By Zephyria 
Tae-muk shifted the arrowhead bit by bit, tracking the running Devouring Ghouls. However, since the ghouls were sprinting across a field of snow, the leader flickered in and out of sight due to the snow mist.
Though he possessed the ability to see things from a great distance, he was not a sorcerer; he could not see what was physically obscured.
“…….”
Tae-muk waited for the right moment. Then, the instant the leader snapped into focus in his eyes, he released the bow he had been gripping with a twist. The gazes of the Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers, including Byeonguk, followed the flight of the arrow.
Swoosh.
The arrow flew literally like a bolt of lightning, slicing through the air before vanishing from sight. Silence followed. The only sound was the howling wind.
Then, at a certain moment.
Kieeee…
The distant cry of a Devouring Ghoul echoed faintly. Then, the entire sprawling swarm of ghouls surged. It happened because one ghoul in the middle tripped, causing others to collapse, pile up, tangle, and tumble in succession.
“A direct hit. The leader is dead,” said Byeonguk, who had been observing the ghouls through binoculars. The arrow Tae-muk fired was embedded deep in the side of the head of the creature with the trident-type tentacles. The creature, sprawled face-down on the snow, remained motionless.
Soon, the ghouls that had been running at full speed stopped simultaneously. They all lifted their heads and looked up at the sky, their mouths hanging open helplessly.
Seeing things go as expected, Byeonguk let the corners of his mouth curl up slightly. Ever since Ho-eun had categorized the ghouls’ tentacles by type, they had made it a habit to eliminate the leaders—specifically those with trident-type tentacles or higher—from a distance. This minimized the casualties of the Crimson Rain Brigade. Once they lost their leader, the creatures were nothing more than stupid beasts.
If they continued this way, few would be injured, let alone killed. It truly was a remarkable discovery.
Byeonguk looked back and gave a nod. Dong-ja, who was at the front, nodded back and tightened the reins in his hand.
Now, the real operation began.
“…….”
“…….”
The Crimson Rain Brigade held their breath, staring at the ghouls. Before long, the ghouls began to snap out of it one by one. Then, as the entire swarm surged again, they began to run toward a certain direction. It was a completely different direction than before.
“They’ve started to flee. They’re heading north,” Byeonguk said, his eye still pressed to the binoculars. Tae-muk watched them as well.
Previously, they had tried to find traces of the lair by indiscriminately wiping out the ghouls. However, they had failed every time. Then, a while ago, Ho-eun had huddled with Byeonguk, whispering back and forth, and proposed a method.
‘When Devouring Ghouls lose their leader, they stop for a moment and then flee. If so, where do they flee to? Could it be that they return to their lair?’
So they decided to put it into practice. They would follow the ghouls as they fled after losing their leader.
“Move out,” Tae-muk commanded in his characteristic low voice. At that, Dong-ja, Man-soo, and the others kicked their horses’ flanks as if they had been waiting for the signal.
“Hyah!”
“Hyah!”
The soldiers, hand-picked for their skill within the Crimson Rain Brigade, began to gallop along the mountain. Black cloaks fluttered, occasionally revealing flashes of red. The violent vibration created by the horses’ hooves caused the quietly accumulated snow nearby to pour down like waterfalls.
“…….”
“…….”
Tae-muk remained atop the cliff with Byeonguk to observe the ghouls’ behavior.
For a while, the ghouls moved in a cluster in one direction. They didn’t look back or to the side; they simply went straight. It seemed that as long as they followed closely, they would find the lair.
However, at a certain point, one stopped, then two, then three, and they began to jerk their heads erratically. Even from a distance, their hacking cries could be heard faintly.
“…….”
As Tae-muk faintly frowned, the ghouls suddenly split off in different directions. They didn’t communicate or make eye contact. It was as if they didn’t know who the ghoul next to them was, scattering without a single backward glance, as if they had never been together.
The ghouls split not just in four, but in eight directions, causing the Crimson Rain Brigade, who were descending the mountain in pursuit, to hesitate. Not knowing which one to follow, they repeatedly turned their horses’ heads this way and that.
“A total waste of time,” Tae-muk clicked his tongue.
“Yes. It seems it was a failure,” Byeonguk sighed.
But the situation didn’t end there. A few of the scattering ghouls spotted the Crimson Rain Brigade standing halfway down the mountain. Groaning krrk, krrrk, they soon opened their mouths wide and let out a bizarre scream—Kaaaaaaak! Thick, sharp teeth were revealed, and saliva trailed down from their jaws. Then, they tore through the snow and lunged at the Crimson Rain Brigade.
At the commotion, other ghouls also turned their heads one by one, spotted the brigade, and dashed toward them. It seemed that while they had lost their leader, they hadn’t lost their appetite.
Tae-muk slowly rotated his neck. He clenched and unclenched his fist. He was preparing to go down. Byeonguk also put his binoculars in his pocket.
“You stay here and watch. If you see anything strange, keep a good eye on it and tell Choi Ho-eun later.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
Byeonguk nodded immediately and took out his binoculars again. He also pulled out the notebook he had kept in his back pocket and knelt down. Since he couldn’t remember everything perfectly after one glance like Ho-eun, he had to take detailed notes.
Tae-muk strode toward the precipice. He stepped out into the air with one foot, spun around in mid-air, and returned to Byeonguk. Then, he abruptly held out his hand.
“Give me a sword.”
“By sword… do you mean mine?”
“Yeah. I’ll use it for a bit and give it back.”
“You’re… using a sword?”
Byeonguk looked up at Tae-muk, puzzled. Tae-muk waved his hand as if telling him to hurry up.
“Yeah. If I kill them with my hands, I’ll get blood on me.”
“But you’ve always done that.”
“I promised to go for a walk after this.”
This morning, Ho-eun had been very disappointed that he couldn’t join the expedition due to his nosebleed. Beyond disappointment, he had been sulking. To soothe those drooping eyes, Tae-muk had told him that if he stayed lying down quietly until he returned, he would bring him to the battlefield to see the sights.
While it was hard to see how that could be considered a ‘walk,’ Tae-muk believed that as long as they walked side-by-side, it was a walk.
“If I go back covered in blood, he gets annoying, asking if I’m hurt, where I’m hurt, if I’m badly hurt.”
Tae-muk spoke as if it were a great nuisance, but the corners of his mouth were subtly lifted. He looked as if he were boasting. Byeonguk let out a huff of breath.
Tae-muk’s cheek twitched as if he were thinking of something, he chuckled, scratched his eyebrow, and then suddenly hardened his expression and looked down at Byeonguk. His face said, Why aren’t you giving it to me yet?
Byeonguk handed over the sword he had kept by his side. Tae-muk took it and drew the blade. Then, he tossed the scabbard aside and walked toward the precipice, gripping only the sword. Then, he dove straight down.
“Uh…”
A startled Byeonguk gasped. Even though this wasn’t the first or second time he’d seen Tae-muk do such a thing, he still hadn’t adjusted to it. No matter how much he was the God of War, he was someone who far exceeded the boundaries of a human.
Byeonguk leaned his upper body over the cliff to look down. Tae-muk slowed his descent by scraping his heels against the cliffside, stepping down on the irregularly protruding rocks. Every time he stepped, accumulated snow fell in showers and pebbles scattered.
He landed on the ground in an instant. Then, he began to run at a speed that was difficult for the eye to follow.
Soon, Tae-muk reached the Crimson Rain Brigade and the ghouls, who were locked in a chaotic brawl. Without hesitation, he dove into the fray and struck the neck of the nearest ghoul. The head of the ghoul rolled away with a thud-clatter from the clean cut. However, the ghoul did not die and dared to snarl, opening its mouth wide toward Tae-muk.
In response, Tae-muk lifted his foot and crushed its skull with a crunch. The helmet bone, hard as iron, shattered like scorched rice, and blood and brain matter spilled lavishly over the white snow.
But in that moment, Tae-muk froze. As if he had realized something. A strong wind swept past, wildly tossing his short hair.
Soon, he slowly withdrew his leg from the ghoul’s crushed skull. An ankle completely smeared with brain matter and blood appeared. Tae-muk stared at it for a moment, then began repeatedly dipping his leg into the nearby accumulated snow. He was wiping off the blood.
Seeing this, Byeonguk let out a deep sigh.
“What could have been the problem?”
Crunch, crunch. Ho-eun, walking on the snow, asked with a serious face. Around him lay the corpses of ghouls. They were the corpses of the ghouls slaughtered by the Crimson Rain Brigade a few hours ago.
“Where is the problem? The ghouls are the problem,” replied Tae-muk, following slowly behind Ho-eun. As he spoke, he reached out and gave Ho-eun’s hair tie a little flick. Watching it sway like a cat’s tail made his hand move instinctively.