The cause of the earthquake was merely the vibrations caused by a colossal monster crawling beneath the earth.
And that massive creature burst out of the ground, swallowing vast expanses of land in the process.
- Kweeeek!
As a result, no matter how fast or well-prepared they were, the gigantic worm that had swallowed soldiers, the monster, and even Scarlett in an instant, bared its hundreds, if not thousands, of thorn-like teeth and roared.
Scarlett was swallowed whole.
"No!"
He couldn't let Scarlett, who had just saved his life, die such a futile death.
He had no idea how to confront this enormous creature.
Ludwig gripped his sword and charged toward the giant worm.
Scarlett, unlike other soldiers, could use Magic Body Strengthening to enhance her strength.
He didn't know how long she could endure, but she should be able to hold out a little longer than the others inside the belly of that colossal worm.
Before that.
He needed to dismantle the monster before Scarlett ran out of breath.
The sword in his right hand was insignificant compared to the creature's massive body.
But he had no choice. Ludwig ran, watching the giant worm bury its face into the ground, exposing its enormous head and devouring the soldiers whose spirits were broken.
He didn't know how to cut it, but he slashed at it anyway.
Determined to pull Scarlett out, even if it meant diving into the monster's mouth, he charged.
- Kweeeek!
After dodging its attack, Ludwig thrust his sword toward the monster's head.
- Thud!
"Ku...ugh!"
It penetrated.
The sword wasn't useless.
However, the overwhelming size of the creature made it extremely difficult.
Could he dismantle the monster's body by stabbing it all day?
Could he save Scarlett, who was swallowed by the monster?
- Whooooong!
"Ugh!"
As the monster lifted its head, Ludwig, who had been clinging to the creature with his sword impaled in its flesh, was suddenly suspended in mid-air.
The monster was attempting to shake off the human hanging from its body with a sword embedded in it.
By doing so, it had inadvertently blocked its movements, saving many lives.
But it wasn't enough.
He needed to cut through more.
He needed to dig deeper into its flesh and pull Scarlett out.
Bloodshot eyes filled Ludwig's vision.
- Thud! Thud! Thud!
He decided to do all he could, even if it was impossible.
Gritting his teeth, Ludwig relentlessly stabbed his sword.
If he had been a Master-class.
If he had been stronger.
Ludwig gritted his teeth, swinging his sword to save Scarlett before her life was extinguished, but it was all in vain.
The truth was always cruel.
What couldn't be done, simply couldn't be done.
- Kuwoong!
"Gah!"
The monster intentionally slammed its head against the ground, shaking Ludwig off.
- Kweeeek!
It roared at the now vulnerable Ludwig.
It seemed intent on swallowing the annoying insect that had been pestering it.
At that very moment, when the monster's terrifying maw was about to descend upon him.
- Tukkak!
- Kyeeeeek!
A massive ice spear, thrown from somewhere, impaled the worm's mouth, bending it backward with great force.
- Bang! Crash!
Following that, numerous attack spells began to rain down on the monster's mouth, which had emerged from the ground without warning.
The battle was desperate, but he wasn't fighting alone.
Magicians who had been monitoring the situation from the rear saw the appearance of the monster that required urgent intervention and supported him with their magic.
- Kweeeek
The worm was disintegrating in real time.
Humans were never weak.
Nor was the power gathered from the remnants of human strength.
The last army of humanity was strong because it was their last stand.
And then.
"Move, Ludwig!"
Ludwig heard Delphin Izzard's voice amidst the screams of the monsters.
When he looked back, there was Delphin, a bow in hand and string drawn.
Just as a sword was useless against those creatures, Delphin's arrows were no different.
However, these were no ordinary arrows.
The arrows of Delphin Izzard, who had awakened the ancient power of elemental magic, could never be ordinary.
-Whoooosh!
The arrow, condensed with the force of wind, let out a bizarre cry.
As the arrow imbued with the power of the elementals was released, the space distorted.
-Boom!
With an explosion-like roar, the arrow was fired at the worm.
-Blam!
Ludwig watched in astonishment as the monster's mouth was torn apart by the shockwave released by the massive force of the wind compressed within the arrow.
In the midst of the scattered blood and flesh, Ludwig saw Scarlett, covered in the monster's blood.
She was alive.
Scarlett, who had been holding on with a blue mana barrier around her body, fell to the front of the battlefield.
The other soldiers who had been swallowed along with her were already torn to shreds, but Scarlett was unharmed.
However, she was unconscious.
The blue mana, the Magic Body Strengthening, protected Scarlett, but it was fading away.
To make matters worse, Scarlett fell not in the direction of the allied soldiers but towards the oncoming horde of monsters, as if pushed away.
"No!"
Although the magicians' support fire and Delphin's power had helped Scarlett escape from the monster's body, she would be torn apart by the approaching monsters.
She was surrounded.
Weaponless, Scarlett lay limp in the midst of the monsters closing in from all sides.
Ludwig ran.
"Ludwig! No!"
Delphin cried out, realizing Ludwig was attempting a reckless charge.
But Ludwig ran, gripping a spear he had pulled from a dead soldier's body.
He couldn't face the giant monster, but he could kill what he was able to.
-Thud! Bang! Crash!
With a human body that charged like a tank, Ludwig made his way through.
He stabbed with the spear, punched with his fist, and kicked with his legs.
He ran towards Scarlett, who was being engulfed by the wave of monsters.
Many had died in a moment of carelessness, a sudden turn of events, or an instant of injustice.
Grinding his teeth, Ludwig picked up the weapons of the dead, discarded them when they broke, and continued his charge with new weapons.
Delphin, realizing she couldn't stop Ludwig, began to support him with arrows carrying fire, lightning, and wind.
If Scarlett was swallowed by the wave of monsters, there would be no next time.
"Get... away!"
Hoping for help from the magicians would be the same as hoping for luck, but luck had no place on a battlefield filled with misfortune. Ludwig ran, piercing through the wave of monsters.
-Crash!
Even as Delphin pierced the monsters with arrows carrying the power of the elementals, other monsters filled the empty spaces.
Stabbing, slashing, and crushing, Ludwig finally reached the fallen Scarlett and managed to lift her up.
But it wasn't over just because they had rescued Scarlett.
They had to escape this hellish realm to survive.
Naturally, they couldn't deal with every attack.
The only free hand Ludwig had to fight off the monsters while holding Scarlett was his right hand.
-Thunk! Crack!
-Squeal!
-Screech!
"Urgh...!"
His pace was naturally slower than when he was alone, and his attacks were not as free.
The mages were supporting elsewhere, and the soldiers were struggling to fend off the monsters in front of them.
-Bang! Crash!
Only Delphin's arrows, which flew towards Ludwig and Scarlett as she approached to save them, provided any assistance.
Without that, they would have already been swept away by the monsters and buried alongside Scarlett.
Receiving support fire, Ludwig took one step at a time, kicking and crushing the approaching monsters, struggling to escape the swarm.
But inevitably, Ludwig had blind spots.
There were overly large monsters, but also smaller ones, which were relatively harder to spot.
Just when they were almost out of the monster wave.
Ludwig noticed a small snake flying towards him from the side too late.
A small snake.
Ludwig discovered it a little late, but it wasn't that he didn't react.
"…!"
-Thwack!
Just before the small snake bit him, Ludwig caught it with his right hand.
But not by the head, rather a little further down.
If a snake's head isn't held, it will bite.
"Damn!"
-Thwack!
A small size didn't mean its attack was less deadly.
The sharp fangs of the small snake pierced Ludwig's Magic Body Strengthening.
And then.
"Argh!"
Ludwig couldn't help but groan at the intense foreign sensation invading through the wound and the burning pain in his nerves.
"Ludwig!"
Delphin, who saw Ludwig bitten from afar, turned pale.
"Ugh!"
-Whip!
Ludwig swung the snake like a whip a few times, and it soon fell away, but the bitten wound was already poisoned.
"Ugh... Ahhhhh!"
Ludwig couldn't bear the pain from the fangs digging into his palm and the venom seeping in, and he screamed.
But he couldn't stop moving.
-Thump!
Delphin's arrow once again tore through the wave of monsters swarming toward Ludwig and Scarlett.
From a distance, Delphin shot an arrow while watching Ludwig.
“Run!”
Delphin's desperate cry rang out.
Supporting Scarlett with his left hand, Ludwig endured the burning pain in his right hand and moved one step at a time.
Believing that once they reached the rear, they could somehow manage both the wound on his right hand and the unconscious Scarlett.
-Crack! Splatter!
Ludwig, ignoring the graying poison in his hand, broke through the wave of monsters.
The small snake's venom was clearly having a lethal effect on Ludwig's body.
No matter the cost to his arm.
He had to save Scarlett.
If he fell here, if he crumbled under this pain, Scarlett would die.
Gritting his teeth, Ludwig stomped and jumped on the monsters, not relying on his unresponsive right hand. With Delphin's support fire, he raced towards the path, soon escaping the swarm of monsters.
"Ludwig! Are you alright?!"
Delphin's original role was to provide long-range support, including elemental magic, from the rear.
But when she saw Ludwig and Scarlett in danger, she ventured deep into the battlefield.
"I'm, I'm fine. We need to tend to Scarlett quickly…"
"No! Your hand is in bad shape right now…!"
-Whoosh...
Delphin had gone too deep.
Far too deep.
The moment Ludwig and Delphin felt the sky darkening above them.
A massive creature was already leaping towards them.
"Ludwig! Behind…!"
But in an instant, the monster that rushed towards them didn't target Ludwig.
It leaped over Ludwig and attacked, recognizing a more dangerous presence.
-Thwack!
"Gah!"
Ludwig watched as the enormous wolf, with hundreds of eyes, jumped over the wave of monsters and his head, sinking its teeth into Delphin's shoulder.
The blue mana surrounding Delphin's body shattered miserably as the wolf's massive fangs dug in.
-Sizzle!
"Del…phin?"
Delphin's body, crushed under the wolf's powerful bite, disintegrated before his eyes.
Ludwig could only dumbly watch the death that unfolded in an instant.
“Run…”
Coughing up blood and gasping for her last breath, Delphin Izzard mouthed the words with her final strength.
Neither the power of magic, nor Ludwig, nor anything else.
Nothing could stop the massive monster's charge that happened in the blink of an eye.
It was just a moment.
Merely an instant.
But that fleeting moment had taken Delphin Izzard's life all too easily.
