Chapter 16

The warriors looked up at the wendigo with dumbfounded expressions.

At least until the monsters swarmed in, there had been hope. Even if that hope was squeezed out of a sense of duty to protect the village.

But now there was none.

“Ah….”

“G-Get a hold of yourself! We need to get up and run away quickly!”

Is that really a living being? No, shouldn’t it be something that shouldn’t exist in this world in the first place?

As the ominous deer skull slowly opened, the warriors sprawled on the ground trembled in fear.

It seemed like at any moment, that being would defile their souls with its cursed voice and turn them into pieces of meat with that enormous sword.

‘Is it approaching? Or not? I can’t tell. It’s right in front of us, yet I can’t sense its presence.’

The discordant sensations made their heads spin. Dmitri, one of the warriors, wished he could just faint. At least then he wouldn’t die in fear.

Dmitri was about to close his eyes as he looked at the giant standing before him. Yes, he was about to do that, but…

“It seems I’m a bit late. I’m sorry. I should have arrived before the palisade collapsed.”

“… Pardon?”

For a moment, Dmitri wondered if he had gone mad. The words flowing from the giant’s mouth were neither a curse nor a scream.

He looked around with a blank expression. His comrades all showed the same expression with their broken faces.

Then, does that mean what he heard wasn’t an auditory hallucination?

Warriors appeared from behind the giant and supported them. Dmitri grabbed the man who seemed to be the commander of the warriors.

“W-What is that thing?”

Geron’s forehead twitched at the word “thing.” How dare he use such words for Spirit-nim.

‘Be patient. He’s someone who hasn’t received Spirit-nim’s grace yet.’

Geron spoke to Dmitri with a straight posture.

“Watch your words. Spirit-nim is merciful, but we who serve him are not.”

“S-Spirit-nim, you say.”

Why on earth would a spirit be here?

Dmitri looked at the giant’s back with a confused expression. The image of the giant carrying a sword naturally inspired awe.

The giant, the wendigo, turned around slightly. Dmitri, whose eyes met his, swallowed and thought.

‘What on earth could he be thinking?’

Even as he retreated with the help of the warriors, Dmitri couldn’t resolve his questions. And another question crossed his mind.

‘Why is he talking about the palisade when he’s the one who destroyed it…’

Dmitri left the place with these questions in mind.

---

The wendigo watched the departing warriors and felt relieved.

‘Good, I naturally got past the problem.’

Honestly, when the sword hit the palisade, he thought he had messed up. Having no place to test his new power, he had unconsciously applied too much force.

It was a stupid act that made him sigh, but the wendigo calmly worked his mind.

Third-rate people regret their mistakes and stop, second-rate people analyze their mistakes and catch their errors. Then what about first-rate?

First-rate people use even their mistakes well to gain advantages. In that sense, the wendigo was quite first-rate.

‘Honestly, it was about to collapse anyway.’

The wendigo was shameless. If he wasn’t, how could he, a being close to a spirit, settle in a village and leisurely enjoy the food offered by people?

If the palisade was going to collapse anyway, it would be better to use it to improve his relationship with the village.

‘Hmm, now that the embarrassment is gone, my mind is at ease.’

“Kyeeeek!!!”

As the wendigo’s mind became as calm as a peaceful lake, he naturally noticed the filth unfolding before his eyes.

He saw the faces of those creatures he hadn’t noticed when cutting them down from behind.

“Tsk, their appearance is quite hideous.”

“Kyaaak!!!”

As the palisade collapsed, the monsters surged in like a wave with terrible screams. The wendigo raised his hand and drew up mystery.

Huge roots shot up like sharp spears, piercing through monsters and becoming a wall, and frost fell using the roots as a framework. The frosted roots became a barrier, emitting terrible cold energy.

The barrier boasted incomparable hardness to the palisade. The monsters, realizing they couldn’t destroy the wall, swarmed towards the only open space.

Of course, the wendigo was at the center of that space.

“A sword wouldn’t be suitable in this space.”

As if reflecting his will, the sword transformed into a blunt-looking club. After moving it around, the wendigo nodded in satisfaction at the comfortable center of gravity.

“This will do.”

As he twitched the weapon, the monsters bared their teeth with angry roars.

Pure violence without a hint of intelligence.

It was enough to make ordinary people’s skin crawl, but…

“Kii..”

“Quiet!!!”

Kwaaang!!!

The wendigo had none of that. He was in a state devoid of fear to feel such things.

With the angry clubbing, the monsters were smashed to the point where their forms were hard to recognize. Some were swept away by the club and left marks on the barrier.

The wendigo swung the blood-stained club in a trance.

The sound of bones crushing, flesh tearing, and the mournful cries of monsters.

For a while, these terrible sounds echoed through the forest.

The wendigo planted the dripping club on the ground and observed them.

“Grrrrr…”

“Huh, they were raging like madmen just now, and now they’re being cautious.”

After dozens of monsters turned into lumps of blood, they seemed to regain their senses and became wary.

A bloody silence fell between the wendigo and the horde of monsters. The monsters moved first.

They hid their fierce appearance and retreated into the darkness of the forest.

‘Wise. And that makes it more unsettling.’

The wendigo felt uneasy about their behavior. Is this really behavior befitting monsters?

Absolutely not. If they were rabid monsters, they wouldn’t have retreated, and if they had the sense to retreat, they wouldn’t have thought of throwing themselves at the palisade to break it down in the first place.

After they had completely withdrawn, the wendigo looked around the ground.

From the ground littered with blood, flesh, and broken bones, the wendigo picked up something.

“… What is this?”

The worm-like creature wriggled its hexagonally split mouth. The wendigo crushed the worm. The smell then faded.

Could this worm have been the culprit behind the smell?

Cold energy swirled around him, freezing the things dirtying the ground. The foul smell then disappeared as if it had been a lie.

“The source of the smell wasn’t the monsters, but these worm-like things.”

“Spirit-nim. Are you alright?”

Geron and Dmitri approached the wendigo.

While Geron wasn’t greatly shocked by the carnage before him, having directly witnessed the wild boar spirit being literally torn apart, Dmitri was different.

As the blood-soaked wendigo lowered his head to look at him, Dmitri felt a chill run down his spine.

Dmitri instinctively knelt and planted his face on the ground. He shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Please take only my life and quell your anger!!”

“……”

The wendigo stared blankly at Dmitri in bewilderment. Why is he making a fuss about giving up his life when he was just saved?

“Dmitri! What are you doing!”

‘Indeed, the others seem to have their wits about them…’

“You risked your life to protect us, so now it’s our turn to sacrifice!”

“O Spirit. Please spare this friend’s life and take mine instead!”

The wendigo sighed at the spectacle that was hard to watch. He asked Geron, who was watching the scene with a somewhat pleased expression.

“Do I look that scary?”

“Yes, honestly, you look scary. And right now, you look much scarier.”

“Ah.”

The wendigo only then realized that he was covered in blood.

A blood-soaked giant wearing a deer skull, even holding a blood-stained club – it would be reasonable to suspect someone of being a psychopath if they weren’t scared.

‘It’s this hard to start with a good impression!’

It was truly a headache-inducing situation.

---

Thanks to Geron’s impassioned speech and Ivan’s explanation, the village accepted the wendigo’s existence.

They held a modest feast to express their gratitude to the wendigo’s party.

Of course, the idea that a spirit would help people without any compensation was as hard to believe as a bolt from the blue, but…

“The taste of the food is exquisite. You have a good wife.”

“Hahaha! If Spirit-nim praises it to this extent, it seems I haven’t lived my life in vain!”

The wendigo was a good spirit if one set aside his appearance and power, so they had no choice but to believe.

A spirit enjoying a meal prepared by humans and exchanging pleasantries – Dmitri found it hard to believe even though he was seeing it with his own eyes.

Dmitri approached the wendigo with a mug full of beer.

“Spirit-nim, do you also drink alcohol?”

“I can drink, but I don’t get drunk. It’s a pity.”

“Haha, I think it would be troublesome if someone like Spirit-nim got drunk.”

The wendigo couldn’t argue. If he caused a ruckus while drunk, he could easily destroy a village or two.

Dmitri, watching the wendigo chew and swallow a pig’s front leg, sipped his beer.

“Truly, I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened if Spirit-nim hadn’t been here.”

“You probably could have held them off even without me.”

“Hehe, thank you for saying that, but it would have been difficult. If Spirit-nim hadn’t been here, they seemed like they would have attacked until the very last one.”

Dmitri swallowed his bitterness along with the beer.

It wasn’t wrong. Even the wendigo thought they had been quite lucky.

If he hadn’t fortunately appeared, those creatures wouldn’t have retreated.

Then, even if they had defeated the monsters, it’s clear they couldn’t have avoided the village’s destruction.

Perhaps because he knew this fact.

Dmitri downed his drink in one go and knelt before the wendigo.

“Surely you’re not going to do what you did a few hours ago? I may not know much else, but I’m not the kind of spirit who recklessly takes human lives.”

“It’s not that. I have a request for Spirit-nim.”

As Dmitri spoke with a resolute attitude, the wendigo felt interested. From his perspective, Dmitri seemed to be the core or pivot of this village.

What could make such a man kneel and make a request?

“Speak. If it’s not a big matter, I’ll listen.”

“It is a big matter, if anything.”

Dmitri bowed. Unlike their first meeting, this bow was not a desperate struggle.

It was a bow filled with sincere respect and awe.

“Spirit-nim. Please take us in.”

“Hmm…”

The wendigo stroked his chin and looked down at Dmitri solemnly.