The atmosphere around the forest became haunting. The sound of the leaves brushing through the wind gave chills to the soldiers who were experienced in battle. Most of them became tense and raised their hands to send a warning.

‘This is crazy.’

Squad Leader Hallen frowned at the pressure of monster hunting. He could never get used to it.

‘I have got to retire from this hell hole… DAMMIT!’

Hallen immediately sensed the impending attack.

“It’s coming! Be ready!”

All soldiers became alarmed and began to focus. The sound died down into complete silence. All soldiers knew what this meant. The extreme silence was an alarm that a monster was in range.

Some soldiers clenched their weapons so hard that their hands became pale. Some breathed roughly with intensity. Soon, the monster revealed itself through the woods.

“It’s here!”

“Fire at will!!”

A giant monster revealed itself through the woods and soldiers began firing their weapons. It was more than one. These were monsters called Croties, or giant cat-like monsters. Its sharp claws and teeth were dangerous and it had hard leather on its flesh that made it difficult to kill.

A male Crotie would grow up to 5 meters to its shoulder height. It was a giant beast.

“They revealed themselves! Fire!!!”

All crossbows, bows, and other weapons were fired toward the monsters. The monsters were powerful, but they were against the famed Central Army of the Khalodian Empire. These were experienced monster-hunting soldiers.

After a fierce battle, all the monsters were soon down on the ground, most of them dead.

“Don’t just stand there! Clean up the area!”

“Yes, sir! Make sure all monsters are dead! Be on guard!”

All soldiers scattered to clean up the area. Some disbanded the traps they had set up while some went over to the monster bodies to clean and take what was left of the bodies.

“Whoa. Aren’t these the infamous ones in the area?”

One of young soldiers asked and another answered while cutting up the monster carcasses.

“Yeah. I heard almost 7 thousand people were killed because of these monsters.”

“Wow. Why didn’t they kill it?”

Another soldier then jumped in from behind, “You think it’s easy? It took us a full month.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“These ones were too smart.”

“Don’t even start, man. It took us a month to get them all gathered here.”

“Yeah. I don’t think any other people can handle them.”

Soldiers shook their heads as they talked about people in these remote places. But they were also proud of themselves for being able to get rid of such fearsome monsters.

End of Chapter