Chapter 246
“Damn it.”
He wasn’t walking quickly, nor was he running.
He opened the gate and stepped out, watching the swarm of monsters as if spectating.
Then behind him, the Ruchi and Richi brothers followed.
The older one, Ruchi, had a habit of constantly muttering, “Damn it.”
He was doing so now.
“Damn it, you have to be careful. Those things are up to something weird.”
Ruchi wore armor with riveted leather and chain mail over the abdomen.
Every time he chased after Encrid, his armor clattered.
The Ruchi and Richi brothers were strong, but they would never use their heads.
“Damn it. I just came to buy a horn bow, and now it’s a colony.”
There are things that never change, no matter how much you beat them. He didn’t bother trying to fix it.
There were plenty of soldiers with foul mouths. If all they said was “damn it,” that was decent.
“When you fight the human-faced dogs, that’s when a bunch of those horse bastards rush in from somewhere!”
Richi chimed in next to him. Beside him, Ruchi mumbled some creative curse about dog-like horse bastards.
“Seems like it.”
He’d seen it from atop the wall, and Torres had been shouting excitedly from behind.
Even now, he could see Torres hurrying after him.
‘He’s thinking.’
Centaur monsters are born cavalrymen.
Their numbers had grown, and there was now a “general”-type colony leader.
The previous gnoll colony leader was just a “normal” type.
That one was powerful as an individual but lacked any leadership ability.
The general-type was different.
To be honest, this was the first time Encrid had seen one in person.
Monsters that dangerous are hard to find unless you’re near the Demon Realm.
Either way, now that it was right in front of him, all he could do was see and feel it for himself.
‘They split into three groups.’
A group of human-faced dogs and ghouls, the main centaur force, and a herd of horse beasts.
As the human-faced dogs and ghouls charged, looking left, he saw the horse beasts stampeding in one direction.
They seemed poised to widen the charge and flank the human army fighting the human-faced dogs.
A few centaurs led them, like commanders leading soldiers.
But was this some kind of brilliant tactic?
It wasn’t.
It was blatantly obvious.
So why was this hard to counter?
The horse beast charge wasn’t the real problem. The issue was the centaur captain, who stood at the front, not even charging, just standing there.
At the end of his thoughts, Encrid spoke.
“Rem.”
“Got it. But, uh, are you going to lure that one in?”
Rem pointed his chin forward and asked.
He was asking whether to go easy in the fight.
“No need for that.”
Encrid replied.
He’d thought it through as he came down from the wall.
Krys had said it was fine to just fight.
Power against power—this was the fight monsters wanted most of all.
As he watched Rem rush out, Encrid took a deep breath, puffing out his chest.
Then he shouted.
“Torres! Don’t close the gate!”
“…Whoa. Damn it.”
Ruchi was so startled he paused and stopped in his tracks.
“My ears are ringing.”
Jaxson had approached without notice and chimed in.
“That loud?”
Encrid replied with a joke, watching Rem swing his axe as he ran.
Rem’s steps were light, and his axe was merciless.
* * *
‘So these things hit my pet slave, is that it?’
If asked whether he cared about Dunbakel, Rem would bash the questioner’s head in.
Even if someone bullied his slave right in front of him, he’d just watch.
If the slave got beaten up, he’d just scold them for being so weak.
After all that, he’d turn to the one who hit the slave and say,
“Wanna have some fun with me? Hm?”
Just like this.
That’s how he felt now.
The charging human-faced dogs seemed half-crazed.
Rem didn’t care.
Blood-red eyes with no boundary between iris and pupil, jaws gaping and drooling.
Watching them come, Rem crossed his arms before his chest. Flexing his muscles, he swung his axes.
As his arms uncrossed, the axes lashed out like whips, their blades flying without hesitation.
Anything caught in the crossing paths of the axes—
Screams!
Heads and bodies of ghouls and human-faced dogs.
Crack!
The axes mowed down the oncoming monsters as if splitting rotten branches.
Black blood exploded around Rem. It looked as if an ink bottle had shattered and sprayed everywhere.
Red eyes popped out, sharp fangs shattered. Skulls cracked, torsos split, arms severed.
Between all that, black blood scattered in the wind like streaks of rain.
“Let’s have some fun.”
Rem muttered as he started swinging his axes vertically.
Striking down in sequence at the charging monsters.
Raising and slamming down, again and again.
Pivoting on his right foot in place, severed heads and arms flew over allies’ heads.
No point in describing it.
Rem was just Rem.
“Shit.”
A soldier from Martai, watching from behind, spat out a curse.
Were we really supposed to fight something like that?
It was a string of unbelievable acts.
At some point, you couldn’t even see the axes moving—just monsters dying.
Over twenty were ripped, cut, or burst apart in an instant.
Rem seemed to have eight arms.
And he never stopped moving.
Before long, he’d become separated from his allies, rampaging through the human-faced dog pack.
Screeches!
Screeches!
The cries of the human-faced dogs rang out endlessly.
To put it simply—
“Fights like a monster, doesn’t he?”
A nearby comrade said exactly what he was thinking.
“Are you just going to stand there and watch?!”
Zimmer yelled from behind.
He was just as shocked. He hadn’t thought only Encrid was a monster, but no one expected the axe-wielder to be this monstrous.
Shrieks!
A harpy circled the sky, wailing.
They came with the human-faced dogs. Over the last four days, several soldiers had died to those harpies.
Limping, Zimmer glared up at the sky and shouted,
“Shoot!”
A few soldiers skilled in archery fired arrows into the air, but it was hopeless.
Few hit, and even when they did, they couldn’t pierce the harpy’s tough hide.
Then one dived down.
A dramatic drop right in Zimmer’s line of sight.
It was heading for Rem, who was fighting among the human-faced dogs.
“Watch out!”
Zimmer shouted, ready to throw a spear.
‘What the hell is that?’
He couldn’t close his mouth at what happened next.
The harpy dove, and Rem, fighting off monsters from all sides, planted one hand on the ground and kicked both feet up into the air.
His kick caught the harpy’s head.
Pop!
It burst.
Black blood sprayed again, and the harpy’s body rolled off to the side, flattening a few human-faced dogs as it went.
Screech!
The ones crushed under the harpy howled, and Rem immediately straightened up and kicked the head of the monster pinned beneath it.
Pop!
It was terrifying strength and skill.
How could anyone move like that in those circumstances?
Zimmer felt lucky he didn’t have to fight that guy.
And soon he didn’t even have time to watch Rem.
Dudududu!
The ground began to shake. It was the beginning of the same tactic they’d seen again and again.
Throwing human-faced dogs forward as meat shields, then charging in with the horse beasts.
Three centaurs led the charge.
They each held a thick wooden club. They weren’t carefully crafted weapons.
Probably just thick branches from the forest, but even so, they were threatening.
If you got hit by one of those, a regular soldier’s head would crack open like nothing.
“Hold the line!”
Zimmer yelled. The fight had started suddenly, but now that it had, they had to do something.
He didn’t think they’d lose.
‘Madmen.’
They had confidence for a reason.
More than anything, they’d just seen these people fight with their own eyes.
He couldn’t imagine that Rem would die to a mere human-faced dog bite.
All the rest of the unit had to do now was kill and hold off the human-faced dogs here.
Kill the ghouls, kill the wolf beasts.
Just as Zimmer expected.
Right before the centaur trio and the beast herd charged, Encrid sent Audin.
“Go hold them off, Audin, Teresa.”
“Yes, brother. I’ll go spank their rumps for you.”
Audin replied, and Teresa silently followed.
Dudududu!
A cavalry charge is terrifying in itself.
And now it was the charge of monsters, not men.
The border guards and Martai reserves in the left flank clenched their teeth.
Damn, they’re coming again.
They just had to stop them. Two big figures blocked the way.
A guard recognized Audin.
“Religious nut?”
“Just because it comes out of your mouth doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to say, right, brother?”
Audin replied without even looking back. The guard thought he had surprisingly sharp hearing for someone like that.
Anyway, when the two blocked the way, a strange sense of security settled over everyone.
Just looking at their size, it made sense.
But what’s with that mask?
That woman’s body was like a giant’s; even standing next to Audin, her head and shoulders weren’t smaller.
“Move to the right.”
Audin said.
“Understood.”
Teresa replied.
A massive frame, noticeable gear. Holding a huge kite shield in front, the masked giant took her stance.
With a shield, against a cavalry charge? Alone?
Rumble!
Now the sound of hooves was like thunder.
The horse beasts’ charge was terrifyingly fast. Once they were in sight, they were right on top of you.
There was no time to worry about the big guy. Just before the monsters arrived, one of the guards threw his spear.
Using his whole body’s recoil, the javelin struck a horse beast’s head.
Thud!
One went down, and he hoped it would trip the ones behind.
But even running, the others just leapt over their fallen comrade.
Their reaction speed was incredible.
Then the club of the leading centaur struck the masked giant’s shield.
Bang!
The guard couldn’t even tell exactly what happened.
He just saw the centaur lose balance and stagger sideways as soon as it hit the shield.
And then, naturally, the masked giant struck the charging beast’s head with her sword.
It didn’t end there.
She drew her sword back, pressed her shield to her body, and knocked the next beast aside.
A steady, repetitive movement.
She pushed to her right, swung her sword, forcing the horse beasts away.
‘What is that?’
At least Junior Knight-level strength.
Even without [Will], a half-giant fighting properly was a sight to see.
Even Encrid hadn’t drawn out all of Teresa’s abilities.
After meeting Encrid, she discovered the joy of wielding a sword and fighting.
Teresa lived up to her nickname as a giant.
Red-blooded beasts—the other name for giants.
“Krah!”
A husky shout rang out as a horse beast was knocked aside by her shield.
Standing her ground, her shield deflected the monster, her feet digging furrows in the earth.
Even so, she didn’t break her arms or lose her stance.
She’d blocked the horse beast charge with raw strength.
“The gates of heaven have opened!”
Her performance was impressive, but the religious giant was even more astonishing.
His seemingly sluggish body soared through the air.
He leapt upward, landing atop a charging horse beast, and smashed its head with his club.
Thud!
Neigh!
The beast let out a short death cry, and as it fell, he jumped off and rammed the club into another monster’s head.
Thud! Crack!
With that strike, the monster’s head and spine came loose.
It flew backward, spraying blood through the air.
Moving among the charging beasts, Audin swung his club relentlessly.
He wasn’t just blocking the charge—he was killing them outright.
And all the while, he was clearly pushing the charge to the left of center.
A few monsters still made it through to hit the allied lines.
But compared to the last three days of fighting, it was nothing.
“Got time to just stand around?”
A voice came in the middle of it all.
Looking over, he saw a soldier with reddish-brown hair and a rounded helmet.
He was a member of the Madman Platoon.
At his feet, a centaur was lying, bleeding.
It was the one that had bounced aside earlier.
The monster had almost regained its balance, but now there was a sword wound in its neck.
“Fight. That’s your job.”
Jaxson spoke only what needed to be said.
“Hit back!”
Torres shouted from behind at just the right moment.
Thanks to the two hulking figures splitting the monster herd, the horse beasts were scattered.
This was no time for bystanding.
“Shoot!”
Massed together, the monsters were dangerous, but if they exposed their flanks, it was easy.
Those with bows, crossbows, slingshots—everyone showed off their projectiles.
Arrows flew, stones sailed, and a lucky bolt struck a monster in the eye.
Encrid used all his senses to scan the left and right.
‘When will it come?’
He tried to focus on the enemy leader ahead.
It wouldn’t end until that one showed up.
He’d never been caught like this before, but with the gate wide open and a chaotic melee raging, it wasn’t the time for the monster leader to run away.
Above all, the leader still hadn’t revealed the [killing intent] it had been enjoying so far.
Encrid’s expectation soon became reality.
“Screech!”
The centaur herd, the true main force, charged in as the third wave.
The monsters’ tactic was the triple wave.
The first wave distracted, the second hit, the third broke through.
Simple, but effective if you had overwhelming strength.
The third wave now charged straight at them.
Encrid drew his sword and stepped forward.
His place was always at the center of his army, where it clashed with the enemy center.
Ragna took position beside him.
“The killing intent of monsters is like intimidation. Did you know that?”
Unlike the soldiers whose guts shriveled at the charging monsters, Ragna’s tone never changed.
He was calm. Even with the sound of hooves deafening him, his voice was clear.
“Yeah.”
Encrid replied.
As the centaur leader approached, raising a glaive it had picked up somewhere, it roared.
“Screech!”
A powerful force swept over Encrid.
It was like the stare of a cat that freezes a mouse in place.
A dizzying [killing intent] flooded through his whole body.
It overwhelmed all the soldiers and the entire area.
With its presence and killing intent, it spread the fear of death.
But Encrid rejected all of it.