Acma was standing in the middle of the field, facing the main gate. His supreme guardians were still guarding the centaur warriors while the other guardians were busy escorting children, women and old centaurs out of the village. Strabeous were negotiating but Acma kept his silence. The chief were fuming and tried to attack Acma, but its weapon were immediately confiscated by Alice before it could do anything. It was to prevent any disturbance later.

After half an hour, all centaurs were gathered in front of the main gate. Silver returned to Acma’s side while the guardians were encircling the centaurs. The main gate was shut.

“Alice, make a stage for me with two stone guardians. I want to talk to these centaurs”

“Yes, Master”

Two guardians stood in front of Acma, facing each other. They bent their knees to let Acma climbed on their palms. Then they rose their palms a bit over their forehead. Their palms were wide enough for him to stand on. Now, Acma was standing high enough to look down on all the centaurs. The average height of the centaurs was 2.2 metres tall while Acma was only 1.8 metres tall. He had to look up when talking to them. He wanted to avoid that, that’s why he use the guardians as a stage.

Acma scanned the faces in front of him. Fear, nervous, confuse, angry, unyielding and hatred. All of this were etched on their faces. The chief already stopped making ruckus, Strabeous shut its mouth and the others were glaring at Acma.

“Good spirit”, praised Acma in his head.

Actually, his forehead was littered with beads of sweat. He was nervous. Never in his life before, he gave a speech in front of a large crowd like this. He could only hope that everything would be okay.

He took out several spheres and let them float above their head. Those sphere would amplify his voice, so he didn’t have to shout. Everything was ready. It’s time for him to speak.

“Damn, I’m so nervous. What to do.....”

“Alice, I’m nervous. Do you have any tips to alleviate it”, he whispered while keeping his posture straight. It already a few minutes since he stood on the stage. It looks like he was trying to give an air of mysteriousness by keeping his silence.

“Breath into your balls”, replied Alice.

“What?”

“Stretch your arms up and take a deep breath three times. Introduce yourself short and then speak your hearts out”, said Alice giving the tips.

“Ouh, thanks Alice”

“You’re welcome”

He stretched his arms up and it startled all his audience. When he finally felt he was ready, he spoke.

“My name is Acma Heart and I am Lord of the Heavenly Villa”

His introduction reverberated in the ears of the centaurs. This person was a lord.

“I am a human and I don’t give a shit about your hatred toward human. If you’ve some courage, come and kill me”

“...”

Nobody moves and nobody dare to say anything. The warriors already saw Acma’s prowess in battle and the saw the 25 metal guardians belong to Acma massacring their brethren. As for the chief, he as the strongest warrior in the village was easily defeated, so he also kept quiet.

“So far so good. Next thing will be hard”, he thought.

“Since you lost to me in the battle this morning, now you’re my prisoner. I want you to swear your oath of allegiance to me and obey my orders as your lord”

Initially, Acma wanted to give some justifications why he gave that order like the centaurs had to pay for their crime attacking Orca Village or kept planning to attack. But he retracted that plan. He only went with the simplest reason.

The centaurs were looking at each other, full of anxiety. All of them were looking at the elders, hoping that they would say something. Acma was expecting that this won’t go smoothly as he wished. The elder would retaliated for sure. The only question was how fierce would they retaliated. Not giving a chance for them to retaliate, Acma spoke.

“I’ll give you some times to think. No matter how angry or confused you’re, think carefully before you respond”

Suddenly, Acma noticed something was leisurely moving down the cliff on the southern side of the centaurs village. A fiery red lines could be seen on its huge pair of grasping pedipalps, giving a unique look with its jet black body. By rough estimation, its length from the tip of its pedipalps to the end of its stinger was about 25 metres while the width between its pedipalps if fully spread out was about 10-13 metres. On its back were several mole-like creatures whom probably a rider. Its dark brown, velvety fur blended well with the colour of its ride. It’s a kind of big mole, but it sit on its butt while its hands skilfully handled the rein that was tighten at the base of its ride’s femur.

‘RUMBLE’

Pandinus Scorpiones LVL 135 Talpid Mole LVL 56

There were a dozen of scorpiones with 8 of them carrying 7-9 moles on their back which fixed with a leather couch. Each moles were carrying javelins or bow on their back. As for melee weapon, they used a knife. The rest of the scorpiones were carrying several boxes made from wood and vines.

“I guess, this is the reinforcement they were waiting since this morning. A unit that capable of scaling the mountains. But they didn’t look like they were going for battle”, thought Acma while side-glancing at Strabeous.

Acma look at Strabeous and asked.

“Strabeous, is this your friends?”

“They were a Talpid Mole, they were traders. I don’t know why they came here”, said Strabeous.

“Then go and ask them. I don’t want them to delay our matter”

Strabeous was frowning but it didn’t move.

The Talpid Mole finally reached close to the gathering. Acma looked at them but couldn’t read anything from their expressionless face. He also cannot compare it with the information about the moles in the previous world because the only similarities they have was their look but their habit was totally different.

“Hey Strabeous, what is the meaning of this? You said you’re going to attack a human village tonight, why you’re surrounded like a prisoner?” shouted one of the mole. It has a rounder belly than the others which made it look shorter.

“It is the reinforcement and that mole must be the leader of this group. Strabeous said they were trader, if I play a right card, they might become a friend”, Acma thought.

“Strabeous, did you trade their services with the information about my village?” asked Acma.

“...”

Strabeous kept quiet.

The leader of the moles were looking excitedly at the guardians. It jumped down its ride and running with its short legs toward one of the guardians. It touched the guardian here and there, knocked it with its fingers and sized it. It really interested at the guardian. Acma let it be for a while and then threw a cold water on its head.

“It’s not for sale, so stop touching it”, said Acma with an unfriendly tone.

“Aahhh, this is an extremely good stone golem. That metal one is even better. Sir warrior, please don’t worry, I’m only interested at it, not to buy it because I know I can’t afford it. How rude of me, I haven’t introduce myself yet. Sir warrior, my name is Sirsutor. You can call me Sir, Sutor, Sirsutor or even better Sir Sutor. Hahahaha. I’m the leader of this group. May I know sir warrior’s name?” asked Sirsutor.

“Nice to meet you Sir Sutor. My name is Acma and I am a human from the village you’re going to attack tonight”

“Hahahaha, I like it. So you’re Acma from .... Whaaaaaaaaaat!!!!”

It fell on its butt instantly and tried to hide its plumpy body behind the guardian’s leg. A commotion erupted among the moles and they immediately grabbed their weapon and aimed it at Acma.

“Wha..what are you doing here? I didn’t mean that we, the Talpid Mole will join the attack. We just renting the scorpiones to the centaurs. Sir warrior, please believe me”

“...”

“Renting the scorpiones? Should I believe this mole?” thought Acma.

“Order them to lower their weapon”

“Ye..yes sir” “All of you idiot, lower your weapon immediately. Be thankful that almighty sir warrior didn’t kill you”

“Those scorpiones are for rent? Interesting”

“Yes, yes sir Acma. But if sir Acma want, we can lend them to you for free, no charge”

“How much these centaurs pay for them?”

5000 arrowheads for each scorpiones”

“Arrowheads? Did these centaurs make them?”

“Yes, they make them. They’re the only blacksmith in this area”, Sirsutor blurted out everything. It really cannot keep a secret.

Acma was shocked with that info. He never thought that the centaurs were a blacksmith. This info made him more interested to take over the village. He already have a nokium mine. If he have a blacksmith, he could produce an equipment for Orca Village. He turned his head toward Strabeous. He was grinning.

“Strabeous, my interest in your village just increase to a whole new level”, said Acma.

“I’ll never let the village fall in your hands, evil creature”, shouted the chief who stood next to Strabeous.

“I almost forgot about you, chief. Your name should be Gru too right. Chief Gru, I won’t make any excessive demand from your village. For now, it’s just simple order like do not attack my village and do not participate in any attack on my village. In return, I will protect your village from your enemies. Even if you don’t have any enemies, I’ll still protect it. You have my word”, explained Acma.

“Trusting you will only lead my village destruction. Human could never be trusted”, said Chief Gru with a stare.

“You trusted your elder to attack my village, look at what you end up?” asked Acma sarcastically.

Acma let Chief Gru and the centaurs thinking their answers. He jumped down and walked toward Sirsutor.