Duke Pendragon

Bang!

The table split into two pieces, scattering wooden splinters and food.

“You stupid bastards! So you’re telling me that you ran with your tail between your legs!?”

“Hieek!”

Baltai’s anger caused the survivors of the massacre to fall flat on the floor. A small portion of the soldiers had managed to escape from the elven warriors of the Red Moon Valley.

“How many days did 1,000 soldiers looking for a single fucking person? You worthless pieces of scum! You’re no better than a damned mealworm!”

Baltai grabbed a bottle of alcohol and threw it with an angry shout.

Shatter!

One of the soldiers on the floor died instantly after the bottle smashed down on his head. He wasn’t even able to let out a scream. However, the rest of the survivors did not dare move an inch. They kowtowed even lower while wetting their pants.

“Fuck…!”

“E, excuse me, boss, but…”

Baltai was about to erupt in fury once more when a company captain spoke up in a cautious voice.

“What?”

The man flinched when he felt the blazing eyes of Baltai move towards him, then continued after hurriedly bowing his head.

“Those who attacked the trackers are most likely the elves living in the Great Forest. Listening to the lizardmen’s description of the attackers, their appearance was very similar to the elves.”

“So?”

“Well, uh, t, the elves hate humans, right? Furthermore, judging from the way they attacked our troops, they were very familiar with the Great Forest, and they seemed even more hostile towards humans than the other elves. Obviously, they would have discovered the traces of Duke Pendraogn, and by now…”

“Hooh…”

Baltai’s expression loosened a little.

In other words, the elves of the Great Forest might have already killed the damned Pendragon after massacring the trackers.

“Fucking hell… I still can’t be relieved. The bastard avoided our pursuit for more than 10 days in the Great Forest. Besides, his injuries must have healed somewhat by now. It is hard to tell if the bloody elves have already taken care of him.”

“Ah, yes…”

The company captain stepped back with an embarrassed expression. Baltai mulled over something with a frown, then spoke while standing up.

“I will be sending scouts to the spot where we found traces of him. The elf bastards must have found our soldiers because we sent in so many of them. Pick out ten of our most agile bastards and send them in. Find out if the elves really did take care of the fucking dragon as well. At least know where he disappeared off to once they…”

“C, commander!”

A soldier rushed into the barracks with a frenzied scream.

“You fucking bastard…”

Baltai glared at the soldier with fury in his eyes, but the soldier ignored it and continued.

“An attack! G, griffons! Enemy griffons!”

“What!?”

Baltai was dumbfounded.

Thud!

Something fell on top of the barracks, and everyone present, including Baltai, looked up in a hurry.

“W, what is it?”

As soon as someone spoke, a familiar smell flooded everyone’s nostrils. It did not take long for them to identify the smell.

“Oil…?”

Baltai frowned and uttered a single word. Then,

Thud! Fwoosh!

The roof of the barracks ignited in a violent fashion.

“Fire!”

“Ahhhk!”

The flames spread throughout the tent in an instant, and the structure started to collapse on itself. Baltai and his men quickly rushed out of the tent.

“Huh?”

Baltai hurriedly shook off the sparks on his head, then became astonished as he observed the surroundings.

Fwooooosh!

Along with a pungent smell of oil, flames were soaring throughout their entire base. However, there weren’t too many fires compared to the overall area of the camp. Baltai shouted towards the soldiers of the demonic army who were chaotically running all over the place.

“You fucking morons! Stop running around like headless chickens and put out the fires! Go get some fucking wat…”

He was forced to stop his sentence midway. His ugly frown soon turned into bewilderment.

Shhhhhhh!

Hundreds of droplets of red rain were falling towards him, drawing a parabola above the high-rise forest. The blazing, red rain seemed like a meteor shower marking the end of the world. They were flaming arrows.

***

“Fire!”

Papapat!

Once again, hundreds of fire arrows rose high above the forest in an elongated curve.

“Close combat formation!”

After letting loose two more rounds of flaming arrows, the soldiers of the Pendragon Duchy quickly abandoned the make-shift long bows and changed their formation from a wide-spread to having two organized rows.

“Maintain your formation! Marksmen! Prepare the crossbows!”

The first row was composed of soldiers equipped with round shields and spears that were around five foot long. After the first row lowered their positions, the soldiers behind them prepared their crossbows in firing positions.

As the infantry organized themselves, Killian pressed down on his helm and turned his head. He raised his voice.

“Good! We’re moving as well! Follow me!”

“Hua!”

Dududududu!

A hundred heavy cavalrymen rode behind him. Killian galloped his horse along the edge of the forest, then raised his head.

One of the griffon riders in the sky lowered his altitude. He threw a large red flag, which would be easily visible from afar, before coming down from the sky.

“Some troops are fleeing to the other side of the forest! In the current direction, it will be about one mile further ahead! There are about four or five hundred!”

“Got it!”

Killian answered, and the griffon flew high into the sky again while giving large flaps of its wings. Holding on to the reins with one hand, Killian reached down to the side of his saddle. He equipped himself with a weapon unique to the heavy cavalry. It was a long spear, with just its spearhead reaching 1.5 foot. The blade of the spear was dual-edged, and it glinted sharply.

Killian shouted after picking up the weapon.

“Switch directions! All troops, prepare for battle!”

The heavy cavalrymen picked up their respective weapons as they followed behind Killian. Then they finished circling around the grassland and charged back towards the forest. The distance from the large, red flag was now around 300 yards.

Dudududududu!

The terrifying, rapid charge of the troops caused the earth to tremble and dust to rise. A red glow decorated the sky beyond the entrance to the forest. It appeared that the fire had already spread to the dense trees of the forest.

A firestorm of hell would be unfurling inside the forest.

Hundreds of people began to frantically run through the shadows of the thick forest. They were the first of the demonic army to flee the camp.

“Ahhhh…! Heuk?”

They had hoped to find relief after escaping the scorching forest, but their eyes widened upon seeing what was headed towards them. A turbulent wave of cavalrymen were rushing towards them.

“A, a knight order!”

“Ahhk!”

The soldiers became confused upon seeing the heavy cavalry.

A group of fearsome knights was charging towards them in the front, and the raging flames of the forest threatened them from behind. They were forced with no other choice.

“Ahhhhh!”

Eventually, the soldiers began to flee to the sides of the forest. However, the heavy cavalry were faster than them. In an instant, the cavalrymen caught up to the soldiers of the demonic army and swung their spears.

“Keuk!”

“Kuaahhk!”

They were stomped to death, charged to death, and pierced to death…

Within a short moment, more than half of the soldiers were dead or seriously injured, rolling around on the ground.

“Ahhh! Fuck!”

“Bastards! Fight!”

Living up to their infamous nicknames, some of the demons quickly took out their weapons. However, the heavy cavalry was composed of experienced first-class mercenaries and free knights. Moreover, they had experienced hellish training under the command of the ‘One-egged Demon’ for the past year. The demonic army’s soldiers stood no chance against the sudden attack of the heavy cavalrymen.

“Keuk!”

Countless demons fell down at the hands of the heavy cavalrymen, and only a few dozen soldiers managed to survive. They fled to the other side of the meadow.

However, their fates were already sealed as well.

Kiyaaaahk!

“Huh?”

They had been relieved to see the heavy cavalrymen give up chase and head towards the edge of the forest once more. However, they turned their heads in surprise at the unexpected sound.

Shhhhk!

“Griffons…”

As soon as they noticed the giant, flying monsters descend towards them with their wings spread out, they fell into despair.

Puck! Puck!

The charge of two Pendragon griffons caused the soldiers to be scattered into the air with their limbs bent in unnatural positions.

“Keuu…”

A soldier looked towards the burning forest. He was crawling on the floor while pouring out tears and snot, his entire body engulfed in pain.

If he knew the fate that was waiting for him, maybe he would have remained behind and fought with the others. However, it was only a vain expectation.

Perhaps those who were dying on the ground alongside him were the lucky ones.

***

“Heuuaaak!”

While abandoning their encampment after the baptism of flaming arrows, the group of soldiers fled towards the opposite direction from where the arrows had come from. Since the forest was not too large, they quickly reached the edge of the forest. They let out sighs of relief.

However,

“Kill ‘em all!”

“Kuwaaaaaahhhh!”

All of the soldiers froze on the spot when they saw monsters rushing towards them from the edge of the forest with a thunderous roar.

A dozen orc warriors heavily armed with iron armor.

Their huge steel maces were as big as regular humans, and flesh and blood splattered as they started to dance the dance of death.

Boom! Bang!

Dozens of soldiers fell underneath the trees without even an opportunity to scream. Their heads had disappeared without a trace, and blood soaked the soil.

“Ahhhh!”

Even though the soldiers of the demonic army were persistent and malicious, humans could not fight against orc warriors. The Ancona Orc warriors rushed into the midst of the soldiers like a wild beast breaking into a flock of sheep, then clubbed three or four soldiers at a time. They jumped from soldier to soldier in a frenzy.

Even though the soldiers numbered dozens of times more, they became frightened and began to flee out of the forest. Hundreds of their colleagues were fleeing alongside them, so they would be able to escape the orcs’ attack if they were lucky.

However,

“Hieeek!”

There were orc warriors waiting for them outside of the forest. Furthermore, the orc warriors numbered several times more than those who had appeared in the forest.

“Krrrr…”

Soldiers trembled like a leaf when they saw the orc warriors approach them with a dark red glow rising over them. Unlike any orcs they had seen until now, the Ancona Orcs were heavily armed with iron armor and maces. They were no different from the death reaper.

In the end, the soldiers were left with only one choice.

“Uaaaahh!”

Hundreds of deranged demons charged, their eyes completely blank from fear.

“Kukakakaka!”

The Ancona Orcs did not hide their eager anticipation for the feast of blood and death that was heading towards them. The murderous creatures from Ancona rushed forward to meet the hundreds of enemies.

***

“Huah! Heu…!”

Baltai quickly abandoned the camp after it turned into a flaming hell. Even in the hectic situation, he kept looking around to observe the situation.

He could see hundreds of his soldiers running in all directions while huffing.

‘Fuck!’

He did not vocalize his thoughts for the fear of depriving himself of breath. Baltai kept running while swearing inside his head.

The fire had killed a considerable number of men. However, the number of soldiers who escaped from the camp was much higher.

If the soldiers were able to reorganize after exiting the forest, they would be able to retaliate. There hadn’t been too many flaming arrows that flew into their base, so he would be fine if 1,000 of his subordinates remained.

‘Even if they have griffons, there’s only ten of them at most. We have a good chance!’

With such thoughts, Baltai looked around and shouted. He was almost out of the forest.

“As soon as you exit the forest, gather around! Prepare for battle with the cowardly bastards!”

His words were quite ironic, as the word ‘cowardice’ did not do justice to describe Baltai. However, the most important thing was survival, so the soldiers of the demonic forest gathered together after exiting the forest.

“Hoo! Whoo! Hoo!”

Baltai looked around after finally getting out of the forest.

“Heuk! Heuk!”

The soldiers had been running for their lives, so there were quite a few who were gagging from the strenuous escape. In addition, more soldiers continued to pop out of the forest. All together, they would number at least 1,000 in all.

“You fucking bastards! Don’t laze around, prepare yourselves!”

Despite their tiredness, the soldiers stood up at Baltai’s words.

“Get into formation! They’re going to be coming soon…”

Baltai started to shout while foaming at the mouth, then his words trailed off.

Dozens of long shadows were flying over the edge of the forest.

They were griffons.

Dudududududu!

And on the other side, a group of cavalrymen were charging towards them.