Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 34 The Witcher and the Ratmen
After confirming the destruction of the local Scoia'tael, Heme naturally left camp.

But what Hemei didn't expect was that as soon as he left, the barracks was occupied by a group of pioneers and became their center of pioneering.

After all, as a place where nearly 7000 or even [-] people lived for several months, the land around here is also a fertile land under the various "outputs" (represented by feces) of the military camp, and someone came to occupy it Nature is normal.

But Herme doesn't care, it doesn't matter to him anymore.

He led the army, and the soldiers went all the way to the capital.

In the past week, the news has spread, and the news of Herme's victory has spread.

Hemei was originally a war hero who captured the Generalissimo in black among the people, but now he has a better reputation. Along the way, people everywhere welcomed this group of people who solved the Scoia'tael for the kingdom.

After all, the Scoia'tael problem is a problem that really plagues every ordinary Aardian.

The Scoia'tael's various terrorist activities first attacked ordinary people, and the people hated these elves extremely.

Therefore, they welcomed Homer, who had defeated Scoia'tael.

There were even a few stunned youths who joined Hemei's team because they admired him, "Go to meet the market."

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, Herme came to the capital Wengerburg.

As one of the most prosperous cities in the north, the architectural style of Wengerburg reminds Herme of Poland in the late Renaissance. The spiers and towers in the city can be seen from a distance, which looks quite spectacular.

The road in Wengerburg is a paved road, which looks neat and beautiful. It is so much better than Heme's Sazaburg dirt road.

While passing through the gates, Herme discovered that El Dann's head was now hung above the gates of Vengerburg as a sign of the kingdom's victory.

Although only half of his face was left, he still stared at the capital of the Kingdom of Aedirn with a face full of hatred, but that was all he could do.

Seeing this scene, Herme sighed a little, Eldan's resistance was so much, and in the end it was such an ending.

The death of the notorious Scoia'tael commando captain undoubtedly boosted the morale of Aedirn and even the entire Northern Kingdom.

The non-human race who were eager to join the Scoia'tael now also hesitated.

The annihilation of the Scoia'tael commando, which was in the limelight, undoubtedly poured cold water on them, and the expansion of Scoia'tael can be said to have received a head-on blow.

Still, that just puts off the time for some guys to join Scoia'tael.

The more troublesome the Scoia'tael became, the more serious the discrimination against non-human races in the North became.

Under the discrimination, sooner or later, many non-human races will take up bows and arrows, go into the forest, and become members of Scoia'tael.

But being able to delay that time is a victory.

At the gates of Wengerburg, the king himself came to meet Herme with his court.

In this way, the entire Wenger Castle spread out in front of Herme, and at the very front was His Majesty King Demavi, who was dressed gorgeously.

Beside the king was his heir, Stennis, a young man with a shaved head and an indifferent and arrogant look, in stark contrast to his old, treacherous father who was always smiling.

The king's face was full of smiles. Herme completed his task, and he was very happy. All the waiting was worth it.

So the king enthusiastically walked up to the half-kneeling Herme, patted him on the shoulder affectionately, and then a bunch of words of praise poured out.

This made Herme a little flattered. He had never expected the king to show such importance.

At this time, Herme hadn't realized what the king was planning.

To welcome him with such great fanfare, a baron who came from the "low end" (in the eyes of the aristocratic class), must be to send a signal to the class of Herme's origin.

For example, to the majority of soldiers and knights, in Aden, there is a wide channel for military advancement.

Look at that Hemei, how much he is valued by the king. You can do the same in the future, so it is better to join our Kingdom of Aden.

The Kingdom of Aedirn has been continuously expanding its army recently. After the kingdom has taken huge benefits from the Haklan trade, the king has increased the recruitment of soldiers and knights.

Regarding the re-invasion of Nilfgaard, the north has a consensus, and basically thinks that it is inevitable for the imperials to start a second war.

But in terms of response, it is different.

You see, Redania and Temeria are still in the mood for a trade war with each other, instead of putting all their strength into expanding their armies and preparing for war.

Among the kings in the north, Demavi was the most convinced that the Nilfgaardians would invade again, so he never let up.

Before reaping the profits of Harkland's trade, he was expanding his army.

With more money, it is natural to expand the army more vigorously.

Mercenaries, freeriders, and hedge knights can all enter the kingdom's army if they choose.

Those who volunteer to join the army are even more welcome, and King Demawei is not picky at all.

As long as they are in good health and have a clean background, even women can join the army.

As far as Hemei knows, Aden's current standing army has reached 1 people, and it's not over yet.

The king continued to recruit troops, and the number continued to increase.

There is never a shortage of idle men in the north. For them, joining the army is a very good place to go.

And military personnel from all walks of life who rely on war for a living don't mind finding a safe place.

In wartime, with the current state treasury abundance, the Kingdom should be able to temporarily mobilize [-] or even more troops.

This army is enough to hold the country, and it may even be able to fight back against the Nilfgaardians.

After the welcome to Hermi, there was the grand celebration banquet. The king rewarded Hermi with a lot of property, and Hermi was a little surprised by the generosity.

The officers and soldiers under Herme's command were also rewarded, which made everyone shout the name of King Demavi and cheer for him.

Herme's title has also been promoted, and from now on, he is an earl.

Although this is just a false title, Herme is still very happy. After all, raising the title is a good thing, and it can improve one's right to speak.

The same is true of many of his subordinates, who have been promoted in status, such as Marondo and Vigoles, both of whom have won the title of knight.

As for Herme's two temporary subordinates, Leila was able to become the second in command of the special forces. Her wish was fulfilled, and she vowed to the king that she would work harder to hunt down the Scoia'tael.

Charlene became the leader of the Fort Wenger City Defense Army. Seeing his smiling face at his uncle, Herme knew that this man had also got his wish.

At the celebration banquet, Hemei felt that he was undoubtedly the center of the whole banquet, and countless pairs of eyes were watching him.

There is some flattering in these eyes, but generally speaking, they are mostly hostile, a kind of hostility towards nouveau riche.

This made Hermi very uncomfortable, as if she was an outsider—and she was an outsider.

Still under the recommendation of Charon as an intermediary, Herme met several nobles who had a better attitude towards him, but they were still uncomfortable.

Herme could only be thankful that at least the wine at the celebration banquet was good enough, and it was Toussaint's good wine.

As for the food, this is a typical buffet banquet, and the food provided is very small, and it is impossible to expect to be full.

And it's impossible to go to the table and focus on eating. He is the protagonist of the celebration banquet, eating and drinking under the gaze of so many people, he is not as cheeky as that.

Herme made up his mind that when the banquet was over, he would bid farewell to the king, and then go back to Fort Sazar to get rid of this environment he didn't like.

And he has been away for so long, so he should go back.

This night, Herme went back to the room hungry, and the delicate and small amount of food couldn't fill his stomach at all.

But fortunately, the king's attendant sent another piece of food. It seemed that King Demavi took all of Hemei's discomfort into his eyes, which naturally made him very grateful.

However, he still has to return to Hackland as soon as possible. He is really not used to living in Wengerburg, and he has no desire to explore the city. I'm interested in seeing it, but I'm not interested in going shopping.

But the next day, Herme was ordered by the king to participate in the meritorious service award ceremony, and was also ordered to lead this meritorious team to parade in the street.

And while Herme was living his heroic life at Wengerberg, something was going on in Hackland, something of great consequence.

.

As a part of Hackland, the Cossack land has been filled with various monsters for a long time, and the monster density is much higher than that in the north.

Therefore, the locals are quite handy in dealing with monsters, after all, they can only rely on themselves.

And since the demon hunters came to this land, everyone's pressure on monsters has also eased. Professionals are always faster than amateurs to solve them.

The most important thing is that it is much cheaper to let professionals solve it than to pile up all the men in the village.

This is also the reason for the rise of the profession of demon hunters. Human beings have never been unable to deal with monsters, but it is more appropriate to entrust these tasks to demon hunters.

Compared with the army, it is more cost-effective to solve the problem by professionals.

But sometimes, even a demon hunter will encounter monsters that are difficult to deal with.

And to deal with this kind of monster, either you need a lot of demon hunters, or you need the help of an army...

.

The witchers' hunt for the monsters in Volod's domain was not going well.

After the demon hunters intercepted the siege for the first time, the monster's activities became random, and it was difficult for the demon hunters to catch traces of the monster.

Fortunately, the locals were not angry because of this. They continued to hire demon hunters. After all, it was best for demon hunters to deal with such monsters.

However, the demon hunters felt a lot of pressure because of this, taking other people's money and not getting things done, this was really against their professional ethics.

So they worked harder. During this time, the demon hunters still caught the monster several times, and then started hunting, but the monster could always disappear quickly.

The ugly monster in the form of a woman can always disappear in the mist like a mist, and it is difficult for the demon hunter to prevent the woman from disappearing like this.

The witchers chased into the mist several times, but they couldn't find the monster at all.

And in the fog, they were attacked by swarms of rats.

While this doesn't help the Witcher, it's very, very disgusting, to be honest.

After suffering several losses, the demon hunters learned from the pain and discussed how to deal with this monster.

Then they took out all the knowledge and abilities they had at the bottom of the box, made a lot of decoctions and traps, and added improvements based on their experience in fighting monsters.

This time, they trapped the monster, confining it, and then dispelled the fog that the monster had used as cover.

But then, just as they were killing the monster, the demon hunters saw the horror of the monster.

"Brothers! Keep the formation! Protect the backs of your comrades!"

George's voice was as firm as ever, but his voice was quickly drowned out by creaks, like waves lapping the sand at high tide.

By moonlight, we can see four witchers standing side by side under the full moon.

And around them, there are a large number of upright rats the size of people. Most of the rats are empty-handed, attacking humans with their claws.

But some of them were armed with crude weapons and clad in simple armor.

(There is such a monster in the witcher world. When CDPR was working on The Witcher 1, they planned to stuff ratmen in the sewers of Vizima, but in the end they replaced them with water ghosts, and the setting of ratmen is ready. There are further settings for Ratmen in the discontinued Wizard Pokémon.)
"Oh!"

Lei Suo used Alder's seal to knock down the upright mice in front of him.

Then the long sword mixed with silver cut into the chest of a rat man who hadn't reacted yet, disembowelling it.

Then the bald man threw a north wind bomb, freezing several ratmen into ice sculptures, and then smashed the ice sculptures, and the meat wrapped in ice flew around.

"These guys are really disgusting..."

The big man murmured indifferently, his voice was very low, Lei Suo was not surprised at seeing these big rats.

To be more precise, the four demon hunters present were not surprised by what they saw, they were just surprised by this thing.

George protected Leto's back, and used Igni to ignite many ratmen, causing the rats to run away burning, but their positions were soon replaced by more ratmen.

"There are too many of them! We can't just stand here! It's still a full moon tonight, those guys will rush up and kill us!"

Iben roared, and a rat man swung its claws to attack, but hit the shield of the Manticore demon hunter, and was then blocked by the demon hunter's sword.

Eben then swung the scimitar in his hand like a windmill, and cooperated with the round shield to attack and defend, making it impossible for the Rat Man to move forward.

And just as Eben said, the moonlight aroused the killing intent of the ratmen, and they continued to rush towards the demon hunter's battle line with red eyes,

Geralt didn't speak. He poured the last bottle of thunder potion into his mouth, then chopped off the heads of four ratmen in one go, and used an Igni sign to set a group of ratmen on fire.

"Back! Back to the village, those Cossacks over there can also help us!"

George continued to yell that he seemed to be the leader of the four-person combat team.

Also under his order, the demon hunters began to move in the direction of the village. The four of them took care of each other's backs and forcibly fought their way through the crowd of rats.

Under the full moon, demon hunters fought side by side, signs and bombs lit up the night sky from time to time, and monsters came flooding in, just like they did hundreds of years ago, against the hordes that threatened the survival of mankind.

Finally, the Cossack village appeared before the eyes, and the local villagers had been waiting for a long time with weapons in hand.

Seeing those big rats, everyone was startled, but when they saw the demon hunters beheading these monsters like melons and vegetables, the courage that belonged to the Cossacks surged up.

The Cossacks shouted the battle cry and rushed towards the mice bravely, but at this moment, the situation suddenly changed.

The crisp bell sounded suddenly, and the ratmen suddenly stopped moving, and then they all retreated in unison, towards the direction where the bell rang.

The demon hunters looked at the direction where the bell rang, as if they were facing a formidable enemy. It was there that the monster they were hunting, the female rat catcher, was shaking her cane covered with bells.

There was still no expression on the ugly face of the female rat catcher, making it completely impossible to see what it was thinking.

And beside the monster, there were two more monsters. They were huge ratmen, standing at [-] meters tall, standing there like giants.

The giant rat man roared at the demon hunters, sending out a strong threat.

The Cossacks stood nervously behind the witcher master, confronting the demons and ghosts.

Although the Cossacks were also very afraid, the cultural background of this land was to despise all cowardly people, so they forced themselves to stand here.

But the monsters retreated, yes, retreated.

The woman floating in the air shook the bell lightly, this time the bell was much gentler than before.

Hearing this voice, the Ratmen also became gentler. Instead of continuing to show aggression, they turned their heads.

The woman receded into the mist, and at some point, the mist filled up again, and she disappeared in the mist.

The Ratman also retreated with the woman, and disappeared into the mist, only the voice indicated that they were still there.

Until all the squeaks of mice in the fog disappeared, the witcher and the Cossack lowered their vigilance.

The Cossacks didn't chase them in, and they didn't dare to chase them in. The demon hunters did chase them in the past, but seeing that scene, they naturally didn't dare to chase them anymore. If they chased them, they would be completely overwhelmed by the Ratmen.

And at this moment, the ethereal voice sounded, as if speaking in people's ears, everyone could hear it clearly.

"You have angered the swarm of rats, this is just the beginning, and the swarm of rats will start to punish you very soon."

There was no tone in that voice, as if it was stating the facts, but it made people feel like they were in an ice cellar, and no one doubted what the voice said.

Many Cossacks had their legs go limp, and then collapsed on the ground. It was the first time they had seen so many monsters and that strange voice. Others stood there with force, pretending that they were fine.

"Master, what's going on?"

As the monsters left, a Cossack asked George tremblingly.

Monsters are not scary, but so many monsters together, it looks very scary, not to mention the sound.

"I didn't expect, I didn't expect, I didn't expect, Hackland would have such a thing."

Put away the sword, George shook his head and said.

"Go back and rest first, I will explain this tomorrow."

Following what George said, the Cossacks also gradually dispersed, and it was meaningless to stay here for a long time.

The demon hunters stayed, and they had to discuss the situation just now.

George no longer maintains his knightly posture. The high-intensity battle has made him unable to care about it, and he sits directly on the ground.

The other demon hunters reacted similarly to him, basically sitting on the ground.

"Hundreds of ratmen, I really doubt that we would have such things 100 years ago."

George's tone was full of emotion. He still remembered that when he first debuted, he participated in the last crusade against a huge monster cluster by the demon hunters.

And now, it reminded him of that battle.

"Lesuo, your suggestion is really correct. Fortunately, we all came together, otherwise we really have to explain to this place."

Eben of the Manticore School's tone was obviously rejoicing, yes, as he said, if there were not four demon hunters here, it would really be an account.

"I didn't expect that there was such a huge group of monsters behind that monster, the Ratmen... According to the habits of these guys I remember, those children who were taken away probably became Ratmen."

Ratman is a cursed creature. Ratmen can turn humans into ratmen by biting humans when they grow up.

Ratmen are also one of the few class-based monsters. They were the most severe siege back then, and they were also the first monsters to disappear in the north, because these guys could really threaten or even replace humans.

When this topic was mentioned, the atmosphere among the demon hunters naturally became heavy. They were invited to rescue the children, and it was very likely that those children could not be rescued in the end.

"This matter cannot be resolved in a short time. We need the lord's army."

Geralt gulped down a mouthful of white honey, then spat out another mouthful of blood, and offered his own advice,
He felt that this matter was really serious. In the north, it was difficult for monsters to pose a threat to human civilization.

They may be able to take a few children and kill a few people on the road, but it is impossible to threaten human settlements.

But the skaven army he saw was enough to knock down villages, and even more enough to conquer unprepared towns.

Moreover, these monsters continue to abduct children and continue to increase the number of their groups.

Damn it, this scene was like the "golden age of the witcher" that Vesemir always talked about.

Geralt felt a great responsibility, and so did all the witchers present, who were made to deal with monsters.

And now there are terrifying monsters here, enough to threaten human society, and their sense of responsibility, which has been silent for a long time, has been mobilized.

That's what they were born for, and that's what they're supposed to do.

"As soon as the day breaks, I will go to see the local lord and ask him to strengthen the defense of the village under his rule. This time we are trying to scare the snake away. Those ratmen are likely to do something."

Lesso stood up and announced his decision.

Indeed, this was the most important thing at the moment. There were only four demon hunters, but there were so many monsters that they needed the help of the local army.

Not to mention, there was that voice.

"I'm going to Fort Sazar to see if I can get some assistance. I heard that Commander Herme is on his way back. I'll tell him about it and see if he can help. Even if he can't , and I will come back to help."

It was Eben who took up the conversation. This dark-skinned witcher now had a serious expression on his face.

"Geralt, you and I can stay here and help the local residents deal with those monsters, and wait for Leto and Iben to bring reinforcements. Ah, I really didn't expect that in this age of our decline, we will encounter such monsters." things."

George sighed and said that he thought it was a simple witch hunt at the beginning, but he didn't expect it to develop into what it is now.

Unexpectedly, this entrustment, which was supposed to be enough for the four of them, would lead to such troublesome things.

"Of course, George, I'll give you a hand."

Geralt nodded and agreed, the residents here really need their help to deal with the monsters.

Next, the demon hunters dispersed to get busy with their respective tasks.

(End of this chapter)