Chapter 44 - Chapter 7: Advent #2
“How many are there?"
Carack held his axe as he asked Karma who was lying flat on the hill. Karma gazed at the front with wide eyes before shouting in an urgent voice.
"Seven? Ten? There are also centaurs!”
In-gong climbed directly to the top of the hill because the report didn’t make sense. As soon as he saw the crowd from a distance, he opened the mini-map.
‘There are centaurs with the casios. Are the centaurs captured?’
They were far away, so he couldn’t be sure, but there were five armoured centaurs and dozens of casios.
The casios looked like a wolf with horns on their heads, but their size was much bigger than the wolf, especially the males.
Carack didn’t have a mini-map, so he turned towards In-gong with a frown.
"They are a scouting group. They probably came out to meet Prince. Two of them are already gone.”
Centaurs usually scouted in groups of seven. However, there were only five visible centaurs, so two had already lost their lives.
At this moment, both the centaurs and casios were approaching In-gong’s party. Carack asked In-gong,
"What do you want to do?”
Should they fight with the centaurs or escape?
If the dracos moved in the opposite direction, they were likely to escape, but In-gong shook his head. If he abandoned the centaurs and ran away, this mission would be ruined from the beginning.
“Let’s do something crazy.”
Fight. However, it wasn’t just fighting.
In-gong made the decision hurriedly and declared to Carack and Karma.
"They are running straight this way!”
It was less than 10 seconds but many things could happen in that time. Karma formed tight fists at the top of the hill. A desperate look formed in her eyes as the centaurs approached.
Aboard the dracos, In-gong and Carack were waiting at the bottom of the hill. Carack asked one last time,
"Are we really doing this?”
"It is real.”
"It was a short meeting but I really enjoyed it.”
"I will continue seeing you for a long time.”
However. it wasn’t the time to laugh and make jokes. Karma’s shout was like a thunderbolt,
"Now!"
"Don’t die!”
Carack’s unique battle cry swallowed up Karma’s cry. At the same time, the draco In-gong was riding sprang up from the ground.
The greatest feature of the dracos, that the dark elves used instead of horses, was their explosive instantaneous speed. It was only a few seconds, but the dracos could run several times faster than horses.
In-gong used the draco’s explosive speed from the beginning and the draco leapt from the hill at a fearsome pace.
Now, In-gong could see the centaurs and the casios. After hearing Carack’s battle cry, they saw In-gong on the draco and instinctively slowed down. However, the draco didn’t stop moving.
“Penetrate through!”
The draco Felicia gave him was quite intelligent. It understood In-gong’s command and used the correct speed to draw in the enemy accurately.
The draco carrying In-gong moved in between the centaurs and the casios and they all flinched at the sudden intrusion. In-gong directed the draco towards the casios he had been aiming at since he confirmed it on the mini-map.
'This is the boss!’
There was also a leader in a group of casios; he was in charge of directing the people in the hunting group.
‘How do I determine the boss? Of course, he is the biggest one!’
The boss casios was bigger than a horse, so he could distinguish it from the others at a glance. Moreover, its big size made it easier to cling to.
In-gong jumped and clung to the neck of the boss casios as the draco continued moving through a crowd of casios.
It only took a few seconds. However, In-gong didn’t stop. The casios was confused and couldn’t make a proper decision in the short amount of time. In-gong had to take advantage of this.
“Kuaang!”
The casios leader raised his head and called out an alarm. In-gong clung to the casios leader with his left arm and both his legs as he formed a fist with his right hand.
‘I will bet it all on this one strike!’
He was handling the casios leader with one blow.
He was by himself. This was In-gong who had already killed orcs from the Red Lightning tribe. The biggest difficulty of this mission was to hang on, not smash the casios leader’s head.
In-gong gathered aura around his right fist and used the explosive power of Divine Beast Authority. It was a technique that hit the enemy’s body with Aura, causing it to freeze. The amount of aura consumed was intense, but it was the most powerful attack that In-gong could unleash.
He focused his aura for precision!
His body remembered the technique since he had practiced it more than a dozen times. The moment that In-gong punched, there was a flash of white aura.
It was good thus far as it was the same as practice. However, something unexpected happened the moment the technique was completed.
Earth Quaker.
It was enchanted by the power of the dragon, Enkidu.
His aura felt violent. The destructive power of the technique had doubled!
Kwaang!
With a huge roar, the casios leader’s head exploded. The crushed skull splattered blood and flesh. It was like his head had been erased from the world.
The sight of the casios leader’s head disappearing in an instant caused the casios to be stunned. Some of them even ran away.
In-gong was also surprised. He knew he had become stronger after the battle with the Red Lightning tribe, however, it was his first time using Earth Quaker since discovering it. So, he hadn’t imagined it would make his aura so violent.
‘Isn’t this almost like Caitlin?'
Recalling how Caitlin had caused an orc to explode while they were rescuing Felicia, In-gong swallowed his saliva. He looked at the Earth Quaker on his right.
‘I can do it.’
He could do it! That wasn’t the only reason for the strong explosion. Beast Authority and Aura were level 5 and 6 respectively. He couldn’t be compared to the first time he fought the Red Lightning tribe.
In-gong frowned. Circulating the pure white aura boosted his physical abilities and made him several times stronger than Villager A.
‘Go.’
In-gong kicked his feet. It had only been a few seconds since the head of the casios leader exploded, so there were a few shocked casios that had been unable to escape.
If there was a word symbolizing Beast Authority, it was explosive power. While the draco rampaged, In-gong narrowed the distance to another casios. His aura exploded again and a casios collapsed.
In-gong didn’t spare his aura. The casios leader was dead, so this battle was as good as over.
"Kuraha!”
Carack let out a battle cry as he moved through the crowd of casios. He couldn’t smash a casios in one move like In-gong, but the huge battle axe was an overwhelming threat by itself.
When the weak centaurs grabbed weapons to try and counterattack as well, the casios lost their will to fight. They used the momentum to start fleeing.
"Karaha!"
Carack roared after the fleeing casios. Instead of talking to him, In-gong turned and stared at the centaurs.
The expressions of the centaurs, who were wearing light leather armour as scouts, were really complicated. They were excited from the battle, pleased about being rescued and anxious since they didn’t know who the people before them were.
In-gong recognized that the green centaur was the leader. There was a blue armband around his right arm.
“I am 9th Prince Shutra.”
The centaurs roared simultaneously.
&
“Really wonderful! Amazing!”
Karma shouted with excitement. Her wide and bright eyes reminded him of Caitlin.
'Isn’t it natural?’
It hadn’t even been a day since they were separated, so her face and voice were clear. In-gong was reminded of Caitlin but he quickly realized reality again.
"Prince, wipe your face.”
Carack handed over a dry washcloth to In-gong. He was known as In-gong’s aide, so the centaurs would listen to his simple instructions.
Two centaurs dismantled the corpses of the cassios while the other three took down the tent and packed the luggage. It was in preparation to move.
As they prepared to leave for a new camp, In-gong mounted the draco and replied to Karma absent-mindedly.
“Well, well. Yes, yes. Good. Make sure they eat when we arrive at the new camp.”
The draco seemed to only eat live food like snakes but they were actually omnivores. The casios meat from today would be enough to last a few weeks.
“Prince, we are ready to leave.”
Carack said while covering a small cauldron with a lid. It felt like he was going to start preparing a meal while moving.
"The nearest campground is only 20 minutes from here.”
Karma’s eyes were still shining like lanterns. In-gong directed the draco toward the centaur scout leader.
"Did you say you were Quick Wind?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The centaur with the armband, named Quick Wind, responded to In-gong’s question. His eyes weren’t as bright as Karma’s, but there were clearly emotions in them.
‘Ah, Prince remembered my name!’
In-gong guessed that might be the emotion, then asked a question,
"Can you give me the details of the situation?”
Immediately after the battle was over, he hadn’t been able to hear anything except for their names and that they were a scouting group. Quick Wind spoke in a fast manner like his name,
"We were expecting 9th Prince tomorrow. In order to check the safety of the surrounding areas, we were sent to scout and encountered the casios.”
Quick Wind’s face darkened dramatically. Like he had thought, they had been scouting.
In-gong sighed and asked again,
"The casios have already come this far down?”
The casios subjugation quest required him to defeat the casios in the north after joining the centaurs. In other words, the casios should have been in the north at this point.
However, the casios had shown up here. It was a little farther south than the settlements of the centaurs.
Quick Wind answered with an uneasy expression,
"It doesn’t seem like the whole group has come down. It's just... the casios seem to be moving faster than usual.”
It was different from the previous times. In-gong sensed something ominous as he listened.
"I can’t believe this. The demon king’s mission really isn’t ordinary.”
Carack said from beside In-gong.
‘I had been hoping this wouldn’t happen.’
Of course, it wasn’t like the demon king had been expecting this exact situation. However, he would have felt something was wrong if the demon king’s task was ordinary.
In-gong nodded while gazing at Karma ahead of him.
"Once we get there, let’s have a meal.”
“Don't worry. I won’t eat everything."
Carack laughed and tapped on the pot that he was holding like a treasure.
The next afternoon, In-gong arrived at the settlement of the centaurs.