Despite its long history, there are still many lands that humans have yet to set foot on.
Even within the borders that humans have arbitrarily divided by war and rights, most of the strange things that exist in the vast mountains, rivers, forests and lakes are still unknown.
Huge monsters, various beasts, dragon-like creatures that have been independently separated by scholars, and various demihuman races. These non-human beings who are slightly more intelligent usually avoid human beings' sphere of influence. Some actively avoid it, while others gradually migrate due to conflicts with humans.
As human territory expanded, luxuries, and all aspects of demand began to increase, hunting various large creatures and magical beasts also became a specialized industry. Under the massive killings of these integrated large-scale hunting mercenaries, many creatures have further migrated to remote and wild areas that are difficult for humans to reach.
The hunting mercenary groups in the mercenary union are graded as D, E, and F, which shows that their priority in the union is lower than that of war mercenaries who specialize in dealing with humans. After all, the mercenary union relies on the latter to make its fortune, while hunting mercenaries can only be regarded as large-scale integrated hunters.
Although in many places it is not so clear-cut. But all in all, war mercenaries deal with people, and hunting mercenaries deal with large creatures. This is generally not a wrong understanding.
There are specialties in the art, and professional knowledge is needed to deal with various strange creatures that are different from humans.
Nothing can be eaten all at once.
Being able to admit your shortcomings is proof of your superior character.
"It stinks." The fishy smell in the air was extremely strong. Although this place should be theoretically far away from the ocean, waves of stench kept coming after entering the forest.
"Grandma, it smells so bad." The little girl with short black hair tied into two balls and gray-blue eyes turned back to the queen and said this, and His Majesty the Suomir rubbed the sachet in his hand again. The deodorizing aromatherapy leaves evaporated, but it was still difficult to cover up the fishy smell that was so strong that it seemed to have substance.
"Bear it, dear Laura, you see, Lord Roman and Yu are in the same stench as you, but they haven't even wrinkled their beautiful foreheads." The queen reached out and touched her granddaughter's forehead. The little head said this, while Roman, whom she called, spoke in a steady and dignified tone: "Your Majesty is overly complimentary. I only use this as a practice."
She then turned to look at Princess Laura: "Your Highness, if you open your mouth, you will inhale more odor. You don't want to become a smelly person, right?"
"Ah -" Laura covered her mouth, then shrank on the velvet seat, never looking out the window again.
"As expected of Your Excellency the Bishop." The Queen praised her for a while, and then stretched out her hand to shake the sachet to dispel the strong fish smell.
The wind blew gusts outside the window. Although it would theoretically be better if the windows were closed, the strong odor came from every gap. They only felt that it was getting stronger after closing the windows before.
"Where did this come from?" The question was not only raised by the queen and her party, but also by the knights of the guard who were wearing gorgeous full-body armor with copper edges.
The Suomir Royal Guard Knights and the Dragon Wing Knights are very close, and sometimes they exchange personnel. However, there are many different definitions. The dragon-winged knights are the elite of the regular army and a combat force directly under the royal family. The knights of the guard are more like bodyguards for royal members when they travel, rather than their main fighting force.
Their number is small, with only a squadron of 12 people. Even if you include the infantry sergeants and guards, the total number is not much. The equipment is expensive, almost equivalent to the gorgeous armor of a small castle, and paired with Lamanized heavy cavalry equipment, the combat effectiveness is considered to be among the best in Suomir today.
But it is always the case, and they are obviously not good at dealing with the enemies they will encounter.
The first thing I heard was a sound like a boulder falling to the ground.
The ground shook slightly, and pebbles fell together.
Then the Suomir cedar trees on both sides of the road, whose crowns were at least three or four meters above the ground, made a rustling sound like a breeze.
"Neighing..." The knight in front pulled the horse, and a stronger odor than before floated over with the wind, making it suffocating. But there was something in it that made the horse start to frighten.
"What's going on!" This kind of thing should not happen to the well-trained Padrosi hybrid horses. They are smart and brave and are good partners of knights. Even when facing dire wolves, they may not panic easily.
"Boom——!!" The sound became louder and louder, like a boulder falling to the ground or a war drum beating.
"Crack——!" The branch was broken, and because the temperature was slightly lower, the creature that came out exhaled a burst of white mist, but the height of the mist was not more than one meter as commonly seen by humans, but about four meters, almost as high as The level of the small tree.
"Giant! It's a giant. Get in shape!" The leader of the Guards Knights was a senior nobleman. He shouted loudly, while the attendants on foot nearby quickly put on their helmets, handguards, and the knights they were carrying. The guns were handed to the knights.
"Click -" The knights, who put on their helmets and fastened their bolts, began to confront the giant from a distance of more than ten meters. When the team stopped behind, the queen and her party also poked their heads out, and immediately turned pale when they saw the creature holding a huge log in its hand.
"Laura, don't look! Sir Nils, do you want to retreat and run away?" The queen stopped her little granddaughter from poking her head, and then asked the knight outside.
"Your Majesty, I am worried that it may catch up. The carriage is not fast enough, just in case it is caught up. Tsk--" The old knight seemed a little embarrassed. He didn't know that a minute ago, he thought it only existed among the people. What are the habits of the creatures in the legend? There have been rumors of giants existing in the Suomir territory since ancient times, and there are more or less sighting records, but they are basically on the same level as humans.
At this time, the 4-meter-tall creature with a face similar to a human but with rough skin and a rock-like gray was standing there. The bridge of its nose is very broad, its eyes are a bit too small compared to its big face, its head is as hairless as a middle-aged bald man, and its face has a long, messy beard full of dirt.
The several pieces of animal skins wrapped around its body and the logs stained with dark red old blood on its hands meant that it was as intelligent as a goblin, but that was the extent of it. No one knows whether giants have language and can communicate. There may have been wizards and druids who knew this in the past, but after the rise of the White Church, these heretics were expelled or killed.
Unpopular and ancient knowledge, there are almost no strange creatures that are actually encountered. The problem before the knights felt like breaking open a stone to get the emerald inside. It was very difficult.
"This is Yu Wait's fault -" the queen's expression became a little nervous: "You shouldn't travel during the Ghost Festival. This is retribution for violating tradition. It's really -"
She seemed a little regretful, but at this time Archbishop Roman, who was dressed in religious clothes, spoke to comfort him: "Your Majesty, don't panic. The knights are very brave and will definitely find a solution." She stretched out her hand to comfort the queen, but Suomir's However, the queen noticed that the bishop's hand was also shaking a little, so she put her hand on the back of the other man's hand.
"Why doesn't it attack?" "Maybe we can try to retreat-" The nervous knights looked at the giant more than ten meters away, and the giant also looked at them with eyes that were very small compared to his face.
——If our Mr. Sage was here, he would definitely be able to tell that this subhuman creature may have migrated here today and regard this as its territory.
Even when he smelled the untimely fishy smell just entering this area, Henry would give instructions to take a detour.
But even if they are caught in this situation, they actually still have a way out.
Just as humans don't understand giants, giants also know very little about these little things that are similar to themselves and have little contact with them.
It comes out because its keen sense of smell picks up something. Something highly irritating, such as the sachets carried by three aristocratic women including Her Majesty. After appearing, when it saw these creatures that did not belong to its territory, its first reaction was doubt and observation.
The giants' staple food is large fish in the ocean and fatty creatures such as seals. They hunt along the coast and live in the forest areas of Suomir's long coastline. In other words, humans are not on its menu, and the only way it would conflict with a giant is if it infringes on its territory.
The territory of a large creature is very wide, because it needs a lot of food to feed itself. It is also common for them to have conflicts with their own kind and other creatures when defending their territory.
This giant migrated to this side by chance.
The most important thing the knights should do in this situation is to retreat slowly the moment they make contact, without making any excessive movements to stimulate it, and then speed away after retreating a sufficient distance.
But none of them understood this.
They all froze in place, nervously confronting the giant, until the stupid giant demi-human reacted and regarded them as intruders, and began beating his chest and roaring.
"Roar ah ah ah!" The giant with full lung capacity roared and white mist filled the air. Its strong and powerful feet with a lot of algae slammed on the ground, and then swung the log and carried it on its shoulders.
"It's about to take action, Ash!"
"The guards escort His Majesty away, everyone, lances in position!" The old knight quickly issued the order, and the nervous knights of the Guards put on their visors and mounted their four-meter-long lances on their breastplates. on the shelf.
"Send your majesty away quickly!" "God bless the brave and fearless knights of our country!" "Ah——!" The voice of the royal guard, the queen's voice and the scream of Princess Laura sounded one after another, followed by "Hissing——" "With a sound, the horses were pulled up, and the knights stimulated them with their spurs.
"Everyone charge - bang bang!!!" Before the charging slogan could be finished, the old knight was knocked several meters away by the logs that came like lightning, including both men and horses.
The astonishing momentum shocked everyone, including the carriage that was just about to turn around and leave. The heavy log directly smashed his armor into pieces and shoveled up a lot of dirt on the ground. The war horse's head was twisted into a twist, and it was already dead.
"Oh my God, Sir Nils, he, he he—"
"Revenge for the knight!!" "Neighing!" "Roaring ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" of the horses. The knights rushed towards the giant with their lances in their hands.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa." "Bang Kaa--!" The strong hardwood lance hit the giant's thigh, but the creature as strong as a hill reacted and punched the knight on horseback, sending him flying in the air. middle.
"Roar!!" The thigh began to bleed and ache, which made the giant become angry. It roared and charged with heavy steps, and several knights' lances hit it one after another, but none of them hit the vital point.
"Aim at the abdomen, abdomen, raise the lance!" the adjutant who took over the command shouted loudly, while the queen and the bishop looked out of the window with their eyes widened and their faces dull.
"Bangka!!" "Roar ah ah ah -" The two knights raised their lances, one pierced the middle of the soft abdomen, and the other stabbed the side waist through, causing the pain of a giant step. A roar followed by a twist of the entire body. "Ahhhhh-" The knight holding the lance was pulled away from his horse and thrown far away with the movement.
"Roar -" "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" The giant who turned to the ground in pain and fell to the ground sat down on the third charging knight. The man and his horse were crushed into a pulp.
"Damn it!" The squadron lost more than half of its members in just one face-to-face meeting, and the guards on foot were just moths to the flames when they rushed forward. The gap in physique and strength made the giant swat flies as casually as they could. They kill.
"Knights assemble!!!" The undead adjutant and the other knights all had cold sweat on their faces. Even though it had only been two minutes since the conflict, they were sweating from their helmets and visors and flowing back to their necks because of the tension.
"Your Majesty—" the adjutant raised his visor and turned around, while the giant grinned like a human and began to reach out to pull out the lance attached to his body.
"Please forgive me for not being able to accompany you any longer."
"Sergeant Persinin, Your Majesty, Your Majesty the Bishop, and Your Highness the Princess, leave it to you!" the knight shouted loudly from a considerable distance away, while the young noncommissioned officer in charge of the carriage nodded heavily with a sweaty face and a pale face.
"Your Excellency——!!" the Queen shouted loudly, but the sergeant whipped up his riding whip and started running in the carriage. The "crackling" riding whip hit the royal horse, making these creatures who had been carefully cared for scream again and again. But as a result, he took a step forward and quickly pulled the carriage and disappeared at the other end.
"For the glory of the White Church, and for Her Majesty the Queen."
"Long live Suomir!"
"Long live!"
The fierce sound of hoofbeats, war cries and roars lasted for half a minute.
Then it was as if the heart gradually stopped beating.
After the last "bang" sound, it returned to silence.
The carriage sped along the road, constantly moving away from the scene behind it.
The silence lasted for more than a long time before it was broken by the Queen's voice.
"The remaining loyal knights are all willful and arrogant. If they listen to the Prime Minister's advice..." The queen bit her lips and stopped crying. "Grandma." The little princess came over and hugged her.
"Your Majesty, we should mobilize more manpower. Even if it is -" Bishop Roman forced himself to calm down: "Even if there are only bones left, we must take them back home for burial."
"Yes, Sergeant Persinin, we-" The Queen opened the curtain in front of her, but all she saw was blood.
The exposed skin of the young noncommissioned officer leaning on the carriage was pale. He was holding the reins with one hand and covering his abdomen with the other hand. It was obvious that he had just been injured by sharp stones and the like thrown by logs thrown by the giant, but He endured the pain and took the queen away on horseback without saying a word.
He continued to pull the carriage until his death.
"Oh my God -" "Neighing -" The horses, no longer controlled by the driver, ran for a while and then stopped consciously.
"The rest of us should be buried. Oh my god, how many young people have I sent away today." Standing in front of the sergeant's corpse, the queen covered her face and squatted down. Bishop Roman was also pale, but she stepped forward and closed Sergeant Persinin's eyes.
"Grandma, I'm afraid." Laura trembled as she approached the queen, who was only 9 years old. The queen looked at her granddaughter's wide-eyed face due to excessive fright. Those gray-blue eyes reminded her of her son - if he were here right now - she began to doubt everything about herself. He decided, but then shook his head.
"Your Excellency, can you ride a horse?" The Queen stood up calmly, but unfortunately Archbishop Roman, who was also at the top, did not know how to drive a horse.
"I will bury this respectable young man and knight him to compensate his family."
"But this vast forest -" The three women all turned around. The carriage that fled in panic went somewhere unknown. It must have gone far away, because they could no longer smell the strong smell of fish here. Fishy smell.
"I never thought that one day, I would hate the scenery of Suomir." The queen said with a wry smile, while Bishop Roman turned around in silence and started looking for supplies on the carriage.
