Night of the Soulless Heathens – 317



#317. Herald of Famine 1

“Hmm. I should have taken the hippogriff on the way back. That was a mistake.”

Upon arriving at St. Mallory Azadin sent the hippogriff back to the Chadra Plateau.

It was a huge waste of money to keep a hippogriff in a big city when there was no need to ride it.

In places like the Chadra Plateau where there are many monsters and beasts you can just release the hippogriff when it’s time to eat.

Hippogriffs clever creatures could innovatively save on food costs by flying around and hunting for animals such as breeches goblins and deer filling their stomachs and returning to the barn.

However Azadin came riding a hippogriff and returned on foot. This was a fatal mistake.

There’s a pursuer behind you.

The Order of Courage used their privilege to let Azadin out even when the gates were closed.

But there is no way such an act would go unnoticed by other denominations.

No maybe the Courage Sect had intentionally used Azadin and his group as bait.

It is possible that Azadin was used as bait to drain the psychic power of other sects while analyzing the scroll of the previous life.

‘That’s probably right. It would have been easy to shake off the hippogriff if there had been one but there’s no hippogriff at this point.’

Azadin mounted a common horse he had acquired from the market and looked back.

“Captain. Are you worried about the pursuer?”

“little.”

“Okay! It’s my turn to go.”

Scott cast a spell backwards.

The grass is growing and blocking the back road.

“Is this entangle magic? Isn’t this something that falls under the green magic?”

Azadin was surprised to see that Scott the necromancer seemed to be using magic belonging to the green magic.

“Oh if you make living grass grow then yes. You make dead grass and trees move.”

Scott said calmly.

“If you hang it on your ear it’s an earring and if you hang it on your nose it’s a nose ring. This is really nice but shouldn’t you not use this kind of magic on public roads? You don’t want to hurt ordinary carriages or pedestrians. You’d rather destroy the pursuers.”

“Hey it’s okay. It’s a trap that only catches those who run fast.”

Although it may seem like they are bothering other innocent pedestrians these obstacles do not pose much of a threat when walking slowly.

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It poses a serious threat when running at full speed but it doesn’t pose much of an obstacle when just walking so it’s okay to deploy it on public roads.

“Then let’s go. Sir Azadin. Let’s go to your territory as soon as possible and come up with a plan.”

Jibek hurried down the road.

But why are the pursuers so unresponsive?

Even though Scott blocks their path by casting a sabotage spell the pursuers aren’t very aggressive before that.

‘What are you thinking?’

Azadin soon found out why.

Arael’s voice warned us.

[Be careful Azadin. Celestial fire is moving south from the north.]

“Celestial Fire? Already?”

[Is that a blind ship or a transport ship on the river? They are escorting the transport ships and moving south. If you slow down for a moment I will share the time with you.]

Arael’s voice demanded so Azadin raised his hand to slow the group’s progress and shared Arael’s voice and sight.

In the distance on the northern river the Celestial Fire Knights were seen sailing south with large transport ships.

“Oh. We’re bound to meet right?”

The road that Azadin and his party are currently on is the St. Mallory region a heavily populated area where most of the flat land has been developed into farms and residential areas.

Although there were mountains and hills with forests the Celestial Fire was moving along the riverbank to guard the convoy and deploying reconnaissance parties.

It’s bound to happen.

however….

“hmm?”

Azadin discovered something as he shared Arael’s voice and sight.

I found myself flying in the sky with several foresight magic spells cast on me.

“Messenger Clan?”

*********

Karna the leader of the Celestial Fire was returning after safely completing his mission.

The various exploits of the Celestial Fire Knights captured the hearts of the people when they were launched and the grain brought in from the Chadra Plateau was enough to feed the people of St. Mallory for a year.

There was so much food that it took a long time to prepare the ships. The ships used to transport lumber were converted to transport food and most of the troops moved along the coast along the ships taking precautions against monsters and bandits.

But then they received a call from the Wisdom Church.

The letter that the enchanted messenger brought was shocking.

Sir Azadin has stolen a precious scroll from the Wisdom Order while defending the Kingslayer Sir Xibek so catch him and retrieve the scroll.

That was the kind of contact I received.

‘As expected we shouldn’t have let someone from the Herald Clan into the Knights Templar!’

There were those who were indignant and said…

‘But that guy helped us when we were attacked by Bree. He didn’t seem like such a bad guy.’

There were also those who were half in doubt.

But the order came from above so there was only one thing they had to do.

“Let’s block the route with our mobile troops first. The order has been given so it’s our job to carry out the mission. We’ll determine the truth later but if possible capture them alive instead of killing them.”

Karna the commander of the Celestial Fire ordered the knights of the Celestial Fire to capture Azadin.

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But when Celestial Fire moves to capture Azadin…

At the bend in the river arrows suddenly began to rain down.

Ordinary arrows could not even harm the soldiers of the Celestial Fire Knights. The elite soldiers immediately stood in a defensive position and the shield bearers stepped forward to block the arrows.

But then it was.

-Flowers birds wind moon yellow cranes!

An arrow strayed past the shield bearers and turned into light.

A magic bullet wrapped in terrifying magic attacked the shield bearers from the side disrupting their ranks.

The shield bearers in the lead were suddenly struck by heavy arrows that stabbed them from the side like spears and fell.

“Kwaaak!”

“what!?”

“…What is this?!”

The soldiers looked in horror at the things that had attacked them.

On the roadside the river appeared.

And between the Nagas stood men holding bows each of them wrapped in ominous magic waiting for them with arrows spread out on the ground.

As we moved along the coast at the speed of the auxiliary ship we ended up moving so fast that we neglected to look ahead.

Of course the Celestial Fire Knights weren’t stupid either and they knew that the faster they moved the more important the role of scouts became. That’s why they sent scouts ahead… but those scouts were killed too easily by them.

“…Messenger Clan!”

Karna the commander of the Celestial Fire Knights realized the identity of those who had attacked them and gritted his teeth.

The traitorous Herald Clan who joined hands with the Nagas attacked the Celestial Fire Knights.

*********

Although there were casualties due to the surprise attack by the Herald Clan only the ordinary soldiers and servants were harmed and the Celestials who were of the knight class were unharmed.

They spread their wings and revealed their divine power.

A divine light emanates from their bodies and surrounds the horses they ride.

As they moved along the convoy the horses that had been guarding it were given new vitality and their spears were imbued with sacred power.

“All hands on deck!”

Karna himself stood in front pulled down the visor of his helmet and ran forward.

The Celestial Fire Knights charge after him.

The horses pick up a frightening speed shaking the very axis of the earth.

The ferocious sea serpents Nagas are physically much larger than humans but they would not dare to face this charge.

How about the arrows of the messenger clan?

“I heard there are rumors that you are the killer of the new king. Let’s see what you can do?!”

“Be careful! Don’t let your guard down!”

Karna ran forward wary of his fellow knights’ carelessness.

But then suddenly a torrent of water began to swirl in front of them.

It was the Naga sorcerers who casted the spell.

Karna prepared a defensive spell but what the Nagas summoned was a giant water dragon.

Summoned a water elemental.

“charge!”

The Celestial Fire Knights struck the Water Elemental with spears imbued with holy power.

The giant of the water stream is torn apart.

The elementals summoned by magic are shattered. They must be quite powerful spirits but the charge of the Celestial Fire Knights is even more powerful.

however….

The speed of knights who hit the water elemental is reduced.

“uh?!”

Although they tore apart the giants of the water stream their water remained and soaked the horses and knights.

The riders whose charge speed had been drastically reduced had no choice but to turn to the side and dodge so as not to block the path of their pursuing comrades and the charge formation became disorganized and the speed noticeably decreased.

And taking advantage of that gap… the messengers fired their arrows.

“no?!”

It wasn’t shot at Celestial Fire.

The messengers fired arrows at the transport ships.

The arrows they fired hit the sails of the transport ship… and began to burn creating a magical flame.

A sail that has been well dried by the wind is instantly set ablaze.

“No way!”

The sailors and soldiers on board the transport ship were prepared for this situation. They immediately poured water and released the sail ropes to quickly put out the fire.

however….

-Kikigigigi!

When the sails are lowered at a bend the ship is pushed by the current and leaves the channel.

The boat is pushed onto a sandbar where the current of the river changes and sand accumulates causing the bow to touch the bottom.

-thud!

The first convoy runs aground.

And then the ships hit them from behind and they run aground again and again.

As the messengers’ arrows continued to pour down the subsequent transport ships were unable to avoid running aground.

Fortunately the ship did not break or sink because it ran aground on a sandbar but it was certain that it was stranded.

“Huh!? These kids!?”

Karna wanted to turn around to save the transport ship from being attacked but the knights who had lost their speed charged towards him.

Naga spearmen rush towards Karna.

“No way!”

Karna raised the wings that had sprouted from his back and flapped them in the air to create a gust of wind and dashed forward striking the torso of the rushing Naga with his spear.

The Celestials followed him cheering and piercing through the Nagas.

It’s worth fighting for.

The common Nagas despite their large size were no match for them. Karna struck and struck the Nagas with his spear from his horse knocking them down.

But… I couldn’t break through.

“Huh!”

While Karna and the knights were tied up the messengers continued to shoot magical fire arrows at the transport ships.

It is said that fire arrows usually go out on their own due to the speed at which they fly so they are not good at burning anything except for a roof of hay but the fire arrows shot by the messenger clan were able to set fire to even wooden planks because they were lit by magic after impact.

The transport ship is not burning because the sailors and soldiers are working hard to put it out… But the troops are approaching the transport ship.

“Oh no! You guys! What are you doing!”

Karna screamed at what was happening before his eyes.