Chapter 367: Change In Arsenal
The reaction was, predictably, explosive.
"THAT’S IT! I’M GOING TO DUEL HIM RIGHT NOW!"
"DON’T HOLD ME BACK! I’LL TEAR HIM APART!"
"HOW DARE HE SAY SUCH THINGS TO COMMANDER SIGRID!"
"I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY BEFORE, BUT NOW IT’S JUST MAKING ME BLOW A FUSE!"
Poppy was bouncing up and down, her face red with fury.
"Thea! Thea, let me down! I want to fight him! I want to poke him with my horn! I’ll just it right up his butt! I don’t even care if my horn gets dirty!"
Thea, for her part, looked like she was about to have a headache.
"My lady, please calm down—"
"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! NOBODY INSULTS MY KNIGHTS AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!"
Sigrid, however, did not get angry like the others.
Instead, she looked at Luca with an intense, cold gaze. Her cheeks were flushed, but she quickly covered it up, meeting his eyes with a steady stare.
"And what about if we win, Hero?" She asked, her voice calm despite the chaos around her.
"What will you do? The stakes should be just as high, right?"
"After all, riding a centaur’s back is considered the ultimate disgrace...You should offer something in return to compensate for that."
She was fired up now. Before, she had been willing to let Luca’s words slide.
But now, he had crossed a line. Her honor had been trampled, and she would reclaim it.
Luca thought about it for a moment, his finger tapping his chin. Then his eyes lit up with an idea.
"Oh, I’ve got it." He said. "Just like how I ride you, you can do the same to me."
He spread his arms wide and chuckled lewdly.
"I’ll get completely naked. Not a single strip of clothing on me. And any one of you can get on me and ride me like a horse."
The image that flashed through Sigrid’s mind was immediate and vivid.
Luca. Naked. On all fours.
Her face turned an even deeper shade of red as her mind supplied the details of his body from the dreams she had experienced a month ago.
The way his muscles moved. The way his skin glistened with sweat. The way he had—
Her face turned bright red.
Before she could respond, Poppy’s voice rang out.
"WE’LL DO IT! WE’LL AGREE TO THIS BET!"
Sigrid turned to her in shock. "My lady, wait—"
But Poppy was not having it. She looked at Luca with a taunting gaze, her earlier fear completely forgotten.
"I’ve been thinking about how to get my revenge for quite a while now. This is the perfect opportunity."
She folded her arms, a smug smile on her face.
"Just like how you rode me, I’m going to ride you! "
"I’ll make you parade around the entire kingdom on your hands and knees! Everyone will know that Queen Poppy rode the Hero!"
"My name will spread all throughout the continent!"
She was practically glowing with glee, already imagining the glory.
But Thea was still concerned.
"My lady, I think we should reconsider. There’s something about this that feels wrong. Like we’re falling into a trap."
But Poppy waved her hand dismissively.
"There’s no need to reconsider, Thea. The Queen has made her decision."
She looked around at the assembled centaurs, her voice carrying with authority.
"I, Poppy Ivoryhorn, Queen of the Centaur Race, hereby announce this bet between the human Hero Luca and the entire Galloping Brigade. The one who loses will be ridden by the one who wins."
She turned to Sigrid, her eyes shining.
"Commander Sigrid, as the one who will face the consequences should we lose, do you accept this bet?"
Sigrid looked at her queen. She saw the excitement in Poppy’s eyes, the fire that had been reignited.
She saw the faces of her knights, all looking at her with unwavering trust.
She took a deep breath.
Then she knelt, one foreleg bending as she bowed her head.
"Yes, my lady. I accept this bet."
She looked up at Luca, her eyes blazing.
"Earlier, I was fighting for my lady’s sake. But now, my honor has been trampled. And I will reclaim it."
She rose to her full height, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword.
"Prepare yourself, Hero!"
The centaurs erupted into cheers.
"Get ready to lose, Hero!"
"We’ll make you understand what it means to go against the Galloping Brigade!"
"You won the war against the humans, but right now, be prepared to lose!"
Swords were raised. Hooves stamped. The earth itself seemed to tremble with the collective fury and excitement of an entire brigade of centaur knights ready for battle.
Luca, standing in the center of it all, simply smiled.
He had been expecting boring negotiations, tedious political maneuvering, and maybe a duel or two to satisfy the centaurs’ sense of honor.
But this? This was something else entirely!
He was in a mortal body for the first time in thousands of years. He was facing down an entire brigade of elite warriors.
And he had a bet on the line that would either let him ride the most beautiful centaur he had ever seen, or end with him being paraded around naked.
Either way, it was going to be fun.
"Bring it on." He said, his voice carrying across the clearing. "Let’s see what the Galloping Brigade is really made of."
The bet was set.
The duel was about to begin.
And Luca couldn’t have been happier.
But just as everyone was getting hyped up, caught in the momentum of battle cries and raised swords, Sigrid suddenly noticed something.
"Hero." She said, her voice cutting through the noise. "Your hand. What are you going to do about your hand?"
The centaurs fell silent. All eyes turned toward Luca’s injured arm.
And they gasped.
The Hero was completely disabled right now. One arm curled into a claw-like shape—completely charred, blackened, and overcooked from the cauterization.
"By the Goddess." One centaur whispered. "How is he supposed to fight like that?"
"Look at it." Another said, her voice filled with a mixture of horror and pity. "It’s completely ruined. He can’t even hold a sword with that hand."
"This feels wrong." A third centaur said, her expression conflicted. "I wanted to teach him a lesson, but now...now it feels like we’re bullying a cripple."
"Maybe we should call off the bet." Another suggested. "He saved our lives, after all. The entire continent owes him a debt."
"And look at what he got in return—a ruined hand and a pile of humiliation."
The pity in their eyes was genuine. They were warriors, but they were honorable warriors.
The thought of fighting someone who couldn’t even properly hold a weapon left a bitter taste in their mouths.
But Luca?
Luca just looked down at his hand, turning it left and right, examining the charred flesh with an expression of mild curiosity.
Then he looked up at the centaurs, and a taunting grin spread across his face.
"Even if I have a single hand." He said, his voice dripping with mock arrogance. "Fighting you guys wouldn’t be that big of a deal at all."
"...I can honestly just fight you barefisted if I want."
The pity evaporated instantly.
"THAT’S IT!" A centaur roared. "I’m going first! I’m going to wipe that smug look off his face!"
"No, me first! I’ll show him what it means to talk like that when he can barely stand!"
"Let me at him! I’ll teach him some respect!"
The crowd surged forward, ready to tear him apart.
But Luca held up his good hand.
"Hold on, hold on." He said, chuckling. "Just give me a second to change my arsenal."
The centaurs exchanged confused glances.
"Arsenal?" One of them muttered. "What does he mean by ’arsenal’?"
Luca didn’t answer. Instead, he raised his good hand, and a shimmering portal appeared beside him.
He reached inside and pulled out a sword.
It was a thick, heavy blade, designed for brute force rather than finesse. He held it up, examined it, then shook his head.
"Nah." He said, tossing it onto the ground. "Not this one."
He reached into the portal again and pulled out another sword.
This one was thinner, more elegant, designed for speed.
"Nope." He said, tossing it aside. "Not this one either."
One by one, he pulled out sword after sword, each one clanging onto the ground in a growing pile of steel.
The centaurs watched, their eyes widening with each new blade.
"Where in the world did he get all of those?" One centaur whispered.
"Look at the craftsmanship." Another said, her eyes scanning the pile. "Those aren’t cheap blades. Those are military-grade weapons."
Sigrid stepped forward, her gaze fixed on the growing collection.
"Hero." She said, her voice careful. "Where exactly did you get all of these swords?"
Luca didn’t look up, rummaging deeper into the portal.
"Hmm? Oh, these? Souvenirs from the human continent."
He pulled out a particularly nasty-looking sword with a serrated edge.
"Picked them off the soldiers and knights I...faced during my visit. Seemed a waste to leave them lying around."
A cold shiver ran down the spines of the surrounding centaurs.
Even though every member of the Galloping Brigade was a highly trained, brave knight, none of them had ever actually taken another person’s life.
Their peaceful era meant they only ever fought wild beasts outside the borders, or dealt with male centaurs who rarely fought to the death.
To hear Luca talk so nonchalantly about looting weapons off the corpses of an army he had slaughtered...it hit them like a bucket of ice water.
This guy wasn’t just a quirky human. He was a monster who had walked through oceans of blood.
Finally, with a satisfied "Aha!", Luca extracted an exceptionally long, straight blade.
"Perfect. This’ll do."
The sword was beautiful. Its blade was polished to a mirror shine, and its hilt was wrapped in dark leather, worn smooth from countless battles.
It was a weapon that had clearly seen use.
Luca held it up, examining it with satisfaction.
Then, to everyone’s utter horror, he placed the hilt of the sword right between the two halves of his split forearm.
"What...What is he doing?" A centaur whispered.
"Is he seriously—"
"No. No way. He’s not actually—"
He pushed.
Squelch!
The blade sank into his flesh.
The sound that followed was wet and sickening—a squelch of muscle and tissue parting as the sword dug deeper into his forearm. Blood oozed out from the wound, dripping down onto the ground.
The centaurs recoiled.
"HERO!" Sigrid shouted, her voice filled with alarm. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Someone stop him!" Another centaur cried out. "He’s going to destroy his arm completely!"
"Why is he injuring himself even more?!"
"He’s definitely a masochist! There’s no other explanation! The Hero we got is completely perverted!"
But Luca ignored them all. He kept pushing, driving the blade deeper and deeper until the hilt was buried deep into his flesh, nestled snugly between the two halves of his arm.
He let out a satisfied sigh.
Then he took out a long band of bandages and started wrapping his arm, layer after layer, around and around.
He wrapped the entire arm—from his wrist to his elbow—binding the sword tightly against his flesh.
When he was finished, his arm looked like a mummy’s, with the blade sticking out from the wrappings like a grotesque attachment.
He held it up, examining his work.
"I guess this works." He said, a manic grin spreading across his face.
He started swinging the arm around, the blade cutting through the air with deadly precision.
"Take that!" He shouted, striking a dramatic pose. "Hi-yah! Bow down before my sword hand!"
He swung it left, then right, then twirled it around like a child playing with a toy.
The centaurs stared at him, utterly baffled.
What in the world...?
But Luca wasn’t done. He looked down at his other hand—the one that was still intact, still functional.
Then he looked back at his new sword arm.
A glint appeared in his eyes.
"Hehe. I got another idea." He said.
But then he frowned, looking at his intact hand.
"Ah, wait. I can’t execute it by myself...not with only one working hand left."
He thought for a moment. Then his face lit up.
"Ah. I know someone who can help!"
Before anyone could react, a portal appeared behind him.
"I’ll be right back." He said, and disappeared into it.
The centaurs stood in stunned silence.
"What...just happened?" One of them asked.
"I think he just left." Another replied.
"But where did he go?!"
"And what does he mean by ’another idea’?!"
"Is he going to be okay? He just shoved a sword into his arm and then vanished!"
Sigrid was rubbing her temples, a headache forming behind her eyes.
It didn’t take long for the portal to reappear. And when it did, Luca stepped through.
But he wasn’t alone.
Behind him, an elf stepped out.
She had dark hair that cascaded down her shoulders, and her blue eyes had a mischievous glint that seemed to promise trouble.
"It’s Nyx..." Someone whispered. "It’s Nyx!"
"The Hero brought back the Enchantress Nyx!"
"Oh no, the one with the torture shed!"
"I can’t believe she came to our territory! Who’s she here to torture right now!?"