Chapter 36

The relationship between Lektar and Oneton didn’t look good even as a formality, but Wendigo didn’t let his guard down.

Their personality differences and poor cooperation were separate issues. Perhaps because they knew each other’s shortcomings well, they might show excellent cooperation.

Wendigo filled his sword with mystery, ready to swing it at any time. Ready to cleave whoever charged first.

However… no matter how long he waited, neither of them charged first.

“If you made a proposal, show an example first!”

“You fool. Is your head just for decoration! I can attack from afar, so shouldn’t you draw attention with your body!”

“……”

Wendigo was bewildered, almost amazed, at the sight of them exchanging such nonsense, telling each other to be meat shields.

To be so unwilling to take any loss even in this situation. At this point, weren’t they a match made in heaven?

Wendigo blankly watched the two bickering before coming to his senses.

‘So the ancient story about drawing attention with madness wasn’t nonsense after all.’

The sight of them eroding trust with an enemy right in front of them was that shocking.

To the point of hesitating over who to strike first!

Fortunately, Wendigo’s dilemma didn’t last long. An unexpected event occurred on the battlefield.

Oneton and Lektar, glaring at each other, startled and looked around as the surrounding temperature dropped.

Fog was rolling in from all directions at once.

“What’s going on?”

“… Seems we’ve fallen for his petty scheme. He wasn’t alone from the start.”

Setting aside whether he had the right to call others petty, was he still a spirit after all?

Oneton clicked his tongue, noticing the presence beyond the snow fog.

He had thought Wendigo would fight alone this time too since he had been fighting alone until now, but to think he would act as bait himself.

Lektar shouted at the sky, realizing he had been fooled again. Thinking about it, it was obvious.

No matter what scheme the spirit bastard had, would a spirit toy with his subordinates?

Lektar looked over the warriors, breathing heavily. While his elite followers maintained some composure, most warriors couldn’t.

After all, nothing good had come from being swept up in the snow fog so far!

While Lektar was troubled, Wendigo looked at the fog with satisfaction. Indeed, as Skadi said, the fog was spreading widely without leaving any gaps.

At this rate, the fog would swallow the warriors in an instant.

Moreover, warriors who had received Wendigo’s instructions were lurking in the fog. Those loyal ones must be panting, eager to bring glory to Wendigo as soon as possible.

Sure enough.

“Arrows! Arrows are coming!”

“Damn it, shields! Raise your shields! If you don’t have one, hide behind a corpse or… Ugh!”

As arrows flew from the fog, the warriors hurriedly hid. They dodged the arrow rain, trembling with fear.

Being attacked by an unseen enemy was a terror hard to endure without extraordinary courage.

Lektar growled, deflecting arrows with his sword.

“Damn it… At this rate, even retreating won’t be easy.”

Retreating while arrows were flying was no different from begging to be killed. Above all, it didn’t seem like Wendigo would let them go easily.

The one fortunate point was that the forest people’s technology wasn’t advanced, so the arrowheads were poor. Most arrows bounced off armor without penetrating.

If they had crossbows widely used in the Empire, the warriors would have all died pitifully, becoming like beehives.

Lektar, deflecting another arrow, looked at Oneton. The sight of him not being hit by a single arrow was infuriating.

“Oneton. I’ll lead the warriors in a charge. You should be able to find an opening in that spirit bastard.”

“… Of course.”

As Oneton answered from beyond the fog, Lektar inwardly sighed and raised his sword.

The sword burned hot, drawing the warriors’ attention.

“Warriors. I know your fear. I won’t deny that you fear the fog and the forest spirit.”

“Then are we retreating now?”

When one of the warriors gathered around Lektar asked, the warriors’ eyes lit up. Even the bravest warriors would refuse to fight in such unfavorable conditions.

At this pathetic sight, Lektar swallowed the curses about to burst out and continued speaking.

“Unfortunately, no. I too want to retreat right away, but we’ve already entered the fog, and above all, that spirit bastard won’t let us go. There’s only one way for us to survive.”

Lektar’s sword pointed beyond the fog. The warriors instinctively understood Lektar’s thoughts.

If they beheaded Wendigo, this fog would disappear, and surely the enemies’ morale would drop once the spirit vanished.

It was clear, but… the problem was that it wasn’t convincing.

Considering what Lektar had shown so far, it was amazing that the warriors had followed him this far.

As the warriors looked at him with distrustful eyes, Lektar felt the urge to swing his sword right away.

But he couldn’t. He needed them to face that spirit bastard, didn’t he?

Watching this scene, Oneton approached Lektar’s side.

“Pathetic fool. Can’t you even control your subordinates?”

“If you hadn’t just caused trouble, the tribe’s support would have gathered to me long ago! It’s all your fault…?!”

Ignoring Lektar’s words, Oneton awakened the mystery dwelling in the warriors. The warriors writhed in pain, clutching their heads.

Seeing the warriors gradually turning into beasts, Lektar couldn’t contain his anger and swung his sword at Oneton. But the sword only cut through air, not touching even a hair on Oneton.

“Oneton!”

“You should have persuaded them properly from the start. Shut up and use them to approach him. Then a way will open.”

As Oneton’s sinister eyes flashed, Lektar closed his mouth. He was overwhelmed by the atmosphere different from usual.

Lektar led the warriors, swallowing his shame. Though they drooled as if their reason had died, their strength should be sufficient.

“Charge!”

At Lektar’s order, the beast-men charged with horrific screams. Wendigo watched this scene and raised his sword.

Though their numbers were quite large, with a bit of effort, he could handle them in one go…

“Wendigo-nim! We’ll handle this!”

“Skadi? You’ve come at a good time… Huh?”

What entered Wendigo’s eyes as he turned around was Skadi and… deer skulls. Not just one, but more than ten skull heads.

The identity of the deer skulls was warriors wearing bone helmets. Their attire was as far from ordinary warriors as their helmets.

The helmets were engraved with magical patterns like those Skadi used, as if spells had been cast on them, and none of them wore armor.

The appearance of those who had only draped animal skins like wolves or bears as cloaks was truly barbaric.

“Aren’t they too underdressed for warriors heading to battle?”

“Fufu! Don’t worry. Their skin is tough enough to block blades, and their strength is as strong as beasts’.”

At Skadi’s gesture, the warriors raised their spears with a battle cry.

“Throwing spears!”

With one warrior’s lead, spears pierced through the fog, intercepting the charging warriors. Though not as overwhelming as Wendigo’s power, the spears pierced through enemies in one go.

Interested in this sight, Wendigo’s eyes shone as he observed the helmets the warriors wore.

Unlike the crude spells of spirits, the delicate spells contained in the helmets were granting the warriors mysterious power.

‘I see… So this is what Skadi was talking about.’

It was quite an impressive item. How on earth did she make such a thing?

“Impressive. If it’s not difficult to make, I’d like to distribute them to the warriors.”

“Ah… That, that might be difficult.”

“Is that so? Are the materials hard to obtain?”

As Wendigo stared intently, Skadi fidgeted with her fingers and spoke about the materials.

“I… I used a tiiiny bit of Gikas’s internal organs.”

“……”

More than being precious, Wendigo blankly stared at Skadi due to its danger.

While not as much as Gikas’s heart, his internal organs didn’t have very good properties either.

However, Skadi had her own excuses. It was an item whose safety had been verified through quite a few tests.

A helmet that imbues warriors with Wendigo’s energy.

This helmet was no different from proof of how excellent a shaman Skadi was.

… If Skadi’s skill had been even slightly lower, Gikas’s impure energy would have made it a cursed item that turned warriors into madmen.

As Skadi looked up while fiddling with her fingers, Wendigo looked at the warriors.

“Kill them! They are irreverent ones who dared to charge at the spirit-nim!”

“The spirit-nim’s blessing is with us. Only those with faith are worthy of receiving his blessing, so do not fear death!”

Aside from the fanatical worship, the item Skadi made was quite good. Thanks to the helmets, the warriors were gaining the upper hand against the beast-men.

‘Still, I should scold her a bit when we get back.’

However, making something dangerous in secret was indeed a problem. What if she got hurt if she made a mistake?

“You made it well, but next time, tell me before making it. And… warriors, fall back from that one. I’ll handle him.”

The one Wendigo pointed at was, of course, Lektar. Lektar burst out from among the beast-men and swung his flame sword down at Wendigo.

Such an attack wouldn’t work on Wendigo. Wendigo simply raised his sword to block the attack.

Despite the overwhelming difference in power, Lektar didn’t stop. Knowing well that stopping meant death, he continued swinging his sword, looking for Wendigo’s opening.

Wendigo mindlessly blocked the attacks and raised his arm. At that moment, Lektar shouted as if screaming.

“Oneton!!!”

As if that cry was a signal, a bird flew from the sky, aiming for Wendigo’s arm.

The bird changed its form with the sound of bones crushing; its true identity was Oneton. Oneton pounced on Wendigo’s arm and sank his teeth in.

Seeing this, Lektar looked for an opportunity. If he could behead Wendigo while he was distracted by Oneton!

“A doppelganger, huh. Did you really attack me believing in just this?”

“… What?”

At Wendigo’s question, Lektar felt his heart sink. He forgot he should attack and looked at Oneton.

Come to think of it, it was strange. Why attack with something as weak as teeth instead of magic? Even though he had means to attack from afar?

“Don’t bullshit me… Don’t you dare bullshit me!”

“It’s true though.”

As Lektar wailed as if the sky had fallen, Wendigo grabbed Oneton’s doppelganger and smashed it to the ground.

The doppelganger fell limply and crashed into the ground. It must have been made with the bare minimum of mystery, as it revealed its true form at such a weak impact.

A coldly dead bird lay there forlornly.

“Onetoooon!!!”

“You should have chosen your contract partner more carefully.”

Being the one scammed, he must feel wronged, but what can he do? It’s his own fault for trying to backstab after getting what he wanted.

Lektar swung his sword, spitting blood. His sword burned as if to set the world ablaze, using his life as kindling.

Wendigo swung his sword in response.

As the two swords collided, the pure cold energy contained in the ice sword swirled and devoured the flames. The mystery contained in Lektar’s sword shattered and…

“I… I am of the Blue Mane tribe… I must return to the plains…”

“You fool. Did you think someone who lived his whole life as a conman would be scammed so easily?”

The ice sword bisected Lektar. Lektar’s form crumbled, leaving behind regret-filled last words.

It was a pitiful death for an ambitious man who had burned with the desire to return to the plains and become king.

After looking at Lektar for a moment, Wendigo turned his head to check for Oneton’s presence. He thought Oneton would have fled quite far, having sent a doppelganger to buy time, but…

‘Why isn’t he moving, staying still?’

Contrary to his thoughts, the bastard was still tied down nearby. Looking more closely, human presences could be felt around Oneton.

For whatever reason, it was a perfect situation to track him down.

Wendigo dashed at full speed to chase Oneton, and.

“The forest spirit has appeared! To prove our innocence, we must stop that wolf bastard!”

“You damn spirit son of a bitch! You drove us to death, so you die too!”

“You rotten-headed fools! Do you think you can avoid his wrath by doing this!”

“?”

There, warriors of the Blue Mane tribe were risking their lives to block Oneton.

They clearly had their fighting spirit up, not backing down even as arms were torn off by Oneton’s claws.

Wendigo watched this desperate struggle with a sour gaze. While he had instigated the warriors’ betrayal…

‘How many crimes must he have committed usually for them to attack like this?’

It was incomprehensible to Wendigo, who always got along peacefully with people.

Wendigo looked at Oneton with contempt-filled eyes and created an ice spear to throw at him.