Chapter 190 Chapter 189 Greedy Jima
The axe was almost as tall as George and came crashing down with great force, but George managed to deflect it. He leaped in place, grasped the sword’s hilt with one hand, and precisely thrust it into the unprotected area on the upper edge of the minotaur’s chest armor, piercing through the tough flesh of the minotaur.
The minotaur collapsed with a loud thud, and George stepped on its chest while skillfully severing its head.
Jima moved like a shadow, snatching the minotaur’s head and exclaiming, “What a trophy!”
With that, the minotaur’s head vanished into a dimensional space bag tied around her slender waist.
However, the fall of one minotaur did not intimidate the beastmen. Over a dozen minotaurs rushed at George, wielding heavy two-handed axes.
They were the elite among minotaurs, stronger, more skilled, and more brutal than their kind, which allowed them to wield heavy weapons on the battlefield, instilling fear in humans.
Even George had to avoid their onslaught. As he retreated, he returned fire.
The wind carried Eve Frostleaf’s body backward; she was as light as a leaf falling in autumn. As she retreated, she tossed fireballs that exploded among the minotaurs, sending up clouds of dust. The large bodies of the minotaurs charged through the dust, now bearing a few charred patches of fur.
But the shockwave from the fireballs also hindered the minotaurs, allowing George to withdraw more effectively.
“Jima!” George called, wanting to emphasize the importance of the situation by glancing at Jima, who was darting around in the air. “You violated the rules; you’ll be punished when we get back.”
“Don’t be impatient, don’t you have anything to worry about right now?”
Although the beastman army was right in front of them, it was not a single giant but a massive horde consisting of nearly a hundred thousand beastmen—a disorganized mob, to put it bluntly.
Despite their numbers, capturing George would require all their strength. The army needed to form a battle array to maximize their power, just like a person needs to stand correctly and tense their muscles to throw a punch. But during that time, George could run away seven or eight times.
However, from George’s perspective, who lacked relevant experience and focused on theoretical knowledge, this was already a brush with death.
Logic dictated that Jima, flying above, had already seen the beastman army; in other words, she was being intentional, coupled with her attitude.
George, momentarily enraged, said, “An improper attitude, failing to recognize one’s mistakes—double the punishment!”
Eve Frostleaf, delighted, kicked off the injured minotaur with her long legs and swiftly leaped back into the air.
Only then did Jima reveal her plan: “Remember my curse ability? If you leave a strong impression on all the beastmen today, their end will reflect yesterday’s battle with the beastmen.”
George felt a flicker of interest.
He had witnessed the power of Jima’s curse firsthand; nearly two thousand beasts had dwindled to just three hundred in a matter of days. Such efficiency in exterminating evil, even if he was a level above Jima in strength, he could not compare. No matter how strong he was, he could only chop them down one by one, which would take an eternity.
But he countered with, “Are you confident in cursing a hundred thousand beastmen at once?”
“It depends on how famous you become.”
It also depended on whether the other party cooperated, causing suffering to nurture the terrifying curse, along with various factors.
But Jima replied, “I’m confident.”
“Seventy percent?”
“No.”
The more beastmen there were, the more powerful individuals were involved, and the more they could resist the curse.
A heavily-armed minotaur roared, interrupting George. Frustrated, he shouted, “Justice will prevail!”
The giant sword gleamed as it sliced through the air, creating a bright arc that struck the chest of the armed minotaur, causing intense radiance. When the white light faded, a deep scar marked the heavy armor, its edges glowing red, and the minotaur’s eyes went dull.
Jima quickly swooped down, severing the minotaur’s horn, and like a pesky fly, expertly maneuvered to avoid the heavy-armed minotaur’s axe and swiftly escaped.
George asked, “Fifty percent?”
“No.”
George’s voice lowered, “Thirty percent?”
“About that.”
“Only thirty percent?”
“Isn’t thirty percent already considerable?”
Influenced by the memory of the demon king Kima leading the demonic knight force, Jima believed that as long as she maintained the advantage of mobility, a thirty percent chance was significant enough.
After all, if they couldn’t defeat him, they could run; once successful, the enemy would be slower than the demonic warhorses.
George finally miscalculated, failing to deflect the heavy-armed minotaur’s attack, instead bracing against it. Even though he wore over a hundred kilograms of plate armor, he was knocked backward several steps before stopping.
“For the correction of your militaristic reckless mindset and frivolity, the punishment is three times more!”
Jima shrugged, “Sigh, working with a foolish man who’s clueless about military tactics is quite frustrating.”
Eve Frostleaf, far more cheerful, plunged her sword into a few more minotaurs.
In contrast to the harmonious atmosphere among the scouting trio, the mood among the beastmen was dreadful.
“At all costs!” a robust beast king with a crow-like beak shouted. “Get me, immediately, right now, that trio of beasts! Quack, quack, quack.”
“Your Highness, it’s impossible to catch them; if there are knights ambushing on the road, it would be disastrous.”
“I don’t care about that; it’s preposterous. Killing my scouts time after time is one thing, but today they dare to charge directly at the army! How am I supposed to explain this to the Mother of All Beasts? Quack, quack, quack!”
The crow-beaked beast king shouted in frustration again.
It wasn’t that he was intellectually deficient or lacked emotional control.
Leaving aside the past, George had led a group of knights from victory to victory in the extraordinary battle against scouts, directly disrupting the beastmen’s ambush plans.
Speaking of today, there was not a single good report. At noon, a beast reported that a knight named George had engaged five kilometers away, and our scouts along with demonic war hounds had suffered dozens of casualties.
An hour later, news arrived that our beast scouts had been almost entirely wiped out; those who couldn’t escape had their bodies chopped into pieces, left scattered in the woods.
Then, half an hour later, we lost a few demonic scorpion-tailed lions, and George was drawing nearer, ever closer.
Initially, the crow-beaked beast king had been overwhelmed by the barrage of bad news, becoming self-destructive. He thought, let them scout, and at worst he’d just have them see enough.
He had originally maintained some rationality, ordering that the strong beasts in the army must not leverage their numerical superiority to encircle and eradicate George. With a fast-flying succubus scouting and divining, encirclement was impractical, and annihilation was out of the question; it would only increase losses.
But now… it was simply an excessive humiliation for beasts.
“Order the entire army! All strong beasts, charge, encircle that monkey!” he roared. “Deploy all the demonic scorpion-tailed lions, call that idiot Karak! Bring in all the stag-horned beasts! And the dragon devils, block him!”
Stag-horned beasts were not literal horned deer; they were seasoned centaur warriors, and just the name made the knights grind their teeth. A few years ago, they had encountered a group of knights, and upon discovering that the stag horns adorned on the heads of those Batto knights were larger than their own, these centaur warriors had become furious, charging into battle against the knights. Despite the knights fighting valiantly, they still suffered defeat, becoming prey themselves, with the horns on their helmets being pried off and tied to the centaur’s own horns.
The remaining Batto knights swore to cleanse their shame, but several attempts had ended in failure, either resulting in edible meat or allowing the stag-horned beasts to escape.
Now they were all involved, seeking to restore their pride for the beastmen.
The crow-beaked beast king’s order wasn’t foolish. Since George had crashed into the beastmen army, within the range of their mobile forces, encircling him was indeed possible. As long as they could enclose him, no matter how powerful he was, he would be defeated under the onslaught of numerous strong beasts.
On the other side.
The heavenly warhorses galloped while wailing:
“Every time I come out, I get besieged.”
Behind them, a herd of “horses” thundered, large stag-horned beasts brandished long spears, their hooves kicking up dust, within which could be faintly seen a dragon devil! This beast, similar to the centaurs, ran on four limbs, wielded weapons, and was covered in scales, towering as high as a hill.
Jima skillfully dodged the dive of a demonic scorpion-tailed lion and shouted:
“Throw stones! To the right!”
The heavenly warhorse immediately jumped to the right, while a stone roughly the size of a cart dropped to the left, crashing to the ground and gouging a deep trench.
The heavenly warhorse yelled, “Next time, I’m not doing this anymore!”
Fortunately, no one understood.
In that moment of evasion, the speed of the heavenly warhorse slowed, and the stag-horned beasts closed in.
George sighed and galloped toward a giant rock, recalling the heavenly warhorse back to the celestial realm. He landed on the ground, took a few big strides, and with a powerful jump, leaped onto the high giant rock on the slope.
Below, a large group of beastmen swiftly surrounded the giant rock, trying to seal it off.
However, George did not seize the opportunity to escape but called out to Jima in the air: “Want an impressive moment?”
“Yes.”
George raised his sword, pointing at the beastmen below while shouting, “Who is the leader? I wish to challenge it one-on-one! If I win, let us go.”
Following the tradition of the Batto knights, he threw down his iron gauntlet.
Jima muttered in the air, “To be precise, it’s you.”
Eve Frostleaf had already run far away.
A number of strong beastmen gathered below, and upon hearing George’s challenge, they erupted in laughter.
A dragon devil, as tall as a small hill, approached. When it stood upright, it towered over George on the giant rock by an entire meter.
It stomped on George’s iron gauntlet, grinning and exposing its sharp yellow teeth, saying, “Good, you can challenge our whole group.”
To be continued…
———
The New Year is truly a torment. I just returned from my hometown today and am finally free.
