Hunting the Twin-Headed Ogre
Rumble, rumble. The five massive cargo wagons I had rented to haul the target Twin Head Ogres. Their enormous frames, as if several ordinary carriages had been fused together, resembled moving fortress walls. The cargo bed alone was wide enough to lay five or six adult beds side by side, and the floor had been reinforced with steel plating to bear heavy loads, gleaming with a polished sheen. Each one could probably carry at least eight oxen. Yet even these monstrous wagons would look tiny before the Twin Head Ogres. Their very skeletons were larger than those of regular ogres, their muscle density overwhelming. To load the corpses whole without damaging them, I would barely be able to cram one into each of these heavy wagons.
The heavy grinding of wheels crushing the rough dirt path echoed in every direction. The moment we entered the domain where monsters lurked, the very air of the forest changed.
Crack!Kieeeek—!
The bushes screamed as they split apart. Despite being at the entrance, dozens of goblins and orcs swarmed like starving beasts. But before the wagons could even stop, four combat slaves shot forward like bullets.
Slash. Crunch!
Elina and the combat slaves fanned out in perfect coordination. Every time their blades cut the air, the orcs’ thick neck hides tore like paper. A slaughter so swift that screams never had the chance to escape. The slaves moved like emotionless machines, striking only vital points. Goblins who charged were slammed into the ground before their feet could leave the earth.
Blackish blood sprayed in every direction, soaking the soil. The vile stench rising from an orc’s crushed innards. The sour, distinctive reek of goblins clung to the air, stabbing at the nose. A few goblins who witnessed their comrades turned to chunks of meat in an instant let out tearing screams and fled into the underbrush.
Whoosh— Thud, thud!
Yet the slaves’ thrown daggers sliced through the air and mercilessly pierced the backs of the fleeing creatures’ skulls, nailing them to the ground. A clean, efficient butchery with nothing wasted.
I stepped down from the wagon and walked slowly toward the severed orc torso rolling on the ground. Fresh blood that had not yet cooled gushed from the new cross-section.
As I stared down at it indifferently, a memory from just before leaving the mansion flickered through my mind. Theo had come running, trailing a pungent sulfur smell, clutching a leather pouch the size of an adult man’s head.
“Master! You must take this. It is the key to hunting Twin Head Ogres!”
Inside the pouch, fine powder rustled with a dry, sandy texture.
“It is a coagulation powder blended from mud slime mucus and hemostatic herbs. The instant it touches a wound, it hardens the blood like fossilized stone. It will be essential to prevent any loss of their precious serum.”
Finishing the recollection, I pulled the pouch from my belt and scattered the white powder over the orc’s blood.
Sizzle—!
With a harsh scraping sound, the flowing blood transformed into dark red solid lumps in less than a second.
“Maintain your weapons.”
At my order, the slaves retrieved leather-wrapped maintenance kits from the wagon beds. The sharp rasp of blades against rough whetstones tore through the forest’s silence. With practiced hands they scraped away the orc’s dull fat and bone fragments clinging to the greatswords, then wiped the edges with oiled cloth, honing their murderous intent.
Elina, too, leaned against the wagon railing and tended to her own blade. Each pass over the whetstone brought a cold, moonlight gleam back to life. The cool flash of steel traced her smooth jawline and slender shoulders with every stroke. The skin revealed between strands of her jet-black hair was as smooth as resilient marble, and her vividly shining sapphire eyes dissected every shadow in the forest. Tension hovered at the edge of her tightly pressed lips, taut as if ready to snap at any moment.
“An ogre’s hide is tough. A blade with nicks will bounce off their muscle instead of piercing it. Hone every edge until it can shed not a single drop of blood.”
By the time the slaves finished maintenance and their eyes had shifted into those of predators, the wagons began moving again.
Creak. Bang!
But they did not travel far before the lead wagon let out a scream-like roar and tilted violently to the right. The axle groaned under the strain as if about to snap, and the horses reared, shrieking wildly.
I dismounted and examined the damp earth. The spot where the heavy wheel had sunk was no simple pothole. It had the depth of something clawed open by a giant beast. The bases of nearby trees were crushed and bent, and a vile ammonia stench stung the nostrils.
“This is no accident. It’s a territory marker.”
I ran my finger through the sticky mucus pooled in the wheel track and issued commands. “Weapons out. From this point forward, the entire forest is hostile. Lift the wagon where the wheel is stuck.”
Two slaves immediately crawled beneath the carriage and braced levers. “Elina, take point as forward guard. Slaves, stay tight to the wagon flanks. Show no openings.”
Grrruuuung—!
The slaves’ muscles swelled as though they would burst as they heaved. The iron-reinforced wagon slowly rose. I had them fill the pit with nearby solid rocks, then raised a torch high to mark a safe route so the following wagons would not fall into the same trap.
The wagon leveled once more. Yet the air now pressed down several times heavier than before.
Sssssss—
In a forest without a breath of wind, the leaves rippled in grotesque waves. I could feel dozens of yellow eyes watching us from the darkness. They had even observed the moment we lifted and moved these massive wagons as part of the hunt.
They’re here.
House-sized shadows tore through the veil of darkness, shaking the ground as they charged.
“Everyone, dismount! Draw them into open ground!”
The instant my order rang out, Elina and the slaves sprang away like coiled springs. It was a preemptive move to prevent a chaotic melee in the narrow path from damaging the cargo wagons.
Five regular ogres had emerged. Each step crushed the earth. A terrible ammonia stench poured from their rock-like hides covered in rotten moss.
Both Victor’s memories and the combat ability I had witnessed from the slaves and Elina since taking this body were excellent. Still, the surest way to increase my own safety was to keep raising the slaves’ stats. As long as there was no major difficulty, I would handle these creatures through command alone.
“Number One, Number Two! Disrupt the vision of the one at ten o’clock. Number Three, Number Four—bind the legs of the ones on the right!”
Even amid the battlefield noise, my numbered commands struck like blades. The slaves reacted instantly, like emotionless machines.
“Elina! Slash the right joint of the one at one o’clock. Now!”
The moment Elina launched herself forward, her gaze toward me trembled faintly. She was the one once called the reaper of the battlefield, having crossed countless lines of death. Yet she had likely never seen a commander who assigned numbers to individuals in the middle of chaotic combat and controlled their positions and strike points in real time.
While she entrusted her body to my orders, she kept glancing at me. Her eyes swirled with astonishment and trust. She was clearly overwhelmed by the insight that viewed the entire battlefield like a chessboard.
Crunch—!
The sickening sound of an ogre’s tough hide being sliced rang out.
“Elina, fall back three steps exactly! Number One, Number Two—switch!”
The instant she withdrew like a feather, I scattered a handful of coagulation powder from my waist.
Sizzle—!
The hot blood gushing from the wound hardened into dark red fossils in an instant. A perfect seal that allowed not one drop to escape.
The effect exceeds expectations.
I tightened the pouch once more. This was not something to waste on mere ogres. The test had been sufficient.
“Number Three, circle to its back. Number Four, aim beneath the jaw. Elina, when it lowers its head in pain, sever the neck artery.”
My commands meshed together like perfectly fitted gears. The ogres howled and swung their arms, but those under my orders had already slipped outside the attack trajectories.
Elina, breathing hard, looked at me again. Realizing that obeying my commands produced far more certain results than her own judgment, her eyes had shifted to something closer to blind devotion.
Boom— Booom.
Then the forest itself trembled as something of an entirely different magnitude approached. A deformed giant with two heads. A Twin Head Ogre.
Each step made the ground quake. The stench of rotting flesh stabbed into every corner of the lungs.
“Target change. Number One, Number Two—left head. Number Three, Number Four—right head.”
I gripped the powder pouch and spoke coldly. “Elina, you target the convergence point of its hearts. Create an opening for me to apply the powder.”
A strange conviction settled in Elina’s eyes as she looked at me. The conviction that, under her master’s command, even this monster could be reduced to nothing more than livestock in a slaughterhouse.
The Twin Head Ogre swung its massive iron mace, shattering the ground. It monitored front and sides simultaneously with its two heads, boasting a flawless field of vision, yet that grotesque anatomy was its most fatal weakness.
Calculating its enormous stride and the rotation radius of both heads, I issued a decisive order.
“Number One, Number Two! Slip between its legs and tear the Achilles tendons. Number Three, Number Four—leap onto its back and drive your swords into the shoulders and trapezius muscles!”
The slaves scattered like shadows at my command. As Numbers One and Two sliced deep into the heel tendons, dark red blood erupted like a fountain. I did not miss the moment and flung another handful of powder.
Sizzle—!
The blood that had sprayed from its feet hardened into fossils in mid-air and pattered onto the ground. As slaves Three and Four mounted the giant’s back, burying their swords deep into its shoulders and hanging on, both heads screamed and twisted in opposite directions.
“Now, Elina! Strike upward into its chest!”
Without hesitation, Elina used the ogre’s own thigh as a stepping stone and soared into the air. As she crossed above its heads, she shot me a glance mixed with shock. My command had even calculated the rotational path where the two heads would tangle, creating a perfect blind spot.
Even the woman once called the reaper of the battlefield felt a full-body shudder at her master’s cold insight that treated the enemy’s biological structural flaws like tools even in the heat of melee. The awe in her eyes as she thought, …This person could slaughter an entire legion with a single word even without any martial power, had now taken on a hue close to worship.
Crunch!
Elina’s sword sliced vertically through the ogre’s thick chest hide. The “convergence point” where blood from both hearts met was exposed along with red flesh.
“Number One, Number Three—disengage! Number Two, Number Four—restrain both arms! Elina, dig in and pry open the chest wall!”
While the slaves risked their lives hanging from the giant’s massive arms to buy time, Elina drove her sword deep and tore the wound apart left and right.
Gush. Gush!
Hot, thick blood poured like a waterfall. I conserved the powder pouch for the next hunt, sprinkling it precisely only where necessary.
“Success. Its pulse is slowing.”
I weighed the remaining powder in my hand. Enough to handle two more Twin Head Ogres.
“Number One, Number Four! Bend both arms backward and pin them to the ground! Number Two, Number Three—lift the chin to secure the airway!”
At my command the slaves swarmed over the screaming monster’s giant frame. It thrashed with the strength of its death throes, but legs with severed Achilles tendons could not support it and collapsed.
“Elina, do not touch the neck. You will damage the nerve cord. Sever only the aorta inside the chest’s convergence point.”
Elina’s eyes flashed sharply. To stop its breath without destroying the brain, the blood flow from heart to head had to be momentarily blocked to induce shock. She read my intent instantly and set her sword tip vertical.
Splurt—!
A strike closer to precise surgery than swordplay. The vessel deep within the convergence point burst, and blood began pooling inside. I sprinkled an appropriate amount of powder between the gaping chest walls.
Sizzzzzle—!!
The powerful coagulation reaction near the heart clogged the blood vessels from within. The blood meant for the head hardened and stopped in an instant. The Twin Head Ogre’s two eyes lost focus and rolled back. A perfect “shutdown” that left not a single scratch on brain or nerves, halting only the power source.
Thud—!!
With a heavy roar that shook the ground, the Twin Head Ogre’s giant body collapsed helplessly.
Elina flicked the blood from her sword and bowed to me. Her gesture now carried unconcealable admiration. The master’s understanding and efficiency in perfectly grasping a monster’s physiology without any personal martial power and applying it to the hunt felt like a far greater and more overwhelming force than the swordsmanship to which she had devoted her life.
I carefully examined the nape connecting its two heads. The tightly swollen nerve cord remained smooth and undamaged.
“Everyone, load the corpse into the wagon. Not a single scratch.”
At my command the four combat slaves swarmed around the giant body. Shouldering the log-like limbs one by one, they swelled their muscles with battle cries.
“Hrrraaagh!”
The wagon’s axle screamed under the massive weight, but the slaves lifted it with practiced movements and pushed it deep into the cargo bed. A healthy body makes for a comfortable mind. Next time I would need to prepare something like a pulley system.
Hunting Twin Head Ogres was hardly easy difficulty, and catching them this way was absurd. It was a sight ordinary adventurers could never imagine. When they finally killed a monster after a desperate struggle, they collected blood from wounds or severed surfaces into bottles, then used rags or absorbent leather to wipe up the pooled blood on the ground. The “filthy water” wrung from cloths mixed with dirt and filth was what circulated in the market.
Even so, Twin Head Ogre blood itself performed so well that even lower-quality samples were treated as miraculous tonics among nobles and sold like hotcakes. The value of this “100% pure” blood, sealed without contamination by powder, would be far higher.
Just as I moved to close the wagon door, a sticky voice drifted from beyond the darkness of the forest.