Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – Harvest Festival (2)

Luca, a border patrol, was in a very low mood.

No, anyone in charge of night security at the once-a-year harvest festival would never feel good.

Who in the world enjoyed patrolling the cold and dark border area while everyone danced, ate, and talked excitedly?

In fact, bandits were the only ones who had to guard at night.

Basically, Beasts didn’t appear at night, and the Beluan Territory wasn’t particularly hostile to the neighboring territory.

The only thing they needed to worry about was nothing more than Bandits stealing crops in the dark of night.

The fact that they had to just walk and complete the patrol because they couldn’t ride lizards at night also fueled their fatigue.

The night patrols, which only relied upon green moonlight and torches while scouring dark borders with their own two feet, were far less popular than daytime patrols.

“Luca, what is that?”

“What?”

Even before his colleague’s question was finished, Luca’s head was already rising toward the sky.

A shining comet.

An intense light that was so white and bright that took color away from all beings on the ground swept across the ground.

It was an intense sight that Luca had never seen in his 30-year-old life.

Even after the comet passed, the light remained for a long time, illuminating the sky and then disappearing.

“That’s amazing.”

“Come to think of it, I heard something similar from my grandmother a long time ago…”

As soon as his colleague was about to say something, a strange sound began to ring in Luca’s ear.

The sound of a beast growling, the sound of something leaking out, the sound of something boiling.

Luca looked at where the sound had come from and almost dropped his torch without realizing it.

Numerous blue eyes were glaring at their side.

“Hey, hey…”

He heard his colleague stuttering next to him.

Luca clenched his teeth and turned around, picking up the horn he had placed in his arms.

Bwo—- woo–!

The roar of the horn resounded through the plains of the harvest night.

Once and again, he blew the horn with all his might, and Luca’s lungs heated up as if they were on fire and ran out of breath.

When he finally took the horn out of his mouth was Luca’s last moment.

A blade protruding from the darkness lightly cut Luca’s body in half.

The bladed leopard, who had cleared the stumbling block with a single swing of its front paw, ran towards the village wall.

Behind him, countless demonic beasts were following.

* * *

“A large horde of demonic beasts is attacking! All unarmed combat forces must immediately go to the lord’s manor and arm themselves! Guards! Climb up the wall!”

The village during the festival quickly fell into chaos at the cry of a knight named Namer, who was the first to run to the village after realizing the existence of the demonic beast. 

Some of the villagers rushed into their homes, while others wandered in search of their families scattered during the festival.

The story of the beast invading in the middle of the night was originally a joke that even a child would not believe, but the noise of all kinds of beasts from afar brought faith.

The chaos that began on the outskirts of the village gradually spread in all directions.

“Mommy…”

“Riche! Richie! Where are you! Richie! Answer me!”

“4th Guards Squad! Where are you all? Gather up!”

The confusion finally spread to Arsene and Elise, who were returning to the manor.

Arsene narrowed his eyes as he saw several people running along the road coming up from the village.

The squires and soldiers who enjoyed the festival were running towards the manor with torches.

One of the squires shouted while running when he saw Arsene standing on the road.

“Sir Arsene! It’s a beast! A horde of demonic beasts is invading!”

At the absurd information, Arsene asked back. 

“It’s night right now, isn’t it?” 

“I’m not sure either! But I definitely heard the sound! We must quickly arm ourselves and head to the wall!”

Arsene was skeptical of the squire’s words, who shouted with a half-awake expression as if he had been drunk but seeing the appearance of people who kept coming up to the manor, he judged that it was not a lie.

There were so many people that he even thought that a rebellion occurred. 

“Ellie, let’s go quickly.”

“Huh? Argh!”

Before Arsene could hear an answer, he took Elise and placed her on his shoulder.

In that state, he ran as fast as possible into the lord’s residence, outpacing the knights and squires who were in front of him.

Arsene moved to the magic tower and knocked on the door, judging that it was much safer to take him to the tower rather than the manor.

Fortunately, Luden immediately opened the door, perhaps doing something on the first floor,.

Arsene immediately put down Elise and pushed her into the tower.

“Come on, Eli. Get inside.”

“What? Is the festival already over…”

“They say the beasts have invaded. Please look at Ellie. I have to go down immediately after getting armed.”

“No, does it make sense that demonic beasts appear in the middle of the night?”

Even Luden, a knowledgeable wizard, seemed unaware of the situation.

“Then I’ll go!”

“Go first! I’ll be there soon!”

Arsene quickly closed the door and ran towards the lord’s manor.

The light in front of the manor was already brightly lit. Squires and soldiers flocked in to receive their equipment.

Arsene’s equipment was in his room, so he grabbed his sword and armor from his room in the manor.

The knight’s Jin, which were usually kept separately in the storage room, were all out so that the knights could ride them.

One of the squires saw Arsene and cried.

“Sir Arsene! You can ride this!”

Arsene boarded the Jin assigned to him, which was originally owned by Entire, and at the same time instilled mana into Jin’s heart located on the back.

He could feel the firm four feet standing on the ground along with a feeling of assimilation he had become quite accustomed to.

* * *

“Kuakk!”

As soon as one of the soldiers fell to the ground screaming, three-horned wolves rushed over him and grabbed the soldier’s arms and legs, and tore them to pieces.

Webble, who was right next to him, ran and cut the horned wolves and kicked them, but the soldier whose body had already been torn off was already dead.

“Damn it!”

The battlefield was chaos itself.

Perhaps the huge bonfire that was lit for the festival attracted all the beasts in the vicinity of the territory, and even after killing them, they continued to flock in without a break.

These creatures, united with malice toward humans, climbed up the 3m high wall while leaping, or stepping on the body of other demonic beasts.

If it were just one or two, it could be easily kept in check and dropped by stabbing the spear from above, but there was nothing they could do because the number of demonic beasts that climbed the wall were more than the soldier holding the spear.

Occasionally, if powerful beasts came up, the knights had to deal with them, and among the knights on the wall right now, only three were properly armed at night.

The knights who were enjoying the festival were fighting with the spare equipment of the guards nearby, but these weapons could not handle their skills.

It would be nice to return to the manor and get armed, but they were barely holding out because of the hard work of poorly armed knights.

As soon as they return to properly equip themselves, the few remaining knights and soldiers would not be able to hold out, and ordinary people in the village will be attacked.

Knights who know honor could never step down in such a situation. 

“It’s an ash moth!” 

When Webble looked up at someone’s cry, he saw a moth with a huge wing that reached 4 meters on one side was flying in the sky.

Although a moth was a creature that scared some people even with its small size, raising its size like that had made it a nightmare for anyone.

The ash moth flapped its wings at the people on the wall.

“Cover your face!”

“Aaarghh!”

Some soldiers and squires screamed and scratched their faces as the ash moths flew through the air.

The powder secreted from the wings of the vicious beast caused terrible pain and itchiness when it entered the mucous membrane.

Since a knight was not free from this, Webble also covered his face with clothes and ran away from the moth’s attack range.

Fortunately, the ashen moth’s attack also applies to the enemy.

From the direction the ash moth flew to, the beasts on the wall also suffered from the powder, so the beasts did not enter through the gap.

“It can’t be like this, someone has to go…”

“Hold on a little longer! Some people have already left. They’ll be back soon!”

Webble shouted in response to the words of a fellow knight who was sitting next to him and confronted the beast, the feral deer, who was approaching in front of him.

At the attack of the beast with its sharp horn that was similar to an awl, Webble avoided the sharp tip and grabbed the horn before entering into a power battle with the beast.

The 250-centimeter height giant knight grabbed the horn with all his might and twisted it, and the feral deer’s neck was broken. 

“Kuahhh!”

After screaming to get rid of fatigue, he looked around for a bit, but the situation did not get much better.

Just then, a fire monkey was approaching from afar.

“It’s a fire monkey!”

“Damn it! All squires, go back! I’ll deal with it!”

Webble shouted pleasantly, but he bit his lip, thinking deep down that he was at a disadvantage.

If it was the usual Weeble, who was fully armed, he would have just hit and killed it, but in the current situation where he was poorly armed, the beast was a threatening opponent.

Since there was no weapon, it was impossible to guarantee that it would be done in a single blow, and his life could be in danger if the beast used fire as he was currently without armor.

Then, he heard a voice calling him from behind.

“Sir Webble!”

Arsene’s Jin, which was running towards Webble, was loaded with the weapons of several knights.

Webble’s Greatsword, Carmine’s Sword and Shield, Genovia’s Spear, Palato’s Javelin, etc.

Arsene threw the great sword at Weebble whom he met first.

Webble jumped while pulling the great sword that was stuck in the ground and decapitated the beast right in front of him.

Then, he rushed toward the fire monkey and shouted. 

“Great job, kid!”

Before he could even hear the answer, Arsene was running along the wall and throwing the favorite weapon of the knights he met.

The battlefield was entering a new phase.

* * *

Among the knights currently fighting, Palato was the least active.

His right arm injury has improved quite a bit, but it is still difficult to hold a weapon and wield it, so he had to hold the sword with his unfamiliar left hand.

As he was a knight, it was enough to protect himself and his surroundings, but his stamina was dropping much faster than the other knights.

“Sir Palato, step back a little. You don’t look good.”

At the words of the squires next to him, Palato raised his uncomfortable arm and wiped his face. He felt the sticky blood.

“I guess so, then…”

As soon as he answered, Palato felt goosebumps all over his body and looked beyond the wall into the darkness.

An average person would see nothing, but Palato, a knight, could see the outlines, albeit faintly.

Something ridiculously ominous hiding in the dark.

“Hurry up, call another knight nearby. A friend who is armed if possible. There is one great guy here.”

“Ah, yes, Sir!”

In response, the squires hurriedly looked around, but none of the nearby knights could afford to support the place.

Everyone was busy taking care of themselves. There was one armed knight, but he also ran back and forth to save his colleagues that were in danger, making it difficult to approach and talk to him.

Watching the squires leave, Palato pointed his sword towards the darkness.

“Come out-!”

As if to answer him, something slowly began to crawl out of the darkness.

A gigantic beast with tentacles made of darkness that was entangled here and there, as if it had grown roughly the size of a vine.

The beast slowly approached the wall.