## Chapter 73 – Ogre Raid
“Kkiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiiik!!!!!”
A scream, seemingly from the kidnapped martial artist, echoed from the darkness. It was clearly a final cry of life, yet it wasn’t quite the death throes.
“Nuiiiiiiiiiiiiiik!!!!!!”
The bodies of those who recognized him froze like ice.
The martial artist wasn’t dead.
He was merely screaming, clearly from immense pain. The overwhelming scream prevented us from rushing into the darkness.
Even those who had been clamoring to chase the ogre just moments ago couldn’t speak. It was as if only the martial artist had the right to speak in this place.
“Beuik! Deuhik! Kkiiiiiiiiiiik!!!!”
“Juuiiiiiiiiiik!!”
“Heukkeuaaaaaaaik!!!”
The screams continued. It was as if a gateway to hell had briefly opened in the darkness, with only horrifying sounds pouring out. Even I was shocked by the insane sounds. What on earth was happening to him in the dark?
Human imagination was a weapon. It could stab others with ingenuity, but it could also become a bloated delusion, like a pufferfish, stabbing itself. It was too easy to imagine what he was going through.
“The ogre is scared. So it’s trying to gain the upper hand by inflicting even greater fear… Looks like the cut wasn’t deep enough. It didn’t sever the tendons.”
Claudia whispered in my ear.
“…Shit.”
Suddenly, the screams stopped. A complete silence fell, so profound that I could hear the sound of the adventurer next to me swallowing. After that brief silence…
—Whoosh!
—Thud.
Something flew out from the darkness. Copson, who was standing in front, cautiously approached to examine it. So, the bastard was still alive.
“T, this is!”
Copson was horrified. Then everyone else followed suit.
“Uwaaaaaaak!”
“This! This is that bastard!”
“F, f*cking hell! That f*cking ogre!”
The horrifying fragments were pieces of the martial artist.
The martial artist, shattered like a broken plastic model, was so damaged that even the delicate hands of a master craftsman couldn’t revive him.
Unlike in a game, collecting the martial artist’s fragments wouldn’t recreate him. Even I, who had seen a lot of terrible things, shuddered at the horror.
The ogre was an extreme sadist.
A sadist beyond comprehension.
“…”
What flew out were the martial artist’s arms, legs, torso, and head. In the pitch-black darkness, the ogre had extracted his screams by tearing off his limbs and finally his head.
And it threw them at us as if to show off.
To instill fear.
“Katt. If you lose your will to fight here, you’ll die. Turn fear into anger. That’s what a warrior has to do.”
“…I was scared at first, but seeing that it was the martial artist who died, I feel a bit relieved.”
“Huh?”
“No… it’s nothing. I’m fine. Don’t worry. We’ll get that 1 gold.”
“That’s the spirit. That’s what a man should do.”
The tactic was cruel. As a reasonable person, I couldn’t help but feel rage.
But seeing that it was the martial artist who died, I felt like a decade-old indigestion had been relieved. Who knows, maybe that bastard was one of the guys who lynched me back then. That made me feel better. Those martial artist bastards deserved to die.
“Hoo, good. Very good. It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m not dead yet.”
I muttered to myself, as if casting a spell.
Separate myself from others.
That bastard died because he was a moron, and I survived because I’m not a moron. Since I’m not a moron, I’ll never die here. I believed that and brainwashed myself. I desperately drove away the fear.
“Euhiik!”
“Hey! You have to pay a penalty for desertion! Stop right now!”
But not all adventurers thought the same way. Desertions were rampant. They had to pay a penalty, but it was a worthwhile deal to pay 3 silver and survive. They were quick to calculate, as people who lived fiercely.
In a bad way.
“Bullshit! If you don’t want to die, you guys should run away too!”
“We can only survive if we all run away!”
“Let’s go together!”
“Stop, you f*cking idiots!”
Nearly ten adventurers deserted at once, and Zauros couldn’t stop them even with his fierce shouts.
“Morons.”
Claudia murmured softly.
And said mockingly.
“They’re all going to die. The darkness is the ogre’s territory now. It’ll kill them all before they even get halfway down the mountain and come back up.”
“We’re screwed.”
I sensed that we were screwed.
The number of people had dwindled. Morale had completely collapsed. I really didn’t expect this. I just thought that since there were so many people, we could somehow win, even if it wasn’t easy.
Did I know it would turn out like this?
“Keuheuh… My head feels like it’s going to break. What happened to the ogre, Sir Zauros?”
“The ogre has fled.”
“I see… I was too naive. Sir Zauros, please gather the people.”
Lady Isvant, clutching her head, approached from behind. Her rolled-up hairstyle was a mess, and her luxurious clothes were torn and covered in dirt. She must have rolled a few times while flying.
“Everyone, gather in front of the watchtower! Don’t scatter! We can only survive if we stick together!”
That seemed reasonable. We could only survive if we stuck together. We gathered tightly in front of the ruined watchtower. The Lady shouted at us.
“I can’t face my father unless we kill the ogre! No matter what happens, we will kill the ogre and return!”
She shouted confidently, but it was more like a complaint than a speech. It seemed she wasn’t very bright. Zauros quickly took over.
“Did you all hear that? We can only go down if we kill the ogre! And we have enough strength to do it! Some stupid bastards ran away, but the ogre is also badly wounded! We can do it!”
I wasn’t sure about that. But since the ogre was also badly wounded, it seemed like we could kill it if we just did a little more. The ogre’s blood loss was significant. The more it moved its massive body, the more severe the bleeding would be.
—Uwaaaaaaaaaa!!
At that moment, a scream echoed from somewhere on the mountain. It wasn’t hard to recall that the voice belonged to the adventurers who had just run away. As Claudia said, the ogre must have been hunting down the deserters, dashing through the darkness.
Humans who don’t gather are just weak monkeys. If they lose their reason due to fear, they become even less than that. The price of a foolish choice was death.
“Do you hear that? Now, whether it’s a penalty or whatever, you’ll die if you run away. Let’s fight to the end.”
Zauros said with a cold expression. Now, there was no other way but to die or kill the ogre. An extreme either-or choice. Or we could pray that the ogre would just leave, or wait for the sun to rise.
It seemed like it would be a long night.
***
In endless tension, we prepared for the ogre’s attack. Zauros and Winia, and the Lady and Claudia, gathered in one place. Seeing Claudia’s movements, the Lady had called her over.
They were devising a kind of plan. Roughly, when the ogre appeared, Winia would obscure the view with magic, the Lady would take the front, Claudia would take the rear, and the soldiers and adventurers would block the escape routes on either side.
Claudia explained the plan to me, and Zauros conveyed it to all the adventurers. We briefly practiced the movements according to the Lady’s signal. The movements were good for a plan agreed upon on the spot. Everyone was seriously engaged in training with the will to live, without exception.
Now it seemed all we needed was for the ogre to appear.
“You still not dead, you black trash.”
Winia said as she passed by. I was about to protest, but she didn’t wait for my reply and continued on. That bitch is running away after cursing me!
“That bastard…”
“Katt.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s coming soon, so be careful. It’s close by.”
“Oh my god.”
I looked around frantically, extremely tense.
But I couldn’t see anything. All I could see in the darkness were the trees standing on the boundary of the clearing. The ogre would come from somewhere between them.
Ah… f*ck. This is so scary.
Even though I had made up my mind, fear was creeping up on me. More than anything, I didn’t want my limbs torn apart like the Soviet Union collapsing. My body, hair, and skin are all gifts from my parents. For me, who was born in a Confucian society, dismemberment was too great an insult.
In front of the ogre, humans were just like Shittake mushrooms. In the heavy night air, the trees on the boundary looked like moving monsters. They swayed like smoke in the wind, and it felt like a giant would finally pop out…
—Thump.
“It’s here.”
I said it out loud. My hand holding the sword tightened. It’s okay. I won’t die. Claudia is next to me. What is there to worry about when she’s here?
—Thump, thump.
The sound got closer.
The surrounding adventurers stirred. Perhaps because of the extreme tension, it felt like the sound was ringing in my head.
—Thump, thump. Thump!
—Thump!
Shaking the ground, it announced its appearance.
「—KKKKKKkuRrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!」
“It’s here!”
Suppressing the urge to cover my ears from the tremendous roar, I recalled the plan. Everyone else must have been doing the same. We moved in unison as we had practiced just now.
—Ku-gwa-gwa-gwa!!
The ogre, bursting out of the darkness, charged straight ahead like a football player. It was incredibly fast. Explosive speed coming from muscles packed tightly all over its body!
“U, uwaaaak!”
“It’s coming this way!”
“Get out of the way! Move! You f*cking idiot! Move!”
With a surprise attack that seemed to hit the flanks of the soldiers, the plan was ruined, and everyone scattered, each trying to survive. It wouldn’t be a plan if it went smoothly as expected.
Damn it, I can’t help but laugh.
“The family is scattered, techi!”
It was already screwed. The formation had collapsed. A scream burst from my mouth. There’s no brave idiot who believes that they can win against a charging bus by sticking together. When the ogre charged, the plan was bullshit, and everyone scattered, believing in their own survival.
Thus, it was the ogre’s turn.
“Uwaaaak!!”
The ogre sprinted at full speed, grabbed one of the scattering people at random, tucked them under its arm, and disappeared back into the darkness. Its kidnapping skills were top-notch. It was a guy born with the qualities of a first-class rapist.
“Another one got caught!”
“Bruter! Where’s Bruter!”
“Izermaart, god of order, please save us…”
Voices filled with anger and horror erupted. With fear painted on top of them.
The ogre was experienced.
Experienced and smart.
Realizing that stabbing once didn’t work, it immediately began to engage in guerrilla warfare.
“It’s too chaotic. If they would just stand still, I could find an opening…”
In contrast, Claudia couldn’t hide her boredom. In the first place, she hadn’t shown any particular reaction even when the martial artist’s limbs had flown over.
It seemed that she was having difficulty finding an opportunity because of the adventurers who were chaotically running away. But there was no way the adventurers would stop as Claudia wished.
After that, the ogre appeared from the east, and then from the west again, and began to kidnap people one by one. Then, before long, screams would erupt again, and it would pop out from the north again.
It was like Hong Gildong, appearing in the east and west.
But what it was stealing was not the wealth of corrupt officials, but people’s lives.
People were disappearing one by one. The number of people, which was initially two squads, had now dwindled to one squad.
The ogre ran through the darkness as if it were its own home.
The greatly angered Lady charged at the ogre every time it appeared, but the ogre didn’t try to fight her at all. Claudia also kept looking for a chance, but it seemed that her movements were restricted because of the adventurers who were running away in all directions.
In the chaos, the ogre gained an advantage.
It was dawn, and there was still a lot of time before the sun would rise.
Would it make a move, or would it continue to chip away at us?
Suppressing my anxiety, I could only stay close to Claudia.
