Pioneer Lord: I Have Conquering System

They had once again accomplished an incredible feat that was previously unimaginable, holding off the charge of four to five hundred Berserk Minotaurs with just a dozen or so men.

Every last one of them, all the Beastman Guards, collapsed onto the ground, their faces beaming with pride.

The Lord took a look around. Of the reinforcements who had come with him, only four or five were severely wounded; the rest all had minor injuries.

However, these so-called severe injuries weren’t life-threatening for now. They would recover as long as they waited for Sam’s Treatment.

Wait...

The Lord paused, looking around. "Where’s Old Si?"

Though he had focused most of his energy on the Minotaurs before him, he had still paid occasional attention to the condition of the men behind him.

That was why the Barbarians had survived. His protection had played an undeniable role.

As a Combat Qi Knight, Si Kai was worthy of his past as Fulina’s Guard Knight. His strength was undeniable, allowing him to handle being besieged by a pack of Minotaurs with ease. Logically speaking, there was no way he should have fallen here.

But after a full look around, there was no sign of him.

’How bizarre.’

"Lord! Help me! I’m in the sky!"

Suddenly, a shriek so piercing it sounded like an asshole being ravaged tore through the sky, enough to make listeners weep and onlookers grieve.

Levi looked up, utterly shocked. "Holy shit."

Two Harpies, their faces alight with excitement, each had a grip on one of Si Kai’s shoulders, flapping their wings furiously to haul him up into the sky.

Si Kai’s face was deathly pale, his expression one of utter panic.

He had already completely exhausted his Combat Qi fighting the Minotaurs. When he saw the reinforcements from High Cliff Castle arrive, the relief of surviving the ordeal was too much. He could no longer hold on and collapsed from exhaustion on the blood-soaked ground.

He never expected that the flock of Harpies had been circling overhead the entire time. Seeing their chance while everyone’s attention was elsewhere, they had instantly swooped down, snatched him, and rapidly ascended.

With his Combat Qi depleted and his body in a state of utter exhaustion, he was completely unable to resist.

The moment he recovered a sliver of strength, he frantically began screaming for help.

Levi quickly hooked two Javelins off the ground with his foot, flinging one out with a flick of his hand without even looking.

It flew with the terrifying power of a bolt from a Bed Crossbow, making Si Kai’s face turn several shades paler. He was terrified that his Lord was a lousy shot and that the Javelin aimed at the Harpy would end up embedded in his own body.

Fortunately, his paranoid fantasy didn’t come to pass. With a shriek, a bowl-sized hole appeared in the chest of the Harpy above him, and she went spiraling down to the ground.

Having lost the lift from one Harpy, the remaining one was clearly unable to support the weight of both him and his Armor. They began to fall inevitably. This Harpy, however, clearly had no intention of letting her captured male favorite go. She flapped her wings for dear life, but only managed to slow their descent.

The Lord chose his moment and, when they were very close to the ground, launched another Javelin.

As the Harpy shrieked and fell, Si Kai also landed butt-first in the snow.

The snow cushioned his fall, and since he was already close to the ground, the worst he got was a sore ass.

"Well now, Old Si, I didn’t realize you were such a hot commodity."

"They say Harpies snatch strong, able-bodied men and take them back to their nests to be... put to work, day and night. Those two clearly had their eyes on you, otherwise they wouldn’t have risked their lives to grab you. And you just let such a golden opportunity slip by." The Lord walked over, shaking his head and teasing him. The smile on his face was unstoppable; he was just short of slapping his thigh and bursting into laughter.

A famous Combat Qi Knight, almost carried off by Harpies who saw their chance. If word of this got out, it would surely become the talk of every street and alley in Debei. It might even spawn a few Knightly Novels, like *The Story the Knight and the Harpy Must Tell*, or *Knight and Harpy Family*, and other such titles.

"Damn it, Lord, from now on, you can ride my horse whenever you want, however you want!" Si Kai gasped, panting and out of breath.

Those Harpies smelled as foul as a sewer. And while their bodies weren’t bad, their faces were as gaunt as ghouls. Si Kai would rather be crushed to death in bed by a two-hundred-pound woman than fall into their clutches.

"What about the Treasure Sword?" the Lord suddenly asked, his face full of expectation.

"Not a chance!"

Si Kai went from looking like a disabled man to a perfectly healthy one in an instant. He flipped himself up from the ground and turned his back to the Lord, showing him nothing but the proud back of his head.

"Tch, stingy." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Levi pursed his lips.

’It’s not like I don’t have a Treasure Sword. Mine is forged entirely from Mithril. As if I’d want his.’

...

「Wilderness Alliance Camp.」

All the various chieftains watched as the scales of victory, which had been tipped in their favor, tilted once again because of a single person.

Gus, the Centaur Leader, was losing his patience. He pawed restlessly at the ground, his voice rumbling like thunder.

"Leiden, I’m taking my men to slaughter that human!"

He was the strongest warrior in the Wilderness. Across the entire Wilderness Alliance Army, aside from that mysterious Minotaur Shaman, no one was his match.

He could slaughter hundreds of Minotaurs by himself, so he still thought nothing of this single human.

This was the confidence born from a career without a single defeat.

It was also the conviction that came from his supremely powerful body, one that had Mastered the Thunder Element.

"There’s no need, Gus. Their reinforcements have arrived. Besides, our objective is to hold them here. Winning would be best, but it doesn’t matter if we don’t."

Leiden, the military commander, was a Giant Goblin about two blades tall. He wore the Leather Armor of the Military Nobility and had a sword hanging from his waist. He also sported a Little Moustache, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes from time to time.

Although, compared to the unnaturally massive monsters around him, he looked as laughably tiny as a mouse.

But his outstanding military talent was such that even these brutes, who knew only how to kill, would still consult him on certain matters.

Leiden had studied the legions of the Northern Territory before. The thorn pattern on this unit’s Armor allowed him to recognize them at a glance as the Thorn Corps from Bailiu City.

Their total strength was around six thousand, but only about three thousand had been committed to the battlefield so far, and he hadn’t seen any cavalry.

This meant that at least two thousand more soldiers were lying in wait somewhere, watching like tigers.

So there was no need for them to play all their cards yet.

"This is going to be a protracted war," he mused.

He let out a low, inscrutable laugh and waved to a Giant behind him who was holding a massive bull horn.

The Giant puffed out his chest and blew.

WOOOOOO~

The mournful, deep sound of the horn rang out, making the piled-up snow tremble. Everyone knew it was the signal to retreat.

The Pigman Leader cleaved a human soldier in two, his crimson eyes scanning the field. His tribesmen had suffered heavy casualties, yet the enemy’s formation remained solid as a rock.

"Damn that Leiden!!"

He cursed and spat out a mouthful of bloody froth. He wasn’t in good shape either; he’d been ambushed by a tall human wielding a giant hammer, taking a heavy blow to the spine that had left him badly injured.

Tikli still wanted to fight, but the retreat horn and the sight before him both screamed that falling back was now the best option.

He led his remaining two hundred or so tribesmen off the battlefield and found Leiden talking with Gus. He grabbed the Giant Goblin by the collar, lifted him into the air, and roared viciously:

"You rat-like Goblin! My people were fighting and dying up there! We had already broken their line, so why did you sound the retreat?!"

"Do you have any idea how many of my tribesmen died?"

"All you had to do was send in the other Warriors as support, and we could have won!"

He was absolutely furious, his pig-like eyes crimson. At a height of Tri-Blade, he easily lifted Leiden into the air.

"Tikli, don’t let the carnage cloud your judgment. That so-called ’breach’ in their line was nothing but a gap the humans deliberately created, just waiting for us to commit more forces before surrounding us."

Leiden spoke calmly and without hurry, completely unafraid even as he was stared down by a ferocious, blood-soaked pig head with bared tusks.

"You’re being impulsive, Tikli."

Gus trotted over from the side. At over a full Quadruple Blade in height, he loomed over the Pigman, his massive body casting a huge shadow.

Needless to say, his sheer presence was terrifying—enough to frighten a weaker-willed person to death.