Chapter 78: The Day (2)

I gave the necessary orders to my colonists. Judging from the distance between my colony and the salt cave, I think it's unlikely that the monsters will approach here. The members of the Redtooth group must have defeated them first. However, there is no harm in being vigilant.

After giving a final whisper to Leva, who was huddled behind a large rock, I intended to focus solely on keeping an eye on my colonists. However, I feel uncomfortable. This is all still my fault. It seemed inappropriate for me to take my eyes off what was about to happen, even though I couldn't do anything about it.

And so, I returned there, to the salt cave area.

The people from the Redtooth tribe were still in position when the auto-pause was triggered.

I was about to press the play button when my eyes fell on the cliff crack. I haven't checked it yet.

Slowly, I entered the crack. I still felt the terror even though I wasn't in any danger at all. Even I could feel my heart beating fast and my breathing getting heavy. However, it was clearly only in my imagination.

A few meters, I found nothing. Until finally, I arrived at the first turn. I slowed my pace, then peeked.

My body shook hard, and I pulled my head, immediately rubbed my face. The monsters are there. Ranging from the size of a human head to the size of a human stomach. They crawled across the ground and both sides of the cliff walls.

Their number is countless. Will the people from Redtooth be able to fight these beasts?

Only one way to find out.

I came out of the crack with limp steps. My eyes looked around at the member of the Redtooth tribe. As Tosa said earlier, they have loved ones, people waiting for them at home.

And not all of them will be able to return.

I moved my index finger to the play button, took a deep breath, then pressed it.

There's no point in delaying any longer.

"I'm sorry." I hissed, though they couldn't hear me.

"Stay calm!" Tosa shouted. "Gai, prepare that incendiary bomb!"

A man took out a wooden container from a sack, then quickly brought it to Tosa. The container contained clay bottles with wooden plugs.

"Back off, back off!" Tosa gave another direction. "Don't mind our stuff yet. Disperse and form a formation like you would against other tribes!"

Those people did just that. They ran away, scattering with the archers behind the line of melee weapons holders. Meanwhile, Anne and another male healer were already preparing with their respective medical bags in the back row.

The rumbling of thousands of tiny footsteps boomed, then before long, the monsters began to be seen in the crack in the cliff.

Tosa took one of the dark brown bottles from the container, opened the lid, then pulled the cloth from the bottle's neck as a fuse. The bottle became like a Molotov cocktail used by people on earth to carry out demonstrations.

Someone swiped two fire stone near the bomb fuse. As soon as a spark appeared, the bottle's fuse instantly ignited with blazing flames.

Right after that, a part of the stump scorpion had come out of the crack.

Tosa threw the bomb in his hand. The bomb flew through the air, then exploded as soon as it landed on the group of monsters and spread fire to them. The stump scorpions whose bodies were burned ran around aimlessly and spread fire to their comrades.

"Shoot them!!!" Tosa screamed with all his might, then threw a second bomb.

The archers started shooting, and the second bomb set fire to the monsters again. However, all of them don't seem to be doing much. Yes, some of the monsters were directly hit by arrows. Many of them were burned too and couldn't attack anymore.

However, the number that came from the crack increased, and they were getting closer to Tosa's line of troops.

The leader of the group gave up throwing the third bomb and shouted instead. "Run!!!"

Too late, several melee attackers were brought down and surrounded by the monsters, even when they had just made their first attack. Their screams of pain filled the air, creating a feeling that seemed to squeeze my heart.

What have I done?

Tosa took two bottles of bombs and ran along. The monsters' movements did slow down a bit because some of them were swarming around the people, but of course, the danger didn't just go away.

I also ran with those people. That's when I saw Tosa, who was observing the situation.

Seconds later, he took another direction from the people he was leading.

Huh? You're using those comrades of yours as bait!? You want to make them herd the monsters in another direction while you save yourself!? What kind of leader are you!?

Some people who saw that immediately followed Tosa. One of them was Lara, who pulled Anne to run in that direction.

Tosa looked back and immediately snorted when he saw several people running a few meters behind him. If there wasn't a single stump scorpion behind the man, now the monsters are chasing.

And I just realized that these people are running towards my colonists.

Shit.

The voices of the victims' screams became quieter as if they were drifting away. Tosa's party kept running, with the occasional archers and melee attackers dispelling the pursuing monsters.

"I can't take it anymore, Lara..." Anne, who was running last, moaned with a shaky breath and started to stagger away.

"Come on, you can do it, Anne!!!" Lara exclaimed, then shot one of the stump scorpions. "They're getting less and less!"

Yes, the number of monsters chasing them now wasn't too many. There were about four that were the size of a human head and one that were bigger.

So staggered, Anne tripped over her feet and fell down. A small stump scorpion came straight to her feet.

"Argggghhhh!!!" The girl screamed hysterically as the stump scorpion started cutting her ankle with its pincers.

"Anne!!!" Lara immediately stopped.

And the other monsters had already approached the petite girl.