Tale of the Red Dragon Without Dragon's Might-Chapter 32 - You Are Surrounded by Us

There are always exceptions; if a wise and capable person is willing to heed the call of Yenogu, the King of Gnolls might elevate him to the position of the leader of one of his Warbands.

A Warband led by such a capable Cultist would be far stronger than a group of Gnolls, achieving the combination of the barbarism of the Gnolls with the intelligent strategy of humanoids.

“An arm chopped off, a head severed, someone killed him.”

The Cultist leader was inspecting the body of the dead Gnoll.

Based on the cause of death, he would decide the Warband’s next move.

If the Gnoll had died at the claws of a wild beast, the Warband would not make a big fuss over an animal.

Now that the Gnoll had died by a weapon, it meant someone was nearby, someone following the Warband.

In this case, the Warband could not remain indifferent.

“We must find the murderer.”

The intelligence of Flind Gnolls is not low, but they are keen on slaughter, usually not delaying the Warband’s progress for the death of a weak Gnoll, only the Cultist knows how important it is for the Warband to keep moving forward, but if the enemy is not taken care of, the Warband will eventually be eroded away.

The Cultist sniffed, could smell nothing, and turned to look at a tall-standing Gnoll beside him.

It was the one that had just destroyed a village, presided over a Demon Ritual to celebrate the victory, and had offered fresh blood as a sacrifice to Yenogu, a Yenogu Poison Fang newly created by the Demon Lord.

It was formed by allowing the spirit of a Demon to possess a Gnoll.

The Yenogu Poison Fang is one of the chosen of the Demon Lord; feeding it the enemies that killed it to ordinary hyenas results in the hyenas going through a terrifying transformation, eventually becoming fully grown Gnolls.

If there are many hyenas in the Warband, the Yenogu Poison Fang can help the Warband expand rapidly.

The intelligence of an ordinary Gnoll is low, but not that of the Yenogu Poison Fang.

In fact, it is no longer Gnoll; it has become an Evil Demon.

The Yenogu Poison Fang sniffed here and there; the scent of the enemy was strong, indicating the enemy had not been gone for long.

“He went east, towards the Sun.

Just left.”

The language of the Gnolls is very crude, consisting of grunting and chuckling sounds and howls mixed with gestures and expressions, capable of conveying only some basic concepts like alerting or calling their allies to battle.

At this time, the Yenogu Poison Fang and the Cultist communicated using the Abyss Language.

“Chase after him.”

“Kill him.”

“Offer his blood as a sacrifice to Lord Yenogu.”

The cultist stood with one foot atop the broken walls, howling toward the east.

Following his howl, the gnolls warriors armed with pitchforks charged out first.

Their pitchforks were taken from the hands of the deceased villagers; otherwise, they only had spears made of wood and bone.

Next came the gnolls scavengers, enhancing their savagery with agility, delighting in the speed and efficiency of killing their enemies with short swords.

As the warband lingered on the ruins of the village, the gnolls hunters kept watch around, slowing their movements as a precaution.

Last were Yenogu Poison Fang and the cultists, with the cultist as the leader of the warband bringing up the rear.

Talking of both sides, at this time Leon, who knew nothing, left the ruins of the village but didn’t choose to take flight.

He was attracted by the wheat planted in the fields outside the village.

Being someone from the south, he had only ever seen rice and could hardly imagine that wheat wasn’t grown in water.

There wasn’t much to see in the wheat, satisfying a bit of curiosity was enough, and after inspecting the wheat, Leon was in turn entranced by a scarecrow.

It is said hags or evil spells would bind the essence of a demon within a scarecrow, turning it into a moving scarecrow that serves its master.

After looking at the scarecrow, then at the water mill—there was plenty for Leon to see.

The old water wheel sat quietly by the clear stream, its wooden blades turning with the flow of the water, driving the huge gears to rotate slowly, creaking with noise.

Inside the mill, the colossal gear transmitted power, causing the grinding stone to begin to turn.

The morning sun shone on the water wheel and the stream, casting a peaceful and beautiful medieval village scene, who would think that not far away, a village was decimated by the gnolls’ rampage, leaving no survivors.

Leon watched for a good while, then eagerly jumped into the stream.

Since leaving the Mother Dragon’s territory, he hadn’t swum for a long time and sort of missed it.

Leon now lay at the bottom of the river, submerged in the water with just his head resting on the bank, squinting in the sun.

The wind was blowing.

The sunlight felt so comfortable.

Leon was enjoying himself when suddenly he heard unusual footsteps.

Pat pat pat—

Rustle rustle rustle—

Leon opened his eyes, only to see three gnolls wielding daggers standing right in front of him, four gnolls with pitchforks scattered about, and two gnolls with bows, one on each side…

On this side, the cultists and Yenogu Poison Fang had also reached the side of the water mill.

“Insect, you are surrounded,” said the cultist, squinting in the sunlight as he watched a dragon slowly emerge from the river.

Bright crimson scales reflected the sunlight.

Yes, that was the Red Dragon, the most powerful of the colorful dragons.

The Red Dragon didn’t stop; it lifted its forelimbs, using its hind legs and tail for support to stand up, taller than the mill, spreading its wings wider than the mill, then reached out to grab a sword flying towards it, a sword longer than a hunchbacked gnoll.

The cultist swallowed nervously.