A Proper Rampage

I abandoned the advantageous high ground we'd held without a moment's hesitation.

Terrain only mattered when the numbers were right, and against a force of that size, a little elevation wasn't going to win us anything. No matter how much stronger we'd become, there were still limits. There was nothing shameful about it. If anything, it was the smart call.

The instant I took off in a different direction, the other gnolls that had been chasing us peeled after us as well. A moment later some of them broke toward that massive horde — they meant to report our position and keep us tracked from there.

Moving tens of thousands of troops as a single body was no small feat, and behind them still more enemies were closing in. Sure enough, a thousand or so gnolls fell behind during the turn. They were either trampled under the Black Gnolls or charged them with death already accepted.

They were coming at us with the fate of their entire tribe on the line. I realized then that my prediction had been dead on. Nothing short of that would have driven them to a choice like this.

"We move fast. We do not stop. The target is…"

I looked toward where Monus Village had been.

"The Brown Gnoll tribe."

I intended to raise proper hell.

I called a brief halt and ordered everyone to strip their armor. At the same time, I told them to carry anyone whose physical ability wouldn't keep up. Na Seoyun hoisted Na-yeon without a word. Nam Eun-ju took Ha Yoo-jin. Their stamina was more than enough, but for raw speed this was the better arrangement.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Joo Ha-yeon was still standing there blinking, so I scooped her up and slung her over my back.

"Kyah! Sh-Shin-hoo?"

The party's eyes went wide. I caught Na Seoyun's pupils tremble.

"We're going to move very fast," I said, almost by way of apology. "You'll have a hard time keeping up."

"B-but still…"

She looked a little embarrassed. I didn't budge.

"This is better."

"Y-yes… I-I'm sorry—no, thank you…"

The rim of Joo Ha-yeon's ear, just visible from where I stood, had flushed a little red.

"Hold on tight. We leave now."

She said nothing and wrapped her arms around my neck. Because we'd stripped our gear, when her body pressed against mine I could feel the warmth of her skin right through her clothes. The situation was too urgent to dwell on that.

The target was a fair distance off. We had cut across Golden Gnoll territory heading back toward Britus Village, where we'd started, which put the Brown Gnoll border at five days on foot. Fast travel would make it two or three. A flat-out sprint could get us there in one — though since this was half a lure, I wasn't going to push it that far. Not that it was going to be any less brutal.

No time to hesitate.

We had the stamina for a forced march. All that rest along the way had been worth it. If anything, I wondered whether the Golden Gnolls could even keep up.

The gap had closed a little. I broke into a run, and Na Seoyun and Nam Eun-ju kicked off after me at a full sprint. Our enhanced bodies were astonishing. We moved at a speed that made four-legged gnolls look ridiculous, and the distance between us and them began to yawn open. Panic and urgency spread across the Golden Gnolls' faces.

I'll need to regulate our speed.

Once I'd opened a comfortable lead, I eased off by degrees, carefully enough that it wouldn't show, keeping us just inside the scout party's line of sight. I had no idea how much stamina the gnolls had left. With that kind of obsession, though, they would probably follow us to the end.

And so our insane chase began. Humans in the lead. A scout party in the middle. Behind them, tens of thousands of Golden Gnolls, and behind those, the Black Gnolls.

We ran without end. Now and then I glanced back and adjusted our pace and the gap. They would have been running longer than we had — though surely not all the way from the border to here in a single stretch. I couldn't say when their stamina would give out, but I figured they could keep this up for a long time. They had reason to. Five months ago they had left later than we had, harassed us the whole way, and still beaten us to the border.

They'd meant to pin us down and bleed us dry instead of fixing our position. That choice had come back around as a blunder, and this was the result.

"Sh-Shin-hoo, I think their pace is slowing."

Joo Ha-yeon reported from my back. I flicked a glance over my shoulder. From the way the dust was hanging, the gap between the Black Gnolls and the Golden Gnolls was slowly widening. The Black Gnolls, less desperate than the Golden, seemed to be settling their breathing. They probably hadn't come the instant the Golden Gnolls abandoned their position, which meant the Black Gnolls had been running a little longer.

I didn't stop. I just kept moving.

The sun slid down the sky, and the light began to fail. Before long the dust cloud that marked the Black Gnolls was gone from sight, the distance between them and the Golden Gnolls stretching farther and farther. Eventually the Golden Gnolls halted to regroup, and I called a rest of our own not far off. Their stamina looked spent. Our flight this far had clearly fallen outside their expectations — they hadn't imagined that the humans who'd vanished for five months would come back this fast.

The party was a little worn, but no one looked truly strained. Carrying a person was one thing. Our improved bodies could laugh through a forced march like this. Na-yeon and Ha Yoo-jin were wiping down the ones who'd carried them, murmuring thanks for the hard work.

"You worked hard, Shin-hoo."

Same here. Gear or no gear, I had run all day with a person on my back. Of course I was sweating. Thanks to mana, that was as far as it went.

"Those who were carried will take the watch. If we run tomorrow we should arrive, so rest while you can."

Far off, a Golden Gnoll scout party kept us in view. They seemed almost relieved that we hadn't gone any farther. The distance was still considerable — far enough that we wouldn't be ambushed. I held us at about an hour's gap from the Golden Gnoll main force.

It didn't even last a few hours. The Golden Gnolls resumed the chase. A short rest. They knew it too: if we kept running like this, we would enter Brown Gnoll territory. Whether they had guessed our intent or not, they had to stop us somehow. We were on our feet and running again at once.

The pursuit held through sunrise and on past midday. I kept a steady hand on our pace so their scout party would never quite lose us. As the Brown Gnoll border drew near, they began to pour on speed in desperation. We matched them.

"…Their stragglers are increasing."

No surprise there. Not every gnoll could survive a forced march like this. The ones who fell behind would either catch up later or die in the Black Gnolls' jaws.

So as long as they secured the Hero's heart, it didn't matter if the rest of them died? Even if their forces came up short, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the emergence of the Hero itself apparently mattered more.

By late afternoon I could make out Golden Gnolls ahead of us. They hadn't overtaken us. We had entered the border region with the Brown Gnolls.

I had expected, given how carefully I'd managed our speed, that we wouldn't arrive until the following morning. We got there faster than that. I could guess why.

The Golden Gnolls showed not the slightest surprise at the sight of us coming in at a run. While we had been taking our time, they must have received word from runners sent all the way from the Black Gnoll border. Their reaction was correspondingly fast. They charged us without a hint of hesitation.

A ragged chorus of barking rolled across the field.

"Gear up!"

Putting equipment back on took a little time, but this wasn't full plate. It wasn't more than we could manage. I stopped where I stood, opened my inventory, and armed myself, taking in their position and condition as I did. About four thousand. A fair number. And among them I found the faint traces of recent fighting — a great many wounded. Brown Gnolls would be close. They hadn't left the weakened Golden Gnolls alone, then. Proof that the Golden Gnolls were slowly losing ground. The Brown Gnolls, flush with confidence, seemed to be pushing into Golden Gnoll territory in force.

Charging blindly into a situation like that would be stupid. I spotted a workable point, stepped out in front, and shouted.

"We're breaking through! Support fire! Make ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as much noise as you can!"

Na Seoyun, already geared, answered my call at once with a Fire Ball.

The blast shook the air in every direction — more powerful than anything she had thrown in the past. Her proficiency had climbed, and the force had climbed with it. Confusion flickered across the gnolls. This defensive line wouldn't be thick. I was confident we could punch through it.

Sword Qi wrapped around my blade. I was a little tired, but not enough for it to matter in a fight. Then Joo Ha-yeon's skill settled over me.

I smirked. A shield with a reflect. Good call. I could ignore defense entirely.

Na-yeon's voice followed right after.

"Casa! Fire Ball!"

Another blast, another bloom of support fire. I charged the point of the explosion without a second thought and burst through the smoke to the other side. The gnolls reeled — they hadn't expected anyone to come out there. I wasn't stupid enough to give startled enemies a moment's grace.

My blade carved through them, and I drove forward. Na Seoyun locked down the rear. Nam Eun-ju and Ha Yoo-jin held the flanks with everything they had. Support from Joo Ha-yeon and Na-yeon began concentrating on Ha Yoo-jin, the relatively weaker side. That left less coming my way, but I wasn't about to stop just because I was boxed in.

Trusting in Goddess's Protection, I tore straight through the gnolls and let the killing intent I usually kept buried come flooding out. Then I threw my head back and roared.

"HRAAAAAAH!"

A shout loaded with mana. War Cry. Now that mana had grown reasonably familiar in my body, I had started pulling old techniques back out one by one, staying inside the line where it wouldn't wreck me. I poured killing intent out raw and radiated mana with it. My mana stat had grown a little, so I could still handle it.

The gnolls in my path began to flinch, one after another. They were already in poor shape. Unexpected force crushed what was left of their nerve. Off in the distance, a massive dust cloud was closing the gap with every breath. It was still small, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Getting swept up in that would be dangerous.

I ripped apart every gnoll that tried to bar the way and carved a path open. The rear line came after me without a hitch. Even under that hideous killing intent, the party didn't waver. They simply followed at my back, silent and sure.

Dozens of gnolls, then hundreds, came apart in my hands, and even the Golden Gnolls who had been fighting with everything they had began to falter and give ground. I looked at them and smiled. Goddess's Protection had already faded. My face and body were streaked with Golden Gnoll blood.

They were thoroughly terrified — and still they kept trying to close around us. And in that gap, far off, I saw the dust.

Brown Gnolls. The ones I had been waiting for had finally arrived.

The Brown Gnolls seemed to have sensed that something was wrong along the border. The size of their main force was beyond what I had pictured. They had a considerable number waiting in the border region as well — more than I had expected. They had clearly decided this was a real opportunity and committed serious strength to it.

There was no central-tribe banner in sight, but there was a banner, which meant a tribe of ten-thousand-commander rank had been dispatched this way. Gnoll chieftains of that grade were rare at this point outside the central tribe, so the Brown Gnolls apparently had a capable one of their own. On top of that, this was a place that by rights sat close to Area 26. I hadn't expected a gnoll force of this scale to come out this far. We'd gotten lucky.

No — more precisely, they had probably chased those four thousand gnolls who were hunting us, and followed that chase all the way here. Those four thousand might not even have started as four thousand.

I liked how the situation was shaping up. As the Brown Gnolls closed in, violent unrest rippled through the Golden Gnolls surrounding us. I didn't waste the opening. I started cutting a path downward.

"This way!"

The party was still looking at nothing but my back. Treating this as the last push, I spent mana without thrift and punched a hole in the downward direction. The Golden Gnolls, caught in a nightmare they could neither fight nor flee, tried somehow to bar our way — but enemies this frightened and this rattled were no better than scarecrows.

At last we broke an opening and spilled out below. I slung Joo Ha-yeon onto my back again and shouted as I ran.

"Run again!"

This time we went at absolute top speed. The Golden Gnolls couldn't properly chase a pace they had never seen from us, and over them the Brown Gnolls began to crash down in a wave. Barking, roaring, the wet tear of bodies meeting. The Brown Gnolls ignored the six humans and fell on the Golden Gnolls they had been hunting all along.

Of course they did. Without knowing the situation, any gnoll would find those Golden Gnolls a far juicier meal than us.

The slaughter started almost immediately. Numbers already against them. Morale gutted by what I had done. And the other side coming in at speed. The Golden Gnolls, who had numbered some four thousand, couldn't even manage a resistance worthy of the name.

We were off the front line by then, gasping, and we climbed a slightly higher rise to catch our breath.

"Looks like this actually worked, doesn't it?"

The sudden surge in speed had shaken even the Golden Gnoll scout party. They became Brown Gnoll targets and were butchered. Their information was cut. A dust cloud was creeping closer, slow and enormous. They would charge into Brown Gnoll ground knowing nothing.

Sure enough, a colossal wall of dust was moving toward the Brown Gnolls' position. That once-small cloud had swollen until it filled the eye. The Brown Gnolls, still howling their victory after the massacre, finally noticed it and seemed to panic. It was far too late to run.

They took it for a massive Golden Gnoll counterattack, a bid to reclaim the territory they had lost. So the Brown Gnolls began preparing for battle all over again. No — they numbered in the tens of thousands themselves. That was why they chose to fight.

A hunting roar went up, and the Brown Gnolls started to run. The Golden Gnolls would realize, from the dust rising on the opposite side, that something had gone wrong. It was already too late.

The sound of them pounding the earth rolled out in every direction — Golden Gnolls and Brown Gnolls, each force ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠numbering in the tens of thousands.

And then a titanic roar tore the air, and the two colossal armies slammed into each other.