Chapter 224

Chapter 224 - Shemblar (3)

Eugene was not the lord of the knights from the Barcian Peninsula. He had no authority to directly command them.

While the difference in status between him and common knights was enormous, it would be troublesome to demand more than respect.

"Forget formations. Never stand in the same line as the creature and maintain maximum distance. Only attempt attacks from the flanks or rear."

But none of the knights, nor even the Dwarf Prince, objected to Eugene's forceful instructions.

This wasn't because Eugene was a great lord of Britannia. It was because of the countless champion and high-tier monster corpses strewn along the path he had walked.

Honor. It takes time to accumulate, but once established, it grants privileges that gold cannot buy.

The monster remained fixed facing Eugene. It seemed to concentrate all its attention on the most threatening enemy.

'Honestly, the swords and spears those knights are clutching probably won't do much damage even if they stab it.'

The monster was not only massive but the parts corresponding to flesh resembled a tar-molded mollusk.

Eugene recalled the teachings of the exhausted Marbas. The peerless summoner had excellently supplemented areas that Valda couldn't advise on.

"—Is there any estimate for what kind of creature might be lurking underground? Fighting an unknown enemy makes me quite uncomfortable."

"—There are too many possibilities, so I'm at a loss too. But I think I have a sense of how to fight it."

"—I'm listening."

"—Recall the moment it was first discovered. Remember they said it was a sphere small enough for one dwarf to carry?"

"—Of course."

"—That's likely the creature's core. Forming a nucleus is one method that otherworldly beings favor when taking root in this world. It allows them to endure for long periods with minimal energy."

"—So we need to extract and destroy it."

"—It will desperately try to protect it, so it won't be easy. Monsters that form cores create all sorts of bizarre bodies. Summoners commonly call them Shemblars. Don't assume that what looks like the head is necessarily its weak point."

Now that he was actually facing it, there was no apparent weak point.

Even the knights who would fearlessly charge at a minotaur were calmly scanning around. They seemed to be pondering where to stab and cut to make the Shemblar hurt.

'After cutting and slicing a few times, something should become visible.'

As always, it was right to start with ranged suppression.

"Fire!"

The Barcian knights with crossbows and Eugene's knights with bows poured silver arrows.

But the ranged attack that had proven effective against every monster was powerless this time.

"Th-this thing is pushing out the silver arrows!"

The tar-like, slime-like body wasn't merely for show. The skin where arrows lodged immediately writhed like mountain stream water, pushing the arrows out.

Meanwhile, the reacting silver smoked, but being ejected so quickly, it didn't even sting.

[□□□□□□□□□□□!]

The Shemblar roared powerfully as if counterattacking.

Even Eugene's knights, who had faced all manner of ferocious monsters including the hydra, felt their skin prickling all over.

But just as the Shemblar had pushed out the silver arrows, fear couldn't invade their hearts either.

*Thump-thump*

Homi's breath flowed through their pumping hearts, driving away the evil energy.

'This isn't good.'

At its first appearance, the Shemblar had clearly been afraid of Eugene.

But it seemed to be gradually gaining confidence against the expedition that was only poking ineffectively with ranged attacks.

If the Shemblar shifted to offense, that would be troublesome. Beating down an enemy while they're intimidated always minimizes casualties.

Having made his decision, Eugene raised his left hand. Immediately, Homi whistled, and Hinde along with the tribal knights looked at Eugene.

"Change of engagement rules. Arrows are ineffective. Everyone, draw whips. Close combat remains prohibited."

"Huh? Whips?"

The knights holding crossbows thought they had misheard, but they hadn't. Eugene's knights threw their bows aside while drawing rolled-up whips from their backpacks.

'Really?'

'In actual combat, what the...'

Whips were tools used only to punish disobedient subordinates or slaves. Using them in actual combat was unheard of.

But the knights wielding whips looked quite impressive. As specially crafted weapons, they were formidable in thickness and length, with the bottom 30% or so plated in silver.

Whips were weapons Eugene had been interested in for some time.

"—Whips, my lord? Our roots are nomadic. Of course, everyone handles them well. But using them in actual combat is... They can't even penetrate simple leather armor. Maybe when suppressing peasant revolts without killing them?"

"—That may be true against people, but what about against unholy beings? Undead or man-eating spirits and such. I wonder if there's any need to insist on silver swords with such short range."

"—Oh! Now that you mention it, that would definitely be effective."

"—Sir Hinde. You practice too. Using them in combat requires a completely different level of difficulty. One wrong move and you might hit your own face and lose your lip."

"—...Yes."

Hinde and the knights proud of their swordsmanship weren't enthused, but there was no choice. When the lord says jump, you jump.

Silver is always most effective against unholy enemies. And when using silver weapons, striking or piercing power becomes secondary.

How easily you could hit, and how much surface area of silver you could react with, were what mattered.

Having developed these but found no appropriate use, the whips finally found their perfect target.

*Squirm*

The Shemblar, which had been focused solely on Eugene, divided its attention for the first time. It seemed to feel threatened by the rich purifying energy surrounding it.

*Swoooosh!*

In that opening, a silver-plated javelin flew at the Shemblar, cutting through the air.

*Thwack!*

The Shemblar's agonized scream echoed through the cavern.

"Leave ranged suppression to me."

"Got it."

Homi answered with silver-plated javelins in both hands.

Her throws in Water-Leopard form were far more powerful than crossbows or bows. Moreover, javelins contained incomparably more silver than arrows or bolts.

*Clang*

Even the Shemblar struggled to eject the javelin.

"The silver used is to be deducted by the royal house as promised. You must keep that promise?"

"Of-of course!"

The Dwarf Prince nodded vigorously while shooting his crossbow.

Thanks to the tax revenue from Britannia's territories, Eugene could use silver lavishly. Still, precious is precious!

*Swoooosh!*

Homi's second attack drew immediate response from the Shemblar. Its vicious teeth caught the javelin in one bite.

*Crunch!*

The Shemblar chewed and crushed the javelin like a cookie, then spat it out! The bodily fluid that had filled its mouth congealed with the silver like phlegm, forming protective mucus.

Meanwhile, Eugene's knights hadn't been idle.

*Whirrrr*

They each spun their whips in their own stance to build centripetal force, then struck with full power.

*Crack!*

*Crack-crack!*

As whips lashed the Shemblar's flanks, back, and rear, silver sparks burst spectacularly.

Like sparks scattering from a kicked burning log. Countless fractures spider-webbed across the Shemblar's body.

[□□□□□□□□□□□□!!!]

The screams were far louder than from Homi's javelins—it seemed to be in considerable agony.

Just then, Eugene noticed external knights drawing silver swords.

"Now's the time!"

"Uwaaaaa!"

Whips cracking from all directions, sparks flying, blood and flesh falling, the Shemblar's screams.

All of this erupted from the knights' surging fighting spirit.

"Wait! Stop! It's still dangerous!"

"Your Excellency! We too shall share in the glory!"

Despite Eugene's warning, the knights didn't stop their charge. While he held great authority, merely watching like borrowed vegetables wasn't acceptable either.

The knights drove swords and spears into the Shemblar's body, but one knight couldn't.

*Squelch!*

A sharp tentacle burst from the Shemblar's flank. Four meters long, thick as a log—enough to kill a warhorse in one strike.

"Theon!"

"Gah!"

The knight with a pierced abdomen coughed up blood but grabbed the tentacle.

Though his life was already forfeit, his noble resolve was to at least hold the tentacle and hinder the Shemblar.

But that determination was made hollow as the retracting tentacle dragged his body along.

*Thud!*

Crashing against the Shemblar's flank before collapsing, the knight gurgled blood.

Yet the other knights didn't stop stabbing with swords and spears.

Desperately reckless and simple, but this was what fighting high-tier monsters meant. Sacrifice was a given. Either the monster dies or everyone dies—those were the only options.

*Crack!*

Tasting noble warrior blood invigorated the Shemblar too. Four tentacles erupted in succession from its flank and rear.

"As if!"

"Ugh."

A Barcian knight with good reflexes escaped with just a slashed cheek, but a peninsular knight had his thigh pierced.

The two aimed at tribal knights sliced through empty air. Having struck from afar with whips far longer than tentacles, they could dodge easily.

Amid that chaos, Eugene found an opening at the Shemblar's front.

*Splash!*

Cleaving at least 2.5 meters of the monster's front, black blood cascaded down like a waterfall.

But the knights couldn't simply rejoice at that single strike. The tentacles targeting them had all retracted back into the Shemblar's body.

"Dodge!"

"My lord! It's dangerous!"

A sharp tentacle shot out, but Eugene had already sensed the energy moving inside its body.

Having entered evasion before the launch, the tentacle cut through empty air.

*Slash!*

The axe blade immediately passed, and the tentacle-lance was severed.

*Crack!*

*Squelch!*

The Shemblar frantically thrust the second, third, fourth tentacles, but all futile. None touched even a hair of Eugene who had already read the attack directions.

Four tentacles cleanly severed by the axe wriggled on the floor like worms before going limp.

"The Knight of Prophecy."

Aaron muttered inadvertently at the sight. To others' eyes, Eugene seemed to have received divine revelation.

Eugene stared at the Shemblar. The energies that had been wriggling like eels inside no longer registered.

'So it's not creating tentacles on the spot but swimming through the body before bursting out for surprise attacks?'

With Eugene cutting down all four, tentacle attacks seemed finished.

Then the Shemblar began thrashing its entire body. Clumsy for its size, but the range was broad with enormous weight behind it. Getting hit meant serious injury; getting crushed meant instant death.

The knights with swords and spears hurriedly retreated.

*Crack!*

Even so, the tribal knights' whips continued striking the Shemblar's body without pause.

*Patter-patter*

So much had it been "silver-massaged" that blackened dead outer skin flooded onto the ground.

Then muscles and bones too repulsive to be from any creature of this world were revealed.

*Thwack!*

When Homi's javelin embedded in one such spot, the Shemblar's muscles spasmed violently. Having struck bare flesh, it seemed impossible to push out with its characteristic mucus.

Finding it too painful, the Shemblar fixed its head on Homi.

"Homi! Dodge!"

Homi was already sprinting away on beastly instinct before Eugene even called out.

*Keeeeen*

As light patterns intertwined in the Shemblar's mouth, frost formed on nearby ground like midwinter.

"Hah!"

At the moment Homi's powerful leg muscles pushed off the ground, launching her body behind a nearby boulder—

*Pyaaaaah!*

With a bizarre shriek, an icy breath erupted from the Shemblar's mouth.

Hell is a vaster world than people imagine. While commonly pictured as fire and brimstone, opposite realms also exist.

Unlike the blazing hell where Blackout was forged, the Shemblar was born in frigid realms like Judecca.

*Crackle-creak*

Everything the white breath passed over froze.

Realizing it couldn't hit Homi hidden behind the boulder, the Shemblar immediately switched targets.

"Everyone take cover!"

"Ahhh!"

The tribal knights fled in panic as the breath-spewing Shemblar's head rotated toward them. But finding cover suddenly was no easy task.

'Damn!'

Just as several of his men were about to be caught in the breath, Eugene gritted his teeth and leaped onto the Shemblar. Then struck its head with all his might.

The ice that had armored around its head from the breath's aftermath shattered at once. Flesh and blood sprayed in all directions.

*Thwack! Crack! Crack!*

As Eugene continued hacking, the fierce breath destabilized, sparing the tribal knights' lives.

But that reckless attack came at a cost for Eugene too.

*Whirrrrr!*

What little surface slime remained all lunged at Eugene at once.

He swung Blackout to cut them away, but couldn't deflect slime flying from all directions.

"Ugh!"

The slime transformed into webs binding Eugene's arms and legs.

Even Eugene's monstrous strength was useless. The Shemblar handled the slime-web like a fisherman with a fish, releasing slack whenever Eugene strained, avoiding direct contest.

A clever judgment. Had it matched strength head-on, the slime-web would have snapped instantly.

But this time, Eugene's subordinates saved him.

"You bastard!"

"How dare you touch him with that filth?!"

The silver whips wielded by enraged tribal knights shredded the webs binding Eugene.

The Barcian and peninsular knights picked up crossbows.

*Thunk!*

*Thwunk!*

With all protective slime now gone, the silver arrows penetrating bare flesh finally took effect.

*Thwaaaack!*

Still nothing compared to Homi's javelins, though.

Poisoned by too much silver inside and out, the Shemblar could endure no longer. It had to use its final measure against the sensation of its whole body being soaked in radioactive material.

The burning flesh and rotting bones parted, and a brilliant sphere of light rose.

Eugene sensed white frost concentrating throughout the sphere. If the previous breath had flown in one direction, this was a horrific omnidirectional version.

"That's the core! Eugene! You must destroy that!"

Marbas, who had been exhausted from dragging out the Shemblar, screamed instinctively at that terrible energy.

But naturally, Eugene was already bringing Blackout down on the sphere.

*Crash-shatter!*

A satisfying sound rang out as crimson fragments scattered.

The condensing hellish frost shattered and dispersed. What scattered covered Eugene, frosting his hair and eyebrows white.

But the hellish heat flowing in Eugene's blood drove away the cold that could freeze even souls.

*Whoooosh!*

Eugene swung his vertically held axe as if annoyed. The hell spirit responded, generating fierce wind pressure. It blew away the frost the Shemblar had gathered toward the ceiling.

Two more strikes, then three more strikes.

*Crash-shatter!*

At last, the crimson sphere shattered to pieces.

[□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□!!!!!]

After the final scream, the Shemblar's massive body stiffened. Parts began crumbling and collapsing here and there.

"Good heavens!"

"Does everyone see that?"

Everyone present rubbed their eyes. The hundreds of dwarven souls consumed by the Shemblar were being liberated.

"Goddess Vanas. Do my prayers reach you?"

Eugene gazed at the souls that had drifted through the underground cavern like a school of herring.

"This place is deep and dark. Please guide these poor souls."

In that moment, the souls that had been flowing like waves all turned to face one direction.

*Whoosh*

For a sublime light incomparable to any torch had descended underground.

"Goddess."

Several tribal knights teared up, feeling the benevolence filling that luminous presence.

Goddess Vanas, having descended underground, guided the poor dwarven souls like a shepherd and vanished beyond the cavern.

*Thump*

Overcome by that heart-stirring sight, the Dwarf Prince fell to his knees and wept.

As a member of the royal house, he had finally fulfilled the duty he owed his ancestors and people.

* * *

Eugene ordered withdrawal as soon as casualties were treated and remains recovered.

Upon reaching Khazad-dor, a commotion had already broken out. The dwarven souls following Vanas's guidance had passed through the Mineral Garden.

"Dwarves are dwarves even in death?"

Eugene smiled faintly.

The souls who had suffered so long within the Shemblar—the homeland scenery they had always pictured. The Central Park where they had found rest with family since childhood.

There, the dwarven souls resolved their final resentments.

Watching their ancestral spirits find peace, the dwarves of Khazad-dor instinctively knew the extermination had succeeded.

Thus, the gazes toward the expedition party emerging from below were filled with emotion, gratitude, and respect.

"Prepare a feast! The heroes who have completed a great quest have returned! Do not shame the name of Khazad-dor!"

At their head was the Dwarf Prince.

Salvation of ancestors, a great victory, a solid achievement for future succession to the throne.

He who had gained more here than anyone was almost unbearably full of happiness and fulfillment.

New chapter hint: 225