BSW 36

36

“Ah, it’s nothing. I’m okay.”

Ho-eun, who had been crouching slightly, jumped up as if rebounding. His ankle throbbed, but he didn’t feel it at that moment.

Ho-eun limped as he got back on his horse, glancing at the corpse in front of him. Yes, it was definitely a corpse.

The face-down corpse had a gaping hole in the back of its head. It looked like the brain had been eaten away. Its limbs were also gnawed off, making their lengths uneven. The back and buttocks were so thoroughly devoured that only the skin remained.

“……”

Ho-eun’s eyelashes fluttered at the horrific sight. Nausea surged again. But there was no time for that. He had to catch up with Tae-muk quickly.

He grabbed the saddle with his trembling hand and tried to pull himself up. But there was no strength in his ankle. His foot kept slipping, unable to find purchase on the stirrup.

Ah, at that moment, he just wanted to die. He wished he could be that corpse instead. He was so useless. So obstructive. So, so…

Just as his arm was about to lose strength, Gil-sang grabbed his arm and helped him onto the horse.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Ho-eun apologized. After that, the two rode on, avoiding the corpse. And when they arrived at the place where the Crimson Rain Brigade was, a fierce battle was already underway.

The bamboo forest, which had been only green, was now all red. It was as if red rain had fallen. Blood streamed down the bamboo, and puddles of bloody water were splattered everywhere on the ground.

And people, no, fragmented bodies were scattered haphazardly. Some were still mostly intact, but even those were no different from the corpse he had seen earlier. The flesh was so deeply gouged out that it looked as if someone had taken off a suit shaped like a human.

On that red stage, dozens of Devouring Ghouls and the Crimson Rain Brigade were entangled in a fierce battle.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Kaak, kak! Kaaaak!

The Devouring Ghouls were huge at a glance. They seemed twice as big as the ones he had seen in the valley. Not just the size of houses, but almost like mountains. They must have had their fill, as their wrinkled bellies were heavily swollen.

The situation was not good. The Devouring Ghouls were rushing in ferociously, but the soldiers couldn’t move freely because of the densely packed bamboo. Swords and axes struck the bamboo instead of the Devouring Ghouls. The fresh bamboo was tough, full of moisture, and held onto the embedded swords and axes tightly, refusing to let go.

While the panicked soldiers struggled to pull out their weapons, the Devouring Ghouls simply pushed and broke through the bamboo with their enormous size, crunching down on the soldiers’ shoulders or arms.

Kuaaak!

“My arm! Huaaak! My arm!”

“Damn it! Die, die! Dieee!”

The soldiers’ screams and shouts erupted sporadically from all directions. Blood splattered everywhere.

“……”

While Ho-eun was frozen stiff at the tragic sight, Gil-sang immediately jumped off his horse. He drew his sword and looked around. He was looking for a place to hide Ho-eun. But in the surroundings, which were densely packed with only bamboo without a single rock, there was no place for Ho-eun to hide.

“Young Master, first-.”

The moment Gil-sang turned to look at Ho-eun and opened his mouth.

“Behind you! Behind you!”

Ho-eun pointed behind him. A Devouring Ghoul was waving its arms and running towards Gil-sang with heavy thuds. The bamboo, hit by its broad skull, broke with a tearing sound.

Gil-sang quickly turned around and swung his sword at the Devouring Ghoul. But its strength was so great that it didn’t even get cut by the sword; instead, it knocked the sword away with the back of its hand. Gil-sang’s body was pushed back. The Devouring Ghoul didn’t stop there and immediately lunged with its gaping mouth. With its clicking teeth, Gil-sang held his sword upright to block it.

However, the Devouring Ghoul continued to attack Gil-sang, even as the sword scraped against its gums like a plane. It grabbed the sword with its bare hands and pushed it back.

“Kuk……”

Gil-sang was pushed back by the brutal force. The soil rippled behind his heels.

“No, no……”

Ho-eun, who had gotten off the horse, pulled out a Pistol from his side and aimed the muzzle at the Devouring Ghoul. But it wasn’t easy to aim because both the Devouring Ghoul and Gil-sang were constantly moving. The muzzle, unable to find its target, shook wildly.

“Please, please……”

Ho-eun bit his lower lip as if he would tear it off.

“Young Master, please step back!”

Gil-sang shouted. Ho-eun’s feet, which had unknowingly been inching closer to the Devouring Ghoul to get a better shot, stopped abruptly.

Step back? What then if he stepped back? Would he just keep watching like this? Cowardly?

……But what could he do otherwise?

Just as Ho-eun’s eyes were gradually clouding over, a shout pierced through Ho-eun’s eardrums like bars.

“Save me, save me! Save me!”

Ho-eun turned his head sharply. A man covered in blood was grabbing onto the base of a bamboo stalk and crawling up. Judging by his attire, he was not a Crimson Rain Brigade soldier. Perhaps he was the one who had screamed.

“……”

Ho-eun looked back and forth between Gil-sang and the man. The conclusion came quickly. He was of no help to Gil-sang if he stayed. But, he felt like he could help the man.

Ho-eun limped over and tried to lift the man up.

“Get up.”

“No, no, no.”

But the man shook his head. Ho-eun examined his leg. A large chunk had been bitten out of one of the man’s thighs. From there down, it was barely hanging on, practically severed.

Ho-eun untied the sleeve tie he had been wearing and tightly bound it above the man’s thigh. It was one of the things he had learned by watching at the hospital, which he frequented.

“Kuk……”

The man groaned in pain. Ho-eun tied it as tightly as he could, until the palm of his hand, rubbed raw by the tie, turned red, and began to drag the man by the arm. There was no destination. He just thought he had to get far away from here.

“Just hold on, just a little bit, just a little bit……”

The man was heavy, even without one of his legs. No matter how hard Ho-eun pulled, he could barely drag him an inch or two. Ho-eun’s weak knees buckled helplessly.

Still, Ho-eun didn’t give up. He wanted to save the man. If he could save even one person, he could comfort himself that his life wasn’t so meaningless, even if he were to die someday.

But after only a few steps, the man suddenly became as heavy as a boulder. No matter how much strength he used, he wouldn’t budge. And then, he heard a crunching sound.

“……”

Instantly, Ho-eun felt a chill run down his spine. He slowly turned his head.

And his eyes met.

With the man Ho-eun was trying to save. Or rather, with the man’s… head.

“Ah……”

The Devouring Ghoul, standing on the man’s back, had the man’s head in its mouth. The man, who had lost his body in an instant, was inside the Devouring Ghoul’s mouth with his eyes still open.

“Kaak, kak……”

The Devouring Ghoul, staring at Ho-eun with red eyes, chewed on what it had in its mouth.

Wajaak, wajaak, kak, wajaak.

The sound of the skull being chewed was as cheerful as the sound of eating an apple. Blood, bone, and brain matter poured out from between the Devouring Ghoul’s protruding jaw and teeth. Occasionally, when a large chunk flowed out of its mouth, the Devouring Ghoul would push it back into its mouth with its hand.

“……”

Ho-eun froze. His body stiffened, and all the screams became distant and faint. It felt as if he had plunged into cold, deep water.

The world slowly spun around. The sky became the ground, and the ground became the sky. In that vortex, only the Devouring Ghoul stood tall. He could see it crushing the man’s back and approaching step by step.

But Ho-eun didn’t move. One part of his mind told him to run, but the other part told him to just stay still.

His ears became increasingly muffled. His vision also became increasingly blurred. Just as Ho-eun was about to be sucked into something, whether it was the vortex or the Devouring Ghoul’s mouth.

“Young Master!”

Gil-sang’s shout rang out. Ho-eun snapped back to his senses.

In the meantime, the Devouring Ghoul had come right up to him. Ho-eun reflexively took a step back. But someone grabbed his wrist, preventing him from moving. He looked down and saw that the man, with only his body remaining, was still holding onto Ho-eun’s wrist.

“P, please… let go.”

Ho-eun pleaded with the already dead man, shaking his arm as if to throw it off.

But the man’s hand didn’t let go. He was holding on so tightly that the area around his wrist was turning white. The Devouring Ghoul, not missing the opportunity, lunged at Ho-eun.

Kaaaak!

At that moment.

Thwack, a long bamboo stalk pierced through the Devouring Ghoul’s chest from behind. The bamboo that had pierced through the Devouring Ghoul was deeply embedded in the ground. But the Devouring Ghoul didn’t die and flailed its arms at Ho-eun. It stretched its neck out long, clicked its teeth, and licked its blood-soaked tongue.

Kareureu, kak! Kareureureureu!

But the Devouring Ghoul couldn’t reach Ho-eun. The bamboo that pierced its chest and was embedded in the ground was trapping its movements. It was as if a butterfly pierced by an insect pin could only flutter its wings and couldn’t fly away.

But the Devouring Ghoul wasn’t as weak as a butterfly. Nor was it stupid. It grabbed the bamboo with both hands and tried to break it. The bamboo twisted and creaked under the brutal force.