Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 58

Suddenly, many wolves jumped out of the dark forest. They were huge and black, with long, sharp horns sticking out of their heads. Scary howls filled the air as they ran straight towards the middle of the knights.

These were not normal wolves. They were monsters! They moved like lightning and were much bigger than any wolf anyone had ever seen. Some were as big as ponies!

Alone, one horned wolf might not be too dangerous. But a group of them together was very, very dangerous.

‘Horned wolves!’ someone yelled. ‘Close ranks!’ This was different from the goblins. The knights knew these monsters were much worse. Their faces went white, but they moved quickly. Groups of three knights turned back-to-back, swords raised, ready to face the scary wolves rushing towards them.

The wolves made horrible noises – part screech, part growl, like nothing the knights had heard before. At first, the knights fought bravely, and some wolves fell quickly. But then, a very large wolf howled loudly, and the other wolves seemed to understand. They suddenly ran past the knights, ignoring them, and headed straight for the back of the army!

Unlike the goblins who ran away easily, these wolves didn’t care about the huge number of soldiers. The soldiers stood in lines, trying to look brave, but you could see the fear in their eyes. ‘Crossbow cavalry, deploy!’ shouted the commander.

‘Ha!’ the cavalry replied. ‘Fire!’ They shot many arrows at once, but this time, it was no good. The arrows bounced off the wolves’ thick fur and horns like hitting stone. None of them even got hurt!

‘Awoo-ooo-ooo!’ The head wolf howled again, a long, powerful sound. Something strange happened. The arrows in the air seemed to slow down, like they were hitting thick air. They still flew forward, but much weaker. They hit the wolves, but couldn’t go through their tough skin, and just fell to the ground. In that moment, the wolves were right in front of the soldiers.

‘Swordsmen, line up!’ Logan roared. His voice was strong and fearless. ‘Line up! Don’t let them pass!’ The soldiers’ faces, which were white with fear just seconds ago, turned red with anger and courage.

‘Taaah!’ Viktor, leading the swordsmen in the front, lifted his sword high. All the swordsmen raised their weapons together. Behind the soldiers, unseen, a pair of red eyes watched everything, glowing in the shadows.

‘Uwaah!’ ‘Kyao!’ The sounds were a mix of battle cries and screams of terror as swords and spears flashed. Viktor, leading the front line, charged straight at the biggest wolf, the leader. But the other wolves were too fast. They jumped *over* the swordsmen and landed right in the middle of the soldiers behind them!

There were only twenty-one wolves, but they caused chaos. Three hundred soldiers were suddenly fighting for their lives. ‘Aargh!’ A terrible crack sound. A soldier screamed as a black horn smashed into his chest. He dropped his sword, his eyes wide with terror, as sharp teeth bit into his leg.

His scream echoed, but most soldiers around him were too shocked to move. They just stood frozen, watching in horror. But then, one soldier, his face pale but angry, yelled, ‘Die, monster!’

*Thwack!* He hit a wolf with his spear. *Yelp!* The wolf cried out. The spear didn’t go deep into the wolf’s thick fur, but it was a hard hit. The wolf stumbled back. Seeing this, the other soldiers who were frozen suddenly found their courage again. They were still scared, but they lifted their weapons and started fighting back.

Logan moved like a blur of motion. He only stepped in where soldiers were too scared to fight back, where the wolves were winning. *Slash!* His sword moved so fast you could barely see it. ‘Keeeee….’ A wolf cried out, then fell to the ground with a *thud!*

‘You! You! You! Fall back!’ Logan shouted, pointing at some soldiers. His voice was full of power. The wolves seemed to hesitate, and the soldiers suddenly found the strength to run. Logan’s eyes were sharp and focused as he helped soldiers who were badly hurt. Even while fighting, he watched everything. He saw how the soldiers fought against the wolves, noticing who was brave and who was scared.

Actually, Logan didn’t need to fight so hard. He was watching the soldiers he had chosen earlier, and he could see they were different. ‘That one fights well,’ Logan thought, watching Trey. Trey had amazing eyesight, like a monster’s. He could see attacks coming faster than anyone else and dodge them easily.

Adam had incredible hearing. He could hear wolves sneaking up behind him and jump out of the way. Logan noticed that soldiers who seemed to have a little bit of ‘Force’ inside them were fighting much better. Even though they were still new soldiers, they were doing amazing things.

Most of these soldiers were in the top 100 of the ‘sensory test’ Logan had given them. Some older, experienced soldiers were also fighting well, but Logan was more interested in the new ones, even those who had barely passed the test. Logan watched them fight for a while, trying to understand why they were so good. ‘Maybe choosing soldiers based on their senses, like sight and hearing, is the right way,’ he thought.

Logan realized something. The Empire also chose soldiers based on senses like sight and hearing. But it wasn’t just that. Logan looked closer at the soldiers who had a little bit of ‘Force’ inside them. He saw something else. ‘It’s not just about eyes or ears,’ he thought. It was more than that.

It was like some soldiers could sense danger even when they couldn’t see or hear it. They could dodge attacks from behind without looking, or fight back without thinking. Many of these soldiers had good eyesight or hearing, but some didn’t do well on the sensory test at all! ‘Is it like a strong sense of touch? Or maybe… a sixth sense?’ Logan wondered. He wasn’t sure yet. He needed to see more. But he knew one thing for sure: the soldiers he had chosen were special. Just seeing this made the whole battle worth it. But the soldiers were still struggling. Logan knew he had to act again. He roared loudly.

‘Clayton!’ Logan yelled. Clayton, the mage, had been getting ready since the wolves attacked. He raised his hands and spoke powerful words. ‘Power of the earth, hear me! Stone Edge!’ *BOOM!* The ground exploded. Sharp pillars of stone shot up from the earth right where the wolves were standing. Almost half of the wolves were killed instantly. The rest were badly hurt.

Even the leader wolf tried to jump away from the magic, but… ‘Uwaaah!’ Viktor roared as he leaped forward. *Thwack!* His sword flashed and went right into the wolf’s eye. ‘Kyaooo….’ The wolf fell dead.

Viktor stood over the monster, breathing hard. *Haa… haa…* His armor was scratched and torn from the fight. He pulled his sword out of the wolf, and a strange, bright smile spread across his face. The soldiers around him stepped back. Viktor’s smile was scary. *Screeeech!* Black blood dripped from his sword, burning the ground where it fell.

Logan watched Viktor and smiled too. ‘He’s changed,’ Logan thought. ‘He’s becoming who he’s meant to be.’ Viktor, the future Auror User, was taking his first steps.

“Good job, Viktor! That monster blood is dangerous, wipe it off quickly. Don’t let it touch your skin. Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll check your sword skills again later.”

The soldiers looked at Viktor again when Logan praised him.

Logan noticed the soldiers’ expressions and shouted,

“I saw you cowards who ran away! If you ever do that again, you’ll regret it!”

Some of them turned pale because they felt Logan was scary, even more scary than the monsters.

Making even the cowardly runaways fight properly would help Logan see how well the soldiers *really* fought.

Logan looked at his soldiers like a predator watching its prey.

Even after that, the knights still missed monsters sometimes.

There were more monsters in the southern forest than they thought.

But even so, there were no big problems.

The stronger monsters were fought by the leaders of the knights, and by Heinckel and Patrick, who were also strong fighters.

And the medium-strength monsters were mostly handled by the regular knights.

“Ha!”

Crack!

“Kee-ack!”

With a strong strike, Anthony, a regular knight, cut a huge, snarling monster with the head of a dog in half. He felt excited because he had never fought a monster this big before.

‘This is amazing!’

The sword skills he had learned from his lord over the past two months were not just for chopping wood.

It felt like he was releasing all his stress. Instead of feeling tired, he felt stronger.

And his friends felt the same way.

Knight 1 (Eager): “Let’s go for the medium ones! More of a challenge!”

Knight 2 (Cautious): “Are you crazy? Those are dangerous! Let’s stick to the smaller ones for now.”

Knight 3 (Confident): “Nonsense! We can handle anything! Charge!”

Slash.

Crack.

“Kieeeck!”

The knights’ attacks became stronger and stronger.

But the soldiers were having a harder time.

Soldier 1 (Panicked): “Monster behind us! Help!”

Soldier 2 (Warning): “Look out, it’s going to bite!”

Soldier 3 (Injured): “Agh! My leg! I’m hit!”

Soldier 4 (Frustrated): “Get these things away from me! I can’t reload!”

The soldiers could handle the small, green-skinned goblins with crossbows.

But they couldn’t handle the dog-headed monsters and giant spiders with crossbows alone.

So, the golems that had been carrying wood had to protect the soldiers from the monsters.

The battle continued for half a day.

Even though everyone was tired and hurt, Logan watched the soldiers he was interested in and clenched his fist.

‘Some of these soldiers have a special hidden ability. I need to create a test for this.’

Logan knew he needed to see more, but he felt like he was starting to understand.

That made him want to plan the next soldier test.

For Logan, that made it a good day.

“Everyone, stop working! We’ll finish for today and prepare for camping!”

Of course…

“Waaah!”

“I’m alive!”

“I, I didn’t know it would be like this.”

“D, damn it. Mom……”

Logan saw that many soldiers wanted to quit the training, which hadn’t happened before.

The problem was that some of them had the potential to have a special hidden ability.

‘It’s better to train the other soldiers than to force these guys to stay.’

He didn’t want cowards who would run away instead of fight, even in this safe situation.

A wide smile stretched across Logan’s face, reaching his eyes. He felt a thrill of excitement. This was working better than he had hoped.

However, not everything was going smoothly.

In the monster forest, which was the entrance to the southern mountains, there were three villages of Gnolls, with thousands of them.

– If we had left them alone, they would have attacked McLain Castle. A monster attack of over 3,000 medium-strength monsters is scary. We’re lucky we found them early. The Young Lord is amazing.

– Huh……

Gnolls were medium-strength monsters that were in much larger groups than Horned Wolves.

Regular knights would have trouble fighting more than two or three at a time.

Of course, Logan was glad they had been found early, but he couldn’t relax.

He had to change his plan to keep casualties low.

First, he gave the soldiers more crossbows. The knights then acted as small groups, leading a good number of monsters to the soldiers.

The soldiers then shot at them, slowly killing them.

Because of this, almost no soldiers died. But it took longer than expected—a month and a half—to clear out the Monster Canyon.

Of course, there were no major losses.

The wood from the logging was taken to McLain Town, and the town was being built quickly.

Also, during the long battle, Logan learned more about the soldiers and changed the swordsmen’s jobs several times.

‘Some of the soldiers in the top 200 or even 500 have a strong survival instinct.’

These soldiers would scream and swing their swords to survive.

‘Maybe this is a sign of a hidden ability…’

He wasn’t sure yet, but he had a feeling.

‘The current soldiers are enough for now. After the civil war starts this winter…’

If the civil war goes as planned, McLain will grow quickly.

‘We can make our knights stronger before the Imperial War.’

He smiled.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Now that we have enough wood, we need to finish McLain Town. There’s only a month left until spring. We need to finish it before we start farming. Do you think it’s possible?”

Hamar paused, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if he wanted to argue. But then he nodded slowly and said, “…I understand.”

Even Logan thought it was a tight schedule, so he was surprised by Hamar’s answer.

“Are you sure it’s possible? I only suggested it because I thought it might be possible, but…”

“Well, we have the wizards, and the workers are motivated because of the dam construction. We’re giving them enough food, and we’re building houses of the same style, so it’s becoming more efficient.”

“Don’t forget the magic tower in the center of town.”

“Of course.”

Hamar’s answer was reliable.

‘It’s not always best to push him too hard.’

Logan felt like he understood how to handle Hamar.

And so, McLain Town was gradually taking shape.