Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Red Star (9)
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I sliced off the legs of the monster charging at me.
Blue bodily fluid gushed from the severed stumps, scattering into the air.
Red clumps flowed like tears, sticking thickly to my blade and the floor.
They were human organs transplanted into the monster's body.
The grotesque hybrid mimicked human speech to the very end as it died.
Already more than thirty test subjects had fallen by my hand.
What I'd cut down so far weren't simple monsters.
Alien creations processed from the corpses of Empire soldiers—no, humans who had once been soldiers.
Their very existence outlined the nature of this experiment.
'A fusion of monster and human.'
The traits of the fusion beasts from the original work were present in them.
Just as I'd guessed and confirmed at the outset, this was Southern technology at play.
But there was one major difference from the original.
The human parts hadn't fully integrated with the monster.
In the original, fusion beasts showed no trace of humanity.
They were mostly monsterized, emitting only grotesque cries.
I couldn't tell if this was because the process was too early on, or if monsterization simply didn't exist here.
Since Rosario's enhancement effect vanished the instant all the monsters died, they were definitely fusions.
'Do they mutate over time to become like the original fusions? Or is this something entirely different?'
I stepped on a corpse at my feet.
The blood-soaked ground was sticky like rot, and the metallic stench never let up.
Soon enough, the sound I'd anticipated rang out.
"Engagement ahead! Deploy immediately!!"
Heavily armed soldiers poured into the massive cavern linked to the isolation zone.
Unlike before, they advanced with coordinated tactics and formations.
They carried steel nets and shields as if preparing to face a colossal beast.
These weren't the guards from the mansion.
Elite combatants from who-knows-where.
Their Aura Energy ignited all at once, filling the corridor as if on cue.
Without a shred of hesitation, they hurled spears and shoved the walls with their shields.
They aimed to exploit any fracture in the front line and push through.
Setting soldiers up like a barricade, the commander at the rear took in the underground slaughter and offered a curt assessment.
"No different from a Great Beast."
The flow of Aura Energy swelled, shoving back the surrounding air.
The commander bellowed, exhaling cold murderous intent.
"Abandon any thought of fighting a human! It's an evil Great Beast! The enemy revels in killing us—it's a monster obsessed with slaughter!"
The soldiers replied not with words, but by slamming their shields.
Resolve thrummed in the echoes.
They advanced step by step, as if they were the vanguard of the Northern Frontline.
Like hunters facing a great monster, they closed the distance with slow, deliberate steps.
"First rank, secure spacing! Front line, deploy! Second rank, shields forward! Encirclement begin!"
The soldiers moved as one body.
I stabbed my sword into the ground like a cane, then slowly drew it out.
The commander had shared his impression.
So I'd share mine.
Praise for praise, curses for curses.
I opted for pure curses.
"If I were a real Great Beast, you'd die more pathetically than the hides strewn under my feet."
In that instant, the heads of seven frontline shield-bearers flew off simultaneously.
As they stepped into the encirclement, as naturally as breathing.
As if it were inevitable, seven heads tumbled across the floor.
The headless bodies froze mid-stride.
Not permitted to fall.
Not permitted to collapse.
A soldier right behind one panicked and staggered back.
"W-what...!"
"H-how did that...?!"
A beat later, blood fountained out, drenching the cavern in hot crimson.
Terror rippled through the soldiers, shattering their formation.
I kicked off the floor and charged them.
The commander bellowed in horror.
"Hold the formation!! If it breaks, we're all dead!!"
Fear offered no pardon.
The soldiers shoved their comrades' corpses forward like meat shields.
Through the gaps, spears thrust and bludgeons flew.
Weapons jabbed wildly in panic were as clumsy as a child's flailing.
This was combat that valued survival over counterattack.
Fury flashed across the faces of soldiers driven by fear.
"Uwaaaah!!!"
"Die! Die, you monster bastard!!"
"Don't fall back!! Falling back kills your comrades!!"
Even as they died, the soldiers clung to the commander's orders like a lifeline.
As if it were their only path to survival.
That fervor only grew as more soldiers fell.
I cleaved through hurled steel nets without dodging.
Advancing past the bisected nets, I deflected thrusting spears.
I pierced the press of corpses and shields head-on, swinging my sword.
The broken blade speared through a soldier's ribs, then sheared his spine and burst out the other side.
As the soldier's breath rattled out, a presence grazed my side.
The split-second gap between thrusting and retrieving my sword.
From my blind spot, a black robe fluttered, revealing red eyes.
"Ah... I could have made it painless for you."
With a soft smile, she swung her halberd upward like a thrust.
I reflexively gauged the distance and stepped back diagonally.
The halberd grazed the tip of my nose by a hair's breadth.
I thrust the broken sword in reverse.
What blocked my attack wasn't the armbanded woman.
"Uwaaah...!!"
A shoved soldier piled his shield atop the broken sword.
The instant the blade crumpled the shield, it shattered like a cookie.
Unable to withstand the impact, the soldier's arms snapped, and he tumbled across the floor.
"Kuaaah!!!"
Hearing the agonized scream, I swiftly retreated.
I snatched up a half-broken spear shaft rolling on the ground and lifted my gaze.
Black shadows flitted amid the fractured formation.
Black robes, red armbands, star cluster emblems.
The man and woman I'd spied from the vent.
"Well, you can't fill up on the first sip."
The halberd woman smiled faintly.
The greatsword man chided her.
"I wasn't expecting anything anyway."
"...How many times are you going to say that? I had hopes, so do better."
The pair lurked behind the soldiers, launching attacks.
Halberd flying in, greatsword burrowing through.
Soldiers shoving like a wall to seize attention, striking sudden gaps without mercy.
Movements methodically grinding me down for the kill.
If it resembled anti-Great Beast tactics, it was no coincidence.
I shoved a soldier's corpse to block their strikes.
Clashed my sword on a shield, recoiled out of their attack range.
Trading dozens of blows, using soldiers as living sacrifices.
It wasn't me failing assaults and paying dearly each time.
Every botched strike cost them the soldiers in tow.
Red Star was deliberately baiting them out.
To them, soldiers were expendable consumables, even in death.
"Kuh...!"
I deflected a sword stroke with the broken spear and kicked the man's leg.
The greatsword wielder's stance buckled.
I snapped his knee and ankle in reverse order.
Dodging every assault hurtling with erratic acceleration, I drove the spearhead into the man's neck.
Kaang!!
A halberd jammed in midway warped the spearhead's path.
The deviated tip grazed the man's shoulder.
In that fleeting instant, the woman sacrificed another soldier to yank him back.
The pair retreated and caught their breath.
"...Never thought I'd thank you. Eryl."
Eryl's hand trembled uncontrollably.
Just wedging the halberd for a moment had flayed the skin from her palm.
Strength far beyond human limits.
What the hell had they done to her body to unleash such power?
'Captain-level. No... more than that.'
She glared at the helmeted man.
An alien presence, reaction speed beyond imagination, destructive power rivaling a great monster.
'Corpse dismemberment shop... Auction House... Was that off-books group annihilated there because of this one guy?'
Eryl felt déjà vu from his preparedness and speed, as if he'd come fully equipped from the start.
Cold sweat beaded on her nape unbeknownst to her.
'Transcendent powerhouses don't just pop out of thin air.'
No matter the procedure, time was needed to adapt to such power.
Even adapted, without solid fundamentals, they'd be mere tough meat shields.
Such might demanded a lifetime tumbling in killing fields.
And even with it, one such powerhouse lurking unknown defied belief.
'At minimum, they'd have fame somewhere—'
Suddenly, something clicked in Eryl's mind.
'...The third organization. Something off the official records. And that power.'
Scattered keywords surged up pell-mell.
Anchored by a major recent issue she'd encountered.
Ian Valencia, who'd earned great merit subjugating the first Great Beast.
The Empress's direct retainer, granted a duchy personally.
An intuition-fueled hunch from fragmented memories under pressure.
But why did it feel so inescapably close to the truth?
Her lips parched.
Eryl spoke in a trembling voice.
"The Empress. Did the Empress send you?"
"What...?"
Ras questioned the meaning, but Eryl didn't reply.
The query was aimed at me, not him.
Phrased as a question, but harboring no doubt.
I tossed the spearhead I'd gripped to the floor.
I snatched an intact spear from a dead soldier's hand.
Eryl's face went deathly pale in an instant.
She seized Ras by the nape and bolted backward.
"W-what?!"
"Shut up and move. Unless you want to die here...!!"
How had she figured it out?
I let out a deep sigh and summoned Wave.
I'd gotten a rough sense of spear arts from watching Irena.
Recalling Irena's technique, I tentatively settled into stance.
With Wave, I swept the spear horizontally.
Every soldier and the commander bracing to respond lost their heads at once.
Not halting at one horizontal slash, I channeled the swing's momentum.
Smoothly shifting into another stance, I thrust.
The space right before the fleeing Eryl and Ras pulverized entirely.
"......!!!"