Chapter 20
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 020
Chapter Title: Brothers. (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Woojin gripped his machete and glared at the two abominations. They wore tattered clothes, mimicking human attire.
The ripped clothing caught his eye. With all the shirt buttons popped off, it looked like someone had tried forcing tiny outfits onto bloated bodies and failed.
......A chilling intuition flashed through his mind.
'No way... those are Derek and Cedric.'
He glanced sideways at Raymond standing nearby. The man's dazed expression confirmed Woojin's guess in an instant.
Did this mean the commission had failed?
Crunch, thud—
The abominations shuffled toward them.
Their fingertips groped blindly through the air, hunting for prey. They seemed to be searching for the source of the commotion outside the tent.
Right on cue, the mercenaries who'd chased after Tarasque arrived on the scene. One of them spotted the abominations and went wide-eyed.
"......Fuck, what the hell are those things?"
Both abominations whipped their heads around.
The mercenary who spoke locked eyes—or rather, empty sockets—with one. His heart dropped. No eyeballs in there, yet it felt like they were staring right at him.
The abominations had no eyes, but their hearing was fine. They let out a guttural howl, then charged straight for the mercenary. Woojin sighed at the sight.
'Guess I'll have to work for it this time.'
He circled behind the abominations. One was slightly bulkier, lagging a bit due to its slower speed.
The bigger one was probably the brother, the smaller the younger. Or not... but from now on, this one's name was Derek.
Woojin arbitrarily decided and swung his machete with full force. The blade grazed Derek's thigh. Dark red blood sprayed as one leg sheared clean off.
Derek didn't notice, thrusting the severed stump forward. It toppled over.
Thud!!
Its massive body sprawled on the dirt. Woojin mounted its back and hacked away wildly with the machete, slashing its torso like pickaxe strikes.
Raymond wasn't standing idle either.
He danced his blade against Cedric. Tough for one-on-one, but the arriving mercenaries and templars had joined in, pressing the abomination hard.
It looked advantageous at a glance. But killing these abominations was another matter entirely.
Crack—
A strange sound came from the abomination's shoulder.
Sensing danger, Woojin backed off without hesitation. Moments later, its shoulder joint popped free, and the arm whipped unnaturally toward where he'd been.
The prone Derek hauled itself up. Its body was covered in gashes. But the flesh oozed down, slowly filling the wounds. Even the severed leg had regenerated.
Like fighting a giant mud doll. This was why Woojin hated abominations. You couldn't kill them by just slashing and stabbing.
'Didn't crush the inner core.'
Abominations died only when you found and destroyed their inner core somewhere in the body. Pure luck. Woojin had diced Derek's torso multiple times but missed it.
Too bad, but no big deal. If luck ran out, he'd just invest more time.
Grrraaah!!
The abomination roared and lunged. Its right arm lashed like a whip again. Woojin countered, slicing upward from below in a scooping motion.
The severed forearm flopped on the dirt.
'Not the right arm.'
Whoosh—!
A bizarre wind whistled.
Woojin reflexively raised his left arm to block. The abomination's long tongue snaked out like a serpent, coiling around his arm. It yanked hard with its tongue.
Like a tug-of-war?
Woojin pulled back on the tongue instead, while kicking its shin with his toe. The freshly regenerated right leg was still weak.
The abomination pitched forward helplessly. Woojin greeted it with a barrage of punches to the face, his fist wrapped in its own tongue.
Bam! Crack! Thwack!!
Each hit crumpled its face like an empty tin can. Woojin shoved his hand into its mouth, gripped the tongue root, and wrenched it out with all his might.
Splat!!
Blood gushed as the tongue tore free, dragging half the abomination's head with it. But soon, its skull began reforming.
'Not the head either.'
Left arm and leg remained. A couple more rounds should do it. Woojin advanced with that estimate.
......But had the abominations realized they were at a disadvantage?
Suddenly, Derek fled from the approaching Woojin. At the same time, Cedric disengaged from the holy knight.
Woojin blinked in surprise.
First time seeing abominations run. Their strength and regeneration were top-tier, but intelligence? Barely enough to tell friend from foe.
Was this the end?...
Suddenly, the two charged straight at each other. Full speed, no slowing down.
Slam!!
A dull boom echoed as Derek and Cedric collided. Their flesh mashed together like wet clay, gradually merging into one entity.
Another first for Woojin.
'What... they can fuse too?'
He watched in admiration.
Because they were originally brothers? Probably. He'd hunted plenty of abominations, but never seen this.
"Throw the net!!"
Jonathan shouted suddenly.
The mercenaries hurled it without delay. An unbreakable net—the Black Marlin Mercenary Corps' signature treasure.
The fused abomination got draped in it. Tradition said to wait during transformations or fusions, but mercenaries prioritized results.
'......Hold on.'
A simple way to end this occurred to Woojin. He dashed close, grabbed the net, and circled the abomination rapidly several times.
It wrapped around multiple layers, mummifying the whole body.
Jonathan looked troubled.
"Hey, now we can't throw the javelins."
"Got another way."
Woojin handed one end of the net's rope to Jonathan. The man stared blankly.
"What with this?"
"When I signal, pull hard. Gather a bunch of people."
"......Got it."
Figuring Woojin had a plan, Jonathan rounded up men quickly. About twenty grabbed the rope.
Woojin held the opposite end alone.
"Pull!"
Twenty men yanked at his command. The fusion finished just then, and the abomination bellowed fiercely.
Grraaaaaah!!
A colossal abomination with two heads. It thrashed to shake off the net. But the wrappings squeezed like a tight corset.
Woojin pulled his rope with full strength.
Crunch—!
The net constricted harder, crushing the body. Flesh bulged through the gaps like waffle batter.
The problem? Woojin's monstrous strength was dragging the mercenaries. They strained red-faced. Jonathan bellowed.
"More hands! More, more!!"
Onlookers rushed to grab on. Now around forty men pulled.
Woojin twisted his wrist, looping the rope around his forearm to shorten it, then yanked again. The pressure intensified each time.
The panicked abomination roared and flailed but couldn't escape.
......He felt it.
Woojin's lips curled up.
"Bye now."
One final heave.
Spluuurt!!
Dark red blood exploded as the net pulverized the flesh into hamburger patties. Meat chunks scattered everywhere. The mercenaries toppled like dominoes.
"......What the hell."
Jonathan gaped at Woojin in disbelief. Never imagined using the net like that.
"It really doesn't break."
Woojin replied casually and approached the net. He poked at the protruding meat bits.
Soon, he found a wriggling chunk like a slug.
The abomination desperately trying to regenerate. Futile. The body was too mangled.
Woojin sliced it with his dagger. Inside pulsed the inner core.
His first intact one.
Never hunted an abomination without destroying the core first. Woojin examined it curiously.
'Weird shape.'
Like a snowman.
Normal cores were walnut-sized spheres... but fused from two, they overlapped like a Venn diagram.
'Keep it for now.'
He wrapped it in thin cloth and pocketed it deep. Then, to assess, he headed to Tarasque's corpse.
While Woojin was busy, prior arrivals had shown up. Raymond, face blank with shock, was recovering the holy knights' bodies.
Two laid neatly on the ground. One was the young knight from before; the other unfamiliar—likely a guard from inside the tent.
Raymond silently wiped their faces with a handkerchief. Woojin started to speak but clamped his mouth shut. Words wouldn't help.
'......If I'd gone with them, I could've saved them.'
Respecting the young knight's wishes led to this. Was ignoring others and acting anyway the right call sometimes?
Overthinking the outcome maybe... but charging in could be best at times. Woojin walked to Tarasque thinking that.
Lifting the tent flap, he peered inside: a sea of blood. His brow furrowed.
'The abominations ate Tarasque's back.'
Dark red blood pooled on the tent floor. Traces of the two devouring its back. Tarasque's mad rampage? Desperate bid to escape the agony.
One small mystery solved. But the big one remained: why had Derek and Cedric suddenly turned into abominations?...
'......No clue.'
Couldn't even guess.
He rummaged the tent but found no clues. What could turn humans into monsters? Unimaginable.
'Beyond my knowledge.'
Clear waste of time, so Woojin returned to the group. Urgent matters awaited.
The Golden Beetle's two sons were dead.
How to handle the aftermath? Everyone's heads would ache over it.