Chương 44: Chapter 43 The First Tactics

Silence settled over the clearing after Karath's growl. A contest of wills had formed between him and the older warriors. The younger adults who had grown up training beside Karath before completing their coming-of-age ceremonies stood awkwardly between the two sides. They had followed Karath since childhood and were inclined to agree with him, but they were clearly reluctant to oppose their uncles. Karath suppressed a sigh while continuing to stare down the older warriors.

He had expected something like this to happen from the moment he suggested changing the tribe's methods of hunting and fighting. Karath had introduced many changes to the settlement since the age of eight, but most of them concerned daily life. He had also used games to train the children while serving as their caretaker, though the adults had probably found those exercises more amusing than serious.

The older warriors had followed Karath's instructions when constructing houses, drainage ditches, and the stone wall. Those were areas they knew little about, so accepting his guidance had not threatened their pride. Hunting was different. Most of these warriors had already been traveling through the forest as adults when Karath was born. Naturally, they took pride in the methods they had practiced for more than a decade.

Karath felt like a newly assigned second lieutenant standing before a group of veteran sergeants. He was the most promising warrior in the settlement, its future chief, and already its strongest fighter. Even so, he had only recently completed his coming-of-age ceremony. From the warriors' perspective, he knew little about the forest or the realities of hunting. They understood that Karath would eventually outrank them. They also knew that he possessed extraordinary ability.

At present, however, they probably believed he lacked practical experience. Under ordinary circumstances, Karath would have changed their minds gradually by producing visible results, just as he had done during childhood. There was no time for that now. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. A monster powerful enough to scatter an entire Giant Wolf pack might have appeared near the settlement.

"Keh... Keh heh heh." Uncle Galon finally ended the prolonged confrontation with an awkward laugh.

"Karath is making a reasonable point! He is saying all this because he wants to protect the tribe!" Perhaps Galon supported him because he had personally witnessed Karath's hunt during the coming-of-age ceremony. Among the older warriors, he was the first to openly take Karath's side.

"Besides, following Karath's ideas has never caused us any harm! Let us try it first. If it proves useless, we can simply return to our old methods!"

"Ahem." Under Galon's continued persuasion, the other warriors reluctantly began nodding.

"Yes. Try it first," Karath added before the opportunity disappeared.

"If you still dislike it afterward, you may return to your previous methods." Karath was confident that even his simplest tactics would be better than what they were doing now. A week passed after his confrontation with the older warriors. The fastest changes appeared among the younger adults rather than the uncles. They had grown up beside Karath, so they understood his instructions relatively quickly and began moving as he intended.

They divided the forest into assigned areas according to the map and installed traps inside their own sections. They also applied the skills learned through childhood hide-and-seek whenever they encountered monsters. One warrior would attract the creature's attention while another attacked from behind. Sometimes they deliberately lured prey toward a trap, then surrounded it after it fell. By recalling their childhood games, the younger warriors began developing and applying various hunting methods.

The number of animals and monsters they brought back increased steadily, even within a single week. Because of those results, the older warriors could no longer openly criticize Karath. That did not mean they adapted as quickly.

"That is not how you are supposed to do it!" The uncles received lectures from Karath almost every day. They had been hunting since before he was born. As individual hunters, they possessed far more knowledge than he did about finding tracks and understanding the habits of animals and monsters. They had almost no experience with coordinated hunting or group combat. After more than a decade of fighting in the same way, abandoning their ingrained habits was difficult.

Being scolded by someone who had only recently become an adult should have made them rebellious. Karath knew a better way to motivate them.

"Kurdan and Kez killed a manticore together yesterday. Would you not be ashamed if three uncles failed to kill a troll while your nephews succeeded with only two warriors?" The humiliation of falling behind their nephews mattered far more than receiving lectures from Karath. The manticore Karath mentioned possessed a lion's body, batlike wings, and a scorpion's tail. Its size and strength were comparable to those of a troll.

The venomous tail and strange movements created by its wings made it extremely difficult to hunt. Fortunately, the wings were too small for true flight. They functioned more like the wings of an oversized chicken, allowing the monster to leap and shift its body unpredictably. Trolls were dangerous because of their regeneration. Manticores were dangerous because of their venom and unusual mobility. In the past, either creature required three or four orc warriors working together.

The previous day, however, Kurdan and Kez had used a trap and alternated drawing the monster's attention until the two of them killed it alone. It was an enormous improvement. That improvement placed the older warriors under even greater pressure. They considered themselves veterans who had spent more than ten years hunting throughout the forest. Now warriors more than a decade younger were beginning to hunt with greater skill.

For orcs who took immense pride in being descendants of warriors and hunters, such a result was intolerable.

"I will draw its attention first!"

"Understood!"

"Wait for the opening! Karath will smash its skull from behind!" After that, the uncles no longer became irritated when Karath corrected them. They desperately attempted to follow every instruction. Comparing competitive people to more successful neighbors remained one of the most effective forms of motivation.