Chapter 151: Runaway (1)
Pshhh!
There came an ominous sound. It was small and faint at first, but it gradually grew louder until everyone could hear it.
“What is it?”
The civil engineers, who were watching Bibeong excavate, cocked their heads to the side. Something strange was happening as hundreds of Mastodon carcasses were unearthed, all neatly lined up. The unexpected sight was enough to stir the workers’ curiosity. Soon, the White Cavalry and the refugees gathered around the hole as well, murmuring among themselves.
“What’s that noise?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s the sound of the stench coming out.”
“Stench?”
“You know, like how cows and pigs get all bloated with gas in their stomachs when their dead remains are left alone for a long time.”
“Aha. I’ve seen it as well. Their stomach inflates like a balloon and bursts with a pop.”
“Indeed. I think that’s what’s happening right now.”
“Could it be that they’re bursting now as we remove the dirt that pressed them down?”
“Probably?”
“Ha! This is going to be the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in a while.”
The engineers, the White Cavalry, and refugee workers observed the sight with a glimmer in their eyes. An air of expectation hung in the area as everyone anticipated what clamorous noise these huge Mastodons would make when their stomachs burst. Even the small dead cows and pigs gave a popping noise, which sounded like a beat of a drum when their stomachs blew up. Everyone was excited except one person.
That’s strange.
A bad feeling gripped Lloyd, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. These hundreds of Mastodons were buried in one clean line, but they didn’t die naturally. Someone had clearly done this on purpose.
Who could have done it?
Lloyd had no way of knowing, but something was loud and clear.
The carcasses have all decomposed similarly. Then it means that they were killed all around the same time. If that’s the case, it could only mean…
Someone killed them on purpose. Hundreds of Mastodons were slaughtered in a short period of time. This was an act with clear intention.
But why? To what end?
There was no way of knowing that either. But at that moment, the Asrahan Core Technique worked to strike him with a realization. The bad feeling that stung his heart wasn’t a simple, groundless prediction.
Eh?
Lloyd suddenly felt a flow of mana, and through the Asrahan Core Technique, he detected an abnormal strand of mana. And as though a magic circle was sucking the mana from the Mastodons, an abnormally large concentration of mana started to develop. At the same time, the sound of gas leaking amplified from the carcass. That only meant one thing.
“Everybody back off!” Lloyd yelled.
The workers turned to look at him with dazed expressions. Lloyd shouted louder at them.
“Move away from the hole!” he bawled. “As far as you can! I’ll take away the bonus of anyone who disobeys!”
Right now, Lloyd had to resort to a method that brought about an instant reaction, not understanding. That was the fastest way to make them evacuate. Lloyd was right for thinking so. At the warning of bonus forfeiture, everyone hurried away from the hole as there was nothing scarier than that.
Pssssh! Thwack! As soon as they went away, one Mastodon carcass emitted a flash and violently exploded. The gas, fire, and explosion compounded to bring another Mastodon burst. Then the one next to it burst again. And one after another, each emitted a flash, leading to a chain of destructive explosions.
Boooom! 50 Mastodon carcasses exploded in a flash, but the explosion wasn’t ordinary and natural. It wasn’t the burst of gas from their guts. What just took place was the explosion of mana, wretchedly destructive enough to turn the area into a nightmare. Lloyd knew of this type of explosion because he had read The Knight of Blood and Iron.
Dammit… I knew it… It’s corpse explosion magic.
The story popped up in his mind just then. A necromancer consistently processes the dead bodies and casts explosive magic. And when the set condition is met, they burst and explode with so much power to reduce the whole place to rubble. The power was tantamount to the size of the dead body. It was said that the size of a human corpse contains about the destructive force of an AT mine. But right now, things were worse than when they weren’t corpses.
Since a Mastodon is as big as an elephant, then… Argh!
Cursing under his breath, Lloyd jumped out of the hole to fix his grip on the shovel. Then he turned around and got ready to fire a triple mana blast into the grave. It was too late to completely avoid the explosions and shockwaves. It was wiser for him to contain them using the triple mana blast.
I have to try even if it doesn’t work.
He rotated three circles as his eyes beamed. But just then…
“Bibeong!”
Everything turned black for Lloyd after he heard a loud shout. It was Bibeong threw his giant body in front of Lloyd and curled around him as if trying to shield him from the explosion.
“Bibeong!” called Lloyd.
“Bibeo-beong! (Get down!)”
Lloyd got down by reflex, and the explosion and shockwave swept over the area.
…!
Lloyd neither heard anything nor felt the flash. But the sky and land seemed to have turned upside down, and his stomach seemed to churn tumultuously. The painful ringing in his ears engulfed every sound around him. Lloyd opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. He wondered if the white thing was the sky. But what about the dark one?
Bibeong…?
Lloyd found Bibeong lying on the ground. To Lloyd’s relief, Bibeong was alive, which was evidenced by his moving stomach. Lloyd then staggered to his feet, enduring the pang of dizziness and checking on Biebong. No blood or serious injury. But he looked like Bibeong fainted from the impact of bearing the full brunt of the explosion.
What about the others?
Drip. A streak of blood dripped along his forehead. Lloyd wiped it with his sleeve and looked around. The ringing noise in his ears calmed a little at last, and the sound gradually came back.
Cough! Cough!
“W-what just happened?!”
“Argh… A-are you all right?”
Lloyd saw the nearby workers getting back to their feet. Lloyd was relieved that no one died or was badly injured. It was because Lloyd had shouted prior to the explosion to get away from the hole pronto.
What… the heck?
Lloyd slapped his cheek hard, and that finally restored him somewhat from dizziness and nausea. Just then…
“Oaaak… Oak!”
The inside of the hole, where the explosion took place, let out a coarse, ferocious roar. But it wasn’t just one.
“Kwoak!”
“Kwa…oak!!!”
At least dozens more began to roar in series, their cry ringing aloud the area ominously. The noise neared as the storm of dust subsided. Lloyd grimaced.
Wait a second. Is this…
Right when Lloyd wondered if the carcass explosion was just the beginning, something happened.
Fwish!
Something large loomed amid the sandstorm.
“…!”
He immediately ducked down and stepped back to feel something long, as long as a log, slashed the space right above his head.
Elephant nose?
No, it belonged to a Mastodon. It could only mean one thing. When he was hit with such an epiphany, a large figure broke through the dust and charged ahead.
“Kwoaaak!”
“…!”
They were Mastodons, but they weren’t alive. Lloyd could tell that right away by the blank eyes, which he thought were like a dead fish’s, and the rotten skin all over their bodies. But in terms of their ferocity and hostility, they were more alive and real than the living ones. They then hurtled toward Lloyd, wielding their tusk and horn, entirely bent on smashing him to pieces. They were undead Mastodons.
Argh!!
These monsters looked like they should be starring in horror movies. So, the sight of these undead creatures hurtling toward him made his skin crawl.
Carcass explosion, and the undead?
It was clear. The necromancer who performed this dark magic was a considerable magician. Hundreds, not just one or two, but hundreds of undead Mastodons, excluding the ones that just exploded in the hole, stampeded toward Lloyd.
Dammit!
Every hair on his body stood. Lloyd wanted to run away. After all, he wasn’t the brave main character of an action movie. He never cared about risking his life and putting himself in harm’s way to be a hero.
So why is this happening to me?!
Lloyd berated his fate. He was just making a sludge treatment facility when out of the blue, this event took place. If Javier were here, he’d have tossed the mission to him being the brave fellow he was. It would have been a cinch for him. Just his usual amazing sword tricks and the undead Mastodons would be done for. But Javier wasn’t here as he was cutting up the metal rebars with his aura at the apartment construction site. In other words, everyone’s life depended on him. Otherwise, they would perish.
“Everyone, run!”
Lloyd bawled as loud as he could. Thankfully, his shouting was effective. The workers, who were frozen in surprise and fear, flinched. It appeared that they had finally read the situation. They were taken aback.
“A-aaack!!!!”
“Run!”
“Run for your lives!”
Most of the workers were residents and refugees. Some engineers were a little stronger than the rest, so none stood a chance against the undead Mastodons. Throwing their shovels and pickaxes in fear, they skedaddled southward where the fiefdom was. But unfortunately, their frantic steps provoked the undead.
“Kwoaaak!”
The leader in the group roared ferociously, and with its half-rotten, muscular nose, it pointed at the workers. The entire herd stampeded toward them.
“Gwoak!”
These undead Mastodons burned with hatred for life. They rushed as the ground shook underneath their feet, and their hostility signaled the ferocious determination to trample everything in the way. But something did stand in their way. Six men. The members of the White Cavalry.
“We! We are the sword and shield to Her Majesty!”
“As the sword and shield of Her Majesty! We must protect the people!”
Lloyd wasn’t spared a second to stop them. They immediately charged with a shout after pulling out the sword toward the incoming herd of monsters. It didn’t matter that they were on foot and without armor. They charged. They were trampled.
“Gwoack!”
These Mastodons were stronger than the living ones after being perverted into the undead. Their spears and swords didn’t even leave a single scar on them.
“…!”
And those six members of the White Cavalry were tossed and thrown and trampled by the herd that they lost their lives. Lloyd gritted his teeth when he saw the sight.
I told them to run! What are they doing?!
They had just shoveled with him until earlier, but now they were dead. His hands shivered. No more lives could be lost like that. As such, Lloyd needed to come up with a plan. Anything. The pieces of information, the situation, the terrain, and the forces were processed individually in his head to devise a method that would keep everyone safe. Just then, an epiphany struck him, and he developed a feasible plan.
“Ppodong!”
Lloyd reached his hands into his inner pocket and brought Ppodong out.
“Ppo-do-dong! Ppodong!”
Ppodong must have been reading the situation as well. He opened his mouth as soon as he was brought out, and Lloyd tossed a piece of red sunflower seed there. Then, he hurled Ppodong high.
Boom!
“Ppodong!”
Ppodong turned giant.
“Stall them first!” shouted Lloyd. “As much as possible!”
“Ppodong!”
Ppodong nodded and bolted toward the head of the Mastodon that stood in the front.
“Ppo-do-dong!”
Crack! He rammed the undead monster with his body. Ppodong’s body was 32 feet tall, while Mastodon was only 13 feet tall. And he was heavier than the Mastodon many times. Even if the latter was a ferocious undead monster, the weight difference could not be overcome.
“Gwoack!”
The seven monsters in the front stumbled and fell to the ground like pins in a bowling alley. But the real problem came after that.
“Gwoak!”
Those behind them rushed like a tsunami. Lloyd ballparked the number to be at least 300. And Ppodong wasn’t strong enough to fight them all alone.
“Ppo-do-dong! Ppodong!”
And so, he removed himself from the herd with a struggle, but not without any injury. The horns and husks poked his butt a few times, but he didn’t bleed. Nonetheless, the pain was unbearable. Ppodong wasn’t going to give up, however. He rushed forward only to steer and turn back. Then, going faster, Ppodong rammed those in the front once again.
“Ppodong!”
Crash!
Five and six Mastodons flew in the air every time. That slowed their stampede. While this was happening, Lloyd ran toward the workers and found the civil engineers and the White Cavalry, who were lining up and getting ready to fight.
“Sir Bayern! Sir Blanc!”
The former led the civil engineer corps, while the latter led the White Cavalry.
“Master Lloyd, please evacuate now. We will protect this place,” Sir Bayern said.
“Leave this to us, the White Cavalry. I will prove to you that our valor is not groundless.”
The two men promised with determination on their faces. Lloyd shook their heads fast as he looked at them.
“No, I want you all to run away. You two. The corp and the cavalry. Everyone.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m saying that I’ll buy time for you. So, hurry up and take the others and leave pronto. Right now. Got it?”
“Master Lloyd. I’m not sure what you mean…”
Sir Bayern’s face paled. On the other hand, Sir Blanc grew stoic.
“What do you mean?” Sir Blanc asked. “Are you saying that the Cavalry must turn our back when the enemy is there?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” Lloyd immediately answered him.
“There’s no point to this fight. So, protect the workers and head down to the south. I’ll buy you all enough time.”
“But I cannot follow your request. You see, the White Cavalry-”
“This isn’t a request.”
Lloyd interrupted, and he stared at Sir Blanc, cold and void of any emotion. And to prevent any unnecessary sacrifice and save everyone, Lloyd spoke, his voice dripping with strictness and sternness.
“This is an order.”