Tengu

Connections

• By her 25th year of warring against the monsters of the Kiba (Fangwild), Yumiko had defeated a Tengu army and slain a dragon

Context

Tengu are bird people, essentially. Today, they are often depicted as humanoids with bird-like wings and very long noses or beaks. Tengu are also sometimes called "Japanese goblins" for the tendency of most tengu to be rather mischievous, as well as humorous and/or antagonistic. According to Yokai.com, there are lesser tengu and greater tengu. They are also known to cause a lot of mischief with the natural elements (tengubi, tengu daoshi, and tengu tsubute). Although the word tengu is derived from a word for a dog demon, it is unclear how the creatures went from dog to bird-men.

Even after all this, I'm not sure why there would have been a Tengu army coming after Yumiko and her village, but at least their nature in the folklore checks out.