MTLNOVEL Chapter 64: More Defenses
A few days had passed since the counterattack against the Ghouls. The city had survived somehow, though it is no longer a city as it has been converted into a stronghold, a fort within a city. From the streets, civilians could no longer be seen, when before the attack, civilians filled the sight of all. Now, only the glistening armour and the sound of boots marching in unison fill the surrounding area. From street to street, camps were being set up, and fires were being started. Now, it did not take long for the entire city to light up with enough brightness.
However, despite their victory, the ghoulish army seems to hunt and traumatise them, striking from the shadows, places that they could never think of, would sometimes appear on it, despite them having a much larger force, a much larger occupying force.
That is why they are now ordered to go into twos and threes, one must not go alone, even if only going a to a few meters away from other people, they would still be required to have a companion. So that when one dies, the other could alert for other people to support them.
That is not to say that they have no victories against the ghoulish army, they do have, and they overly savour it, as they believe they are going to be written in history books. That is, even if the populace remembers them, after all, they have always been in a constant retreat. A single victory against the face of the threat of annihilation.
Nobody would really think it's some sort of great thing, the truth, despite its glories and wonders, once it is compared to a taint that constantly becomes even worse, then you're not really going to have a good day.
Right now it is the day, so they are not attacking, as most of the time, they attack during the night; the ghouls take advantage of the myriad races unable to efficiently see through the dark, and abuse it. Once they are sure of their adversaries, that is they attack, if they saw that they are getting overwhelmed, they retreat.
It was a stark contrast to their all-out assault in the past, just goes to show how fast they were adapting and how strong and shockingly brutal their intelligence could be, once they took advantage of it. With each passing time, the day is getting shorter and shorter, and soon enough, they will not even have the troops available to hold them off, until all the ghoulish army spills over into the border and kills them one by one.
That is why, even though beaten and battered, despite their continuous losses, even after their first victory, they continue to hold anger and hope in their very hearts. With that hope in their mind, they continue to organize and construct defenses all around the fortress. Once they are tired, they take a break for a few moments, then come back again as if they were just really tired a week ago.
Soon, moments passed by, and then came the hours, then finally the resting period. Then, finally, at nightfall, people huddled together, marched together, and moved in unison. All the while, the nooks and crannies in their houses were now being filled with the ghoulish spies, as they all moved about in the shadows.
Once a lone soldier was found to be walking alone in the night. The soldier noticed he was alone, yet continued his rounding of the streets. He was scared, trembling, and was about to collapse, but he continued further. Moreover, he could not shake off the contact or feeling that he was being watched or followed.
It was not until he finally decided to brandish his sword. Thankfully, as he was about to fumble up, he saw a ghoul, in fact, two of them came into the periphery of his vision. Upon seeing and recognizing them, he immediately straightened himself and made proper movements of parrying, defending, and then attacking.
Of course, despite knowing everything, he still attacked, his blade clashed with the hardened nails of the two ghouls, he sliced downward, the ghouls dodged sideward, he sliced from the top left, then the ghouls dashed to the other side.
He was growing more and more infuriated. he had been trained in the sword for a long time, and now a mere ghoul was actively dodging his attacks, therefore humiliating him. he would not stand for it, and so he swung more efficiently and dragged the sword more swiftly and angrily.
The ghoul felt the change of pace and grinned. It smiled as if mocking the person in front of him. Anger kept on welling up, but then something clicked. The ghouls must have been antagonizing themselves, so that he would further get more emotional and become easier to handle than a properly functioning soldier who was deciding on a course of attack logically and rationally.
Upon discovering such information, he went up and calmed himself; the adrenaline that was numbing his mind was almost gone now, and with it, rationality was coming back to him. Once he regained it fully, he glanced from side to side and looked over the battle, and the things that were in front of him, the chaos, and inevitably the fallout, he felt bad about it.
With now a rational mind, he tried to feint, he would position his body to attack it from the top, but as he was bringing it down, he would suddenly change the direction in a matter of time, it was quick and decisive, and with it he was able to wound a Ghoul. The ghoul responded with a growl; it was taken in by surprise, which made the other ghoul wary of him.
Right now, their resources are dwindling by the hour, the longer the battle goes on. That is why he cannot let it go much further and must quickly end this fever dream he was on. Right now there are two ghouls in front of him, one is injured, and the other one is relatively new, must be freshly proposed.
With that in mind, he continued to get more aggressive, more feints, more complex maneuvers, slashing from side to side, then switching from bottom to top, then sudden changes, again and again. With a splash of another bout, he was feeling tired again, but then suddenly another splash of adrenaline came in full force and infected him throughout his mind and body.
He might be slightly stronger now than he was earlier, but still, he must not give up. Slashes from left to right continued. However, as time passed by, his hits that were once hitting began to disappear more and more until the ghoul could theoretically dodge all of them already.
It was now that he realized that the ghoul was not attacking him, not because of his attacks, but to mock him. They would allow scratches to give him hope, then crush it again if he gets too good. Eventually, he was playing in the palms of the ghoul. Which was a little humiliating and unfortunate.
Unfortunately, it was during this time that suddenly all things changed; everything changed since then, but this was something else. The ghouls have finally had enough of their meal and would now like to counterattack against the myriad races in front of them.
Despite being completely exhausted, the myriad races continued to fight. He slashed down but was parried, then quickly changed direction to his side. He was able to block it, but not all the force as the sword was pushed further into him, and therefore having a penetration to the horror of the myriad race.
He was wounded, but the ghoul did not stop; they scratched him from all over, they stabbed his knees, he fell down to the ground, but upon falling to the ground, he still resisted and continued fighting. Slashing from left to right, it was like an animal that was pushed back into the corner, unfortunately for the ghouls, they just smiled at their prey as if playing with their toy and were savouring their complete victory against what they considered to be a loser.
With a final attack, the myriad race soldiers charged and slashed down with surprising precision. A ghoul was slashed down and killed. To the anger of the other ghoul, it immediately retaliated and attacked the soldier. It brought out its hardened nails and slashed from sideways to the stomach, the organs spilled out, then finally it pushed upward, and with it in its hands was the heart of the soldier still beating.
The ghoul with pettiness crushed the beating heart in anger and let the blood flow all over the battlefield; the blood dripped all over the battlefield. With a thousand-yard stare, the myriad race lost all its life all over its eye and fell lifelessly to the ground, with open eyes, never to be closed again for the foreseeable future.
The ghoul was just playing with their prey earlier, but when the unthinkable happened, the ghoul retaliated with absolute pettiness and disdain.