Chapter 66: Distortion (3)

“……”

Carl narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.

He had already sensed the soldier’s movement long ago.

But the presence of the demonic beast chasing behind him was something unexpected.

‘……No.’

Even now, as he was seeing it with his own eyes, it was the same.

It was clearly standing with both feet on the ground, yet its presence was so faint it felt like seeing a phantom.

「Grrr」

The demonic beast stepped out from the shadows.

Everyone let out a silent groan at its grotesque appearance.

It had no hair. Its eyes were sewn shut with thread, and from beneath its blunt nose, its mouth—emitting beast-like cries—was filled with jagged teeth that writhed without order.

Its body was just as bizarre.

As if chunks of flesh had been haphazardly slapped onto a human frame and kneaded together, its form was dented and deformed in various places.

What was even more revolting was that parts of its body had the shapes of human faces embedded in them.

And yet, its own face was crushed and warped as if melted—an utterly chilling sight.

“……”

Still, the knights, soldiers, and cadets all gripped their weapons with faces tense with caution.

That was because the ominous aura emanating from the monster enveloped the entire area.

‘A mutated specimen?’

Carl sharpened his senses.

Why was it not being detected by his perception?

Even as he slowly traced its movements, the aura and presence it gave off were faint to the extreme.

As if it had no true form at all.

Thud─!

It was the monster who broke the taut tension first.

Kicking off the ground with force, it charged at them like a beast.

Daon, who had been ready, stepped forward and swung his sword fiercely.

“Hup!”

A slash meant to cut the monster in two.

But the blade tracing a diagonal from above was blocked by the monster’s two arms.

「Krrk.」

The monster’s knees faltered for a moment, but it stubbornly held its ground and met Daon’s sword head-on.

“Haaah!”

With a fierce shout, Daon pressed his sword down hard.

At the same time, the other knights behind him closed in quickly, attempting a surprise strike.

The monster’s ferocity was unsettling, but if it was only one, they were confident they could win.

If it was only one.

「Krrk.」

From the same thicket the first monster had leapt out of, new presences emerged.

One, two, three, four, five…

“Damn it.”

Daon’s eyes widened.

Were these things the type to form packs despite each being this strong?

Thud.

Five monsters kicked off the ground and rushed forward.

Daon immediately knocked away the one blocking his sword and bound the legs of another.

‘Two of them, I can handle…!’

The rest had to be stopped in the rear.

One of Daon’s fellow knights held off two in the same way, and two rookie knights blocked another.

The remaining two charged like mad toward the group of soldiers and Bayern cadets clustered together.

“Form ranks─!”

The commander’s booming order rang out.

They had slain dozens of demonic beasts so far.

If they kept discipline and stayed together, they believed they could hold out until the knights finished off the monsters.

No—in fact, they thought they might be able to kill the beasts themselves and go help the knights.

But the moment the two forces clashed, they realized that thought was completely wrong.

Crunch.

The vanguard soldier who had pushed his shield forward was crushed.

The monster that rammed into him crushed him with overwhelming force.

The soldiers gasped and immediately closed the gap to maintain the formation, but the monster bared a savage grin and spread its arms.

Thwack!

The fingers of both hands pierced through soldiers’ necks and heads.

That wasn’t all—it swung its arms wildly, tearing through the tight formation and rampaging like mad.

Crunch! Thud!

Soldiers’ bodies were ripped apart.

It was like letting a feral wolf loose in the middle of a flock of docile sheep.

The soldiers gritted their teeth and pushed the monster back, but in the blink of an eye, eight of the twenty were dead.

In other words, unless one was knight-class, it was impossible to face them.

“……U, uaaaahhh!”

“Run!!!”

Even the best-trained elite soldiers were still human in the end.

Before the fear of death, honesty was inevitable.

The formation collapsed in an instant, and everyone scattered in all directions.

The cadets in the rear stared blankly at the scene.

They knew they would be the next targets once the soldiers fell.

At the front, Brother Darius quickly assessed the situation and shouted loudly.

“Run!!!”

With their remaining forces, it was impossible to handle those two monsters.

At best, they could only slow down one.

Screeeech!

Seeing the cadets take off in response to his order, Darius swung his greatsword, sending an aura slash at one of the monsters.

「Krrrk」

It lightly deflected it with a hand and looked toward him—he had definitely caught its attention.

He immediately kicked off the ground in the opposite direction from the cadets, sprinting at full speed.

– Master.

– I’ll handle the other one, so you look after the cadets.

– Understood.

Running among the cadets, Carl gave instructions to Luna, then quietly erased his presence.

They had already prepared a detailed plan for dispersing and escaping like this.

Once they secured a certain degree of safety, everyone would follow it.

Carl immediately changed direction and sent killing intent toward the monster chasing from this side.

「Krrrk.」

The monster’s gaze turned toward him.

Since it couldn’t see, its hearing and other senses seemed to have developed to an extraordinary degree.

Carl, like Darius, broke away from his position and widened the distance between himself and the cadets.

It was said that all manner of demonic beasts existed in the Erendal Forest.

But there was something about the creature before him that kept rubbing his nerves the wrong way.

It might be related to this distortion phenomenon, so he intended to investigate a little.

Thud.

The monster kicked off the ground and chased after him at tremendous speed.

Its movements alone far surpassed that of any top-class fighter.

Judging by how it had not been overpowered in a contest of strength against the knight named Daon, its raw power was also remarkable.

“Darius will be having quite a hard time too.”

Since he had sent Luna, there would be no major problem.

His brother was not the kind of man to fall in a place like this in the first place.

“Time to…”

Once Carl had run far enough that the cadets’ presence barely grazed his senses, he spun around and stopped in place.

At the same time, he lightly clenched his fist and thrust it toward the monster that had chased him.

Crunch!

The monster’s fist, swung with full power to counter Carl’s attack, shattered.

Its wrist twisted, bone jutted out, and muscle tore apart.

Sidestepping once to avoid the spray of blood in the air, Carl drove a palm strike into its solar plexus.

Thud─.

A heavy shockwave erupted, and the monster’s body was flung through the air.

After tumbling across the ground several times, it stopped, twitched, and then vomited bright red blood.

Splurt.

The blood pooling on the ground was the same vivid crimson as a human’s.

Looking down at it with narrowed eyes, Carl muttered in puzzlement.

“It felt more like hitting a human than a demonic beast.”

Both the color and form of the blood made several possibilities flash through his mind.

Did it eat people to absorb them?

The human faces embedded all over its body made it clear this was no ordinary creature.

If this were the Central Plains, it could be compared to a jiangshi.

Here, it would be closer to a chimera or a homunculus.

Whatever it was, whoever created it clearly had a disturbingly twisted taste.

“Its regeneration is impressive too. Seems faster than a troll’s.”

Before Carl even finished speaking, the creature finished healing its wounds, kicked off the ground, and moved even faster than before.

「Keeeek!」

With a bizarre cry, it swung its arm with all its strength.

The overwhelming force was enough to grind stone to dust—it clearly intended to crush Carl’s body completely.

Thud.

But the monster stopped a few steps after passing Carl.

「……」

Its right arm was gone from the elbow down.

From the perfectly clean cut surface—like one made by an extremely sharp sword—bright red blood spurted out.

Carl stared intently at the arm in his hand and nodded.

“So that’s why its presence was so faint. Whoever you are, you have terrible taste. To weave souls together so crudely…”

Using the Soul-Seizing Technique, Carl, who could see the flow of souls, had discerned the monster’s true nature.

It was like a lump of human flesh and souls kneaded together.

In exchange for an extremely short lifespan, it burned its soul to gain strength.

Whoosh.

The pitch-black demonic flame rising from Carl’s hand instantly burned away the monster’s flesh.

“An amusing technique in many ways.”

「Grrr……」

The monster kicked off the ground with force, widening the distance.

Crouching like a beast, it placed its hands on the ground and twitched its muscles.

Pop!

A new arm sprouted, perfectly regenerating the missing limb.

Drip, crackle.

Its transformation didn’t end there.

The stitches binding its eyes snapped, and its tightly shut eyelids began to open.

Carl, stroking his chin as he watched, felt the monster’s aura suddenly surge.

“A burst of latent power? Burning up what little life it has left to draw out even greater strength?”

Bzzzzt─!

The monster’s body swelled, and dark red sparks crackled around it.

Its new form, glaring at Carl with bright yellow eyes fringed with loose stitches, vanished in an instant.

In the next moment, it appeared right beside him and kicked him hard in the ribs.

Thud.

Caught off guard, Carl was sent flying helplessly into the air.

From then on, a storm of violence rained down.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Keeping him suspended in the air, the monster attacked from all sides without pause.

It poured out a relentless barrage, as if to turn him into a pulp, unleashing its killing intent.

Grab.

But mid-assault, a hand suddenly shot out in the air and seized the monster’s wrist.

The monster immediately ignited dark red sparks, trying to twist Carl’s hand off, but instead was dragged in by overwhelming strength and lost control.

KWHAM─!

Its body was slammed into the ground.

Carl landed lightly in front of it, dusted his shoulder, and looked down at the twitching creature.

“Makes me wonder who your master is.”

「…Krrk.」

The monster twisted its mouth and stood up.

It was a declaration that this much was nowhere near enough to defeat it.

Srrng─.

Carl slowly drew his sword.

Playing with it a little longer wouldn’t be bad, but he had already learned all he could from this monster.

In fact, the once-faint presence was now clear to his senses.

The problem was that there were likely swarms of such creatures roaming this forest.

Whoever the lunatic was, they seemed to be kneading human bodies into monsters like this one continuously.

‘If left alone, this’ll be a disaster.’

The aftereffects of the spatial distortion had not yet been resolved.

Academy cadets and Imperial troops would be scattered all over.

If they encountered a monster, anyone less than knight-class would stand no chance.

“Well, if I hunt my way upstream, I’ll run into them eventually.”

Carl raised the tip of his sword sharply.

Looking forward to seeing what other creatures awaited him.

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