episode_0009

Therapean’s hands begin to tremble. A man who has participated in numerous battlefields so far and can be called an elite.

The man fought for his life even on a battlefield where swords were flying in all directions, and he thought that his bravery had an immutable value that did not change depending on the situation and conditions. That was the man’s pride and pride. The bravery of not backing down in any situation was the reason the man lived in this world.

But for the first time, fear began to appear in the eyes of such a brave man.

“This…isn’t this…”

The reason we can be brave even in the face of death is because it is worth doing. Even when fighting with over 100 people with about 10 people, even when fighting with one arm after receiving massive wounds from an enemy ambush, or when the camp was devastated by a long-distance interception artifact, Terepian was not afraid. In the end, people who attack are only human. So, he thought he had a slight chance of winning.

If there was even 1% hope, I would not be disappointed. In other words, even that 1% of hope did not exist now.

“Quaaah!”

While Terepian’s hands were shaking, another knight’s neck was ripped off by the mantis-type monster, Liard. The knight next to him also struggled to avoid it, but his heart was pierced by the overwhelming speed.

A body over 3 meters long. Overwhelming strength that can shatter a human body just by swinging it. It has overwhelming mobility that allows it to fly several meters in the blink of an eye. Liard was not a being that a human body could handle.

Terepian looked at Liard and muttered.

“That…even Leos, an unknown bug, is a monster that I have caught…Should I, a great knight, give up here!”

Terepian forced his shaking hands to calm down, grabbed his sword, and swung it towards the mantis-type mutant monster Liard. The sword energy rising from his sword cuts through the air and charges towards the monster.

“Die!”

The moment when the Terepian swung his sword down with all his might.

-Chaeng!

With a refreshing sound, the sword was blocked by the mutant Liard’s blade. This guy’s blade didn’t even have a scratch.

“Ah…buy…save…”

He tried to beg for his life, but the other person was not a being that could speak like a human. I ignored it as a creature without reason, but I felt that intelligence was reduced to a trivial element in the face of overwhelming force and instinct. A person to whom begging does not work. An overwhelming sense of dread and fear of death begin to creep in.

‘From the beginning…I…wasn’t an opponent I could beat…I should have run away…’

But the man’s realization came too late.

-Phew!

Terepian’s upper body was completely pierced by Liard.

The knights around were frantic and started to run away, but the monster ate them one by one as if it were a meal, and began slaughtering the remaining ones with blades.

The only monster that appeared in Mutant Red Gate. The monster chopped up 34 of the 35 knights.

“City profit!”

The guy shouted at the sky as if sending some kind of signal, and soon enough, ironically, the only person alive at the scene was the Terepian, whose upper body had been pierced by the first mutant monster. All the knights are dead. And even though he was left alone, Terepian’s survival instinct began to take precedence over the thought of avenging his fellow knight.

Even while bleeding all over his body, Terepian put down his sword and surrendered with a glimmer of hope to live.

“Save me…kkeeuuu…”

In a state where he couldn’t even beg for his life, the Terepian lost a lot of blood. Begging for one’s life is an indecent act that a knight should never do. It was the greatest humiliation to beg for the life of a monster that was not even human.

Nevertheless, Terepian slammed his head into the ground and shouted.

“Surrender…I will surrender, so please spare my life…”

“Shieeet!”

Liard flew right in front of Terepian. Tears begin to flow from Terepian’s eyes. If Liard had just swung the blade on his arm, the man’s head would have been blown off.

Liard, a mantis-like mutant monster, looked at the Terepian as if it were amused, laughed creepyly, then spread its wings and flew into the sky.

Terepian, who barely saved his life, falls painfully to the ground, clutching his abdomen.

“The monster…understood what I said and played with me…The monster…understood what I said…?”

The monster’s attitude was too foreign to be dismissed as a coincidence. It was difficult to dismiss the guy’s eyes and actions as if he was trying to save a crawling bug’s life just once.

“It’s a big deal…”

Since they are unintelligent and stupid monsters, I thought they could somehow be defeated no matter how strong they were. But that’s just your illusion. Mutant monsters were clearly intelligent. It is also intelligent enough to understand human speech and play with people’s lives.

“Shit…Shit…”

Terepian put aside the overwhelming sense of shame and dragged himself home with his hands along the ground, heading towards the imperial palace.

‘I have to tell it somehow. Leos…if it’s not him…’

It was Leos who single-handedly dealt with the numerous mutant species that existed in the past empire. At the time, it was a job done by a man with unknown origins, so it wasn’t very impressive to see a huge monster die. I thought it was just a matter of doing the annoying work for me. But not anymore.

The reason Leos caught the mutant monsters of the Red Gate alone was because he knew that only he could catch them.

‘I and the Empire have been making a huge misjudgment up until now.’

People tend to overly belittle and evaluate things they have not experienced. Not only the Empire, but even the Terepians thought that since Leos could kill mutants so easily, it was natural that other trained knights would be able to do the same. The Terepian actually changed his mind when he encountered the mutant.

It is meaningless to use knights, troops, or any other artifacts. Leos. We need Leos, the monster who single-handedly destroyed hundreds of Red Gates. The man must have the characteristics, abilities, or information to deal with the mutant species.

I had to inform His Majesty the Emperor. Leos is absolutely necessary to prevent the fall of the empire.

*

“Follow me carefully, because it will be annoying if you get discovered by monsters.”

“Yes! I’ll follow along as quickly as possible!”

I put all the luggage that Hericia was carrying into my inventory. She spoke while warming up in her casual clothes.

“Now can I run through where the monsters are?”

“Don’t say anything crazy. We are going back.”

“Yes?”

Hericia looked at me with a questioning expression, and I briefly explained it to her.

“It’s best if you can avoid encountering monsters. In the case of mutant species, each animal has overwhelming power that can defeat dozens of knights. If you are unlucky and encounter two or three mutant species at the same time, it will be difficult for even me to protect you and fight.”

“If it’s difficult to fight while protecting me… When you fight alone, are you able to kill two or three of those mutant species?”

“It’s possible. I’ve already experienced it a few times before.”

When the Red Gate, especially the mutant species, came out, I went out to subdue it alone. The reason was none other than that other people were getting in the way. Mutants are extremely sensitive to senses. In order to attack them, you can’t make even a single mistake. Therefore, only when attacking mutants, colleagues became a hindrance.

‘Of course, that’s only when there are two or three. ‘One dog is no problem.’

I took the daggers and weapons out of my inventory and put them in my arms. You can leave it in your inventory and use it right away, but doing so will remove the item from your inventory and there will be a short delay before it becomes tangible again. On the other hand, hiding weapons all over the body was more efficient because it could be used immediately during the course of combat.

In a battle where a split second can determine victory or defeat, blindly trusting your inventory is like a shortcut to death.

After walking for a while, Hericia spoke.

“I looked for the location that Leos mentioned using distance, and it seems that Bendict is in the cave over there. But there is a problem…”

I turned my head and looked towards where Hericia was looking. A cave where Bendict is believed to be located. That’s because a huge monster was blocking that place.

“3M seems like enough…? How about waiting until that monster disappears and then entering later?”

Ignoring her words, I trudged forward.

“I will kill you, so wait.”

Scan the opponent. This guy is a mutant of the mantis family, and his name is Lyad. There was no way I didn’t know. The name Liad is the name I gave myself after first defeating him.

‘There’s blood on it’

The blade of the mantis-type monster, Liard, was covered in blood that was presumed to be human. I looked at Distance with anxiety. It was because of my anxiety that maybe that idiot Bendict might have died in the evening.

“Leos! It’s dangerous! Even so, killing such a monster alone…”

“Be quiet. It will be over in a moment.”

I immediately started running towards Liard. Then his gaze turns towards me for an instant.

“Shhh!”

It started making strange noises and releasing its own fluids. But instead of avoiding it, he started running.

-Chwiiik

His bodily fluids touched my body and started to melt, but the pain was nothing. If I had tried to avoid it, he would have used his long reach to ravage me.

When I approached him straight away without avoiding the body fluids, he seemed to be embarrassed and raised his blade to attack.

-Whoop!

The strength of its blade was similar to that of steel, so blocking it would be foolish. I dodged his attack by digging into my arms, then twisted my body and kicked the ground, moving toward his abdomen.

-Phew…

When we attacked the only weak spot on Liard’s body, it screamed and tried to soar into the sky. I immediately fired a long-range interception artifact at its wing ridge.

-Pasasasak!

Mana’s bullet hits the wing joint exactly, and the guy loses his balance and falls to the ground.

-bang!

The guy fell from the sky and suffered a huge shock due to gravity and his own weight. I raised my dagger, looking at Lyad crawling on the ground with an emotionless expression.

“Low class among mutations. It’s so weak.”