Chapter 29

The warriors of Serpentism were those who were banished by the Empire. They refused to give up their religion and chose to live a life on the run as bandits after the Empire labeled them a cult.

“Only eternity awaits us once the flesh is stripped away,” one of their warriors muttered as he looked at his enemies. There were less than five of them left.

“Let’s finish them off and get out of here quickly.”

They had to avenge their fallen brother. They expected that killing Urich would be a quick and easy job.

Crunch!

The warriors of Serpentism quickly realized that that was not the case at all. Even though twenty of them were surrounding Urich, they couldn’t get anywhere near him.

‘He’s experienced in fighting in the forest.’

Urich dodged the arrows by weaving in and out of the trees around him and took down the enemies as they came at him one by one.

‘It doesn’t feel like we have the advantage—it’s as if he’s dragging us into his swamp.’

The Serpentists cautiously surrounded Urich. They had realized that charging at him one by one was playing right into his hands. They planned to attack from all sides.

“Hah, now you’re using your brains, you snake-tattooed bastards.”

The bandits were mainly formed of Serpentists, but some of them were regular people who chose the life of thieving after growing tired of the hardships in their lives, with most of them being fugitive slaves. The fact that they joined forces with the Serpentists showed how low their statuses were. Nobody wanted anything to do with that religion unless they had no other options.

‘The ones with the snake tattoos are strong. The rest of them... not so much.’

Urich’s eyes rapidly darted about, scanning his surroundings and marking down the positions of his enemies. He vividly pictured where and how to hide and fight. Fighting in the forest was practically a routine of his.

“Huff.”

Urich’s breath was up to his throat. He had already slain four bandits while the soldiers that accompanied him on the tracking mission had all been killed.

‘It’s just me, now.’

Death was breathing down his neck. A chill traveled down his spine.

‘Come here, Urich.’

‘There is no eternal resting place for us.’

‘We only wander the world of the living.’

He felt as if the evil spirits were whispering in his ears. He shook his head in denial to get rid of the voices.

“I must be losing my mind.”

Urich glared. The Serpentist warriors pounced at Urich all at once. Urich climbed a tree by using his axe as a pick. After reaching the midpoint of the tree, he leaped backward and over the enemies to land behind them. In an instant, he was out of their grasp and behind them. It was a brilliant move.

Slash!

Urich rolled on the ground and slashed the legs of the warriors. His move was followed by a series of screams, and the archers took aim at him.

Swish.

Arrows emerged out of the darkness. Urich rolled up to cover his face and stomach.

Pluck.

The arrows plunged into his arms and legs, and Urich released a boiling screech.

“Ahhhhh!”

He roared as he snapped the arrows sticking out of his limbs. He launched his axe at the approaching warriors to crush their skulls. He pushed on to take down the enemies with the axe that he still had in his hand and a scimitar he stole from the enemy. The scimitar was a weapon specialized for slashing and with the perfect amount of force behind it, it was powerful enough to make even those with shields falter.

‘His side is open.’

A Serpentist warrior charged from the rear, aiming for Urich’s side. His scimitar was about to strike Urich with a clean trajectory.

Crunch!

Urich slammed down his elbow into the flat of the blade that was on its way into his side, deflecting its trajectory toward his thigh instead.

‘How did he react...?’

The warrior gasped.

“That hurts!”

Thump!

Urich raged and swung his fist, slamming the warrior’s face. His facial bones collapsed, and his eyeballs protruded out of the sockets under the pressure.

Limp.

Urich was limping on his left leg.

‘I managed to protect my side getting slashed open, but the cut in my leg is deep.’

It was his mobility that kept him alive against so many bandits. He was taking down the bandits one by one as he slithered through their circle like an eel, but now his left leg wasn’t moving at his will. Every time he planted his left foot, blood poured out of the gash as the wound gaped open.

The Serpentist warriors did not take Urich lightly. They surrounded him once more with caution, as several of their brothers had already died at the barbarian’s hands.

‘He is strong.’

But no one would be able to withstand multiple blades coming at them simultaneously from all directions, no matter how skilled they were. After all, men only had two arms.

The most important strategy when fighting multiple enemies alone was to pick out the enemies one at a time while avoiding the combined attacks as much as possible. Mobility was the key to this strategy, but Urich had lost that key. At this point, he was as good as dead.

Limp.

Urich tried to back away slowly, but the enemy circle closed in on him. He was met with the arrows of the archers every time he peeked out of the trees.

Squirm, squirm.

Urich started seeing things. In the darkness, he saw the evil spirits waving him over as if they were waiting for him to join them. They were the evil spirits who forever wandered the world of the living without an eternal resting place.

Urich did not fear death, but the eternal wandering that would come after it.

“Hah, haha.”

He let out a chuckle. He dug his fingers into the wound on his thigh and slathered them with his own blood. The pain traveled up his spine and straight into his brain. It jerked him awake.

Lick

.

He could taste death itself as he licked the blood off his fingers.

“There are still things that I want to see.’

There was a spark in Urich’s eyes as he looked into his own desires. The golden wheat field, the burning land, the vast sea, and the end of the world.

“Over there!”

Buuuup!

It was the trumpet of the exterminators.

* * *

“You still alive, Urich?” Bachman said, looking at Urich on the ground.

“Doesn’t feel like I will be for much longer,” Urich answered as he shoved the corpses away. In the last moment, the bandits pounced on Urich in unison. He rolled on the ground, holding on for dear life.

‘I lived.’

Urich got lucky. If the exterminators arrived even a minute later, he wouldn’t have survived the bandits.

“Don’t kill them. We have to execute them in public at the square, these goddamn bandits,” the soldiers said as they tied up the captured bandits. The extermination was a success. Their hideout was not too far away, it was just difficult to find it because of the small entrance to the cave.

The bandits were dragged around by the ropes. The soldiers mocked and humiliated them by urinating on their heads and spitting on their faces.

“How many did you kill by yourself? That’s our amazing leader, haha!” Bachman remarked, looking at the bodies of the bandits. The ones that were presumably Urich’s doing were scattered around the grounds.

‘Not only did he survive all these bandits, but he managed to take some of them down. Is he truly a monster?’

The guard captain Setton thought to himself as he looked at the wounded mercenary. None of the soldiers that he had sent with him survived the bandits. They were all dead in front of him while the bodies of the bandits were laid along Urich’s escape route.

‘He slashed through at least four, or five of them as he was being chased.’

Setton was simply amazed. Urich was a warrior of extraordinary caliber. He felt more of a kinship as a warrior rather than the repulsion due to their differences as a barbarian and a civilized man.

‘The song of the bards wasn’t all bluster,’

Setton muttered as he cleaned up the battle scene. He had captured the bandits and collected the loot from their hideout.

Urich was in the middle of receiving his treatment. With the state of his body, nobody would have been surprised if he were to pass out right there and then.

“Bite down, this is going to hurt,” Bachman warned Urich as he brought a pair of tweezers. He then proceeded to pluck out the arrowheads that were embedded in his limbs.

“Mm,” Urich clenched his teeth as he flinched.

“Do you want something to bite down on?”

“Nah, I don’t need it. Just give me a drink,” Urich answered as he heated up his blade over the campfire. He was going to seal his wound by burning his flesh together.

Snip

—

As his flesh tore open, the arrowheads emerged one by one. There were four in total.

“That’s all of them, right? You were the one with the arrows in your limbs, but I’m the one sweating over here,” Bachman asked as he wiped off the sweat beading down his forehead. He sterilized the bloody tweezers and passed them on to the next person.

Sizzle—

Urich brought the red-hot blade to his thigh. The contact made the sound of meat being grilled.

“Shit, that hurts like hell.”

Even Urich wasn’t immune to pain. His teeth teetered to show that.

“Drink this. This should make you feel a bit better,” Gottval said, who somehow found himself beside Urich. He was handing something out to all the wounded men.

“What’s this?” Urich asked after looking at the liquid inside the cup.

“It’s wine boiled with honey and cinnamon. It’s good for restoring your energy after losing a lot of blood.”

Looking after the fatigued and wounded men was one of the roles of a priest. They were quite knowledgeable in many areas.

“This barely tastes like wine,” Urich said after tasting the drink.

“That’s because it’s been boiled.”

“Hmm.”

The drink warmed up his insides. It made him feel cozy and drowsy, and he felt like he could fall asleep right there.

“Serpentism... I see that there are still some of them left. They are a notoriously evil cult,” Gottval muttered with a frown.

“Are they bad?” Urich asked as he tried to keep his sleepy eyes open.

“They kidnap children and use them as sacrifice. After their ceremony, they share their flesh.”

“Really? Hmm, human meat isn’t really good for eating. Do children taste different?” Urich said without much thought. Gottval stared at Urich with a frozen look.

“Y-you’ve tried human meat?”

After seeing the priest’s reaction, Urich realized that he had misspoken and grinned awkwardly. He decided not to answer the question.

“Oh, Lou, please forgive the sinful men. Enlighten the ignorant with your light and lead them to the right path...” Gottval prayed in despair.

“Hey Gottval, I think this is working. It’s warming me up and making me feel sleepy,” Urich said as he raised his empty cup. He then leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. His head swayed as he slowly dozed off. After all the ruckus was over, the tension in his body was resolved all at once and he fell unconscious.

There were four of the Serpentist warriors left. They glared at Urich with their hands tied.

The fate of the captured bandit was certain. All that was waiting for them was their execution at the town square where they would die a horrible death to set an example. Even after death, there would be no rest for them as their severed heads would be hanging off the castle gates as a warning sign for the other bandits.

“Eek, what is this? A-ahh!” One of the soldiers carrying the loot yelped when he opened one of the jars and a bunch of snakes slithered out.

Hiss, hiss.

The snakes quickly scattered, and as they did, the Serpentist warriors pressed their lips together and whistled and clicked their tongues, making strange noises.

“

Tweet, hiss!

”

The snakes suddenly turned hostile as if they were responding to the noises of the Serpentist warriors. They jumped up and bit the soldiers near them.

“Argh!”

“Cover their mouths, right now!”

The soldiers gagged the mouths of the Serpentists, but several men had already been bitten before they could stop the whistling.

Sssss.

One of the snakes slithered through the grass, straight toward the sleeping Urich.

Hiss!

The snake coiled for a moment then jumped at Urich. It was aiming for his throat. Normally, Urich would have been awakened by the commotion, but he was completely submerged in his subconscious.

“Ugh,” Gottval groaned. He tried to strike the snake away with his right hand, but the snake bit him instead and didn’t seem to let go.

“Father Gottval!” One of the soldiers shouted as he slashed the snake.

“These are venomous snakes!”

The soldiers that had gotten bitten by the venomous snakes were falling on the ground with foam coming out of their mouths.

“Tie my arm, please!” Gottval pleaded as he held out the bitten arm. The soldiers tore off the hem of the priest’s robe and tied it around his arm tightly to cut off the circulation. Gottval’s arm was swelling up and changing color from the venom.

‘They really were venomous snakes.’

The chaos gradually dissipated as the snakes were captured one by one. All of the Serpentist warriors had been gagged to prevent them from making any more noises.

“What the hell happened...?” Urich woke up with a bitter grin as one of the soldiers broke the news.

“Father Gottval was bitten by a venomous snake trying to stop it from biting you.”

At first, it sounded like a bad joke. Then, Urich saw the priest’s awkward smile and realized that it was, in fact, the truth.

‘That frail man... for me...’

Urich looked at Gottval’s arm and scowled at the snakebite and the tightly tied forearm of the priest. He quickly became enraged at himself for letting his guard down.

“Fuck!” Urich punted the tree that he was leaning against with his injured leg.

“It’s alright, Urich, I won’t die from this,” Gottval said soothingly, trying to reassure the raging barbarian. Urich glared at him.

“But you would lose that arm,” Urich said.

Gottval only laughed, still awkwardly.