War was not something that could be swayed by human will.
Though they hated to send out their most capable men, the bigwigs of the Noble Faction were at least not stingy with money. The Noble Faction's rapid-response force, numbering just over two hundred, was indeed superbly equipped—"armed to the teeth" would not have been an exaggeration.
They all wore enchanted armor and wielded enchanted weapons, carrying heaps of alchemical items. In particular, nearly everyone carried a dozen or so blisterfire gel for starting fires and flash dust for making their escape. Their mounts were mutant warhorses with magical beast bloodlines. These carnivores could run for most of a day without stopping, then, after a night's rest, gallop wildly again in high spirits. They were incomparably superior to ordinary warhorses. With such equipment, even if they encountered a powerful enemy they could not defeat, they could still retreat with ease.
Their leader, Count Hous, rode in a special carriage drawn by a Demonic Beast nearly half again as tall as an ordinary heavy warhorse. It had a dark-red mane and four hooves that seemed to be burning. When it stopped after a mad dash, its heavy breaths released a dark-red mist. Any ordinary person who inhaled even a little of that mist would be seized by intense terror and suffer nightmares for days afterward. Inhale a bit more, and they would go mad on the spot. Inhale still more—say, several great lungfuls in succession—and they would instead become quiet at once—because they had been poisoned to death.
This strange Demonic Beast was said to be the offspring of a demon and a horse; others said it was a demon sealed inside a horse's body... In any case, it was no good thing. They were called "nightmares." Though they could not