SWY 19

Sharhan instinctively faltered and took a step back. He remembered once being surrounded by enemies during the height of the war. Even in that life-or-death moment, when his survival was on the line, he had handled it with composure. Yet now, he found himself panicking.

Back then, there had been nearly thirty enemies. Now, there were only about a dozen. And still, he was afraid.

It was because those things – monsters, or whatever they were – were too horrific to even be called human. Thick blood dripped from their gaping mouths, bits of flesh stuck in their teeth, and the low, guttural growls rising from their throats sent chills down his spine. His hair stood on end. Their stumbling, off-balance gait might have been slow enough to dodge, but it didn’t make them any less terrifying.

Shit.

His fingertips trembled. All he could do was curse under his breath. One of the creatures was even smacking its lips as it approached, and every time its mouth opened and closed, he caught glimpses of guts packed inside. Nausea surged.

Sharhan didn’t stop backing away until he bumped into Lestel. Only then did his heart, which had been pounding like a drum, start to calm, and his mind slowly returned to him.

It was the same as back at the city gate. He figured it must’ve been some subconscious competitiveness, he couldn’t let himself look scared in front of Lestel, especially not in front of things like this. With a quiet exhale, Sharhan tapped Lestel’s shoulder and asked,

“Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“You scare easy. Just don’t faint at the sight of blood.”

“That’s ancient history. You keep forgetting, honey, you and I are the same age. We’re way past the age of fainting at blood.”

“You used to cry and hide behind me because of a stray dog. Look at you now, all grown up. I’m proud. I’ll protect you like I did back then, so don’t get hurt. If you get hurt, my heart’s gonna hurt too.”

“Just don’t get yourself hurt. I’ll go insane if anything happens to you.”

With a few lighthearted jabs, Sharhan shook off the lingering fear and charged forward. He kicked the chest of the man in front, sending him flying, then slashed his sword across the chest of an old man baring his teeth beside him. The wound was deep enough to reveal bone, yet the old man only staggered slightly before reaching out toward Sharhan again.

Sharhan gritted his teeth. These things, whatever they were, didn’t fall even when cut or stabbed. At best, they flinched.

Goddamn it, why won’t they go down?!

Cursing in his head, he ducked low and slashed at the knees. Finally, the thing collapsed, but then started crawling forward on its arms. Its glossy, unfocused eyes and the hands clawing toward them didn’t radiate killing intent. No, it was something else.

It was hunger. The ravenous desire of a starving beast that saw prey in front of it. Just like the woman inside Luhas, they wanted to bite into Sharhan and Lestel’s flesh. Not for fun, just to eat.

“They look like they’re dying to take a bite out of us.”

“Honey, if even a single strand of my hair gets eaten, I swear I’ll lose it.”

“Then keep yourself together!”

Sharhan swung his sword again and again, refusing to let any distance form between him and Lestel. Lestel stayed close too, fending off the creatures with him. Whenever one came at Sharhan from his blind spot, Lestel’s long legs would strike out and knock it away. It felt like having a shield at his back.

“Why won’t you bastards just stay down?!”

Sharhan cursed as he cut off one of their arms, when–

“Watch out!”

Lestel shouted and yanked Sharhan’s arm just in time. A clawed hand, dripping with black blood, had sliced through the air where Sharhan had just been standing. The thought that it nearly got him made his heart thunder.

“……”

Too embarrassed to say thanks, Sharhan just gave Lestel a glance. Lestel’s face was cold and stern.

“I told you to be careful!”

Lestel snapped, swinging his arm to strike the creature’s neck. In his hand was a hidden sword, a concealed blade. There was no time to ask where it had come from.

“The neck!”

As soon as the neck was cut, the creature collapsed. Lestel had figured it out. Sharhan immediately shifted tactics. He began targeting their necks. The moment the blade severed their throats – when their heads lolled to the side – they finally dropped like puppets with their strings cut.

That was it. That woman earlier had also only died after her neck was sliced.

Sharhan now swung without hesitation. His well-forged blade slashed through neck after neck, each monster falling with a dull thud. Their weakness had been found.

After he took down the last one, he turned to Lestel, who was breathing lightly.

“What was that? Where’d it come from?”

Sharhan quickly checked Lestel for injuries, then furrowed his brows and demanded answers. Lestel gave him a sly smile, flicked the blood off the blade, then pressed something on the hilt. The sword shrank until it became a tiny earring. Sharhan’s jaw dropped.

“It was a magic tool?”

“Something like that.”

“Unbelievable. Since when did you get so good at lying? ‘To look pretty’? If you had a weapon, why bother with all that crap about being annoying?!”

So he hadn’t thrown the sword away after all, just hidden it. And from the looks of it, his swordsmanship hadn’t dulled one bit. The fact that Sharhan had been completely fooled filled him with anger, and a bit of relief. At least Lestel had a way to protect himself if they got separated.

“I’ve been lying well since I was a kid. You were just too naive to notice.”

“Since we were kids?! What the hell else did you lie to me about?!”

“Figure it out yourself if you’re curious.”

Lestel shrugged, then looked down at the bodies strewn across the ground.

“They’re not gonna get up again… right?”

Sharhan narrowed his eyes and sighed, poking one in the shoulder with the tip of his sword. Thankfully, it didn’t move.

“Looks like they’re finally dead.”

“Should we even call it ‘dead’?”

Or had they already been dead and only now stopped moving?

“……”

Lestel didn’t answer, and Sharhan didn’t push. It hadn’t been a real question anyway, more like talking to himself. Sharhan scanned the area, face grim. The sticky blood pooled on the ground stank. It was the stench of rotting flesh.

“What the hell is going on in Luhas?”

Lestel’s voice trembled faintly as he ran a hand through his hair. Sharhan felt just as unsettled.

This is hell.

Wails echoed in the distance. Thick, black smoke rose into the sky. Bloodstains, corpses, shattered homes, if this wasn’t hell, what was?

“What do we do now?”

Do they leave, or go deeper in?

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to get the hell out of here. It’s obvious the deeper we go, the worse it’ll get.”

They didn’t know how many of those things were inside. But it would definitely be more than they’d already faced. The smartest choice would be to turn around and leave Luhas behind. But right now, Sharhan was under Lestel’s employment. If Lestel wanted to go deeper, Sharhan would have to follow.

“……”

Lestel couldn’t decide. His head told him to leave, but the thought of Alum made his feet freeze. While he stood there, torn, Sharhan observed the monsters.

“Look at what they’re wearing. Don’t they look like normal citizens?”

They weren’t strangers. Their clothes were those of commoners, rough fabrics sewn for practicality. Given how closed-off Luhas was, there was no mistaking it. These people had lived here. Whatever turned them into monsters, they’d once been ordinary villagers.

Lestel’s expression darkened as he looked more closely. If the citizens themselves were transforming, then how many of these things were there?

He remembered the people who had fled out the gate, abandoning everything. If the numbers were manageable, would they have panicked like that? Would they have ignored the Lord’s orders and thrown the gates open?

Luhas citizens rarely defied the Lord. Only if he was a monstrous tyrant, or if the fear they faced was overwhelming.

Most likely, it was the latter. There could be dozens more inside. Or hundreds. Maybe even thousands.

Lestel looked toward the inner stronghold and clenched his jaw.

“Let’s go back.”

He felt guilty toward Alum and Simon, but he couldn’t risk Sharhan’s life.

“What about the antidote?”

“We’ll have to give it up.”

“Good call. I was seriously debating whether I’d have to knock you out and drag you back. That place… I have the worst feeling about it.”

“Let’s get out before sundown.”

It was already getting dark. Once night fully fell, visibility would drop, making movement dangerous. Best to leave Luhas now.

Sharhan and Lestel quickly turned and headed for the gate. But something stopped them in their tracks.

It was the body of the man who had been eaten by the wild-haired woman.

“He’s… getting up?”

His guts had been torn out, he should be dead. Yet the mangled corpse was twitching, rising to its feet. Sharhan stared in disbelief at the ragdoll-like body as it moved. A cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

“If you get bitten… you turn into one of them…”

Sharhan and Lestel locked eyes.

The same expression crossed both their faces, pure horror.