The centaur leader ran. This was no time to be cautious of wounds.
He was a beast who had already experienced fleeing twice.
Having intelligence meant knowing when to flee in dangerous situations.
That’s what he did.
In the creature’s mind, the first being that made him flee came to mind.
Deep within the place humans called the Demon Realm, all sorts of things lived.
Of course, the centaur leader did not understand the Demon Realm or any geographical meaning.
He simply recalled the creature that toyed with him.
Long arms, tearing apart anything they grasped.
The hands that tore apart for fun, even when it wasn’t food.Thud, crack!
The leader broke through the branches that struck his shoulder with force.
Black blood trickled from his right foreleg.
The pain sharpened his mind.
Memories continued.
He escaped the grasp of the tearing hands and fought.
Then he was defeated and chased.
In the end, he was chased by humans to this place.
The creature repeated one principle to himself.
Surviving is strength.
What should he do to survive?
Instinct pushed him.
‘Subjugate the herd of wild horses in the plains and form a larger group!’
If the creature had any ambition, it was now.
More precisely, the creature was learning something as he got closer to humans.
His intelligence allowed for it.
Thus, he learned to hide and gather strength.
This time, he also learned to gauge his enemy.
From the human perspective, it was obvious that letting him go would become a greater threat.
No, it was a definite threat.
If the leader survived this time, he would subjugate the herd of wild horses in the pasture.
Then he would gather more beasts and creatures.
‘If I let him go, it’ll be a headache.’
His intuition spoke. Even without intuition, he understood.
It was said that the longer a creature survived, the more cunning it became.
What is cunning?
It meant becoming sly and devious.
If a creature’s ferocity was combined with cunning and deviousness.
‘It’ll be incredibly troublesome.’
Above all, it might become the funeral battle for Dunbachel.
He didn’t feel any debt to the beastwoman’s death.
However, once he accepted her under his command, it was his responsibility until she left.
If he hadn’t accepted her, it would be different, but he had, and put her under his command.
And if she was under his command, it was right to take responsibility.
A death on the battlefield was naturally the individual’s responsibility, but what happened afterward was also something the Commander had to handle.
Especially since it was said that Dunbachel did it to save someone.
‘Why did she do that?’
If the beastwoman were alive, it would be the first question he’d throw at her.
He put his brief thoughts aside and focused on running.
The leaves rapidly approaching in front of him, the tree roots that rose like traps on the ground.
Everything served to slow his pace.
It was the same for the centaur creature.
Thanks to that, while he couldn’t catch him immediately, he could at least avoid losing him.
Encrid exhaled briefly and inhaled as he stepped on a rounded tree root, swinging his dagger vertically at the branches blocking his view.
Ping.
The dry branch snapped and bounced off his shoulder.
A thin branch brushed his cheek. A drop of blood formed on his cheek but flew back due to his rapid pace.
Everything in the forest closing in rapidly was an obstacle.
It was the same for the creature, but it had a much thicker skin and body than a human.
This meant he could break through obstacles and move forward.
The leader did just that.
Ignoring most things, he dashed forward.
Encrid had already thrown away the helmet that obscured his vision, and it had hit the creature’s back but didn’t make it flinch.
The helmet bounced off the back muscle with a thud.
It didn’t even flinch. It looked determined to escape.
Of course, the thrown helmet lacked force because he threw it while running.
‘Should I train to throw while running?’
It would be necessary in moments like this.
Something to consider later.
Encrid wanted to catch it.
The responsibility for Dunbachel, the ensuing danger, all of it he wanted to end here.
Judging by the speed they were running, they would soon exit the forest and into the plains and meadows.
The terrain with the most wild horses in the area, if they reached there, he would surely lose him.
‘I hate that.’
He didn’t want to lose him.
Focused entirely on one thing. While running, he activated Focus Point, and all his senses became extremely sharp.
His Sense of Evasion and Intuition activated with a single purpose.
‘I won’t lose you.’
In that moment, as he repeatedly recalled his desire in his mind.
He noticed a broken, twisted tree about twenty steps to the right and its exposed twisted growth rings.
His heightened senses wildly fluctuated, showing him the path.
The ‘will’ he sensed through rejection moved slightly.
Encrid’s body naturally followed the path.
He kicked off the right tree and soared into the air. At the same time, he thrust his knife into the thick branch above him.
The momentum from his running sent his body flying forward.
Encrid let go of the knife and grabbed the next branch like a monkey, propelling himself forward again.
After flying twice through the air, he dropped down and threw his sword downward.
It wasn’t just close to acrobatics, it was acrobatics.
The body control gained through grueling training, close to torture.
The athletic ability developed through it, the explosive strength from the Heart of Great Strength.
The intuition to predict a step ahead through the sharp senses and courage developed by his trained body.
All of these combined.
Everything came together, manifested into one seamless motion.
From the side, it would have looked like he had leaped suddenly while running, flitted through the air a couple of times, and shot out like a beam of light.
The running centaur leader had just exited the forest.
The leader felt joy.
‘I finally shook him off!’
As he burst through and took a step outside the forest, a sword embedded itself in his head.
The sword Encrid threw pierced straight through the leader’s head.
And as soon as the sword was embedded, something slammed into the side of the leader’s body.
It looked like a dark shadow.
Encrid’s head throbbed from his eyes to his skull.
It was due to excessive concentration.
Strictly speaking, it was the result of his ‘will’ activating within the area of concentration, but he didn’t realize that.
Anyway, he twisted his body to roll and land properly from his falling position.
Using the momentum from the roll, he pushed himself up with his ankle.
When Encrid stopped with one knee on the ground and looked at the creature with the sword stuck in its head.
The creature with the sword in its head was knocked to the side. It had been slammed into by something.
The body of the dying creature trembled. Or was it already dead?
Encrid’s gaze shifted.
He saw what had slammed into the leader.
Neigh.
He saw a wild horse emitting steam-like vapor from its entire body.
It rose behind it, looking like wings, but the blue vapor soon dispersed.
Encrid was in a similar state.
Sweat poured from his body, and as he stopped, it evaporated like steam.
A beast and a human stood facing each other blankly.
The fallen centaur leader continued to tremble.
Black blood soaked the dirt. The standoff between the horse and the human was brief.
“Did you catch him? Oh.”
Behind him, he heard Rem’s voice, accompanied by a brief exclamation. He wasn’t alone.
“Brother, did you catch him? Well done.”
Audin’s rare praise followed.
Though unseen, someone was approaching, breaking branches underfoot.
Jaxon approached silently.
The one breaking branches while following belatedly would be Teresa.
Giants were slow on their feet, and that would be the same even for a half-blood Giant.
“Did Ragna follow too?”
Encrid asked just in case.
“Oh, that guy. He came in with us, but if it’s a shortcut, he just goes his own way.”
Rem muttered.
Ah, Ragna.
Encrid shook his head inwardly.
Other than wielding a sword, this friend, who was like the God of sickness, had gotten lost again.
“Is it a creature? Hmm?”
Audin asked. Was it because he possessed divinity that he could easily recognize demonic energy?
His tone was full of something akin to curiosity at the end.
Rem seemed to have felt something from the other party as well, as he added his own comment.
“A ferocious one.”
Encrid spoke without once taking his eyes off the horse with blue sweat turning into steam.
The horse’s body was black, but the sweat flowing over its skin had a blue hue. It was a strange sight.
Because of that, the color of the steam was bluish.
That wasn’t the only peculiar thing.
The colors of its eyes were different.
One was blue, and the other was red.
Even for heterochromia, was there such an unusual form?
Moreover, at a glance, the other eye looked like that of a creature.
Encrid looked at the trembling corpse of the colony leader on the ground.
‘How do creatures create their beasts?’
Krais knew many miscellaneous things.
“Knowledge is a weapon that shows a different charm to women.”
Yes, such a well-reasoned answer.
Anyway, Krais said.
“They scatter their blood to feed them. Then the brain of a perfectly healthy animal gets tainted with demonic energy, that’s it. Especially the blood of creatures forming colonies would be very efficient. Otherwise, it would be hard to command beasts around them.”
The one leading the pack of play beasts.
And the one now leading this pack of horse beasts likely did it the same way.
That’s why so many herbivores were turned into beasts.
‘For that, there weren’t that many horse beasts, though?’
Were there fewer wild horses here? No, that didn’t seem to be the case. The presence before him was proof.
“Look at this guy, it seems halfway done.”
Rem said.
Encrid saw it too.
The reason for the odd eyes, the reason why it came charging through with steam rising from its body to slam into the creature.
The wild horse snorted once more, sending a wary glance. Encrid met that gaze.
The beast seemed to speak with its eyes.
‘I win. I overcame it. I do not succumb to this blood.’
There was a sense of spirit, presence, and vigor.
Rem seemed to have seen and felt something similar, which is why he spoke.
What does it mean for a horse to endure?
Amusingly, Encrid found the horse not unfamiliar, even though no words had been exchanged and not much time had passed.
‘Why?’
He asked himself and soon found the answer.
Encrid saw himself in the wild horse.
An animal tainted with a creature’s blood becomes a beast.
An unchanging truth.
“Amazing, brother.”
He heard Audin mutter.
Encrid looked at the one rejecting the unchanging truth. He stared into those eyes.
They reeked of life. There was something akin to fighting spirit. He could see half-grown fangs that didn’t suit a horse.
Encrid recalled the past.
“A Knight? Pfft.”
There was someone who sneered.
“Stop talking nonsense. Live with your head straight.”
There was someone who spat bitter words.
“Quit it. I’m saying this for your own good.”
There was someone who was worried.
All of them had seen the unchanging, immutable truth.
Encrid stood up and reached out his hand toward the horse.
Even if he hadn’t caught the creature by throwing his sword while running, it would have stopped it with a body slam.
So, they both caught it simultaneously.
“Did you aim for it too?”
Encrid asked.
It must have been a very clever beast.
As he spoke, he took another step closer.
The fact that the horse was resisting the creature’s blood meant it had overcome that immutable truth.
The horse bared its fangs.
It snorted again. It seemed ready to bite his hand off if necessary. Considering the creatures he’d seen so far, his wrist could be severed just like that.
Just as the horse was about to bare its fangs, it shook its head and snorted again.
Its eyes wavered, showing a mix of hostility, wariness, and several other emotions.
Encrid approached, and the horse took a step back, but it didn’t run away.
Everyone, including Rem, except for the lost Ragna, fixed their gaze on Encrid and the horse.
Only the sound of Teresa’s heavy breathing, arriving late, could be heard.
No one spoke.
It felt like the meeting of something new with something else new.
Finally, Encrid’s hand touched the head of the black horse with the black mane.
Was the sweat on its skin appearing blue because of the creature’s blood, or was it originally like that?
It was unknown.
And the creature, half beast and half wild, did not reject Encrid’s touch.
That was all.
[T/L: Please support me AND read further chapters here: https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans.]
[T/L: Subscribe for a membership on my Buy Me a Coffee page and receive 15 extra chapters upon joining, along with daily updates of one chapter: buymeacoffee.com/revengerscans ]
[Additional Info: If anyone is facing the issue of payment on Ko-Fi, please contact me on [email protected]]
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter