It had been two weeks since the battle over the Carorolaia Magical Silver Mine. The civil war and its aftermath had finally over, and so restoration work was proceeding at a rapid pace at the branch castle that served as a base against the Meizenav family. The magical silver mine that sipped the blood of many soldiers should have regained its peace by now.
However, it wasn’t the case.
“Hurry up, run!!”
Kalim called out to his childhood friend, Kuwen. With no time to respond to the call, Kuwen simply let out a sigh.
“Haah, Fuu, Haa…”
Kalim thought that it couldn’t be helped. Even though the wounds from the ice lance had closed and Kuwen was able to move, there was no doubt that he was still in the recovery process. On top of that, since he had lived with his legs covered for a while, his legs were shaking like a fawn due to fatigue, and also fear.
The root of the fear was the one-eyed giant, Cyclops, who was closing the distance. That was the true identity of the monster that was chasing Kalim and Kuwen, forcing them to run.
“Why are you, so persistent!”
Contrary to its outward appearance, its legs were very agile, befitting its gigantic build, which was about four or five meters. In fact, the unit to which Kuwen and Kalim were assigned, was attacked by Cyclops, and although they scattered and tried to escape, the corpses of all but two were exposed to the ground. Trampled, kicked, beaten to death with the uprooted tree. Kalim, of course, didn’t want to die like them.
If Kalim knew this would happen, perhaps he would have gone home earlier. Remorse ran through Kalim’s mind. The beginning of the matter was that the monsters around the Carorolaia Vein were attracted by the smell of flesh and blood caused by the war. Viscount Edgar didn’t want the Meisenav family exploiting the gap left by the monster’s attack, so until the branch castle was restored, he recruited temporary guards for the mine from the gathered soldiers that were supposed to be disbanded.
There were many monsters, but powerful and dangerous monsters were wiped out when the mine was claimed. For the future in a new village, so as to not have problems with money, Kalim and Kuwen were lured by the temporary bounty, and so the two were hired to guard the branch castle until it was restored.
The monsters that Kalim and the other hired guards encountered were small goblins and orcs, as well as wild boars that were treated as food. The information about strong monsters had been eliminated was indeed correct.
Kalim, who had gained experience through battles to the death, worked with Kuwen to kill two goblins without much problem. However, Kalim might have forgotten about one important fact, perhaps drunk in the satisfaction of having the wild boar that the whole unit clamoring around. The reason why the Demon Territory wasn’t the territory of the human race in the first place.
The Cyclops, who survived the subjugation, possessed intelligence, something that shouldn’t be possessed by a monster, right after it crawled out of the slope of the forest, it immediately crushed the 10-man Commander without hesitation. After that, it was a disaster. As soon as the quick-witted soldier spread out and shouted to flee, its huge legs kicked that soldier away, shattering all his bones.
Then it was the others’ turn. No matter how hard they kept running, the distance would only shrink. One by one the unit number was decreased.
And now, with impatience and impending signs of death causing his breathing to be disturbed, Kuwen finally reached his limit.
Then, his leg got stuck in a hole hidden in the fallen leaves and so he tripped.
Kuwen hurriedly tried to get up, but the Cyclops’ strong arm was already stretched out, ready to crush Kuwen.
“Ah, AAAHH!?”
Kalim’s face turned pale, and before he knew it, he had thrust the spear into The Cyclops’ arm. A blow from a human, especially a small child soldier, would be nothing more than a mosquito bite to a Cyclops. However, even so, the Cyclops roared in anger since it got counterattacked by the coward prey.
An intense bad breath was let out along with sticky saliva and leftover meat.
“Uh, haah, aaahh”
A rout was already impossible. Rather than abandoning his friend and running away to death, it would have been better to be killed with a single blow together. Mixed emotions made Kuwen spew out laughter. As for Kalim? He had been crying since a while ago. Still, he thrust his thin spear that couldn’t be compared to what was in Cyclops’ hand.
Of course, Cyclops, who survived the subjugation for a year, wasn’t an easy monster. A tree with its branches and roots still attached, which had just been pulled out, was sung like a club, approaching Kuwen and Kalim.
The two boys became minced meat… that was supposed to happen.
Waiting for the two who closed their eyes and braced themselves was not their death, but a heavy yet dry roar. The tip of the club was completely lost and flew off somewhere.
“Aren’t you having fun? Sorry, but I’ve some business with them. And if you minced them, I won’t be able to ask them, y’know!?”
What appeared was a man carrying a massive battle axe. He wasn’t that tall, but his limbs and chest were bursting with muscle.
A very unique man. But what caught Kalim’s eye more than anything else was the battle wounds carved all over his body that made it difficult to find smooth skin. His skin was filled with a wide range of scars, as if his whole body had been stripped of its skin and multiple skins with different pigments had been forcibly joined together. His appearance was so extreme that if Kalim had seen him in the deserted darkness, Kalim might think that the man was a kind of undead.
“But, you’re still a brat, ain’t you? Still, you survived. Good job.”
Said the man tapping Kalim’s shoulder with the handle of the giant battle-axe.
“ “That guy”, he was surprisingly good at taking care of others, perhaps, did he train you?”
On the side, the man talked to himself, entering his own world.
Being disturbed from the hunt and ignored, the Cyclops plunged its club into the ground, slamming the surrounding dirt and shrubs.
“F-front!!”
Amidst Kuwen’s screams, the man looked at it with a bored eye. Shortly, the wind blew through the forest. Kalim didn’t realize what it was until he saw the battle-axe piercing the earth. It was the wind pressure from the swing of his battle-axe. Also, he managed to see the faintly luminous light on the blade and thus, spoke its name.
“《Strike》!?”
The nasty explosive projectiles fired by the club were canceled out by 《Strike》 and wind pressure.
“Oho, bragging about your tricks huh? As a Cyclops, you’re really pathetic. Can you understand what I’m saying? Y’see, you’re just a blockhead. That’s why you’ll die here. Come! Let me have fun!!”
Something unbelievable happened. A man who was supposed to be a human was about to fight head-on against the one-eyed giant. Looking at the upper body that didn’t even consider evasion, also the waist that had been lowered, it was as if the man was inviting the monster.
However, what made Kalim doubt his eyes more, was the fact that the magical barrier, which should have been colorless, began to have color.
Perhaps the man’s words or demeanor conveyed it, the Cyclops opened its eyes to the limit, raised its club high in the sky, stepped on its huge legs, and swung its arms down.
“Good. As a monster, you sure have a lot of guts huh? A’right, I’ll end this fast!!”
“Ua, uaaaaAAHHH!!!”
Kalim and Kuwen screamed in unison at the approaching and unavoidable blow, gasping while waiting for the result.
After a moment of equilibrium between the battle-axe and the club, the club was destroyed and the shattered pieces of wood obscured the sky.
The Cyclops slammed its fist through the piece of wood, but its fist to elbow exploded. And, the man appeared from the explosion while laughing happily.
“Ahaha, Good. You sure worth my slash!”
The man kicked up the ground and jumped into the bosom of the Cyclops. The Cyclops tried to knock him down with its remaining arm, but it was quicker for the man to swing up his battle-axe from the bottom. The axe head cut through the Cyclops’ fingers and was sucked into its neck without stopping, sending its head to dance in the air.
Having lost its head, its giant body continued to move slightly, that was its last resistance. Fresh blood spouted from the neck, creating a pond of blood in the forest. Among them, a man who had just finished the job appeared while wiping blood stuck on him.
“Hahaha, I got a little wet.”
The man took something out of his bag on his waist and chewed it up. It was the notorious hard-baked biscuit. The man who noticed the gazes of the two then said.
“What? Wanna eat these? Here, take it. With that body, you won’t be able to be an excellent soldier, y’know?”
With a look reminiscent of a monster, the man handed hard-baked biscuits to Kalim and Kuwen, then patted them on the back.
“A’right, now, the main subject. Where did the soldier with the name “Walm” go? Y’see, that guy is kind of an old friend, and I’ve got some business with him. Course you can tell me, right?”
The face of the man with the bloody battle axe changed from a smiley face to a serious face, and just like that, the man slowly got closer.
Kalim looked at Kuwen, as he couldn’t answer, but Kuwen was as just as confused. Both couldn’t process the situation they were in. How did this happen to them? They didn’t know. The only thing they knew for sure was that the man, who was approaching them, was the kind of unknown existence that they couldn’t be able to dodge even if they wanted to.
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