Chapter 27
Insight (2)
Linda and Nekamo peered out through the half-broken, dangling second-floor window.
A limping skeletal soldier with an axe was roaming the street, searching for them.
“I don’t understand why that bastard keeps chasing us.”
“Father, you smashed its kneecap with a rock, remember?”
“That thing isn’t human. Do you really think it’s chasing us to take revenge?”
“I think it instinctively targets those it has developed hostility toward. And once it does, it won’t let go.”
As Linda whispered, the skeletal axe-soldier suddenly snapped its head up toward the second floor. Linda quickly ducked down.
“Too late. It noticed.”
Nekamo’s face hardened as he rose, gripping his cracked shield. A clear axe mark scarred the center of it.
If he took another direct blow, the shield would shatter into two.
“I’ll go down and distract it. You escape while I hold it off.”
“Go alone? No. We’ll fight together.”
Linda held in her hand a shard of a silver blade, wrapped in leather—a broken piece of the sword Josh had snapped, kept for emergencies.
“If we combine our strength, we might be able to defeat that monster. Don’t give in to weakness, Father.”
“Do as I say!”
“I’m the one who brought you into this dungeon. I’ll take responsibility too.”
Her resolute tone made Nekamo let out a heavy sigh.
They had underestimated this dungeon. They should have thought more carefully, acted more cautiously.
“…Fine. We’ll fight together. We have to get out of this damned place alive.”
Even in this dire moment, father and daughter exchanged a faint smile.
They both knew the truth.
That with just their strength, escaping the dungeon was nearly impossible.
But neither wanted to wear a face of sorrow in their final moments. Life was still theirs, at least for now.
“There’ll be only one chance. While I block its axe, you cut it with that silver shard.”
As Nekamo stepped outside to prepare for battle, his heart sank.
The skeletal axe-soldier wasn’t alone anymore.
More skeletal soldiers were appearing, shuffling from both sides of the street, weapons clutched, closing the distance.
Two even burst out of a nearby alley.
And when he looked up, there were more—undead crouched on the roof of the tilted house they had just been hiding in, glaring down with burning red eyes.
They were completely surrounded.
“Damn it. So this really is the end. You know I love you, don’t you?”
Nekamo muttered, voice strained, eyes locked on the advancing undead.
“I know.”
“Then… let’s take down at least one before we go. What do you say?”
“I’m with you.”
Linda showed no fear.
She had seen death and despair often in the patients she tended to, and so had come to terms with mortality earlier than most.
But still, the lord crossed her mind briefly.
‘Even without me, he’ll learn to read well, won’t he?’
Kyaaaah!
The axe-wielding skeleton roared, rushing forward.
“You bastard!”
Nekamo poured his entire strength into blocking the overhead swing.
Crash!
The axe cleaved through his shield with a thunderous crack, stopping just short of his forehead.
With shaking arms and trembling torso, Nekamo held the embedded axe in place, binding it to the shield.
At that moment, Linda darted forward, slashing the monster’s ankle with her silver shard.
Slice!
The sound rang crisp as fire burst from the wound.
Kyaaaaaaah!
Enraged, the skeletal axe-soldier abandoned its weapon and lunged for Linda, seizing her throat.
Her body dangled in the air, her face blanching pale as paper.
“You… burn… soon vanish…”
With her last strength, Linda thrust the silver shard into the gap of its ribs.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted violently, engulfing the skeletal warrior. The fire surged so fiercely that it threatened to swallow Linda in its grip.
“Let her go!”
Staggering up, Nekamo ripped the axe free and hurled the burning monster backward.
Boom!
As it flew, the creature dissolved into ash midair, scattering in the wind.
“Haah… haah… Linda, are you all right?”
Exhausted, Nekamo dropped the axe and crawled to his daughter’s side.
But Linda lay unconscious on the ground.
Clutching her tightly, Nekamo swung the silver shard desperately in the air.
Yet his strength was spent. The skeletal soldiers surrounding them only bared their fangs in mocking grins.
“Damn it all!”
Shielding his daughter with his body, Nekamo braced for death.
‘So I’ll die without even spending the money I saved…’
In his final moment, of all things, he thought of the gold coins hidden back in the room.
‘I hope no one ever finds it. I worked too hard for that money.’
He didn’t want anyone else to benefit from it. Tears fell on his unconscious daughter’s forehead.
‘Forgive me, daughter. I saved it for you…’
Yet as he wept, an odd realization struck him.
By now, his body should have been hacked apart by the undead.
But all was silent.
Cautiously, he lifted his head.
The monsters that had surrounded them were gone—rushing off wildly in another direction.
‘What in the world…?’
Then his ears caught it: a piercing shriek of sound that rattled his eardrums.
Fweeeeeeet! Fweeeeeeet!
‘That sound… no, it couldn’t be—’
Snapping his head back, he gazed upward.
Multiple fiery arrows soared high, nearly reaching the blood-red moon. The sharp whistle emanated from them.
“Signal arrows!”
He had once seen the castle’s archers practice them. These looked the same.
It seemed the undead were chasing that sound.
For a while, Nekamo stared blankly at the burning sky. Then his face brightened, and he whispered:
“Linda… we might still live.”
He quickly hoisted his unconscious daughter onto his back and began moving toward the direction of the signal arrows.
The village entrance was like a battlefield.
The skeletal soldiers, once in the dozens, now numbered in the hundreds. The valiant guards bled heavily; the ground was drenched red.
‘There are far too many…’
Ian’s eyes darkened as he turned to Rondo.
“Rondo, we fight as well. Follow me.”
“My lord! You must not join the battle!”
Rondo spread his arm to block him.
But Ian had already slipped past, standing in the thick of combat.
‘When did he—?!’
Shocked, Rondo rallied the idle retainers and charged after him to guard their lord.
“My lord! Please wait just a moment longer!”
“If you want me to live, then fight! That’s an order!”
Drawing his silver sword, Ian warped through the battlefield, cutting between skeletal soldiers in bursts of speed.
Everywhere he passed, flames erupted, leaving skeletons crumbling into fissures.
Kyaaaaah!
One swung a sword, but Ian ducked under and countered—his blade slicing a clean line from head to groin.
The skeleton split apart with a pop, vanishing.
—So you reveal your hidden power after all. Truly desperate, aren’t you?
Blanzor’s voice circled Ian mockingly.
“What’s the point of hiding it when we’re about to die? Do you know how much it costs to train elite troops again?”
Ian grumbled under his breath, then suddenly winced.
A skeleton had managed to cut his shoulder.
“You bastard! That hurts like hell!”
Warping instantly behind it, Ian rammed his silver blade through its skull.
“Look what you made me do!”
—Why blame me? It’s your own lack of skill.
“Some captain of the emperor’s guard you were—useless in a fight.”
Even while complaining, Ian kept moving without pause.
In this chaotic melee of hundreds, his warp attacks proved devastating.
“Rondo! Tell me I’m not hallucinating—our lord is really fighting?!”
Harmond shouted as he cleaved another skeleton diagonally.
“Who else would it be?!”
Rondo spun his twin swords like windmills, carving through multiple skeletons at once.
‘He fights without fear… When did he gain such skill?’
Harmond stared in awe but soon snapped back to the fight, yelling loudly:
“Take heart, men! The lord himself is fighting by our side!”
The battle surged toward its climax.
The trained elites fought like beasts, cutting down undead mercilessly.
The wounded gathered in tight defensive circles, holding off enemies with grim determination.
Had these monsters been human, their spilled blood would have formed rivers.
‘At last… the end is in sight.’
Ian’s eyes lit up at the sight of their dwindling numbers.
The endless wave of skeletons had ceased. Only a handful remained, soon to be slain by the bloodthirsty soldiers.
“My lord! Are you hurt?!”
Rondo, drenched in blood and slaughtering like a mad butcher, suddenly noticed Ian’s shoulder wound and panicked.
“It’s nothing serious. Just grazed my shoulder.”
“The fault is mine, my lord.”
“Forget it. Injuries happen in battle. What worries me is that Linda and Nekamo haven’t shown up. It’s been a while now.”
“Once this is over, I’ll dispatch men into the village to search.”
“Hm.”
Ian frowned slightly.
Sending exhausted, wounded soldiers straight into the village seemed reckless.
There could still be monsters lurking inside.
They needed to regroup.
“No, we’ll—”
—Look up.
Blanzor’s voice cut him off. Ian raised his gaze.
Against the backdrop of the crimson moon, something hovered in the sky.
It was still distant, too far to make out clearly.
But whatever it was, it was approaching fast.
