A Necessary Enemy(2)

The ten gold coins flew towards Richard’s location. If they continued along their path, one of the coins would hit him square in the face. Of course, that would never happen. All of the coins hit an invisible barrier, dropping to the ground. They jumped around on the ground, clinking against each other.

None of Richard’s soldiers moved at the sight, not even glancing at the coins. Hundreds of gazes were focused on the knight at the front. The fellow’s horse seemed more perceptive than him, refusing to go forward and even starting to retreat as it showed signs of irritation.

Richard stroked his chin lightly, slightly unused to the feeling. A short, grizzly beard had covered his face during the long hide and seek with Salwyn, so the newly shaven face felt off. Although he had the exquisite appearance that came from his elven blood, every bristle that grew on his face was as stiff as a needle.

As he looked at the astonished viscount, Richard slipped into thought. The knight turned red as he pulled hard on his whip, but the level 10 barbarian warrior stood still and unyielding. His arms seemed to be cast in metal; no matter how hard the knight tried, they wouldn’t budge an inch. On the other hand, the warhorse’s irritability was about to make him lose his balance, throwing him off. This absolutely couldn’t happen! His hand fumbled around for the longsword at the side of the saddle.

The knight suddenly felt a strong gust of wind heading his way. Before he could turn his head to see what that was, a strong wind wolf suddenly pounced on him, pushing him off the horse and onto the ground. The warhorse was startled, bursting out into a long neigh as it raised its front hooves. Gangdor had already moved out of the crowd by this time, chopping diagonally with his gigantic axe to cut the creature’s chest and abdomen open.

The horse collapsed on its back, blood and internal organs gushing out of the tear. The ghastly sight intimidated Zim and his subordinates for a moment.

The knight who had been attacked let out a long, bloodcurdling screech as the wolf bit into his right shoulder, ruthlessly tearing out a large chunk of his flesh. Thankfully he was still a level 8 warrior himself; even though he was covered in dirt as he tossed about, he could still counterattack. Yet, just as he waved his fist, a few barbarian soldiers had already thrown themselves forward and jumped on him, firmly pinning him to the ground.

“How should we deal with this, Master?” a tall and burly barbarian asked menacingly.

Richard glanced at Zim and his subordinates, “Anyone who draws their weapon gets their right arm chopped off. No exceptions.”

Zim’s knights had their hands on their sword hilts, but Richard’s words caused them to grow stiff.

It was only Zim that began to shriek, “What did you say? SAY IT AGAIN!”

Richard didn’t have the habit of repeating orders. His soldiers were quick and thorough with their execution, not needing him to say them twice. Even as Zim was shrieking, one of the barbarians forced the leading knight’s arm open, while another raised his axe and chopped it off cleanly. The arm was separated from his body instantly.

Zim’s entire body was shaking as he pointed at Richard, “You… you…” However, he was already unable to recall Richard’s name. A chaotic mix of excessive anger, humiliation, and fear that he would never admit had stopped him from getting a proper sentence out for the longest time.

Richard ignored the slob as he said to Gangdor, “Next time, just hack the rider and not the horse. Mounts are expensive, humans aren’t.”

Gangdor nodded vigorously as he answered loudly, “I know, boss! People like this in particular are about as valuable as dogs!”

Richard nodded his head in praise, “You’ve grown smarter!”

“It’s because I levelled up, boss!” Gangdor said proudly.

It was only then that Richard raised his head, glancing at Zim as he spoke indifferently, “Who are you to dare come and take my slaves?”

Zim’s face turned so red that it seemed like blood would leak out of it at any time. His voice was so high-pitched that he was basically squeaking, “I’m the noble Highland Unicorn, Viscount Zim! The title is from…”

Richard didn’t bother waiting for the man to finish his sentence, repeating his own, “Who are you to dare come and take my slaves?”

“I am the noble…” Midway through the shriek, Zim finally realised the meaning of Richard’s words. His already-red face started turning purple. He yelled hysterically, “How dare you humiliate me?! A lowly frontier knight actually dares to humiliate a viscount with royal blood?! Someone, kill him for me! Wait no, I want to keep him alive and torture him. Just cut off his limbs! Kill anyone who dares to resist!”

The viscount’s screams reverberated throughout the empty plains. His knights had already drawn their swords, but they were hesitant in their movements. Richard had only brought a few hundred people, while they had less than twenty.

Most of these soldiers weren’t as undiscerning as their master. They naturally realised the extreme disparity between the two armies, both in terms of quantity and calibre of troops. If they really charged ahead, Richard could kill all of them in a few minutes as long as he ordered his troops to retaliate. Zim’s status wasn’t high enough for a frontier knight to just resign himself to death. This was easy enough to realise from how the leading knight had his arm chopped off, that fool now rolling and screaming on the ground.

“WHAT ARE YOU LOT DOING? KILL EVERYONE BUT THE WOMEN!” Zim raged, waving his whip and lashing at his guards.

The knights thus roared loudly, getting into formation as they tried to charge forth. However, their horses refused to move faster than a trot. Sadly, the frontier knight in front of them disappointed them again. Richard didn’t retreat as they hoped, giving them a way out of the embarrassing position. This frontier knight didn’t need any of that, and it seemed like he didn’t intend to let Viscount Zim off so easily either.

In fact, Richard just repeated his earlier command, “Anyone who draws their weapon gets their right arm chopped off. No exceptions.” His subordinated faithfully executed the orders at once.

All of Zim’s guards were brilliant soldiers for their level. They were unwilling to resign themselves to having their arms chopped off, but they were eventually surrounded by the barbarian soldiers and pressured until they collapsed. By the time the fifth person collapsed, they finally gave up on resistance. A few who were still dawdling and hadn’t drawn their weapons yet could only thank their luck.

Zim was scared silly, using a trembling finger to point at Richard. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came out at all. Two barbarian warriors pulled him off his horse, dragging him in front of Richard.

Richard didn’t get off his horse, looking down on the fat viscount condescendingly as he asked, “I’m really curious. This is the Bloodstained Lands, why did you have the audacity to get close to an army ten times your size, even demanding my slaves and woman? How has a fool like you lived so long?”

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