Hermit Wizard

Chapter 9

Common Day of Unemployed Wizard (6)

When I returned home, the broadcast had stopped. A news anchor appeared on the screen again to explain the tragic situation at Mapo Bridge and conveyed the government’s guidelines that ordinary citizens shouldn’t approach the Mapo Bridge. Did the government guidelines finally come out? That was also fast.

“But simply saying not to get close to Mapo Bridge means you can’t figure out how many kilometers away is okay.”

Turning off the TV, I synchronized my vision and hearing with the cows – no, I mean The Waterbird of Decay. Parvache curiously opened up some of my senses to him.

“Oh…that’s the 63rd building.”

In the sight of Waterbirds looking down from above, I could see a golden skyscraper. It was a building I had often seen on TV. It seemed that the Waterbirds had already reached Yeouido even though it had been less than 5 minutes since I let them fly away…they were amazingly fast. I conveyed my will to the Waterbirds.

The 28 birds I summoned began to approach the southern end of Mapo Bridge by lowering the altitude. As they entered the battle, their invisibility broke, and their appearances were exposed. However, the people around there were already in a rush evacuating, so they didn’t immediately notice. But as they lowered altitude further, people spotted the Waterbirds one by one and started pointing their fingers at them. From the Waterbird’s ears, I heard the office workers’ voices, moving in groups.

“Well, what the hell is that?!”

“Something is flying from the sky!”

“Is it the Air Force? Finally, they’re trying to defeat that white monster…!”

“Wait a minute, Sir. Why does the plane… flap its wings?”

“…Ahhh! Those are monsters! Those are monsters, too!”

Those who witnessed the Waterbirds panicked and began to hide, to get out of the flight path, but I didn’t care and kept flying them in one direction. Using the Waterbird’s single eye, I was already capturing the Ashpim Giant’s image from a distance and encouraging them to approach it. The Ashpim giant had accepted that the sirens’ blaring sound wasn’t going to stop and had actively begun killing bystanders and damaging vehicles and surrounding areas.

With its colossal body, it was walking on the bridge. But thankfully, the bridge was strong enough to bear the onslaught of the giant. It picked up a few cars at his feet and threw them into an ambulance. Unfortunately, its throwing skill wasn’t good. Most of them flew far beyond the target, perhaps because the giant was overpowered.

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Boom!

Some of the cars he threw crashed onto the bridge, and some fell into the Han River. I wondered if the injured people trapped inside those cars were rescued in advance or not…? Even though I could see with my own eyes, there were still injured people and rescue workers on the bridge. The screams of people on the bridge intensified as the giant began throwing and kicking things around. When the distance between the giant and the rescue team narrowed, the Waterbirds surrounded the giant.

“Oaoam’wwoo? Mooam’wowwwom’oawwoo’nguoaowaa!”

It talked while looking at the giant flies flying around him in a full circle. I gave up on my own interpretation earlier and waited for Parvache’s interpretation.

[‘What? These stinky flies!’]

“Nice nose. But if that’s the only thing it felt about those guys…I’m sure it can’t use magic.”

If it could have used even a little magic, he would have realized those guys’ ominous power and ran away. The Waterbirds, who received my will, aimed at the giant with the tip of their body. It didn’t know anything and tried to tear them apart by swinging its hands at random, but just before it reached them, they flapped their crow-like wings and flew away quickly.

I took them up for a while rather than immediately attacking so that the rescuers on the bridge had time to escape. If the Waterbirds started attacking the giant, they could also sweep away the people there. If the giant tried to move forward, the Waterbirds would block it with a torso strike. If it tried to grab them, they flew away again, and the one behind ran up and hit the giant’s head. The confrontation between dozens of crow-winged, single-eyed breasts and the giant continued for a while. As time went by, the giant screamed again, probably at the point of explosive irritation.

“Mm’khaaang’oo!”

While the Waterbird stole the giant’s attention, the people who could move on the bridge had already fled to the entrance to the northern end of Mapo Bridge. They were lucky to escape from the giant’s sound wave attack, but not everyone on the bridge had such luck.

-Bang!

-Boom!

-Bang! Boom! Boom!

Those on the ridge that the rescue team couldn’t take care of and the unrescued injured people who were probably still breathing couldn’t overcome the attack and exploded like a watermelon bursting. However, the giant’s sonic attack didn’t affect the Waterbirds’ bodies, which were protected by natural magic shields. The giant continued to roar, its eyes reddening because its anger was rising.

“Mm’khaaang’oo! Mm’khaaang’oo!”

Whether because the firefighter who drove it was dead or ran away in another car, a fire truck remained on the bridge and continued to sound its sirens. Its irritation must have risen all the way to its head. The sounds of ambulances and fire trucks fleeing were getting farther away, but nearby things could be smashed with a few more steps. However, the Waterbirds kept hitting the giant, stopping it from moving. There seemed to be no survivors remaining on the bridge. I felt it was the right time for me and delivered the final order to the Waterbirds.

“Okay, get ready…shoot!”

As soon as the signal went through their head, 28 Waterbirds of Decay surrounded the giant. They began to spew white fluid all at once. It was like a scene where dozens of spray trucks were busily extinguishing a massive fire.

“Khaaaaaaaaaa!”

It was the decaying fluid that no organic life in the world could endure with a bare body. The giant’s skin that was struck began to decay rapidly. At first, the skin was covered with countless red blisters, and then it burst rapidly, and black stains covered it like mold, and then the essence of its flesh and skin melted down to nothingness.

“Khaaaaaaaa!”

The giant, whose skin was necrotized and turned into a hideous appearance, desperately shook its arms and turned to stop the decay. Still, there was no room to escape from the Waterbirds surrounding its body. When it tried to jump off of the bridge through the gap, the Waterbirds quickly gathered in that direction and spewed the decay fluid, covering him once again. Eventually, the giant couldn’t stand and was forced to kneel on the bridge—shrieking with unbearable pain.

“Khaaaaaaaaaaaa! Khaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Borrowing the eyes of Waterbirds, I was looking at the scene and muttered, bored.

“Ah…it’s a disgusting picture anytime I see it. The sight of living creatures decaying while still alive and visibly tormented…”

As the area was vast, one or two holes began to be punctured in the giant’s long cylindrical head, which had been saturated with decay fluid. The skull was melting down and collapsing on itself, turning into a hollow shell. The inside of its long, large head, which occupied half of the giant’s body, was about 90% empty. This was because it acted as a vacuum tube for sound wave attacks. The organs, which act as the brain, were stacked on the lower part of the head, in a tiny space, relative to the head’s size, in a thick and robust muscular membrane that wasn’t affected by vacuum waves.

As a result, even when the hole was increasing in his head, the giant wasn’t out of breath. Instead, it half-collapsed on the bridge and was crawling on its knees. It seemed like it was trying to get away from the Waterbirds somehow, but it was too late. The Waterbirds, who noticed that the giant was already unable to regenerate, sat down one by one over the giant’s head, although I didn’t order them. Then they stretched out their mouths that looked like a tube, put it on the skin of the giant, and began to suck up the melted flesh – literally like a straw.

“Ahh… khaaaa!”

The giant’s voice was getting weaker. Indeed the Waterbirds were starving, and their speed of eating the giant’s flesh was exemplary. Now its face was almost melted; the huge forehead bones that looked like a shield were partly exposed. The lower part where the eyes, nose, and mouth were gathered had also been tattered and disfigured. Even if I looked under the neck, almost all of the muscle membranes that protected its organs were exposed. And they were melting at a speed that was visible.

“…Ahhhh… khaaaaaa!”

The giant eventually lost control of its body and fell on the bridge.

-Thump!

When the giant’s body collapsed, the asphalt shattered with a roar, and the entire bridge was rocking. The Waterbirds no longer sprayed the decay fluid. Leaving nothing left, they rushed over the giant’s body and started eating with their tube-like mouths.

“…Ahhhhh… khaaaaaa!”

The giant intermittently breathed out a heavy groan as it was wracked with the pain of being devoured alive. At that speed, the cleanup would be finished in five minutes. I had survived my first crisis of this level. I was proud of myself. I was burying my back deeply on the sofa and putting my hands together on my stomach. Now that the Waterbirds were about to finish their meal, we could bring them back in and return them to their original dimensions.

It was then…

“A’ng’uooomoo… Ooooioon… Ng’oaawong’o… Om’oo… Wom’oawo… Am… Mom’aawooo om’oaawooong… Mmaaaooowwaa… Ng’owa… Mmawom’aa… ongwoomooaawooo… Aaa… Oaao… Awowo… Mawong’o…”

As if squeezing out its last strength, the giant muttered for a long time in a low voice and then became quiet. Seeing the pectoral movements stopped, it seemed to have stopped breathing. Simultaneously, the disappointing feelings of the Waterbirds, who were connected with me and my mind, were delivered to me. It seemed that the giant didn’t last as long as they expected. After all, they preferred to eat while the prey was still alive. Feeling that the Waterbirds were eating slower than before, I asked Parvache what the giant’s last words were.

[‘Since I was a Seed, I didn’t feel good…I didn’t know the Truth-Seeker would have opened a channel to such a crazy dimension… Why does such a demon exist in the dimension where humans live…we need to inform the tribe…this is the dimension where the demon lives…they cannot come here…”]

Oh, the giant’s last words, thankfully, contained cider-like information that solved the question which burned inside of Parvache and me.