Chapter 195
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 195
However, landing on solid ground was another story entirely. The crux of the matter was whether Calamidad would descend to the land at all.
This territory, known as Oakley, was several degrees warmer than the surrounding areas. Not only was the region blessed by earth spirits, but its topography also made it easy for warm air to pool.
In other words, it was the perfect place for the giant turtle to lay its eggs.
This was the “next landing site” predicted by the Empire.
If they failed to drive it away, the territory would be wiped off the map.
The old soldier, who had stumbled over to deliver his report, finally collapsed, unable to withstand the mental strain any longer. The Older Yaksha Sister gave a brief command—“Don't eat him, just bury him properly”—and let out a sigh.
“Well, looks like we’re going to clash.”
They had no anti-air weapons, nor did they seem to have any mages capable of launching spells high into the sky.
This meant the humans were waiting for the giant turtle to land. If they interfered with its nesting, the monsters couldn't just stand by and watch.
“Sister, but…”
“I know.”
Even so, making a preemptive strike now was a risky proposition. Swallow had explicitly told them to avoid causing trouble as much as possible.
What if Calamidad didn’t settle here, contrary to the humans’ expectations?
Or what if it landed in a spot that didn’t cause much damage to their territory, prompting them to give up on the subjugation?
“…For now, we observe.”
Let’s eliminate any chance of unnecessary friction, the Older Yaksha Sister thought as she spoke.
They still had time. After all, the humans over there were merely soldiers scraped together from an ordinary territory. On their side, they had dozens of A-rank monsters. They could easily crush them at any moment.
The Older Yaksha Sister divided the tracking team once more. A few monsters took turns monitoring the humans while the rest took shelter out of sight.
It was a brief, sweet sleep.
*
A chilling sensation woke the Older Yaksha Sister from her slumber.
She opened her eyes to darkness. The sun had set and the moon had risen; it was already the dead of night. As she slowly sat up, the first thing she saw was the Younger Yaksha Sister, sitting quietly beside her and keeping watch.
“…How long was I out?”
“About three hours, Sister.”
Three hours wasn’t very long. Since they had agreed to rotate the watch every four hours, they still had an hour to spare.
And yet, even though she hadn’t slept long…
“…It’s cold.”
The air was freezing, but this was no ordinary chill. Looking up, she saw the sky was heavily overcast.
The Younger Yaksha Sister nodded, her expression tense.
The other monsters nearby were also staring at the Older Yaksha Sister. They were all feeling the exact same thing.
A drop in temperature at night was natural, but even accounting for that, it was unnaturally cold.
“…The wind.”
“Yes. It’s the wind, Sister.”
The open fields ahead were naturally windy, but the gale blowing now was absurdly powerful.
The Older Yaksha Sister, who had been sitting in a daze from the sudden change, widened her eyes.
A sudden thought struck her.
Someone was bringing the wind with them.
“…Hey.”
The sky, which had been faintly glowing with a twilight purple, suddenly plunged into darkness.
It didn’t darken gradually. In less than a second, pitch-black darkness swallowed their vision. Even though they were monsters with excellent night vision, they couldn’t see a single thing.
Since the Primordial Core was also a place where nothing could be seen without a light source, the monsters didn’t panic. However, they all knew exactly what kind of situation brought about this level of darkness.
A darkness so absolute that not a single speck of light could penetrate it.
“Is it already here?”
A colossal shadow floating in the sky was blocking out every last ray of light reaching the ground.
In an instant, a tempest swept through the forest.
RUMBLE—!
The Older Yaksha Sister staggered under the roaring gale. While the heavier monsters managed to stand their ground, the smaller ones were swept off their feet, sent flying and crashing into their surroundings.
The Older Yaksha Sister was also lifted into the air, barely managing to hold on by grabbing a massive tree. She tried to curse, but the wind was so violent she couldn't even open her mouth. Dust and debris whipped through the air in a frenzy, some slicing across her skin as they flew past.
Dozens of seconds passed.
Once the wind finally swept by, the area was left in utter ruin. Barely regaining her senses, the Older Yaksha Sister stumbled to her feet and shouted. Since monitoring the humans was impossible in this darkness anyway, the other monsters gathered toward her voice.
They waited for dozens of seconds more.
Only after waiting in the pitch-black for what felt like an eternity did Calamidad's colossal shadow finally begin to shift.
The Older Yaksha Sister immediately rushed out of the bushes and looked up at the source of the shadow.
“…”
An indescribable aura washed over her.
When she had first heard it was five hundred meters wide, she hadn’t thought much of it. But seeing it in person was entirely different. It looked like a fortress floating in the sky—a mobile fortress that dragged wind and darkness in its wake.
The Older Yaksha Sister’s body trembled slightly.
“Everyone, assemble!”
Since the humans had already retreated inside the castle walls before nightfall, there was no longer any need to hide. The Older Yaksha Sister gathered everyone and took a quick headcount of the tracking team.
Only after confirming everyone was accounted for did she bite her lip.
“Fu…ck…”
Calamidad’s arrival was a whole day earlier than expected. They hadn’t been able to prepare at all.
Everything is messed up. Damn it. Damn it.
She had let her guard down. No, they simply lacked information. If only the Leprechaun Merchant Guild were here—come to think of it, why hadn't they made contact? Even if they hadn't arrived yet, shouldn't they have sent a carrier pigeon by now?
But she didn’t even have the luxury to complain.
“Vanguard!” the Older Yaksha Sister shouted.
The fastest monsters in the tracking team stepped forward.
“Pursue the turtle immediately! Communication team, maintain the minimum distance required to keep the signal and give me updates. And the fastest among the vanguard, go report to Lord Swallow! Now!”
She then turned to the remaining monsters and barked, “The rest of you, follow me!”
Using the monster in front of her as a springboard, the Older Yaksha Sister leaped into the air and sprinted toward the human territory.
Calamidad was passing directly over Oakley. The Older Yaksha Sister bit her lip again, drawing blood as her small, sharp fangs pierced the skin.
Calamidad continued to drift through the sky, passing over Oakley’s castle walls. Fortunately, it didn’t descend directly into the center of the human settlement.
However…
Calamidad suddenly slowed and began a gradual descent toward the earth.
“…!!”
It was planning to settle in the grassy plains near the territory, a meadow lush with small trees.
Just as the Older Yaksha Sister was about to shout the order to pursue, a massive roar, loud enough to be heard from afar, echoed across the plains.
“Are you fucking kidding me…!”
The humans were pouring out of the castle.
*
Were those humans out of their minds, charging at Calamidad? Did they actually think they could win?
It was absurd. The probability of humans defeating Calamidad didn't just approach zero; it was flat-out zero. She was absolutely certain that humans of their caliber stood no chance against a Great Evil Cave.
They were simply charging forward blindly under their lord’s command.
Simply because they had numbers on their side. Because they had never faced a Great Evil Cave before. They were likely thinking, With this many of us, even if we can't kill it, we can at least drive it away.
The real problem was that Calamidad was pathetically gentle.
That massive turtle was so cowardly that it had abandoned its southward journey in previous years at the slightest human resistance. If this skirmish made it perceive Oakley as a dangerous place, it might delay its nesting and keep moving until it found somewhere safer.
Which meant they would have to track it all over again—across an indefinitely long distance, potentially for weeks.
They absolutely could not let the humans interfere with Calamidad’s nesting.
Leading the vanguard, the Older Yaksha Sister sprinted with all her might.
The turtle…
Calamidad was attempting to land in the middle of the plains. Normally, she would have seen nothing but a massive black shape shifting in the darkness—but because the foolish humans were holding torches all over the place, she had no trouble finding her way.
The sharp blades of grass in the meadow sliced like knives, leaving a constant stream of scratches on her skin as she tore through them. The Older Yaksha Sister furrowed her brow but didn't slow down.
There are too many humans…
There were far too many of them. Since it was already a cold, pitch-black night, killing a few stragglers in the rear wouldn't be enough to break their formation.
In that case…
When the distance between her and the human army closed to under twenty meters, a soldier at the very rear finally turned his head, alerted by the sound of her approach.
“Huh?”
Their eyes met. And then—
Crunch!
The Older Yaksha Sister stomped down, using the soldier's face as a springboard. His skull caved in, and he collapsed face-first into the dirt.
She immediately stepped on another soldier’s shoulder, leaping once more.
She had no interest in the necks of these worthless grunts. She had only one target in mind.
The commander’s head.
“All forces, prepare to att—!”
Before the commander could finish his shout, the Older Yaksha Sister pounced, landing squarely on his shoulders.
She instantly grabbed his chin and helmet with both hands. Only then did the commander realize someone was on him, and he looked up.
He was met with a gaze dripping with pure malice. Despite the bright torchlight illuminating the area, those eyes glowed with a sinister red light.
A demon straight out of rumors.
“A-A monster…”
Crack!
His head, twisted completely around, fell to the ground.
*
Just a moment ago, their commander had been standing right beside them, bellowing orders. It had literally been a second ago.
And yet…
“Huh?”
The soldier standing next to him looked down, checking on the commander who had suddenly collapsed into the grass.
His face was grotesquely twisted backward.
“A-Aaaaah!”
That single scream ignited absolute chaos. Shouts erupted from all directions as attacks began to rain down.
The first attack to fly toward the Older Yaksha Sister was a spear. She didn’t bother dodging the blind thrust, catching the shaft with one hand.
When his attack was stopped by sheer, overwhelming strength, the panicked soldier let out an incoherent shriek.
Soldiers untrained in combat often failed to let go of their weapons even when they desperately needed to.
The soldier in front of her was no exception.
“Let go! Let go of it! Aaaaargh!”
The Older Yaksha Sister hoisted the spear upward, lifting the soldier into the air as he desperately clung to the shaft. With a powerful heave, she hurled both spear and soldier into the distance, sending him crashing into the far-off brush.
“Where did this thing come from?!”
“Surround it! Don’t let it escape!”
Having steeled themselves for a battle against Calamidad, the humans recovered from their shock quickly. The grating sound of dozens of soldiers drawing their swords echoed through the night.
But just as the humans closed their encirclement around the Yaksha—
A loud rustling tore through the brush as a Lycanthrope burst through their front lines, claws bared. It snatched three soldiers in an instant, dragging them dozens of meters away. Only their fading screams remained.
Nearby, another soldier who had been muttering “What in the world…?” suddenly collapsed, clutching his chest. A wooden stake was embedded deep in his sternum, a flower of crimson blood blooming from the wound.
One by one, the humans fell.
Amidst the chaotic melee, a soldier who had luckily survived the initial onslaught turned his head toward the direction the stake had flown from.
Over a dozen shadows, both large and small, were closing in on them.
“What are you monsters…?!” one of the knights, clearly a stronger combatant, finally demanded.
The Older Yaksha Sister turned her murderous gaze toward him.
“Get the fuck out of here. Now.”
“This is the sacred territory of Oakley! You are the ones who should leave!”
“Dumbass.”
The knight raised his sword high. Though the moon was completely obscured, the blade emitted a brilliant blue glow of its own.
Most of the regular soldiers had kept their swords sheathed, with only the spearmen taking up combat stances. They knew that slashing or stabbing Calamidad with ordinary swords wouldn't even leave a scratch.
However, while the regular soldiers had been preparing siege weapons, these select knights had been infusing their blades with magic. They were elite combatants capable of wounding Calamidad with their sword strikes alone.
“Sister.”
The Younger Yaksha Sister slowly stepped up to her sister’s side. Her eyes glowed with a sinister, ash-gray light. The knights swallowed hard and took a step back.
Just as they were about to clash—
RUMBLE!
The very earth beneath them violently convulsed.
Yakshas, monsters, knights, and soldiers—everyone present, without exception, stumbled as the sudden shockwave rippled through the ground.