Battle Race in the Fantasy World

EP.145 A Brush with Death

The wyvern’s writhing body soon goes limp.

After confirming its last breath, the ogre immediately buries its face into the wyvern’s body.

Rip! Crunch!

The eerie sound of tearing skin and splitting flesh echoes.

The ogre immediately begins to devour the hunted wyvern ravenously.

Not just eating the innards, but everything including the wings and head that would normally be discarded.

Blood and chunks of unswallowed flesh drip down.

When it finally finished its meal, the ogre’s eyes were even more ferocious than before.

Grrrr-.

Monster. Beast. Man-eating savage creature.

But it has minimal intelligence. Though one-dimensional, it clearly thinks.

And under that influence, the ogre has now gained one certainty.

Eating the monsters in this area makes its body stronger.

Becoming more powerful, faster, feeling like it can do anything.

So, this ogre didn’t clash with humans like other monsters.

Instead, it hunted monsters, devouring them again and again.

When there were no more monsters left in the vicinity except itself.

It finally realized it had become a different entity from other ogres.

Kyaaaa!!-

The troll with its overwhelming regeneration, the werewolf that is one unified being.

Even the wyvern, known as the ogre’s match, it had devoured them all.

They were strong. But they were no match for it. It was the victor.

It instinctively feels that no ogre could be stronger than itself.

The reason this burning rage intensifies as it goes on is merely a desire for prey.

Thinking this, it finally left the western mountains and set foot on the plains.

Sniff sniff-.

Entering the plains, the sweet smell of blood is everywhere.

This is the smell of troll blood, that’s the smell of werewolf blood.

Something unidentified that ate them is nearby.

And mixed faintly among them is the scent of humans.

Humans, humans. The easiest prey to hunt and also the most delicious.

Ogres are the most typical man-eating monsters. These creatures especially enjoy hunting humans.

Not just when they’re hungry, they attack humans even just passing by.

Following that instinctive memory, it licked its lips and moved on.

It hunted a few more monsters wandering around.

They too seemed to be heading towards the smell of humans.

It quickly caught them and made them its meal once again.

With every bite of flesh, it grows stronger, with every sip of blood, it becomes faster.

And with each kill, its ferocity doubles.

Another berserk agent created by the alliance considering the characteristics of monsters.

That was exactly what was working now, just as they wanted.

Grooaar!!-

The ogre lets out a long roar and increases its speed.

Smelling humans, it can no longer hold back.

It wants to go, go and kill and eat everything in sight.

Thump! Thump!-

Originally reigning supreme among monsters, this ogre was even stronger.

Any decent fighter would lose their life in an instant, snatched by its grasp.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it had long passed the stage where humans could stop it.

After running for some time, a bizarre sound escapes its mouth.

There, suddenly, a human appeared before it.

The human it had been desperately searching for is right in front. What a pleasant surprise!

Thinking this, the ogre lunged forward with a ferocious roar.

Why did a human with no smell or presence until just now suddenly appear?

Of course, it didn’t even have an ounce of suspicion about that.

*

‘No way. He said he was going to watch Old Man Neil fight. Where on earth did he go!’

After telling the children to watch carefully, Kyle increased his speed to follow the baron.

He disappeared so quickly that even running at full speed, Kyle still couldn’t see him.

It seemed he had headed beyond the legion’s camp, towards the plains beyond.

But there was no way to know his exact destination. Kyle couldn’t understand why he had left either.

After running for quite some time, Kyle sensed something faint up ahead.

One was the familiar presence of his father. And the other was…

‘Ah.’

He finally understood why his father had rushed out.

He didn’t want to miss out. Even though he was the head of the baronial family.

He couldn’t bear to give up such splendid prey to the children.

‘He didn’t even say a word to me, on top of that.’

Grooooar!!-

It was the most ferocious roar the monster could muster.

Hearing it, Kyle thought, hmm. Yes. The ferocious feeling had intensified a bit.

If a normal ogre was a cat, then this one was a wildcat? Yes. A wildcat seemed appropriate.

“Hmm.”

Baron Jonathan stood with his arms folded, deep in thought.

Kyle could roughly guess what his father was pondering.

How could he toy with it without finishing it off in one blow?

No matter how drugged up this ogre was, it was impossible for it to defeat his father.

Forget defeating, even escaping had zero chance of success.

Baron Jonathan knew this too, so he was thinking of how to enjoy it to the fullest.

“Father! Perhaps I could try first…”

“Absolutely not.”

“Just once. Let me hit it once…”

“I said no. I won’t allow it.”

Oh, Father. It was just a joke.

When you get so serious, it’s quite scary, you know? Please don’t.

Grooooar!!-

While father and son were checking each other, the ogre had come within arm’s reach.

It then stretched out its hand to attack the man who had entered its sight.

“Ugh.”

In that moment, Kyle could see it.

The scene of Baron Jonathan, who had been pondering, casually swatting away the ogre’s hand.

Thwack!-

Of course, from the ogre’s perspective, it was anything but casual.

With a pitiful “Wooooah!!” the creature was sent flying.

Its enormous body, nearly 6 meters tall, spun through the air like a twig.

The ogre that had been spinning through the air soon crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom.

Had he counterattacked with all his might? Not at all.

‘…Really, Father. You’re too much. Did you pull all your strength in that instant?’

If he had used his strength, the ogre’s arm would have been reduced to a tattered rag, no doubt.

If it had been worse, the entire arm would have vanished without a trace, accompanied by a thunderous sound.

However, as the ogre got up, its body was intact.

Apart from being covered in dust, it didn’t even have any noticeable injuries.

Grrrr-.

The creature, sensing something was off, floundered about in confusion.

Normally, it should have turned tail and fled without looking back at this point.

This was an unbeatable existence. An opponent it couldn’t hunt.

It might even become the hunted instead. The hunter should retreat before becoming prey.

…Grooooar!!-

But the drug the hardliners of the alliance had injected into its body was more potent than expected.

It was trying to face an absolutely unbeatable enemy, a predator with jaws wide open.

“Its courage is admirable.”

“From my perspective, it’s not courage, it just seems crazy.”

Baron Jonathan laughed, agreeing with Kyle’s response.

Thanks to that, Kyle had to flinch and shudder once again.

If his father was laughing in this situation, there was only one reason.

‘You’re thinking of getting a little serious, aren’t you?’

Wow, shit. This is dangerous. I’d better distance myself quickly.

If I get caught up in this, I’ll be shaking hands with our ancestors.

Thinking this, Kyle hurriedly stepped back.

Honestly, the ogre charging towards them wasn’t overwhelmingly strong.

Even giving it the benefit of the doubt, it could be dealt with at the level of the top 10, no, below that.

So there was absolutely no reason for Baron Jonathan to get serious, and yet…

‘It’s a bit better than the monsters back home, that’s all.’

It should be running away, but it’s charging in again.

That’s the part – he didn’t care why the ogre was acting this way.

Even though it was drugged, it had been experimented on, so there was no need to be angry about that.

Clench-.

Baron Jonathan slowly raised his arm and clenched his fist.

His nearly perfect triceps and biceps rose powerfully.

And they seemed to cry out, “Who dared to wake me?” as they made their presence known.

Baron Jonathan casually pulled his arm back and then thrust his fist forward.

It was a stark contrast to Kyle, who was biting his lip and tensing his arm muscles with all his might.

Kwaaaaang!!!-

Of course, the result was anything but ‘casual’.

Whooosh—.

Kwaaaaang!!!-

“Uuuuugh!!”

You call this a punch?! Is this even possible?!

Kyle hurriedly threw himself to the ground, curling up as much as possible.

Lose focus and you die. Get caught up in it and you definitely die.

Such thoughts filled Kyle’s mind.

It was clearly just a momentary swing aimed at the ogre far in front of him.

Yet the impact was transmitted in its entirety, pummeling his whole body.

Thump thump thump…

His heart was racing. Not from excitement about the battle, but from the tension of what was unfolding before his eyes.

He had never been this tense even when facing the Empire’s top 10.

That’s how much the being standing in front of him was on a completely different level.

“Tsk.”

Baron Jonathan clicked his tongue once and slowly lowered his arm.

“Let’s go. It’s over.”

Swallowing hard, Kyle confirmed the scene before his eyes.

And with an “Ah,” he let out a gasp and thought,

‘So this is what they call ground zero.’

Indeed.

“Whoa, whoa.”

The legion’s scouts, who had come out quite far for reconnaissance, checked their surroundings.

The monsters that had been relentlessly attacking until just two days ago had completely quieted down since yesterday.

Whether they had run away, or as the officers said, they had exhausted themselves in their attacks.

They couldn’t know for sure, but what was certain was that there was no trace of monsters to be found anywhere.

“We’ve searched this entire area, but no monsters are in sight.”

“The only ones we found were goblins or gnolls that ran away as soon as they saw humans.”

“…It’s quite strange. Where did those creatures that were attacking so fiercely suddenly disappear to?”

The scout leader muttered this while looking around the area.

Then suddenly, something odd caught his eye.

“Map.”

“Map!”

A subordinate soldier quickly handed over the map, echoing the command.

The leader looked at the map he received, then lifted his eyes to look ahead.

“…Hm?”

“What’s wrong, leader?”

“No. This map. Is it accurate?”

“Yes. We’ve been using this map for our movements up until yesterday.”

“Are you absolutely sure? Maybe there was a mistake in recording the terrain?”

“It’s certain. This map was made based on the topographical map we received from the imperial army stationed in this area.”

“Then what’s that over there?”

“What do you mean? What are you…”

The soldiers looking in the direction the leader pointed suddenly fell silent.

Then they hurriedly checked the map and looked back at that place.

“…So, there should clearly be mountains there…”

“Right. There should be mountains. Not just one, but several. Where did they go?”

Where the map clearly indicated rugged mountain terrain,

There was nothing.