Chapter 79: 046. Imperial Prince is Hunting Beasts -2 (Part One)
‘I…I need to escape!’
Redmoon was urgently dashing through the forest.
‘I must regrow my forces.’
The lycan sucked in a deep breath.
‘And then, I shall have my revenge!’
It opened its maw and howled out loudly.
The other lycans and zombified animals that had been scattered around the forest rushed to where Redmoon was and they joined it to form a horde.
Now that they were finally in the forest and a sizeable horde had formed around it, Redmoon began breaking free from the grips of fear.
The lycan looked behind, but it could no longer see the shadows of those two insane humans.
That was obvious – it had been running for quite some time, after all.
Those humans would never be able to chase it down with their running speed.
Besides, even if they did give chase, Redmoon was confident in escaping from their pursuit so long as they were within the forest.
This place was the red moon forest, the territory of the lycanthropes. Unless every single tree in this forest was cut down, they would have enough places left to hide.
The relief of knowing it was safe caused the corners of Redmoon’s lips to curl up again.
It truly felt relieved.
-…!
However, the moment it began relaxing from the sense of relief, rage began contorting its expression instead.
While continuing to run away, Redmoon reached out to grab a zombified animal nearby, and ripped its head off. Then, it devoured the rotting meat with its wide-open maw.
After drinking the animal’s blood and consuming its meat, Redmoon’s body began recovering to a certain extent.
-Dammit!
How humiliating.
A measly human dared to say that she’d hunt down lycans and turn them into stuffed wall decorations?!
To think that Redmoon would get scared by that and scream so pathetically, too!
It was simply too humiliating.
‘Whether it takes decades or centuries, I shall have my deserved vengeance!’
However, this area was overflowing with monsters and lunatics. Redmoon did thirst for revenge, but it’d have to grow its forces somewhere else first.
While the lycan was thinking about the future plans, its nose caught a faint little scent.
Redmoon shifted its gaze to a distance and spotted a group of humans standing over there.
Were they soldiers? Perhaps they were dispatched here to rescue the Imperial Princess?
Redmoon’s eyes darted around once more.
There were dwarves, the Order of the Verdant Cross, unrecognisable men dressed in red robes, and finally, a small and weak-looking boy commanding them all.
‘…He looks weak.’
Redmoon stopped running. It faltered where it stood and started hesitating.
Since the lycan was in the middle of forcibly healing the wounds on its body, the pang of voracious hunger attacked it rather uncontrollably at the moment.
It craved so badly to consume human flesh.
However…
‘I must not judge by how he looks on the outside.’
That was the case for both the old man and the princess.
Since it was a young boy, he might not be as bad as those two, but nothing good would come from letting one’s guard down.
Not only that, they weren’t chasing after Redmoon’s group, either. If the lycan’s horde attacked the humans, things could get disadvantageous really quickly.
For the time being, it seemed that escaping from here should be its top priori…
It was then, a ‘light’ flashed in the enemy camp.
Redmoon reflexively tilted its head out of the way. A projectile made out of divinity brushed past its face.
Splat!
Its right side cheek and the maw were ripped apart. The fangs hidden beneath the hide shattered and broke.
Redmoon dazedly covered its face.
If it hadn’t dodged out of pure instinct, then that single strike would’ve completely blown apart the lycan’s head.
Redmoon glared at the boy commanding the platoon of soldiers.
That boy, he… was holding some kind of a long stick, and was still trying to do something.
But when Redmoon sensed a stupendous amount of divinity gathering around the child, the lycan’s already-torn maw dropped to the ground in utter disbelief.
How could this be?! Was this whole area a den of monsters or some such?!
First, it was that old man and the princess, and now even that boy, too?!
Redmoon’s whole body shuddered in fright and began stumbling backwards.
It had no idea how vast the Theocratic Empire was, but if its borders were teeming with such monsters, then the lycan’s thoughts of vengeance would have to remain as a pipe dream forever.
Redmoon’s eyes began quivering from fear.
The boy then got into a stance and aimed his musket rifle once more. A grin of madness was etched on his face. That very grin reminded Redmoon of the Imperial Princess, and that realisation sent a creeping chill down its spine.
-Kuwa-aaaahk!
The zombified animals that shared the lycan’s emotions began shuddering in fear too.
-Stop that thing! Stop that human boy!
The moment Redmoon roared out, the zombified animals dashed towards the human horde.
Meanwhile, it hurriedly led the other lycans in another direction.
They needed to escape from here.
As quickly as possible too. It had to abandon this land of nightmares right now!
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
“Man, that shot was a little too weak. As I thought, the firepower decreases a lot when the range goes past five hundred metres.”
I could only smack my lips at the results. But then again, I fired that shot without praying first.
It was the norm for divinity projectiles fired by musket rifles of this world to begin disintegrating past the one hundred metre mark before disappearing altogether.
In other words, I had to activate [Divine Aura] in order to snipe a target that far away.
“Okay, one more time.”
I raised the musket up and took another aim at the red-furred beast, Redmoon. The big lycan began faltering, and then suddenly hightailed out of here while showing its back to me.
On the other hand, a horde of zombified animals rushed out from the thick fog of the forest like some swarm of bees.
“Che! It’s running away. All personnel, battle stations!”
After I called this out, Belrog followed up with a shout of his own.
“Defensive formation!”
The dwarves slammed their tall shields on the ground. Then, their spears were thrust out from between the gaps of the shields, creating a short wall of spikes jutting out.
The Verdant Cross guys instantly climbed up on the trees nearby in order to fire their crossbows and arrows.
Our opponents this time were simple zombified animals. Since we weren’t chasing after them, but waiting for them to approach our formation instead, the advantage was on our side.
However, by engaging in a defensive battle, I’d lose that red-coloured lycan.
One of the Crimson Cross knights addressed me. “That beast has been heavily wounded, your highness. It’s Redmoon, the lycanthrope that the Verdant Cross has spoken about.”
Only then did I finally figure out the reason why the Verdant Cross guys were so calm earlier.
As we traversed into the forest while following after the traces left behind by Hilda, Redmoon, who was already full of wounds, suddenly stumbled into our path instead.
So then… Was that thing’s sorry sight the product of Hilda and Archbishop Raphael?
“Should we go after it, your highness?”
The Verdant Cross was now asking me. Even the dwarves were staring at me, waiting for my response.
The fact that Redmoon was nearby indicated that Hilda, the archbishop, and the kidnapped dwarves were somewhere nearby as well. I guessed that reaching Hilda should be their number one priority above all else.
However, joining up with her group meant that Redmoon would make its escape from here.
My head began aching from all this dilemma.
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
Holy cow! Oh dear Gaia, please, please!
Why do I keep finding myself in these kinds of situations?
I massaged my forehead and forced myself to say something. “Create a path for me. I shall hunt that thing down while the Verdant Cross and the dwarves will head to where my sister is.”
I just couldn’t let that Redmoon guy run loose. Before it becomes a bigger source of nuisance later on, I need to hunt it down right now.
The leader of the Verdant Cross came up to me and asked, “Will it be fine, your highness? How about we lend our…”
When it came to pursuing something, then yeah, the Verdant Cross people were the specialists. However, even they wouldn’t be able to chase that lycan down.
“It’ll be fine,” I replied before calling out to the Crimson Cross. “You guys are coming with me, though.”
“Understood.”
The Crimson Cross members raised their weapons. They stepped on the dwarves’ shields and leaped out of the formation, hacking down on the zombified animals.
When I stepped forward, the dwarves moved aside to open up a path.
“I won’t let it escape.”
After injecting divinity into my legs, I strengthened the rest of my physique and then greatly expanded my eyesight.
The lycan and its gang were already long gone from my view by now. Not even their footprints were to be seen on the forest’s floor.
However, those undead had no bloody idea.
…No idea how insanely strong their stench was.
“Man, I really don’t wanna do something this troublesome, but…”
Since it already came down to this, I might as well use those creatures as lab rats in an experiment I was dying to try out.
And so, I began my pursuit of the red-furred lycanthrope.
