novelraw Chapter 296
Chapter 296
Chapter 296
Two horses were running, raising thick clouds of dust.
"They're heading to the Leng Plateau, for sure! Faster!"
The honey-colored long hair of the rider driving his horse frantically was flying in the wind.
A little further behind, a sturdy old man with a bushy beard and graying hair was riding a horse,
He was lying flat on his stomach and screaming as if he might die.
"Is this the right way to ride? This old man's back will break if he falls off the horse!"
"Sir, consider that you're learning from now on! There's no time to teach you riding skills right now!"
"This young friend has no words he can't say! You should have taught me before!"
"You ran away saying your back hurt every time we tried!"Dardin shouted.
It had been less than an hour since the two had left the village.
But what had happened in that time couldn't be followed by human logic.
* * *
After the 3rd Prince and Yesung left, the people remaining at the inn generally spent their time quietly.
The atmosphere had sunk due to Bailies' death,
But Dardin thought now was the time to take a 'strategic rest.'
That's why when Cellinne pestered him that Eva should be taken outside, he only shouted a bit,
And eventually even gave up precious budget.
But when that appeared as some kind of signal to Valter, he immediately began nagging Dardin.
Things like 'the young man should go out together' or 'or let's exercise together.'
He couldn't bear to say he disliked it, so he tried to humor him for a while, but wasn't suggesting 500 push-ups crossing the line?
Eventually Dardin decided to escape to the first floor.
If he sat in a corner and killed time eating a meal, Sir Valter would also give up on building friendship with him and go to his own room.
But when he came down the stairs,
The inn door burst open and the inn worker who had gone on an errand screamed.
-Run away! Monsters appeared over there, and people are changing strangely!
Silence flowed through the inn. Then the inn owner and the few guests began to laugh.
-You were sent to work, where did you go take another nap? What are you doing in front of the guests?
-It's real! A huge goat has been destroying all the houses from the market! It'll come this way soon, we all have to run away before then!
-Tsk tsk, your mind is gone. When I was your age, I worked so hard day and night without time for such nonsense...
While the inn owner went on nagging, Dardin was watching small ripples occurring in the water cup placed in front of him.
Thump, thump, thump.
As the small sound gradually grew louder, the ripples began to grow larger too.
Something was strange. Just as Dardin hurriedly stood up and approached the inn owner and worker,
With a roar that seemed to tear his eardrums, everything that had been in front of him cleanly flew away.
The table, the floor, the walls, the roof, the people who had been sitting.
One step. Just one step's difference, starting from the floor in front of where Dardin was standing.
Was his understanding correct?
Suddenly half the inn flying away, could such a thing happen?
However, when Dardin saw the culprit who had destroyed the inn, he could soon resolve that question.
A hand with hooves that would need five adult men to encircle.
Above it, thick arms continued. The black fur on the heavily bent back was tangled and occasionally dropped something with a thud.
Judging by the long legs and arms, it was clearly a beast that should walk on two legs.
But it was advancing as if overwhelmed by something, humbly bowing its head, and tearing through the air with dozens of hideously protruding horns.
A thick stench of decay wafted around it.
The sound of a horn trumpet was heard from very high above.
It was a sound both majestic and blasphemous, as if announcing a king's procession.
Witnessing this, Dardin couldn't think anything.
How could such a thing exist? A beast of a form that couldn't exist in this world.
Was it possible? Wouldn't the creation of a life form with such an ugly appearance go against the laws of nature?
His brain creaked and tried to stop functioning due to excessive fear and doubt.
If he dug just a little deeper here, it seemed he wouldn't be able to maintain his sanity.
However, instead of habitually stopping the activity called thinking, he detoured elsewhere.
This beast was moving with a clear goal.
The inn was destroyed simply because this building was in its path.
Judging by the direction that head was facing, thinking about what was over there, probably-
"-Damn it!"
Dardin cursed uncharacteristically and jumped up the creaking stairs two at a time.
"Sir! Sir Valter!"
"Young friend! What is all this about, why on earth has the room become half? This is absolutely not my fault!"
Whether by divine providence, Dardin's room belonged to the safe side of the half-destroyed inn. At most, one wall of the room was completely destroyed and opened up.
Valter tried to hastily explain this incident upon seeing Dardin,
But Dardin pushed Valter's back and hurried down.
"I know it's not your fault, sir. Outside is strange. Monsters are coming out! You just saw it, that giant thing?"
"I did see it. Could they be demons from the Leng Plateau? Have they been released already? It hasn't even been ten days?"
"I'm not sure about that, but those things seem to be heading toward the Leng Plateau. Whatever it is, we have to stop that thing!"
"What? How could we possibly stop it! What happened to those two young ladies? They weren't crushed by that thing, were they?"
"Those two can take care of themselves. Don't worry and hurry!"
Dardin and Valter untied the horses tied behind the inn. However, the moment he grabbed the reins, Valter shouted.
"You want this old man to ride a horse!"
"Haven't you always wanted to learn, sir? Please get on quickly."
"I can't! My joints are aching and my wounds haven't healed yet!"
"Sir! This isn't the time to throw a tantrum!"
Eventually Valter was forced to mount the horse under Dardin's urging,
But the horse was very anxious. Thanks to that, Valter had no choice but to lie flat while gripping the reins to prevent falling.
When Dardin turned the head of the horse Valter was riding and hit its rump, the horse neighed loudly and bolted.
Through that, Valter's "Waaaah!" shouts echoed loudly.
And so the precarious race began.
Due to the monster's large size, each step it took created a great distance between it and Dardin and Valter.
Fortunately, the thing wasn't running.
Dardin closely pursued the beast walking ahead making thumping sounds while recalling the regional map in his head.
To stop that thing, they had to get ahead of it.
But confronting it here and now risked blocking their escape route,
So they would turn right at that bend and use a side path to get ahead of it.
If that thing was a beast with hearing, it would surely react to commotion.
Even if not, attacking its legs or skin to divert its attention would be an effective means.
After that, if one took a shortcut and the other took the main road to confuse it, they might be able to delay its arrival at the Leng Plateau.
Having organized his thoughts that far, Dardin led Valter to the side path.
"Sir! This way!"
"This way? How do I change direction?"
"Pull the reins!"
"The reins?"
But Valter wasn't in his right mind at all.
When he was suddenly told to ride a horse, this horse wasn't listening to him at all and was completely running wild.
Moreover, there was no way a horse foaming at the mouth like this would normally follow a rider's instructions.
Thinking so, Valter unconsciously put strength in his forearms and yanked the reins hard.
So hard that the horse's head whipped around and the horse was startled.
-Neigh neigh neigh neigh!
"Oh my, you beast, you colt!"
"Sir!"
Valter's horse began running wildly, deviating from the planned route.
It didn't matter where or how hard Valter turned the reins.
The horse that had lost all sense ran frantically, heading straight for the giant monster.
Surprisingly, the horse foaming and running desperately was achieving the highest speed Dardin had ever seen from a horse.
At this rate, they might be able to catch up to the monster, but it was far too dangerous.
"Sir! No! Come back!"
Dardin's desperate calls could be heard from behind,
But for Valter, who had never ridden a horse even once in his life, there wasn't much he could do.
Valter let go with one hand and fumbled for the giant axe on his back.
Anyway, wasn't what Dardin wanted to prevent this monster from reaching the Leng Plateau?
He was confident in that. More than confident enough.
He prepared for impact, gripping the horse's ribs with just his thighs and grasping the axe handle with both hands.
10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds until reaching that big beast.
"Sir! You can't! If you do that now-"
7 seconds, 6 seconds, 5 seconds.
Valter barely managed to stand up.
The muscles of his burly body swelled to their fullest. The blade of the giant axe was positioned exactly horizontal.
4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds.
"You beast! Take this!"
1 second.
From atop the runaway horse, Valter drove his axe near its hooves. The tendons in his arms bulged up.
Black fluid spurted from the leg that swallowed the axe blade, drawing long streaks on the ground.
At that moment, the giant goat-like monster slowly came to a stop.
Valter shouted.
"Did it work? Should we run away now?"
"Sir, quickly come this way! Hurry!"
"The axe won't come out, oh my! Must this old man keep pinching a goat's leg?"
While Valter was struggling, a sound came from the distant heights.
-Boooooo...
The sound of a horn trumpet. Definitely the same sound he had heard before.
Dardin, who had been hurriedly driving his horse, looked up to find the source of the horn trumpet.
Now he could see this monster wasn't alone.
In the distant heights, horns that protruded like omens of disaster.
Something sitting atop them could be seen.
A person dangling blood-red legs, gripping a horn and looking down at the ground.
Long hair swayed in the wind. Dardin thought he made eye contact with it.
It calmly broke off the smallest horn of what it was riding. Then it blew.
-Boooooo.
The horn trumpet sound echoed once more. To the mountain peaks and the end of the clear, unobstructed sky.
Was there a reason for blowing that? Was it for showing off, or did it have some purpose?
If not that, if that thing was being used for the purpose of calling something.
When Dardin's thoughts reached that point,
He heard a short air-cutting sound from behind and instinctively twisted his body without time to think.
"What the hell is flying-!"
-Neigh neigh!
The neck of the horse Dardin was riding was torn away.
Blood poured instantly from the dangling horse head.
Dardin, who fell from the horse that collapsed powerlessly, clutched his shoulder due to the impact of falling.
What was that just now? It wasn't an arrow, but a creature several times faster.
Something landed lightly in front of Dardin who couldn't get up from the ground.
Black feathers, sharp claws and legs.
A fierce beak ready to tear apart anything.
A hawk large enough to easily swallow a person stood with its feathers puffed up.
But Dardin stopped breathing upon seeing it.
Hands that protruded arbitrarily between the black wing feathers,
And a single-lens glasses strap hanging crookedly.
And on the right side of the hawk's head, a face with black eyes that no longer moved was staring at Dardin.
At the appearance that seemed like a failed fusion of human and animal, Dardin unconsciously began to retch.
Eva, no, the 'hawk' spoke using Eva's vocal cords.
A creaking voice rang out without inflection.
[Since we and humans are not greatly different, Mother takes both us and humans as kin together.]
At that moment, Dardin wanted to cut off his own tongue that had said 'those two know how to take care of themselves.'