Chapter 58: Struggle for the Survival part 2

Looking at the transformed Logier, some bitter memories resurfaced. Although he looked somewhat similar to that thing inside the dungeon where I died as a human, I spotted some differences. It wasn’t that scary as I had thought it would be. Of course, I was scared and also oozed in a cold sweat the moment I saw it. But I was no longer the same Alex a month ago.

I have seen worse.

However, more than scared, I was worried and confused. Urt and Sepi’s scrunched up face didn’t help either. It made me realize that whatever happened to him wasn’t supposed to happen.

“What happened to Logier?” I asked Sepi, who stood beside me. At that time, I forgot that I was in a concealed state, and my sudden appearance spooked the poor chief out. His hands twitched for the mace strapped to his back.

“Chief has failed in his enhancing. He has become a Fallen.” Sepi said gravely. I detected a trace of anger in his tone, which was weird. I had never heard Sepi talking about Logier with anger or resentment. There was always respect and admiration present before today.

More importantly, what is a ‘Fallen’? As this question arose in my heart, I had to voice it out to him. I had to get a clear picture of what was happening and why Logier had turned into that! However, considering how frenzied he was attacking everyone in his line of sight, I somewhat guessed what this so-called Fallen meant.

“Fallen is what we call when one of us fails to Enhance successfully and turn into that.” Sepi pointed his finger at the grotesque, skin-less creature that used to be Logier not long ago. At the moment, it burst an orc’s head like watermelon with his bare hands. Then it kicked a nearby human to death and tore another from the middle, pulling out his spine together with his head.

That’s brutal! I shook and sweated as I saw how brutally he fought after transforming into that creature.

“When we turn into that, we lose ourselves and fall into the path of the demon. We turn into that, stripped of what we were before and become a new being that only knows to kill indiscriminately.” Sepi’s tone suddenly rose a few octaves, “that thing there, it’s an insult to our former chief. Lord, I need your permission to march my troops and kill it before it humiliates our chief any further.”

So that’s how it is! Now that I understood why he was angry, I felt relieved. At the same time, I also felt sad. From Sepi’s own words, I concluded that Logier was gone forever. I had a premonition before, but I had never thought it would really come true.

In a brief second, the time I had spent together with him, flashed past my eyes like a panoramic movie. The very first day I met him when he was laying dead tired after dealing with a bunch of goblins, to the last time I conversed with him before the start of this war.

His conviction had moved me at that time.

Shit! I balled my fist and cursed in my heart while thanking the gods that I didn’t have tear glands as a monster. I would have cried for real, otherwise. Losing Logeir felt the same as losing Coco when I came to his world for the first time. Coco might be my pet dog, but he was more like my friend and a family member.

Logier was more or less the same.

After taking a deep breath, I loosened my fist and stared at where ‘it’ was fighting. Wherever ‘it’ went, be it monsters or humans, they scatter immediately. It created a weird scene that looked very out of place on a battlefield between humans and monsters.

“Not now.” I denied Sepi’s plea. I had my reasons as well, “currently, Logier’s presence is giving us a form of advantage. Before his death, he talked about his wish to protect his tribe. Even in death, he also wished to somehow do the same. Even if he turned into that, let him do what he wanted.”

“But Lord… that thing…” I raised my hand to stop him and sighed deeply. “Sepi, can’t you see the precarious situation we are in?” To prove my point, I showed him how the human army fought with the orcs and goblins. I continued, “humans are sneakier and more intelligent than us. They also have sophisticated weapons at their disposal. Their power and finesse at using their abilities are better than us. Tell me, how can we win this war with so many odds stacked against us?”

“Then lord, what are you suggesting?” As expected of Logier’s successor. He was as dumb, if not more than he. While feeling sad, I explained the same thing again, using simpler words.

“We will let Fallen Logier do whatever it pleases. Ask your orcs to retreat.” I stared at the battlefield. Just then, Logier endured a series of shining crescent-shaped magic attacks to its body. However, it just shrugged it off like nothing happened, and continued its frenzied charge towards the humans.

Though the mercenaries were nimble, this Fallen Logier didn’t lose to them in terms of speed. It kept up with them while attacking with its mace. One more thing I must notify about Logier. After he became a Fallen, he regrew his other arm. More importantly, he seemed to be stronger than before to me.

Obeying my orders, Sepi made all the frenzied orcs retreat and regroup. They all seemed to have shared the same sentiment as their current leader. They were looking at Fallen Logier with anger and hatred in their eyes. It made me realize the kind of existence this Fallen was.

The human troops looked confused when orcs ran away into the forest all of a sudden. But they didn’t have time to ponder about it as the absence of orcs led the Fallen Logier to charge towards the humans instead.

While everyone’s attention was on the Fallen Logier, I made the juvenile goblins throw darts to benumb random targets. At the same time, the orcs who were retreated into the forest not long ago, charged with Urt in the lead.

Caught in the middle, the humans had to divert their attention to both sides.

On the top of a tree, I stood with mouth agape as I saw the escalation of the situation. It happened all of sudden throwing me into a state of shock. I only gave them the order to retreat, not to chargeback.

I saw Urt, who was leading the charge, with my mouth making the impression of a fish out of water. To think that he could perfectly judge the battle situation and plan accordingly, I had underestimated him too much. Whether it was his own ability or due to him being a Goblin General, I didn’t care. All I knew was that this Urt was an absolute gem whom I couldn’t give up no matter what.

Since it’s like this, I decided to help him to the fullest of my abilities. Squinting my eyes, I kept a close watch on him.

The human troops got sandwiched between a frenzied Fallen and massive warmongering monsters. In the blink of an eye, the death toll began to rise among human troops. Some got mutilated, many got trampled and the rest got squashed to death by orcs and mutated goblins. It was a dance of death.

The orcs were using the same tactics, switching when someone gets wounded. It limited the casualty among orcs to zero. Only a few juvenile goblins who got too close, died in the hands of the retaliating humans.

Out of our 800 troups, a few orcs and mutated goblins died by Fallen Logier. Including the juvenile goblins killed now, our casualty was a little more than 100. However, the same couldn’t be said for humans.

At first, they fought well. After getting used to our fighting style, they devised a way to dodge and attack at the same time. That gave us a lot of trouble, and most of our casualty also happened during that time.

Boom!!

Suddenly an explosion occurred, sending gravel and debris into the air. When the dust settled, I saw Urt surrounded by an ethereal brown colored flame-like aura. Faintly, I saw a transparent image of a skeletal figure behind him.

He raised his hands as brown light gathered around the spear he held. Pulling back his hands, he thrust it forwards towards a bunch of human warriors. Then, without rhyme or reason, nine human warriors and two assassins who stood in a straight line in front of him, dropped down.

Dead!

Using shadows as a cover, when I got closer, I saw a puncture wound on where their hearts should be. This puncture was around an inch in diameter.

“¡Guauu!”