BW C36

Chapter 36

“I-it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

Hoeun, who had been huddled for a moment, sprang to his feet. His ankle throbbed with a sting—but he didn’t feel it just then.

Even as he limped back onto the horse, he kept glancing at the body lying ahead. Yes, it was unmistakably a corpse.

The prone body had a blown-out hole in the back of the head, as if the brain had been eaten. The limbs had been chewed to uneven lengths. The back and buttocks had been so neatly gnawed that only skin remained.

“…”

At the horrific sight, Hoeun’s lashes trembled. Nausea surged again. But there was no time for that. He had to catch up with Taemuk at once.

He seized the saddle with trembling hands and tried to pull himself up, but his ankle wouldn’t take weight. His foot kept slipping instead of settling into the stirrup.

In that instant, he just wanted to die. He wished he were that corpse instead. To be this useless. To be nothing but a hindrance. This much, this much…

Just as the strength began to leave his arms, Gilsang caught him by the arm and helped him mount.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Hoeun apologized. Then the two skirted the corpse and rode again. By the time they reached Jeokudae’s position, the melee was already in full swing.

The bamboo grove, blue and green, was now all stark red—as if a scarlet rain had fallen. Blood streamed down the bamboo, and on the ground, puddles of gore had gathered in viscous pools.

People—or rather, scattered pieces of bodies—were strewn about. A few were intact in shape, but even those were little different from the earlier corpse. Every bit of flesh had been scooped out, so it looked as if someone had peeled off a human-shaped suit and left it there.

Across that crimson stage, dozens of monsters and Jeokudae soldiers were entangled in combat.

“Uaaaaaah!”

Kaaak, kak! Kaaak!

The monsters were huge at a glance—easily twice the size of those in the valley. Not house-sized—mountain-sized. Their wrinkled bellies were heavy and distended, as if they had fed to bursting.

The situation was bad. The monsters attacked savagely, and the soldiers couldn’t maneuver freely because of the densely packed bamboo. Swords and axes hacked bamboo instead of monsters. The fresh bamboo, full of moisture, was tough; once a blade bit in, the stalk clamped down and refused to release it.

While panicked soldiers wrestled to free their weapons, the monsters simply shoved and smashed through the bamboo with their massive bodies and crunched down on shoulders and forearms—crack! gnash!

Kraaak!

“My arm! Aaaagh—my arm!”

“Fuck! Die—die! Die!”

Screams and shouts erupted everywhere. Blood splashed in all directions.

“…”

While Hoeun stood rigid at the ghastly sight, Gilsang leapt from his horse. He drew his sword at once and scanned around—for a place to hide Hoeun. But with no rocks and only a thick stand of bamboo, there was nowhere to conceal him.

“Young master, for now—”

Just as Gilsang turned back to speak—

“Behind—behind you!”

Hoeun pointed. A monster, arms flailing, came thundering toward Gilsang. The bamboo split and snapped like torn paper where it struck the wide helmet-bone.

Gilsang spun and swung his sword at the monster—but its strength was so great that instead of being cut, it slapped the blade away with the back of its hand. Gilsang’s body hurled backward. The monster didn’t stop; it lunged with its jaws. With clicking teeth closing in, Gilsang set his sword upright to block.

Even as the blade planed its gums like a joiner, the monster kept ramming into Gilsang. It even grabbed the sword with its bare hands and shoved him back.

“Kh—!”

Under that brutal force, Gilsang was driven. Dirt rippled like waves under his heels.

“No—no…”

Dismounting, Hoeun drew his pistol from his side and aimed at the monster. But both monster and Gilsang were moving constantly; he could not get a clean aim. The muzzle wavered wildly, unable to find its mark.

“Please—please…”

He bit his lower lip hard enough to tear it.

“Young master—fall back!”

Gilsang shouted. Hoeun’s feet, which had been inching closer to the monster without his realizing, halted.

Fall back? And then what? Keep standing here watching? Like a coward?

…If not, what could he do?

As Hoeun’s eyes slowly dulled, a voice pierced his ears like an iron grate.

“Help—help me! Help!”

Hoeun whipped his head around. A man drenched in blood was clawing his way up by a bamboo stump. From his clothes, he didn’t look like a Jeokudae soldier. Perhaps he was the one who had screamed.

“…”

Hoeun looked from Gilsang to the man and back. The conclusion came quickly. His presence wouldn’t help Gilsang. But he might be able to help the man.

Limping, he ran and tried to lift the man.

“Get up.”

“No—no, no—”

The man shook his head. Hoeun checked his leg—one thigh had been badly bitten. Below that, the limb only dangled by a thread; it might as well have been severed.

Hoeun untied the sleeve cord wrapped around his own arm and bound it tight above the man’s thigh. It was something he’d learned by watching, from countless hospital visits at odd hours.

“Kh…”

The man groaned in pain. Hoeun pulled the cord so hard his palm reddened from the burn, then grabbed the man’s forearm and began to drag him. There was no destination—only the thought that they had to get far from here.

“Bear it just a bit—just a bit… just a bit…”

Even missing a leg in all but name, the man was heavy. No matter how hard Hoeun pulled, he only managed to drag him one handspan, two at most. Hoeun’s weak knees kept buckling.

Still, Hoeun did not give up. He wanted to save the man. If he saved even one person, then even if he died one day, he might console himself that his life had not been meaningless.

But after only a few steps, the man suddenly turned as heavy as a boulder. No matter how he strained, the body wouldn’t budge. Then—cr-r-rk—came a sound.

“…”

Hoeun felt a chill rake down his spine. Slowly, he turned his head.

And met eyes.

With the man he had tried to save—or rather, with the man’s… head.

“Ah…”

A monster standing on the man’s back had his head clamped in its mouth. The body, lost in an instant, hadn’t even shut its eyes; it was already in the monster’s maw.

“Kak, kak…”

Gnawing what it held, the monster stared at Hoeun with red eyes.

Crunch—crunch, kak, crunch.

The crackle of the skull being chewed was as crisp as biting an apple. Blood, bone, brainlike matter spattered from between the jutting jaw and teeth. When a larger chunk slipped out, the monster pushed it back into its mouth with its hand.

“…”

Hoeun froze. His body went stiff; all the clamor receded to a distance. It felt as if he had plunged headlong into cold, deep water.

The world spun slowly. The sky became the ground, the ground the sky. In that whirl, only the monster stood firm. He saw it crush the man’s back and stride, stride, stride toward him.

But Hoeun did not move. One part of his mind said, Run. The other said, Stay still.

His ears grew more and more muffled. His vision dulled. He was about to be sucked into the whirl—or the monster’s maw, one or the other—when—

“Young master!”

Gilsang’s shout came. Hoeun snapped to.

By then, the monster was right in front of him. He stumbled backward by reflex. But something yanked his wrist and held him fast. Looking down, he saw the body-only man still gripping his wrist.

“P-please… let go of this…”

Hoeun shook his arm as if trembling, pleading with the already dead man.

But the man’s hand wouldn’t fall away. The grip was so tight that the skin around Hoeun’s wrist whitened. The monster, missing no chance, lunged at him.

Kaaak!

At that moment—

Whud—a long bamboo stalk pierced the monster’s chest from behind. The bamboo that skewered the monster drove deep into the ground. But the monster didn’t die; it thrashed its arms toward Hoeun, craned its neck, clicked its teeth, and flicked a tongue slick with blood.

Karrr, kak! Karrrrr!

But it could not get to Hoeun. The bamboo, spearing it through the chest and into the earth, pinned its movement. Like a butterfly stuck on an insect pin, it could only flutter and could not fly.

Yet the monster was not as frail as a butterfly. Nor was it foolish. It gripped the bamboo with both hands and tried to snap it. Under that brutal force, the stalk twisted with a brittle crackle.