Chapter 45: Hero and Meat

When the true body of Karolith, the Imp Matriarch, finally appeared before the dwarves, every soldier on the wall despaired for a moment.

She was simply too terrifying!

A bloated body as large as a hill. Arms thicker than ancient trees. Countless twitching growths that spat out poisonous mist. And iron cages hung all over her flesh, each one packed with snarling imps.

Then there was her face, with its crooked features and crimson eyes.

Just being stared at by her was enough. Just hearing the wet rasp of her breathing was enough. The evil rolling off her could break the Grimstone Garrison, soldiers who had never faced anything worse than a beast tide.

Karolith shoved against the gate with her raw strength, trampling the victims beneath her feet as she squeezed through the opening. Many of the guards held sharp weapons and solid shields, yet their hands never stopped shaking. Some stared at the ground, unable to look at her at all.

Because the gate had not been closed in time, more and more imps poured out from behind her and around her feet, flooding into Grimstone.

There were far too many of them. Even from the wall, the guards saw only a black sea, writhing and screaming, desperate to claw its way into the town. The only color in that darkness was the crimson glow of the creatures’ eyes.

Anyone would have despaired at such a sight.

But not everyone was a coward.

"Don’t be afraid, brothers!"

A sturdy dwarf with a brown beard suddenly roared, jolting the soldiers around him awake. His voice was loud and rich, the kind that could be heard even in the worst chaos of battle.

"The monster is stuck in the gateway, and that is the only reason the gate can’t close! She can’t attack us from there! If we stand together and drive her and her brood back, we can seal the gate and save our town!"

Then the brown-bearded dwarf charged ahead of everyone, swinging his blade and igniting his battle aura.

Empowered by it, he cut down two imps blocking his path with a single stroke. The others tried to stop him, but they were held off by the shield of aura around his body.

Battle aura was one of the many supernatural talents in the world. It was common among dwarves, and while it wasn’t exactly rare, it suited them better than any other. It added extra damage to every strike, and it could also form a shield to protect warriors as they charged.

"Charge with me, brothers!"

Hearing him, the dwarves around him finally found their courage. Fear and cowardice fell away, replaced by courage and hot blood!

Just like in the epic myths, a mortal hero always appeared in the darkness where hope had died, like an arrow of light tearing the night apart.

A mortal hero always came at the right moment, burning himself as a flame to light up the despair... but unfortunately...

This so-called hero would not make it today.

Today, no hero would appear.

Seated upon the throne, Koda watched the dwarf’s charge through the eyes of his imps, the throne’s link flicking his sight from one to the next.

’A hero...’ he thought, with a slight frown. ’Every town has one, and they always show up when the other side is winning.’

He did not hate the dwarf. He simply could not allow him to succeed.

When his shifting sight returned to Karolith, the brown-bearded dwarf’s fate was already sealed.

Shing!

With his aura active, the dwarf’s charge was smooth. Imp after imp fell under his blade, and he drew closer to Karolith, who was holding the gate open with both hands.

If he could hurt her in time and force her back, the gate would close again.

But while he was still imagining how the bards in the taverns would write his praise, a dozen imps formed a strange formation in the chaos at the gate and blocked his advance from the rear right.

That disciplined movement was a sharp contrast to the frenzied, disorderly rest of their kind. Clearly, something far more wicked than these monsters had joined the battle.

Still, the dwarf was not afraid of these imps. A small shift in his position would take him out of their blockade.

But the moment he finished moving, a foul, ice-cold wind rushed up behind him!

Lesser demons, waiting there all along!

Their claws reached for his back. Stronger than imps, they were the only ones who could truly threaten him.

With no choice, the dwarf shifted again, raising his shield and retreating step after step. No imp interfered with him as he fell back, so he retreated quickly.

When he finally stopped, he realized with horror that he had ended up very close to his target, right beside the hill-like Imp Matriarch!

His back was turned to her front, and she had already lifted one foot above his head.

A stench of rotten air drifted down. Karolith, both hands busy pinning the gate, grinned at the "little thing" beneath her foot.

"Oh? Meat! The meat came to me by itself!"

She stamped down.

Squelch.

Neither the dwarf’s armor nor his hard skull could stop that thousand-pound foot. Her "children" gathered around her heel, delighted, and tore into the corpse.

"Hehe, more meat!"

Karolith raised her head and stared into the distance.

"..." "...."

In the distance, the dwarf warriors who had only just gathered the courage to charge fell silent after seeing what became of the one they followed.

’Hope is a flame,’ Koda thought calmly. ’And it is easiest to put out when everyone is watching it.’

Hope and courage were a double-edged blade.

In despair, they were the key that let others find the courage to charge, the starting point of a comeback from the brink. But once they were crushed, they became the start of a collapse!

At last, with their only hope gone, the dwarf warriors broke. Cowardly, they wanted to fall back to their old line.

But Koda would not let this fleeting chance slip away. He directed the imps, splitting the soldiers apart in the chaos, and sent more imps to kill every garrison member trying to shut the gate.

Finally, with Karolith freed, imps by the thousand streamed into the town of Grimstone.

They were ready to destroy everything.