Chapter 46: Aftermath and New Life |
Baruk and the bearman warriors he led pushed forward all the way. Aside from encountering some mechanisms, traps, and a small number of misleading formations blocking their path, they did not run into the fierce battle they had expected.
This was completely different from the intelligence he had obtained from Mills, forcing him to be even more cautious.
These mechanisms and traps were ingeniously designed and extremely powerful. Even without suffering an enemy ambush, quite a few bearmen were injured.
Especially the demon-breaking hidden weapons among them—even their tribe’s strongest encirclement hunting formation and giant shields were easily torn apart, leaving all kinds of wounds on the warriors’ bodies.
Fortunately, the formation possessed extremely strong purification abilities. During the formation’s duration, they could resist most toxins. At least for now, no warrior showed any signs of poisoning.
The assassins and thieves had yet to appear, and the longer that continued, the more uneasy Baruk felt. He kept having the feeling that those bastards were holding back some big move, planning to hit them hard in one shot.
But the formation was maintained by consuming their blood.
While the formation lasted, their vitality was shared, and all their offense, defense, and perception were enhanced, but they had to finish the battle before the formation drained them dry.
He could not afford to drag it out, and he did not dare to charge recklessly either.
The Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce had already blocked off most of the secret passages they had discovered. If those people had other secret passages to escape through, then that was none of their concern.
But if they concentrated their attacks and the result was that those people refused to fight them and all fled instead, then he would become a sinner to his tribe.
The compensation for that was something they simply could not afford.
Now, even though he clearly knew something was wrong, he still had no choice but to bite the bullet and press on.
Looking at the dozen or so enormous warehouses before him, Baruk’s expression was grave, and he could only hope the formation would come through for them.
“Start tearing them down!”
Baruk let out a low growl through gritted teeth. Gripping his giant hammer, he leaped dozens of meters into the air. His violent qi and blood power condensed into the phantom of a massive hammer, which smashed viciously toward one of the outermost warehouses.
If the power of this hammer landed on an ordinary building, one strike would be enough to collapse an entire structure. Even against a warehouse built from special materials, Baruk was confident he could smash a huge breach into it.
Yet at the very instant before his giant hammer fell, the innermost warehouse suddenly erupted with dazzling red light.
“Boom!!!”
A massive shockwave burst forth in a semicircle in the blink of an eye. Wherever it passed, whether specially made walls, sturdy supports, or hidden traps, everything turned into fragments in an instant and shot outward in all directions.
Baruk, still in midair, had no time to react at all before a huge section of wall slapped straight into him head-on, turning into a meteor with him as it flew off into the distance······
And the bearman warriors still on the ground, preparing to tear buildings down with their elder, had not even had time to jump before the shockwave violently sent them flying. Like tumbling gourds, they rolled and spun as they were hurled in every direction.
*
In the distance, all the elders, guard squads, adventurers watching the operation, as well as the few leaders stationed on all sides including Gann Cole, stared in shock at the red light shooting into the sky!
The red light came fast and went fast. Within a few breaths, it had dissipated, leaving behind only a thick cloud of dust slowly drifting down.
“Cough cough… cough cough…”
“That…”
“Did anyone see clearly······what just happened?”
The captain of the guard squad crawled out with difficulty from a pile of stones and wood splinters. Covered in dust and filth, he stared blankly at the ruins, which had already turned into a massive crater and were left with only smoke and dust filling the sky.
The other team members were also in miserable shape. Even though they had been a full thousand meters away from the warehouses, they had still been blown straight off their feet.
“I-it looked like… those bearmen had just gotten ready to tear down the warehouses, and then the innermost warehouse exploded on its own?”
A ranger-class team member beside him covered his mouth and nose as he spoke haltingly.
······
Far away on a treetop, the lizardman elder Simoni waved his staff and blew away the nearby dust.
“A self-destruction formation? Those lunatics from the Shadow Guild actually blew themselves up directly?”
“Cough… cough cough… blegh… ptoo! Ptoo ptoo ptoo!”
So shocked that he accidentally inhaled a huge mouthful of dust, the dwarf elder Burlo forcefully spat out the dust in his mouth mixed with thick phlegm.
“Where’s that old bear?! Did anyone see where that bastard Baruk got blasted off to?! Hahaha!”
Finally able to speak, Burlo asked excitedly. He wanted to go take a good look at that old bear’s miserable state! After taking a hit like that, that bastard old bear had to have at least torn muscles and broken bones!
“Didn’t see clearly, but the general direction should’ve been toward the sea.”
Bell, the ratman elder who had been keeping watch on the battlefield the whole time, pointed toward the distant hazy coastline.
“Huh?! What’s that?!”
They saw more than twenty somewhat dim but still stubbornly persistent blood-red pillars of light shoot like cannonballs toward the direction he was pointing.
‘Holy shit! This formation?!’ Elder Simoni’s heart surged like stormy seas. ‘No matter how much it costs, no matter the price, this old man has to get it back!!!’
A formation that could move along with them!
*
In a forest a hundred li away from Coral Thorn City.
A group of people suddenly appeared on a patch of grass.
“Cough cough…… haa…… haa……”
Everyone greedily breathed in the air filled with the scent of grass and trees, forcefully feeling the solidity of the ground beneath their feet.
Just now, inside Isos, that feeling of emptiness and oppression had nearly suffocated them.
“This place is already safe.” Isos’s hollow voice rang out, breaking the silence.
Then he turned his gaze toward Marco. “You, are you coming with me, or waiting here?”
Marco was somewhat surprised. The other party apparently was not lying—he really could cure him, and it was even fine for him to wait here.
As though treating the modifications to his body and the toxins in him was no more than lifting a hand!
“I… I’ll wait here.” After thinking for a moment, he cautiously chose the latter.
“Alright.”
Isos quietly vanished together with his voice.
The moment he left, the emotions that had been suppressed for so long instantly erupted among the crowd.
“Boss! We… we really… are free?”
“I’m not dreaming, right? Pinch me!”
“Wuuuu……”
Listening to the chattering noise from everyone, Marco lay flat on the grass, looking at the starry sky and moon above, feeling indescribably relaxed.
“Yeah… we’re free!”
After receiving Marco’s confirmation, everyone became incomparably excited.
No one knew who started it first, but a bunch of overexcited fellows cheered as they surrounded the still dazed Mino in the middle and began tossing him up and catching him, tossing him up and catching him without end.
“Oh~ so many fresh blood meals? Is this the payment you mentioned? Smells pretty good! The flavors seem quite varied too!”
Right at the peak of everyone’s jubilation, a cold, terrifying will suddenly swept across the crowd.
Under that horrifying will, they could not even raise the thought of resisting. Even their bodily instincts were suppressed so completely they could not move.
What kind of monster had appeared this time?!
“Alright, stop scaring them.”
“Hurry up and finish. I’ll send you back.”
Isos’s hollow voice rang out like heavenly music, dispersing everyone’s fear.
Only then were they finally able to move their stiff bodies and look in the direction of the voice.
They saw that beside Isos’s bizarre figure floated a mass of black-red blood mist that kept surging and rolling, radiating a dense bloody aura.
As expected… it was yet another terrifying existence!
They swore that in the future they would stay as far away from Coral Thorn City as possible. There were simply too many monsters and demons in that place!
Montoya and Isos drifted in front of the completely stiff Marco.
This Grandmaster ‘little friend’ swallowed with difficulty and forced out a smile uglier than crying. Trembling, he said to that terrifying mass of blood mist:
“Y-you… hello!”