By Zephyria 
48
However, Ho-eun could do nothing. Literally, there was nothing he could do. Faced with a being that couldn’t be killed by a Gun, Ho-eun was utterly powerless.
Kaaaaaak!
The Devouring Ghoul snarled at Ho-eun, baring its teeth as if enraged. But at that moment, its bloodshot eyes suddenly seemed to roll halfway back, and its neck drooped forward. Then, thud, it fell to the ground. The body, however, remained standing.
Gil-sang had sliced its neck with his sword. Gil-sang didn’t stop there; he gripped the sword in reverse, raised it high, and then plunged it down into the Devouring Ghoul’s crown with a thwack.
Ho-eun saw Gil-sang exerting so much force that his hands turned white. It seemed that much strength was needed to pierce the Devouring Ghoul’s Helmet Bone.
“Are you alright?”
Gil-sang asked, when it should have been Ho-eun asking. He was the one who had fought, while Ho-eun had merely ridden on the horse like baggage.
“……”
Ho-eun couldn’t answer. He was too ashamed and embarrassed to say he was alright. Gil-sang scanned Ho-eun’s body carefully, shook the blood off his sword, and then resumed his stance, watching the front. Ho-eun, looking at his back, said in a subdued voice.
“Is it… alright for me to be like this?”
“What do you mean?”
Gil-sang asked, still staring ahead. Ho-eun continued his question to the back of his head.
“I was asking if it’s okay for me to just stand here while everyone else is fighting.”
Ho-eun had asked seriously, but suddenly Gil-sang’s shoulders shook. It seemed he was laughing.
“It took a full ten days to get to Hanyang.”
“Yes?”
“It took about that long to come, so that’s about twenty days in total.”
“……Yes?”
“There’s only one reason why we ran all that way, specifically.”
Gil-sang turned his head briefly to look at Ho-eun.
“It’s for you, young master.”
“……”
“We ran that long distance to find you, young master. That’s the only reason why the captain and all of us did it.”
Having said that, Gil-sang turned his head forward again. And lowering his posture a little more, he said in a low voice.
“If I die here protecting you, young master, another guy will come. If he dies, another one will come. Even if we all die, you must stay still, young master.”
“……Sir.”
“Don’t get hurt, don’t die, and stay by our captain’s side for a long, long time.”
“……”
Ho-eun was speechless. He couldn’t dare to fathom the heart of the man who would throw away his life to protect him. And at the same time, Tae-muk, to whom they were so loyal, came to mind.
Ho-eun scanned the battlefield. But Tae-muk was nowhere to be seen.
His heart sank in an instant.
Not being seen meant he had been eaten.
No, that couldn’t be. Tae-muk was, after all, Tae-muk.
Ho-eun widened his eyes and scanned the battlefield again. And in the distance, he saw Devouring Ghouls piled up like a mountain. Not dead Devouring Ghouls, but living ones. Below them, blood was pouring like a waterfall. The soil, soaked with blood, was muddy and sticky. Every time a Devouring Ghoul stepped on it with its hind legs, it caved in and was hollowed out, and blood-soaked water quickly gathered there. It was as if red rain had fallen only on that spot.
“……”
Ho-eun’s eyes narrowed slightly. Could Tae-muk really be in there…? Just as he was about to turn the reins toward that direction without realizing it.
Kaaaaaak……
A Devouring Ghoul flew away with a whoosh. And through the gap, Tae-muk, covered in blood, appeared.
Ho-eun stopped moving.
Tangled up with the Devouring Ghouls, Tae-muk grabbed them indiscriminately and began to squeeze them in his grip. Before, he had put his hand between the Devouring Ghoul’s head and mouth and torn off the Helmet Bone, but now, with the Devouring Ghouls rushing at him from all directions, restricting his movements, he seemed to be just using his strength as he could. The Devouring Ghoul’s turtle-shell-like skin cracked, shattered, and burst under his tremendous grip.
Then, at some point, Tae-muk shoved a Devouring Ghoul in front of him with his shoulder. The Devouring Ghoul tumbled backward. Tae-muk trampled on its chest and tore off the Helmet Bone like tearing off a crab shell.
Tteududududuk.
The bizarre sound echoed quite cheerfully. But at that moment, a Devouring Ghoul that had rushed at Tae-muk from behind bit into his shoulder. But Tae-muk didn’t groan or frown. He simply knocked the Devouring Ghoul’s jaw away with his elbow.
Having escaped from the thicket of Devouring Ghouls, Tae-muk began to slaughter them at a rapid pace.
He rammed into the Devouring Ghouls with his whole body, and then, after knocking one down, he planted the Helmet Bone he had just torn off vertically into its neck. The neck was instantly severed. Even so, it didn’t die and continued to snap its jaws, but Tae-muk didn’t bother to confirm each kill. He didn’t have time for that. Since they couldn’t move anyway, it didn’t matter.
After that, he used the Devouring Ghouls as stepping stones, jumped high, and then dropped down, plunging the Helmet Bone into the crown of another Devouring Ghoul.
Kwagagagak, a sound rang out, and the Devouring Ghoul was split in two vertically from head to toe. And he pulled out the arm of the falling one and shoved it into the mouth of another Devouring Ghoul that was rushing at him. Then, he burst the throat of the choking one with his bare hands. Blood splattered and scattered like misty rain from his tremendous grip.
Tae-muk was practically rampaging across the battlefield. Dozens of Devouring Ghouls clung to such Tae-muk tenaciously. As if they knew who the leader of this group was.
Thanks to that, Tae-muk’s neck was torn by the Devouring Ghouls’ teeth, his forearms were ripped, and his flanks were bitten. Yet he wasn’t afraid. Rather… he seemed to be enjoying it. Indeed, a bitter smile was creeping across his lips.
It was a smile he had seen before. In the bamboo forest, when he was slaughtering the Devouring Ghouls. And just a moment ago, he had worn that same smile when he shot an arrow into the forehead of the nobleman.
“……”
Ho-eun thought.
Perhaps Tae-muk really was addicted to killing, as the rumors said. Perhaps the reason he became a general wasn’t to save people, but to satisfy his own twisted desires.
Everyone was fighting for their lives, and here he was, having thoughts like this; he felt a little disgusted with himself, but he couldn’t get rid of the thoughts that came to mind.
Ho-eun’s hand, gripping the reins, tightened.
With the Devouring Ghouls rushing in endlessly, the battle ended only after the night had passed and a pale dawn had arrived. Tae-muk, standing in the middle of the battlefield, dropped the neck of the Devouring Ghoul he had just pulled out to the ground. As it fell upside down, the trident-shaped antennae were crushed with a squelch.
The last one, who seemed to be the leader of the group, wasn’t very strong. Unlike the others, it hadn’t left a single scratch on Tae-muk. Perhaps it had realized that it couldn’t devour Tae-muk no matter what it did, and had given up on everything.
With the battle over, the soldiers were badly injured. Tae-muk himself had also sustained considerable injuries. Every time he walked, drops of blood fell, thud, thud. Moreover, he still had the teeth of a Devouring Ghoul, with only the gums remaining, embedded in his side.
Tae-muk irritably tore it off. The tooth, buried deep in the flesh, was pulled out with a snap.
“……”
Ho-eun, who was far away, stared at such Tae-muk with an inscrutable gaze. It was clearly a difficult battle. It was the first time he had seen Tae-muk injured. Even during the battle in the bamboo forest, he hadn’t sustained a single scratch, but now his uniform was no better than a rag. He was covered in blood and flesh, so he couldn’t tell the depth of the wounds, but they must have been serious.
Having been injured like that, he might even die.
Then he should be worried, he should go and ask if he was alright, he should ask what he could do for him, what he wanted him to do, but somehow his feet and mouth wouldn’t move.
While he was hesitating, Tae-muk strode through the soldiers and gave orders.
“Everyone, get on your horses. We’ll treat the wounds when we get back. Those bastards might smell the blood and come in greater numbers, cough…”
But he stopped speaking and coughed dully. Blood gushed out of his mouth. Seeing that, Ho-eun was about to get off his horse without thinking.
But then. Suddenly, Tae-muk stopped abruptly. His gaze was directed at the ground. Ho-eun lowered his gaze, following his.
There… was the man’s corpse. The nobleman that Tae-muk had shot to death with an arrow.
It had been trampled here and there and was so crushed that it was difficult to recognize its shape. In the meantime, a Devouring Ghoul must have eaten it, as the back and buttocks were hollowed out. However, only the arrow that Tae-muk had shot was still piercing his head.
‘Please save me……’
In an instant, the man’s voice, begging for his life, flashed through his mind. No, that’s not important now, Ho-eun shook his head, trying to shake it off.
Tae-muk kicked the man’s corpse with a thud. The man’s body, less than half of which remained, slid down the pool of blood.
Seeing that, Ho-eun’s face turned completely pale.
In the end, he couldn’t get off his horse.