Ch.309What Are You Looking At?

=====[ Faelrun Castle ]=====

‘That’s Rurik…? No, it can’t be. It’s a fake!’

Ironically, Haschal was the first to notice the identity of the figure flying toward the castle wall, despite never having seen Rurik before.

A snow-white wolf werebeast. It matched the description of Rurik that Frider had told her, but there was a crucial difference between the image of Rurik in Haschal’s mind and the werebeast flying toward them now.

‘How could someone who surpassed a Champion have such a pathetic aura!’

To Haschal, who could gauge an enemy’s strength by their aura, the approaching creature’s presence was nowhere near what one would expect from the king of werebeasts.

At best, he seemed like a half-blood warrior. Even if he managed to land on the wall, he was just cannon fodder who would die instantly rather than put up a fight.

Moreover, the size was visibly different. A pureblooded male would be much larger.

While others couldn’t notice the difference in size due to the distance and speed, her eyes could see it clearly.

She could even make out the wolf werebeast’s expression, contorted with both grim determination and the terror of death.

‘Definitely not Rurik. A body double? If so, the purpose of this attack is…’

To check our defensive measures and make us waste them needlessly.

It seemed like a sound strategy even to her.

Indeed, neither the mages’ mana nor the harpoons were resources that could be used repeatedly.

The others hadn’t yet realized it was a fake. Considering how extremely wary those who had experienced the North Wall battle were of Rurik, there was a good chance they would waste their mana and harpoons on this decoy.

They might even unleash all their countermeasures at once, thinking they could achieve victory by taking him down here.

The moment this thought crossed her mind, Haschal immediately nocked an arrow.

Her movement was lightning-fast. There wasn’t even time to announce it was a fake.

The knights had already raised their harpoons, and the mages were already gathering mana.

Fortunately, her hands were always a bit faster than her mouth.

– Swooooosh!

A sound that tore through the air. Those who were about to shoot down the approaching werebeast froze in surprise.

Before they could react, a dark red comet embedded itself in the beast’s body.

A red flower blooming, using the night sky as its canvas.

“Gaaaack!”

The wolf werebeast let out a scream as excruciating pain tore through its entire body. For about a second, that is.

After that, even if it wanted to scream, it couldn’t.

The swirling blades of Karma of Murder mercilessly dismembered the beast’s body.

Amid the crimson rain pouring down, shredded flesh scattered like winter cherry blossoms.

“W-what? That monster just exploded and died…? From just one magic attack?!”

“Did we… win?”

The bewildered soldiers muttered as they poked their heads over the wall.

The scene was too perplexing to cheer about.

To their eyes, it looked as if Rurik had been obliterated by a single strike as soon as he approached.

“Lord Median, what was that sudden—!”

A knight who had been preparing his harpoon turned toward Haschal. He too couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

Since Rurik’s interception was their duty and not particularly Haschal’s role, what had just happened was something they hadn’t anticipated at all.

“Wake up! Do you really think the king of werebeasts would die from an attack like this? That one was a fake. Look over there!”

Haschal shouted loudly toward the soldiers, raising her bow to point at the area below the wall.

“A fake…? A fake?”

“Over there! Look over there! There he is! Lord Median is right!”

The soldiers’ pupils dilated. The knights clicked their tongues, showing signs of disappointment.

Haschal was clearly right.

They too could immediately tell that the werebeast that had just flown in wasn’t Rurik.

Because the culprit behind the North Wall’s collapse, Rurik, was standing perfectly fine down below.

In the middle of the werebeast formation, looking up at the wall, baring his teeth with interest while casually scratching his chin with sharp claws.

—-

“Hmm… indeed. It was wise to send a volunteer as a test. So that’s the Were Eater.”

Rurik looked up at Haschal, licking his lips as if gazing at appetizing prey.

She was impressive in many ways.

That strange arrow that tore its target to shreds.

Even to his eyes, it looked like nothing but magic.

Add to that the reaction speed to immediately identify and counter their deception, and the eyesight to accurately spot his position from that distance.

The overwhelming aura and a scent closer to beast than human.

‘No. Is that scent due to her attire?’

His subordinates hadn’t noticed yet, but Rurik could clearly identify what the fur she was wearing was made of at a glance.

‘They call her the Were Eater, but “imitator” would be more fitting.’

A female wearing werebeast skin, emitting a werebeast-like scent, possessing senses as keen as a werebeast.

She looked more like a werebeast than a human.

Haschal, whose eyes met his, grinned provocatively.

“What are you looking at? White puppy.”

A blatant taunt from her downward gaze.

Her cold eyes clearly revealed arrogance, showing she didn’t care about such things.

Rurik bared his fangs and smiled.

Toward a worthy opponent he hadn’t faced in a very long time.

Following that, four ice projectiles collided with the castle wall and shattered.

Thunder tore through the sky.

—-

– Rumble!

Faelrun Castle shook violently as if hit by an earthquake.

Accumulated dust and snow poured down like rain.

“Ugh, hack…!”

The sturdy castle wall didn’t even crack from this level of attack, as if to say such assaults were nothing to it. But even if it didn’t break, the impact itself couldn’t be ignored.

Soldiers staggered from the violent vibration and collapsed, losing their balance.

Some unfortunate ones got caught on the wall’s railing as they fell and plummeted helplessly toward the ground.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Screams echoed.

Followed by a splat—the sound of water bags bursting mingled with the lingering echoes of the impact.

“…It seems they’ve prepared countermeasures as expected. We’ll have to abandon the aerial assault.”

Nazar, who had approached Rurik after confirming the catapult’s power, shook his head regretfully.

Nazar had opposed the aerial assault from the beginning due to its risks, and the recent interception had proven his concerns correct. Yet, his expression wasn’t particularly bright.

Even he had harbored some hope, after all.

If, by one in a million chance, the enemies hadn’t prepared for it, they could have achieved victory with minimal casualties.

“It’s flashy, but in the end, it’s just one arrow, right? Couldn’t we just throw something to neutralize it before getting hit?”

Lyudmila, who had been watching the falling humans, asked Nazar.

It was certainly a powerful attack, but it seemed to detonate upon contact with something. If they could detonate it in mid-air before the arrow hit, that would be enough.

She didn’t think her king would be incapable of doing that much.

“Or we could send four wolves together? One in five odds seems worth trying, right? By the way, is that woman the Were Eater? She’s smaller than I expected!”

Abigeyl chattered frivolously, her eyes gleaming.

Prepare four decoys to distract the enemy.

It wasn’t a deeply thought-out idea, just something that came to mind… but it might unexpectedly work. At least Abigeyl thought so.

“I doubt that arrow is the only measure they’ve prepared.”

“Vasiliy is right. They were about to do something even before the Were Eater shot her arrow. That means they’ve likely prepared plenty of other countermeasures as well.”

Lyudmila and Abigeyl growled softly in disappointment.

“If you say so, Nazar… then you must be right.”

“Aren’t you being too disappointed, Lyudmila?”

“Of course I am. That just means we’ll have more work to do.”

Lyudmila sighed deeply.

While she didn’t dislike combat, clinging to a wall and climbing up while being one-sidedly attacked wasn’t a pleasant prospect.

She could dodge most attacks, but the density of attacks in a chaotic situation versus a controlled one was different. Even a Champion would have to accept some injuries.

“Ha! What’s so hard about climbing that little wall! You sound like those humans.”

“You say that because you don’t have to climb. Must be nice being so big?”

Lyudmila glared at Viktor and shot back.

As she said, Viktor, an elephant werebeast, couldn’t climb the castle wall. His massive frame was more than one and a half times Lyudmila’s size.

That’s why he was planning to target the castle gate directly instead of the wall.

Though the humans, anticipating their attack, might have completely blocked the area behind the wall.

“Viktor doesn’t have claws anyway. Well, even if he did, he’d probably fall while climbing.”

Abigeyl covered her mouth and laughed frivolously.

Viktor merely snorted, showing his discomfort, but didn’t bother to refute her words. After all, she wasn’t wrong.

—-

While the five Champions engaged in casual conversation disguised as a strategy meeting, two other Champions remained silent, just looking up at the castle wall. For different reasons.

“That scent seems familiar…”

The black wolf werebeast, Valentin Ivanov, wrinkled his brow as he sniffed the air.

Among the scents carried by the wind, there was one strangely familiar smell. He couldn’t quite remember what it was, though.

In fact, it might have been better that he didn’t remember.

No matter how composed Valentin was, if he had known the identity of that scent, he would have lost his composure and gone berserk.