East Road Quest

Chapter 64: The Kun Tribe Hunters

The names of the Kun tribesmen who were bound were Barush and Chakan.

Barush was able to move immediately after receiving treatment from Saph, but Chakan was too severely injured to rise. Saph could have treated him immediately, but warned that it might cause severe pain and potential side effects, so he continued with a ‘slower and less painful’ treatment. Even that treatment made Chakan scream in agony.

In the meantime, Barush explained the situation. His command of the language of Rome was poor, and since Jade did not know the language of the Kun, Ruby had to interpret only the difficult words as they conversed.

Before Barush began his story, Jade had already recalled a time three years ago, and sure enough, Barush started with “It began three years ago.”

Among the goats raised by the nomads, one had harmed a person. It wasn’t particularly strange for horses or goats to run amok and attack people. However, this goat had killed a person and later went on to kill sheep and horses.

The people tried to kill the monstrous goat. But the goat fled, and months later, it stood on two legs, armed with swords and spears, and this time it killed people.

The situation only worsened, showing no signs of resolution.

The Kun nomadic tribe lived in small groups of twenty to thirty members. Usually, more than half of them were women and children, so the actual number of people who could fight was less than seven or eight. Even those who could fight often left the tribe to hunt or feed the livestock.

The goat took advantage of these absences to attack.

As time passed, the goat grew larger, and with size, its strength and cunning also increased.

In less than a year, numerous tribal villages vanished. If the enemy were human, they might spare children and women, but this monster showed no conscience, slaughtering and stabbing without discrimination. Hunters returned from brief outings to find their families massacred.

The hunters poured all their hunting skills into fighting this one goat. But the goat did not die, even when struck by arrows or spears.

A renowned hunter managed to sneak up and finally cut the goat’s throat. But the goat simply reattached its severed neck and then buried an axe in the hunter’s chest. From that moment, the hunters lost their confidence to confront the goat.

Barush and hunters from twenty nearby tribes gathered together, combining their strength. They formed a delegation and traveled to the northern Kun city of Gran.

Gran was once the capital of the ancient Kuman Empire, now a small village remaining like a desolate relic. For over a decade, nomads had been gathering there, slowly shaping it back into a city, though it had not regained its former glory.

Jade had always wanted to visit the city if his travels took him that way.

Since the days when Kun was an empire, the king of Kun was called ‘Ran’ or ‘Kunran,’ meaning ‘great ruler.’ But now, he was merely the largest tribal chief or a mediator who proposed compromises when conflicts arose among the tribes. Still, it was true that he commanded the strongest military force among the tribes.

Barush and the other hunters sought Ran’s cooperation.

At first, Ran laughed at them.

“Dispatch Gran’s army to deal with a mere goat? If the warriors of Kun have abandoned their pride to seek help, then perhaps this goat is a creature worth verifying.”

Ran provided about twenty soldiers to verify Barush’s claims.

While Barush made these preparations, the monstrous goat was not idle. It had subjugated the animals of the plains, forming a wild animal legion. They were as intelligent as the initial goat monster and just as ferocious, though they could not stand on two legs.

It was unclear what bizarre sorcery was used, but the number of monsters continued to grow.

The monstrous goat, now commanding its own army, proclaimed itself the Goat King, or in the Kun way, Goatran.

The twenty soldiers from Gran underestimated the beasts, charging forward with drums, spears, and torches. Barush tried to dissuade them, but the soldiers believed the noise of the drums would scatter the animals, and the torches would frighten them.

The Goat King did not even need to appear. It simply sent out about ten horses and twenty goats. The soldiers of Gran were trampled to death by the horses and goats. The battle did not last even three minutes. The surviving soldiers and Kun hunters had to flee.

Barush was seized with terror. He could not imagine how powerful these beasts would become if, like the goat monster, they soon stood on two legs and wielded swords and spears.

Barush returned to Gran with the surviving soldiers and pleaded with Ran to lead his army and drive out the Goat King’s forces.

The soldiers reported that the beasts did not die when stabbed with spears and did not flinch when touched by fire. Hearing this, Ran, consumed by fear, chose to fortify Gran’s walls and strengthen only the internal guards rather than venture out.

Barush was dismayed.

“What about the nomads spread across the plains?”

“We will welcome them if they come to Gran.”

“It’s difficult to come here, through the monsters of the plains, with children and frail elders.”

“Then what do you expect me to do? I cannot waste my soldiers on immortal monsters. If they cannot come here, they must find their own way to survive.”

Barush had no choice but to give up on Ran’s help.

The nomads were accustomed to a life of wandering the plains according to the seasons and times. But as the monsters’ territory expanded, they had to alter their migration routes further north, south, east, and west.

Now, the Goat King’s domain threatened to cover the entire Kuman plains, leaving no place to go.

The Kun tribes that could not reach Gran gradually settled in one place and gathered their strength. They built unfamiliar fortifications like walls and organized a guard. Women learned to fight in anticipation of the men’s absence.

Little by little, they began to find hope for their survival.

Then came the news that Ashbat, the next largest Kun city after Gran, had fallen. It was a city with a military force ten times larger than this temporary village formed by dozens of tribes.

After much deliberation, Barush’s tribe decided to seek help from the Kingdom of Parens or the Empire of Rome. It was doubtful whether nations that had once invaded each other would help, but there was no other choice.

Barush, Chakan, and Hur, the best horse-riding hunters of the village, left the tribe and raced away. But the Goat King had already stationed its subordinates like patrols throughout the plains.

The three of them had been adept at dodging, but the pursuer ‘Tyrant’ was no ordinary foe. In the end, they were caught by the Tyrant. They scattered in the chaos, and during the turmoil, Poe and Duor were captured. It was not by chance; the Tyrant had used them as bait to lure Baltian, or the army Baltian would bring.

“Is that guy really that terrifying?” Jade asked, pointing at the Tyrant.

“Rumor has it that this beast alone plunged the entire land of Gran into chaos,” replied Ricardo, stepping back in fear as the Tyrant struggled against his chains. He continued awkwardly, “The creature deliberately ran close enough to be within reach of arrows and spears… circling near the walls of Gran for half a day. Like a hedgehog, it had arrows sticking out of its back… and ran with five spears lodged in its body.”

“The soldiers of Gran must have been completely terrified,” Jade remarked.

“I haven’t seen it myself, but they must have been. The Tyrant is known among us as the nightmare steed, always bringing nightmares before an attack, or in the middle of the night,” Ricardo explained.

“Are these nightmares literal, or just a figure of speech? The kind that’s so frightening you can’t even get up to pee at night?” asked Anna.

“It’s the dreams I’m talking about. Whenever this beast appears, I always dream of a white figure from head to toe that comes to devour me,” Ricardo shuddered at the thought.

“A white figure? What’s so scary about that? Next time, just beat it up in your dream! You can do anything in a dream,” Anna suggested nonchalantly.

At Anna’s not-so-helpful advice, Ricardo shivered as if the mere thought was horrifying.

“In that dream, I’m always powerless. I can’t run or resist. It feels like it lasts for a week… And how can one move at will in a dream?”

“I always do whatever I want in my dreams. Do you have such dreams too?” Anna asked Jade.

“I had this nightmare recently. I was trapped in a prison for ten years without a single book to read…” Jade grimaced at the memory.

As Anna and Ricardo looked at him with pity, Jade, embarrassed, turned to Father Puyol.

“Do you have such nightmares, Father?”

Father Puyol spoke with trembling hands, “Yes. I once dreamt in the monastery that the potatoes I had grown suddenly sprang from the ground and ran away, saying they didn’t want to be eaten. I couldn’t eat potatoes for a while after that.”

The pitying gaze shifted from Jade to Father Puyol, who seemed oblivious to their stares.

Anna waved her hand dismissively, “Ugh, talking about such things with you all is a nightmare for me!”

Just then, the Tyrant thrashed violently in an attempt to break free from his chains. The massive creature momentarily lifted off the ground. When it landed, the ground trembled under Jade’s feet, a few steps away.

“If the chains could be broken that easily, I wouldn’t have been trapped for hundreds of years,” Anna said, kicking the Tyrant lightly with the tip of her boot.

“I remember this type of demon. They induce nightmares in humans or force them to sleep to drain their life force. Usually, they approach in the guise of a beautiful person, or sometimes they look like mosquitoes, but this one’s a horse,” Anna mused, kicking the Tyrant’s head and poking its nostrils with her toes. The Tyrant growled and tried to bite Anna’s foot, but she deftly avoided it each time.

“Can’t you stop? Do you think you can insult me like this and get away with it?” the Tyrant bellowed.

“Insult? What insult?” Anna asked, thumbing her nose.

The Tyrant shouted, “Your foot! Get it away!”

“An insult, this? You’re joking, right? You’re like a flower wilting from a wasp sucking its nectar! Want me to show you what a real insult is?” Anna taunted, kicking the Tyrant harder.

“I could use your resilience to my advantage, tearing off your head and limbs and throwing them far away until you die. I could pull out your heart, grind it with your teeth, stuff it in your ears, then blow it out your nose. Your snot-covered heart would be spun around in your intestines! That’s an insult,” Anna declared, tossing the chained Tyrant into the air and slamming it down. Each time, the Tyrant spat blood and screamed.

“Say it again! Say it’s insulting!” Anna challenged.

“No! No! Stop! I yield,” the Tyrant pleaded.

“So what? Everyone here knows you’ve lost,” Anna laughed, throwing the Tyrant up and slamming it down again.

“If we leave it be, we’ll have to watch this spectacle all night,” Jade said worriedly to Father Puyol.

“Do you see that creature’s name? At least from this sight, it doesn’t seem fitting to call it a Tyrant.”

“No, I don’t see it. Whether that means it has no name or it’s a nameless being, I’m not sure,” Father Puyol replied.

“Then we should try using the dark arts’ vanishing verse. It seems there won’t be much harm in trying.”

Father Puyol pointed in a direction away from the Tyrant.

“Father, I’m not sure what it is, but something is coming from that direction. It’s becoming clearer.”

“Could it be because of the tyrant? We only experienced it briefly, but we were exposed to the steam he emitted. It didn’t induce nightmares, but it could have other mental effects.”

“No. Actually, it started after I read the name Beishufer.”

“From the desert?”

“Yes. At that time, I thought it was just an aftereffect of experiencing too many things at once. Beishufer tried to take over my body, and there were continuous incidents at the monastery…

The refreshing night air suddenly felt ominous.

Saph, without taking his eyes off the spot he had pointed to, said, “It’s hard to explain. Should I call it a scent? Perhaps ‘stench’ is more fitting. Or even ‘fire.’ It’s like an unpleasant heat.”

Saph struggled to define the indistinct sensation he was trying to describe.

“That unpleasantness has been growing denser. I thought it disappeared when Kraukx was extinguished, but it grew stronger after we left Fairbang, and the feeling has been intensifying ever since. It’s unsettling not knowing what it is.”

Jade, unable to discern any direction in the vast, sunless prairie, asked Varshu, “Which way is that?”

Varshu, who had been listening to their conversation, quickly replied, “Northeast. It’s the direction of Gran and also… the entrance to the Dark Forest. And it’s where that goat monster, Gotran, mainly resides.”

Jade nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to Saph in surprise.

Varshu, too, opened his eyes wide in astonishment after his response, and Ruby, puzzled, asked, “Could that be Gotran’s location you’ve discovered? How did you know? Heat? Stench? I don’t smell anything.”

Saph shook his head.

“I don’t know. I just knew.”