Chương 11: Prophecy

Chapter Eleven Prophecy"Huff... huff..." Karath had lost track of how long the chase with the Horn Boars had continued. His breath had risen into his throat, and every part of his running body seemed to be screaming in agony. He could continue only because the blood of the orcs had dulled his pain and fear. Once his heart calmed, an overwhelming wave of pain would undoubtedly arrive. He still could not stop.

"Kweeeeeeegh!" One remaining Horn Boar was still chasing him with terrifying persistence. Without the constant fighting and hide-and-seek that had trained him over the past year, it would have caught him long ago. Conversely, even after building his stamina through daily fighting and relentless survival games, he could barely endure thirty minutes of real combat. A battle in which his life was truly at risk consumed an extraordinary amount of energy.

Novels and old stories often described soldiers fighting from morning until night. Karath could not imagine how they endured for so long. Perhaps that was another mystery of the human body. Whoosh. Whoosh. Realizing that exhaustion had caused his thoughts to drift into useless speculation, Karath hurriedly shook his head. This was no time to think about such nonsense. Regaining his focus, he continued leading the Horn Boar through the settlement while examining the state of the battle.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Although his life was under threat and his body had reached its limit, he could still understand the entire situation at a glance. This was a battlefield he had known for nearly nine years. During the past three months of survival games, he had become familiar with every corner of it. The adult women appeared to be struggling. They were attacking the Horn Boars that had been disabled by traps and left thrashing across the ground.

Each woman wielded whatever she normally used for household work, including fist-sized pounding stones and sharpened bamboo spears. Unfortunately, the hides and muscles of the monstrous boars were far too thick. The women's attacks tore the creatures' skin little by little, but failed to penetrate deeply enough to damage their organs. Falling to the ground had not taken away the immense strength produced by their massive bodies. Thud!

"You damned pig!" One woman screamed furiously after being struck by a Horn Boar thrashing on the ground. One of her arms hung loosely, its bone seemingly broken. Whether male or female, an orc whose blood had begun to boil appeared incapable of feeling either pain or fear. Fortunately, an orc capable of piercing the Horn Boars' hides and inflicting fatal wounds quickly joined the fight. He was Grild Bloodclaw, the strongest warrior in the tribe.

"How dare you!" The sight of an injured tribeswoman drove the chief into a rage. He charged toward the Horn Boar struggling on the ground. Crash! The enormous femur in his hands descended with a deafening impact. The Horn Boar's flank crumpled beneath the blow as though it had been made from soft foam. Its ribs and internal organs had undoubtedly been crushed in a single strike.

"Kiyooooot!" Grandfather Jark also joined the battle, carrying a thick wooden spear tipped with a sharpened stone blade. In ordinary times, he behaved like nothing more than a frail and stubborn old man. With the settlement in danger, however, his eyes had completely changed. Pierce! Age had weakened his strength, but it had not taken away the skill gained through decades of experience. His spear found a vulnerable point in the monster's hide with perfect accuracy.

The weapon plunged into the Horn Boar's side and opened a large hole in its abdomen. Karath and the other young orcs continued luring the Horn Boars into traps and knocking them to the ground.

"Die!"

"We will feast tonight!" Thud! Thud! Suffering from winter food shortages, the women attacked the fallen Horn Boars with their eyes blazing at the thought of dwaeji duruchigi. The monsters already struggled to rise beneath their own enormous weight. Under the women's relentless barrage of stones, they could barely recover their senses.

"Krahahaha!"

"Kiyooooot!" While the women kept the Horn Boars pinned, Chief Grild, Grandfather Jark, and the other adult males remaining in the settlement moved from one fallen monster to another and finished them off. That evening, the settlement held its first barbecue feast in a very long time.