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Chapter 157: The Bard’s Song (1/3)
Chapter 157: The Bard’s Song (1/3)
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
Chapter 157: The Bard’s Song (1/3)
After encountering several swarms of bats, different kinds of monsters began to appear.
“Grrrr!”
A giant grizzly bear roared ferociously.
The Life Mercenary Group fanned out and surrounded the bear.
Chano, who had infiltrated from a blind spot, struck the bear's neck with his blue-tinged axe blade.
Crack—!
“Grrrr!”
The grizzly roared even more ferociously.
Despite its crude appearance, the bear's hide was incredibly tough, withstanding the axe imbued with 4-star Qi and only allowing the blade to sink in halfway.
Just as the bear was about to swing its forepaw at Chano, who was momentarily caught off guard—
Bzzt—
The bear's foreleg stiffened as Arin shot a bolt of electricity.
Following that, the bear's upper body tilted after being hit by Zion's wind blade.
Crack—
Finally, Makan's spear pierced through the bear's thick neck, and it collapsed.
“Whew, thanks.”
A bear-type intermediate monster.
Official name: Crispy Bear.
Clumsy, but with a defense comparable to a high-ranking monster.
“Looks like we're starting to encounter some tougher ones. It's reassuring to have you guys backing me up. I'll buy you all a drink when we get out of here.”
Chano let out a hearty laugh and stepped forward again.
Zion muttered with a dumbfounded look.
“Bats, bears… What is this, a zoo? It's chaos.”
Similar situations continued.
They pushed forward, eliminating monsters at the forefront. If the vanguard struggled or monsters appeared from blind spots, the rearguard joined forces to deal with them.
Usually, the monsters rarely reached us at the back.
However, after the bear-type monsters appeared, we had more frequent encounters with the monsters breaking through the front lines.
“How long do we have to keep doing this, Commander? This is so boring.”
The fog was still thick.
One strange thing was that it felt like they were walking uphill.
Although their visible surroundings appeared flat, it felt like they were walking on an incline.
“Grrrr!”
“Here we go again.”
It was the moment when the sounds of the Life Mercenary Group's battle echoed from the front again.
“Gah!”
A scream pierced their ears.
***
They quickly joined the vanguard and struck down the grizzly bear.
There were no casualties among the Life Mercenary Group.
“Who was that screaming just now?”
Chano shook his head with an urgent look.
“I heard it too. It came from the front. That's strange. Let's go together.”
“…….”
The truly strange thing happened next.
The group that was moving at the front vanished in an instant.
“What the…?”
It happened in an instant.
The other mercenary groups, the rogue warriors, even Urek, who was leading the way at the front – all of them had vanished.
Just then, another scream echoed from close range.
“Gah!”
I stopped Zion and Makan as they tried to dash forward.
“Hold on.”
I looked at Chano.
“Has this ever happened before?”
“…….”
“I guess not.”
Chano's face was a mixture of bewilderment and astonishment.
“Let's move together for now.”
Even when they reached the spot where the scream had been heard, they couldn't find anything unusual.
“Any ideas?”
“……This is a first.”
The expressions of the other mercenaries were no different. They all looked at each other with puzzled faces.
Meanwhile, the fog only grew thicker.
They continued to encounter bats and grizzly bears, and screams echoed intermittently.
'Only the sound, without any visible source?'
Each time a scream rang out, I inwardly estimated its distance.
The screams were getting closer and closer.
“Something's not right. I'll take the lead.”
As if he had made up his mind, Chano stepped forward with a determined look.
“Gah!”
As soon as another scream echoed, I swiftly reached out my hand towards a certain spot.
Simultaneously, Arin unleashed a lightning strike, and my subordinates cast their incantations, blanketing the area.
Bzzzt—
But my hand grasped nothing.
“……Too late.”
Chano's eyes widened as he looked around, then suddenly shouted.
Two mercenaries vanished from sight in a split second.
“Beth? Andes? What's going on… Gah!”
His words trailed off as Chano, too, disappeared from view.
Before they could even process their astonishment, screams erupted in succession.
“Gah! Gah! Gah! Gah!”
The mercenaries disappeared first, followed by the rogue warriors, one by one.
When I opened my eyes, I was alone, and the surroundings were still shrouded in thick fog.
I walked on with a heavy heart.
It was clearly flat ground, yet it felt like I was continuously walking uphill.
This sense of déjà vu.
Wasn't it all too familiar?
“Remember the crimson rain.”
I closed my eyes.
“Gah!”
The screams were an illusion.
Whiiiing—
I reversed the rotation of the circle in my heart.
As soon as another scream came from the right, I unleashed Dark Lightning into the empty space on the left.
3rd Circle Reverse Incantation,
Dark Lightning.
Booom—! As the fog cleared on the left with the explosion, Zion, who had disappeared, reappeared.
As soon as our eyes met, Zion launched a wind blade towards the right.
My Dark Lightning engulfed it.
“Screeeech!”
A chilling scream, unlike any before, erupted.
Simultaneously, the fog dissipated, and my subordinates began to appear one by one. They had been right beside us, yet completely undetectable.
“Seems like bats and bears weren't the end of it.”
That's when it happened.
“Grrrr!”
A ferocious roar echoed from afar.
A thick murderous aura emanated from it.
As I dashed forward, I saw rogue warriors and mercenaries engaged in a chaotic battle with a horde of monsters.
The stench of blood hung heavy in the air.
At a glance, it was clear these were no ordinary creatures.
The one-eyed swordsman who led the rogue warriors already had his neck brutally ripped out.
Chano, his axe broken in two, was slumped on the ground, gasping for breath with a dazed look in his eyes.
“Grrrr!”
Giant grizzly bears charged towards Chano and the mercenaries, as if to tear them apart.
Thud—
The earth trembled as Makan stomped his foot, momentarily halting the bears.
My subordinates rushed towards the monsters.
“Let's have some fun too!”
Meanwhile, I approached Chano. The gruesome corpses of several men who appeared to be his subordinates lay scattered around.
“...This can't be. Are they all variants?”
I slapped Chano, who was muttering with unfocused eyes.
His eyes snapped back into focus.
“Get a grip. There's one more type.”
Just as the grizzly bears were about to be subdued, another scream rang out from the front right. As if I had been waiting for this moment, I thrust the Dark Lightning I had gathered in my left hand towards the left.
“Screeeech!”
The scream stretched out—
At the same time, the fog that had enveloped them cleared completely.
I felt my upper body tilting diagonally.
I firmly planted my feet on the ground.
Thud—
“So it wasn't flat ground after all.”
I looked around.
The place where I stood was a sloping surface of a hill-shaped plateau.
“……Ugh!””
As soon as the disorienting fog cleared, the sound of retching could be heard from all directions.
An acrid smell of blood assaulted our nostrils.
The missing people lay dead across the slope, their bodies covered by a swarm of bats with glowing red eyes, tearing away at their flesh.
“Urek Parisik!”
Someone shouted.
Below the plateau, Urek and his knights, who had disappeared earlier, were surrounded by a horde of monsters, covered in blood.
Urek was wildly swinging his spear, his core unleashed.
It looked like he could break through without much difficulty, but that wasn't the case.
It was because of a completely different entity mixed in with the horde.
An emaciated human-like form.
A grotesque figure with its entire body covered in black from head to toe, except for its red eyes.
“A humanoid monster.”
Chano, slumped on the slope, muttered in disbelief.
“Why is an Earth-rank monster… here? They should only be in high-level demon realms.”
That's when the humanoid monster spread its arms and let out a cry towards the sky.
As soon as the strange cry echoed once more, the eyes of the surrounding monsters turned red, and a ferocious murderous aura erupted from them.
“Commander.”
Zion looked at me, his face filled with excitement.
As soon as I nodded, my subordinates began to run down the slope simultaneously.
Makan charged forward, thrusting the tip of his spear into the ground and then lifting it upwards.
“Earth Splitter!”
A straight crack appeared, reaching the center of the monster horde, and the earth overturned.
The earth buckled and split, throwing monsters into the air as a chasm ripped through their ranks.
Following that, a gust of wind and fireballs engulfed the monsters.
The tide of the battle turned in an instant.
Seizing the opportunity, Urek grabbed his spear and charged towards the humanoid monster.
Mana surged around him.
However, perhaps due to exhaustion, Urek's movements were sluggish.
He aimed for the monster's head with his spear, but the monster easily dodged with a slight movement. As the monster bared its teeth and was about to cry out again—
“Striking Sword of Lightning,”
With a flash—a bolt of lightning materialized in the air in the form of a longsword, directly striking the monster's head.
Arin's incantation.
4th Circle, Sword Strike.
Bzzzt—
The monster's head, struck by the lightning sword, was brutally crushed. Its body, engulfed in electricity, momentarily stiffened.
Urek seized this opportunity and decapitated the monster with his spear.
“……!”
Urek, who had been observing the situation for a moment, finally collapsed on the ground with an exhausted look.
Thud—
As I approached him, a foul stench of sweat and blood filled the air.
“Huff… Huff…”
Urek looked at me, his face drenched in sweat like rain.
“How can a mage do this… No, that's not the issue. I misjudged… Damn it, I realized it too late.”
“It's not your fault.”
“I don't understand. Why is an Earth-rank monster here…?”
If Urek had confronted the enemy head-on with all his subordinates from the beginning, the damage wouldn't have been so great, but the circumstances hadn't allowed for that.
Meanwhile, my subordinates, having driven back the monsters, approached us.
“We've mostly finished cleaning up, Commander.”
The survivors, exhausted, gathered one by one.
Urek got up and looked at me.
“...Thank you, truly. If it weren't for you, the damage would have been immense. I'll express my gratitude properly once we're out of here. For now, we need to escape this place.”
Urek, having regained his composure, started giving orders to those around him, and the wounded were gathered and supported one by one.
I looked around for a moment and frowned.
The stench of blood wouldn't stop.
Usually, one's sense of smell would become numb after a while, but the stench of blood only grew stronger.
It felt like it was getting more and more intense. There were too many corpses of monsters and humans mixed together around us.
“What the hell is with this blood smell?”
Zion, who was next to me, responded.
“What blood smell?”
“The stench of blood. It's getting worse.”
“Does the Commander have a dog's nose? My sense of smell is already numb. I can't smell anything.”
Looking around, the other members nodded in agreement.
Even so, the stench of blood grew so strong that it made me want to vomit.
A moment later, Urek approached.
“It would be best if we all moved together now.”
Palge looked at me.
“But Commander, you've had a strange expression on your face for a while now. What's wrong?”
Makan and Iron also tilted their heads.
“I've never seen that expression on your face before.”
Only Zion was looking at me with a serious expression.
“Say something, Commander. What's with the smell and everything? Why are you acting so weird?”
I shook my head.
“It's not over yet.”
“What?”
“The one with the demon realm's core hasn't appeared yet.”
My words caught everyone's attention.
Suddenly, I turned my head to the left.
“Are you… really alright?”
The moment Chano approached me with a worried look, I shot forward like lightning and grabbed him by the collar.
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]