The Chaser of the Wild #4

 

Corn—

The number of skeletal monsters is rapidly decreasing.

As always, it’s easier to tear down than to build up.

The monsters I had painstakingly collected over the past week were annihilated in an instant.

—Kuoooo!

As the giant worm’s massive body twisted, a group of skeletons turned to dust.

Push!

Poison thorns are shot in all directions. A rain of thorns decorates the sky.

A deadly poison that corrodes even the bones of a skeleton. The monster army melts away like ice cream.

“Estelle, would you like to step down now?”

Flora said impatiently.

The giant worm is still busy wiping out the monsters loitering around it, but if things continue this way, we’ll soon be within its range of perception.

“Don’t worry, senior. It’s just the beginning.”

“But half of the skeletons have already disappeared⋯.”

“So far, everything is going according to my plan.”

I spoke with conviction and force.

It wasn’t just a roundabout way of reassuring Flora.

The Giant Worm may not have noticed, but all the skeletal monsters I’ve deployed so far are low-level.

Meat shields designed to drain the Giant Worm’s stamina and, most importantly, to block its dangerous poisonous thorns.

No, the meat has already rotted away, so it’s a bone shield. Anyway.

The number of skeletal monsters was reduced by a third, but it was a planned sacrifice.

And now, it’s real.

—Koooo!

The giant worm’s last thorn has been fired. It has no more ranged attacks.

The time has come.

“Deploy the next unit.”

Dog No. 2 waved the black flag proudly.

Elite units soon appear.

They are the best of the best, gathered from the strongest ones while hunting in the wilderness.

Garden Mammoth, Rock Scorpion, and Wild Boar.

When the enemy is strong, retreat; when he is weak, charge in. This is the basic principle of military strategy.

Kwajik!

The giant worm, unable to shoot thorns any longer, used its body as a club and pounded the ground.

The mammoth skeleton underneath was brutally mangled.

However, it is different from before.

Just a moment ago, the monsters were destroyed by the dozens just from the shockwave of the giant worm hitting the ground, but now they don’t melt away like that.

Unless it’s a direct hit, it can withstand the shockwave.

—Kusss.

—Clang, clang.

The skeletal monsters clung to the giant worm, their eyes gleaming from their gaping eye sockets.

Each attack may only leave a dent in the thick shell, but when dozens or hundreds of attacks combine, it’s a different story.

—Kroooo!

The giant worm writhe in agony.

Already, wounds were engraved all over his body, and green blood was splattered.

“Wow! The attack is working! You’re fighting well, aren’t you?”

Flora was so excited that she punched the air.

We can’t afford to miss this momentum.

My command was given again, and the skeletal monsters rolled the boulder down the hill in unison.

Kurrurur—

The rolling rocks crushed our monsters without mercy, but I don’t know.

They aren’t living subordinates anyway.

This is also an advantage when commanding an undead army.

Whether they die or not, I suffer no loss. Even if they are all wiped out, I won’t hear anyone’s complaints.

The undead army was nothing more than murderous puppets that faithfully followed my commands.

bang!

A few rocks were off course and rolled to completely unrelated places, but the rest all collided with the giant worm’s body.

strike.

The giant worm’s body stopped moving for a moment.

Even if it’s a field boss, this level of shock can’t be ignored.

It is now.

“Senior, then please cover me from behind.”

“be careful-“

“I’ll go and come back.”

I raised my mace while riding on the skeletal mammoth.

The elite monsters I had saved follow me, raising a cloud of dust as they run towards the giant worm.

“Guys, let’s go-”

My hair fluttered in the sandstorm. I was now in the middle of a battlefield.

Charging into a monster the size of a ten-story apartment building? That’s just crazy.

And, crazy things are always fun.

“Hahaha.”

Somehow, I found myself laughing.

Is this what it felt like for the Viking berserkers of old and the Mongol cavalry to charge into enemy lines?

“Everyone, just avoid it. I don’t have time to worry about you anymore.”

Before I could even finish my sentence, the giant worm’s tail swept across our camp.

A reckless sweeping of the ground.

As I hurriedly lay flat on the mammoth, a heavy tail like an airplane passed over me.

Kwajijijik!

From behind, the sound of the unfortunate monsters that couldn’t avoid the tail being slaughtered could be heard.

I didn’t look back.

If we hesitate now, we will all die.

“It’s much bigger when you look at it up close?”

Even if you raise your head high, you can’t see the entire giant worm.

This means you have to beat it with a mace.

“But this isn’t just any mace. I’m not just any girl.”

Artifact “Garden’s Meteor”.

It’s time for you to taste blood.

It’s a bug’s blood, but if it’s a field boss, it’ll probably suit your taste.

I called upon the power of the reliquary and focused my efforts on physical abilities.

Her slender arms became vibrant, and she gained enough strength to crush even a lump of iron with her bare hands.

“Use steel strike.”

Garden’s meteor struck the giant worm without mercy.

Woozijik!

The giant worm’s hard chitinous shell was dented and pitted.

I stepped on the footprints and jumped upwards with a great leap.

And then, again, the steel strike.

Kwajik!

Crush the giant worm’s body and use its footprints as a stepping stone to jump high.

As I repeated this process, the bastard’s head came into view.

—Kikigigigi.

The insect’s characteristically emotionless black eyes.

And, inside the round mouth, which is as wide as two or three tennis courts combined, teeth are densely packed.

Sharp, saw-like teeth that crush anything they swallow.

If you accidentally fall in there, you’ll be torn to pieces without even leaving a corpse behind.

“What are you looking at, you punk?”

My eyes met his.

The giant worm’s mouth opened wide, and air began to swirl and be sucked into it.

I grabbed the guy’s shell and held him steady.

“Just open your mouth wide. What do you want to do? Are you sick? Are you hungry? You’re just a bug, so I can’t read your thoughts.”

Even if I try to understand his feelings, there’s no way we can communicate.

There’s only one thing I can give him right now.

I took out the secret weapon stored in the subspace inside the Golden Horn’s cloak.

“This is your first time trying this. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I’ll feed you until you burst.”

The vision cannon floating in the air showed off its majestic appearance.

An ambitious work of dwarven craftsmen, borrowed from the captain of the guard for this raid.

I manipulated a telekinetic vision cannon that levitated into the air.

The shells are special flame bullets.

It will be very hot and spicy.

“Just one step.”

Kwakwang!

The Vision Cannon’s muzzle blew fire.

The red shell disappears into the darkness deep within the giant worm’s throat.

After a while.

Kwakwakwang!

—Ugh, ughhhh!

A pillar of fire rose like a volcano above the giant worm’s mouth.

Even my face, which had kept its distance from the flames so as not to be engulfed in them, was burning with the heat.

The guy’s body convulsed wildly, as if the damage had been properly inflicted.

It’s hard work to keep from falling off the body of a glowing being.

“You like it? Then give me another room, you brat.”

The vision cannon fired a continuous stream of shells.

The giant worm groaned in pain, its body shaking with each explosion.

‘As expected, hitting it directly in the stomach was the right answer.’

If you shot from a distance, most of the damage would have been blocked by the hard shell.

Crunch, rustle.

On the ground, skeletal monsters that look as small as ants devour the body without fear of death.

I continued to attack without stopping.

He knocks out the bastard’s eyes with Garden’s meteor and slashes his throat with his frost sword.

There’s no time to check how much health the guy has left like in a game.

Just cutting, hitting, tearing, and bursting in a state of utter emptiness.

By the time I realized it, I had already used up all thirty shells from the vision cannon I had prepared.

—Claraa⋯.

“I defeated the field boss Giant Worm!”

“You have accomplished a great feat worthy of praise. You will be remembered for eternity as a hero of the Garden Wilderness.”

The giant worm’s massive body swayed from side to side like a pillar, then collapsed towards the ground.

In the meantime, I felt like I was falling to the bottom without any reason⋯.

“phew.”

Flora’s magical shield floated up at my feet with a sense of humor.

Far up the hill, Flora was jumping up and down, waving her arms.

I can’t hear what they’re saying, but they seem happy.

I came down to earth, stepping on the magic shield laid out in the sky like a stairway to heaven.

Slurp—

A large quantity of magic stones, gold coins, and jewels were scattered into the air from the giant worm’s corpse.

Normally, adventurers who participated in the boss raid would fight over that reward.

But now I don’t need to rush.

It’s all mine anyway.

“Don’t miss a single one, pick them all up.”

There are roughly a hundred surviving skeletal monsters.

The guys dispersed without a moment’s rest, following my instructions to collect the loot.

The magic stone and money alone would have been sufficient compensation, but I wasn’t satisfied with that.

A greater reward awaits me.

It is the corpse of the giant worm itself.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t escape me even in death.”

Not long after it died, its still-warm corpse was sucked into the subspace inside my cloak.

If you kill a corpse, you’ll get a lot of valuable materials.

But I don’t think so.

‘If we revive the Giant Worm, it will definitely become a powerful weapon in critical situations.’

This is the greatest strength of necromancy.

Reviving a defeated enemy and making him my subordinate.