Chapter 124 - The Centaurs

"What's going on? Why are you guys injured even before the attack?" Cyril suddenly spoke the Centaur's language greatly surprising them.

"You can speak our tongue fluently!"

"Impossible… He looks like a human. Maybe we misheard."

The two were shocked and showed some doubt about Cyril's identity.

On the other hand, Cyril was also surprised for a different reason.

'They have a higher pitch. Are they Centaurides? They all look ugly and muscular, it's hard to determine.'

Cyril thought as he take a closer look at the two.

Now that he observed them, the two indeed appears to have two large mounds on their chests but were just being blocked by their wooden armor.

"Hmph! You lead the attack to our settlement! Do you think you'll get information from us!"

One of them started getting furious.

Cyril just heard them asking to be spared a moment ago. But now, they decided to offend him?

"I think there's a misunderstanding… You guys attacked us first when we're about to enter the forest. We just decided to retaliate after what your men have done to us." Cyril replied while ignoring Myrtle's surprised expression.

She was still unable to determine how Cyril suddenly becomes capable of communicating with the Centaurs. Nevertheless, she decided to remain silent and wait for his explanation later.

Of course, her weapon remained in her hands as she would certainly attack these two if they decided to act suspiciously.

"What?! You guys have been destroying our territory looking for some of our shiny treasures! Of course, we would stop you guys!"

"Cilleina… Let's stop talking to them. They're greedy… Let's just run away."

Cyril heard of this and couldn't help but frown.

"You think you can flee from us?"

"Hmph! Of course, because if you don't get out of our way, all the humans in our settlement would die under the hands of our chief! Shouldn't you be helping them?"

As soon as the Centauride said this, Cyril and Myrtle heard the cries of Sylvian and the others.

Graah!

A huge centaur twice the size of the normal ones roared and attacked Sylvian who was the closest one.

Boom!

This newly arrived Centaur seemed old but has a huge halberd as his weapon… He attacked Sylvian with a powerful slash but it was dodged by the nimble Awakened.

However, the halberd hit the ground and created a small explosion… It seems to be the power of the weapon itself including the Centaur's physical strength…

"Don't underestimate me!"

Sylvian has confidence even with such a huge difference in their size. This is the pride of a B-Rank Awakened!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sylvian bravely fought with his sword. Unfortunately, the old Centaur's halberd seems special…

Every clash of their weapons, Sylvian would feel his hands tearing apart!

Boom!

Another explosion occurred but this time, it was from Kyle and Kian's Area Magic to deal with the remaining Centaurs… The whole settlement was now covered in fire.

"Leader!"

The two immediately assisted their leader while Luna stood not too far to cast recovery magic… It is not exactly healing magic but more like supplying Aura to Sylvian who had used most of his Awakened Aura already.

Thanks to Luna's magic, Sylvian managed to last longer until the two arrived.

"Graah!"

The old Centaur was furious after seeing the current situation of the settlement. He has been resting peacefully since they have just been attacked by the evil beings recently… They weren't expecting any attacks for the next few months… However, these humans decided to just kick them while they're down which infuriated him the most.

"I will bring you all with me!" The old Centaur shouted as he charged towards that three expert Arcane Explorers.

Cyril and Myrtle just arrived at this time and saw the scene of the gray-haired Centaur attacking the three Awakened from the New Frontier…

"Sacrifice!" The old Centaur shouted with ominous tone.

Soon, Cyril saw the halberd lighting up to a dangerous level!

Sylvian and the others noticed this but it was too late!

"Run!"

Cyril shouted as he felt something bad is about to happen. Luna who heard Cyril's shout immediately reacted and found a place to cover.

Boom!

Another explosion occurred but this time, it feels like an explosion caused by a powerful missile dropping to the settlement…

Luna was swept away by the powerful wave while Cyril and Myrtle managed to hide behind a huge rock… Because Myrtle doesn't have decent armor protecting her body, Cyril decided to hug her tightly so she can benefit a bit from the set effect of his Armor and of course, his S-Rank Aura. He no longer cared whether she would notice it or not, his life is also on the line!

Whoosh~

The whole place was covered by dust and smoke. The previous wooden houses of the Centaurs were no more and the corpses have been torn to pieces or disintegrated completely.

Cough! Cough!

Myrtle still felt dizzy after that explosion… She's unable to hear properly and couldn't even stand up at this point.

On the other hand, Cyril just felt exhausted after using most of his S-Rank Aura just now…

Because he hasn't trained his physical body that much yet, his Aura reserves were still limited. Even if it's extremely strong, he can't use them for a long period.

Haa~

Cyril took a deep breath as he let Myrtle take a rest. He wanted to check the area of the explosion to see whether the three experts managed to survive.

As he walks closer, he finally realized how powerful the explosion was. There's a crater at the previous settlement of the Centaurs…

He could no longer find the bodies of the three experts including the old Centaur.

Instead, there's a halberd in the center of the crater and stuck on the ground.

'I can't feel any of their presence at all… This...'

Cyril shook his head and felt pity about their early deaths.

'No wonder I don't recognize them, they died too early even with their decent talents.' Cyril sighed as the man would surely be a big help on the outbreak in the next few years but now, the B-Rank died just like that.

In the previous timeline when he joined the Awakened Association, there was no New Frontier, Sword Trance, or Silver Swords at all… As for the Phantom Troupe, he still heard about it but they were no longer active when Cyril joined the association in the other timeline.

Anyway, he can now understand what will happen in the coming years.

'The others will probably suffer the same fate…' The young man mused as he picked up the halberd.