Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 91

Chapter 91: A Single Word

 

The monsters had grown to be nearly 1.5 meters tall, and their teeth had grown haphazardly, jutting out of their mouths. The teeth dug into their own gums and roofs of mouths, but the monsters didn’t seem to care.

 

“Grrrrrr. . . . . .”

 

It wasn’t enough. It was never enough. The beasts writhed in insatiable hunger. They could crush bones and suck out the marrow, and still, their hunger would not be satisfied.

 

Then, one of them lifted its head and looked out across the wasteland. It was the largest of them—the one who had led the pack of wolves.

 

Its body was noticeably larger than the others. One of its eyes bore a deep scar, a wound it sustained while absorbing another pack.

 

The eye, once clouded over, was now regenerating. The torn cornea was healing and filled with fluid.

 

With its one good, yellow eye, the alpha wolf slowly rose to its feet.

 

After a few false starts, the alpha wolf finally stood on two legs. It resembled a wolf-man, but with its fur completely gone, revealing its red skin, there was no mistaking it.

 

It planted its forelegs on the ground and began to run. The other monster wolves followed suit.

 

Dozens of naked, hulking monsters ran across the wilderness.

 

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

 

The sunset cast an orange glow across the land. Shades of orange and yellow bathed the grasslands. The light seemed warm to the touch.

 

However, seasoned wanderers and merchants knew the chill that lurked within.

 

The caravan had spotted a village just as they were debating whether to make camp while there was still some light or press on through the darkening sky.

 

The wilderness was gradually becoming more humid, and a dark green line of vegetation appeared on the horizon, where only hills and ridges had previously been visible. And there, in the distance, was a village.

 

“A village!”

 

“We made it. . . .”

 

A few people sighed in relief. They were exhausted from riding without rest since early this morning. It had almost been a forced march, but they were unable to stop, worried that other bandits might be closing in on them.

 

“Russell, I’m tired. . . .”

 

Aellasis tapped the back of Russell’s head, who was sitting behind her. Russell smiled at her cuteness and reached around to grab Aellasis’s side.

 

“Ehehehehe?!”

 

“Are you still tired? Huh?”

 

“Ehehe, stop it! Stop it! Nyahahahaha!”

 

Russell tickled Aellasis, causing her to squirm. After a while, Aellasis, panting and flushed, turned around abruptly.

 

“Jeez. You’re mean.”

 

Despite her words, Aellasis snuggled into Russell’s embrace and began to doze off. Russell patted the girl’s back.

 

As they approached the village, fields came into view. There were vast fields of wheat, barley, and buckwheat.

 

Trees grew on a slightly elevated hill, and houses dotted the area. It was not a large village, but it was not a small one either.

 

As he patted Aellasis’s back, who was sleeping in his arms, Russell thought the village was typical. Typical here refers to the world’s standards.

 

A thick wooden fence—not just one layer, but two or even three—surrounded the village. It was part of the village’s defense against monsters.

 

There were even watchtowers. Others might have thought they were flimsy poles, but Russell could see the watchmen standing on them, bows in hand.

 

Just as the sunset was nearly over, the caravan arrived at the village. A man, who had been watching their approach from the watchtower, jumped down, his bow slung over his back.

 

With a strong body and agile movements, he introduced himself as a member of the village’s self-defense force. His name was Sherin. Sherin looked at the caravan and Russell’s group and said,

 

“One silver coin per person.”

 

“What the hell, Sherin? One silver coin per person? When did the price go up so much?”

 

“I can’t help it, Tebonin. Lately, everyone who comes to our village has been telling unsettling stories. The number of monsters attacking has increased dramatically. As a result, we’ve had to buy more crossbows, arrows, and weapons, and our expenses have increased significantly.”

 

Tebonin and Sherin seemed to know each other. On the surface, they talked casually, as if they were good friends, but deep down, they were both merchants and self-defense force members, and they were bargaining with each other over the price.

 

Russell looked around the fence. In a world where monsters and bandits roamed free, a safe haven was worth its weight in gold.

 

The fence, with its two or even three layers, seemed more than adequate to keep out those who would do harm, and it was not shy about demanding a hefty entrance fee from those who wished to enter.

 

Russell also knew that villages located in areas where monsters frequented often charged a fee for entry. Still, one silver coin per person seemed a bit steep.

 

On top of the fence, young and middle-aged men with faces that seemed to say, ‘We are on guard!’ were walking around with bows in their hands. They were watching Russell’s group the most.

 

It was no wonder. Not only Russell, but also Kai, the orc, was there. The young men on guard whispered to each other.

 

“That’s an orc. Why is an orc with humans?”

 

“Idiot. His skin is brown.”

 

“What’s the difference if it’s brown?”

 

“The color is different.”

 

In the end, Tebonin succeeded in setting the price at one silver coin for two people. In return, the villagers would buy a certain amount of food, and Tebonin would provide a few pieces of armor he had acquired from bandits for free. Sherin was curious about that.

 

“Where did you get all that armor, Tebonin? As far as I know, you mainly deal in food and spices. Have you changed your business line?”

 

“Ahem, no. To tell that story, I think I’m going to need something a little more. . . push. Hmm?”

 

When Tebonin made a gesture as if to hold a cup to his lips, Sherin chuckled.

 

“I understand. Come on in, and I’ll treat you to a drink. We’re in the middle of making honey wine anyway.”

 

“Honey wine! That sounds good.”

 

As Tebonin took the money out of his pocket and paid, the wagons, carts, and people filed in. When it was Russell’s group’s turn, Sherin stepped forward.

 

“Hello. I’m Sherin.”

 

“Russell. The child sleeping here is Aellasis. Over there is. . .”

 

“Kai.”

 

Because Aellasis was sleeping in his arms, Russell didn’t get off his horse, so he looked down at Sherin. Sherin sniffed and said,

 

“Hmm. The three of you are traveling together.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“That one looks like an orc. . . .”

 

Sherin’s words weren’t the only ones expressing their wariness of the orc.

 

“Is there a problem?”

 

“No, not really. It’s just that you’re all so big; you’ll have to pay more money.”

 

‘What the hell?’ Russell narrowed his eyes. Then he realized that Sherin’s courage stemmed from the fact that they had no weapons.

 

Russell kept all of his weapons inside his coat, and Kai was barehanded. Aellasis was just a little girl.

 

They looked like a group of travelers walking around without a single weapon, perfect for picking them off from the outside.

 

Tebonin stepped forward, looking flustered.

 

“Sherin, what are you doing? This man is a knight. These people are his companions.”

 

“A knight? What kind of knight has no armor or sword?”

 

“Well, that’s. . . . . .”

 

Tebonin knew it was due to Russell’s magic coat, but he couldn’t say it out loud.

 

“I don’t know, and you guys should pay one silver coin each to enter. After all, you’re the ones who came here.”

 

When Sherin repeated what he had heard Tebonin say earlier, Tebonin jumped up.

 

“Sherin! Are you really going to do this? I’ll explain it later!”

 

Russell scratched his chin. Should he just pass by? But there was a village right in front of him, and he didn’t want to camp again. Should he just pay with a gold coin?

 

Suddenly, Russell looked back. Something had caught his senses. After his battle with Iscalia, he gained a sense that spread his magic power over a wide area.

 

One might call it magic sense. In that sense, which was completely different from his five senses, Russell felt countless vibrations rushing towards the village where they were. And the people on the fence had also spotted something approaching from the horizon.

 

“Huh? What’s that?”

 

A few with good eyesight recognized what it was.

 

“It’s monsters!”

 

The people standing on the fence and watchtowers, looking out, shouted in response.

 

And everyone spotted the monsters running towards them at sunset. There seemed to be more than twenty of them.

 

They were running so fast that a thick cloud of dust rose behind them.

 

━Kaaaaaaaah!

 

A rough roar echoed through the air. The people’s faces turned as white as a sheet.

 

“Load the crossbows! Sherin! Get up here!”

 

Russell’s eyes glowed fiercely. Then he could see what was running towards them. He frowned.

 

The figures appeared deformed. They were monsters that seemed to have been based on wolves, but with all the fur removed, the skin peeled off, and the muscles and bones grotesquely enlarged.

 

It looked like something out of a dungeon, a ruin, or a warlock’s horrible experiment, not a grassland.

 

Sherin’s face twisted in horror as he shouted,

 

“Damn it, close the gate! What the hell do you have back there!”

 

“W, What? Hey!”

 

Sherin quickly dodged Tebonin’s hand and slipped inside the closing gate. The fence gate slammed shut, leaving the caravan people staring blankly in front of it.

 

“Heh.”

 

Russell chuckled. They were closing the gate, even though the monsters were still a distance away.

 

“Well, I guess that’s just human nature.”

 

Russell pulled his sword and axe from his coat. He retrieved Nahilnir, the great sword, and Final Frost. He looked up at the sky. The blue moon was slowly passing through the northeastern sky.

 

With a thud, he planted Nahilnir in front of the confused members. The large blade was more than half buried in the ground.

 

“Stay inside this sword.”

 

“Y, Yes?”

 

“Kai. If anyone tries to enter, deal with them.”

 

“Understood.”

 

The monsters were already close. He kicked the ground. The force of his kick overturned the earth.

 

“Kuwaung!”

 

The distance between them closed rapidly. Twenty monster wolves drooled from their mouths. Their gleaming eyes were filled with nothing but an insatiable greed for human flesh.

 

Before the monsters, Russell infused Final Frost with magic power.

 

Shaaaaaaaah!

 

A sound like a giant serpent roared. Russell, who had received a massive amount of magic power, swung the axe up high and brought it down with all his might.

 

Thud! Jiiiiiii━

 

As the axe released all the magic power it had absorbed as cold air, the area within a radius of several dozen meters instantly became a hell of frost.

 

Not only the ground but also the moisture floating in the air froze rapidly, creating a trail of blazing flames as it froze everything around it.

 

The storm of cold air hit dozens of monster wolves at once.

 

The cold air that flowed across the ground rose up along their deformed legs and feet, freezing their red skin and muscles in an instant.

 

“Kyaaaaaaaak!”

 

A few of them froze to death like that, but there were others who had managed to shake off the cold air. Russell noticed that those monsters had a much more violent flow of magic power than those who had died.

 

Russell took a step forward with his left foot and swung his axe up from below. Russell’s axe split the head of the monster wolf running in front in half. It couldn’t overcome the momentum of its run and collapsed to the ground, scraping itself.

 

As he dealt with one, two more behind him thrust their many teeth forward.

 

“You little shits, don’t ask me to fix your teeth.”

 

Russell stepped back with a snort, thrust his axe into the mouth of the one coming in from the left, widening its mouth, and swung the shaft of the axe at the one coming in from the right.

 

The monster wolf, lifted high, felt the axe blade graze its belly. It froze in mid-air. The monster wolf behind it swung its claws, smashing its fellow wolf’s frozen body.

 

Russell swung his own claws in response. His claws were stronger, faster, and sharper. And they were deathly cold.

 

The monsters, who had just broken free from the cold air, dragged their barely moving limbs toward him. Russell’s shadows grew darker and more numerous, covering him from front to back, left to right, and even above.

 

Just when everyone believed the monsters had completely hidden him, a brilliant flash of light shot out in all directions.

 

Pfft!

 

They scattered the monsters in all directions, cutting their bodies into small pieces.

 

The frozen pieces of flesh scattered around gave Russell a strange feeling. The sight was reminiscent of bulk frozen meat at a grocery store. The feeling was fleeting.

 

Russell’s axe danced again. It was a dance of death shrouded in white.

 

The people on the fence watched the battle, or rather, the massacre, with their mouths agape. Sherin’s face was pale. He now knew exactly who he had dared to provoke.

 

Tebonin, huddled together with the others, muttered below the fence.

 

“Was the knight a wizard, too?”

 

Kai recognized the axe.

 

‘That’s the axe from that time.’

 

Kai remembered when Russell had wielded that axe and fought his way through vampires and werewolves at the Errandis estate.

 

Russell swept through the monsters with such violence and grace that the memory of that moment came flooding back to him.

 

Then, the few monster wolves that had not dared to attack Russell spotted the people standing near the fence.

 

“W, What.”

 

The people hesitated and stepped back.

 

“Kuwak!”

 

Two monster wolves dug up the ground and charged forward. Kai clenched his fists, ready to charge out.

 

Pachichi!

 

“Kyuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

 

“Krakakrakak!”

 

The moment they tried to cross the point where Nahilnir was planted, the moon runes carved on the blade of the greatsword lit up and burned the two monster wolves.

 

The people stared blankly again, looking back and forth between the monster wolves that had turned to ash and the great sword.

 

The battle was now in its final stages. The initial hemispherical storm of cold air had frozen dozens of them, and Russell had crushed them before they could break free from the icy prison.

 

Those that walked on two legs and those that walked on four legs alike fell over with their waists neatly severed. Blood and entrails were frozen solid.

 

The monster wolf, leading the monsters, growled. The monster wolves that had followed were now all dead.

 

The monster wolf leader raised its claws and launched itself into the air. Its elongated claws were as sharp and long as a dagger.

 

Long, hooked claws left a rough wake in the air as they tried to scratch Russell’s face. Russell dodged by leaning back.

 

By a hair’s breadth, the claws grazed his nose. The big movements always left an opening, and Russell didn’t miss it.

 

His axe moved four times. The monster wolf fell to the ground with its limbs severed. The blood did not spill, as it always does.

 

It was a fight that had ended far too anticlimactically, considering the size, strength, and speed of the monster. That was how strong Russell was.

 

Ice and frost covered the surroundings. Frozen pieces of corpses. A monster wolf, its limbs severed, cried pitifully.

 

“Squee, squeeeee. . . .”

 

He planted his axe in the ground and pierced the monster wolf’s chest with his hand.

 

“Kyaaaaaak!”

 

The monster wolf let out a final cry and went limp. Russell glanced at it, then looked at the heart in his hand.

 

“Iscalia, can you answer without coming out?”

 

━. . . . . .I thought you had forgotten about me.

 

“You were the one who asked for a little time.”

 

━Still, I didn’t think you’d take this long to call me.

 

Russell chuckled at the buzzing voice in his ear. Was it broken?

 

“Do you know what this is? I’m not a wizard, so I don’t know much about it.”

 

The magic he could use was mostly limited to combat. That’s why he couldn’t understand this kind of magic, even with his magic eye. One could not understand what one didn’t know.

 

Fortunately, there was a wizard in his shadow. She was a wizard from 800 years ago, but she was better than nothing.

 

━Hmm. It looks like some kind of black magic. . . .

 

Black magic?

 

━In this state, I can’t say for sure. I think I need to touch it to be sure.

 

“I understand.”

 

Russell picked up his axe and strode towards the village. With his long strides, he soon arrived right in front of the fence.

 

He slung his axe over his shoulder and looked up at the fence. The sun was setting, casting its last rays of light, so Russell’s shadow grew large, covering the fence. It was as if a giant shadow looked down on the village.

 

Russell said just one word.

 

“Come out.”

 

Everyone knew who he was talking to. Sherin’s face turned blue as all eyes fell on him. A pathetic, whimpering sound, like a dog with its tail between its legs, escaped his lips.

 

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