novelraw Chapter 94
Chapter 94
Chapter 94
There were beings here who showed as much — if not more — determination than the Lion Tribe warriors.
They were the Rabbit Tribe.
The Rabbit Tribe were willing to plunge into the pit of fire to protect their new home, to wash away their ancestors’ shame, and for their Guide.
“Good chance to show the Rabbit Tribe’s will.”
Rabbit Tribe Ranger Roberto had been a worker at the Level Merchant Group’s ranch.
He had been saved by Iron there, and had even helped set the ranch on fire.
When facing the raptors he had survived death more than once.
If the Raptor Queen had been dealt with any later, Roberto would have ended his life there.
After that, he had experienced the winter defense as a member of the Rabbit Tribe rangers.
He had learned how to infuse arrows with aura from the rangers, and thanks to the elixir the Guide had given him (vitality grass), his body had grown muscular.
Added to that were various combat experiences, and Roberto had become one of the warriors representing the Rabbit Tribe.
“Beastia and the Guide gave me so much.”
A sturdy wall and abundant food.
Especially the newly remodeled semi-basement house for the Rabbit Tribe — it had astonished him.
It had been warm even in winter, they could light a fire at night, and it even had running water.
How moved he had been when new children were safely born over the winter.
A child born in winter.
It had been a luxury unimaginable back when they had lived in the forest and as slaves of the merchant group.
All of this had been possible because the Guide had saved the Rabbit Tribe.
“We were definitely ready.”
After the defense plan had been established, all the Rabbit Tribe had moved into the gorge and set up their positions.
Even powerful human mages had worked together to dig burrows and build defensive lines.
A number of the mana crystals the Rabbit Tribe had so longed for had been allocated to them.
This place was truly an impregnable fortress.
All that remained was to defeat the wicked pig bastards.
“They’re coming.”
The Boar Tribe were swarming along the gorge.
They were wildly disorderly, not even keeping formation.
Exactly as the Black Lion kid had predicted.
It was proof the plan was working.
“Tito, you ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
Beside Roberto, the ‘goat kidnappers’ Tito was waiting.
The Rabbit Tribe boy Tito had been the first to meet the Guide and had witnessed the sacred(?) scene of the Guide reclaiming the Black Rabbit statue.
Tito, who had kidnapped hundreds of three-horned mountain goats with the knights, was a marksman even the rangers acknowledged, and he was the standard-bearer who would signal the start of this operation.
The Rabbit Tribe’s desire for this operation had spared no one by age or gender, so even young Tito had gladly taken up his horn bow.
“Good. Fire!”
-Pyung!!
When about half of the Boar Tribe cluster had passed the target point,
Tito’s fire arrow struck the oil jar hidden in the trees.
The oil jar rigged with a mana bomb exploded with a roar, and numerous Rabbit Tribe who had been hiding, waiting for the signal, launched fire arrows all at once.
“It’s an ambush!”
“Kugh!!”
-Kwang! Kwang!
The Rabbit Tribe’s fire arrows and the oil jars buried in the ground, combined perfectly with the mana crystal bombs, and the entire gorge became a sea of fire.
The Boar Tribe, who had been charging in disorder, were utterly panicked.
Their entire force fell into chaos.
“Over the gorge!”
“Ra- Rabbit Tribe!”
“Start with those rabbit bastards!”
The Boar Tribe commander who had come to his senses gave an order.
Take out the Rabbit Tribe firing from the gorge.
Roberto, who had been happily shooting arrows from inside the position, felt the battle had begun in earnest.
But he was not afraid.
-Probably nothing big? Of course, those fools would climb up to the gorge sooner or later. But pigs are stubborn in their behinds, right? They’re cowards, too. Since they couldn’t tell what was going on, they’d probably send in their trainees to test the waters. The Rabbit Tribe only needed to skewer the small fry with arrows and stall for time. Then slip away — that’s it. Isn’t that Rabbit Tribe specialty?
Just as the Black Lion kid had predicted, the Boar Tribe’s trainees, sent only to fill numbers, were crawling up the gorge in front.
These trainees, not full-fledged warriors, became prey for the Rabbit Tribe rangers.
“What the… ugh”
“E- explosion!”
The gorge was, in fact, a death trap dotted densely with mana bombs.
With the mana bombs and oil jars detonating simultaneously, those who had just managed to crawl into the gorge were turned into charred lumps.
If they had been mid-level or higher warriors, the explosions would have mostly caused burns, but the trainees could not survive such blasts.
“We should start withdrawing soon, right?”
“Perhaps it’s time.”
But the enemy numbers could not be ignored.
It was impossible to face every foe with just arrows and booby traps; one by one, Boar Tribe members who managed to climb toward the position began to come into view.
The force even included the occasional warrior.
And there was a trap prepared specifically for this moment.
“Tito, fire the signal again.”
“Yes, sir.”
-Piwoong!!
Another arrow shot up into the sky with a loud sound.
At the signal, the Rabbit Tribe who had been firing from the position began evacuating quickly.
They had hidden themselves in the tall burrows dug in advance for evacuation.
“These crazy rabbit bastards!”
“Chase them!”
The Boar Tribe, burning with rage, threw themselves into the burrows.
They intended to slaughter the fleeing Rabbit Tribe.
But that had been a wrong choice.
These burrows were the Rabbit Tribe’s territory.
Masters of escape, experts of sabotage, born guerrillas.
The Rabbit Tribe rangers, who delighted in booby traps, had guerrilla prowess comparable to the Viet Cong, and this burrow, prepared with the Rabbit Tribe’s full intent, held all manner of booby traps waiting for guests.
-Kwang!
“The… the cave’s collapsing!!”
The most lethal thing was the burrow collapsing itself.
If a burrow collapsed, no matter the warrior, survival was impossible.
“Kill the pig bastards!!”
When the Rabbit Tribe were showing off their “solo runaway performance,”
Leisha and the Black Lions ambushed the Boar Tribe from the front.
The warriors who had barely escaped the burning gorge fell into panic once again.
“Lions!”
The Boar Tribe warriors, trained with aura, hadn’t been fatally wounded by such flames.
Aura was that extraordinary a power.
But that didn’t mean there was no pain.
The sudden explosion had thrown them into confusion, and their chain of command had collapsed.
In such circumstances, it was impossible for them to display their full abilities.
“Kill them all!”
“Kill!!!”
The Black Lions following Leisha threw themselves into the burning gorge, cutting down the confused Boar Tribe warriors one by one.
-Kwang!
-Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!!
“It worked. Everyone, charge!”
“Johnson!! Johnson!!”
Explosions boomed from inside the gorge.
Confirming that everything was going according to plan, I immediately led the soldiers toward the gorge entrance.
If the Boar Tribe warriors managed to break out of the gorge, we’d be in trouble.
Thus, the knights mounted on three-horned mountain goats seized the entrance first.
The soldiers were a bit slower, but that didn’t matter.
There was only one entrance anyway, and with ninety knights, we could block it well enough.
The soldiers only needed to provide backup if something went wrong.
“What the? Why are they rushing out like that?”
“They’ve got fire lit on their tails. Boss, let’s push them now.”
“Knights, charge! Wipe out every pig bastard!”
“Johnson! Johnson!!”
The gorge quickly filled with deserters, though the battle had barely begun.
Maybe Leon’s warning had been right — that our front might end up the fiercest.
Wasn’t this basically fleeing without fighting properly?
Just what were these bastards thinking when they came all the way here?
-Ah! That crazy female!
The gorge was in total chaos.
The beastman tongue rang out around me, incomprehensible, except for one desperate scream: “crazy female.”
Whatever was happening inside, it was clear something serious was unfolding.
“Isn’t that Sister-in-law Leisha?”
“…Yes, that’s Leisha.”
In the distance, I spotted Leisha.
Her entire body was shrouded in black aura mist that shimmered like a mirage, and in both hands she wielded aura blades more than a meter long, blazing dark.
Around her lay only the corpses of Boar Tribe warriors she had slaughtered.
The most unbelievable part was that, amidst all this carnage, not a single drop of blood had touched her armor.
Such composure, even while single-handedly massacring the enemy.
Even the burning heat consuming the gorge couldn’t hold her back.
“At that level, calling her insane doesn’t sound wrong.”
Leisha in full combat mode was the very descent of catastrophe.
Just how strong was this woman?
-To say it bluntly, that female’s the real deal. The Black Lions themselves are born as living weapons, and she’s their pinnacle.
‘You’re right.’
-If that female ever pounced on master, all you could do is lie back and count the stains on the ceiling.
‘Why the hell would Leisha pounce on me?’
That rabbit brat again.
No wonder their morale was in tatters — with a monster like her standing in the way, their fighting spirit was bound to crumble.
Maybe if several great warriors and top-class fighters joined forces, it’d be different, but in this chaos rational decisions were impossible.
“Oh, a big one! Boss, look at that one!”
At that moment, a Boar Tribe warrior with a massive axe charged toward us.
Even at a glance, he was a Great Warrior (Master)-class.
The sight made me let out a whistle.
-Lord, you’ll have to deal with that Great Warrior. He’ll definitely run this way. Why? Because Leisha’s up front. Do you think any pig would want to brawl with her in this chaos? All they care about is saving their own hides — no sense of responsibility at all. If we miss this one, it’ll be bad, so you’d better handle it.
A Great Warrior was the commander among warriors.
I had expected him to face Leisha at the very front — but he didn’t.
As Leon had said, he seemed to be the very first to flee in this direction.
Unbelievable.
In my mind, the idea of a leader running first was inconceivable, but that kid had been dead right.
-As expected of the pigs. At this level, they’re just as shameless as master.
I brushed off the rabbit brat’s nonsense and threw myself forward to intercept him.
My greatsword clashed with his massive axe, bursting out a heavy grinding sound.
“Chh, weak human bastard….”
Failing to split me in a single blow, the Boar Tribe Great Warrior spat and reset his stance.
Red aura surged around his colossal axe.
A huge body and a massive axe.
He was the type who relied on brute strength to crush enemies, much like Rudick.
‘A type I’m most familiar with.’
It felt oddly nostalgic, like facing foes I had seen every day.
-Cheng!
I caught the descending axe head cleanly.
It was heavy.
At least my equal.
Strength equal to mine, after being boosted a level higher by vitality grass — that made him formidable.
He was leagues beyond Roman (Golden Sun), that clumsy Master of Haken.
In a normal fight, it might have taken hundreds of exchanges before a victor emerged.
-Kreong!!!
But this was no normal fight.
Behind us, Leisha’s feral lion’s roar shook the air, and the black monster was closing in by the second.
Time was on my side.
“Damn it all! Get out of my way!!!”
He thrashed desperately to escape, but that was all.
A warrior relying only on strength could never win when he lacked the upper hand in power.
‘I’ll never lose in sheer strength.’
In terms of pure physical ability, even Leisha couldn’t surpass me anymore.
‘Which means, even if Leisha pounced on me, I wouldn’t be lying back counting ceiling stains.’
-Hmph, but your aura’s still pre-ma-ture, isn’t it? Pre. Ma. Ture.
‘Shut up!’
“Kugh!!!”
The more desperate he became, the more openings he revealed.
I easily deflected his wildly swinging axe and drove my greatsword into his chest.
So much for premature — this blow would erase that label at once.
The aura-charged blade cleaved straight through his torso.
It was a strike filled with rage and fury.