The Real Monster 78 Alghoul

Roar

I was woken up by a roar. My baby impulse commands that I cry and so I cried.

Waa Waa

Father was worried about me, but I'm more worried about the battle ahead for the men. However, like this, I can't speak to father properly. My mind is being taken over by impulse.

"Hush now son. You're safe." Father started to cradle me and bob up and down on the spot to calm me. This is embarrassing. For a mentally grown old man to be put to serenity by a man younger than me. However, he is my father, so it alleviates the embarrassment albeit still embarrassing.

I can't mentally send father cohesive words like this, so I'll have to wait for my body to physically calm down. It sucks to be an infant with memories of being totally in control of your own body.

"Hmm. You can't talk in this state, can you? We'll just watch how they'll emerge victorious over this monster." Then father shouted at them with words of encouragement, however, there was a movement of mana in the air.

"Face this monster and emerge victorious! Show these undead that you are the true rulers of this world!"

After that was the miserable battle of humanity versus the monster father called Alghoul.

***

The Alghoul was furious that its army was reduced to only a few stragglers and would not even follow its orders anymore out of fear. The fear they had towards the Alghoul was replaced by a new fear, a fear that they had never experienced before, the fear of dying. As a matter of fact, ordinary means of killing the undead doesn't stick. The only way to kill them was to reduce the miasmic energy their bodies were made from and scatter it in the atmosphere. This ensures that the creature is reduced to its origin until a new creature is born again from a different gathering of miasma.

The way Clay killed thousands of them in an instant was reducing the miasma to nothing and cleansing the area of effect with his radiant and toxic light.

However, the men that they both were leading did not have the capability to cleanse an undead and reduce it to its origins or even turn it into nothing. What they did have though were equipment that Clay personally made for them. Javelins that inject Light attributed mana into the undead target, swords that cut miasma directly and armor that defends the wearer from miasma affecting their body, which only serves as protection against becoming undead if they died. However, a rune was engraved in the inner part of these armors which does its job quiet secretly.

Roar!

The Alghoul's roar put every man in the front-line alert and afraid. They wanted to rely on the phalanx that defended them from hours upon hours of onslaught from the ghouls, however, "Spread out! The Alghoul can tear you apart in just a single swipe of its claws. The Phalanx is useless against it right now. Spread out and surround it. Attack whenever there're openings!" they heard Clay shout and give instructions. They trust Clay and they followed without question.

It was only because of Clay that they were seeing victories upon victories in their quest to free this world of the undead. So, no one questions Clay's orders.

Herman, the previous Lord of Erkshire and his squad did not split up but positioned themselves apart from each other, still in a formation. Clay suggested to them before this battle that they should be the leading attack force in facing the Alghoul so that the others would find courage through them.

Herman shouted a battle cry as a response to the Alghoul's roar and everyone pounced on it. The battle had finally started.

Herman and his squad were the last to move so that they could land a real damaging hit on the Alghoul, however, the first ones who launched their attacks were blown away by the Alghoul's sweeps. The injury they got were not light and at first glance they were goners, but after a few seconds of being motionless, they slowly get up and immediately run up to the Alghoul like nothing had happened.

This surprised Ryan the most. It was as if he was looking at a new breed of undead that his father had created. In fact, they were not undead.

The secret lies on their armor.

Their armor's rune activates immediately when the wearer is lethally or even mortally wounded.

And its job is not to heal their wearer. It was to transfer all damage that's done to them to Clay who was standing with Ryan in his arms this whole time, smiling and making sure Ryan did not cry anymore.

The people did not know of this effect, because aside from the damage transfer, it numbs their mind of the any previous trauma they may receive from the pain and hurt. Of course, this was just an impromptu rune that Clay created, so it was not that thought up. However, for an impromptu rune, it sure does a great job in this situation. It has the downside of still making the wearer experience the pain from their bodies being ripped apart, but the damage itself is not reflected onto their bodies.

Clay's body at this moment had many white scratches on his skin. As the Alghoul's havoc did not really do any damage on him.

On the other hand, the Alghoul had many wounds on its body as slashes and holes were given it by the men. Although it was healing itself, the wounds were not closing as it should have normally. As time passed, almost an hour of this mortal combat, the Alghoul started to fear as well. Clay noticed this and roared, "The Alghoul is afraid! You have damaged it beyond its comprehension! Do not relent! Attack altogether and finish the job!"

"Hurrah!" Shouts of exultation and battle cries mixed in the answer that he heard from them and the battle intensified until the Alghoul no longer had a choice but to flee. It used its superior muscle abilities to jump up and run towards another direction. The men wanted to follow, however, they had no way to do so, so they panted and looked towards Clay.

"Let it go! It will lead us to a bigger nest."

After Clay announced the battle's end, every soldier shouted in joy and celebrated themselves. Clay on the other hand, made Ryan sleep and tracked the Alghoul towards its "bigger nest" and found that there was a cave formation where it entered. There, Clay could see the rest of the Alghoul that a single being controlled.

Clay found a Ghoul, but it looked humanoid. It had eyes, ears, and nose. It even stood up to order the rest of the Alghouls to part and make way for the fleeing Alghoul. Then it started to roar and growl and grunt as if speaking to it. Clay did not pick up any language skill, so it must have spoken to it via a sort of telepathy.

Of course, Clay did not move from his spot. Clay was in actual, still on that battlefield just now with closed eyes. What he sent to follow the fleeing Alghoul was his perception. A sort of Divine Sense derived from his ability to observe all things in the world and how powerful his senses are.

This leader-like fiend slammed its foot onto the cave floor in anger and frustration that the whole cave seemed to almost give way. Then ordered by extending its arm forward and pointing towards the direction where the fleeing Alghoul came from.

"I see. It wants to go and counterattack." Clay was relaxed. It wasn't a threat to him or his current people, so he withdrew his senses and mumbled, "That's probably a Rotfiend. If not, then I'll just name it that. A higher-level ghoul, a Rotfiend. Nice, witcher."

Chapter end