Chapter 245 - Centaur Colony

"There's a monster colony in Martai."

When monsters gathered to form a community, that was a colony. Battalion Commander Marcus delivered the news, and Encrid decided to leave at once. He only learned just before departure that Dunbachel had gone there. Someone suggested that, since they were going anyway, they should make haste. They had heard the centaurs numbered enough to pose a considerable threat. "Let's ride. How long would it take to run there?"

Riding individual horses would be faster than taking a carriage. The question was whether everyone could ride. "What, you're worried about me? I'm Rem. Rem."

Everyone could at least ride. No, they knew how to handle a horse properly. Naturally, Encrid could ride as well. He had often worked as a coachman when there was no work for his sword. He had more of a knack for handling horses than one might expect. "You're good at riding, at least."

Ragna could ride too. Watching Encrid handle his mount, he even offered that brief assessment.

Good at riding, at least? Did that mean he was lacking in everything else? Encrid took it in stride and answered. "Don't take the lead. Keep your eyes on the person ahead and follow."

You always had to watch out for that directionally challenged bastard. Audin and Jaxon were comfortable on horseback too, and Krais went without saying.

"If you can't ride, how are you supposed to take a lady up behind you?"

He certainly had a clear purpose. Apparently, he had gone out of his way to spend Krona on riding lessons from a noble. True to his word, he did seem to handle horses best. The half-Giant posed a problem, but...

"A sturdy packhorse would be nice."

She did indeed pick out a sturdy packhorse and mount it. They said it was not fast, but had excellent endurance. Trade had been flourishing lately, bringing a variety of goods into Border Guard. Riding horses were among them. They could not be called warhorses yet, but a few people with a knack for training horses had been selected to run a proper stable. As a result, they had fenced off good pasture in front of the territory, on the Green Pearl plains to be precise, and begun raising horses there. Gaining that stretch of plains was one reward of their earlier victory in the war against Aspen. Raising horses there would make it possible to train cavalry. Border Guard had always had horses for messengers and pack animals. It was simply starting to raise them in earnest now. In any case, Marcus provided several of those horses. "You know this won't be easy, don't you?"

Marcus asked just before they left. Encrid nodded. Centaurs. There was no end to the dangers those monsters presented. Colonies were dangerous to begin with. They were not simply gatherings of monsters. Even a colony of Ghouls meant there was an unusual specimen leading them, and unusual monsters were always a threat. Of all such creatures, centaurs were more threatening than a horde of Knolls once they formed a colony. Knolls were troublesome because their numbers grew so rapidly, but they were still infantry. He had never seen a Knoll charge on horseback. Centaurs were mounted by nature. 'And the fact that they use something resembling strategy makes it even worse.'

What would happen if a band of skilled horsemen employed humanlike strategies? Even more than fifty of them would be a chilling prospect. Naturally, Border Guard had to roll up its sleeves and help. They were in the middle of trying to establish a proper eastern trade route. Hadn't these very mounts come through that route? Well, there were plenty of other objectives too. They could demonstrate the friendship between the two territories. Martai would serve as a bridgehead for eastern trade, and a minimum safeguard against any invasion launched from the east. From Border Guard's perspective, those were reasons to make Martai an ally and a sister territory. The news they received upon arriving in Martai was hardly pleasant.

"Dunbachel went into the forest and disappeared."

And there was a monster horde encamped on the plain in front of the forest. Was appalling the word for it? They had certainly heard that a centaur colony was causing trouble, but that was not the only problem. This was no ordinary colony. "Things are pretty fucking ugly."

Torres approached as he spoke, one side of his head swathed in bandages. They had fought monsters for three days straight. Quite a few had suffered serious injuries, and no small number of soldiers had died. Encrid heard the dead numbered in the dozens. Zimmer was limping too. "We've landed in a real shitstorm."

That was the former border defense captain, now lord of the city. Encrid climbed onto the walls and looked out at the monster horde encamped to one side. Was the problem that there were more than a hundred centaurs? That was a problem too, but the greatest problem lay elsewhere. "When their leader shrieks, everyone's body freezes."

That was how Torres had gotten his head cracked open. One of the Border Guard members had also had his head burst by the creature's club and died on the spot. More than fifty soldiers dead? Encrid did not know how many troops Martai currently had, but that was a devastating blow. Even that had to be considered fortunate. Apparently, losses had only been kept that low thanks to Zimmer and several of the Border Guard's best fighters. Encrid started asking questions to get a grasp of the situation, then stopped. So that centaur was the problem. His face was as expressionless as ever. He did not dwell on Dunbachel's situation. This was a battlefield.

'People die. There's no helping that.'

If that was her limit, that was simply how it was. One question remained, though.

'Why?' Couldn't she have abandoned the soldiers and escaped whenever she liked? Among those who had taken the commission were the brothers Luchi and Richi. Encrid's excellent memory meant he had memorized most of the soldiers' names. They were people he had trained and worked hard alongside. That memory naturally retained their names along with their distinguishing features. At any rate, those two soldiers had said:

"She could have gotten away if she'd wanted to."

"Yeah, but she didn't. Just went straight at them."

"That was the first time we saw it. One twice the size of the others was letting out this horrible shriek."

"The last we saw, Instructor Dunbachel slipped and fell from a tree when it shouted, while she was running away."

"But we'd all have died if she hadn't done that. The territory would have been caught by surprise and suffered even worse losses than it has now." So they said. Why? To save them? Had she wanted the renown of protecting the territory? Or was there a man among them Dunbachel had her eye on? She was a Beastman, after all. She took breeding seriously. He surveyed the soldiers' faces, but that seemed unlikely. It would be hard to feel any desire looking at those faces. Then why? That was all he wondered. "Kreeee!"

In the distance, about ten centaurs split from the herd and began running. They did not charge, but galloped across the field, shouting. It looked like a threat. It also looked like they were picking a fight. Were they trying to scare them? That was the impression he got. Encrid was unaffected, but the soldiers stirred uneasily. Discipline really was wavering.

"Those fucking bastards."

Torres ground his teeth. From what Encrid heard, every time ten or so of them had come out to shriek like that, a monster charge had followed. That centaur leader certainly was resourceful. It had more than fifty horse demonic beasts. It seemed to have rounded up three or four harpies somewhere too; he could see the breast-bearing monsters hovering overhead. Nor was that the end of it. At a glance, the human-faced hounds numbered more than three hundred. There seemed to be dozens of their monster friends the Ghouls, who never missed a gathering, as well. He could see wolf demonic beasts too. It had done well to gather so many creatures of so many kinds without being caught. In fact, although Encrid, Martai's lord, and Torres did not know it, one local ranger knew that the depths of Grateful Forest were quite dangerous. He also knew it had earned its name because people had only ever used the near edge of that vast forest. The ranger surmised that some of the monsters that had come up from the south and disappeared had probably settled in the rear of the forest. Their leader was intelligent, so it had quietly subsisted on the nearby animals, avoiding battle until it had built up its numbers. That explained why wildlife had been so scarce in Grateful Forest lately. Beyond the forest to the northeast lay broad pastures, home to herds of wild horses. There could be no better place for centaurs to settle. Now that things had come to this, the realization came naturally. But before it happened, he could never have dreamed of it. Of course, knowing it now changed nothing. "Rem."

Encrid did not care whether the creatures charged or not. If they attacked, he would simply kill them. Of course, the lord and Torres looked utterly grim. 'Is Dunbachel dead too?'

As he stood briefly lost in thought, Rem spoke beside him, his tone and manner leisurely. He had just finished yawning and was wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "I don't say this often."

"Don't say what?"

"That Beastman has talent." Talent? Was it easy to earn those words from Rem? Encrid thought not. Absolutely not. For the record, he had never once heard anything even resembling a claim that he had talent. Hadn't he heard plenty about being dull, though? "And?"

"I'm saying she wouldn't have died easily."

Rem had somehow read Encrid's mind and steered the conversation that way. "Could still be dead, though."

Couldn't the bastard stick to one thing? He just had to add that. Then he snickered, something akin to killing intent flickering in his laugh. Encrid did not think he had grown particularly attached to Dunbachel. Still, she was a member of his unit. And so, he ought to give her a funeral. With the monsters' blood, flesh, and heads. Perhaps Rem felt much the same. That thought occurred to him. Encrid considered how to fight. His mind raced, one thought following another. Mounted combat was out. Martai did have some cavalry, but... "We can't use them. One shout from that thing sends the horses running. Plenty of them freeze on the spot too. We lost half our cavalry in the first battle because of it." Then what about putting infantry up front to stop them? Martai's vaunted assault infantry were lightly equipped, but long spears and shields were their main weapons. Would they work against centaurs? It had already been proven that they would not. At the very least, they had to deal with the leader's presence. One shriek froze everyone's body. Wasn't that ability practically cheating? "I've requested support from the central government. We need at least a proto knight."

The lord was experienced. He had not become border defense captain for nothing. That was his assessment. What the creature wielded was something like Will. Such creatures occasionally appeared among monster leaders. Some called it "presence," others "killing intent," and still others "fear."

So that was it. Encrid heard this too. Afterward, as he considered how to draw in an enemy that moved on horseback, he turned to Krais.

"Big-eyes."

"Yes?"

"If it gallops away, we'll spend the whole time chasing it." Brainwork was not his forte. Krais did not even seem to need to think it over.

"Why don't we just fight?"

"What?"

"They said they've fought that monster several times now. If those things use something like strategy, that means they're intelligent. So do you think they're scared right now? Doesn't look like it to me." KREEEEEE!

Once again, the ten centaurs shrieked and darted into bow range before pulling back out. A few archers reacted, but none loosed an arrow. They had experienced it several times already. Those creatures would not be hit even if they fired. "So if we just run straight at them, they'll come right at us."

Would they? Encrid had worried that the enemy might flee, but Krais said that worry was unfounded. 'But why did I start by thinking about catching them as they ran?'

Encrid retraced his thought process. Why had he done that? Because victory was a given. They needed a proto knight because there was something mixed into the creature's roar. Something that inspired fear, most likely. Then wasn't it simply a matter of not being afraid? He had experienced intimidation and grasped refusal. Something formless, shaped from Will, had entered his heart. Encrid felt no threat. "Shall we head out, then?"

"What?"

"Where?"

The lord and Torres reacted to Encrid's words at the same time.

"To fight," Encrid answered. "Have you heard a word we've said?"

"Are you going out there to die? We have to wait for reinforcements. At least until the troops Border Guard sent get here."

This time Torres spoke first, followed by the lord. They did not know Encrid as he was now. He had learned refusal after they left.

"Krais."

Rather than offer a lengthy explanation, Encrid summoned his mouthpiece. "The situation is bad. There are more of them than before, aren't there? It'll probably gather every monster around. It's a leader with the 'general' trait, after all. The most dangerous kind of monster. Time is against us. So our best option is to slit the leader's throat while we can still deal with it."

Krais drew the edge of his hand across his throat. "You freeze the instant you get close to it!"

Torres shouted, irritation creeping into his voice. If not for that, he would not have tried to stop them either. "It'll be fine. You worry too much. Just hold your ground against those crazy monsters and demonic beasts."

"Before you tell them to hold, Rem, help them."

"Ho ho, I'll join you as well, brother."

"I'll go too."

Rem spoke as he clapped Torres on the shoulder. Encrid addressed him in turn, and Audin and Teresa followed. Torres wondered what was wrong with them. Had they all chewed the wrong herbs? No, they had always been mad. That was why they were the Lunatic Company. His respect for Marcus grew anew.

'He went into battle simply trusting these bastards?'

They would not listen even when warned of the danger. It was maddening, but he could not stop them. They were not the sort to listen if he tried. KREEEEE!

More importantly, Krais was right. Would the central government send help? It was far more likely that it would not. Torres did not know what was happening there, but the situation seemed even more complicated than theirs. Rumors of some guild going around assassinating the kingdom's nobles had reached even the north. "Let's go."

And so Encrid led the Lunatic Company down from the wall. His steps were unhurried. Whether the centaurs outside screamed or not, he took his time. Only Krais stayed behind.

"You're not going with them?"

Torres sounded half drained of energy. Krais answered with a look that asked what he was talking about.

"Why would I? Are you telling me to go get myself killed? Why leave the safety of the walls?" Then what about them? Torres genuinely wanted to ask, but did not bother opening his mouth. The answer seemed obvious anyway.

"Oh, come on. The Captain's the Captain."

Something along those lines, surely. "Ah, well. Let's go fight too."

Morale had hit rock bottom, but somehow the tension had abruptly deflated. That helped in its own way. Sometimes being half dumbfounded was better than being demoralized. "All troops, sortie!"

Torres was the next border defense captain and the current supreme commander of their forces. The territory was being run with the lord's and commander's duties kept separate. When Torres emerged with his head bandaged, the monsters were already charging, led by human-faced hounds. They had already endured several horrific battles. They would slaughter the charging creatures and hold the line, only for the leader to arrive and shriek. That one shriek froze their troops, and they knew defeat was coming.

'Damn it, we shouldn't be fighting like this.' But simply holding out was not a realistic option either. Martai's walls had never been specially designed for defense. Once they fell, the slaughter would begin. Even now, they were only barely holding. "Show them the valor of the east!"

Zimmer forcibly dragged up what morale he could. At the front, Rem had already rushed ahead and was swinging his axes. And then, as though this much were only to be expected, the slaughter party began. Torres had anticipated this part. They were the Lunatic Company, after all. The only problem was the leader. Even so, that did not make what was unfolding before him any less exhilarating. Just watching it was a release. It was a feeling rarely found on a battlefield of killing and dying.