Shadowed Gaze: The Highserk War Saga - Chapter 49

Torn corpses, devoured livestock, and overturned wagons were scattered in a line. Some blocked the road, making it impossible to pass without removing them.

In the midst of this, Walm focused on a group of corpses. They were soldiers of the Highserk Empire, a unit that had been engaged in exterminating monsters in small platoons.

There were numerous goblins and wolf species lying dead, but they were not the ones who had decimated the soldiers.

Walm rubbed some blood that had spilled from the bodies between his fingers.

“The blood hasn’t completely dried yet.”

But the traces didn’t stop there. Huge footprints were left everywhere.

“Three front claws, one back claw… what kind of monster is this?”

Walm had experience in subjugation, but only with E and D class monsters. He had no experience with larger creatures and couldn’t identify it.

The overturned wagon was crushed from above and below. The wreckage of the cargo bed emitted a stale smell, and what were probably human remains were left inside.

The bodies were beyond recognition, not just limbs but even their human shape was unrecognizable. Even the corpses ravaged by orcs and wolves retained some semblance of their former selves.

Walm dragged the corpses to the side of the road. Many were missing limbs or were severed at the torso, making them much lighter than the dead Walm was accustomed to carrying.

Those killed on the battlefield typically had more efficiently inflicted fatal wounds. There was no one who would bother to slash and crush bodies so meticulously.

One of the cavalrymen was throwing severed limbs and heads into the forest. He probably chose efficiency over the effort of carrying them. His values and priorities were different from Walm’s, but not necessarily wrong.

No matter how many Walm killed, he could not bring himself to treat the bodies with such disrespect without a purpose. Still, if ordered, and if the benefits outweighed the murky feeling of conscience, he would even expose and impale the bodies on trees.

Walm continued his work impassively.

He tied a rope to the remains of the wagon and dragged it to the side of the road. Without winches or pulleys, he had to rely on manpower.

After finishing the towing, Walm entered the forest. The trees shook suddenly. As Walm looked up, a dull burst sound followed, and a cavalryman was thrown into the air. The man and horse spilled guts and blood into the void.

“Attack!”

The cavalrymen shouted in unison. The entity that struck down the horse and rider was the tail of a gigantic monster.

“It’s a Crawler!”

The cavalrymen identified the monster.

Dragon species were generally classified as A-class. This one, with a length exceeding 7 meters, opened its massive jaws, taking up a third of its body, and roared sky-high. The roar vibrated Walm’s eardrums, and he smirked in excitement.

“So this is a dragon species!”

Its scales, muddied with moss and flesh, were long and thick like great trees. Its reptilian form was grotesque yet unique.

“Don’t stop, keep moving. Get ready to jump!”

The cavalrymen began to move. Walm, trying to flank the creature to get within range of his Demon Fire, was caught off guard by the beast’s sudden movement.

Its speed was extraordinary. It caught a galloping horse in its massive jaws, mowed down trees, and vanished into the forest.

“Ah! Mei’s been eaten!”

“Damn, it’s too fast!”

Walm sensed the ground rumbling as the creature approached again. He unleashed his Demon Fire towards the anticipated direction of the attack, ignoring the cost of magic.

A hot wind blew, and the blue flames engulfed the trees, turning the forest into a sea of fire. From within it, a giant shadow emerged with a roar.

Despite being engulfed in flames, the dragon didn’t falter. It continued to pound the ground with its limbs and thrash its tail.

“Don’t falter. Keep attacking!”

The cavalrymen used magic and skills in retaliation, but they couldn’t penetrate the dragon’s thick outer scales. Continuing to burn it with Demon Fire was ineffective against the dragon’s sturdy scales and only risked involving the soldiers.

“No choice then.”

Measuring the distance, Walm readied his halberd at the highest position and leaped towards the dragon, empowered by wind attribute magic.

“Burst!”

With added momentum, Walm swung his halberd at the dragon’s abdomen with a Strong Strike, but the blade stopped halfway. It felt like striking a metal column, numbing his hands.

“What?!”

As the Crawler rotated to crush the diminutive human, Walm retreated. The dragon’s gaping jaws missed Walm by a hair’s breadth, snapping shut as trees were uprooted. Sweating, Walm ducked and released a burst of Demon Fire in an instant.

Azure flames burst from both sides of the Crawler. The surrounding grass and trees, not directly touched by the fire, began to ignite due to the intense heat, but only a part of its scales discolored.

“RAAAAAAAH!”

Enraged by being partially scorched, the Crawler, ignoring the cavalry, seemed determined to focus all its effort on annihilating Walm.

Clods of earth were flung into the air, showering down upon him.

Having escaped the immense bulk, Walm, a user of wind attribute magic, added short bursts of acceleration to his movements, deftly handling the fierce onslaught. This was the difference in their physiques. No matter how much he strained to cover himself with a magical barrier, a single blow could destabilize the situation.

Walm’s mind was a continuous blare of red alerts. Merely grazing blows sent tremors to his core, and the sheer wind pressure from misses was palpable.

Even as he fled, Walm continued to scatter Demon Fire, which seemed to particularly irk the Crawler. Each direct hit brought forth a rotten stench as it bellowed in pain.

The headache-inducing roar was erasing his concentration.

Walm, persistently hitting with the Demon Fire, was being driven into a corner. The scales across its body continued to change color but could not be fully burnt through. In close range, the maximum firepower of the Demon Fire, which could melt even iron, met with unbelievably high resistance.

The large lizard-like creature refused to distance itself from Walm.

“Guuuuuhh!”

His arm, upon contact, was nearly twisted off and repelled. Walm had prepared himself for this, but a mere brush from a body slam nearly dislocated his shoulder.

There was no time to nurse the painful joint. The Crawler, having adapted to Walm’s movements, began to pin him down.

Each strike became a delicate maneuver, and Walm moved wildly, as if dancing on the ground. Utilizing all his senses, including intuition, he fluttered like a leaf in the wind.

But, after all, a leaf is frail; once its core is caught, it crumbles. His current situation was a slow march towards death.

“He’s stopped. Now’s the chance!”

Walm’s wish for a breakthrough was abruptly granted. Among the previously ignored cavalry were magic users who restrained one of the Crawler’s hind legs with an ice pillar and one of its front legs with an earth wall.

Though the magic was too weak to keep the giant body bound, it was sufficient to halt its movement momentarily. One of the cavalry, possessing the skill “Strong Shoulder,” threw a short spear, blinding one eye of the Crawler.

The Crawler shook its body, searching for the culprit, diverting its gaze from Walm. It leapt towards the cavalry, seeking retribution for the loss of its eye.

“Do you like that, you lizard bastard?!”

Walm, pulling out the sword from his waist, thrust it deep into a wound he had made earlier, pouring Demon Fire into it. Azure flames overflowed from the wound.

The dragon was trying to shake off Walm, but he clung on tightly, gripping the embedded sword. Slammed against trees, the air was forced out of his lungs, and his internal organs screamed in pain.

Still, Walm did not let go. If he missed this chance, there might not be another opportunity to finish it off. A mistake here could lead to the cavalry and those in the supply wagons being trampled, not to mention the subsequent units suffering losses.

“Guuh, giiyyh!”

Like trying to grind off a pest on the ground, the Crawler rubbed Walm against the earth. His armor squealed as it frantically wore down against the ground, his flesh and skin grated like cheese.

“Just die already!”

The azure flames consumed the Crawler’s insides, spreading internally, while the external Demon Fire continued to deprive it of oxygen, subjecting it to intense heat.

The wild thrashing of the Crawler gradually slowed. Suddenly, the moment arrived. With a convulsion, the giant body collapsed to the ground.

With its mouth half-open and limbs twitching faintly, the Crawler stopped moving altogether. Yet Walm continued, burning its abdomen until it was charred.