Omen 5
Omen 5
The Lamia Queen who revealed herself was nearly three times the size of the other specimens.
Uniquely, hard protrusions rose from her forehead like the horns of a horned lizard, forming the shape of a crown. Her color was a dignified gold. Her womanly upper body and serpentine lower body were also covered in golden scales.
Hinting at intelligence, she had even adorned herself, unlike the other lamias. She had woven together jewels plundered from people she had attacked to craft a massive necklace.
The precious metals fanning out from the Lamia Queen's collarbone to her chest caught the sunlight and gleamed brilliantly.
Above them rested a face that wore a serene expression, as if she had glimpsed a portion of the world's truths.
If she were to conceal her lower body, which was composed of a serpent, no one would doubt she was a wise queen of a human kingdom.
"Her Majesty."
Marbas murmured the words without thinking.
Though she was an enemy he would soon fight to the death, no other words suited the Lamia Queen better than that single phrase.
The other mercenaries merely let out sighs of admiration. Some were captivated by the queen's dignity and commanding presence, others by the crafted treasures hanging around her neck.
"Everyone, get a grip. After we kill her, skin her, and mount the hide on the castle wall, I won't say a word if you admire her every single day."
At Eugene's cold remark, scattered laughter easing the tension rippled through the ranks.
"Then, Marbas-nim. I leave it to you."
This place was a village. As it had once been a hub of trade, the ground was neatly paved and laid with stone. The energy of nature was too sparse here, so even the great Varda could do nothing.
But for the summoner Marbas, it posed no problem whatsoever.
The physiological traits of the lamias, the characteristics of the village they had occupied — he had a card prepared to counter them head-on.
"I never imagined a failed line of research would prove useful in this way. The ways of the world truly are unfathomable."
Marbas raised his oak staff and began to chant an incantation. The tip of the gnarled, twisted staff was shaped roughly like a heart.
Hiss!
Hissss!
The lamias, who had been menacingly flicking their tongues, had their expressions tinged with dismay. Goosebumps began to rise on the bare skin of their beautiful female forms.
They looked up at the sky. A small hole had formed, though none knew when. Beyond it stretched a hostile world filled only with blue ice and darkness.
From the gate to another world, a bitter, freezing cold poured down. In an instant, frost formed on the village's stone floors, and the drastic temperature shift whipped up gusts of wind.
Screech!
The lamias panicked, utterly appalled. Their earlier drive to tear the intruders apart was nowhere to be found; instead, they wrapped their arms around themselves, utterly at a loss.
The two lamias who had first spotted Eugene's army clutched each other. Their serpentine lower bodies intertwined, and their arms wrapped around each other's backs. The other lamias each sought a partner to share body heat.
Eugene's army was also within the cold's sphere of influence, but they could endure it far better than the lamias.
Crack!
Marbas's staff transformed as if into a rotten branch and then broke. It had served as a catalyst, absorbing the burden of the powerful magic in his stead.
"I will certainly compensate you for it."
"The heart of an oak won't be easy to obtain, though. Well, I'll look forward to it."
It was not a powerful spell that summoned pelting hail or sharp icicles to impale the enemy. It merely called up a cold snap for a short time.
If cast in winter, it would be meaningless; if cast in summer, the enemy would enjoy the cool breeze. It was the pinnacle of inefficiency — useless for most armies, yet exacting a great cost.
However, as a tool for targeting an army of cold-blooded creatures, it was overwhelmingly powerful.
"I tried everything to extinguish the hellfire that consumed me. But I failed each time, and the more I failed, the more extreme the methods I began to turn to."
Marbas brushed the wood splinters from his hands and gazed at the void that was spewing winter.
"That hole is the product of those studies."
"You mean countering poison with poison. The heat of hell with the cold of hell."
The abyss of the otherworld — the place people called hell did not exist in a single, uniform state.
"If an unquenchable fire burned me, I thought, what if I cast myself into ice that never melts?"
"That is an insanely dangerous idea. No human could endure it."
"I was in far too much pain to come to my senses, you see. I wanted to cling to even the faintest thread of hope."
As the two conversed, the hole grew larger still.
The Lamia Queen stood steadfast despite the biting cold. With a sharp voice, she commanded her subjects to attack the intruders.
Goaded by their fearsome queen, the lamias tried to release their mutual embrace and advance. But their bodies would not obey.
A true winter — the likes of which had never once visited Samur. That was not a problem resolvable by sheer willpower. It was the inherent limitation of a cold-blooded creature's flesh.
The lamias' heart rates dropped, their breathing became ragged, and their muscles contracted.
To a human, it would merely be "Damn, it's cold." But to a lamia, it acted like poison spreading through the entire body.
"The cold has reached its peak. It cannot be sustained for long."
"It's more than enough. Thank you for your efforts, Marbas-nim."
Eugene took up his X-shaped composite bow and fired an arrow from the front line.
Whoosh!
It flew toward the twin lamias who had been clutching each other nearest to them.
The elder sister shoved the younger one's chest fiercely, and the arrow split the gap between them by a hair's breadth.
Screech!
Hiss!
As the sisters shivered convulsively and cried out with hatred, Eugene gave a short answer.
"Open fire!"
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
As if they had been waiting, arrows were launched into the sky all at once.
They were easier to hit than when the force had ambushed the orcs a few days earlier. The cold filling the area constrained the enemy more effectively than the weapons the orcs had wielded.
Lamias struck by arrows collapsed on all sides.
Shriek!
Unable to bear the sight, the queen let out a great cry, and the lamias, as if waiting for the signal, fled into the buildings.
Thud!
Creak!
The sight of them taking refuge in the houses and using their serpent tails to slam the doors shut at the last moment was almost comical.
"Snakes will be snakes, after all. They must be rather cold."
"Then we ought to warm them up."
At Rex's words, Eugene snapped his fingers.
The heavy cavalrymen passed by the tribal warriors, resupplying them with arrows wrapped tightly in cloth. Soaked heavily in oil, they gave off a pungent, acrid smell.
Creak!
As the archers nocked the arrows onto their bowstrings and drew back, heavy cavalrymen carrying torches wove swiftly between them, setting the cloth alight.
With Eugene releasing his arrow as the signal, countless fire arrows flew into the village.
* * *
Shriek!
Eugene's army reflected that they had been hearing an awful lot of lamia screams lately.
Bang!
Clatter!
Lamias burst out from all directions, shoving doors open as if smashing them down.
Those who escaped the fiercely burning buildings desperately writhed their burning bodies against the ground, like loaches thrown alive into a boiling pot.
They barely managed to extinguish the flames, but several ordinary arrows were already upon them. The sound of arrows sinking into half-cooked snake flesh made a satisfyingly wet thud.
The buildings were burning, but the flames were nowhere near enough to offset the cold descending from the sky. The fires simply were not intense enough.
Firing many fire arrows alone could not turn the entire village into a sea of flames. It was certainly not enough to burn the lamias to death.
However.
"Kolok-kolok-!"
"Kellock-!"
It was more than enough to produce toxic smoke. Rather than hiding inside, they could barely even stand near the houses.
The lamias, unable to take shelter, had no choice but to remain exposed to the cold pouring from the sky. And that alone was sufficient.
"Loose everything! Don't conserve arrows!"
Frenzied lamias rushed forward, but their speed was absurdly slow. As they collapsed one by one, riddled like hedgehogs, the Lamia Queen, unable to endure the sight any longer, stepped forward.
Unlike her sluggish subjects, she was unaffected by the cold and thus approached at a terrifying speed.
"Concentrate fire on the Queen!"
Even before Eugene could finish giving the order, the tribal warriors were already pouring concentrated fire onto her.
But most of the arrows buried themselves in bare earth. With the Queen moving at high speed and dodging in a zigzag, it was difficult to hit her with arrows following arcing trajectories.
Even the few arrows that did land true were no more than stinging nuisances against her sheer mass.
The Lamia Queen was closing in rapidly, but the tribal warriors did not panic. Unlike the Wendigo battle, this time they were all mounted.
"Switch to mobile shooting!"
At Eugene's command, the horse archers dispersed, splitting into small groups of five or six.
Screech!
The queen, who had believed slaughter would be possible once she reached the enemy ranks, was flustered by their orderly, synchronized movement.
The group fleeing directly ahead of her twisted their waists back and delivered Parthian shots aimed at her face.
The Lamia Queen shielded her face with an arm as thick as a grown man's torso. Her upper body, covered in golden scales, deflected ordinary arrows.
Except for one thing.
Thunk!
Thunk!
When arrows struck her chest — the sole spot without scales — she clenched her fangs against the sharp sting.
But they did not deliver effective hits. Her bust size was as supernaturally immense as befitted her gigantic frame.
It was like firing arrows into a massive waterbed that was filled not with water but with fat, sloshing heavily. The arrows embedded fairly deep but never managed to pierce through the layer of fat.
The Lamia Queen abandoned the group in front of her, abruptly changing direction to target the group on the left. But such a simple feint could not work on experts of the hunt.
"Wheel!"
At the decurion's cry, the left group ceased fire and focused on fleeing.
Simultaneously, the frontal group that had been pursued until just moments ago reversed course. They loosed their arrows at the Lamia Queen's exposed flank and back.
"Remember the mercenaries you saw in the village. The Queen uses a curse. Fight her at maximum distance."
What was more, their opponent already knew of the hidden card she had kept in reserve.
A look of dismay appeared on the Queen's face for the first time. If they kept cycling their attacks and wearing her down like this, she had no answer.
What saved the Queen in her moment of crisis was time itself.
"The spell is wearing off!"
The hole that had been punched through the sky shrank considerably, and the cold energy pouring forth weakened.
Freed from the chill that had bound their bodies, the lamias rushed forward at full speed to protect their leader.
Their numbers were now few, but it was enough to sow confusion among the horse archers who had been concentrating on the Queen.
"Retreat! Pull back wider!"
The middle-aged dark elf warrior leading the rearmost group shouted. In an instant, they found themselves encircled on both sides by the Queen and the lamias.
The Lamia Queen coiled her serpentine body around a nearby small tree.
Crack!
As she exerted her strength, the tree was torn out by the roots.
While the mercenaries gaped in astonishment, the Queen lifted the tree with both hands and hurled it outright.
The tribal warriors at the rear, who had hastily wheeled their horses to flee, took the direct hit.
Horses and warriors toppled in clusters, screaming. There were no fatalities, but all had taken heavy impacts and could not rise properly.
Thud!
She wrenched out and flung a second and third tree, and further groups collapsed.
"Lord Panore!"
"No!"
Anguished cries erupted from all directions. The Lamia Queen was bearing down upon Panore, a warrior of high renown among their ranks.
Whoosh!
In that moment, something tore through the air, but the Lamia Queen paid it no mind.
Her back was protected by scales and muscle far tougher than her flanks or abdomen. Indeed, not a single arrow was embedded there.
And so the Queen was made to pay dearly for her carelessness.
Thwuck!
The bloodletting dagger Eugene had thrown buried itself to the hilt in her back.
Shriek!
A shriek rang out as the Queen clawed wildly at the empty air. The wound itself was small, but the vicious magic contained within it tore through her blood vessels and ravaged her bloodstream.
In terrible agony, she tried to pull the dagger out, but it was lodged squarely in the center of her back, beyond her reach.
Her sharp talons raked her own back and waist, drawing blood. The bloodletting dagger quivered at the highest-grade offerings wafting from all directions and emitted an intense mystery.
The Lamia Queen began to roll and thrash upon the ground. Yet a dagger driven in to the hilt had no reason to dislodge from mere rolling. It only widened the wound, amplifying her suffering.
Fwoosh!
The enchantment bound to the dagger burst forth, initiating a monstrous hemorrhage.
Blood gushed as if from a bursting dam, not only from where the dagger had struck but even from the small lacerations the Queen's own talons had opened.
"Drive off the lamias!"
In the interval, the charging knights and heavy cavalry interposed themselves between the dismounted tribal warriors and the lamias, cutting them off.
"The Queen is mine!"
Eugene raised his flail and charged toward the Queen. Someone had to draw her attention.
"Sir! It's too dangerous!"
"Sir Knight, fall back!"
A startled Haind and Rex moved to restrain him, but Eugene ignored them.
"You two fall back!"
The flail Eugene swung slammed into the Lamia Queen's serpentine torso.
A circular shockwave radiated from the point of impact, and every rib within a radius of several meters was utterly crushed.
Shriek!
"I shall attend you!"
A tribal knight nearby moved in to support Eugene, but he never managed a single thrust. The venomous-faced Queen lashed out with her tail like a whip and sent him flying.
"Kugh!"
His warhorse, terror-stricken by the Queen's ferocity, fled outright. The knight, dashed upon the ground, clutched his hideously crumpled breastplate and coughed up blood.
The Queen, trembling with rage, moved to thrash the barely-standing knight a second time with her tail, but Eugene interposed himself.
Boom!
The serpentine body sweeping horizontally was struck by the flail and slammed into the earth.
'Far too large and far too long.'
In his heart, Eugene wished to target the Queen's upper body and end it in a single blow. Yet he could scarcely enter striking range with ease.
If he overreached to strike at her upper body, he too could be gravely wounded by a single lash, just as the tribal knight had been.
Boom!
Bang!
And so he struck at the serpent's torso wherever he could reach.
A lamia's skeleton was an endless chain of thin ribs. It could resist slashing and piercing attacks effectively, but it was vulnerable to a flail that spread blunt impact across a broad area.
As the bones within a radius of several meters of each impact point were shattered again and again, the Lamia Queen was driven to the brink of losing consciousness from the pain.
She managed to summon her strength and lashed her serpentine body at Eugene.
"Futile."
Boom!
But it was intercepted mid-strike by the flail once more.
Her serpentine skin was pierced through in countless places by broken bones—a ghastly sight. Though still not mortally wounded, the Lamia Queen now struggled even to crawl.
The terror that she would truly die at this rate slithered steadily up from her breast. The decisive moment of the contest had come.
'Damn it. I need to open the distance, quickly.'
Eugene felt the same growing anxiety. It appeared an overwhelming fight on the surface, but the variable of the curse remained.
He needed more time to extract the tribal warriors who had lost their mounts. The subordinate lamias clung tenaciously, disrupting the knights' rescue efforts.
It was at that very moment that Eugene sensed a mighty mystery erupt explosively within the Lamia Queen's upper body.
Shriek!
With a shriek that seemed ready to tear through the air, blazing white light surged from the Queen's eyes, nostrils, and mouth.
Eugene instinctively recognized that light as the very curse that had swallowed the mercenaries. It was the power of the evil god who had blessed the Lamia Queen.
"Eugene!"
Varda shouted, almost screaming, at the sinister aura.
Marbas hurriedly prepared a protective spell, but before he could complete it, the flash unleashed by the Queen swept over Eugene.
Eugene gritted his teeth and raised his shield to cover his front. No matter that he was a mage harboring potent mysteries himself, he could not imagine emerging unscathed from a curse of that concentration.
In that moment, as all watched helplessly, there was one being who moved to protect Eugene alone.
Neigh!
Might, who had carried his master and maneuvered with unbroken composure throughout the battle, suddenly reared high on his hind legs.
"What?!"
The moment the startled Eugene, clinging to the reins, was left hanging near ninety degrees, the white flash engulfed Might's entire body.
The intense curse, taking the form of light, raked across all four of Might's legs, his belly, chest, neck, and face.
But Eugene, shielded by Might's body, was untouched by a single mote of light.
As though struck by acute alpha radiation, his life force savaged in an instant, Might collapsed with a thunderous boom!
"You wretch!"
Eugene, who had leapt clear and landed upon the ground, was consumed by fury and charged toward the Lamia Queen.
She, enfeebled by the excessive expenditure of power, had no means of resistance.
Grind.
The Lamia Queen distinctly heard the grinding of Eugene's teeth.
"I will kill you!"
Eugene had always approached combat with cold composure, but this time his boiling rage shattered his equanimity.
Terrified by his momentum, the Queen reflexively extended her left arm. The flail came crashing down upon it.
Crack!
The arm, shattered by a comminuted fracture, dropped limply to the ground. A scream thick with mortal terror rang out.
But every lamia who could have protected the Queen had already been turned into a corpse by arrows and spears.
In the end, her neck bones shattered under a bundle of maces, and she met a futile death.
Even seeing the Queen dead, Eugene's fury did not abate. Just as he swung again to crush her skull—
Snort...
A labored groan came from behind him. Might was still alive.
Eugene turned at once, ran back, and knelt before him. The malevolent mystery was devouring his loyal steed's entire body.
Casting aside even his flail, Eugene's hands clawed and tore away the curse blanketing Might.
But Might's life force, already ravaged, was nearly spent. Might's eyelashes quivered faintly.
As Eugene's hand stroked his forehead, the eyes he had held open with such effort blinked once. As if bidding farewell to his master.
And in that moment—
[O parting. Tarry but a moment. Mercy upon two souls bound by journey and bond...]
A sublime voice resounded within Eugene's mind.
Simultaneously, a holy mystery descended softly from the heavens and enveloped Might.
The dying ember of life. It was sustained as though something had seized hold of it.
[Castle Lord. I repay the compassion you have shown. If you would defy fate, return to the castle. With your comrade.]
The blessing of the Goddess Vanas was shielding Eugene and Might from the grasp of parting.