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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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Chapter 108 - Ismera's Great Forest (7)
A scorching summer.
And an even hotter forest.
Flames raged all around, the red blaze licking the skies, and thick smoke blocked out the sunlight.
Torches darted back and forth, and flaming arrows streaked across the sky.
The 56th Special Force of the Demon King’s army had reached Tiraellen and was systematically burning the forest.
Their objective was the trees deep within the Great Forest.
The smaller trees on the outskirts were of no concern to them.
However, since the forest leading to the Great Forest was so vast, entering it directly would result in significant losses due to the elves’ annoying guerrilla tactics. So, they decided to burn the forest to clear a path.
To achieve this, the 56th Special Force set fires on multiple fronts, advancing as if to encircle the Great Forest, and stationed ambush units in places where the elves might retreat and establish defensive lines.
In the rear, engineers were advancing to carry out actual logging operations. As soon as the Special Force subdued the elves in the Great Forest, the engineers would begin cutting down the trees.
The fire attack was progressing very aggressively, with the vanguard already penetrating the Great Forest.
Many elves had died, and the surviving elves were moving from tree to tree, launching sporadic attacks.
However, as large portions of the forest burned, the elves' range of movement was becoming increasingly restricted, making their extermination only a matter of time.
The commander of the 56th Special Force received these positive reports from the front lines and was in high spirits.
Just then, the sound of something cutting through the air was heard, and an arrow with bird feathers aimed for the commander’s head.
"(Watch out!)"
At the shout of his warriors, the commander slightly tilted his head, deflecting the arrow with the horn on his head.
The warriors around him let out exclamations of awe mixed with reverence.
"(Commander! We have completely surrounded the Great Forest!)"
A demon warrior ran up to report.
"(Shall we send the final ultimatum?)"
"(It’s pointless. Those pointed-ear scum will never take a single step out of the Great Forest.)"
The commander chuckled.
Stupid and stubborn pointy-eared fools.
"(Advance according to plan! Leave no prisoners! Exterminate them all!)"
At the commander’s order, signal arrows were shot high into the sky.
At that signal, warriors from all sides let out battle cries and charged into the Great Forest.
# # # # #
While the main force advanced into the Great Forest.
Ambush units from the Special Force were lying in wait along the outskirts of the forest behind the advancing troops.
They were there to cut off the retreat of any elves who might attempt to escape after failing to defend the Great Forest and to annihilate them.
However, since it was unthinkable that the elves would abandon the Great Forest, the ambush units had taken a rather relaxed stance, comfortably perched on trees.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, an inexplicable sound sliced through the stillness of the trees.
The demon warriors flinched, quickly adjusting their stances and scanning their surroundings with sharp eyes.
It wasn’t the signal for an attack, nor was it the characteristic sound of elves on the move.
It was an unfamiliar and unsettling noise, the likes of which they had never heard before.
Whoosh! Thud.
After the second sound, a dull thud followed as something heavy hit the ground.
It was a large fruit, about the size of a southern coconut.
The key difference was that, unlike the typically oval and hairy coconuts, this one had two horns curved like those of a mountain goat.
"(What the...!?)"
Only when one of the warriors realized that the object on the ground was a severed demon's head did he gasp in shock.
Whoosh! Thud, thud. Whoosh! Thud. Whoosh! Thud, thud.
Heads of demons began to drop all around.
The sight of this made one of the demon warriors tear off his camouflage net and shout.
"(It’s an ambush!)"
But there was no response from his comrades.
In the eerie silence that raised the hairs on his body, the demon warrior trembled and jumped down from the tree. He shouldn’t have.
"(Gah!)"
As the demon warrior jumped down, a noose caught around his neck, causing him to dangle from a branch as if being hanged.
"Don’t kill him, Dian! I need to ask him something!"
Linus emerged from the underbrush, shouting, and the demon warrior dropped heavily to the ground.
As the demon warrior lay on the ground, trying to flee, the noose tightened around his neck once more, choking him.
"(Gah, gah!)"
"You’re damn heavy."
Dian, who had wrapped the other end of the noose around his wrist, stepped out of the dark shadows.
"Ask your questions and let’s finish this."
Linus knelt on one knee to match the terrified demon warrior's eye level.
"(State your unit and rank.)"
At Linus's clumsy demon language, the demon warrior remained silent.
Then Dian strode forward and stabbed the demon warrior's foot with a dagger.
"(Aaaah!)"
"(State your unit and rank.)"
In pain, the demon warrior babbled a response to Linus's question.
"Dian. The intel from the reconnaissance team was correct. It’s the 56th Special Force. The engineers are advancing from the rear."
"Ask where the Special Force commander is. If we get that bastard, it’s over."
Linus asked again.
"(Where is the command unit now?)"
"(I don’t know! I’m just a low-ranking officer! I don’t know that much!)"
At Linus's signal, Dian stabbed the other foot this time.
"(Aaaaah! The Great Forest! They’ve gone straight into the Great Forest!)"
"(Mark the command unit’s route of attack.)"
Linus shoved a map in the demon warrior’s face, and the demon, glancing fearfully at Dian, hastily drew a line.
"Is that good enough?"
"It is."
Dian’s dagger flashed, and blood spurted from the demon warrior’s neck like a fountain.
"What do we do now, Linus?"
Dian asked as he looked at the map.
"Just take out the commander’s head, or what?"
"There are six attack routes, so that won’t be enough."
After a brief moment of thought, Linus came up with an idea.
"Let’s split up here. I’ll take out the Special Force’s command unit, and you hold off the other units coming from the other directions. I’ll join you as soon as I can."
"Want to bet on who finishes first and comes to help the other?"
"I don’t have any money left to bet with you."
Linus, who had lost several similar bets before, gave an awkward laugh.
"I’ll lend you some."
"Fine, let's bet."
When Linus agreed, Dian finally removed the noose and looked out into the distance.
The area he gazed at was filled with nothing but flames and smoke.
"Ha, those pointy-eared bastards. We kept telling them to join the alliance, but they ignored us, and now they’re paying the price."
"Maybe they’ll change their minds after we help them this time. Let’s go before it’s too late."
Dian and Linus quickly made their way toward the Great Forest, which was covered in black smoke.
# # # # #
The 56th Special Force was gradually taking control of the Great Forest from the outskirts.
The elves were fiercely resisting, but from the moment the fire attack began, the outcome of the battle had already been decided.
If they were fighting in an intact forest, the Special Force would have been bogged down by the elves’ elusive guerrilla warfare.
But now, with the forest burning, the elves had nowhere to hide, leaving them hopelessly outmatched against the heavily armed demons.
Moreover, the demons were seasoned warriors with extensive combat experience, pushing back the Human Alliance—a force composed of various races—into a defensive position.
Although their advance had slowed somewhat due to the recent disruptions by mysterious humans who were systematically assassinating the legion commanders, this was a remote area far from the main front lines. There was no way those rumored humans would show up here.
In fact, there was a possibility that these rumors were baseless, perhaps spread by the Human Alliance to demoralize the Demon King’s army and rally their forces.
The reports of legion commanders being killed one after another across the front lines couldn’t possibly be the work of just a few humans.
Most likely, the commanders had fallen for their own reasons, and the incidents were strung together to create some absurd myth.
"(Commander! There’s someone suspicious up ahead!)"
One of the warriors pointed ahead. Someone was blocking their path.
It was a neatly dressed blonde man, his face covered with a black mask to avoid inhaling smoke.
"(He’s unarmed. Could he be an elf coming to surrender?)"
At the warrior’s question, the Special Force commander scrutinized the figure standing in their way.
Despite the well-built physique and the blonde hair that resembled that of an elf, his ears were short.
"(He looks like a mutant.)"
"(I’ve heard that sometimes elves have such disabilities. Perhaps he tried to flee the Great Forest alone and froze when he encountered us.)"
"(Makes sense. Keep advancing. Leave that one alive.)"
The Special Force commander grinned.
"(Let him watch with his own eyes as the Great Forest behind him burns to the ground. Then he’ll writhe in regret, fitting for a traitor to his kin.)"
The demon warriors sneered with contempt and ridicule as they passed by the man standing in the middle of the path.
"(Coward.)"
The demon warriors muttered as they passed by the man.
As the last of the group was just passing him by, suddenly—
"(What the hell?!)"
"(Get out of the way!)"
The man abruptly pulled out a long sword from nowhere and began slashing wildly.
"(Where did that sword come from?!)"
"(Kill him!)"
The demon warriors at the rear rushed at the man who had started attacking.
"(Ignore it! Keep advancing! Our goal is to exterminate the elves in the Great Forest!)"
At the commander's order, the remaining warriors continued moving forward.
A minor skirmish like this couldn’t be allowed to disrupt the mission.
"(Aaaah!!)"
"(Help me!!)”
Just then, a series of horrifying screams erupted from behind.
When the commander turned around, he was left speechless.
The man, surrounded by demon warriors, was twirling his sword as if performing a dance, and it was causing a spray of blood and flesh to burst out, like meat being pulverized in a grinder.
"(Who the hell is that?!)"
"(He’s coming this way!)"
The demon warriors at the front tried to block the man who was steadily advancing, but they were dismembered and scattered in all directions.
"(Raise your shields! Form a wall!)"
The shield-bearers rushed forward to create a barrier, but it was shattered as easily as a hut in a hurricane.
The man, tearing through everything in his path, looked like a giant, spinning saw blade.
"(Fire the crossbows!)"
The warriors shot their crossbows at the man, but he displayed uncanny skill, deflecting each quarrel with almost ghostly precision.
Despite being demons, they were still intelligent beings. Witnessing something so unbelievable could cause their rational minds to falter momentarily.
The Special Force commander, seeing his subordinates disintegrating right before his eyes, felt his mind go blank.
Suddenly, a thought crossed the commander’s mind, one that he could hardly believe even as it formed.
The rumors about those humans said to be assassinating legion commanders across the front lines.
He had dismissed them as mere propaganda spread by the Human Alliance to weaken the Demon King's army and bolster their own morale.
But the unprecedented sight unfolding before his eyes was starting to crack the commander’s resolve.
Could that human be… the one from the rumors?!
"(W-what should we do?!)"
"(Give us orders!)"
Snapped back to reality by his warriors shaking him, the commander quickly assessed the situation.
If that human really was ‘that’ one, he couldn't be stopped with ordinary anti-personnel weapons. At the very least, they needed siege weapons.
But since siege weapons were unnecessary for this operation, the Special Force hadn’t brought any.
And they couldn’t halt the mission and retreat now.
It wasn’t just about the disgrace of his clan losing the Demon King’s favor—where could they even retreat to?
The lunatic was advancing from the rear. Falling back would be suicide!
"(Charge into the heart of the Great Forest! Charge!)"
The commander shouted, waving his sword.
On the opposite side of the Great Forest were the other units attacking from different directions.
They’d join forces with them to take down this human!
No matter how skilled he was with a blade, even he couldn’t stand against a thousand demon warriors!
Terrified by the steadily approaching human, the demon warriors immediately began sprinting forward at the commander's order.
"(Look out! Commander, ahead!)"
Just then, one of the leading warriors shouted urgently, pointing ahead.
Another human stood in their path.
This one had brown, tousled hair, also wearing a mask, and wielded two swords.
But the shape of those swords looked oddly familiar.
Those were the swords used by the Special Force’s unit commanders?!
C-could it be that the other units that entered from different directions—could it be?!
"(Should we keep going?!)"
"(Commander! Commander! What should we do?!)"
"(Damn it! Keep going! Charge!)"
With the human tearing through their rear guard, they had no choice but to charge forward.
As the demon warriors charged, the man in front spread his two swords and began running toward them.
"(Alright, come on! I’ll cut you in two!)"
The commander gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly.
Just as they clashed, and the commander swung his sword down—
The human suddenly disappeared from sight.
"(Don’t you dare run away! Where did you go?!)"
The commander turned around, trying to locate the vanished human, but suddenly felt as if his height was rapidly decreasing.
Why does it feel like I’m getting shorter?
At the same time, the upper bodies of dozens of warriors around him began to slide off their lower halves at a diagonal angle, falling to the ground.
The same fate befell the commander.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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