93. Vol. 2: To the north...

15 days later. Near the southern border of the kingdom.

"Run, Raya, run," The man yelled as he pulled the teenage boy with him. He was also carrying another child, who was tied to his chest with a piece of cloth. The child was crying non-stop.

They weren't the only ones. There were many more who were running along with them. There were about twenty of them who were running away.

"Grrrrrrrr…" and the things that they were running away from were following closely. As they were running away from the green field, they didn't have any place to hide. And with the stamina of a group of goblins and orcs, they wouldn't be able to outrun them anytime soon.

Jana, Raya's father, had heard the news from the travelling merchant that these beasts had attacked a few of the villages close to the empire's border. But the last time he had gone to the city of Digen, he had seen many soldiers camping outside the city.

Although his village was about ten kilometres away from the city, it was in the north of the city, while the villages that the beast attacked were in the south of the Digen. Jana thought the soldiers would take care of the beast that would try to cross into the kingdom.

However, the reality was very different from his expectations. The beast horde came to attack their village two nights ago. The hunter was the first to flee.

Worrying that there would be more beasts in the direction of the city, he took his children and ran away. They escaped in the dark of the night and hid in the forest during the day.

The problem with the landscape in the south of the kingdom was that it was mostly small hills, mounds, and grassland. There were patches of trees and small forested areas, but most of the land was grassland.

They hoped the beasts wouldn't notice if they hid during the day and travelled at night. However, they forget that the beasts also had a strong sense of smell. And the fact that quite a few survivors were wounded and leaking blood didn't help them hide properly.

Naturally, soon a wandering group of beasts found them. And once they started running in the grassland, there was no place to hide.

There was a forest area about a kilometre away from them, but Jana wasn't sure if his son could run for so long. Even if they did…

"Ahhhhhh…" The scream sent a shiver down her spine. He looked back to find that it was the butcher who the goblins had caught. One of the goblins plunged the sharp stick into his body while the other used a bone club to smash his head. It didn't take long for the scream to fall silent.

"Don't look back," He stopped his son from looking back, saying, "No matter what happened, don't stop. Run with everything you have."

Raya was visibly frightened, as tears and snot were making a mess of his face, yet he didn't dare to stop. Five more screams rose and fell silent before they could even reach the forested area.

*Phweeeeeeee*

A sharp whistle rang through the air. Before they could understand what it was, another group of whistles rang through the air. Jana felt there was something wrong with the sound.

Although the first whistle came from the forest, the whistling sounds that followed felt like they flew over their heads. Jana looked back to see a few goblins rolling on the ground.

*Phweeeeeeee*

*Phweeeeeeee*

Again, the whistle shot through the air. Jana couldn't see it clearly but realised that something was flying through the air while whistling and hitting the goblins on the heads and bodies. A few of them hit the orcs too, but it wasn't enough to stop the orcs.

One of the orcs was hit in the eyes. Yet, it roared and continued to follow them more ferociously. As they were about a couple hundred meters away from the forest, another whistle was blown.

And that was the first time Jana had noticed there were people hiding in the forest. Jana was sure there were a few refugees or mercenaries that was hiding behind the tree. After all, the local hunters or mercenaries used slingshots, while the armies usually used bows and arrows.

When he saw a meter-sized round shield marching out of the forest, he realised that an entire army was hiding in the forest. What was even more surprising was that all the soldiers' shields had the same mark; the golden long-horn.

"Royal army," A sense of relief overwhelmed his mind. He wasn't sure about it, but he had heard that only the royal armies used the same equipment and could use the golden colour in their symbol. And if it was really the royal army, he didn't have to worry about it anymore.

*Phweeeeeeee*

*Gallop* *Gallop*

They couldn't even reach the forest before the ground started to shake again. With the whistle, A cavalry unit came out from the back of the forest. They galloped past them and attacked the beasts following them.

There was no more than twenty horse, and all of them were carrying a thick pole with a long blade at the top of it. He hadn't seen many weapons before, so he wasn't sure, but he didn't have any questions about their effectiveness.

One swing was enough for the weapon to cut goblins in half. However, to his surprise, they didn't stop and went past them after cutting off the heads of half of them.

By the time they reached the shield wall, a few of them tried to struggle against the shield wall without any success. Jana wasn't worried. After all, there was no way the royal army wouldn't rescue them. Instead, he turned back to look at the cavalry.

The cavalry had already broken through the group of beasts. As a result, the beast was more concerned about the cavalry than the pitiful human. It was right for them to do so.

The cavalry unit had turned around before charging through the group of beasts. The result was no different from last time. Most of the goblins were cut down, while about ten orcs were spread out in the graveyard of goblins. They, too, didn't remain standing on their feet for too long.

Jana couldn't help but be awwed. The beasts who were chasing them for two days nonstop were cut down to the ground in a matter of minutes. It just made him believe how weak they were compared to those beasts.

Jana could not help but think about what would have happened if they had come a little faster. Will that not help them make it through the disaster? Wouldn't that just save so many lives?

And he wasn't the only one who had such thoughts. After a sense of security comforted their minds, they fell to the ground and started crying their hearts out.

It was then that a gap appeared on the shield wall. No fully armoured knight came out of the gap. Instead, it was a girl in cloth-type armour. No matter how he looked at her, he was sure that girl wasn't any older than his own son.

Yet, as soon as the cavalry stopped in front of them, the soldiers came down and saluted in unison, "Leader."