Chapter 168
“Esther, come with me. Krys, go find the village chief immediately.”
“Huh?”
Krys blinked in confusion. His expression was one of pure disbelief. Well, there was no need for pretense anymore. It served no purpose.
“Tell him this—starting now, all military forces in this city are under my command.”
“All of a sudden?”
“Yes, all of a sudden. If he refuses, show him this. Tell him that disobeying orders will result in immediate execution.”
Encrid handed over the command order and turned away.
“Where are you going, boss?”
Krys was quick to catch on. He sensed something in Encrid’s demeanor.
“To the gate. If the village chief resists, take him hostage or something.”
“…What?”
That last part was half a joke.
Encrid took off running. With each step, his armor clanked noisily.
It wasn’t ideal for movement.
Still, he couldn’t take it off.
Tap-tap. Beside him, Esther ran with light, effortless steps. She glanced at Encrid.
“Don’t ask. Just follow me. We don’t have time.”
Esther nodded like a panther responding to its master. Sometimes, she really seemed human.
They arrived at the main gate. The sun had yet to rise—they weren’t late.
‘Right on time.’
There were usually five sentries guarding the gate.
Two in the watchtower, two on the ground, plus a squad leader.
The squad leader would be in the guard post next to the gate.
That left four outside. In a fight, they always took to the watchtower, siding with the beasts, shooting arrows at their own allies below.
Encrid knew their faces all too well.
“Huh? What’s this?”
One of the men, a friendly-looking one, spoke up.
Encrid stepped forward, addressing the two blocking the gate.
“From now on, command of this area has been transferred to me.”
“…What?”
The man looked bewildered.
“I’m the new head of security for this town.”
Deutsch Pullman had been wary of something like this happening.
Now, that fear had become reality.
The man, who had been masquerading as one of Deutsch Pullman’s subordinates, stiffened.
“Did our boss approve this?”
A new figure poked his head out of the guard post.
A mercenary wielding a spear—one of Deutsch Pullman’s men, and the squad leader.
Not that it mattered.
“Do you have a problem with it? The moment I brought this command order, I became your superior.”
“Since when? And for how long?”
“Starting now, until the colony problem is solved.”
Encrid answered smoothly. The man frowned, his expression darkening.
“You shitting me, kid? You think I’m a pushover?”
It was the expected response. Encrid had his reply ready.
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to use words. Try your fists instead.”
“You crazy bastard.”
The man advanced. He hadn’t drawn his weapon yet, but he was clearly looking to land a hit.
He swung a punch.
Encrid seemed to stand still.
Just before impact, he tilted his head slightly, dodging. At the same time, his left foot swept out, striking the man’s ankle.
The movement was seamless—one fluid motion.
Caught off guard, the man stumbled forward, losing his balance.
Encrid simply pushed him aside with his left hand.
“Ah, ah—”
Thud.
The man crashed to the ground.
His face turned red with anger as he tried to use his spear to push himself up.
Shing.
The sound of a sword being drawn.
A blade pressed against his throat.
“Don’t get up. Don’t resist. Defying orders is punishable by immediate execution.”
With a sharp blade at his neck, especially one glowing cold blue under the dim light, arguing was no longer an option.
The man swallowed hard before finally speaking.
“Do… do you have any idea how many sentries are here? You… you can’t handle them all.”
A threat, but his voice betrayed his fear.
Encrid had no intention of killing him.
He had simply expected this reaction.
It was a simple equation.
‘How did the gnolls and hyenas get inside?’
How did a wooden barricade meant to keep out monsters become a cage for humans?
Why had this place become a feast hall for beasts?
Because someone let them in.
Did they climb over the walls? No. Gnolls had weak lower bodies.
Hyenas, too, weren’t built for scaling walls.
Did they break through? Impossible.
There was only one answer. The gate had been opened.
And why had there been no alarm when so many monsters arrived?
At first, it was a theory. But after a few nights of observation, Encrid confirmed it.
Whoever opened the gate—guilty.
Whoever saw but didn’t report—guilty.
Encrid’s gaze shifted to the emergency bell.
It was next to the gate.
Had it been rung? No.
Which meant the only innocent person here was the one lying on the ground.
Now, how would the others react?
He already knew.
From the watchtower, a female soldier raised a bow. Silent and steady, she took aim and loosed an arrow.
Encrid had been watching. He lightly kicked off the ground.
Thunk!
The arrow struck where he had just been.
“…Shit! Don’t shoot!”
The squad leader, still on the ground, panicked and shouted.
Not that anyone listened.
“Kill him.”
It was the friendly-looking man from before.
The two soldiers in the watchtower nocked arrows again.
Two of them. One man, one woman.
The woman was the better shot.
They were cultists.
There was no room for hesitation, no time for mercy.
Whistle! Whistle!
Two sharp whistles cut through the night.
Throwing daggers sliced through the air.
The soldiers in the watchtower groaned.
“Urk.”
“Grk.”
Their death rattles came next.
No one survives with a hole in their throat.
The male archer toppled forward, crashing to the ground. The female, clutching her bleeding neck, collapsed where she stood.
Her head had twisted at an unnatural angle as she fell.
Blood dripped from the watchtower where she had stood, pooling below.
All of it had happened in an instant.
“Shit!”
The squad leader gasped in horror.
Encrid ignored him. Keeping his sword raised, he declared,
“Mutiny and attempted murder of a superior officer—both are punishable by immediate execution. However, if you drop your weapons and surrender, you will be spared.”
An empty threat.
“Fuck that.”
The two masked sentries standing guard at the gate locked eyes.
Their gaze was eerie—unsettling.
More than that, their movements were fast.
They were skilled.
Shing!
Both of them wielded short swords, splitting to attack from opposite sides at the same speed.
They cut through the crisp dawn air as they lunged.
Encrid had survived countless days to reach this moment.
Endless repetitions. Unrelenting training.
His sense of evasion, his coordination, his reaction speed—
All honed to a razor’s edge.
When one’s reaction speed changes, the world changes.
He was in a different realm now.
It was as if he moved twice as fast as everyone else.
Rem, Ragna, Jaxson, Audin—
The feats they once performed now felt natural to Encrid.
So—
Clang!
It wasn’t surprising that he could deflect two incoming swords with a single strike.
It was easy. A slash to the right, then a quick counter to the left.
To those attacking, however, it was incomprehensible.
Eyes widened in shock.
What? How did he block that?
It was like his sword vanished for a moment.
Encrid didn’t stop.
To commemorate his arrival into this new world, he swung his sword again.
His repeated training had given him more than just reaction speed and coordination.
With a single breath, he awakened the Heart of Monstrous Strength, doubling his speed.
His body moved before thought, purely on instinct.
Slash! Slash!
He swung twice more.
The first was an upward cut from below. The second, a downward strike from above.
Both aimed at the wrists.
And both found their mark.
“Aagh!”
“Krrk!”
Two hands, still clutching short swords, fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Between the two bleeding figures, Encrid stood still, his sword lowered.
“What… the hell is this?”
The squad leader sat frozen in disbelief.
His voice trembled.
“Why the fuck are you cutting people down like a lunatic all of a sudden?”
Encrid looked at him and spoke.
“There’s a stench. Are you sure that gate is locked?”
When he first arrived, he had seen the pulley system open the gate. That had to be the lock.
“What?”
“Check it. If you don’t get up and confirm it now, I’ll assume you’re an accomplice and cut you down too.”
It was a simple threat.
But from someone who took action, it carried weight.
The squad leader jumped to his feet. His legs trembled, but he had no choice.
He rushed to the pulley and inspected it.
“Why the fuck is this unlocked?!”
He hurriedly secured the mechanism.
If the lock was undone, the gate wasn’t a barricade—it was an open door.
The squad leader gritted his teeth and pulled with all his strength, veins bulging from his arms as he forced the lock back into place.
“Hah… hah… but what do you mean, a stench?”
As soon as he asked—
Boom!
Something massive slammed against the gate.
The ground shook.
A foul, all-too-familiar scent seeped through the thick wooden doors.
“Guuuuhhh!”
A deep, guttural cry echoed from outside.
A gnoll’s howl.
It carried weight, unseen menace—a terrifying presence beyond the barrier.
The squad leader stumbled back from the gate, his face pale.
For a moment, Encrid thought he might piss himself.
Thankfully, the man’s nerves weren’t that weak.
Ignoring him, Encrid turned to the two maimed cultists.
“You’re with the cult, aren’t you?”
Their eyes widened.
They didn’t need to answer.
Should he spare them?
No point.
Cultists were known for their bizarre spells, but these two didn’t seem capable of anything special.
They weren’t important.
But leaving them alive would be like turning his back on a knife.
Thrust. Thrust.
Two quick stabs.
Two new corpses.
Encrid climbed the watchtower.
He needed a better view—assessing the numbers, the scale, the situation.
High ground was always the right choice.
The sun was beginning to rise.
In its light, he saw them.
Hundreds of beasts and monsters.
A sickening number.
Encrid was surprised all over again that he had survived inside that hell.
‘Even if all I did was endure—’
There were too many.
From this vantage point, the sheer number felt suffocating.
They were already slamming against the walls and gate.
The watchtower had been cleared—
But there were no guards on the walls where they should have been.
Encrid’s gaze swept over the scene.
There—along the barricade—bodies.
Town guards, fallen where they stood.
Cultists’ work.
Or more accurately—the work of the ones he had just killed.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
A voice from below.
Krys.
Reality had caught up with the joke.
Krys had the village chief at swordpoint.
Behind him, several town guards stood, looking tense.
“What the hell is going on?”
Krys looked close to tears.
For some reason, Encrid found it amusing.
“Esther.”
He called the panther.
“Grrah.”
She responded as if she understood perfectly, taking position to guard the gate.
Sometimes, animals were more reliable than people.
“Alright, then. I suppose we need some answers.”
Behind the village chief, Deutsch Pullman and his men had arrived.
Most of them wore confused expressions.
Outside, monsters.
Inside, a man holding a blade to the village chief’s throat.
Dead bodies scattered in between.
Even Deutsch Pullman’s eyes wavered. Confusion was expected, but that wasn’t Encrid’s concern.
He spoke casually.
“I give the orders. I hold command. No objections. We stop the monsters. Get the remaining guards on the walls. Anyone who can shoot a bow, get them up there.”
No one moved.
Deutsch Pullman was a man with nerves of steel.
Ignoring the pounding from outside, he glared at Encrid with hostility.
Encrid knew exactly what needed to be said.
“Krys, cut him down.”
A hostage’s life was a useful bargaining chip.
“You fucking—No! Stop! What the hell are you all standing around for?! Put an arrow through those monsters’ skulls, now!”
Deutsch shouted.
Of course, Krys didn’t follow through with the order.
Encrid merely shrugged.
“You’ll have to explain this later,” Deutsch bellowed.
Encrid ignored him.
This was the shortcut.
Preventing things before they even started.
Moving quickly enough to stop the gnolls’ invasion altogether.
If they succeeded, what would happen to the cycle of repetition?
He had a plan to get through today, though whether it would work was another matter.
It was his first time attempting this.
Rua was still nowhere to be seen.
Nor were Deutsch’s missing men.
“Damn it, Enki.”
Just as he was about to settle in and enjoy a momentary pause in the chaos, Finn stumbled into view.
The scout, who had gone on patrol, returned with a hole in his stomach.
So this was it.
Finn had fought someone. He had taken a wound.
A wound that wasn’t fatal, but severe enough.
A gut wound hurt like hell. Walking must have been agony.
That explained why Finn hadn’t been able to sound the alarm about the monster horde.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have missed a colony of this size.
“Krys, let go of the chief and tend to Finn first,” Encrid ordered.
It wasn’t a mortal wound, but he wouldn’t be moving easily without treatment.
“The monster colony… nearly a thousand strong,” Finn gasped.
His face had gone pale.
Encrid simply nodded.
“Can you explain?”
The village chief, equally pale, spoke up.
As expected of a frontier town leader—
Even in this situation, he had the nerve to ask for an explanation.
“Let’s stop them first,” Encrid replied, already heading for the walls.
Even a sloppy archer’s arrow was better than nothing at this point.
Besides, if they were going to survive today, the walls themselves would have to come down.
And today had only just begun.
