Levi and the Beastman Barbarians traveled through the Wilderness for another two days, the "little tail" behind them having grown to three or four hundred strong.
Caravans that frequently traversed the Wilderness would, upon encountering such a situation, typically halt their procession to clean up these tails before continuing. This prevented the pursuers from growing in number.
Levi's approach of letting them be, allowing them to swell in size, was completely amateurish. Any experienced caravan master who saw it would have undoubtedly cursed him for a "moron."
Standing atop a carriage observing the bandits, Levi clicked his tongue in amazement.
This ragtag crew, formed from the Wilderness Natives, had managed to achieve greater troop diversity than the Lord himself.
The most numerous among them were a group of Green-skinned Goblins, each with just a ragged cloth around their loins. They were quite short, most holding wooden clubs or rocks, and numbered over two hundred.
Next was a group of Kobolds. These Kobolds had the heads of lizards, and while not much taller than the Goblins, their limbs were thick and powerful.
Levi could tell with a single glance that they would be excellent miners.
This makeshift army had nothing but strips of ragged cloth to cover their lower bodies, and their weapons were either wooden clubs, rocks, or scraps of rusted metal.
If it weren't for the fact they were trailing the caravan with malicious intent, Levi might have mistaken them for a troupe of beggars.
"Halt! Form the wagons into a circle! Ten Beastman Barbarians, stay and guard them!"
Levi leaped down from the carriage. He wasn't going to drag this out any longer.
The fish he was reeling in was big enough. He feared that if he let this continue, there was no telling how large this mob of Wilderness Bandits would become. It was better to annihilate them on the spot.
But when the Beastman Barbarians halted the caravan, the previously active Bandit Corps also stopped in their tracks, seemingly unprepared for a direct confrontation.
It was obvious that as soon as the caravan started moving again, the Bandit Corps would stick to them like glue, waiting for their own ranks to swell until they were confident they could devour this Beastman caravan whole.
It was a disgusting tactic, but one couldn't deny its effectiveness.
"Boss, are we doin' this or not?"
Muto cracked a wide, savage grin as he looked at the rats trailing behind them.
The Warhammer in his hands was already thirsting for action, but the boss kept saying this was all part of 'baiting the hook'.
"Aim for those little Wilderness rats! Two volleys of Javelins, then charge!"
Levi issued a simple and brutal command. If he weren't afraid that these natural-born miners would completely break and scatter from a single charge by the Beastman Barbarians, making them difficult to capture...
...he would have just hit F1 and F3 to order an all-out charge long ago.
The Beastman Barbarians fanned out, each pulling out a Fine Steel Javelin. With their brawny arms, they sent the javelins flying with incredible ease, almost without effort.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
In an instant, the Beastman Barbarians had thrown two volleys. The fierce and accurate Javelins fell like a sudden squall, mercilessly striking down the Wilderness Natives and reducing their numbers by nearly eighty on the spot.
The Barbarians drew their Giant Axe Warhammers—weapons as large as the goblin dogmen themselves—and charged with savage grins.
Forty-one Giant Beasts, each weighing four to five hundred pounds, thundered across the land, their steps seeming to make the very earth tremble.
Before the hastily assembled, ragtag crew could even recover from the devastating rain of javelins, they were met by the charging Beastman Barbarians in close-quarters combat.
Muto grinned savagely as he reached out a giant, fan-sized hand, grabbing a Goblin by the head. He lifted it off the ground and, with a slight squeeze, popped its head like a watermelon with a crisp, clean sound.
Zat, who had charged into the crowd, swung the Double-Bladed War Axe in his hands. Like a scythe reaping wheat, his attack cut down six or seven Kobolds, cleaving them in two at the waist.
The Goblins' wooden clubs, meanwhile, felt no more painful than mosquito bites when they landed on the Beastmen.
Their lives as hunters from a young age had made these Beastmen experts at slaughter. Their opponents were like lambs to the slaughter, walking one by one to the butcher's blade.
It was a one-sided slaughter, its outcome never in doubt.
The hastily formed Wilderness Bandits were defeated all too quickly. Most lost their lives before they could even react. As blood stained the earth, their courage drained away with it.
The surviving Goblins and Kobolds were utterly terrified by the slaughter, which was as efficient as crushing ants. They broke and fled in all directions, running even faster than they had arrived.
The fifty-one Beastmen didn't even suffer a scratch.
Levi was not surprised by this outcome in the slightest.
These goblin dogmen weren't even as thick as a Beastman's thigh. Combined with the overwhelming difference in equipment, they had no power to resist whatsoever.
"Stop! Capture all the survivors and bring them back to me!"
Levi put a stop to the Beastman Barbarians' slaughter.
After all, these Goblins and Kobolds were, in his eyes, the perfect labor force.
'If the Beastman Barbarians kill them all, who's going to build my castle?'
Though they didn't understand what use the boss had for these rat-like creatures, the Beastman Barbarians still stopped what they were doing and roared mightily.
"I'll kill anyone who tries to run!"
Their roars frightened those who were close, but they were useless against the Goblins and Kobolds who had already run forty or fifty paces away.
Just then, Levi produced a Jungle Bow from his system inventory.
With a light pluck of the Bowstring, Arrows fell like shooting stars, picking off the farthest Goblins and Kobolds one by one. Not a single shot missed its mark.
SNAP!
Levi, who was in the middle of enjoying his target practice, was caught by surprise when the Bowstring on his Jungle Bow suddenly snapped.
He had been afraid of breaking the Bowstring and had tried to be as gentle as possible, but in the end, it still couldn't withstand his Lightning-fast plucking.
However, the Jungle Bow had already fulfilled its purpose. After it had been used to precisely dispatch some twenty of the farthest-fleeing Goblins...
...and combined with the roars of the Beastmen, all the remaining Goblins and Kobolds were now squatting on the ground, trembling. They no longer dared to run, awaiting their final judgment.
All the Goblins and Kobolds were herded together. In total, sixty-four remained.
Levi carefully sized up these two creatures, species that were as common as weeds in the Wilderness.
The Goblins were generally just over a meter tall, with scrawny bodies and slender limbs. Their faces were as ugly as demons, with bloodshot eyes that glinted with cunning, long pointed ears, and hooked noses like a witch's.
They were an evil species.
It was said that their entire Race consisted only of males, so they would raid other races and carry off females to reproduce, with a particular fondness for humanoid ones.
They would feign a pitiful state when faced with a stronger foe, but the moment they encountered someone weaker than themselves, they would turn the tables and reveal their innately evil nature.
Stroking his chin, Levi couldn't help but think of another of the Wilderness Races—Harpies.
This species was the complete opposite of the Goblins; their Race consisted solely of females, and they could only reproduce by capturing males of other species.
'If a Goblin and a Harpy were to mate,' he mused, 'would they produce a Goblin? Or a Harpy? Or perhaps... an entirely new Race?'
Levi was quite curious about this.
But he was no biologist, and after a fleeting thought, he turned his gaze to the Kobolds.