# Enhanced Translation
The sound of metal rang out, followed by a low growl from beyond the mountainside.
They've come. Ivan loosened his body, stiff from the dawn chill.
"Krup, kahup, ka!"
It was the war chant of Tumors. A familiar melody. Roughly translated, it meant: We are strong, we kill, we march forward. And then it repeated.
The Tumors of Mount Tai—those giants were responsible for the domain of rage. Their minions were creatures who had replaced intellect with violence.
Their only purpose was the thrill that came from destruction and slaughter. Compared to orcs who retained at least fragments of intelligence, the Taurus were an even simpler species.
"Krup, krup, ka!!"
A group of Taurus approached, kicking up dust. Roughly a thousand or so. The entire army.
This is where the difference between them and humans becomes apparent. The fact that infiltration units were gathered in regiment-sized formations without rear supply lines.
They relied solely on plunder for the supplies needed to sustain combat. They weren't suited for infiltration in the first place. If they operated as separate detachments, they would inevitably go berserk and be cut down somewhere.
Intelligence and tactical thinking inferior to wolves. Behavior no different from pack-hunting beasts.
However, their true value lay in each individual possessing mobility and power comparable to a knight. That's why Tilles had suffered such a crushing defeat against Tumor during the war.
Tumor was one of the Seven Dragon Generals who had inflicted the most damage on the United Kingdoms through sheer force alone.
"Let's see who's in charge."
Standing about 3 meters tall with disproportionately massive muscles. Sharp, protruding horns and a bull-like head.
These creatures could make the earth tremble simply by gathering and stomping the ground. The fact that someone could lead such creatures in "rear infiltration" and "cooperative operations with humans" meant their leader was no ordinary being.
*Click.*
He raised his pistol and rested it on his left arm. After bracing it firmly, he closed one eye. He exhaled slowly, emptying his lungs halfway.
He gently applied pressure to his finger on the trigger guard. Click, squeak. The sound of the spring coiling was pleasant.
One down. He aimed at the creature directly in front.
"Krup! Hu!"
No reaction. This one had no line-of-fire detection. Next, then.
"Krup, kahup, ka!"
And the next.
The gun barrel moved slightly, targeting one creature at a time from the front row, methodically.
With killing intent as if he would shoot at any moment, yet holding it back with patience.
As the gun barrel moved to aim at one creature's crown—
"Khup!! Ka!?"
Its bloodshot eyes turned precisely toward Ivan's ambush position.
Ivan could hear the creature's frantic cries through his sight. It raised a massive axe covered in flesh and aimed it in Ivan's direction.
Soon, an ominous energy gathered as if about to explode. The pack stopped at once, then immediately changed direction and began running toward Ivan.
"Dududududu—!!"
Hooves pounded the earth. A noise like thousands of cavalry charging at once echoed.
In Tilles, there's a saying: "Cavalry is the grim reaper of infantry." On the flat plains that cover Tilles, infantry cannot withstand well-trained cavalry in a frontal assault.
A charging Taurus was not much different from a cavalryman. In other words, a thousand-strong cavalry unit—cavalry literally one with their mounts—was charging toward him, smashing trees in their path.
Unless you have walls, you will always lose in a melee if you don't match the number of troops. That was the common sense left by the lessons of war against demon-kind.
But Ivan was not a war expert. His expertise was not war but combat, and more specifically, he was an expert in combat related to "special operations."
Therefore, the general principles of war differed greatly from Ivan's.
With pistol in hand, Ivan kicked off from the tree and ran.
Just as a shepherd uses sheepdogs and whips to herd cattle, the Annihilation Squad uses pistols to herd cattle.
*Bang—!!*
A Taurus charging at the front threw its head back as blood spurted from its eyes. With the gunshot, a small lead bullet precisely crushed its eyeball.
However, the Taurus's skull was like that of a cow, superior to humans in absorbing impact. The bullet that burst its eyeball stopped before reaching the brain.
The blocked vision and extreme pain seemed to fuel its rage instead. It convulsed and began charging again.
*Bang—!!*
Another gunshot rang out from beyond the undergrowth. Another creature's eye burst. One eye with each shot, precisely hitting the small eyes of the Taurus at the front.
Leading the enraged Taurus, Bargadal shook his head with an uneasy feeling.
Something felt strange. They were running toward where the little pest was hiding, but the distance wasn't closing. There was no way a human could be faster than them.
And they couldn't even be on horseback. Horses could never run as fast as Taurus in such dense forest.
Trying to cool his head as it became increasingly consumed by rage, Bargadal guided the pack toward the direction of the gunshots again.
*Bang—!!*
Another gunshot, and one of the creatures at the front jerked its head up, then exhaled a rough breath and continued running. A glance showed it had been shot in the eye again.
With the skill to hit just one eye, wouldn't it be better to aim for both eyes to completely block their vision?
He continued his pursuit with such questions in mind.
After finding all the trackers he had sent to catch the escaped prey returned as corpses, and learning that the number of humans exceeded sixty, he had been pursuing them with drooling anticipation.
Bargadal, whose mind had finally hardened from endless hunger and violence, let out a long howl and charged into the forest.
'By now, they're completely off the migration route of the refugees.'
Even if a few of those creatures escaped, they wouldn't be able to track the Bertomang refugees anymore. They're unfamiliar with the local geography.
Tracking prey by following traces is an extremely difficult skill. Those creatures hunt solely through smell and instinct, and even that becomes impossible in such dense forests. We've reached land where human traces are rare.
This forest, at the boundary between the Bertomang and Moramdong domains, has a ravine stretching along the edge of the Bernini mountain range.
It's a small basin, barely worthy of being called a ravine. Only a few mountain keepers pass through here.
But beyond this area, once out of the forest, a large plain leading to Baron Moramdong's territory appears.
'A location too rugged to be paved as a main road between domains.'
A position far from major trade routes, with no major cities nearby, and a dense forest that even slash-and-burn farmers don't easily attempt to pioneer.
Beyond that lies a plain, yet at a suitable distance from Moramdong's villages.
This is exactly the battlefield he wanted.
Easy to track those who scatter through the forest, and even if they pass by him and disperse, they'll have to wander the plains for a while.
A small number of enemies who leave the pack will only be hunted down by the returning army. That would do it.
If he could break most of them here, Tilles would at least not have to worry about suffering damage from demon invasions.
*Sling.*
Ivan stopped and drew his sword. The well-forged blade gleamed white under the rising eastern sky.
Several daggers inside his sleeve, a pistol in his left hand. As confirmed until the end, they were well-maintained enough to fight without issue.
Unlike them, he had been able to replenish calories during pursuit and flight, so considering the calories Ivan had consumed, he could continue fighting for about two days without problems.
Energy bars are advanced complete foods that can supply massive calories regardless of satiety. They even have the advantage of being consumable during intense movement and guarantee stealth by not emitting any food odor.
*Dududududu—!!*
The ground shook with loud noise. From a distance, trees could be seen being uprooted. They were paving a main road in the middle of the forest.
Should he thank them for unnecessarily wasting energy, or thank them for carving out a new trade route?
Ivan waited with a smirk. The distance closed in an instant.
The trees right in front of Ivan cracked and broke apart, and finally the creatures revealed themselves.
"There's something I've always wanted to say in a moment like this."
He looked at the Taurus charging with foam at their mouths. Their red-hot eyes were blazing with the expectation of slaughter.
A sight that would frighten even the bravest of men. A thousand monsters with bodies twice the size of humans.
The sight of them filling this small ravine endlessly was itself a form of violence.
Ivan raised his sword and drew a long line on the ground.
Mimicking exactly what young Gil Ber had done toward the Taurus legion from the fortress.
"I am Ivan Petrovich of Krasilov. A lieutenant colonel of the Annihilation Squad, and an officer of the Krasilov Royal Guard."
Looking at the Taurus charging right up to him, he calmly wrapped himself in magical power. With a tingling sensation, his nerves began to twitch.
Time fragmented. Space was mapped out. In this moment, even the fine particles of dust falling from vibrations appeared visible to the naked eye.
In this familiar pressure that felt like being trapped in the deep sea, Ivan calmly raised his sword to point forward.
"From here, I will kill a thousand."
Since that was long ago, he was confident he was ten times stronger than that fellow back then. Quantitatively, he should kill ten times more to be satisfied.
Ivan pointed his sword, feeling an unfamiliar pleasure slowly rising. Click, along with the sensation of the spring snapping in the pistol gripped in his left hand.
Aiming was unnecessary. He could hit anywhere he shot.
There was no need to control his breathing. His time was already moving faster than his breath.
So he simply raised his hand and fired.
*Bang—!!*
It happened the morning after Bertomang fell.
Baron Serte of Moramdong couldn't hide his bewilderment at the sudden visitor. This shabbily dressed man leading dozens of refugees had been, until a few days ago, the lord of the neighboring domain with whom he had competed.
Though they had met over matters like merchant tax rates and minor disputes between nearby farms, he never expected to meet him like this.
Serte looked at Noar with a dazed expression.
"What on earth happened? Were you attacked by bandits?"
"It's more serious than that."
A lord whose domain has fallen usually requests shelter with a more humble attitude. Naturally, Serte had approached with a smile expecting this, but now he tilted his head at the stiffly rigid Noar.
However, the moment he saw the object Noar produced, Baron Serte also flinched.
"Demons...? Taurus...?"
"You must summon the nobles. Tilles is under invasion."
"How many? How many are there?"
"Over a thousand trampled my domain. I hear Duke Etakrihi is building a defense line in the Bernini Mountains."
"How... how could this happen?"
Serte looked with trembling hands at the gruesome heads on the table.
They were Taurus skulls with tongues hanging out. Not long dead.
There's no way this could be falsified. In this era, Taurus were demons rarely seen except beyond the eastern front.
"By order of Grand Duke Etakrihi. We must gather as many troops as possible, establish a front line near Moramdong within five days, and clear out the scattered enemy remnants."
"Who would comply? It's not autumn!"
The military power of a typical small domain consists mostly of conscripts. And conscripts are mostly serfs or tenant farmers.
A mobilization order during farming season could potentially uproot the foundation of the domain. Even dispatching a few knights would be difficult in this situation, let alone a large-scale deployment order. It wouldn't be easy to comply.
However, Baron Noar shook his head and spoke gravely.
"I swear on my life. The Grand Duke has ordered that anyone who disobeys will be treated as a traitor after the war."
"What about appealing to Count Bermontfor instead?"
"I'd rather give a sword to a pig."
Noar smirked, disregarding noble etiquette.
"If we request troops from that fellow, would he move? He would leisurely move only after our domains are completely destroyed, and it would be fortunate if he didn't try to swallow us up after we're all dead."
"But if it's the Grand Duke's order..."
"He's the type who would stall for half a year even if the Grand Duke personally visited to command him. Look at me, Baron Serte. Could your domain withstand a thousand Taurus?"
"...If Bertomang fell the day before yesterday, it wouldn't be strange if they descended upon my domain by now. Rather than gathering troops at this point, perhaps fleeing would be..."
"There was someone to stop them in our place. A knight of Grand Duke Etakrihi who foresaw this. He said we could hold out for five days, so now..."
Noar looked out the window with sunken eyes as he continued.
"We can only believe."
Six knights could only manage to escape. And even then, barely, while most of the domain's people were being devoured.
But that man...
The man who faced the army alone without showing fear even once—what kind of life had he lived?
Noar knew men of that kind. The kind who could face an entire legion with the power of a single person.
Even if they couldn't, at least those who always proudly stepped forward in the face of death.
If they died, their names would remain as heroes of the nation,
And if they returned alive, well.
People who would be praised as heroes and have their names eternally recorded in history.
Is this the difference between a grand duke and a mere country baron? To dispatch such a man merely to block a rear infiltration unit.
Regardless of the dangers of the front line, it was a personnel selection aimed at minimizing damage to the inland civilians.
Etakrihi, the Defender of the Realm, was the shield of the Hero Party. He was rightfully such a person. Unlike the greedy great nobles, he was one of the few great knights left in this country.
"Five days... I can barely make it to Rudmiyu and Dmongmor in time, but even then, I'm not sure how many will gather."
"I'll go to Dmongmor. Would you persuade Baron Rudmiyu?"
"It would be my honor."
The two barons, who had competed for a long time, firmly shook hands and paused for a moment. They soon called for their attendants and departed on horseback.