Senu’s words were nothing wrong. The logical Silanda immediately agreed.

“Senu is right.”

As her hand slowly caressed the weapon, he asserted once more.

“We must save it for the very last moment.”

His words were heavy with meaning, and Jahan gulped audibly.

That was when it happened. An enormous noise erupted from outside the carriage, accompanied by a sudden, violent shake as if a giant was vigorously shaking the carriage.

“Crazy! What the heck is this?!”

Silanda groaned, hitting her head on the ceiling.

“An earthquake!”

Senu shouted. He quickly caught Jahan as he lost his balance and toppled over.

“Huh, whoa…!”

All four inside were pushed to the far end of the carriage.

“Be careful…!”

Enya screamed. The heavy weapons in the front of the carriage rolled towards them. The enormous weight of the metallic weapons added to the tilt, and the carriage flipped over completely.

“Aaacck—!”

Enya shut her eyes tight against the incoming weapons, clinging to the person in front of her.

As the horses neighed frantically, all four were suddenly ejected from the carriage. She rolled onto the ground and quickly scanned her surroundings amid the chaos. Broken pieces of the carriage lay scattered around them.

Everything was in disarray. The sounds of horses neighing and soldiers shouting loudly created a ringing. With one exceptionally loud voice shouting.

“It’s a Feluda…!”

A shockwave like lightning on a dry sky swept over Enya.

“D*mn, what is that…?!”

Silanda cursed.

Enya quickly turned her gaze towards what she was looking at and then staggered back in horror.

“Huh…!”

A familiar beast was among the scattered, ant-like soldiers.

She couldn’t believe her eyes.

A Feluda was shaking its head from side to side, gripping a soldier’s arm in its beak. The soldier screamed as if his life was ending.

The Feluda’s egg-shaped body was as big as a cow. It was covered in shaggy emerald fur, with sharp spikes and large wings on its back. Its head, resembling a snake, flicked its long tongue in and out between its beak.

‘Fe, Feludas are nocturnal; why are they active in broad daylight…?’

Enya recalled her knowledge in shock as she witnessed the scene.

Her basic understanding of monsters was quite solid, and she gained it from years living with Tarhan, who had made a living by dissecting monster carcasses and hunting.

Feludas, due to their hefty weight, couldn’t fly fast or walk quickly, so they weren’t considered highly threatening if one could just manage to run away. However, they were dangerous because they usually moved in groups.

As expected, it wasn’t long before a deafening noise filled the air above. An ear-splitting shriek spread as the sky quickly darkened.

It wasn’t dusk. Rather, dozens of other Feludas had swarmed in, blotting out the sky.

The real hunt had begun.

“Uwaackk…!”

Screams of horror echoed as Feludas caught a couple of horses around their overturned carriage. They were talking about the topic of monsters not long ago before they were actually attacked.

Caught off guard by the sudden onslaught, Enya and her companions from the cave were all in disarray. Clearly, Servia’s army, while overconfident in their numbers, had recklessly crossed an area swarming with Feludas.

The rear of their column, where their carriage was located, was attacked.

Among the rising panic, Enya gritted her teeth, trying to gather her wits. She quickly scanned the area. Luckily, other soldiers who were resting nearby, including the guards watching them, seemed too bewildered by the sudden Feluda attack to react properly.

She hurriedly looked for Jahan and Senu. Thankfully, they were already picking themselves up from the pile of debris from their fallen carriage.

“Can’t believe this…”

The leper cave dwellers stared at the Feluda that had taken center stage amidst the chaos, their spirits seemingly snatched away by the sight. The unexpected size of the monster, seen for the first time on the ground, seemed to have frightened them all.

“Are, are monsters always this big…?”

Even Silanda, who was usually quite brave, seemed frozen in place, unable to move.

“Don’t be scared by its size! Feludas are slow, so as long as we run away in time, they’re not that much of a threat!”

Enya quickly went to Senu, who was completely out of his wits, helped him up, and shouted.

Her words were true.

Silanda snapped out of it first. After giving a quick glance at a Feluda trampling over other soldiers, she swiftly started to gather their scattered luggage. Considering she only had one arm, her speed was astonishing.

Senu also followed her lead, strapping two massive backpacks filled with weapons to his back.

At that moment, Enya realized everyone had the same thought.

This was their only chance to escape.

Now, as the rear of Servia’s camp descended into chaos under the Feluda’s assault. However, Jahan was still unable to snap out of it, frozen by the sight of the gigantic monster he was seeing for the first time.

“Stop dawdling and grab your stuff! You, idiot!”

Silanda yelled at Jahan, who was still in shock, sitting amidst the wreckage.

Startled, Jahan hurriedly picked up their belongings scattered around the broken carriage. The other soldiers around them were too preoccupied to notice four living beings emerging from what they had assumed was just cargo.

“Hurry, run…!”

Silanda, with a load half her size on her back, took off running with a speed that matched how quickly she had gathered their gear.

Senu and Jahan quickly followed suit.

Enya, too, raced after them with all her might.

Still, it was futile. After a few stumbling steps, her legs gave out, and she collapsed. A lifetime of limping had left her legs unprepared for such a desperate situation. A wave of despair washed over her, and her vision darkened.

‘I can’t keep up with Senu and the others with these legs…’

She was wrong. Overwhelmed by an indescribable sense of helplessness, Enya bit the inside of her lip until it almost bled.

Then, something landed in front of her.

“En, Enya…!”

Jahan had dropped his load and crouched in front of her.

Enya gasped for air, shocked to see Jahan bending down in front of her. Soon, Silanda was there too, wrapping the load Jahan had removed around Enya’s body and shouting.

“Over there! Don’t dawdle, get on Jahan’s back quick!”

“What, what?”

Enya’s mouth dropped open at the absurd suggestion to be carried on Jahan’s back, who was shorter than her. As she hesitated, Silanda sighed and made Enya wrap her arms around Jahan’s neck.

“Heave-ho…!”

With a strange grunt, Jahan suddenly stood up and carried her. Enya let out a small scream and instinctively clung to Jahan’s neck.

Despite the added weight of her and the cargo, Jahan started running.

“Ja, Jahan…!”

Enya’s eyes widened. She had never imagined such strength hidden in Jahan’s small stature.

“Don’t make me talk! I might drop you!”

Jahan clenched his teeth, and from then on, he said nothing more.

Although she wasn’t running herself, Enya felt her breath running short. She tightly closed her eyes and put more strength into her arms wrapped around Jahan’s neck, hoping to help him even slightly.

Around them, a battle with the Feluda had erupted.

The army, having recovered from the surprise attack, had begun their counterattack. Spears flew everywhere, and arrows aimed at the Feluda swarm in the air shot up and then rained down to the ground.

Silanda, who nearly stepped on an arrow that missed Senu, cursed loudly.

Enya, carried by Jahan, scanned her surroundings in terror as the fearsome howls of the giant Feludas filled the air.

Lifting her head, she saw the sky that had been clear moments ago now ominously darkened, as if thunder might strike at any moment. On closer inspection, it wasn’t the weather but a swarm of Feludas flying overhead that blotted out the sun. There seemed to be dozens of them at a glance.

Despite her unfamiliarity with such situations, Enya could tell at a glance that they were virtually surrounded by a swarm of Feludas.

Using their numbers to surround and press in from all sides was a typical hunting tactic of Feludas.

However, something was off.

‘Even with a massive swarm of Feludas, they shouldn’t boldly attack a large group of humans traveling together…’

As far as Enya knew, Feludas, being herd creatures, were surprisingly timid despite their size. In addition, there was more that didn’t add up.

“Gasp, why isn’t any support coming… from the front battalion?”

Senu yelled as he kept running.

As Senu pointed out, the army was divided into several battalions, and their carriage was almost at the rear of the last one. With such commotion at the back, the front lines should have sent soldiers to check on the situation, yet there was silence.

Silanda, too, seemed to be running out of breath as he shouted in frustration.

“Exactly my point! At this rate, escaping won’t be our only problem; we’ll be eaten by these monsters!”

As his words fell, a loud crash occurred, and the ground beneath them seemed to collapse. A giant Feluda landed right next to Senu on his right. Amidst a storm of sand and dust, the monster’s dark blue feathered body emerged.

“To, to the other side…!”

As Jahan’s shout signaled, the group changed direction, but there, too, two giant Feludas spread their massive wings and blocked their path.

They were trapped on all sides. Surrounded by a swarm of Feludas that filled the sky with their threatening cries, the group found themselves in a desperate situation with nowhere to run, as if they needed to burrow into the ground to escape.

Whiik—!

A sound, both alien and yet unmistakably familiar, shot through the air like an arrow, reaching Enya’s ears.

Feeling a chill run through her body, Enya lifted her head toward the direction of the sound.

It was Yaru’s whistle.

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