Cthulhu Gonfalons

Chapter 19

From Pyroxene City to Thunder-Dragon City, it takes about ten days of travel on foot. Adventurers, if riding horses, also need this much time. This was because the distance between each village where one could live was equal to almost a day's journey on foot. Unless one was not afraid of dying near this dangerous barren mountain range or did not care about the strength of his horse and covered the distance of two days in a single day, no one would travel faster.

However, Sui Xiong and Gerrard were in no hurry. Joining a group of dealers, they walked towards the Thunder-Dragon City as if they were roaming.

The evil dragon, known as the Arctic Tyrant, has been wreaking havoc in the mountains near the Thunder-Dragon City for over 50 years and seems to be in no hurry to make a move.

They need not worry; the key to fighting the evil dragon is Sui Xiong's body, that is, Oscar, “mask vanity” Your Majesty. Now, Sui Xiong secludes himself in an underground cave near Pyroxene City, adjusting his body structure to better adapt to land-based actions. It was a lot of work to transform his entire large body, and it could not be completed quickly. Thus, even if they arrived at the Thunder-Dragon City early, they could only temporarily stay in the city to gather some information. It was impossible for Gerrard alone to challenge the evil dragon.

“White Brother, have you lived in the mountains before? Is life in the mountains difficult? ”In the caravan with them, a boy about 12 years old curiously asked Gerrard about everything, which made Gerrard very upset.

“... Life in the mountains is simple and boring. I don't have anything to say anymore.”

“But..”.

In order to facilitate the operation, Gerrard chose to go with a group of merchants, consisting of caravans, so that when danger came they could look after each other and help; when danger was overwhelming, when danger was overwhelming, it is easy to find a scapegoat.

This large group consisted of seven or eight caravans, all of whom chose to follow the strongest caravan among them.

The caravan is called “Gold Coin Lucky”, with its semi-dwarf president named Soth. As a dwarf and human descendant, he was slightly shorter than the average man. He had somewhat reddish and somewhat hard skin, large eyes with night vision, a slim and nimble body, and one or two heaven-sent spells made his experience as an adventurer go very smoothly. This is how he saved a lot of money. Now that he was old, he no longer acted as an adventurer, but formed a caravan and became a businessman.

Uncle Soth's caravan only consisted of his old acquaintances. The interesting thing is that although this caravan mainly does business with humans, there is not a single member in the caravan that is purely human; its boss is a semi-dwarf, a half-orc bodyguard, two half-elf and dwarf business partners, and even employees of different races or half races. For example, the person who likes to talk to Gerrard, the young witch Palin, who is an accountant, is a pure dwarf.

In this world, there were many intelligent life races. There are many whose body types are similar to humans. Pygmies, dwarves, elves, and orcs are relatively common.

Pygmies and dwarves are not tall; they are about 2/3 as tall as humans. However, no one would confuse the two since the dwarf was an agile and intellectual race, whereas the dwarf was a race of physical strength. The first was thin and thin, with red skin, large eyes and long hands and legs. The latter were gallant, with small eyes and a bushy beard, and they spoke in a voice as loud as the cries of ordinary people.

In general, pygmies and half-breed dwarves often choose to become witches or rely on innate abilities to become entertainers, or poets, or businessmen. The dwarves? Other than warriors, they rarely engaged in other occupations. There may also be some dwarves working as miners, blacksmiths, winemakers, or chefs, but they must first become good fighters, almost without exception.

Elves were a race that was as tall as humans, but they were slimmer. They are characterized by having sophisticated spells, and a natural affinity, so they are almost naturally capable of performing magic. However, they cannot adapt to living in an unnatural environment. If they could not live in a natural environment, they would become weak and sick, and eventually die.

For this reason, the elves, one of the most powerful races in this world, took the forest and wilderness as their own kingdom. In the course of some great expansion of mankind, two races with equally brilliant history and powerful armed forces fought several times; elves and humans. Elves have conquered several races including dwarves and pygmies, while humans pursue races such as orcs and murlocs. They fought so fiercely that they were comparable to Mars hitting Earth. But in the end, neither side could deal with the other, so they had to compromise and seek coexistence and mutual development.

It has been nearly five hundred years since the latest major expansion. Except for those long-lived and legendary strong people, those who participated in the war had long since died, and their hatred gradually faded away. Now the relationship between elves and humans could be considered relatively good; elves were envious of the versatile potential and vitality of humans, while humans were envious of the calm mind and genius of elves. When things continue like this, there are many children of mixed race, commonly known as half-fairy.

As for the orcs, they were a disadvantaged and poor group. They have many origins, but they are constantly expelled because humanity has defeated them during the war. They lived together and ended up forming a somewhat messy race. The ancestors of the orcs also had a good history of civilization, but war with humans disrupted their civilizational processes, drove them from the land where their ancestors lived, and interrupted the passing of their civilization. They gradually became a symbol of savagery and backwardness.

Sadly, most orcs have forgotten the honor of their own civilization and chose to accept human civilization or elves. In today's world, traditional orc work, such as “wild soldier”, “warrior rage”, “experienced swordsman”, and “soul quack”, less and less. Most qualified orcs chose to become warriors, knight-traitors, alchemists or priests.

Perhaps it was because of the work developed by humans and elves that they were stronger than the ancient work that the orcs had inherited.

Half the orcs in the caravan came from a tribe called “Barbarian Stone”. The leader, Arhan, is a holy warrior. He is the type of priest who has been baptized in a sacred temple, inherits the heritage of the temple, and tends to use power rather than magic. The god he worshipped was rather special; revered as “Singa Baja”, the god of destruction who has an orc origin that tends to be evil. But it achieved semi-independence from orcs with some subordinates and became a benevolent deity.

Arhan and his subordinates were worshippers of the god of silence, and their armor and shield had the sacred emblem of the holy god; the claws of a golden lion in a shield-shaped frame. Arhan's shield glistened divinely. It was a miraculous thing that was blessed in the temple.

To be sure, he specifically asked Gerrard to ask Arhan for knowledge of the God of Destruction.

The God of Desolation was a god who liked to go around and talk for the sake of the oppressed. He often transforms into a human-lion (one of the orcs), carrying a shield and tomahawk, with a hammer at his waist. When he was faced with the rampage caused by the evil gods, he would turn into golden lightning that tore through the sky and engage in battle with evil. Although in terms of rank he could only be considered a medium-level god, he had extremely powerful combat power, because more than once he had made those famous evil gods escape. So he deserves to be called a first-rate powerhouse among the gods.

Regarding these god doctrines and detailed sectarian structures, Sui Xiong was too lazy to remember them. In short, he was somewhat convinced that the God of Destruction was the one who had helped him and the god of kindness.

Well, that's enough.

It is a good team leader with good technique, strong sense, able to lead the team and without any evil equipment. It would be great if one had the chance to join the game with him.

Of course, this god helped him during the fight, so it was also necessary to avenge the god.

“Gerrard, in case of a fight, pay attention to protect Arhan and his men,” he said.

Gerrard wonders why he must protect Arhan, who seems to be good at fighting, rather than those who were not fighters represented by the old Soth who had retired for many years and had much lower combat effectiveness. But the command of the god was absolute, and he said he was completely obedient to him.

But Gerrard can rest assured that there is absolutely no need to protect Arhan. This powerful lion-man could face a wild bear, even without a weapon. Fully armed, even a two-legged flying dragon could not hurt him.

The two-legged flying dragon that wanted to attack them tonight had now become a barbecue in the camp, and the old Soth fellow and chef, Wrought Iron, had now become a barbecue in the camp, applying spices and secret liquor that he was proud of his meat. Some of the meat is almost cooked, with an attractive aroma inherent in the air.

After a day of trekking, the caravan was placed next to a small village at night. This was a vast, empty area that was wide enough to accommodate hundreds of people if they only stayed there temporarily. Because of the barren mountain that was nearby, the Ash Forest did not affect him. The scenery was stunning; the trees shaded the ground in the distance, while green grass flourished around it. This made Sui Xiong, who was used to seeing gray-black tones, very satisfied.

At this moment, everyone was busy, but almost everyone paused for a moment as the scent of the roasted dragon filled the air, and more than one person even to the point of drooling.

Another partner of Old Soth, a half-fairy knight who calls himself “Rhythm”, is handling material ejected from a bipedal dragon; a sharp jaw, fangs connected to venomous glands, and a, hard scales on the chest, and hard skin.

The dragon was a fairly ferocious monster that ate a wide variety of food, but their favorite prey was “weak bipedal walking beast” – abbreviated as human. In fact, their favorite thing to do is to attack the shepherds and caravans, and they even turn a blind eye to prey like cows and sheep when they can eat humans. They are the great enemies of mankind.

If they were on Earth, these human opponents would be nearly extinguished until only a few had survived for analytical purposes in zoos. However, in this relatively underdeveloped and wild world, all humanoids, including humans, only occupied less than a third of the land of the entire world. Enemies like them filled a vast open country that was barbaric and wild, and all were familiar with it.

Of course, the result is a battle; losing means you will be eaten, winning means the others will be eaten!

For example, the two-legged dragon that failed to face the caravan and was defeated had become everyone's dinner.

At that moment, with an overflowing aroma, “I Wrought”, laughed loudly and rang a small bell which meant the beginning of the meal.

The sound of the bell saves Gerrard, who is questioned by a curious baby, Palin. Gerrard immediately ended the story of “ecology of the giants” who almost came from the rumors, dragging the little Palin who was still lost in his story and rushing towards the bonfire.

That's a good excuse for dinner, which ends up keeping him out of conversations like interrogations.