BSW 251

“…….”

Ho-eun grit his teeth at the disastrous sight. He should have been prepared. He had let his guard down despite the encampment being completely exposed. It was because they had been winning. Because the movements of the Devouring Ghouls had been visible at a glance. He had not expected an attack of this nature at all.

Kieeeeeek!

Kak, kreuk, kaaaaa!

Kieeee!

The ghouls devoured people indiscriminately. Their sharp, massive teeth and claws tore through the air, ripping away chunks of flesh.

Gil-sang’s thigh was pierced by their claws, Man-soo nearly had his one remaining arm bitten off, and Seong-im had to have her hair cut off after it, tied like a horse’s tail, was grabbed by one of the creatures and used to drag her away. The soldiers guarding Ho-eun also suffered various injuries, some large and some small.

“…….”

Bang! Bang! Ho-eun fired bullets into the eyes of the creatures that entered his range. Perhaps thanks to the countless hours of training, eight out of every ten shots hit their mark. Even as he fired, Ho-eun continued to glance around.

He was waiting. Waiting for the soldiers from the battlefield at the foot of the mountain to arrive.

Yes, this was definitely a trap.

The ghouls had targeted the encampment to strike the weakest point and distract them, likely planning a subsequent attack. Ho-eun knew this.

And likely, Tae-muk and the other soldiers down below knew it too. Yet, he was certain they would be racing here the moment they heard the news.

After all, that was the nature of a Bondmate to a God of War. They had no choice but to be deceived, even knowing it was a trap. Indeed, if something happened to the Bondmate, the life of that God of War would also end, so perhaps coming to save them was the only logical choice.

Ho-eun hoped they wouldn’t come, but he knew they couldn’t help it. So, if they were coming anyway, he hoped they would arrive as quickly as possible and save as many people as they could.

Bang! Bang! Firing without pause, Ho-eun felt his ammunition run low and swapped the magazine. As he [unauthorized co[stolen Read on Read BL Novelscontent]py]aimed his gun once more—

Kieeee…….

Amidst the chaos where ghouls and humans were indiscriminately mixed, something slowly brushed past his field of vision. It wasn’t that it was actually moving slowly, but that is how it appeared to Ho-eun’s eyes.

A massive body, pitch-black skin, a flat, helmet-shaped head, and in the center, a crescent-shaped golden tentacle that shimmered and swayed.

It was a Fan-shaped Devourer.

For some reason, the creature had revealed itself openly in the middle of the carnage. It bobbed its head up and down erratically, issuing some kind of command to the other ghouls.

“…….”

His eyes widening, Ho-eun immediately aimed his gun at the creature.

He would kill it. He had already killed one once [stolen contentvisit our sitestyle="font-size:0;color:transparent;display:inline;">visit our sitestyle="font-size:0;position:absolute;left:-9999px;">]before. Moreover, it was broad daylight now, and it wasn’t raining. Therefore, just once—one chance would be enough.

He held his breath, fixed his gaze on the creature, and slowly pulled the trigger. Or rather, he tried to. But at that moment, the Fan-shaped Devourer’s head moved.

“…….”

“…….”

It looked directly at Ho-eun. For a moment, the muzzle of Ho-eun’s gun wavered.

Did… our eyes… just meet…?

It was unbelievable. Making eye contact with a ghoul. It didn’t make sense. But the Fan-shaped Devourer was definitely looking at Ho-eun. It still was. Without any other movement, only its tentacle shaking faster and more violently than before, it stared intently at Ho-eun. As if it were trying to memorize his face.

Ho-eun’s reflection was captured clearly in the creature’s blood-red eyes. The fact that he was being protected, surrounded by soldiers; the silk hair tie tied beneath his neatly braided hair; and the gun in his hand—everything was visible.

“…….”

Under that strange gaze, Ho-eun felt a chill run down his spine. An extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant sensation enveloped his entire body. All the screams and noise faded into the distance, and he felt as if only he and the Fan-shaped Devourer remained in the world.

Krrrrrr…….

Then, the Fan-shaped Devourer took a sudden stride toward Ho-eun. Just as Ho-eun snapped back to his senses and tried to pull the trigger—

Something large and black sliced through the air, flying like an eagle.

Crack!

A hard knee slammed into the side of the Tentacle Plant Monster’s head. With the heavy blow, one of the creature’s eyes burst with a squelch.

Kieeee…….

The ghoul let out a powerless groan and was sent flying far away, as if hit by a car. But before it could fly completely away, it was grabbed Read on Read BL NovelsRead on Read BL Novels -->by the jaw and dragged back. Its tentacle was ripped off while it was still alive, its visit our siteknee was crushed, and soon its Helmet Bone was stripped away with a grinding sound.

Watching this, Ho-eun called out to him as if talking to himself.

“……General.”

Tae-muk had arrived.

It took a full half-day to retake the encampment. They had to fight fiercely until the sun vanished, night came, night passed, and dawn arrived again.

Even then, it was only because half of the ghouls that had invaded the encampment fled back down the mountain at a certain point that it ended in half a day; if they had fought straight through, there was no telling how much longer it would have taken or how much greater the casualties would have been.

The recaptured encampment was filled with screams and wailing. There were Gods of War twisting their bodies in grief after losing their Bondmates, and wounded soldiers crying out in pain from their torn flesh.

The soldiers who were still intact rushed about to rebuild the camp, and naturally, the busiest among them were the medics. Despite being as injured as the patients, they struggled to treat the wounded. Yeonggam, who had a piece of one ear torn off, roughly plugged it with cloth and treated the critically injured soldiers.

And amidst that chaos, only Ho-eun remained motionless.

“…….”

Standing at the edge of the encampment, he tightly clenched and unclenched his trembling hands. The shaking had not stopped for some time. It was a tremor for which he couldn’t find a reason.

Since this great battle began, this was the first time Ho-eun had encountered a ghoul up close. Perhaps because it had been a while since he faced them, they felt stronger.

It likely wasn’t just a feeling. It took three or four soldiers to take down a single ghoul. While they had fought on equal terms one-on-one below, the ones that appeared later were much stronger, their skin tougher, and their Helmet Bones harder, making them a struggle to deal with. Consequently, the damage was severe, and many people died.

Still, they had reclaimed the encampment… but he wasn’t happy at all.

“…….”

Looking down toward the foot of the mountain, Ho-eun swallowed hard. Until yesterday, the ghouls had certainly been across the river, but now more than eighty percent of them had crossed over into their land.

While they were fighting at the encampment, the main force of ghouls across the river had crossed over quickly. Read on Read BL NovelsEND: [unauthorized copy]Read on Read BL Novels -->It seemed they realized that crossing in small trickles would make victory difficult, so they crossed all at once to push through with overwhelming numbers.

It was a truly intelligent decision.

And because of that, they were now at a disadvantage. No matter how much their allies had increased, there was still a difference of more than four times between them and the enemy. It meant that if they engaged in a full-scale war, the probability of winning was nearly zero.

What should they do now?

As Ho-eun sighed repeatedly, rubbing his trembling hand with the other, a warm body temperature wrapped around his wrist, sliding down to hold his hand. The large, warm hand slipping between his fingers was beyond familiar.

“What are you doing here?”

Needless to say, the following low voice was as well.

“……General.”

Tae-muk was busy. Although he wasn’t personally rebuilding the camp, reports were constant because he needed to know what unauthorized copywas Read on Read BL Novelsbroken, how many had disappeared, how unauthorized copymany were injured, and how many had died. Ho-eun had stepped back a few paces to avoid disturbing him, and it seemed the urgent reports had finally ended.

“…….”

Ho-eun looked up quietly at Tae-muk and squeezed his hand tightly. Then, he smiled, his eyes curving.

He knew that prattling on about how disadvantaged they had become would be of no help. And Tae-muk likely knew the situation was worse than he did.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Ho-eun asked, massaging Tae-muk’s hand—which was as large as a pot lid—with his small hand. At the sound of his characteristically low yet neat voice, Tae-muk’s ears perked up. He felt his eardrums, which had been nearly crushed by the constant roar of exploding shells, being healed.

The omnipotent Ho-eun had now reached a level where he could heal him with just his voice.

“There isn’t a place that isn’t hurt.”

“…….”

“There are so many I can’t even remember.”

Tae-muk spoke jokingly and pressed a quick kiss to the back of Ho-eun’s hand. His face was haphazardly smeared with various colors of blood. There was blood that had dried to a dark, clotted mess, and bright red blood that had splashed recently enough to make the eyes sting.

Ho-eun didn’t think it was all Tae-muk’s blood, but it was unlikely that none of it was.

“…….”

Ho-eun gently stroked Tae-muk’s fingers with his thumb. Then, he glanced down the mountain. The ghouls showed no significant movement. It seemed they had no intention of doing anything else until all the ghouls had crossed the river. They were probably quite exhausted from the prolonged battle. It could be seen as a temporary lull in the fighting.

At this moment, there was only one thing Ho-eun needed to do.

“Shall we move?”

He asked in a small voice. He felt unauthorized copyvisit our sitecopy -->the passing time was a waste. As Tae-muk’s Bondmate and lover, he wanted to comfort and caress him even a little more.