Chapter 68

While Vin rode atop the lightning spirit, soaring across the battlefield skies, Bel, Ad, and the soldiers diligently moved through the enemy trenches, abandoned warehouses, caves, and decaying trees.

“…That’s quite the spectacle.”

Bel, who had infiltrated the demons’ encampment, cast a quiet remark as he watched Vin and the lightning spirit freely flying through the sky, incinerating demons.

He had ordered him to draw attention using the spirit, but even he hadn’t expected him to go this far.

The other soldiers besides Bel could only offer hollow laughs as they watched the white-haired boy flying with the deer through the sky.

For them, the sight was an amazing thing they had never seen nor heard of, but they did not have the mental room to be impressed by it.

Most soldiers wanted to look around their surroundings one more time during the time they would have spent looking at the sky. Only Ad, whenever a momentary respite occurred, would gaze at the sky embroidered by the boy and his deer.

‘…That’s the one.’

Ed, almost without thinking, found himself pondering that as he watched the boy.

If you were to ask Ed exactly what he felt looking at the boy, he couldn’t have given a proper answer.

He was simply, endlessly, envious of the boy, soaring freely through that sky.

“…Let’s move, slowly. Thanks to his flamboyant antics, the perimeter defenses will be a bit lax. If we’re going to move, now’s the time.”

“Yes, let’s.”

Menes, hearing Bell’s command, belatedly snapped back to attention. Even for an elf who’d lived for over 2000 years, a mage riding a spirit through the sky was unheard of.

“This is the last one. Let’s finish this quickly and return to the barracks. I’m starting to get impatient.”

Bell, as though irritated by the long abstinence from tobacco, rubbed his fingers together, expertly weaving through the heart of enemy territory.

“…Astellara watches over me, so I shall move forward with faith, pushing back the hellhounds risen from the abyss…”

Corporal Citadel’s faint prayer echoed through everyone’s ears via the mask’s communication spell.

After five years, like brothers in arms, he could only watch as his comrade was abducted by a Variant, so a mental collapse was inevitable.

Everyone knew it.

Even so, the boiling anger and surging irritation in their chests were unavoidable.

“Everyone, focus.”

Menes’ voice resonated within the masks of the soldiers, who were gazing worriedly at the mentally broken corporal.

“There’s a strangely shaped Variant ahead.”

“Strange how?”

“It has a human form, but its ears are… quite large. You could probably fit one or two calves in its ear canal.”

Ed frowned, hearing Menes’ description. He couldn’t quite picture the form based solely on that.

“…Huh.”

Bell, it seemed, was no more taken by his description than he was.

“Its earlobes are so engorged they practically sit on the ground. It looks like it can’t move, as if unable to bear the weight of its ears.”

“…Why does such a mutant exist?”

“For surveillance, no doubt. They strengthen specific organs to match its purpose. Since it can’t turn its head, it only needs to focus on sound.”

Bell nodded, as if understanding Menes’ words, then began to remove his leather boots.

“Everyone, take off your combat boots. The ground is muddy, which will dampen the sound somewhat… But it’s safer to move barefoot.”

The soldiers, to a man, pulled faces, clearly reluctant. Who knew how many bits of flesh and poison were lurking in the mud, and stepping on it without boots felt intensely unpleasant.

“Haa…”

Sure enough, the moment they stepped into the mud, the soldiers felt pain in their feet, and their toes began to grow numb.

“Let’s finish this quickly and return. This level of poison is manageable, isn’t it? We’ll get you to the Saint as soon as we’re back, so just bear with it.”

“Haa… Haa…”

Corporal Citadel’s breathing grew increasingly labored.

Bell watched him carefully, then exchanged a glance with Menes over his mask.

Adro had no way of knowing what the two of them conveyed with their eyes… But it probably wasn’t good news for Corporal Citadel.

In any case, the soldiers moved forward slowly, their bare feet sinking into the mud.

Soon after, a huge earlobe emerged from behind a muddy rise.

The grotesquely large ear had several burst blood vessels. The bruised and yellowing giant earlobe, as Menes had said, looked like it could easily hold two or three orcs.

The mutant’s head was slumped forward, unable to bear the weight of the earlobe. Thanks to that, even though it was in a somewhat conspicuous location, it seemed that as long as they didn’t make any noise, the mutant wouldn’t spot them.

‘Advance.’

Menes, at the front, assessed the situation and ordered it with a hand gesture.

Aed held his breath, hunching low as he moved forward, one careful step at a time. The mud clinging to his soles, and the throbbing pain, tormented him, but Aed clenched his jaw, stifling a groan.

He had to be careful not to step on any bones hidden within the mud. Soft, rotten bones broke so easily, even from the slightest impact.

“Haa… Haa…”

Corporal Citadel’s breathing grew ever more ragged. Or, perhaps, it wasn’t actually growing ragged, but rather, the soldiers’ extreme tension was causing his breaths to sound far louder than usual.

The experienced soldiers worried the mutant might detect Corporal Citadel’s harsh panting.

‘Steady. Keep moving forward.’

Whether Menes had eyes in the back of his head, or possessed the ability to read minds, he quickly recognized the soldiers’ anxiety and signaled to them.

The soldiers had no choice but to trust him and continue onward. Aed moved cautiously, hoping the mutant’s hearing wasn’t as acute as its appearance suggested.

*Thoom!*

Just as they were about to stealthily pass the mutant’s head, another explosion thundered from afar.

A hot gust of wind momentarily brushed past their ears. The witless mutant had triggered a mana mine.

“Hngh…!”

Before he knew it, Aed had let out a moan. Confronted with the sudden explosion amidst such intense tension, he couldn’t hold it in.

The soldiers turned their heads in unison, glancing once at Aed, before turning their gazes back to the mutant.

“…Haa. Ssp, haa.”

Corporal Citadel’s ragged breathing only grew louder.

“…”

The mutant gave no reaction. Perhaps Aed’s groan had been masked by the sound of the blast.

Aed nearly exhaled a sigh of relief.

Determined not to make another mistake, he clenched his jaw tight and ran a hand over his chest in lieu of sighing.

The soldiers, thinking they could finally breathe easier, slowly lifted their feet once more.

“…Goddamn. God-daaamn…”

Yet Sergeant Citadel’s breathing remained ragged. Unable to master the mounting pressure in his chest, he cursed himself.

‘…Silence.’

Menes glanced back, a hand signing the command. Dark shadows clung to his sharp eyes.

“Sorry… I’m sorry, Danny. I had no choice. You know that.”

‘Silence!’

Menes signed again, even more forcefully. Soldiers beside Sergeant Citadel quickly gripped his shoulders, repeating the lieutenant’s sign directly in front of his face.

“…”

Citadel stared blankly at his comrades’ signals, his eyes unfocused.

Then, finally, he clamped his mouth shut and nodded.

The soldiers, who had been frantically repeating Menes’ signals, barely managed to suppress sighs of relief.

They quickly turned their heads forward, desperate to escape the hearing range of that massive-eared variant.

“Lieutenant said shut up, Danny! Please, just! Be quiet!”

And then.

Sergeant Citadel’s near-shriek of despair.

Slapped the back of their heads.

“Ah.”

Sergeant Citadel cried out and, as if realizing what he had done, lifted his head and continued.

“My apologies.”

Sergeant Citadel, after unleashing a scream that cleared his throat, apologized the next instant with a steady, unwavering voice, no different from before the mission – like a dementia patient abruptly returning to their senses.

Even so, his eyes remained unfocused.

*Teeeeeeee*–

A ringing, tormenting the soldiers’ ears where they stood.

Not the kind of ringing born from stress.

This was the ringing produced by a mutant with grotesquely oversized ears.

The mutant with the enormous ears emitted the unnerving whine as if preparing for something. The whine was so immense, it threatened to rupture eardrums even through the echoing thunder all around.

“Shit.”

Menes, as if resigned to an inevitable fate, cursed softly.

He hastily drew the longbow from his back and fired an arrow at the mutant’s head. Less than half a second elapsed from the moment he grasped the longbow to the arrow leaving its string.

A thin, sharp line extended from the bow.

“Kiiiiya…!”

The instant a monstrous, tearing scream threatened to erupt from the mutant’s face, which was now plummeting toward the ground, Menes’ arrow pierced its neck.

Compared to its oversized ears, the mutant’s neck was no different from a human’s. The rotten, festering flesh tore immediately as the steel arrow skewered it, and the torso collapsed weakly, like waterlogged paper.

“A beat too slow.”

It was a brief moment, but the mutant’s scream had been unleashed.

Even that fleeting cry left Edna and the other soldiers with numbed ears and vibrating ribs.

Had that mutant properly screamed, every soldier here would have lost their hearing.

*ooowooo*–

As if responding to the mutant’s shriek, a massive foghorn echoed from the distant horizon.

The soldiers, barely recovered, hastily dropped their held boots and crammed their mud-caked feet inside.

Whatever had made that sound, they wanted no encounter with it.

“What do we do? Fall back?”

Menes asked, slinging his longbow across his back, looking to Vel. His eyes betrayed a similar desire to abandon the mission immediately and retreat.

Wooom!

Once more, the deep bellow of a foghorn pressed down upon them. This time, it came from a different direction than before.

Something was approaching this place. That much, they knew for certain.

Vel finished his brief deliberation and issued his orders.

“…Most of the available troops will be focused on Bean right now. We can finish the mission. Plant the final parchment.”

Vel had made his decision.

After a quick hesitation, the order was ‘Mission ongoing’.

The soldiers, upon hearing it, thought to themselves, ‘We’re not getting out of this alive.’

“…Damn it. You lot! Get your boots on! Anyone who falls behind from here on is left behind!”

“Clear a path, Lieutenant. All engagement is authorized from here out.”

Vel took off running at a speed unbelievable for a mage. The Lieutenant, Menes, cursed under his breath in annoyance, then began to run, passing Vel.

Soon, an overwhelming force would be converging on this place.

If they were lucky, they’d die. If unlucky, they’d end up like Corporal Danny.

Either way, it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.