Chapter 24: Monster Tide.
Chapter 24: Monster Tide.
"AAAHHH!" Within a large cauldron used for cooking. Levi screams in agony while bathing in green, boiling blood.
"Don’t worry, you will not die; I have a mix of troll blood that has healing properties."
"What nonsense are you talking about? Troll blood only works on their races, but it was poison for humans!"
"Why don't you say anything?"
"How should I know you changed it? Before this, you were using the large dire wolf and snake monster blood!"
"Quick, help me!" Clara is panicking when Levi's face turns purple.
"I knew you would screw up. Do you want him to die?" Otis quickly pours several glass bottles of liquid inside the cauldron to neutralize the poison. "Fortunately, he has a strong body."
Levi stops screaming and concentrates, absorbing the blood fused with mana and circulating in his body. This is one of the reasons blood manipulation is faster to cast than magic formation. The blood is already inside the body and ready to be used at any time.
Seeing that Otis has an idea, he asks Clara to follow him. After whispering, her face changed. "Are you crazy? What if he dies?"
"I checked his condition, and there should be no problems." Otis has an epiphany and decides to make Levi a blood-and-poison primitive magic mage. They can’t let primitive magic knowledge die. Even if it fails, he is confident that he can heal and remove the poison.
"Okay, but if anything goes wrong, it’s all your fault."
"Fine." Otis pours a green liquid inside the glass bottle into the large cauldron. At the same time, he infuses his mana into the blood.
After several hours, Levi comes out of the cauldron exhausted. "How?"
"Everything is fine; however, there is something we need to tell you." After Clara and Otis explain everything,
"Will there be any problem?" Levi doesn’t show any reaction.
"No, don’t worry; even if it fails, I can remove the poison," Otis answered with confidence.
"Are you not mad?" Clara asked at the same time, preparing to blame everything on Otis.
"Yes, please notify me ahead of time the next time so that I can be prepared." Levi appears to be at ease from the outside. However, he secretly wished to murder both of them. But it will be impossible for him to kill them with his strength, especially since Otis is a poison mage, according to Clara. Fortunately, his body is resilient to troll blood and Otis's poison.
Both of them feel guilty and apologize.
"What should I do next?"
"Right now, you need to become acquainted with the changes in your body before we can move on to the next step."
"I understand."
After some rest, Levi trains with Clara and Otis to learn how to control blood and poison with primitive magic.
On his palm is a small floating sphere of blood.
-
Pondover Forest has numerous monsters lined up in formation, waiting for an order.
"The winter is here; if we stay here, we will starve to death!" Shouted the dark orange-skinned hobgoblin in monster language.
"There is food outside the forest!"
"Let’s begin the hunt!"
"War!"
"War!"
"War!"
The monster tide marched toward the snow. However, with their large number, the food is not enough, and it’s hard to walk on the snow, especially for the goblins.
In front of the monster tide are a hobgoblin and an orc riding on a large snow wolf.
"How is the plan?" asked the green-skinned orc.
"Everything is fine, but we need to wait for the monster tribe in the violet forest to make a move."
-
In Longdale Village, everything is covered in snow. Since Otis left, the people have begun to fight about who is going to be the new leader.
"I am supposed to be the new village chief!"
"Why you? I am older!"
Suddenly, outside the building, there is a loud commotion.
"Help!" A goblin leaped on the man's body to bring him down. While the man tries to throw the goblin, another goblin stabs the man's leg with a dagger. The man falls to the ground, and the goblin stabs the man's heart.
However, humans are faster runners compared to short-legged goblins. When they thought they could escape. The gnolls holding a bow released the arrows and killed any fleeing humans. The village man and woman try to fight back the monster, but they are outnumbered.
"Run!"
"What about the defense?"
"The monster has destroyed the wooden wall!"
"How?" Every winter, they manage to keep the monsters at bay. When the man climbs to the roof, he sees a swarm of monsters from Violet Forest pour into the village and begin slaughtering the villagers.
Then he notices the large monster that annihilated the wooden gate and wall; it was a minotaur. "How come, Violet Forest, doesn't have a minotaur?" Every swing of the minotaur's axe splits the human in two, spilling blood and innards to the ground.
Observing the minotaur approaching him. The man quickly descends from the roof. But before he could get far, a fireball engulfed his entire body and burned down the house.
An elderly goblin with a horned headdress lowered his staff and yelled. "Don't eat the human right now; we've got a long journey ahead of us!"
The goblins and gnolls that are feasting on the human corpses stop and begin to gather the corpses. Since the weather is cold, they don’t need to dry the meat with salt to preserve it.
According to the order, they must proceed directly to the city. With this cold weather, however, they may starve to death or cannibalize each other. As a result, they must gather food, and the most readily available food during the winter is humans.
The monster tide has destroyed the villages near the violet forest that have survived for a long time. Some survivors managed to flee and report the incident. The mayor and aristocrats of Wellspring quickly sent a message for assistance in case the monster tide attacked the town.
Ian is nervous inside a building; a few weeks ago, he was threatened with his life if he did not give up his most valuable magic book. He thought everything would calm down, but now a monster tide is approaching the town.
When he saw his employer pacing around, a young redhead maid with freckles spoke up. "Don't worry, sir; I'm sure the palace will send an army here to assist."
"No, you don’t understand from the report that the monster tide this time is different from last year."
After pacing a few more times, Ian stopped and looked at his maid. "I am going to the town hall; if anything happens, hide inside the secret basement." Ian quickly leaves the house.
-
At the Cirean Kingdom border, the monster tide from Pondover Forest has arrived. The general is watching the border using a monocular telescope. Numerous monsters can be seen coming out of the forest.
"Sir, the musketeers and archers are ready."
"How is the monster tide from Violet Forest?"
"After attacking the villages, the monster tide goes back to the forest."
"Send people to Violet Forest to confirm."
"Yes, sir."
Since winter arrived, the middle-aged general has become restless and suspects something bad is about to happen. The master warrior and mage sent by the palace are his only reassurance.
He can hear a loud war horn sound from the monster tide while he is thinking. The monster tide begins to move, with trolls and ogres leading the way toward the human army, leaving the rest of the monster tide behind.
"Fire!"
Thousands of muskets fire at the same time, and the bullets pierce the trolls' and ogres' skin. Blood spurted from the wound; however, the monsters are not dead and keep running.
"Release the arrow!"
The arrows cover the sky and strike the troll and ogre, whose large size makes avoiding the multiple arrows that fall from the sky impossible. The monsters collapsed to the ground, dead this time. Behind them, numerous goblins step on their corpses and advance toward the human army.
"Fire the cannon!"
"BOOM!"
Multiple monsters are killed, but the tide of monsters cannot be stopped. Given the circumstances, the general orders a barrage of arrows and bullets. The monster tide stays away from the wooden spike barricade and focuses on the choke point.
"Musketeer and archer go back; shield soldiers go in front!"
Some of the shield soldier's hands are shaking from fear because, before this, there were farmers or other menial jobs.
"If you don’t want to die, hold your shield tight!"
The first monster tide already arrives and rams the human-size metal shield with its body.
"Don’t falter, attack!"
A spear emerges from the shield gap and pierces the nearby monster. The soldiers kept doing this until the goblin carcass began to pile up in front of the shield. However, some monsters break through the army's defenses and kill soldiers who are unable to react in time. A loud war horn sound can be heard throughout the battlefield after a long day of fighting, and the monster tide has receded. There are heaps of human and monster carcasses everywhere.
When they saw their comrades' corpses, some of them began to puke, and the battle had not yet ended.