Section Forty-Six: The Hunt (Part Two)

Cecily was terrified, but upon realizing that the Horsemen could not easily scale the rock, her courage grew. She decided to keep drawing the attention of the squad to buy Indira a better chance of escape. She crossed her arms and shouted insults at the centaurs, mocking their incompetence and belittling them in every way possible.

The Horsemen raged at the base of the rock, but they could not reach her. Finally, they changed tactics: one by one, they retreated a short distance, then charged and leaped, attempting to jump directly onto the formation.

This terrified Cecily. The cold wind bit into her, there was no shelter on the rock, and the Horsemen were jumping about with inexhaustible energy. Fortunately, they always fell just short of the top.

After a while, the Horseman squad leader devised a plan. He had four of his cavalrymen stand before the rock, locking their arms into an arch. He sprinted toward them, and the four Horsemen heaved him into the air. With the boost from his comrades and his own jump, the squad leader vaulted onto the rock.

A cheer erupted from below. The other Horsemen watched their leader with envy, knowing this meant he alone would enjoy the human woman. Of course, once he was finished, he might toss her down to the others.

The squad leader grinned cruelly and dropped his spear onto the rock. To deal with such a delicate woman, he had no need for a weapon like that—he needed a different one.

"Look out!" the Horsemen below suddenly cried. The squad leader, his mind already clouded by carnal thoughts, did not process the warning in time. Suddenly, he felt a rush of air above him. He looked up to see a longsword slashing fiercely toward him. The blow was so fast that he could not reach for his spear; instinctively, he raised his arms to block.

A scream pierced the air as the leader tumbled off the rock, both his arms severed at the elbows. He was lucky, however; had he not blocked, it would have been his head.

"Sister Indira?!" Cecily exclaimed, caught between shock and joy. She had never expected Indira to return.

Indira folded her wings and nodded, gazing at Cecily. "I could not leave you here alone."

Cecily choked back a sob. "Thank you."

The Horsemen below were electrified. Their target, previously chased by the main force, had returned. If they could capture both women, one would be a reward for their service, and the other could surely be claimed as a prize—Chief Broca would not be stingy.

"Seize them!" the Horsemen selected their strongest warriors, and the others began using the same method to launch them toward the rock.

Indira sneered, raising her sword to hack away those attempting to climb. She even managed to wound several of the unlucky ones. However, these Horsemen were true orcish heavy cavalry, and their individual combat prowess was exceptional; Indira’s strikes could not slay them in a single blow. Nevertheless, their plan to reach the top was shattered.

"Use your bows! Use your bows!" The Horsemen were enraged; they had the enemy surrounded yet remained powerless.

They unslung the longbows from their backs—clunky, yet highly practical—and loosed a volley of arrows at the figures above.

This time, Indira struggled more. The Horsemen were cunning, circling the rock and firing from all directions. She had to parry and deflect furiously to block the barrage.

Because of the squad’s interference, Indira could not successfully take flight with Cecily. Every time she tried to ascend, the cavalry would thwart her with arrows or thrown spears. With Cecily on her back, Indira was not confident she could dodge at the moment of liftoff; one hit would spell disaster for both of them. Another option was to kill the squad, but they were clever; whenever she went on the offensive, they would cluster together, using their bows for defense. Her few attempts had only wounded two or three; individually, none were her match, but their battlefield experience and ruthless coordination made them formidable. For Indira to eliminate them quickly without cost was nearly impossible, and time was exactly what she lacked. She believed she had misled Broca’s main force, but if they realized the deception and returned, neither she nor Cecily would escape.

The more anxious she grew, the less effective she became. In one dive, she severed a soldier’s arm, but a spear grazed her, scattering white feathers. Fortunately, it was not a direct hit. The Smai tribe relied on speed and possessed decent attack power, along with a unique ability—within the radius of their war song, the "Song of Grounding," the flight of other beings would be nullified. However, they were not skilled in defense. Indira’s wings were fragile; if damaged, she would lose her balance in flight and could plummet from the sky. Thus, despite her superior strength, she could only hope to annihilate them once their arrows were exhausted, and she could not risk injury. If she could no longer fly, she would be forced to flee on foot, where she could not compete with the stamina of the Horsemen, who were known for their tireless endurance.

As the cavalry fired again, Indira nimbly banked in the air to evade, quickly climbing to an altitude beyond their range before landing back on the rock.

The Horsemen, including the one who had lost his arms, did not retreat. Like a rising tide, they swarmed back toward the rock where Cecily took refuge.

The stalemate continued. Indira could not leave with Cecily, nor could she kill the squad in the short term. The Horsemen, aware of this, did not waste their arrows but focused on pinning the Smai down.

Only when the sky began to dim did Indira breathe a slight sigh of relief. If night fell, their chances of survival would improve. However, the sound of hooves echoed from the distance. A large detachment of Horsemen was charging toward them, and her face turned deathly pale. Broca, whom she had thought led away, had seen through her ruse. Just then, from the other side of the rock, where the desert met the plains, a flash of golden light accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder began to close in rapidly.