Chapter 31: CH 30

A cold wind blew threw the hall.

There, everyone gathered there stayed silent, and stared at the entrance—-The direction of the cave.

The mercenary group [Death Spreading Brigade]—-Had 42 members remaining.

That was the number of people holding a weapon in the hall.

The hall was their mess hall, where they usually ate because this was the widest space in the cave complex. Now, it became a hastily constructed temporary stronghold.

Within  the bandit’s crudely constructed base, the mess hall was located at the deepest part of the cave complex, which was at the end of the tunnel. With the mess hall as the centre, there were numerous small caves around it  that were used for weapons or food storage. They intended to make their stand here, as the mess hall could serve as their final defense line.

While it was called a stronghold, it was not made of sturdy materials.

Firstly, they overturned the crudely made tables, together with the wooden boxes, they constructed a simple barricade. At the area between the entrance to the mess hall and barricade, several pieces of ropes were stretched out to trip any would-be attackers. They would still be able to defend themselves even if the invaders rushed inside by delaying them from reaching the barricades.

After the encampment was completed, all the members were hiding behind the barricade, arming themselves with crossbows, and arranged themselves into the left, center, and right flank.

If they enter into a ranged battle, judging from the difference in area size between the entrance and the mess hall, the faction that control the center of the mess hall would have the advantage in terms of attacking numbers. Normally when trying to storm a place, a diversion would be conducted from a different direction, there will be a need to separate their defending forces, allowing the attackers to gain the advantage.

Although their defensive strategy was simple, it could win against a numerically superior attacking force.

The cold wind blew in.

Taking mind of it, several bandits shivered from what seemed to be the cold.

Naturally, the temperature within the interior of the cave was lower, they could still live comfortably even during summer. But the chill that struck them was not something that they were familiar with.

Firstly, the laugh that spread out from the entrance of the cave. Due to the echoes from the cave walls, they could not determine the gender of the voice, yet they could still be make out the shrill nature of the laugh.

The sound of that laughter gave them all chills. Before that, the [Death Spreading Brigade’s] strongest member, Brain Unglaus, went out to meet the attacker. Everyone was confidant that there was no need to prepare their defenses. But that laughter convinced them otherwise.

The voice they heard was not Brain’s. And it was laughing while facing him.

There was only one following thought.

A conclusion that they reached easily but none dare to speak it out. Hence, they could only keep quiet.

Brain was defeated by the enemy during his counterattack. It would be impossible for someone like that to exist.

That was what everyone thought.

In truth, Brain’s strength was beyond common sense. Even the knights of the Empire were not that strong. The same could be said of the monsters. He can kill an ogre with a single attack. He single handedly massacred a goblin group like mowing grass. It was likely that he would be able to behead every member of the Death Spreading Brigade in a direct confrontation. It would not be wrong to consider him as the strongest.

Then that sort of man lost. What meaning did that have?

As the panicked feeling rose—-

The sound of steadily approaching footsteps reached the ears of the bandits. Although the footsteps were slow, they were clear.

One of them swallowed a mouthful of saliva. The gulping sound sound was audible throughout the mess hall, followed by silence.

They quickly loaded their cross-bows, the sound of cracking from the loading was continuous.

A figure of a man appeared at the entrance of the hall where the bandits had focused their gazes.

“Brain!”

The head of the bandits—-The leader of the brigade raised his voice. Following that, a explosive laughter rose heartily.

Tapping the person next to him, there were voices of praise for Brain.

Brain’s name was repeated endlessly.

It was the sound of happiness at the defeat of the intruders.

As Brain stood at the entrance, he was basked in praises, while closely observing the faces of the bandits. That look, as if he was counting down their numbers, was scary.  

Due to the influence from Brain’s unusual response, the cheering was slowly died down.

“—-I. I found the master that I should be serving.”

The words of praise echoed through the silent mess hall. What was displayed on Brain’s face was the expression of someone indulging in a sweet dream, an expression that the bandits never saw once before on Brain.

It was common knowledge that Brain single mindedly seeked the way of the sword. In a sense, he was someone that is highly disciplined. When comfort women was delivered to him, he rejected all of them from the lack of interest. He did not even take a single drop of pillaged liquor.

The only thing is that that he is hungry for any chance of improving himself. The wealth he amassed was used to purchase strengthening items. Everyday, he would spend the time to swing his blade, and slowly inspect his weapon.

That manner of speaking did not fit his personality.

“….Are you OK? Your face looks kind of weird.”

Did he hit his head, the brigade leader thought so as he spoke.

It was true that Brain’s face was white. It was not at the level of losing blood. It was like a corpse—-That colour.

“Huh?….Was Brain-san’s eyes always red?”

It was unsure who uttered that phrase. Following that, everyone’s gaze was focused on Brain’s eye. It was red as if it was dyed in blood. Was it a blood rush? That was everyone’s thought.  

“They are here! Master. Everyone, look. Here is my highest master!”

Brain turned around and made a face like a child expressing his love to his mother, before taking a step backwards as if opening a path. .

Behind Brain, there was a figure visible.

A weird hunchbacked figure. Its two hands hanging limply from its sides, and its face bend downwards. Its long hair touch the ground, but it did not care and slowly entered the space. Its black dress seemed to be made of darkness.

No one said anything.

That figure was sort of weird, and the chill that seemed like it would stop hearts.

Slowly, the head moved. The face was totally obscured by silver hair. But deep within the mass of hair were a pair of shining crimson lights. The lights slowly dimmed.  

….Laughing.

Who said it, those sort of whispers could be heard.

—-Aa, yes.

—-That was laughing.

Everyone understood. No—-They accidentally understood.

The thing they never wanted to understand—-

“Hey hey, what sort of stupid face are you making. This is my master—-Shalltear-sama. Ah….so beautiful….”

Brain’s monologue did not reached their ears. Their attention was stolen by the abomination that stood at the entrance.

It was an existence so horrifying that they were unable to move their gaze away from it.

Don’t raise your face.

Don’t look here.

Go away somewhere.

There were plenty of those panicked thoughts.

However, like it was laughing at those thoughts, the hunchback figure stood up, and its beautiful silver silk-like hair flew back behind her, revealing its hidden face.

There was a splitting smile, plastered onto a princess from a nightmare.

“Ahahahahaahahahhahaaahahahahhaa!!”

Laughter—-

The hall’s air shook as screams rose. It reverberated strangely due to the location being inside of a cave. It was like the atmosphere could not endure, and was chorusing the sounds.

“UwaaaaAA!”

Raising a scream, one of the bandits was filled with fear and fired his crossbow. The bolt cut through the air and found its way deep into Shalltear’s chest. Receiving it, Shalltear staggered slightly.

“—-Attack!!”

Having received the orders from the leader, the bandits swung into action, resisted their fear and fired their crossbows

The noise from the firing of the crossbows were just like rain.  The bolts pierced Shalltear’s body.

There were a total of 40 bolts flying towards their target, only 31 found their mark. Every single of them buried themselves deeply on the target’s body. The outcome was expected, at this distance, plated armor could be pierced easily.

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Furthermore, the head was pierced by 4 of the bolts. Even now the target is still standing. If it was a human, the wound would be fatal.

Yes, if it was human—–

“We did it….”

Someone whispered.

That was the representative of everyone’s thoughts. That was now a hedgehog of bolts. According to common sense, that should definitely be dead. However, while their heads thought so, a corner of their hearts did not believe.

The bandits moved on a sixth sense and frantically prepared their next bolt.

“Master. Me too….”

Brain stopped his sentence midway, kept quiet and stood rigidly, as if he sensed something, a sensation of fear mixed with a hint of sweetness.

Shalltear moved—-

Like a conductor waving a baton, she opened her two hands. The bolts that were supposedly piercing her were slowly spit out of her body, and fell to the ground. There was no a single drop of blood on the bolts that fell. The arrowhead was not damaged. It was brand-new.

Even seeing that, ah, that’s right, everyone there could not think of anything but that.

Shalltear laughed.

A smug smile would be the most fitting to call it.

“UwaaaAAAAA!”

Cries could be heard here and there, then once again countless arrows cut through the air, and pierced Shalltear.

The bolts pierced her eye, throat, stomach, and shoulder. It was like being blasted with a rain of arrows, but apart from an annoyed feeling, Shalltear had no reaction.

“It doesn’t wooorrrkkkk. You wwwooorrrkkk sssooo hhaaarrrddd.”

A step forward. Then—-A leap.

The ceiling was about five meters up. With a leap that could easily reach the ceiling, she landed elegantly behind the barricade. Her high heels clacked on the floor. Then the bolts fell from her body.

Twisting her head, she looked at the crossbow-wielding bandits behind her.

A step—-And a hit. Without using her waist, it was a punch where she simply thrust out her hand. However, that speed was superhuman, and had a massive destructive power.

The fist easily went through the bandit’s body, and hit the barricade. With a large explosive sound, the wood that made up the barricade shattered, and the pieces scattered into the surroundings.

Silence.

The sound of wood chips hitting the floor reverberated through the hall.

The shocked bandits stopped loading their crossbow, and gazed at Shalltear.

Shalltear used her index finger to penetrate the ball of blood above her head, and removed it. With the string of blood that followed, a word formed in front of her. It was a magic word like a sanskrit character or a rune.

That was her Blood Pool. It was a special ability of one of Shalltear’s classes, Blood Drinker, that collected blood from her victims, and created a ball that could be used for a variety of purposes. One of those was—-Magic Strengthening.

<Penetrative Implosion>

Rank 10 Magic—-With the activation of the highest rank of magic, the heads of 12 bandits swelled up.

At the next moment—-An explosion like a balloon popping could be heard. There was no time to even scream. However, there was time for them to look down at their expanding bodies, understand that something unnatural was happening to them and make a terrified face.

“AhahahhaaaaahhahahahaaaAAhaha! Firewooorrrkkkss! Sssoooo prrreeetttttyyy—-!”

Pointing towards the blood spray, Shalltear made a mocking laugh and clapped her hands. Brain who was standing by the entrance followed her and clapped his hands in an intoxicated manner.

“Uooooo!”

With a shout of anger, an estoc stabbed through Shalltear’s chest—-and went through until the back, going through where her heart should have been. It then moved up and down in an effort to widen the wound.

“Go to hell!”

The following longsword split her head in half, and her left eye was cut open as the blade stopped there.

“Continue, bastards!”

With voices raised in a mix of fury and fear, 3 bandits swung their swords and chopped down at Shalltear. Over and over again. But the monster standing there with a broadsword stuck in her face seemed to have hardly noticed their efforts.

When their arms grew too tired to swing their swords, they used their hands to punch and their legs to kick, as tears of despair and desperation ran down their faces. However, Shalltear remained as immovable as a giant boulder.

Shalltear looked at the bandits, her head tilted slightly in thought. Then as if having found her answer, she clapped her hands together in a loud slap.

“HaAAaaaaaaAaaaa.”

Shalltear let out her breath in an explosive puff. Almost immediately, a thick scent of blood swirled around the area.

Calmly, Shalltear pulled out the broadsword stuck in her head. Even as the sword left its gruesome sheath, there was no visible wound or indeed any sign of injury.

She started to swing the sword but stopped as the broadsword started to rust and crumble  into nothingness in her hand. It seemed that her bloodlust had drawn out the disadvantage of one of her classes Cursed Caster. Disappointedly, she tossed the ruined sword aside and swung with one delicate arm.

Three heads tumbled to the ground.

“Run! Run!”

“We can’t win against that monster!”

“That’s bad news!”

Shouted the bandits as they attempted to flee. A pair hands appeared behind one such bandit. He was running as fast as he could, all thoughts of resistance blown to the winds. The hands squeezed in sudden burst of force as the skull tore apart with a sound like a bug being ripped from its shell. Brain fluid sprayed everywhere as the head crumbled.

A man tumbled in front of Brain who was enjoying the scene.

“Help me, Brain-san! Please! I won’t do anything bad from now on!”

His face stained with stears, one of Brain’s former comrades tugged at his feet, begging for his life.

“While it would be good to save you….”

“Let me first ask master.—-Master, what should I do with him?”

“—-Bbbllllooowww hhiiimmmm aaawaaayyyy.”

“Understood. Then, let us go.”

“Stop! Please stoppppp!”

The man desperately hanged onto Brain’s leg, but Brain grasped his back and threw him effortlessly. The strength of his arm was monstrously strong when compared to the man who hugged his leg.

Towards Shalltear who was more than five meters away, the man drew an arc in the air as he screamed. Naturally, if it was the previous Brain, this would not be possible. Even if he used both hands, this would be impossible. Changing into a vampire gave him unnatural physical strength.

“BaaaaaaaaaaaAAann.”

Before the man was able to kiss the floor, Shalltear picked him up again, did a turn before chucking him towards the ceiling.  A stomach churning sound as if something torned apart was heard, followed by the bloody remains of the bandit dropping. Before the blood reached the ground, it was absorbed by Shalltear’s Blood Pool.

Shalltear smiled at the escaping bandits.

“Ttthhheeeerrrreeeee’sss ssstttiiillll aaaa lllllloootttt llleefffftttt.”

Countless screams, criess of anger and hate, and tears of despair filled the hall—-.

Inside the hall where nothing moved, Shalltear smiled and stood up. The ball of blood above her head grew larger. However, it was still smaller than her head.

“Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnn.”

“Having fun is most important, my great master.”

“Aaarrreee ttthhheeeerrreee aaannnyyy mmmooorrreeee?”

“Then—-”

“—-Shalltear-sama!”

Interrupting Brain’s words, a woman’s voice echoed.

The vampire dragged back the vampire stationed outside into the hall.

“Some people are heading this way.”

“Ehhhh? Remnants of the BBaaannddddiitttssss?”

“—-Ah.”

“SssppppLLLeeNNNddddiiiDDD, this is just too ggoood.　AAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”

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