Ch.67EP 2 Gorgon

# The Forced March to Uljin

The forced march toward Uljin had begun.

Due to the incredible pace, stragglers occasionally fell behind, but we couldn’t afford to slow down.

Even vampires who transcended human limitations would eventually tire after running for hours without rest.

Even the strongest clan leaders among the level 20s like Firin and Prix were beginning to slow down as their stamina depleted.

Of course, Aurel and I, riding on Hwang-gu, maintained our speed.

Despite traveling such a long distance, Hwang-gu with her abundant stamina wasn’t even breathing hard.

I bit my lip as I watched our kind falling behind.

At this rate, we might lose the Gorgon to those humans.

Gripping the leash in my hand, I shouted to Hwang-gu.

“Faster!”

“Woof!”

Tap-tap-tap-!

Hwang-gu barked energetically at my command.

She began to increase her speed as if everything until now had just been a warm-up.

“Cha, Charlotte!”

Firin’s voice called from behind me.

I turned my head and waved.

“I’ll go ahead!”

“It’s dangerous!”

I knew it was risky. But letting the newly appeared boss fall into human hands would be even more dangerous.

Breaking away from the main force, Hwang-gu sprinted through the pitch-black darkness.

Aurel and I pressed ourselves flat against Hwang-gu’s back to minimize wind resistance.

After running for some time, the scent carried by the wind began to change.

The smell of the sea.

“This way!”

The moment we entered Uljin and caught the ocean scent, Aurel began directing Hwang-gu.

Hwang-gu charged fearlessly down the open road.

Occasionally she would change direction toward where Aurel pointed.

After leaving the wide road and entering a city, Hwang-gu suddenly stopped without being commanded.

Seeing her sniffing the air, she must have detected human scent.

I stroked Hwang-gu’s nape and asked.

“Humans?”

“Grrrr…”

Hwang-gu answered with a low growl.

Aurel and I dismounted from Hwang-gu’s back and hid behind a large building.

At that moment, Hwang-gu’s body began to shrink.

Changing from riding form to soft form, she must have judged it better to move as a girl rather than a wolf.

Hwang-gu stuck close to my side and spoke.

“The smell of humans and gunpowder is overwhelming. They seem to have prepared traps nearby.”

“Preparing for an attack?”

“It seems so.”

I frowned at Hwang-gu’s words.

Humans were a race specialized in defense rather than offense.

If they properly established their position and began a siege, our side would suffer severe casualties.

“We need to move.”

I led Aurel and Hwang-gu carefully into the city interior.

The inside of the city was eerily quiet. It seemed they hadn’t started the Gorgon raid yet.

“Hah… how long do we have to keep setting these up?”

“Don’t know, probably until we get the assembly order?”

As we passed through the gap of a collapsed building, I heard human voices not far away.

Startled, I pulled Hwang-gu and Aurel close and flattened ourselves against the ground.

Thump- thump- thump-

The sound of human footsteps approaching then receding.

Peeking out slightly, I saw two humans dressed in black walking around setting bombs.

How did I not notice them when they were so close? I sniffed the air again to check the surrounding scents.

While not comparable to werewolves, vampires also possess excellent sense of smell.

There’s no way I wouldn’t smell humans at such close range.

But.

The two humans setting traps emitted no scent whatsoever.

“Sniff sniff!”

It seemed Hwang-gu couldn’t smell the humans either.

She sniffed repeatedly and tilted her head in confusion.

Well, it doesn’t matter. They must be using something special to mask their scent.

I reached my hand toward the darkness.

Shadows began to move according to my will.

The elongating shadows, faintly illuminated by moonlight, climbed up the humans’ bodies.

These were insubstantial shadow movements. There was no way the humans could detect them.

When the carefully moving shadows wrapped around the humans’ necks,

I moved my hand as if pulling something from the air.

“Gack!”

“Kuh!”

As the shadows materialized according to my will and gained physical force,

the two humans were lifted into the air and flew toward me.

They flailed in the air in panic.

But their struggling didn’t last long.

As the humans flew forward, Aurel and Hwang-gu leaped out, breaking their jaws and snapping their arms and legs.

“Urgh…”

“Mmph…!”

The impact would have knocked out ordinary humans, but both were level 20 humans and remained conscious.

I dragged the humans into a collapsed building and devoured them using my shadows.

Rrrip-!

Mindlessly increasing the number of subordinates wasn’t good practice, but it was a necessary choice to obtain information.

The shadow that devoured the humans laid large eggs in a suitable place.

Since the shadow was essentially part of me, it was as if I had laid them myself.

Crack-crack-!

After a few minutes, the black eggs began to crack.

Soon the eggs completely broke, and two girls crawled out from inside.

“Hueek…”

“Hieek…”

I would have liked to wait until the two girls regained their senses, but time was short.

I picked up the children and shook them vigorously back and forth.

“Hueeeeek!”

“Hieeeeek!”

After shaking them senseless, light began to return to the girls’ eyes.

I sat them down on the floor and spoke.

“How many humans are here right now?”

“Hu-humans…? Ugh…”

“800 people…?”

The children answered my question with confused expressions.

I was surprised by the number—800 humans in this city was more than I expected.

“Where are these humans?”

My commands are absolute to my subordinates. Though confused, the two girls answered my questions diligently.

The human main force was preparing for battle near the Gorgon, while about 100 humans were circling the city outskirts setting traps.

They said a recall order would come through the walkie-talkie once the main force completed battle preparations, so we still had some time.

The humans’ preparations were very quick.

I picked up a fallen walkie-talkie and attached it to my waist.

“Ah, that’s mine…”

One girl mumbled vacantly watching my actions.

She apparently hadn’t realized her situation yet.

I spread my shadow wide and devoured both children into it.

“What should we do now? Wait for the main force?”

“No. The more time we give, the more advantageous it becomes for the humans.”

Though I said this, there wasn’t much we could do in this situation.

I began taking out humans who were setting traps, bringing Aurel and Hwang-gu along with me.

After dealing with about 20 humans, it happened.

Cheeek-!

A sudden strange noise.

Startled, I threw the walkie-talkie from my waist to the ground.

Crash-!

“Lady Charlotte?”

“Ah, I was just startled…”

I clutched my chest.

While already tense, the sudden signal from the walkie-talkie surprised me.

It seemed the main force had finished battle preparations and issued a recall order.

“Aurel.”

“Yes?”

“Where’s Chirpy?”

“Here!”

Aurel spread her hands wide in response to my question.

A small sparrow sat quietly on her soft palms.

“Send Chirpy to check how close our main force is.”

“Yes!”

Just as Aurel released Chirpy on my order.

BOOM-! KABOOM-!

A massive explosion sounded from far away.

Followed by a tremendous shock.

The impact spread widely across the road, precariously shaking the collapsed buildings.

“Looks like they’ve started.”

I led Aurel and Hwang-gu toward the direction of the explosion.

Not far from where we arrived.

The humans were in the middle of the Gorgon raid.

The massive body, easily over 5 meters tall, was surrounded by a purple aura, with enormous horns over 2 meters long protruding from its head.

Its overall appearance resembled a bull.

Though it didn’t quite fit the Blood Carnival world setting, no one was going to question that fact here.

[Gorgon]

Level: 20

Race: Fusion Body

Health 99%

Mana 98%

Emotional State: –

The Gorgon raid had just begun, so its health was still plentiful.

I observed how the humans were conducting the raid.

Humans were riding motorcycles to draw the Gorgon’s aggro.

Due to their inferior physical abilities, it seemed they had no users who could tank.

The humans led the Gorgon around while pouring tremendous amounts of artillery fire from a distance.

Because the target kept moving, the firepower couldn’t be fully concentrated, but the enormous number of 800 people was quickly depleting the Gorgon’s health.

Boom- boom- boom-!

The Gorgon charged toward the humans’ motorcycles, breathing heavily.

But the humans driving the motorcycles demonstrated strange skills to avoid the Gorgon’s charges.

As I was contemplating whether to jump in, Chirpy came fluttering from the distance.

“Ah!”

Aurel extended her hand with a bright smile at the sight.

-Chirp!

Chirpy landed on Aurel’s hand and flapped its wings, pouring out unintelligible words.

-Chirp! Chirp-chirp-chirp! Chirp!

“Yes!”

-Chirp!

“Yes, yes!”

After conversing with Chirpy for quite some time, Aurel sent the sparrow flying away again.

“What did Chirpy say?”

“They’re almost here. He says they’ll arrive in about 2 minutes.”

Aurel’s words were true.

After waiting for about 2 minutes, the main force arrived.

There was no time to explain the situation.

I shouted to the exhausted-looking vampires.

“Attack!”

The Gorgon’s remaining health: 85%

We absolutely couldn’t let the humans have it.

I mounted Hwang-gu and pulled on her leash.

The night is the stage for vampires and werewolves.

No matter how good human eyesight might be, it wasn’t easy to properly track the movements of vampires racing quickly through the darkness.

Tap-tap-tap-!

Hwang-gu sprinted at an incredible speed.

Covered in red fur, Hwang-gu’s speed was three times faster than before.