Chapter 24: Attack |
Meanwhile, the man named Benjamin coordinated with the others to carry items into the simple, newly built house.
He then turned his head to gaze out the window, the urge to flee welling up in his heart once more.
But he quickly shook his head, forcing himself to drop the thought.
Out in the wilderness upon the whale''s back, it was simply too dangerous.
Or rather, this entire era was too dangerous.
Ever since the Great Terrestrial Cataclysm, a certain calamitous aura had lingered over everything.
Creatures that lived within it for prolonged periods would undergo catastrophic mutations, turning into entities collectively known as Calamity Beasts.
Even flying creatures, after leaving the safety of the whale''s back, would be drawn in by the Great Earth. They would involuntarily descend, inevitably dragging some of that disastrous aura back up with them.
Driven by this calamitous aura, certain creatures would become extremely deadly.
Nest Beasts were not Calamity Beasts, but their lethality could not be underestimated.
They only gained their infamous reputation because they reproduced so prolifically and rapidly.
In the wilderness, there were many other Dangerous Creatures.
There had even been incidents where Iron Rank individuals carelessly lost their lives out in the wild.
''I must help the people from the Church, capture Opper swiftly, and use the illegal miners here as a stepping stone for my redemption.'' Benjamin''s gaze hardened. He had no other choice. To survive, he had worked under a middleman dealing in contraband.
He had gradually grown accustomed to a life navigating the gray areas.
Being caught by the Church this time meant he would likely be locked up for the rest of his life, or simply executed to save them the trouble.
But as long as he could atone for his crimes through meritorious service, there was still hope.
He still had quite a bit of money stashed away in various spots across Tail Fin Town.
If he proved his worth, he would have a chance of eventually being released from prison, allowing him to live a normal life once more.
''I hope Isabella succeeds.'' This was another reason why Benjamin had cemented his resolve.
If Jacques had been the only one assigned to this mission, Benjamin firmly believed that the Holy Knight would absolutely never outsmart Opper.
He might have even taken a desperate gamble to secretly pass information to Opper and ally with him, betting that the village chief wouldn''t silence him, but would instead help him forge a new identity.
However, Isabella...
Thinking of the girl who never looked down on him for being a criminal informant, Benjamin''s heart could not help but soften.
She had first rescued him in the wilderness, tending to his wounds.
During their subsequent conversations, he could clearly feel how different Isabella was.
She understood the bitter choices he had been forced to make just to survive. That feeling of being truly understood gave him a profound sense of salvation.
''I never expected that a person like me would ever be so moved by someone else.''
Isabella looked frail, but that was merely an illusion born of her delicate, doll-like appearance.
In reality, her heart was surprisingly strong, forged by unwavering convictions.
Because of this, Benjamin could not help but lean toward the Church when making his choice.
Even if he still had to spend a few years behind bars after earning his pardon, at least then he wouldn''t have disappointed her...
Before his thoughts could settle, a figure appeared not far away.
The person stumbled, swaying drunkenly as they lurched in his direction.
Looking closely, wasn''t that the exact same person he had traded with?
It was a member of Opper''s merchant caravan—the very source from whom he had gathered intel on Finback Village. Benjamin''s sharp instincts immediately screamed that something was wrong.
"Danger!" he bellowed, throwing himself to the side while forcefully slamming a fist into his own chest.
As he struck himself, three thin, nail-like objects surfaced on the skin of his chest. They were Sin Nails implanted by the Church.
Forged with a specialized power, they severely restricted his physical mobility, his ability to speak freely, and his otherwise decent Breathing Technique.
The resources he had scrounged from the gray zones meant his cultivation progress was actually quite good.
Right now, however, Benjamin''s physical attributes were locked down. If he strayed too far from his handler, his entire body would go into violent convulsions. Furthermore, the moment he harbored malicious intent or tried to utter forbidden words, he would be forcefully gagged.
Additionally, if this mechanism was actively triggered, his handler would immediately receive a warning.
When Benjamin''s group had traveled to Finback Village earlier, they had been ambushed by Dangerous Creatures in the wild. Faced with that sudden crisis, Benjamin had relied on this exact feature to be rescued by Isabella.
Now, he was naturally repeating the trick, using it to sound the alarm for her team.
Opper and his men were not ignorant fools. The fact that the Church had come to investigate the Whalehide Ore smuggling had already leaked.
Thus, Opper''s goal was crystal clear: manufacture an accident and silence everyone involved!
A man like that was incredibly dangerous. For the sake of profit, he was a true desperado.
"Bang!" A deafening explosion ripped through the air, followed by a gruesome spray of flesh and blood. The stumbling man was instantly blown into pieces, his remains scattered all over the ground.
Then, from within the splattered gore, tiny black dots shockingly began to emerge.
"It is a deeply aberrated Nest Beast, run!" Benjamin shouted, feeling his scalp tingling with sheer dread the moment he spotted the black specks.
Once a Dangerous Creature like a Nest Beast underwent deep aberration, it was only a single step away from becoming a true Calamity Beast, and its inherent abilities would be terrifyingly amplified.
Even as he screamed the warning, Benjamin scrambled frantically into the distance.
Meanwhile, the black dots writhed ceaselessly before revealing their true form—they were individual strands of coarse black hair.
Normally, if a Nest Beast died, the vitality of these hairs would plunge to a manageable level, allowing someone to handle them safely with mere leather gloves.
However, if they pierced into a living host before that happened, their vitality would not drop; instead, it would continuously surge.
Sure enough, from the bloody chunks scattered everywhere, those black hairs actually arched themselves like tiny springs and launched directly into the air.
As if they could perfectly sense the presence of life, they shot toward the nearest living targets in a dense, suffocating swarm, resembling a lethal barrage of flying needles.
The moment they struck a person, the black hairs rapidly burrowed deep into their flesh.
"Ahhhhh!" someone shrieked in unadulterated terror, scratching frantically at their own skin as if trying to claw the invasive hairs back out.
The hairs that missed their marks and embedded into the dirt or walls continued to thrash violently, desperately seeking a way to latch onto a living host.
This was an absolute nightmare. The primary reason previous Nest Beast disasters could be contained was that the black hairs would rapidly lose their vitality after their initial launch, rendering them incapable of actively hunting down living beings.
Because of this, as long as the authorities swiftly quarantined the infected victims immediately following the first explosion, they could either treat them or exile them straight into the wilderness to curb the spread.
Now, however, these mutated hairs were launching themselves over and over again.
Given the blistering speed of the projectiles, the people caught in the immediate vicinity had essentially zero chance of escaping parasitism.
Benjamin, having noticed the threat a split second early, barely managed to dive out of the attack radius.
But a moment later, he watched in horror as the people parasitized by the black hairs suddenly stood up with vacant, dazed expressions before sprinting wildly in his direction.
"The incubation period for this thing is gone?!"