Chapter 57 – 13. The Festival of Warlocks. (3)
The group occasionally encountered evacuation lines. Every time that happened, Rudra Danju stopped the wagon for a while to call the Danju and get the latest information from them. Apparently, the information I heard at the meeting not too long ago was already more than 15 days old.
So Rudra displayed the collected information on the map and slowly tracked the location of the warlock.
“How many warlocks are there now?”
One of the mercenary lords asked Rudra Danju, looking at the points marked on the map. Just looking at the dots on the map, it was definitely not one person. No matter how fast I moved, the dots were stuck in places that didn’t make any logical sense.
Rudra glanced over them and gave an answer.
“I think there will be at least two here. … But now it doesn’t matter how many there are. It’s not just one place that’s going through this situation right now. It is happening almost simultaneously in several places. … The number will be higher than you think.”
Everyone nodded. Using the dots, she roughly predicted the path the warlock would take.
“I can’t just keep following you around. We go ahead and wait. And the moment they attack the village, on the contrary, we wipe them out.”
Rudra’s finger poked somewhere. A village that has not yet been attacked by enemies. But it wasn’t too far from where it was most recently dotted.
“Anyway, a necromancer needs a corpse. I’m sure you’ll never pass by the nearby town.”
Having said that, she roughly estimated the distance between their current location and the town. If he was in a bit of a hurry, he was likely to arrive narrowly ahead of the enemies.
“Do you have any other opinions? Maybe I’m missing something.”
Rudra Danju’s gaze skimmed through several Danju and stopped right in front of Allen. Others followed her gaze and looked at him.
Allen smirked and even clapped lightly.
“I don’t have the slightest disagreement with Rudra Danju’s thoughts.”
“… Alright then let’s move right away. Time is pretty tight. I’m going to rest just enough to keep the word from spreading, so let’s know that.”
“Yes.”
The gathered sorcerers dispersed again to their respective wagons.
She asked what was going on with Allen as the crew members, who had been tearing apart the nogars, climbed into the wagon, as the tension was relieved.
“Go to the village. Even if it is late, it will arrive within today.”
“… Are you waiting for them in advance?”
“Okay. … So from now on everyone get some sleep. Because rest time is reduced as much as possible. When you get there, you won’t have much time to sleep.”
As soon as they heard that sound, everyone took a nap. The stopped carriage started again.
As befits mercenaries who sleep anywhere as long as their heads are on, the crew fell asleep sniffing their noses in an instant.
As the plague approached, Allen let out a few yawns, and then she began to doze off.
Then he fell asleep with his head leaning on the shoulder of the suckling master sitting next to him.
The sucker gave him a quick glance around him to see that everyone was sleeping, and lightly kissed the head of the boy leaning against him.
…… Good night, my lord.
She, too, leaned against his head and fell asleep.
· · ·
The group arrived near the village around sunset. The scale of the village, surrounded by stone barriers that were not very high and piled up one after another, was considerably larger than expected. The number of households is about 100. Considering that there are usually seven or eight in a house, the number of people was about seven or eight hundred.
A strange tension was flowing in the village, as if he had heard the news that the surrounding villages had been attacked. Men who could fight took turns standing guard, carrying farm implements and whatever they could wield.
The village chief, who was full of worries and worries, welcomed the mercenaries as if he had met a savior. The sophomores told their mercenaries to take a break and gathered around the living room of the village chief’s house. There were also a few survivors who had fled from neighboring villages.
“It was a sudden night raid, so I didn’t see anything properly. But I felt that it was definitely a large number. …… We were helpless and there was nothing we could do but run.”
There was a small sob. It was the guilt and sadness of a survivor who lost not only his family but also most of the villagers and barely managed to survive.
The old village chief asked Rudra with a worried expression.
“… Are they really going to come here?”
“I don’t know about other black magic, but they are evil necromancers. The corpse will soon become their power, so they won’t just pass by this place. … It will be today at the earliest, tomorrow night at the latest.”
With a conclusion close to certainty, the village chief let out a quiet silence.
“Don’t worry too much, though. We are there.”
It wasn’t the farmers who hurriedly scraped together, there were close to a hundred professional fighters who had been sharpening for dozens of years. Even a warlock wouldn’t be able to deal with them with a mere moving corpse. … Rudra Danju was so sure.
She asked her village chief to draw a similar outline of the village, and when she saw it, she gave instructions to assign one area to each danju. Allen was chosen for a location near the East Gate.
“As I said earlier, they might launch an ambush tonight at the earliest. So never let your guard down.”
“Yes.”
“Aim for the head if you can. When the head is broken, the body does not move. And burn the corpse A necromancer is weak without a corpse. So before it gets any bigger, let’s put an end to it here.”
Rudra seemed to have learned a lot about necromancy and recited how to deal with ghouls.
Breaking the head and burning it was all right, but it was a common misconception that a body was weak without a body. Although necromancy is black magic that uses a corpse as a medium, there is definitely magic that does not require a corpse. … Of course, the power varies greatly depending on the level of the necromancer.
Anyway, the meeting was over, and Allen returned to her crew. They sat on the ground and ate the food brought by the villagers, waiting for Danju to return.
“Our area of responsibility has been determined. Let’s move.”
Ten people, including Allen Danju, packed up and headed toward the East Gate. It was grandiosely called Dongmun, but it was a crude door made with a few wooden planks attached. Even the door of a noble family’s turd box seemed to be stronger than this.
In fact, the stone wall was only about the size of an adult man’s chin, so whether the door was strong or not wasn’t that important. Even a weak ghoul would easily cross a wall this big.
“Shipper… , I haven’t even played with a corpse yet, so I guess it’s okay.”
Even the experienced Kalisman had never dealt with a necromancer, so he didn’t seem to have anything to say.
Of course, Allen, who was suspiciously knowledgeable, opened his mouth instead.
“Don’t ignore the corpse too much. It’s a bit different depending on the skill of the necromancer, but it will be much more agile than you think. I can see it in front of me, enough to exceed the stone wall.”
“… So, do you have any weaknesses? Don’t break your head. … It’s a corpse, so I don’t think you’ll die from exploding balls.”
Allen nodded her head and tapped her on the head and waist twice with her hand.
“As I said before, the most effective thing is to smash the head. Then the waist. If you break the spine, you can’t move. Smashing the chest completely is also an option, but I don’t recommend it because it’s too inefficient. … The number of enemies is great. So you have to fight while using your physical strength as efficiently as possible.”
“Yes, Danju.”
“You know the ranks we practiced often? No matter what happens, always avoid falling behind alone. At least two or three should fight back to back. Humans don’t have eyes in the back of their heads. I can’t see you attacking from behind, I mean. Do you know what that means?”
He spoke as if he had been in a long battle.
“The more enemies there are, the more important it is to the back. Depending on how well you protect your back, whether or not you will be able to overcome the outnumbered depends. We are not fighting alone. I’m fighting with my teammates. If one and one are separated, they are just two, but if they are attached, they can bring out the efficiency of more than three. That’s tactics, that’s combat. Got it?”
“Yes-.”
“… Yes, taking turns resting. Tired people can close their eyes for a while. But don’t take off your gear. You never know when a fight will suddenly start.”
It was now a completely dark night for Cheonji. A group of mercenaries and villagers set fire to the stone walls to be vigilant in all directions.
…… Warlocks will already know that a group of mercenaries have joined the village. If he’s going to attack, he won’t know that tonight is the right time. Sure to come will definitely come….
However, they didn’t show up until late at night. Allen wondered if these guys were trying to avoid the village. Even a necromancer might have felt the burden of dealing with this sizable group of mercenaries….
A little relaxed, Allen fell asleep. He sat back against the wall of the building, resting his arms on his upright knees and resting his head carefully on them.
He closed his eyes, intending to close them for just a moment.
… And in that state, I fell into a deep sleep.
· · ·
The blind saintess, who was sleeping as if praying, suddenly raised her head. It was because something unusual had pricked her skin.
As her ode eyes rose from her seat, only her watchman, Callis, who was standing in front of her stone wall, glanced at her. She just needs to pee more than me—-, she thought, not a big deal, but she walked towards the stone wall instead of the back room.
“I still have some time left. And, isn’t your order later?”
“… No, wait….”
The blind saint stared into the darkness. Callis Mann also looked there, wondering if something had happened, but she couldn’t see anything. The sandy plain illuminated by the moonlight was very calm. To the point where I wondered if the black magician would really come.
“… I can’t see it. Nothing.”
“No. There is. Something, for sure….”
What is that? Clearly, energy… !
Dark energy was slowly approaching from all sides. It was already almost in front of the stone wall.
…… Ah…… !
Only then did the blind saintess realize her situation and ran towards her wake-up bell with all her might and knocked on it.
They are not above,
It was crawling under the sand.