Chapter 241: Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion

As soon as Johnny made his move, the subordinates he had brought with him also began picking up their ranged weapons and counterattacking the scarecrows.

A burst of gunfire rang out, and the scarecrows charging at the very front were struck by bullets one after another. However, they merely staggered before continuing to charge forward, with no blood flowing from their bodies.

Rena cautiously ordered the direwolves to charge forward. The scarecrows in the front row also extended their sharp claws and pounced at the direwolves, only to be knocked down in turn by the direwolves' superior strength and speed. The direwolves accurately tore at the scarecrows' necks, biting them apart, and one even ripped a head clean off.

However, even after losing their heads, those scarecrows still mechanically fought back, tearing the direwolves bloody with their claws, while their severed limbs continued writhing on the ground like snakes.

“Don't fight these things in close combat, everyone mount up, put some distance between us!”

After saying that, Johnny summoned lightning and knocked down several charging scarecrows before leaping onto his horse.

During his battles against witch forces, he had seen mass-produced soldiers made from low-level monsters like these more than once. This was considered a fairly common military technology in Moyland.

Leon had also seen through their nature. Part of these scarecrows' bodies was composed of plants resembling living vines. They felt no pain and did not bleed, and were probably created by Dorothy using her own Blessing.

They were extremely low-level creatures, like insects or even earthworms, without vital points such as brain tissue. Even if their heads fell off, they would not die on the spot and could still be controlled.

But in exchange for this vigorous vitality, these monsters moved mechanically, reacted sluggishly, and possessed neither particularly outstanding strength nor speed. If they mounted their horses, they could easily shake them off.

“All of you, mount up!” Leon trusted Johnny's judgment when it came to dealing with these monsters and ordered his subordinates, “Rena, call the direwolves back!”

Rena also realized there was no point in having the direwolves fight these scarecrows head-on, so she picked up a short whistle and blew it, recalling the direwolves.

Leon helped Rena onto the alpha direwolf's back, then mounted a horse himself. Everyone abandoned the wagons used for transporting cargo and began putting distance between themselves and the scarecrow troops pouring out of the woods.

“We have no intention of fighting! I'm the man who has inherited the Count's underground business in the Empire, and I want to talk with the witches' gathering!” Leon shouted toward the woodland.

After killing the Count, he had made the leaders of the various territories pledge allegiance to him and had also gained the support of Johnny, who had once managed the Count's fleet for overseas transportation. This was no longer much of a secret throughout the underworld.

The witches' gathering had once established a long-term smuggling relationship with the Count. Even though the Count was dead, they should still have had channels through which they could learn news from the underworld.

Logically speaking, Dorothy, who handled intelligence work in the Empire, should have long since known who had inherited the Count's sales network, as well as who was the most suitable person to replace the Count and establish a smuggling channel with them.

The appearance of the scarecrows confirmed that Lamia's intelligence had not been false. This was the stronghold of the Great Witch Dorothy.

Arachne had reason to take revenge on him, but between him and Dorothy, there should never have been any reason that made conflict unavoidable.

Yet the only response to his shout was a second lion's roar echoing through the forest. Spurred on by that sound, the scarecrows chased after them with even greater desperation.

“Is she ordering us to leave because she doesn't trust us?” Leon pondered inwardly.

That actually could not be considered unusual. After all, he was the man who had killed the Count, and he possessed an ability like Blood of the Evil Curse that could control others. It was hardly strange for Dorothy to feel threatened by him.

Johnny led his men in changing direction on horseback, attempting to circle around.

While observing the scarecrows' movements, he suddenly noticed something, then shouted at Leon: “Kid, they seem to be coming after you!!”

Their riders had spread out somewhat. Logically, these scarecrows should also have split up to pursue different targets, yet instead they all turned in perfect unison and chased in Leon's direction, their formation stretching into a long column like a dragon.

Leon noticed it as well. After a moment of thought, he turned his horse around, moving away from Rena's position and galloping toward Johnny while simultaneously ordering his subordinates to protect Rena.

Just as he had expected, the scarecrows all turned with him and chased after him.

If these scarecrows' target was him, then as long as he moved around as bait, he could control the enemy's movements.

“This kid really is a bastard!” Johnny laughed and cursed when he saw Leon leading the monsters toward them. He was clearly trying to force Johnny's side to serve as the main force in dealing with these monsters.

Leon drew his dagger and cut open the back of his hand, then pulled out his gun.

He controlled the blood flowing from the back of his hand, gathering it into a thin stream that flowed onto the muzzle, then aimed in the scarecrows' direction and fired.

A scarecrow was struck by the bullet on the spot and staggered.

“Guns are useless, idiot!” Johnny shouted while summoning lightning himself and knocking down several more scarecrows.

However, as soon as the words left his mouth, the scarecrow that had been shot toppled rigidly to the ground and stopped moving. The Blood of the Evil Curse coating the bullet swiftly took effect, petrifying the body of the low-level creature.

“It's just your guns that are useless.” Leon replied.

Johnny revealed a surprised expression, then immediately understood what was going on.

This tactic of using poisoned bullets and weapons was actually very common over in Moyland.

Using the Blood of the Evil Curse together with firearms, combined with the attack speed granted by time acceleration, even Johnny would not have much confidence in defeating an opponent of Leon's caliber.

Leon spurred his horse and opened some distance from the scarecrows, then swiftly adjusted his revolver, turned around, and fired another shot before quickly regrouping with Johnny's side.

This was precisely the revolving flintlock pistol those craftsmen had developed for him. Although it had fallen short of his expectations, compared with an ordinary flintlock pistol, this gun was still considerably easier to use!

“That gun of yours is pretty good.” Johnny could tell that the gun in Leon's hand was somewhat unusual.

“Let's deal with these things first, I'll give you one to play with later!” Leon shouted.

“Why don't we just retreat? This witch has already ordered us out, looks like she has no intention of talking to us.” Johnny said as he watched the scarecrow legion still charging toward them.

“Or maybe she's testing us. This method of driving us away doesn't look serious at all. If she'd already made up her mind not to cooperate, she should be trying to find a way to kill us instead, right?” Leon replied.

“She's testing you, then.” Johnny immediately followed Leon's train of thought.

With such an important stronghold exposed, the first choice should have been to try to kill everyone present and silence them.

But these monsters, whose movements could hardly be called agile, did not pose much of a threat to them. Once they mounted their horses, they could escape.

If the intention was merely to drive them away, then the scarecrows should have treated everyone as a target.

Yet these scarecrows had remained locked onto him the entire time, and Leon sensed a hint of testing in their behavior.

If Johnny could confirm details of the rumors little by little and realize that he possessed extraordinary power, how could Moyland's spymaster possibly know nothing about it?

“All right, then we'll deal with this batch first and talk afterward.” Johnny waved his hand after speaking.

Upon seeing this, one of his subordinates immediately picked up the bugle hanging at his waist and blew it. In the distant camp, the cavalry and war chariots that had been standing ready swiftly advanced toward them.

“You just focus on being bait. Keep circling around and stretch out their formation, that'll make it easier for us to take them out from the flank.” Johnny said to Leon.

“All right.” Leon followed his instructions and spurred his horse toward the wilderness, while the scarecrows desperately chased after him.

“Everyone switch to poisoned rounds and fire!” Leon shouted toward his subordinates in the distance.

The subordinates he had brought immediately began fumbling around as they switched to poisoned rounds. Leon had once brought down a War God Blessed with a cockatrice-poisoned bullet, so once conditions permitted, he had incorporated such poisoned weapons into his considerations for standard equipment.

Monster venom with curse properties could be applied to bullets. The poison they were using now had been concocted by Weiss, and its primary ingredient was the venom of a basilisk, which was even more powerful than cockatrice venom. It was highly lethal to both humans and monsters, and since they possessed the antidote themselves, the danger was controllable.

While the others were still loading their bullets, Rena took out a blowpipe, placed a dart in her mouth and moistened it, then loaded it into the tube.

Surrounded by the direwolf pack, she rode the alpha direwolf slightly closer to the scarecrows stretched into a column, aimed at one of them, and blew out the dart.

The dart coated in her saliva pierced the scarecrow, and Rena immediately attempted to infuse it with her will.

Using her saliva as the medium, the power of Charm poured into the scarecrow. The scarecrow's movements suddenly halted, after which it turned toward the other scarecrows and pounced at them, beginning to slaughter its own kind.

Rena repeated the same method, quickly turning several more scarecrows against their allies and throwing the scarecrow formation into small-scale chaos.

At the same time, Johnny's subordinates also began to act. Someone rode closer to the scarecrows while waving a torch, and under the effect of a Blessing, flames surged outward and transformed into a firestorm, setting many scarecrows ablaze at once.

As long as they remained on horseback, they did not need to worry about the burning scarecrows catching up with them. The flames would gradually weaken their combat ability as they burned.

Leon's troops finally organized a sparse volley. The poisoned bullets struck the scarecrows, and although the poison was not as potent as Leon's Blood of the Evil Curse, the movements of the scarecrows that were hit visibly slowed.

The cavalry Johnny had summoned from the camp also arrived. At Johnny's command, some of the cavalrymen moved forward and took out bows, wrapping the arrowheads with cotton cloth used for bandaging before pouring fuel over them.

They had clearly used this tactic many times before. Everyone moved in perfect unison. When the archers simultaneously nocked their arrows and drew their bows, Johnny stood to the side of the formation and raised a hand to point. A tiny arc of electricity shot from his fingertip, precisely passing through every arrowhead, and the electrical sparks ignited all the arrows at once.

“Fire!” At Johnny's command, the flaming arrows fell into the scarecrow formation, setting even more scarecrows ablaze.

Watching from a distance, Leon keenly felt the enormous difference in military discipline between Johnny's troops and his own.

After all, Johnny had always trained his subordinates according to the methods of a proper knightly order, while Leon's subordinates were merely a band of underworld mercenaries.

Perhaps he should learn how to train troops from Johnny……

Just then, a gigantic axe suddenly flew out of the woods, spinning through the air before striking one of the cavalrymen in Johnny's unit. The poor horse's flank was cleaved open on the spot, and the leg of the cavalryman riding it was severed along with it. Amid spraying blood, the cavalryman fell from his horse and wailed loudly, while a medic hurriedly rushed forward.

“Bastard!!” Seeing his subordinate grievously wounded, Johnny glared toward the woodland and roared furiously.

Huge figures strode out of the woodland. This time, three burly giants nearly three meters tall emerged. Their entire bodies were encased in heavy armor, and they carried enormous battle-axes, spiked clubs, and similar weapons in their hands. Just from their appearance, their combat strength was clearly on a completely different level from those scarecrows.

Before anyone had time to carefully observe these new monsters, a colossal creature spread its wings and flew out above the treetops. It was a lion-shaped monster, yet its physique was large enough to rival an elephant. It possessed a pair of enormous wyvern-like wings, a pair of horns growing from its majestic lion head surrounded by a black mane, while its segmented tail was covered in insect-like carapace, with a vicious venom sac and stinger at its tip.

The monster let out a deep and powerful lion's roar, exactly identical to the sound that had spurred on those scarecrows earlier.

Level Four Monster, Manticore!