chakan's injuries were too severe for him to even stand. Saf could have healed him right away, but explained that doing so might cause intense pain and potential side effects, so she opted for a "slow and less painful" treatment. Even that had Chakan screaming in agony.
In the meantime, Barshu explained the situation. His grasp of the Rom language was shaky, and Jade didn't know the Kun tongue, so Ruby occasionally translated only the trickiest words as they went along.
Jade had already guessed it involved a three-year span before Barshu even started talking, and sure enough, he began with "three years ago."
One of the goats herded by the nomads had attacked a person. It wasn't all that unusual for horses or goats to go berserk and lash out at people. But this goat killed the person, and later started devouring sheep and even horses.
The people tried to kill the monstrous goat. It fled, and a few months later, it reappeared standing on its hind legs, armed with a sword and spear. And this time, it killed people.
The situation only grew worse, showing no signs of resolution.
The Kun nomads lived in small tribes of about twenty to thirty people. More than half were usually women and children, so the actual number of fighters was barely seven or eight. Even those were often away hunting or grazing livestock, leaving the camp empty.
The goat struck during those gaps.
As time passed, the goat grew larger in size, proportionally stronger, and more cunning.
In less than a year, countless tribal villages vanished. If the enemy had been human, they might have spared the children and women, but this monster butchered adults and kids alike without a shred of mercy. Hunters would return from a brief outing to find their families massacred.
The hunters threw every trick in their arsenal at the single goat. But arrows and spears alike failed to kill it.
One renowned hunter sneaked up and finally severed the goat's head. But the goat casually reattached its own severed neck and buried an axe in the hunter's chest.
From that point on, the hunters lost all confidence in facing the goat.
Barshu and the twenty or so tribes in the area banded together in one place, pooling their strength. They sent a delegation to Gran, the northern Kun city.
Gran had once been the capital of the Kuman Empire, but now it was little more than a desolate ruin of a village. Nomads had begun resettling there over a dozen years ago, gradually restoring some semblance of a city, but it hadn't reclaimed its former glory.
It was a place Jade wanted to visit if he passed by.
Even back when the Kun ruled as an empire, their kings were called "Ran" or "Kunran," meaning great ruler. Now, though, the Ran was just the leader of the largest tribe—or a judge who mediated disputes between tribes. Still, it was true that his forces were the strongest among them.
Barshu and the other hunters went to the Ran and pleaded for aid.
The Ran laughed at first.
"You want me to dispatch Gran's army for a mere goat? If Kun warriors have swallowed their pride to come begging, I suppose I should verify what this goat really is."
The Ran dispatched about twenty soldiers to confirm Barshu's tale.
While Barshu made preparations,
the monster goat hadn't been idle either. It had subjugated the plains' wildlife, forming an army of beasts. They couldn't stand on two legs like the goat, but they matched its intelligence and savagery.
No one knew what bizarre sorcery it used, but the monsters kept multiplying.
The monster goat, now with its own army, dubbed itself Goat King—or Gotran, in the Kun style.
The twenty soldiers from Gran charged in, drums, spears, and torches at the ready, underestimating the beasts. Barshu tried to warn them, but the soldiers believed the drums would scatter the animals and the flames would terrify them.
Goat King didn't even step forward. It simply unleashed about ten horses and twenty goats. The Gran soldiers were trampled to death by horses and goats. The fight lasted less than three minutes. The survivors—both soldiers and Kun hunters—had to flee.
Barshu was gripped by terror. He couldn't imagine the power those beasts would wield once they stood on two legs and gripped swords and spears like the goat monster.
Barshu returned to Gran with the surviving soldiers and begged the Ran to lead his full forces to drive out Goat King's army.
The soldiers reported that the beasts wouldn't die even when speared and didn't flinch from fire. Hearing this, the Ran, scared out of his wits, focused on building up Gran's walls and bolstering the internal guard rather than venturing out.
Barshu was stunned.
"What about the nomads scattered across the plains?"
"Come to Gran, and we'll take you in."
"It's hard to get here through the monsters, dragging kids and frail elders along."
"Then what do you expect me to do? I can't waste my soldiers on undying monsters. If you can't make it here, fend for yourselves."
Barshu had no choice but to give up on the Ran's help.
Nomads had always wandered the plains according to seasons and timing. But with the monsters' territory expanding, they had no choice but to alter their migration routes—farther north, south, east, or west.
Now, Goat King's domain threatened to engulf the entire Kuman Plains, leaving nowhere else to go.
The Kun tribes that couldn't reach Gran gradually settled in one spot, pooling their strength. They built walls—an unfamiliar concept for nomads—and formed watch squads. Women trained for combat to cover when the men were away.
Little by little, they began to hope they could survive on their own.
Then word came that Ashubat, the second-largest Kun city after Gran, had fallen. By scale, it housed ten times the fighters of this makeshift village formed by dozens of tribes.
After much deliberation, Barshu's tribe decided to seek aid from the Kingdom of Parens or the Rom Empire. It was doubtful former invaders would help, but they had no options left.
Barshu, Chakan, and Hur—the tribe's swiftest riders among the hunters—set off. But Goat King had already posted its beast underlings as patrols across the plains.
The three dodged this way and that,
but the pursuer "Tyrant" was no ordinary horse. They were ultimately caught by Tyrant. The three scattered in the chaos, and in the process, Hur and Chakan were captured. Tyrant had left Barshu as bait to lure Hur—or the army Hur might bring—tying the two men to these pillars.
"Is that beast really that terrifying?"
Jade asked, pointing at Tyrant.
"Word is, that one alone threw all of Gran into chaos."
Even chained, when Tyrant thrashed once, Barshu recoiled in fear. He continued haltingly in his awkward accent.
"It deliberately galloped within arrow and javelin range... near the walls for half a day. Circling... around Gran... arrows bristling from its back like a porcupine... five spears lodged in its body... and it kept running in that state."
Jade said,
"Gran’s soldiers must have been utterly terrified."
"I haven't seen it myself, but I imagine so. Among us, Tyrant is called the nightmare wild horse. Because it always attacks after—or in the dead of night, bringing us nightmares."
Ruby asked.
"Is 'nightmare' literal nightmares, or just a metaphor? Like, the kind that scares you so bad you can't even get up to pee?"
"I'm talking actual dreams. In my case, whenever it appears, I dream of a pure white figure from head to toe devouring me."
"A white human? What's scary about that? Next time, just punch it! It's a dream—you can do anything."
At Ruby's so-called advice, Barshu shuddered as if the mere thought was horrifying.
"In those dreams, I can never do a thing. Can't run, can't fight back. That moment drags on like a whole week... And how do you move by your own will in a dream?"
"In my dreams, I always do whatever I want. You get ones like that too?"
Ruby asked Jade.
"Not long ago, I had this nightmare. About to be locked in a prison for ten years, and they wouldn't give me any books..."
Jade grimaced even now, reluctant to recall it.
Ruby and Barshu gave him pitiful looks, so Jade awkwardly glanced at Saf.
"You have nightmares like that too, Saf?"
With trembling hands, Saf said,
"Yes. Recently, at the convent. The potatoes I grew suddenly burst from the ground, saying they didn't want to be eaten by me, and ran off. I couldn't eat potatoes for a while after."
Their pitiful stares shifted from Jade to Saf, who seemed oblivious to why.
Ruby waved her hand.
"Ugh, talking about this stuff with you lot is my nightmare!"
Just then, Tyrant thrashed violently, trying to break free. It heaved so hard its body lifted briefly off the ground. When the massive horse thudded back down three paces from Jade, the earth trembled under his feet.
"If the chains were that easy to snap, I wouldn't have been stuck with it for centuries."
Ruby explained, prodding Tyrant lightly with her toe.
"I remember this type of demon. The kind that makes humans have nightmares or forces sleep to drain their vitality. Usually they approach as beautiful men or women, or look like mosquitoes—but this one's a horse."
Ruby kept kicking Tyrant's head, even poking its nostrils with her toe. Tyrant snarled and snapped at her foot. Each time, Ruby deftly dodged, taunting it.
"Stop that! You think you'll get away with humiliating me like this?"
"Humiliating? What?"
Ruby asked, flipping it the bird.
Tyrant bellowed.
"That foot! Get it away."
"This is humiliation? Hilarious, you flower-headed fool wilting from a bee's sip of honey! Want me to show you real humiliation?"
Ruby kicked Tyrant harder and continued.
"I could use your immortality to keep ripping off your head and legs, tossing them far away until you die. Or yank out your heart, grind it with your own teeth, stuff it in your ear, and pull it out your nose. Then shove your snotty heart down your guts and spin it till you're dehydrated! That's humiliation!"
As if to prove it, Ruby hurled the chained Tyrant into the air and slammed it down. Each time, Tyrant vomited blood and screamed.
Ruby shouted.
"Say it again! That it's humiliating!"
"No! No! Stop! I give up!"
"So what? Everyone here knows you lost."
Ruby cackled and tossed Tyrant up once more before slamming it down.
"If we leave her to it, we'll be watching this all night."
Jade asked Saf worriedly.
"Can you see its name? At least from that display, 'Tyrant' doesn't seem to fit."
"No, I can't. Not sure if that means it has no name, or if it's nameless."
"Then let's try a dark-affinity dispelling verse. Won't do much harm if it's wrong."
Saf gazed elsewhere, not at Tyrant, then pointed with her finger.
"Father, something's coming from that direction. It's getting clearer."
"Not from Tyrant? We got a whiff of its steam earlier, even if briefly. It didn't induce nightmares, but it might affect the mind another way."
"No. Actually, it's been like this since I read Beishuper's name."
"From the desert?"
"Yes. Back then, so much happened at once that I thought it was just aftereffects. Beishuper tried to possess me, and then the convent kept having incidents..."
The crisp night air suddenly felt ominous.
Saf kept her eyes fixed on the direction she was pointing.
"Hard to explain. Like a scent? No, more like a stench. Or fire. An unpleasant heat."
Saf struggled to describe the sensation she couldn't quite pin down.
"That bad feeling is growing thicker. It faded when Krauks was destroyed, but it strengthened again after we left Fairbang, and it's intensifying. I don't know what it is, so it's unnerving."
Jade, unable to gauge direction on the vast starless plains, asked Barshu.
"Where's that direction?"
Barshu, who'd been listening, answered promptly.
"Northeast. Toward Gran... the entrance to the Dark Forest... and Goatran's main lair."
Jade nodded at first, then whipped around to Saf in belated shock.
Barshu's eyes widened after answering, and Ruby asked dubiously.
"Did you just pinpoint Gotran's location? How? Heat? Stench? I smell nothing."
Saf shook her head.
"I don't know. I just do."