Chapter 170: A Reputation Precedes Him
The stalemate on the battlefield had been grinding on for some time.
Gazok, chief of the Fang Tribe, swung his massive club in a direct assault on Lucian, blow after heavy blow. His strength was staggering: each strike sent a tremor through the ground, and the displaced air from his club came down like rolling thunder.
Lucian raised his sword to intercept. The impact numbed his hands to the bone, and the blade rang with the force of it.
On the other side, the lion-beastman guard captain used his superior speed to dart in from the flank, attacking in bursts from oblique angles, always driving for the gaps in Lucian's guard.
His claws tore through the air with a sharpness that left no margin for error.
Lucian had to split his attention: blocking Gazok's club from the front while twisting to dodge those reaching strikes from the side. The two beastmen worked in concert without exchanging a word, one pressing head-on and the other cutting from the flank, keeping Lucian completely pinned.
Then the guard captain's eye caught something at the edge of his vision.
Not far away, a boy soaked in blood was fighting desperately to shield the small girl on his back.
The boy was covered in wounds. His left leg was clearly giving out. But he was still holding the line, still planting himself between the beastmen and that thin shape behind him, refusing to let anyone through.
The guard captain's eyes narrowed slightly.
He glanced sideways at Gazok. The wild boar beastman was already looking back at him. Their eyes met, and the same thought lit up in both of them at once.
They reached a conclusion.
That girl mattered. Mattered enough that a reasonably capable noble soldier was throwing his life into protecting her.
She had to be the key to capturing the Aindra noble.
Maybe she's even his illegitimate daughter.
The guard captain looked over at Lucian, something odd in his expression. Gazok looked too. A wide, ugly grin spread across that boar face.
Lucian felt a prickling sensation he couldn't account for.
He blocked a claw swipe from the guard captain and sidestepped Gazok's club, his brow drawing in.
What are these two idiots thinking?
He couldn't make sense of whatever was going on in their heads, but he didn't have time to think about it.
The next instant, something happened that he hadn't anticipated.
The guard captain snapped his claws back and broke away from the fight without warning, his massive frame turning and charging hard toward the other side of the camp.
Toward Touch Me.
Lucian's pupils contracted.
"Touch Me —!"
He moved without thinking, foot already lifting to go after him — but Gazok's enormous tusked club was already swinging across to block his path.
"Going somewhere?" There was a wide grin in Gazok's voice. "Get through me first."
The club came in with a rush of air and Lucian had to bring his sword up. The impact hammered through his hands. Gazok's strength was extraordinary; that single blow forced Lucian back two full steps.
Lucian gritted his teeth and tried to find a way around, but Gazok's club was like a wall, sealing off every angle he tried to move through.
For all his ungainly build, the wild boar chief had years of combat experience behind him and read exactly which way Lucian wanted to go each time.
Urgency flickered through Lucian's eyes.
He could see it: the guard captain had already closed the distance to Touch Me. That enormous claw was rising.
Too late to reach him.
Lucian made a decision. He stopped trying to dodge Gazok's strike and drove straight into it instead.
The heavy club connected solidly with his side and back. The force behind it would have shattered an ordinary soldier's bones.
Even for Lucian, the blow knocked him sideways and sent a hot, copper taste surging up his throat.
He used the momentum of the impact to drive himself several steps in Touch Me's direction.
Gazok watched that retreating back, watched Lucian take a full hit just to get a few steps closer, and the satisfaction in his expression deepened.
He glanced at the guard captain. The guard captain was already looking back. Their eyes met across the field, and the same thought passed between them without a word.
This kid is definitely Aindra's blood.
What else could explain a noble lord going that far?
Gazok's lips peeled back to show two uneven rows of yellow teeth. He dragged his club along and followed.
But Lucian's pace, after those first rushing steps, began to slow.
The guard captain had surprised him again.
That enormous claw didn't come down on Touch Me's skull. At the last instant, as it was about to land, it pulled back and reached instead for the small girl on Touch Me's back.
Lucian's eyes sharpened.
Trying to take her alive?
He understood immediately.
He ran through it quickly in his head and felt his urgency subside.
He slowed to a stop, turned, and faced Gazok, who was coming up behind him.
On the other side of the camp.
Touch Me could feel himself running out.
But he kept swinging.
His arm was growing heavier with each movement. The blade came down slower and slower.
The wild boar beastmen seemed to sense his exhaustion and pressed in harder.
Then.
A massive dark shape slammed in from the side.
Touch Me didn't have time to react. A thick, powerful claw swept over his head and closed precisely around the small girl on his back.
"No!"
Touch Me's eyes went wide. He swung his sword at that claw with everything he had.
The blade connected with the guard captain's claws and threw sparks, and left no mark whatsoever. It didn't alter the claw's path by a fraction.
The guard captain didn't even look at him.
He pulled the girl free from the blanket's binding with ease, held her up in one hand, and drove a kick into Touch Me's chest.
"Out of the way."
The kick wasn't light. Touch Me's body launched like a snapped kite string, tumbling across the ground several times before stopping.
The pain in his chest made it nearly impossible to breathe. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
But he forced his head up anyway, staring hard at the small shape dangling from the guard captain's hand.
The girl had been snatched into the air.
She wasn't struggling. She wasn't making a sound. Her golden tangled hair hung down over her face, hiding her expression.
Touch Me couldn't see her face. He felt like something had reached into his chest and was squeezing.
Silently, inside himself, he was shouting.
No.
The guard captain carried the girl back toward the center of the battlefield. He looked across at Lucian, who had put distance between himself and Gazok, and spread a vicious smile.
"Human." His rough voice carried across the camp. "Put down your weapons."
He shook the girl slightly in his grip.
"Or she dies."
Lucian lowered his sword.
He looked at the girl hanging from the guard captain's hand — utterly, unnervingly still. Then he looked across at Touch Me, who was dragging himself back to his feet from the ground.
The boy's eyes were red. His lips were shaking. He was covered in blood, and he was fighting to stand.
Lucian's brow drew in slightly.
He couldn't quite work out why the lion-beastman had concluded that this girl would make him surrender without a fight.
Unless...
An unpleasant suspicion began to take shape in Lucian's head.
Has my reputation as a lolicon already spread all the way to the beastman nation?
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