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Bermuda Chapter 63
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 12:20:07 +0000 UTCChapter 63
If Sigals were following from behind, it made some sense why the horde of Drocs was trying to pass through here even while facing the water they detested.
'I wondered why the Drocs were here... If I think that the Southern Branch, which went east, lured them out of their habitat for their operation and failed to handle them in time, it all adds up.'
The Drocs' habitat was located a bit further inside from the entrance of the peninsula, so it was strange to see them already.
And if it was because the Southern Branch members had lured the Drocs out of their habitat for their operation, there must have been Sigals, their superior predators, as the decisive reason why the Drocs had fled all the way here.
As soon as Leonardo made that guess, there was a sudden loud thud between the cliffs, and it felt like something huge was slowly approaching from not far away.
Delua, who had been talking to Leonardo, once again showed a highly alert appearance and watched the battlefield. However, Leonardo stared at the foggy path the procession had walked through beyond that and spoke in a low voice,
"It's time."
"What?"
Delua, who asked back as if surprised, felt another round of vibrations and looked at the path they had come from, just like him.
After a while, the heavy rumbling heard from the fog gradually got closer, and along with a growling sound, huge Sigals with red skin began to reveal themselves one by one.
Sigals were monsters that stood over 5 meters tall and walked on two legs. Although their intelligence was low, they had hands with free movement of joints like humans, so they mainly used hand-based attacks.
Moreover, once provoked, Sigals became very violent and cruel, and if caught in their hands, it was common for the human body to be crushed and burst by their grip, and they wouldn't let go until death, which was their characteristic.
As the large shadows of such creatures filled the eerie valley, the members who saw it all stopped fighting the Drocs and slowly stepped back.
The white eyeballs of the creatures, with cloudy pupils not visible, suddenly discovered the members in front and roared loudly. Leonardo instinctively sensed that it was an act of alerting their companions that they had found prey.
Hearing the fierce roar of the Sigals, the Drocs suddenly screamed and hurriedly crawled up the cliff to start fleeing.
The Drocs, which had been recklessly rushing at them without fear, were now running away like crazy to save their lives, and the members frozen at the sight couldn't take their eyes off the Sigals with pale faces.
Originally, even if Sigals were discovered, only one or two would be found, but the Sigals visible in front of their eyes now were easily four.
And judging by the still-rumbling ground, it was impossible to estimate how many more were coming from within that fog.
Seeing fear seeping into the members' eyes, Delua hurriedly shouted,
"Maintain a 50m distance from the targets and reorganize the formation!"
The members, who had been retreating little by little, once again aligned their ranks and quickly formed a defensive formation at Delua's command.
Confirming that they had distanced themselves at regular intervals, Delua immediately placed her hand on the ground. Then, a huge magic circle unfolded between the members and the Sigals, and the ground nearby shook greatly as if an earthquake had occurred. Soon, the ground undulated like waves, and giant golems began to emerge one by one from below.
The size of the golems that emerged from the ground was comparable to the Sigals, and they looked similar to the Sigals as well. Judging by the golems' bodies, they seemed to be made of rocks and soil from underground.
One of the golems that stood up and stood on two feet immediately rushed at a Sigal and fiercely collided with its torso. The impact was not ordinary, and the Sigal, which had been hesitating, was pushed back simultaneously with the collision, and the roar of the enraged creature echoed throughout the cliffs. Leonardo spoke with an inwardly admiring expression,
"You control golems?"
"No, to be precise, I control inanimate objects."
"Control inanimate objects?"
As he asked back with surprised eyes, Delua answered with a triumphant smile at his reaction,
"I turn naturally occurring inanimate objects, except for gases, into my golems and control them. That fellow was made from the bedrock of this land."
At Delua's explanation, Leonardo turned his eyes back to the golem with interest. The Sigal, which must have weighed dozens of tons with just its jaw strength, seemed to be pushed back by the golem.
As the situation was reversed in an instant, the members who had been in a defensive formation jumped in again and began attacking the Sigal. Feeling the sensation of sharp blades digging in, the Sigal roared and wildly swung its arms.
Kwaaang-!
The golem that had been fighting evenly was hit squarely by the Sigal's swinging arm, and its head flew off. As the golem's head was pulverized in a single blow, Delua withdrew her triumphant smile and pulled out another golem from underground with a slightly embarrassed look.
"The bedrock here is basalt, so it breaks easily."
Being able to freely control inanimate objects was an incredible skill. Although the current combat method couldn't be called a close-range type, what her ability implied was that as long as the caster herself was in a safe place, she could sufficiently employ golems to perform both close-range and long-range attacks.
Leonardo looked at her and the golems she commanded and thought deeply.
'Is it an ability similar to Mirail's...? No, if she utilizes inanimate objects, it's a higher-level ability than Mirail's.'
He slightly retreated to the back, not readily stepping forward, to observe the Council members fighting a bit more.
The multiple golems created by the battalion commander filled the gaps between the valleys, and at the forefront, two of them continuously broke and regenerated, blocking the path to prevent the Sigals from advancing.
Taking advantage of that gap, the members agilely moved to avoid the collision of the two giant monsters and dispersed the Sigals' attention, continuously dealing light but persistent damage, so the cooperation between the unit members seemed quite good. The defense was well-executed to the point where he didn't need to step in.
"Aaargh-!"
At that moment, suddenly, a scream of a member was heard. Immediately turning his head to look, a member who had been fighting a Droc that failed to escape in time was being lifted up by a Sigal's hand.
As the Sigal opened its heavily developed mouth wide to tear him apart, the members of the 6th Battalion quickly changed direction and rushed in to save their comrade.
The Sigals had tough and thick hides in proportion to their large size, making it difficult to cut through in one go. The members, who had thoroughly experienced that fact through the battle so far, all gathered in one place and focused on striking down the joint of the Sigal's arm. Then, an agonized scream echoed, and the creature's arm was barely severed, and the member caught in its hand fell headlong along with the severed arm.
Even with just one arm falling off, the ground was dug out and dust rose. The member tried to break free from the Sigal's hand that had been strangling him, but even though the nerves were cut off, the fingers' joints, which were as hard as boulders, kept contracting, making him feel like his body was being crushed even more.
"Urgh, ugh!"
"Morgan!"
"Everyone, help!"
The member, trapped in the painful sensation of his ribs bending, gasped for breath. The other comrades tried to help him get out, but when a part of a Sigal's body was severed from the main body, it rapidly hardened like a rock, so it wasn't easy to straighten the bent fingers.
At that moment, when they were struggling, another Sigal approached near them.
As the huge shadow loomed over their heads once again, the members slowly raised their heads with tense eyes. At that instant, the Sigal, which had been looking down at its prey, swiftly extended its hand towards the clumped humans.
The members nearby rushed in to protect their comrades who couldn't dodge, but the creature used agile movements that didn't match its huge size to knock them all away in midair.
The moment the members who were directly hit by the swinging arm flew toward the rock wall, Marlen and Leonardo simultaneously spread barriers on both sides of the valley. Thanks to that, the members who were about to crash into the bumpy rocks were able to narrowly avoid injuries.
In the midst of it, Leonardo lightly caught a member flying towards him with both arms.
"Gather around me!"
Confirming that the members were safe, Marlen approached the member trapped in the Sigal's hand and hurriedly stood in front to block, assuming a combat stance. At her shout, the scattered members quickly gathered around the deputy commander and formed a formation together.
In the meantime, Delua's golem was hit by the Sigal and shattered again, sending sharp rock fragments flying towards the members' surroundings. Seeing that, Marlen swung her sword once with great force, and the sword energy that flew from her sword pushed away the fragments and grazed the arm of the Sigal behind.
The sword energy seemed to dig into the hide with great momentum, but the arm didn't completely sever and was left dangling, which rather provoked the creature's temper.
Following the fiercely roaring Sigal, the other creatures, filled with rage, roared threateningly one after another as if resonating. As a result, a strong gust of wind blew through the valley, strong enough to make one's body stagger for a moment.
Nevertheless, the members swallowed their saliva and steeled their resolve, firmly holding their positions in front of their trapped comrade without scattering.
Leonardo, who had been watching them, thought it was about time for him to step in.
Comments
Jesse Gibson
Go, Leo, Go!
