Chapter 17: Burn It

With the Blessing of Insects they received, Lakrak’s thirty warriors killed ten Frogmen warriors in the span of a breath. The Lizardmen and Frogmen preparing for the banquet began to scream and run away at the sight of the sudden bloodbath.

“Don’t run into the chaos. Calmly find the warriors that are armed and kill them first,” said Yur.

One of the warriors then asked, “What do we do if the grayish-brown scaled Lizardmen attack?”

“Try to subdue them, but if it isn’t possible, kill them. We have no other choice.”

“Alright.”

Lakrak already had in mind the possibility of the Lizardmen being enslaved by the Frogmen. Therefore, he had also told Yur and the warriors to pay sufficient attention. Lakrak clicked his tongue at the sight of the Frogmen warriors shouting and running towards them from far away.

‘Is this the worst case scenario I thought of?’

Lakrak had already been prepared to fight the Frogmen after their first encounter. He had noticed a certain look on Owen’s face.

‘The face of suffering.’

And Lakrak wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Some had read a face of submission, and others read a face of defeat. These weren’t things that could be concealed through acting just because one wished to hide it.

‘It might be because we are all Lizardmen.’

Lakrak was certain the Frogmen were hiding something from them, so there was no mistake in considering the Frogmen as their enemy. The only problem was when and how they would turn on them. The Frogmen were as vigilant as Lakrak was. It seemed peaceful at the place of barter, but there was a fierce war of nerves between the scouting parties of each tribe. Lakrak tried to figure out the right way to fight the Frogmen with the help of Zaol, Yur, the star catcher, and other trustworthy individuals, asking them to keep an eye on the Frogmen. They thus used the five barter sessions as an opportunity and, in the end, came to an easy solution.

“Chief, why don’t we get out of here as they wish?”

“What if we get into danger by doing so?”

“Don’t we have God? I know you said that we shouldn’t rely too much on God, chief, but if we go the wrong way, God will stop us. And if we go the right way…”

“...God will help us.”

Yur agreed with those words.

“Our warriors are also strong. Each of our warriors will be able to deal with at least three of them at a time.”

“Even if they have bows and arrows?”

“Yes.”

“Yur, arrows can’t be blocked with confidence alone.”

Yur shook his head.

“Even if arrows are shot, they won’t be able to pierce the water buffalo skull we have on our heads.”

“We won’t get shot in the head if we keep our eyes open and watch out, but how will we protect our bodies, which is more important?”

“What about that?”

Yur had pointed to the Coleoptera’s outer shell that Lakrak had brought.

“It is best to have spears in both hands, but now that we have been blessed by God, we should be able to tear apart the Frogmen’s smooth skin with one hand. We can hold that with our other hand and protect our bodies.”

The idea was to use the Coleoptera’s outer shell as a shield. They had taken and brought a relatively smaller part of it, and so it wasn’t big enough to cover them entirely. If held as a shield, though, it would cover their upper bodies.

Lakrak wasn’t sure if it would be okay to be used as a shield at first, but once Yur struck it with a spear, and Lakrak saw how it blocked it, he approved of the idea.

“It would be good if we could hold it better. Perhaps attaching a wooden handle to grab onto or tying it to our wrists.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“...but I don’t think our warriors making a surprise attack would be enough. I don’t know how God will help, but even if we win in the end, I can’t help but worry about the loss of our warriors.”

Next to Lakrak, Zaol nodded.

“That’s right. This needs to be a triumphant victory, not a precarious one.”

Lakrak looked at Zaol with hopeful eyes.

“Should we divide our warriors? However, if the information our scouting party gathered is true, they would have two times the warriors compared to us. We’d be that much weaker if we are to divide our group. We don’t have any other warriors either.”

“Even if it’s not a warrior…we do have something that can fight.”

***

The screams of the Frogmen resounded throughout the night. The Ancient Coleoptera shield wasn’t the only countermeasure the Lizardmen had against the arrows. Lakrak looked at Owen.

‘He must have mixed feelings. It’s best to make a move in this case.’

Lakrak didn’t leave Owen to just stupidly stand around.

“Owen! I have a favor to ask you.”

“Yes, what?”

“Get a torch from one of the bonfires surrounding the banquet and use it to burn down all the houses”

“What?”

The banquet was held in the center of the village and was mainly surrounded by the Lizardmen’s houses so that they could be surveilled. In addition to this, all the dry houses that would burn well belonged to the Lizardmen. The Frogmen overall preferred mud houses.

“There’s no other choice. If they shoot arrows at us from far away, it’ll be good to obstruct their view. The dry houses will create smoke once caught on fire. And that will act as another signal…”

“But…”

“Hurry! Persuade the Lizardmen if necessary. Tell them that the black Lizardmen will save them from the Frogmen!”

An arrow came flying. Lakrak didn’t even use his hands, but instead hit it away with his tail.

“They are no match for us. My warriors are busy dealing with Frogmen. So hurry.”

“A-Alright.”

Owen picked up a large firewood that was burning in the pit and ran. Once he checked that the first house was empty, he set it on fire. Right then, a group came pouring into the alley. Startled, Owen first thought they were Frogmen warriors, but then he realized they were the same Lizardmen as he was. They were all familiar faces he knew.

“What are you doing? Owen?”

“What about you guys?”

“Mr. Oboi said to kill the black Lizardmen, so we’re on our way to the banquet.”

The lean, skinny, and pitiful Lizardmen were holding wooden clubs that couldn’t even be used as weapons.

Then Owen said, “I’m going to burn the houses down.”

“What did you just say?”

“Is that Mr. Shunen’s orders?”

“No. That black scaled Lizardman over there asked me to do so.”

“What do you mean…”

“They will destroy the Frogmen,” said Owen.

“...What? That won’t be possible. No one can kill the Two-Headed Fiend.”

Owen’s heart began to pound.

‘Will Lakrak be able to defeat it?’

However, Owen had already made up his mind.

“I’m not sure about that, but I have steeled my heart to help them.”

“What if they lose? What are you gonna do then? Shunen won’t stay still and do nothing if he finds out you helped them.”

Owen laughed.

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Why are you laughing?”

“We’re burning down our houses. Do you think they’ll say anything if we’re burning our possessions and not theirs?”

“Why the homes…”

“Because this is the only way to stop the Frogmen from properly shooting their arrows.”

The grayish-brown scaled Lizardmen went silent. Owen was the smartest among their kind. The other Lizardmen realized that if this trickster was risking everything, it would be worth it for them to do the same.

The tips of the Lizardmen’s wooden clubs caught on fire. And in no time, the Frogmen village was in flames.

***

Frogman warrior Oboi, who was Auloi’s henchman and Shunen’s friend, was very confused. The village was on fire, and he heard nothing from the warriors at the banquet.

‘Ten at the banquet, five sent to see if there’s something going on. It’s probably fair to say they’re dead. Shunen has another fifteen warriors, and I have ten.’

Oboi sent an errand boy to go tell the fifteen warriors at the high rank village and the four or five warriors guarding the island to hurry and get to the lower rank village. Oboi was currently on the outskirts of the village next to the lake.

‘There’s no mistake, they suddenly launched an attack. There are 30 of them altogether. Even if we have more numbers, the fight won’t be in our favor unless we attack them all at once. Then they’ll all be defeated one after another.’

However, Oboi wasn’t convinced that the situation was that bad. He didn’t think the ten warriors at the banquet would easily be defeated, and he had sent the other grayish-brown scaled Lizardmen to besiege their enemies.

‘They should now be caught. The grayish-brown Lizardmen just need to buy some time. If Shunen, me, all the other high ranked warriors who haven’t caught the disease, and the few who are guarding the island come together…there will be at least 45 of us. It will be difficult to shoot arrows because of the smoke from the burning village, but each of us only needs to hit one each.’

Instead of getting nervous, Oboi encouraged the warriors.

“Have you all packed the poisonous frogs?”

“Yes!”

“We don’t know when a battle will break out. Each of you, have an arrow prepared. We will move as soon as Mr. Shunen comes.”

Oboi prepared the ten warriors he had as of now for battle. His intuition as a warrior seemed to be warning him of a coming danger.

‘My heart is pounding…just like the day we eventually killed the Cockatrice.”

Oboi realized his intuition was no mere feeling.

“Something is coming from beyond the bushes!”

“Beyond the bushes?”

Oboi was puzzled as that was the opposite of where the village was. However, there was a chance the black Lizardmen had lied about the number of warriors they had.

“Get ready to attack!”

Oboi confirmed the bushes were moving and shouted as soon as something was revealed, “Shoot!”

The arrows coated with frog poison flew into the bushes at once. But the big thing that appeared from beyond the bushes didn’t stop moving. And it continued to reveal itself until the Frogmen freaked out. This thing was long and gigantic.

“Mrs. Zaol, Manun has been hit by an arrow.”

“Oh no. Did it hit its eye by any chance?”

“No. Manun’s eyes are small. I think one of them got stuck in between its teeth. Oh, Manun ate it. No, nevermind, it just spat it out.”

The drake Manun, who had recently grown even more and was now around 6 meters long, chewed on the arrow and spat it out. Following the development of its species, the young drake still had a habit of chewing everything that came into its mouth because its teeth hadn’t finished growing yet. And perhaps because the arrow didn’t taste good, it let out a powerful roar.

Rawr!

Zaol and the errand boy were on Manun’s back. The Frogmen froze at the large beast’s cry. It seemed that they hadn’t even noticed the Lizardmen riding on its back. Zaol lightly hit Manun’s back.

“Manun!”

Rawr?

“You grumble too much. Isn’t there a dinner over there? I won’t tell you to stop eating today, so go ahead and eat.”

Raaawr!

Manun jumped at Oboi, who was right in front of it. But Oboi was an experienced warrior. He rolled backwards and took out an arrow while Manun stumbled, and the drake snatched the warrior next to Oboi instead. The warrior’s neck ended up stuck between Manun’s teeth, and Manun chewed the warrior’s head off.

‘It’s a monster that isn’t even comparable to a Cockatrice!’

Oboi quickly put poison on an arrow and drew his bow.

‘Should I aim for the eyes? No, shoot poison into its mouth… No, this isn’t the way.’

Oboi ripped off the legs of the poisonous frog that was tied to his waist. The poisonous frog threw a fit.

“Everyone untie your poisonous frogs! Throw them into that monster’s mouth!”

However, Oboi should have realized after the first arrows were shot that the drake didn't get poisoned. Manun snapped its jaw like the times Lakrak threw food at it, and it caught the poisonous frogs in its mouth before swallowing them.

From atop Manun’s back, Zaol asked the errand boy, “What are they doing?”

“They had frogs tied around their waists, and they ripped them off and threw them.”

“Well, I saw that as well. Why are they throwing their snacks?”

Zaol knew well about poisonous frogs. After Lakrak’s Clan received God’s Blessing, poisonous frogs had become nothing but a savory meal to them. And when it came to resistance to poison and disease, the drake was much stronger than even the blessed Lizardmen.

The errand boy thought about it and replied, “Do you think it’s an act of goodwill?”

“Is it? Isn’t it a bit late for that? Manun, tell them it’s too late.”

Zaol poked at Manun’s side.

Rawr!

Manun then jumped at Oboi again. This time, it didn’t miss.