Survivors (1)
When night fell and darkness began to blanket the forest, the woods grew even quieter—and far more dangerous. The biting wind had died away.
“……”
Neither Garan nor any of his squad members uttered a single word. Every nerve was stretched taut, focused solely on hunting for the enemies lurking in the shadowed trees.
One soldier caught a glimpse of a chilling crimson glow in the darkness.
“Ah…!”
A short cry—whether a scream or a gasp, no one could tell. But everyone knew exactly what it meant. There was no need for explanation. Even without seeing or hearing it, they could feel the faint tremor in the air against their skin.
The crimson lights were not singular. They came in pairs. And their numbers were slowly increasing.
“Fuck… this is real…” one soldier muttered under his breath. He instinctively sensed that his future was about to become anything but smooth.
Because dozens of those crimson eyes were now emerging from the darkness, drawing steadily closer.
“Hounds.”
“What a filthy amount of them.”
A pack of massive, wolf-like demonic beasts stood there, drooling heavily as they growled at their prey. There were eleven of them. While these creatures were known to hunt in packs, the usual size was around six. This number was far too large for a standard group.
Each hound was big enough to easily pin down a grown man. Worse, they possessed terrifying speed that belied their bulk. But the most critical thing to watch out for when facing a pack of hounds wasn’t their raw physical power.
“If any of you get bitten, consider it over. The moment those teeth sink in, your flesh and even your bones will melt away.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood.”
The tense squad members nodded firmly at Garan’s warning. The saliva dripping from the hounds’ jaws was a potent neurotoxin. Even a single splash on bare skin would cause the affected area to rot and disintegrate in seconds. That was why they had to fear the venomous drool far more than any physical strike.
Breaking into a cold sweat, the soldiers tightened their grips on swords and shields, refusing to let their guard down for even an instant.
Grrrrr!
At last, the hounds charged as one toward the squad.
“Krrgh…!”
One squad member ground his teeth and thrust his shield forward at the oncoming beast. The iron shield slammed into the hound’s head with a heavy thud.
But the creature didn’t stop. Even after taking a direct blow to the skull, it kept pushing, desperately trying to get past the shield and sink its fangs into the soldier’s torso. It was nothing but the raw, aggressive instinct of a predator trying to tear into its meal.
“Aaaagh! What the hell kind of strength is this…!” the soldier spat in frustration, barely holding the hound’s jaws at bay with his shield. If he relaxed for even a second, the beast would rip his entire arm off along with the shield. The combination of ferocious speed and crushing weight made the charge terrifyingly powerful. He held on with everything he had.
For just a few seconds. A single moment.
While the hound was focused entirely on the man in front of it, two other squad members slipped in from its left and right flanks.
Shunk!
One drove a sword into its side, the other a spear. The hound that had been charging straight ahead suddenly shuddered and let out a small whimper.
Before its agonized scream could even escape its throat—
Crunch!
The soldier who had been blocking it with his shield brought his mace down hard on its head with his free hand. The hound’s skull couldn’t withstand the blow. Its head slammed into the ground, spraying blood everywhere.
“Haa…”
The soldier had just begun to exhale in relief at having taken down one of them when—
“Next wave incoming! Guard the front!”
Garan’s sharp bark snapped him back to attention. They had only killed one out of the eleven that had charged at once. The fight was far from over.
Including Garan, the squad numbered thirteen in total. The numbers were roughly even, but considering three men had been needed just to bring down a single hound moments ago, the numerical advantage wasn’t nearly as significant as it seemed.
Yet victory didn’t depend solely on numbers or individual strength.
“Hup!”
With a short burst of energy, Garan swung his sword at the head of another charging hound. A clean, vertical slash delivered with precise breathing. A single line carved through the air and split the beast’s skull. Blood from the cleaved head splattered across his armor.
Garan stepped past the fallen hound and pressed forward. Only two remained.
Grrrk!
Another one immediately leapt at him. The battle showed no signs of slowing.
Garan sliced off another head and shouted, “Shield bearers! Three of you—form up and hold the front!”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers moved with crisp efficiency at their squad leader’s command. They regrouped around Garan, and three men with shields stepped forward to create a solid wall.
Grrrrrrr!
Three or four hounds slammed into the shields in unison.
“Kgh…!”
The soldiers clenched their teeth and held their ground against the immense weight of the charge that nearly knocked them off their feet. Meanwhile, other hounds tried to slip around the sides outside the shield wall, but swords and spears instantly blocked their advance.
The formation—soldiers clustered together with hounds charging from all directions—resembled a wide-spread fan.
“Hold!”
“Uaaaah! Please kill them faster!” one of the shield bearers cried desperately in response to Garan’s order. His voice, thick with screams, carried the raw desperation of someone fighting for his life.
“Ready to fire!”
Finally, the mage at the very rear delivered the news they had been waiting for. He leveled the “weapon” in his hands toward the heads of the hounds pressing against the shield wall.
That “weapon” looked nothing like a normal sword or spear. It was a long metal rod—so long it would take both arms fully extended to reach from one end to the other. It was a specially crafted, magic-imbued rifle.
“Mono! Reese! Open a gap!”
At Garan’s shout, two of the front-line shield bearers widened the distance between them. The desperate defensive line parted.
Krrk!
One hound immediately lunged through the opening, charging past the shield bearers toward the soldiers in the rear. The monster had no idea the gap had been deliberately opened to lure it in.
Bang!
The user expended a set amount of mana to load the spell, then fired it through the muzzle at the end of the barrel. The barrel shook violently as it spat out light. The spell that had been fired was Gale Pistol. A formless bullet tore through the air like a howling gale.
The magical shot struck its target with perfect accuracy.
Booom!
The head of the hound that had been charging between the shields exploded. The spell, which concentrated mana into a single point before firing, boasted terrifying destructive power. Its only drawback was the significant time and mana required to prepare each shot, but that single overwhelming strength made it more than worth using.
Two soldiers stepped through the gap left by the trampled, headless hound. They slipped into the flanks and thrust their blades at the hounds on either side. Taking advantage of the momentary stiffness that came when a hound was stabbed in the neck, they stabbed two, three more times before it could rampage.
“Krr—aaaagh!”
On the other hand, one of the hounds on the left side of the fan formation finally managed to shove a soldier to the ground. But that, too, had been anticipated.
Garan immediately stepped in. He cut down the hound that was about to bite the fallen man. The other side didn’t hold for long either and soon collapsed, but—
Boom!
The second gunshot rang out, and another hound’s head burst apart.
That essentially used up both of the limited-shot rifles they had been carefully preserving. Since it would take several minutes before they could fire again, they had played their trump card at the very last moment.
But after eliminating roughly five hounds, the tide of battle finally began to turn in their favor. Killing seven of them with no serious injuries to the squad was a massive achievement. Garan thought clearing the remaining four wouldn’t be too difficult.
Until…
“…What is this?”
Garan’s wary gaze settled on the hound that had been at the very back. At some point, it had stopped participating in the coordinated attack and was now watching him and his men from a slight distance, as if observing how the fight was unfolding. The sight filled him with a deep sense of unease.
Then the hound lifted its head.
It was staring up at the dark night sky—an incomprehensible action. Garan tried to guess what it meant, but he never got the chance to solve the mystery.
Awooooooooooo!
It hadn’t simply been looking at the sky. The purpose had been to send a long, resonant howl echoing across the heavens.
“That bastard…!” Garan’s face twisted in anger.
Several of the soldiers still fighting the remaining hounds realized the creature’s intent a moment later.
“No way…?”
“Calling its comrades?”
It wasn’t an impossible idea. But until now, they had never even considered the possibility. Had these demonic beasts truly possessed enough intelligence to summon their own kind?
It wasn’t carelessness. Dealing with the current numbers had already been overwhelming, and they had never encountered such a situation before. Or perhaps it had been complacency, wrapped in the hope and wish that such a thing wouldn’t happen. In that case, wasn’t this exactly what carelessness looked like?
The moment of self-reproach passed quickly. Garan immediately understood the situation.
This is no time to be blaming myself.
He had to issue orders right away.
“Retreat! We’re pulling out of this position! Before that howl draws even more of them here—!”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers fighting the hounds broke away and began running in the direction Garan indicated. His judgment was correct. Even if they wiped out the remaining pack, there was no telling how many more would come after hearing that howl. And if other types of demonic beasts were drawn in and joined the fray, he couldn’t guarantee the survival of either himself or his men.
Survival came first.
They ran desperately at full speed for that very reason.
Grrrk!
A single hound suddenly appeared from the front and charged straight at them. It seemed to have been drawn by the howl, but ironically, it had come from the worst possible direction.
“What the hell is this—!”
There was nothing to call it but terrible luck. It was a catastrophic threat they had no time to prepare for.
And that catastrophe struck the soldier running at the very front. He was hit head-on by the hound’s ambush and sent tumbling across the ground.
“Kgh… ugh…”
The soldier groaned, coughing up blood. The damage to his chest and abdomen looked severe.
“Hey! Are you okay!?”
A comrade helped the fallen man up. In that brief moment of hesitation, the hounds that had been chasing them—and others that had joined from a different direction—surrounded Garan and his squad.
“This… really feels like we’re completely fucked, doesn’t it?” one soldier muttered, cold sweat dripping down his face. He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular. He was simply voicing how bleak their situation had become.
Booom!
A hound’s head exploded.
“……!?”
“What the—again!?”
It was a completely unexpected development with no warning whatsoever. A tremendous blast had blown the hound’s head apart, and something heavy had slammed into the ground.
Garan, his squad members, and even the pack of hounds all froze for a moment, staring at the same spot.
The lump of metal embedded in the ground was a weapon.
“…A mace?”
Garan realized the mace had been what had shattered the hound’s skull and immediately scanned their surroundings. It definitely hadn’t come from him or his men.
Someone else had just entered the fight. Not a demonic beast—a person.
Who the hell is it?
He sensed a presence. Footsteps that made no attempt to hide approached, and a man stepped into view.