Chapter 16
The smell of blood rode on the night wind.
“Stop!”
The young guards at the village entrance aimed their spears with sharp eyes.
The figures emerging from the darkness were in terrible condition.
Their leather clothes had been reduced to rags.
Their hair was a complete mess.
Most disturbing of all was the thick blood still clinging to the axes they carried.
Blood on their weapons.
When Zakan and I approached, the children standing guard moved aside to let us through.
“I am Huku, a warrior of Volcano! I ask the warriors of Rock for help...!”
The red-haired warrior hurriedly shouted after seeing us.
Huku?
What kind of name was that?
Anyway, his voice was trembling badly.
And the man he was supporting was exactly who the children had said.
Burta.
Chief of the Western Volcano Tribe.
The enormous warrior who had displayed overwhelming strength during the last Red Moon was now covered in blood and gasping for breath.
“What happened?”
Zakan quietly asked, one hand resting on the handle of his greatsword.
He was ready to draw it at any moment.
“D-Dangerous... it is dangerous!”
Huku looked half-insane.
Instead of answering Zakan, he anxiously looked around in every direction.
“Explain properly.”
Zakan’s voice became colder.
Burta, who had been leaning against Huku, barely managed to raise his head.
He spat blood and gave a bitter smile.
“...What a miserable sight.”
“W-We need to hide! It is somewhere nearby!”
Huku cut him off and shouted in panic.
What the hell was nearby?
I looked behind them.
There was nothing but thick darkness.
Even so, Huku continued scanning the surroundings with terrified eyes.
“First... let us inside! I’ll explain in there. Burta... Burta is badly injured!”
“Ghk... I-I’m fine.”
Burta tried to maintain his pride as a warrior until the very end.
Then his legs gave out.
If Huku hadn’t been supporting him, he would have fallen flat onto the ground.
Zakan slowly looked them over.
Then he turned toward me.
His eyes silently asked,
What should we do?
They don’t seem to be lying.
The wounds on Burta’s stomach and shoulder looked fatal even at a glance.
Those weren’t weapon wounds.
They looked like deep claw marks left by some beast.
There was no reason for a tribal chief living in this barren frontier to injure himself just to fool us.
The Western Volcano Tribe and Northern Rock Tribe had never been particularly close in the past.
But after the last Red Moon, we had at least built a friendly relationship.
After thinking briefly, I nodded.
Zakan stepped aside and gestured for them to enter.
“T-Thank you!”
Huku immediately carried Burta through the gate as if afraid we might change our minds.
The moment we helped them take a single step inside the village...
“Sniff, sniff... Hm?”
Malko suddenly stopped walking.
“There is a strange smell.”
He twitched his ugly nose.
His gaze moved toward the wasteland beyond the village.
I inhaled too.
All I could smell was the metallic scent of Burta’s blood.
“There. The smell comes from there.”
“What are you talking about? I smell nothing.”
I was still wondering whether Malko was talking nonsense when one of the children with the best eyesight climbed the watchtower.
Then he screamed.
“Huh? H-He’s right! Something is coming from far away!”
“D-Danger! That’s it! Everyone hide!”
Huku reacted first.
He practically dropped Burta to the ground and stumbled backward.
Truly impressive loyalty.
“What exactly is coming?”
“You cannot stop it! Hurry...! You need to run!”
Huku shouted with a pale face.
At that exact moment...
“ROOOOOOOAR!”
A deafening roar tore through the night.
Something enormous charged toward the village at incredible speed.
Then it slammed into the wooden fence.
BOOOOM!
“Aaaagh! What is that?!”
“M-Monster!”
Rotten wooden posts shattered like toothpicks and flew through the air.
Moonlight revealed the hideous creature.
Its body looked like a wolf’s skeleton had been covered with a bear’s thick hide.
That’s... a Varg?!
I recognized it immediately.
A notorious tracking-type monster that followed the scent of blood and chased prey relentlessly until the end.
Why was a named monster that normally appeared in the middle or later parts of the game already here?
Our barbarians hadn’t developed enough to fight something like this.
“Burta. What exactly did you bring here?”
Zakan frowned and drew his greatsword.
Burta lowered his head in shame.
Still, he grabbed his fallen axe and struggled to stand.
“I-I’ll stop it...”
“Stay back. In your condition, you are only a burden.”
Zakan coldly shouted and charged forward.
BOOM!
His greatsword collided head-on with the Varg’s front paw.
The impact sent dust swirling everywhere.
“Attack! Help the chief!”
Malko and the other teenage warriors rushed at the monster’s sides with spears and axes.
But...
The difference is too big.
Unlike S-Rank Zakan, the inexperienced children had poor weapons.
Their worn blades couldn’t even pierce the Varg’s tough hide.
Their attacks simply bounced away.
Whenever the beast went wild and swung its claws, the children were thrown aside like fallen leaves.
Burta could barely stand, much less swing his weapon.
And Huku was so terrified that he couldn’t properly attack.
Zakan was basically fighting the rampaging monster alone.
Think, Kang Jinho.
What was the Varg’s weakness in the game?
Its unnaturally developed nose and respiratory system.
Because its greatest feature was extreme tracking ability, the oversized membranes of its respiratory organs were partly exposed to the outside.
If I block its breathing, I can create an opening for Zakan!
I immediately ran toward the bonfire in the middle of the village.
A large pile of white ash sat nearby.
I scooped the ash into a dented bowl and rushed toward the Varg’s side.
“Zakan... move!”
At my shout, Zakan instinctively knocked the creature’s paw away with his sword and jumped backward.
At that moment, the Varg turned toward Zakan and took a huge breath.
Whoooosh!
Now!
Its airways were wide open!
I grabbed two handfuls of ash.
Then I threw everything toward its open mouth and nose.
“Grrrr... K-Keugh! Cough! Cough!”
Fine ash was instantly sucked into its eyes, nose, and throat.
The Varg began coughing violently as foreign matter filled its abnormally developed respiratory organs.
“ROOOAR! KHEH! COUGH! COUGH!”
Zakan didn’t miss the opportunity.
He jumped into the air.
His greatsword cut through the darkness and slammed into the Varg’s side.
“SKREEEEE!”
Blood exploded like a fountain.
The badly wounded Varg screamed in pain while struggling to breathe.
Then it finally gave up.
It rushed through the broken fence and disappeared into the darkness.
“...”
Only the shattered fence and pieces of the watchtower remained.
Dark red blood covered the ground.
The bitter smell of ash hung in the air.
A short while later...
“...I think the immediate danger has passed.”
I washed Burta’s wounds with boiled water.
