Tombstone and Rampart
Tombstone and Rampart
As if there were no tomorrow, I pushed my Dantian's aura to the limit.
I thoroughly ignored the pain of my screaming bones and muscles.
I gripped the dagger's hilt with both hands and struck down at the grotesque cocoon curled up in the center of the barren earth.
Kwaaa-jik!
A heavy sensation of slicing through something traveled up my fingertips.
At the same time.
"Kieeeeeek-!"
A horrific scream, not of this human world, burst forth as if to tear my eardrums apart.
A bizarre wave exploded out through the gap in the torn cocoon.
"Urgh...!"
I didn't even have time to defend.
An overwhelming shockwave that distorted the air slammed into my chest.
I was sent flying dozens of meters away and rolled roughly on the dirt floor.
"Keuhuk."
Along with the pain of my lungs being crushed, bright red blood gushed out as I opened my mouth.
The internal injuries were deep. But even as I spat blood, I pressed my hands against the ground and staggered to my feet.
The spot where the dust settled.
Inside the cocoon, which had been torn completely in half, a single crimson 'moon' flashed and opened its eye, piercing through the pitch-black darkness.
'Kkigigigi-gik'
With a bizarre sound of joints snapping, it crawled out.
The size of a wild dog.
Eight red eyes rolled around on its hideous, spider-like body, glaring into the void.
Twelve bizarre legs supporting its body.
[Red Moon of the Twelve Tombstones that Devours All Things]
The base of its second leg on the right was deeply gouged, and deep purple blood was dripping from it.
It was the spot where my dagger had been plunged just moments ago.
"...It was shallow."
I couldn't finish it off.
I gripped my bloodied dagger tighter and tensed my leg muscles for the next clash.
However.
It didn't pounce at me.
"Kkigigik-! Kieeeeeek!"
Its eight eyes turned toward the sky in unison, and it let out a bone-chilling scream that shook the entire forest.
Then, limping on its injured leg, it turned its back on me and began to flee like an arrow in the opposite direction.
"You bastard!"
I kicked off the ground in a hurry, trying to chase after it.
Keureureureu-.
At that moment, dozens of yellow glares flashed in the darkness all around.
A pack of wolf monsters, 'Grizzle', whose origin was unknown, appeared and perfectly blocked the space between me and it, baring their teeth.
'That scream just now.'
My thoughts froze coldly.
'Was it a signal to control the surrounding monsters?'
I spat out a curse and sliced through the throats of the wolves that lunged at me.
But by the time I broke through the beasts' meat shield, the main body of the disaster, which had been bleeding purple blood, had already completely vanished into the darkness.
The campsite was in an uproar.
Because of the horrific scream that echoed from the deepest part of the forest, all the knights and cadets had poured out of their tents, fully armed.
I walked into the campsite entrance, covered in blood.
And I met the gaze of a huge shadow standing guard at the entrance.
Valian.
He had known I snuck out of the dormitory every night and had turned a blind eye to it.
But seeing the state I was in when I returned, deep wrinkles formed on his brow.
"What kind of trouble have you been getting into?"
Valian rebuked me heavily, scanning my wounds.
I decided to thoroughly exploit this situation.
My underdeveloped body had let it escape anyway. To definitively finish it off and evacuate Ines, I needed the power and authority of that knight.
"I encountered a high-level monster. It was one that controls lower-level monsters."
At my dry report, Valian's eyes wavered.
"I inflicted a fatal wound, but I couldn't finish it off because it used a pack of wolves as a shield."
"Ha! What a load of bullshit."
Just then, one of the noble cadets who had gathered behind me scoffed.
"A monster that controls monsters? That's bullshit I've never even seen in academy textbooks. You're just telling cowardly lies to cover up your crime of sneaking out at night..."
Awooooo-!
It was before the noble bastard's mockery could even finish.
The entire forest began to shake with a massive tremor.
The howling of thousands of Grizzle erupted from all sides, as if to tear our eardrums.
"W-what...!"
In the darkness, a literal black wave was surging toward us.
Hundreds, thousands of monsters with their eyes rolled back began to pour toward the campsite like madmen.
Commonly known as a 'Wave'.
"Form ranks! Raise your shields!"
With the urgent shouts of the knights, the campsite instantly turned into chaos.
The terrified noble cadets rolled around screaming without even drawing their swords.
Valian looked back and forth between the pouring horde of monsters and my eyes.
Conviction settled in his eyes. That my words were not a lie.
"Lead the students and the wounded and retreat to the safe house in the rear. Now."
Valian ordered me as he drew his sword.
And he took a potion bottle from his waist and tossed it into my arms.
"Use this to stop the bleeding first."
Clack.
I caught the potion bottle with one hand.
"......."
My gaze stopped.
A small glass bottle with red liquid sloshing inside.
But it wasn't the 'top-tier potion' he had given me a few days ago.
It was a common 'standard-issue potion' found on the market, contained in a crude bottle.
I could tell.
This man, when he handed over that precious and expensive potion a few days ago.
He had already given me the best thing he had, without holding anything back.
It wasn't because he had plenty; it was kindness, generously giving his own share for an injured teenage boy.
A strange emotion swirled in a corner of my heart.
I silently shoved the cheap potion bottle into my pocket and ran toward the tent where Ines was.
I sprinkled the potion on my wounds and picked her up.
It was just as I was about to join the rear ranks of the screaming, fleeing cadets and escape the campsite.
"Block them! If they break through, it's over!"
The front line of the campsite.
Where Valian's unit was holding the defensive line against the monster horde, horrific despair descended.
"...Crazy."
My footsteps, heading toward the rear, came to a dead stop.
A huge shadow standing tall, trampling the monsters.
The spider monster that had fled from me just an hour ago, the size of a wild dog.
It had already grown grotesquely to twice the size of an adult male.
The wound I had sliced was visibly perfectly healed, and there wasn't even a trace of the purple blood it had been shedding.
My perfect slaughter plan had been miserably thwarted.
"Kuaaaaah!"
As the grown disaster swung its front legs, the knights' shields were crushed like paper and sent flying.
The defensive line was on the verge of collapsing in an instant.
"Retreat! Everyone retreat! I'll hold this place!"
In the face of that overwhelming might, Valian roared like a lion and remained alone at the front.
A bluish aura exploded from his massive frame.
Mental Image release.
Space distorted, and that huge, solid 'Wall of Steel' that had pressed down on me was painted over reality.
Dozens of monsters lunged, but they shattered upon hitting Valian's Mental Image.
Taking advantage of that opening, the students and the wounded began to flee toward the rear like madmen.
Clicking my tongue at the power of that overwhelming Mental Image, I held Ines tight in my arms and sprinted toward the safe zone in the rear.
First, I had to shove this fragile shell into the safest place possible.
Kwang-!
Valian gritted his teeth and struck away the spider's leg.
His Mental Image, 'Wall of Steel', was perfectly protecting the retreating students, but the durability of the Mental Image was by no means infinite.
'I must strike that main body.'
Valian exhaled rough breaths and glared at the spider.
Ta-at!
Valian narrowed the wall, concentrated his power into a single point, and rushed toward the spider's body.
His greatsword tore through the spider's outer shell and inflicted a dark red wound.
However, it avoided a fatal wound and did something bizarre.
"Kieeeeek!"
The spider leaped back, snatched up the lower-level monsters nearby with its legs, and shoved them into the beast's maw.
Ujeok, Kwajik.
A horrific sound of bones and flesh being chewed.
The spider's wounds, having devoured the monsters, healed in an instant, and its body grew even more hideously large.
At the same time, the surrounding monsters that witnessed the predation rolled their eyes back in extreme terror and began to throw themselves at Valian's wall even more ferociously.
Infinite predation and evolution, and a war of attrition using meat shields.
Valian's Mental Image, specialized for protection, gradually couldn't withstand the insane war of attrition and began to crack.
"Urgh...!"
Red blood burst from Valian's mouth.
He was out of breath.
He unconsciously groped for the potion pouch at his waist.
"......."
It was empty.
Valian recalled that he had tossed his last remaining cheap potion to Kyle earlier.
A desperate crisis, the shadow of death tightened around his throat, but.
'Heh.'
Instead of bitter regret, Valian let out a chuckle through his rough beard.
'Even if I grow old and bury my bones here.'
He glared at the disaster running wild before his eyes and gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands.
'I can't let a scar be left on the body of a young kid with a bright future.'
As a true knight and adult, he felt proud of his empty pocket.
He was willing to burn his body and commit mutual destruction.
'Everyone else has evacuated.'
Valian completely withdrew his Mental Image, the symbol of defense, 'Wall of Steel'.
A fierce aura, solely for destruction and attack, condensed on his greatsword.
"Die, you beast!"
Valian leaped toward the disaster, spitting blood.
The spider's massive front leg and Valian's greatsword clashed mercilessly.
Ka-ang-! Kwajik!
The beast's outer shell and the steel collided, and a horrific tearing sound rang across the battlefield.
Valian exchanged desperate blows, giving up his flesh to carve the bone.
However, the evolved disaster's power was overwhelming. Every time a sword strike missed, Valian's armor dented and blood splattered.
'I must create an opening.'
Valian's cloudy eyes flashed.
He was prepared for perfect mutual destruction. Even if it meant willingly letting one of the creature's lethal legs pierce his abdomen, he had to slice it in that split-second opening.
Valian gave up defense and dove deep into the beast's embrace.
Just as the spider's sharp, massive leg was about to pierce Valian's abdomen like a wedge.
"Get lost!"
Kaaaaang-! Seogeok-!
"...!"
The creature's outer shell, which had become harder than steel through predation.
Was severed before a blade imbued with miraculous power, with a horrific sound, as if slicing through tofu.
"Kieeeeeek-!"
The disaster, having its massive leg sliced off entirely, let out a bizarre, eardrum-tearing scream.
"Kyle! You crazy bastard, this is no place for you!"
Valian, having escaped the crisis, shouted in astonishment, but it was already too late.
The disaster, driven mad by the pain of its severed leg.
Its eight red eyes flashed in unison toward me, floating in mid-air.
"...Fuck."
All the aggro and overwhelming murderous intent the creature had directed at Valian shifted to me in an instant.
Because of the recoil from cutting the leg, I was floating in the air, and my means to twist my body or evade were completely blocked.
"Kuaaaaah-!"
The disaster roared as if to kill.
To end my life while I was floating in the air, its remaining massive legs began to pour down like wedges, constricting me like a spiderweb.