Second Arc (His Art of War) - 127. Crucial Time

The sky above Ecrin Village was getting darker, indicating that the night was getting late. The men worked hard to drag the rebels' bodies to the centre of the village square neatly and placed firewoods around it. Some elderly who were still strong enough, stood on the side of that big pile and prayed. Meanwhile, the women worked to clean the blood from their houses or around the village by wiping or dousing it with water. Several men were also standing on the watchtower. Their hands were busy shooting the arrows at the small monsters that were trying to climb the gate. Occasionally they swept their gaze around to make sure that no large monster approached their village. Even though their archery skills weren't as good as the rebels or the military, they kept trying to kill the monsters one by one with the bows and the remaining arrows they took from the rebels.

These monsters came because of the blood smell from the rebel corpses. Therefore they had to burn the corpses immediately before it lured the bigger monsters. Unlike the town or city gates which were made of iron and stone, all the village gates and walls were made of wood. Even though the woods were very strong, it wouldn't be strong enough if a large monster attacked it.

Meanwhile, Rose was waiting for Angel restlessly. Occasionally she opened the door and peeked from the gap. While the boy who was standing beside the dying man kept wiping the sweat on his father's forehead worriedly. Half an hour had passed since Angel left them and she had done what she could do to treat the man, but things had not gotten better. Apart from that, she had also received reports from the villagers about the monsters outside the gate and the pregnant woman's condition. It was just that even if she wanted to handle everything right away, she couldn't. Without her poison, she would have a hard time to kill the monsters, while she was not skilled enough in archery. Meanwhile, to help the pregnant woman and the dying man, at least she needed local anaesthetic to do it. In other words, she couldn't do anything but wait for Angel.

In the darkness of that night, the men in the watchtower saw a pair of terrifying eyes from behind the trees in the forest accompanied by a horrible room.
"Grooooooaaarrrr!" After a while, another roar answered it.
"Grooooaaaarrr!" And another pair of terrifying eyes appeared on the other side.

After hearing it, their blood froze and their bodies stiffened in fear. The small monsters that were gathered in front of the gate disperse themselves and run into the forest. The sound of heavy footsteps accompanied the two monster figures came out of the forest. The villagers' eyes widened in shock as they looked at the two Nether Buffalos that were walking out of the forest. Although their size was not that large, it was enough to destroy the village gate.
"Burn the bodies! Quick!" said one of the villagers, his trembling hand raising his bow at the monster.

The other villagers started a fire on the firewoods, even though they hadn't finished collecting the rebels' bodies. But the wind that was blowing hard that night kept putting out the fire.
Hearing the roar, Rose came out of the house in worry and ran towards the watchtower. She knew it was a big monster roar and she was not sure that the gates couldn't withstand the attacks.

Meanwhile, the two monsters drew closer as the villagers kept firing arrows desperately until nothing was left, leaving them with no choice but to hide. In that panic, the monster's steps suddenly stopped, as if someone had bound them. It was followed by a large force turning the two monsters' bodies and dragging them back into the forest.
"Grooooaaarrrr!" The monsters roared in anger and struggled to get away but in vain. The invisible power pulled the monster mercilessly into the darkness. The villagers could only stare at them with their jaws dropped in confusion and shock. The fear that enveloped them grew stronger. They dropped their bows as their hands were shaking in fear.
"Grooooaaar!" Screams of pain came from the forest direction and echoed into the sky followed by silence as if the monsters died just like that.

"What happened?" said Rose breathlessly as soon as she got to the top of the tower.

"We don't know either, Your Highness," answered the villagers in confusion and shock. It was two large monsters and the monsters were suddenly dragged away with an unseen power and suddenly 'disappeared'.

Rose swept her gaze, trying to figure it out for herself. But all she saw was a quiet forest without any monster in sight.
'How come?' As confusion filled her head, the clatter of hooves came from the forest direction followed by a man wearing the black Euphorion uniform who was spurring his horse. Two large bags on the right and left of the horse.

Previously, after Cley and Claire had managed to collect the medicines and store it in the bags, he had also taken a horse from his royal stable before teleporting himself here. Also, asking Cley and Claire to report this to Chancellor Allan so he could make a report on why the items and the horse suddenly disappeared from their place without a reason. Apart from that, Angel was also the one who had killed the two monsters that were trying to break through the village gates, but of course, he did it in secret.

As soon as Rose saw him, her smile appeared.
"Open the gate!" she ordered and climbed down from the tower. She didn't expect Angel to come back this soon.

The gates opened and after Angel got past it, he swung the reins in his hands to slow down the horse as his gaze fell on Rose who was running at him excitedly. Of course, he knew, it wasn't his arrival that made her excited, but the medicines that he brought.

Angel stopped the horse. While Rose walked over to him.
"Did you get it?" she said with a bright face. Judging from the two large bags on either side of his horse, he should have gotten most of what she needed.

"All of it," replied Angel as he held out his hand to Rose.

Rose looked at the hand that was extended to her with a frown.
"What is it?"

"Come up, I will take you to the house,Your Highness," he replied casually. He could see the sweat on Rose's forehead.

"It's fine. I can wa-"

Before Rose finished her sentence, Angel interrupted her.
"Your patient is waiting for you. Besides we already shared a horse when we entered this village and I am sure the villagers can understand it." It took half a minute of running to reach the house. It will be faster for her to ride a horse.

"Fine." Her hand took his hand and she jumped onto the horse.

The horse was running fast. After they got to the front of the house, they got down and carried the two bags of medicine inside.