Chapter 344: From Exhaustion to Breakthrough (3)
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After parting ways with the Empire troops, Loren and his team left the deserted base behind and ventured deeper into the Kingdom’s territory.
The absence of any animals, people, or monsters created an eerie atmosphere, but if one could put up with that, one could say that the journey was smooth and trouble-free.
“It would be different if there were at least a bird flying in the sky.”
Lapis, who was walking next to Loren, said.
Loren, as if following her gaze, looked up and saw that there was indeed not even a shadow of a bird in the sky. He let out a small sigh.
As they left the Empire army’s base and proceeded deeper into the territory of the Kingdom, the presence of even small creatures had gradually decreased. No one knew whether it was because they were frightened and went hiding or some other reason, but by the second day after the first encampment, Gula and Shayna could hardly detect any presence other than their own group.
“It’s like a dead kingdom.”
“It doesn’t look as rundown as it seems on the surface, though.”
In contrast to the weirdness of the surroundings, Lapis and Gula’s tone of voice was relaxed, which instead made Loren feel uneasy. He walked along the road with heavy footsteps and a troubled expression, wary that they might be dragged into something unthinkable.
It was almost mid-afternoon on the second day when the sound of something caught Loren’s ears.
“Did you hear that?”
In contrast to Loren, who was on guard the moment he heard the sound, Lapis and Gula seemed to notice it only after they had been told. They looked at each other and held their palms up to their ears.
“Yeah, I can hear something.”
“It sounds like moans, or hoa.r.s.e cries. Something like that.”
“You guys don’t seem surprised at all.”
Loren wondered if they should be a little frightened or creeped out, but he understood that they were a demon and an Evil G.o.d, and that expecting a normal girl’s reaction from them would be a waste of time. Still, he thought that they should have expressed some degree of surprize.
Ignoring him, Lapis moved the hand she was holding over her ear to her forehead and began to look ahead of the path they were on.
“As far as I can see, there is nothing strange, so if anything is there, it is probably on the other side of that hill.”
Although not by much, the road did have some unevenness, making it impossible to see what lies ahead from a certain distance away.
“If so, isn’t it right where the frontline troops of the Empire army are positioned?”
At Gula’s words, Loren pulled out the map he had received and began to compare it with the distance they had travelled and their surroundings.
Lapis, who was peering at it from the side, seemed to have determined their current location based on this information before Loren could, and made her a.s.sertion in a very clear tone of voice.
“Yes, that’s right. It should be visible soon.”
“Let’s hurry then?”
If their surroundings, which had been completely quiet until then, had suddenly started to become noisy, there must be some reason for it. And if the frontline troops of the Empire army were right there, it was very likely to be something related to them.
Loren unthinkingly started rus.h.i.+ng, but Lapis held him back.
“Think about it, Loren. If the three of us partic.i.p.ate in whatever that the army is facing, it is not likely that the current situation will change drastically. In other words, there is little point in rus.h.i.+ng.”
“Isn’t it more likely that we will miss something by moving too quickly?”
Gula seemed to agree with Lapis’ opinion.
Unable to force his own opinion where two people in their party of three shared the same opinion, Loren stopped rus.h.i.+ng and started walking forward at the same speed as before.
“This won’t do, Gula. I would like us to turn back if possible.”
“I agree, but I don’t think Loren would say yes. It would be impossible to stall for more time, so we have no choice, right?”
Loren could hear Lapis and Gula whispering something behind him, but he felt so much pressure that he couldn’t even hear the content of their conversation. He was still calm enough to know that even if he had started running in a hurry, there would still be a long way to the end of the road, and he would only be wearing himself out. So, he continued onward at a speed that would not exhaust him.
And when the scene at the end of the road finally came into Loren’s view, he naturally stopped in his tracks.
Due to their height, even though Lapis and Gula had walked to the position where Loren was, they still could not see what he could. Still, when he stopped, they seemed to have guessed that it was something at the end of the road that caused him to do so.
“Loren?”
“Ah… No, what the h.e.l.l?”
Loren unconsciously mumbled. Lapis, rather than asking questions, climbed up his back and sat down on one of his shoulders. In doing so she secured an even higher vantage point than Loren. Then she turned her gaze in the direction Loren was facing.
It was a dark red wave.
That was the only way to describe the thing that was covering the ground.
Inside it, there was a s.p.a.ce that was not covered, and looking more closely, Lapis could see that the s.p.a.ce that was still safe was a so-called ‘encampment’ surrounded by a simple fence and moat. Inside the camp, a large number of people who looked like soldiers were continuing to resist the dark red wave that was surging toward them with what looked like weapons in their hands.
Once Lapis realized what the dark red wave that was surging toward the camp was, she let out a small gasp.
The dark red thing surrounding the camp, which was so dense that it looked like a wave from a distance, was made of humanoid figures with half-dried blood clinging to their body.
The humanoid figures, which were neither armed nor wearing any kind of armor, continued to advance steadily but not hurriedly toward the encampment in the center while emitting a hoa.r.s.e sound like a moan from a slit on their head, which was probably a mouth. That was what Loren’s group had heard from a distance.
Corpses were already piled high around the camp, and the soldiers were also fighting on top of corpses, but even with that many corpses, the dark red figures’ advance was unstoppable.
“Not zombies. What are they? They’re creepy regardless, but how could you intercept such a large number of them?”
Compared to the size of the camp, the area of the ground covered by the dark red figures was ridiculously large. If they were to rush into the camp in such numbers, it seemed that the camp would be overwhelmed at once. And yet, the camp had continued to intercept them without allowing anything get inside the fence.
“Something is wrong with them. The humanoids don’t attack even if they are being hit. They are just advancing slowly.”
This was probably the reason why the camp was able to continue defending itself. Even if there were soldiers within arm’s reach, the dark red figures neither defended nor attacked, but simply kept walking forward.
The fact that they were walking so slowly and that there were no attacks from them gave those who watched the scene an eerie impression.
“Inside that camp are the frontline troops of the Empire army?”
“Probably so. I don’t know how they managed to build such a camp in such a short time though.”
“And what are those dark red things?”
“Probably some kind of flesh golem.”
Golems were made from a variety of materials. The most common ones were wood, stone, and metal, but there were also golems made from the flesh and blood of living creatures.
Called ‘flesh golems’, they had an unpleasant appearance that at first glance could be mistaken for undead creatures, but they were artificial magical creations.
Compared to golems made from wood or stone, flesh golems had problems in terms of strength and durability, but it was easy to procure materials for them as long as there were flesh and bones of living creatures of any kind, and they were more agile than other golems. They were often used on the battlefield also because of their strong visual impact.
The fact that they could not move once their flesh and blood had decayed was a disadvantage, but if they were used for a short period of time, there was very little time and effort required to create them on the battlefield, where there were plenty of corpses lying around.
The difficulty level of making a flesh golem was low, and as long as there was a reasonable number of magicians available, it was not impossible to mobilize them in large numbers.
“Why are they acting like a wall?”
“I suppose they must have orders to do that.”
Since flesh golems were sometimes used on the battlefields, it was not that they could not fight. Even if they were a little sluggish, if they were able to gather enough numbers to cover the ground, they should be able to use their sheer strength of numbers to overrun the Empire army’s camp without any difficulty.
The only reason this was not done could be a.s.sumed to be that their creator did not order an attack on the camp, but only for them to move forward.
“Anyway, let’s put off thinking about the situation until later. We need to break through this meat wall and join up with the Empire army…”
“You want to break through this? I don’t like the idea…”
Simply put, what Loren and his team had in front of them is a wave of dead flesh. It would be quite hard labour to push through them and reach the camp on the other side.
Moreover, since they were dealing with dead flesh, they would be splattered with all sorts of things as they pushed their way through. Lapis, who was dressed in her white priest’s uniform, did not want to get close to them.
“Gula, please make a path for us.”
Lapis, sitting on Loren’s shoulder, looked down and said to Gula, who had climbed up Loren’s back on the opposite side of Lapis and was peeking at the scene from Loren’s shoulder with a big frown on her face.
“Don’t be absurd. Even I will have a hard time penetrating this meat wall under all the watchful eyes.”
“Anyway, you guys, get off my shoulders and stay back.”
Even though they were girls, it was hard for Loren to move if they were stuck on his body. He would not shake them off, but he did lightly tap Lapis on the thigh to ask her to quickly come down.
Lapis easily went down from Loren’s shoulder, followed by Gula, who also went down from Loren’s back.
“We’re going anyway. We’re going to cut through those things and join up with the Empire army.”
“We have no choice. Gula, please take the lead.”
“I’ll have to blow them away with normal-ish magic. It’s gonna to take a lot of time, tho.”
Gula raised her voice in dissatisfaction as Lapis urged her to do so.
Listening to their exchange, Loren drew the greatsword from his back and, without checking to see if they were following him, started running toward the dark red wave that was rus.h.i.+ng toward what he a.s.sumed was the Empire army’s camp.
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