A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter 74 – Northern Region’s Gale (4)

“Attack the horses! Target the horses!”

“They’re falling!”

Before the battle had ended, in the intense moment when they were assailing Luhan’s forces which had fallen into a trap.

Riena hastily maneuvered her horse to confront the enemy leader, the strongest warrior among them. Luhan’s main forces were also engaged in battle, but fierce fighting continued on the other front as well.

“Ugh.”

A gigantic hammer fell from the sky, causing the warriors loyal to Luhan to tumble from their horses. While some managed to dodge instinctively, the less skilled warriors were unable to avoid it and were gruesomely smashed to death.

The shockwave even made Shura, who was charging in, flinch.

‘No time to waste.’

However, she quickly regained her composure and charged forward. An enemy warrior, who had recently awakened and was still brimming with fighting spirit despite having fallen from his horse, was attempting to drag down and kill a rookie warrior from their side.

“You, what are you…”

The enemy seemed taken aback by the figure cloaked in a swirling shadow rushing towards him at such speed. Seizing that moment, she plunged her dagger into his neck, decapitating him with ease.

Not only Riena but Shura, who had steadily trained until now, was no lightweight either. Having mastered combat that utilized skills from the very start, her proficiency in applying those skills even outshined Riena at that moment.

“Th-thank you.”

“When using skills, don’t hesitate. Follow up right away or you’ll leave yourself open.”

Amidst the chaos unfolding all around them, she gave a brief piece of advice to the rookie warrior staring up at her in confusion.

He absentmindedly nodded, realizing that in the village, she was already regarded as a veteran warrior, almost like his senior.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. More importantly, why are you here?”

Just then, Lasen, still on his horse, approached her with a somewhat pale face due to the sustained mana consumption from casting magic.

Shura raised an eyebrow at Lasen’s presence, as he had originally been positioned on the opposite formation.

“It seems the fight is winding down.”

With a wry smile, Lasen gestured around. Only then did they take a good look at their surroundings.

Gruesome corpses and the remnants of battle lay scattered around. The sounds of shouting and screams had dwindled, with only the enemies who had surrendered and dropped their weapons visible.

‘It’s over.’

Looking down at the white bone dagger, which absorbed and released mana better, Shura caught sight of the golden light erupting ahead and instinctively felt Riena’s victory.

“Those who can still fight, get on your horses! We must chase down the fleeing ones!”

But at that moment, Rakum gathered the soldiers with a frantic shout and mounted his horse. Reflexively, Lasen and Shura exchanged glances and reached out toward each other at the same time.

Thus, they rode together, pursuing the fleeing enemies alongside other soldiers.

“It seems they intend to completely escape this area without heading back to where they came. Should we pursue them?”

“The priority is securing their main forces, which is their base…”

Leading the troops, Rakum watched the enemies scatter in a panic, leaving behind their families and properties, where their stronghold would be.

In the current situation, where they couldn’t receive the Guardian Deity’s assistance by being among the enemies, capturing each fleeing foe one by one was impossible. That said, leaving them entirely alone was also tricky.

“We’ll go.”

“Just chase them down. If they keep on running without looking back, simply come back. It’s enough for us to buy time to seize their main forces.”

Surprised by their insistence, Rakum let his younger brother Lasen and Shura take some soldiers with them, after warning them not to advance too deep after driving the enemies away.

‘They must be watching over us. So it should be fine… right?’

As soon as Shura rushed to help them with injuries from the underground dungeon, Rakum made a silent prayer to the God that those kids would be alright and charged forward towards the enemy’s main force.

“Yikes! Captain! They’re coming after us!”

Meanwhile, Shura and Lasen, along with other soldiers, pursued the enemies until the end.

Having already lost their will to fight, the enemies fled frantically without even looking back. The chase continued until the sturdy horses of the grassland were exhausted and stumbled.

“Let’s stop now. If we go any further, we’ll stray too far.”

“A good decision. We’ve done our duty.”

With Lasen leading, they halted their pursuit there.

Shura wore a slightly dissatisfied expression, but as the atmosphere among the surrounding adults, including Lasen, indicated to stop, she refrained from opposing it.

They took a moment to catch their breath while watching the fleeing enemy remnants disappear into the distance.

“Cough, our horses have reached their limits.”

“Stop! Stop! They aren’t pursuing anymore!”

The Luhan clan’s remnants, realizing the Arin tribe’s pursuit had ceased, began to catch their breath as they looked around.

“Where are we?”

“Ah, it seems we headed northwest. We got here by running blindly…”

“Damn it!”

The highest-ranking man among them gritted his teeth after asking for their location.

‘If only I could surrender as my heart desires. But!’

He seethed at the situation. The reason was simple: he and those desperately fleeing found it impossible to surrender to the Arin tribe—their families were being held hostage by Garhan.

Garhan, uncertain whether this man’s intentions were neutral, allied, or hostile, had taken measures to ensure that the warriors of the absorbed tribes couldn’t betray him.

“First, let’s find our direction and report back to the Chieftain. If we inform him of how wicked and strange their powers are, it might save our lives.”

He struggled to compose himself and plotted to return to Garhan with the soldiers.

“…What was that sound?”

At that moment, a variable emerged in the small forest where they were located.

The first to hear it was a soldier in the rear.

“Ugh, Aaaah!!”

“A beast! It’s a beast!!”

With massive antennae flailing and bushes being trampled, what appeared was nothing less than a giant centipede. This monster, its body portioned enough to resemble a house, was clad in black carapace and ripped one terrified soldier in half with its gigantic fangs.

“R-run away!!”

He shouted reflexively, aghast. If it were any other beast, they would’ve fought back, but facing this black monster evoked a sense of foreboding unlike any other.

“Groaah…”

“It’s poison. Poison!”

The centipede swiftly moved as they attempted to flee, spewing a dense cloud of poisonous gas towards them, shrouding the surroundings in thick toxins.

The poison swept through with winds, causing even the warriors who had honed their bodies with mana to stagger and struggle against its effects.

‘What in the world is this monster? Did such beasts even exist on this land?!’

Drawing all the mana he could muster, he gritted his teeth to endure the poison, but when his sword bounced off the centipede’s solid carapace without even scratching it, he sank to his knees with a look of despair.

To capture a bug of this caliber, one would need power beyond a steel sword, yet already exhausted and poisoned, he lacked the strength to combat such a gigantic creature alone.

“Aaaah!”

In the end, he was swallowed alive by the centipede. The last thing he saw was the few soldiers managing to escape.

However, he would never know that the writhing antennae of the centipede had turned toward those fleeing desperately.

*

‘Is this the extent of the damage I anticipated?’

Using a spreadsheet software, I checked the status of the tribe members and could see at a glance how many had died and how many had been injured.

Thanks to that, while Balun managed the prisoners and assessed the casualties, I quickly finished grasping the situation and examined the screen with a troubled expression.

Many of our own had died or been injured. The count was significantly lower compared to the hundreds of enemies who had fallen over their own feet during that brief, intense battle, but still, a loss is a loss.

A conflicting mix of emotions arose—I should be glad we won with minimal losses, and yet the fact that lives had been lost weighed heavily on my heart.

“Well, I suppose it could have been worse.”

Still, I shook my head dismissively with a bitter smile to clear my mind.

This was clearly a situation where our side was at a disadvantage. The enemies, coming from a powerful faction, had far more elite troops and outnumbered us by several folds. Had we charged in without caution, we would’ve been the ones annihilated.

The very fact that we achieved such overwhelming victory with relatively minimal casualties was due to our forces gaining powers they had previously been unaware of and effectively utilizing them.

It proved the reason we had felt at ease from the start of the battle.

“—, —.”

Meanwhile, as I pondered, Balun was speaking to the surrendered prisoners. Their hostile relations were gradually morphing into neutrality or even alliances. He was beginning the work of convincing them to join us.

Things were returning to how I had initially hoped. While they had been enemies intending to attack us, with the hardliners, including their leader, having been eradicated, convincing these people into our ranks was now possible.

If we could successfully absorb them into our forces now, it would allow us to leap forward once again. Moreover, the number of these newcomers would be over double that of the existing residents.

I didn’t particularly worry about traitors; they wouldn’t matter much anyway, as I possessed the ability to discern who genuinely followed us.

Just as had been shown until now, Balun and the other veterans would use their abilities to naturally integrate the new settlers.

‘So, does that mean it’s over since we’ve captured their main forces?’

Gradually loosening my tension, I watched as troops sent by Balun led the remnants of the enemy main forces back, then I completely released my hands from the mouse.

The battle was over. Certainly, in terms of scale, it could be said to be the largest crisis we had faced so far, yet, through good management and thorough preparation, we had succeeded in navigating it smoothly.

‘How many will be left?’

There were still many neutral parties among them, and I couldn’t yet judge the tendencies and talents of the newly joined individuals, but with so many in numbers, new talents would be continuously supplied.

The thought of awakening them and allocating them filled me with excitement.

The effects had sufficiently been proven in this battle, so all I needed to do was to continue as I had been doing.

“How hungry must they be?”

I stood up to prepare a meal. I hadn’t had the chance to eat or sleep properly, having been focused on this battle. Though my body was sturdier than in the past, it didn’t mean I didn’t need care.

Within the slight free time I had gained, I ordered food and dealt with the household chores that had piled up as I checked on the computer.