Chapter 18

“Kuhek! W-Why are you doing this!”

“Shut up. You may fool others, but you can’t deceive me.”

The wendigo choking the young man’s neck looked like an evil spirit incarnate.

As the wendigo not only didn’t loosen his grip but applied more force, Geron carefully drew his sword. It absolutely wasn’t because he was afraid of the wendigo.

Geron drew his sword because he trusted the wendigo. He wasn’t the kind of person who would do this without reason.

‘Did Wendigo-nim see through that young man?’

Geron had been following the wendigo like his butler. As such, he couldn’t help but know that the wendigo had the power to see through people (more accurately, to smell them).

At Geron’s gesture, the warriors following the wendigo raised their weapons. This action was possible because of their trust.

“Geron, shouldn’t we stop Spirit-nim? No matter how I look at it, he seems ordinary…”

“You don’t know because you haven’t served Spirit-nim for long. He has the power to look into people’s pasts. He must have seen something in that fellow.”

‘It’s not to that extent…’

The wendigo felt awkward at Geron’s explanation.

He didn’t have the talent to read people’s pasts. No matter how you look at it, how could one read the past?

‘It seems Skadi has injected strange information again.’

However, the wendigo didn’t correct him. Because at Geron’s words, the warriors who had joined yesterday drew their weapons.

As the warriors emerged from their confusion and took battle stances, the young man, who had been pleading with his eyes while his neck was held, made a dying sound.

“Kueok! Sa-save…”

“If you don’t want to die, reveal your true colors. If not, quietly accept your death.”

Kududuk!

“Kyaaaak!!!”

“Wh-What the!”

Just as his neck was about to break, the young man’s face hideously transformed. He drew a dagger hidden at his waist and stabbed towards the wendigo’s arm.

The warriors were too shocked to move. Could it be that this fellow, who looked like a pitiful young man who had offended the spirit’s mood, was truly evil?

Geron rushed towards the wendigo, shouting urgently.

“Protect Spirit-nim…”

Jjang-gang!

The moment the young man stabbed the wendigo’s hide with his dagger, the dagger shattered with a clear sound. The wendigo’s hide didn’t have even a slight scar.

“?”

“It seems it was a futile attempt.”

The wendigo twisted the young man’s neck in one go. The young man breathed his last with an expression of disbelief.

As the sneak attack failed, the villagers pulled out their hidden weapons.

Hammers, butcher knives, sickles…

Although they were embarrassing to call weapons, their spirit was as fierce as anyone’s.

Those with faces reminiscent of evil spirits charged at the warriors, spitting blood… passing by the wendigo.

The wendigo was utterly bewildered.

“This is absurd. Is this what they call fake madness or whatever?”

“Kill them! Kill them! Kill them all!!”

The warriors and the creatures collided. Once the warriors realized these weren’t innocent people, they swung their weapons without hesitation.

The wendigo was about to draw up mystery but paused.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t know the capabilities of the warriors.’

What did the level of his subordinate warriors matter to the wendigo, whose personal strength was second to none? Couldn’t he just sweep them all away by himself?

Thinking carefully, it mattered quite a bit.

No matter how strong, an individual can’t defeat a group. That’s a fact you can understand without going back to the Goguryeo watermelon thieves.

Of course, even the wendigo himself thought, ‘I could probably handle up to 1 vs 100?’, but unbelievable things always happen in the world.

‘There were many monster-like people in my past life too. Chuk Jun-gyeong, Lü Bu, Xiang Yu, Joan of Arc…’

Even superhumans who were worth a hundred or ten thousand men ultimately couldn’t overcome the limitations of being individuals. Though not human, he couldn’t say he was an exception.

The wendigo suppressed his mystery and gazed intently at the warriors. The first to notice his gaze was Geron. He immediately understood the wendigo’s intention.

“Everyone, gather! Spirit-nim is watching us. We must not show a shameful appearance!”

“Yes!”

As expected of Geron, who had been a village chief. Geron naturally took command of the warriors and formed a formation.

Warriors with shields in front, those with axes or swords in the middle, and finally, spears at the back.

“Die! Die!!!”

As they collided, the warriors’ shields pushed back the enemies. As the advantage of the charge dissipated, the warriors’ eyes changed.

Forest people are generally poorly armed.

Most of their weapons are made of iron, not steel, and their armor is mostly made of leather.

Yet the self-proclaimed civilized people of the south fear the forest people. The reason is the wildness they possess.

The warriors roared fiercely as they pushed and trampled the creatures. As the wildness sleeping within them bared its angry teeth, the warriors swung their weapons without hesitation.

“Die, di..!?”

“I’ll kill you. I don’t know what kind of creatures you are, but if you’ve taken up weapons, you must be prepared to die!”

Axes severed necks, and swords cut off limbs. Sharp spears pierced through the enemies’ heads.

Seeing this sight, the wendigo was impressed.

‘They’re not losing even against enemies who have lost fear. They’re stronger than I thought.’

“Spirit-nim. The palisade gate is opening.”

Geron approached, wiping blood off with the enemies’ clothes. The wendigo looked at the palisade.

The gate of the palisade, which hadn’t moved even as the village creatures were being slaughtered by the warriors, opened wide.

The wendigo frowned. Armed enemies appeared at the entrance of the palisade.

Creatures armed with torn armor and blood-stained weapons.

Even the blood on their armor wasn’t washed off, rotting black. It was definitely not the appearance of normal humans.

The most impressive was the large warrior in the center of the creatures.

“It’s nauseating just to look at. Are parasites supposed to be muscles or something?”

“… It’s disgusting even to me. I wonder if that warrior is even alive?”

Although it maintained a human form, its skin was writhing madly. It wouldn’t be strange even if its muscles had been replaced with parasites.

The creature raised a greatsword and let out a terrible scream. An unpleasant sound, as if tearing a phlegm-filled throat, echoed through the forest.

“Geron, command the warriors. Face them as defensively as possible. And if you see them about to open their mouths or vomit, avoid it.”

“Are they going to spread a curse or something?”

“No, from what I know, creatures like that try to spread parasites when they see an opportunity. Be careful of that.”

Geron wondered how the wendigo knew such things, but he thought it was knowledge accumulated through the long years unique to spirits.

In fact, it was based on modern clichés… but still, it was half right since it was the wendigo’s knowledge.

As the wendigo stretched both hands towards the ground, ice swords intertwined with roots appeared in his hands.

Crossing the ice swords surrounded by cold air, the wendigo charged towards the enemies.

“Stab!!!”

The enemies howled and charged towards the wendigo with their spears and swords raised.

The wendigo’s arms spread like wings, and then he swung the ice swords towards the enemies.

Mere leather armor couldn’t withstand the wendigo’s monstrous strength. The enemies’ bodies spilled their innards as they rolled on the ground.

However, not all were swept away by the swords.

“Still, they’re more intelligent than monsters, being human.”

“Die!!!”

Were they truly warriors after all?

Some of the creatures dodged the swords and approached swinging their weapons. Thanks to losing their fear, they weren’t shaken even by the deaths of their comrades.

However, their movements didn’t last long. The cold energy contained in the ice swords swept like an aftershock, freezing their bodies.

They had lost fear, but they were still living beings.

As the arctic cold penetrated to their marrow, they perished without even being able to scream.

Despite the miserable deaths of their comrades, the enemies charged fearlessly… but the wendigo’s fierce sword strikes didn’t allow even a single hit.

The wendigo cut down the enemies’ necks while taunting.

“Damn parasites. I don’t know what kind of beings you are, but this is all in vain. If you bury yourselves in the ground where you belong and never come out, even now, I’ll spare you.”

“Grrrr! Go, go and kill his minions! I will represent our master’s anger!”

As expected of a command unit. Realizing that the warriors couldn’t handle the wendigo, it changed its target.

As the parasite warrior with the greatsword roared, the warriors lowered their stance and threw themselves towards the area behind the wendigo.

Rushing while spitting blood, they were clearly overexerting their bodies. Thanks to this, they moved away quite quickly, but…

“Your effort is commendable.”

Unless the wendigo was a fool, there was no reason to leave them be. He transformed one of his ice swords into a spear and hurled it towards the warrior at the forefront.

The spear, flying like lightning, pierced its target in one go and stood upright on the ground.

The parasite warrior with the greatsword burst into laughter. What could be done with just one spear?

“Hehehe, what use is killing just one…”

“You talk too much.”

Cutting off the laughter of the parasite… too long. The greatsword parasite’s laughter, the wendigo exercised mystery using the spear as a medium, and an unexpected event occurred.

The ground around the spear froze, and roots sprang up, surging towards the enemies like angry wild dogs.

The feet of the enemies who were charging vigorously froze, and their ankles were caught by the roots. Geron, quick-witted, encouraged the warriors.

“Wendigo-nim is helping us. Behead those creatures!”

Dozens of warriors led by Geron clashed with dozens of warriors dominated by parasites. Naturally, the advantage went to the wendigo’s warriors.

Watching this scene, the greatsword parasite contorted its face and spewed out anger.

“You… you bastard!!!”

“Surely you’re not thinking of mentioning honor as a mere parasite? As someone who covets others’ bodies out of shame for your own, surely you’re not such a shameless…”

The wendigo didn’t say more. The provocation was sufficient.

The greatsword parasite’s legs compressed like springs, and it approached his side at a speed beyond human capabilities.

The parasite’s sword swung, aiming for the wendigo’s neck. The wendigo calmly moved his ice sword to block the attack.

The wendigo was impressed by the fierce strike that was unbelievable for human strength.

“Your strength is quite something.”

“Sp…irit! I’ll face you until your strength runs out!”

“I wonder if such a thing will happen. And I don’t have a hobby of playing with parasites.”

Just as the greatsword parasite was about to spit out curses, thinking it was provocation, cold energy seeped into its sword.

The blade cracked with a screech, and frost stretched towards the greatsword parasite’s hand.

The greatsword parasite’s eyes filled with shock. Realizing that at this rate, the sword would shatter, it hastily withdrew the sword, and…

“Too late.”

The sword shattered with a clear sound. Frost-covered fragments burst in all directions.

The wendigo deflected the fragments, but the greatsword parasite couldn’t. The fragments, flying like arrows, pierced various parts of the greatsword parasite’s body.

“Kyaaak!!!”

With a miserable scream, as its posture crumbled, the wendigo swung his sword and cut off its limbs.

As they were severed and frozen simultaneously, it collapsed to the ground. Parasite corpses poured out of the severed limbs.

“Poor thing. I’ll end it now.”

“W-Wait…”

The wendigo ignored the words and brought his sword down. It was obvious that it would be an act by the parasite anyway.

However… he stopped his sword. Something was climbing up the greatsword parasite’s throat with an unpleasant bursting sound.

As the greatsword parasite’s mouth opened wide, a giant parasite revealed itself. It opened its mouth, dripping blood.

[Cursed spirit. I propose a deal…]

“What deal could I make with a parasite? Stop talking nonsense and die.”

[Wait, I am not the trivial being you think I am. Our mother…]

The wendigo ignored the creature’s nonsense and brought his sword down. This time, there was no stopping the sword.

The wendigo’s sword bisected the giant parasite, and it breathed its last with a scream full of resentment.