The old centaur woman got all Acma’s attention. Its body was trembling from fear but it kept staring at Acma with a gaze full of hatred. It was facing Acma alone in the middle of the beaten dirt street. When Acma killed both elders, all women and children behind the old woman fled.

“Could you let go that old grandma. She got nothing with that attack. Its all my plan”, A hoarse voice could be heard from inside the nearby building. A short while after, an old but strong looking centaur emerged from inside the building. Each of its step made a clanking sounds that came from a friction between its bronze body armour and a sword sheath on its left waist. Its face was covered with a dirt of pain and sorrow.

Acma ignored the old woman and shifted his attention to that old centaur and two other centaurs behind it.

Centaur Elder LVL 235 Centaur Elder LVL 208 Centaur Elder LVL 210

“This old centaur said he drew the plan so he must be the chief”, he thought.

“You even involved the children in your plan”

“If I could kill you, everything was worth it”

“...”

“Why do you hate humans so much?” Acma didn’t beat around the bushes.

“Are you planning to insult me by pretending not knowing the reason? Is it fun, human?”

“I’m the one who is asking the question”

The old centaur didn’t speak any further. Its face twitching and a sounds could be heard from its gritted teeth. Since Acma’s face was covered by his helmet, this old centaur didn’t know what Acma was thinking. So it didn’t know how to face this human properly.

“Alice, you can stop the killing for now. Gather the remaining centaurs at the main gate” “Yes, Master”

“How many were left?”

“487 survivors”

After Alice replied, Acma spoke to the chief. The chief couldn’t hear Alice’s voice because it was sent through an earphone inside Acma’s helmet.

“There is 487 warriors left from your troop outside. Their fate depend on your conduct, so choose wisely”. Last night, the envoy called him a warrior, so he thought that calling each other warrior was a common practice in this world.

“Huh?” The chief was startled, like it was just remembered something and then immediately running to the main gate, ignoring Acma. It was looking right and left, searching for someone. After a while it was seen asking something at one of the centaur.

“Alice, what is he asking?” Acma couldn’t hear their conversation, so he asked Alice who was guarding the centaurs at the main gate.

“About his son, Grufin”

“Did he found him?”

“No, he was just informed that his son had been swallowed by a black sphere together with the son of a centaur behind him”

“Here comes more trouble”

“Indeed”

The chief grabbed its head with both hands and faced the sky. While one of the elder behind him lowered its head and shaking it a little. Their shoulders were trembling.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH..... GRUFIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!!”, the chief roared loudly.

It turned its body around and glaring at Acma unblinking. If stares could kill, then Acma already dead with ten thousand cuts. Its face darken with each passing seconds. It slowly stepped forward as its hand tightly grabbing the hilt of his sword.

“I WILLL KILLLL YOUUUUU!!!”, it roared and sprinting forward.

When it was 3 steps away from Acma, it raised its front legs with its sword high above its head. Like a lighting fast, it slashed its sword diagonally at Acma’s neck.

“Too slow, if I thrust my sword right now, you are dead already”, thought Acma, watching the speeding sword. He willed his sword into the inventory and fight the chief bare handed. He took a stance with his right foot at the front, ready to receive the strike.

“Grab his wrist and thrust my right-hand sword finger at his chest. That should be sufficient. Lets do that”, he planned.

The sword were reaching its target.

‘Swoooosh’

In a split second, Acma entered the strike range and executed his plan. The chief’s right hand halted several centimetres above his shoulder, trembling and unable to go down further.

“You’re dead”, he said softly.

Then he withdrew his sword finger and distancing several steps backward.

Everyone was stupefied. They couldn’t believe an all out swing from their enraged chief were stopped just like that. The chief’s face was indescribable. Anger, shock, fear alternating with each other.

“Your son died because of your foolish plans. Instead of getting angry at me, you better kill yourself”, said Acma coldly.

“YOUUUU!!!”

The chief tried to lunged itself again, but this time, a strong hand grabbed its shoulder and stopped it. It was one of the elder, the one that wasn’t grieving. It whispered something to chief’s ear.

“Chief, we better not aggravate this human any further. He’s too strong. We better let the Forest Knight handle him”

“HE KILLED MY SON!”

“I know, but just now, he could kill you but he didn’t”

“...”

“Let me talk to him”

“...”

That elder stepped forward and talked.

“Sir warrior, my name is Strabeous, an elder. Thank you for sparing the lives of our chief and our warriors. I will answer all your question in place of my chief”

“You may proceed”, said Acma giving his permission.

“As per your question, it’s all began 20 years ago after humans breached the peace treaty and invaded our lands. They massacring all non humans, beastmen, demi-humans, beasts, monsters. They even made a pact with the undead to enslave our soul. They enslaved the captured, raping our women and put them on display. We were killed to the brink of annihilation, if not for the help from the Sacred Forest, we all already dead”, explained Strabeous. It paused for a while to see Acma’s reaction.

“Go on”, said Acma.

“... We were force to leave our lands and finally taking refuge in this place. Can’t you see why we hate humans so much?”

“That didn’t justify your action attacking my village”

Strabeous’s face were twitching from anger, glaring at Acma who was stroking his chin.

“You said humans were breaching the peace treaty, why there was a treaty?” asked Acma.

“It was from the previous war which happened several hundreds years ago. At that time, human were much weaker and fewer in numbers compared to non humans. They lost a lot of cities and were driven to the edge of the continent at Far East. With nowhere to go, they begged for mercy and we agreed to sign a peace treaty. That was a golden years for non humans. Unfortunately, we put too much trust on human, reverted to our old lifestyles and minding our own business without realizing that human were harbouring an unfathomably deep grudge against us.

20 years ago, one of their leader got his hand on a divine weapon which elevated himself to a rank of hero. He unified the human and lead them to a war against non human. In the beginning, we retaliated, but that hero was just too strong. In a short 5 years, we were reduced to our current state. And now, even killing a single human like you was proven a difficult task for us”.

“I’m not a human from your world”, Acma was dying to explain that, but he endured. He asked another question.

“How the Sacred Forest end the war?”

“The Sacred Forest send 13 of their protectors. One of them were also a hero. They defeated the hero from the human side and sealed him. They also constructed an Enchanted Forest as a barrier between a human land and a non human land. There were rumours that the human’s hero was sealed inside that barrier with his weapon and he became the power source to maintain that barrier. Once that hero died or removed from the barrier, that barrier will collapse”, Strabeous paused his explanation.

“...”

Acma waited patiently.

“... This is what I heard from the capital. The Enchanted Forest were divided into two parts and both side, human and non human were given an authority over half of it. On the human side, Aurea Empire held that authority while on the non human side was Isebial Kingdom. From time to time, there were battles between two side at the middle of the Enchanted Forest. Rumours said, that the trees inside the Enchanted Forest were alive and they only let the races with the correspondent authority to enter it. Which mean, if human wanted to cross over, they will be killed by the trees on the non human side and likewise. Rumours also said, all the warriors who were killed inside the forest will become a nourishment to the forest to keep the barrier working longer”.

“... that’s quite a good solution”, Acma thought.

“Why the Sacred Forest didn’t interfered earlier? Why they let non human close to an extinction before they decided to interfere?” asked Acma curiously. Right now he looked like a student who was craving for knowledge and Strabeous was the professor.

Strabeous sighed before continued, “They weren’t called the Sacred Forest for no reason. They only concerned with their sacred land. They were forced to interfere because the war had reached their borders and the refugees were breaching their forest”.

“Who reside the Sacred Forest?”

“A high elves and anyone who reached the Legend rank”

“What is Legend Rank?”

“A rank higher than Sage rank”

“... then what is Sage rank?”

“A rank higher than Grandmaster rank”

“What is the lowest rank?

“A warrior”

“After that?”

“Master”

“Hey, human. Why are you asking so many question? How come you didn’t know all of this”, asked Strabeous as its patience wearing thin.

“You're also asking questions like me”, answered Acma nonchalantly as he still thinking other questions to asked. An opportunity like this was rare. All his previous encounter were cut short by the opponent’s short temper. This Strabeous was quite nice to answer all his question patiently.

“YOUUUU!!!”, Strabeous’s forehead were decorated with an extra black lines.