The Desert Blooms with Blood (3)
Ahor’s voice cut through the warm desert air like a cool wind. “Big leader, if you want to get taller, you should drink a lot of milk.”
“...Can’t you keep quiet?”
Ahor.
Vesta’s mind turned the short name over in his head. It carried the meaning of falcon, yet he did not know the name or surname she had used before. The woman who had helped him adapt to the tribe the moment he had been sold here.
“Not much to know about her, really.”
He had noticed she loved animals and was surprisingly gentle. That was all.
“She really isn’t ordinary.”
Ahor possessed a quite unusual Spirit power.
From the fact that she had become the commander of the Khan’s elite guard in the body of a human, the impression was already enormous.
“How did she become the leader of the Keshik?”
Of course, Vesta acknowledged that she was an excellent warrior.
“She is more excellent than I am.”
The arena Vesta had spent so much time in was far too orderly to call a battlefield. Every variable was blocked in advance, leaving only strength, skill, and stamina.
It was more like a stage than a battlefield.
Vesta, familiar with the battles held there, had been an outstanding fighter but never a true warrior or general. He had excelled only in extremely limited fields.
By contrast, what about Ahor?
Of course, as a warrior she was small, but her petite frame actually became an advantage in horsemanship.
Excellent riding, astonishing archery skill. He had not seen it himself, but her handling of weapons was probably superb as well.
“I can tell from the condition of her blades.”
That was why he could admit her martial arts were far more complete.
Yet even that was not enough. Her martial arts did not prove her qualifications.
Ushun and Asmur and Aruk were also outstanding in archery, just as much as Ahor.
Her martial arts? He did not dismiss them, but he did not believe she could defend a single strike from Ushun.
He could not break through Aruk’s tricks, and he could not display the instincts of Asmur.
When compared to the vice-commanders of the Keshik, her light had already dimmed.
Then how had she become the leader of the Keshik?
From the reaction of the elves, it was clear she had not been denied the position.
“Ashtien would never put an unqualified person in charge of her personal guard.”
*
The question did not linger long.
“Stay calm.”
Ahor had not raised her voice. Vesta followed the direction of her gaze.
Round bodies and long tails. Jaw lines that gave no trace of humanity.
Beings that were human only in name.
They were clustered together near the desert dunes, looking down at the elves who had gathered below.
Ahor shot an arrow at them.
Warning shot
Pitter-patter.
The arrow left a sound. It carried a warning.
Kag. Kararak.
The lizardmen shouted words the elves could not understand and retreated.
Ushun clicked her tongue.
“Shall we go down?”
“Hmm. If they leave like that, we won’t chase them, but...”
Ahor kept her eyes on the hill, guiding the elves slowly to the side.
The camel cavalry followed her.
“Shall we shoot as they are?”
“It’s the same as standing on the wall. The sun is also on their side. Even if we shoot twenty arrows, maybe only one hits.”
Vesta knew nothing of military tactics. He trailed Ahor’s back together with the other elves.
“You are coming closer.”
As Vesta drew nearer, she spoke in her usual soft voice.
“If you are the Khan’s mounted warrior and a warrior at the same time, Vesta-nim, you will eventually become the leader, won’t you?”
“I have never fought while leading people.”
“Yes. Just as running and riding horses are two different things, so is fighting. But the one who fights alone can never stand above others.”
Standing above others. Vesta, who had come from the very bottom of the arena, found the words strange.
“Do you know why I am guiding the camel to the right?”
Well, he could make up any answer, but it did not seem like a proper one.
“If those lizardmen really charge, their speed will exceed even a camel’s.”
Ashtien had said the same. And she never exaggerated.
“Camels are quite fast, but they cannot run as fast as them.”
“Is this to warm up the camel so it can respond quickly?”
“Yes. Their speed comes from the wind. It is movement beyond bodily limits. That means, unlike with a camel, turning is difficult.”
Her explanation was not complicated. It had been made for Vesta’s eye level.
“You plan to accelerate the camel the moment the moment arrives.”
Ahor nodded as she continued.
“Overwhelming speed is their strength. We cannot follow it.”
-However.
“Strength is like a straight line. The whole body except the head is weak on a straight line. Think about that and you will have no trouble commanding soldiers.”
Ushun joined in.
“Commander.”
“Yes. I think I will give it a try.”
Kwak. Kagor.
The lizardmen exposed their heads.
Ushun frowned at the intense sunlight.
“The wind has changed.”
It was an elf’s way of saying the wind was understood. As an excellent archer, Ahor knew it too.
The lizardmen unfolded sails around their necks in unison.
“Load arrows and increase speed.”
Following Ahor’s words, a change swept through the elves.
And at that moment.
Countless hooves pounded the sand.
Dudududududu—
The lizardman horde shot forward like arrows.
An absurd speed.
There probably was no other being that could run at that speed on sand.
Humans running like that would lose their legs, yet it was not odd.
They were rather intelligent hunters.
Instead of charging the camel cavalry, they had calculated the cavalry’s speed and shot toward the point where they would soon arrive.
Ahor’s prediction and the leader’s prediction would collide.
The outcome would be decided there.
The camels were neither slow nor clumsy. They flung sand aside and pushed their heavy bodies forward.
“Keep up!”
Ahor shouted. Ushun echoed her.
A change occurred in the elves’ ranks.
Vesta had expected Ahor to strike the lizardmen’s flank.
It was not good.
“The timing is off.”
The lizards’ impact speed had been faster than the camels’ crossing speed.
“We will just graze past!”
And, as Vesta had predicted, they did not collide and only grazed.
As Vesta watched their seemingly defenseless backs, Ahor shouted.
“Hold fire—!”
-At that instant, she and her army stood with the sun at their backs.
The lizardmen had probably seen the proud figure of the woman wrapped in sunlight.
“Fire—!”
Thud.
Thud-thud-thud.
They shot arrows while galloping. The elves performed the astonishing skill without the slightest hesitation.
The lizardmen screamed and slammed their heads into the sand dunes.
Ahor did not stop moving the camels.
She led the army in a gentle circle.
The motionless bodies quickly approached.
“Crush them!”
Dududududu—
The heavy hoofbeats turned into a thunderous roar.
Kaboom!
Kiiik! Kak!
Shiver.
Even as humans, most of the lizardmen’s body length was in their tails. Structurally, none could be as heavy as a human.
They were light. They could not even match a single camel leg.
The camels’ heavy bodies crushed them like sand dunes.
A lizardman’s body slammed into the chest of Vesta’s camel with a solid thud. It was an insignificant rebound as if something had hooked on it.
Considering it was the full weight of one life, the feeling was quite terrifying.
The ground rushed by quickly.
He pulled out his spare knife and swung it with all his might.
Tear-ung.
It felt like flesh exploding in the air. With only his strength, he could not achieve such a result.
He swung the knife wildly in a somewhat dazed state. Every time it touched something, the flesh was sliced away.
Kwazik.
The camel’s blunt hooves stamped down like a seal on the lizardmen’s cold blood, leaving deep wounds.
“Turn—.”
The camel curved. Vesta had already left Ahor far behind. He was being pushed to the very edge by the skilled elves.
He gritted his teeth and followed.
“Strike—!”
He sensed the camels growing excited, smelling the blood.
Again, the enemies approached up close.
“No, I am the one who is coming closer.”
Shiver.
The immobilized lizardmen were trampled even more fiercely.
Those that had been thrashing in broken legs and arms in the first collision had not survived the second.
Yes. “Destroyed” was the right word.
From Vesta’s perspective, they had not been easy opponents. He was an excellent warrior who measured individual strength.
Lizardmen carrying explosive power that even he could not control were like living javelins.
No matter how heavy the camel’s body, if a human-strength javelin landed with a thud, it would fall.
They had charged recklessly many times, so it was no wonder they had achieved results.
They had only lost in the previous battle to Ahor, in the battle of predictions, in the battle that decided the outcome.
Vesta understood. Only now did he understand.
Why a human like her could stand in the important position of commanding the Khan’s Keshik.
It was not because she was stronger than Ushun.
And not because she was the best archer of all.
Only because among the Keshik vice-commanders, none understood war as well as she did.
The Khan had placed her in the position of general.
No one could object.
The Khan’s army approached Vesta.
“Baatar-nim.”
Normally Vesta had looked down at Ahor.
“Then now?”
He had never seen her look so tall.
“If you, as a warrior, wish to stand beside the Khan...”
The elves had suffered no losses. The enemy was completely wiped out.
“You should be able to do as I do.”
And it was possible, she said.
“You, Baatar-nim, have already shown a feat that no human could achieve.”
It was about Spirit Arts.
Her gaze rested on the knife in his hand.
“It is not me, but the knife that was special.”
“It may have been. But receiving the Khan’s knife is a miracle for someone, and it is not a fate granted to an ordinary person.”
Perhaps right now Ahor was showing a deeper inner heart than any Vesta had seen before.
He felt that way. He could not think otherwise.
“If you stay by her side, become the Khan’s knife.”
She paused for a moment.
“Become a knife that cuts down everything that threatens her. You will surely do it, Vesta-nim. I will support you.”
At that moment, the usual dignity was not felt. It was not a declaration; it was a plea.
The woman who looked like Ahor vanished instantly.
When Vesta blinked, what stood before him was only the Khan’s general.
“One condition.”
Physically impossible, yet Ahor’s gaze seemed to look down at him.
“If the Khan ever wages war against the world, promise me you will stay by her side.”
-For example, even in a war with the Empire, stand on her side.
Ahor said.
“She told me you could call upon any troops she needs.”
-And she said the price would be paid in promissory notes.
“You possess that authority, Baatar-nim. Use it to hire me.”
“If you promise, I will become your knife. Or your hooves.”
And the price was sufficient with one promise, Ahor declared.
“That is the only promissory note I require.”
Vesta saw a faint, hazy belief in Ahor’s eyes.
Belief is something given.
And she seemed to want to give it.