Lord of Rot

The ugly, humanoid monster, having lost its mount, turned and fled deep into the desert.

It shrieked wildly, its wretched and terrified state making it seem like a different species from its fearless brethren.

The Horse-headed Eagle Rocket immediately spread its wings and glided in pursuit. Seeing this, the robed creature stopped and roared at Rocket.

”ROAR!” The sudden turn and roar actually startled Rocket.

It had never seen such a creature and couldn’t tell if it was poisonous—or edible.

”SCREECH!” Rocket raised a wing and slapped it across the creature’s head. The thing, which had been trying to act fierce, was sent flying, tumbling twice across the ground.

Just as it tried to scramble up, the Horse-headed Eagle’s talons descended, pressing claws sharper than steel hooks against its face.

Rocket lowered its head and drew closer, curious. It didn’t understand why the prey that had seemed so fierce moments ago had suddenly turned into a little mouse, feigning death and not daring to move.

Leech controlled the Corpse Ghost, having it approach quickly.

Passing by a corpse, he pulled a spear from it. Once he was close, he thrust the spear through the creature’s throat.

He needed it dead, not alive. Besides, he couldn’t understand what it was saying.

Jonney had already rushed to the battlefield. In front of the Corpse Ghost, an Extraordinary warrior enhanced by flesh and blood, the fierce and tenacious Warg Riders were as fragile as chicks. A single slap sent both man and Warg flying, and they were dead before they hit the ground.

A dozen or so Warg Riders spotted Jonney’s violent charge and attacked in unison. Jonney stood his ground, motionless.

As the spears struck him, his body flashed with light.

The terrifying impact failed to even scratch Jonney’s plate armor. In contrast, the charge of the dozen Warg Riders came to a jarring halt, as if they had crashed into a mountain. The moment they regained their footing, Jonney’s arms reached for them like the blades of a meat grinder.

SPLASH—!

Blood splattered everywhere!

The battle had two halves and lasted less than thirty minutes in total.

In the first half, the Warg Riders launched an unstoppable, overwhelming assault on Date Palm Village. Over a hundred people ended up in the bellies of the Wargs.

In the second half, Corpse Ghost Jonney launched his own overwhelming assault against the Warg Riders. More than twenty Warg Riders died under his iron fists, leaving no survivors.

The battle was over. Baron Jin Fu dragged his broken leg as he crawled out of a pit of blood. He gazed upon the fief he had managed for years, his mouth agape, but no sound came out.

He had once provoked Leech, so he had willingly accepted his defeat.

But tonight’s unprovoked disaster had left him in a daze. He had no idea where these monsters came from or why they had targeted his lands. ’If Baron Porcupine hadn’t sent a powerful warrior to help so quickly,’ he thought, ’there probably wouldn’t be a single living soul left in my domain.’

The strong need no reason to brandish their blades against the weak.

’Pathetic. I’ve already lost my chance to ever be strong again.’

Leech glanced at the dazed Baron Jin Fu. He could guess what the man was thinking, but it wasn’t important. He was in no mood to offer him therapy.

Baron Jin Fu was now a baron in name only. He used to have a pack of hyena-like subordinates, but now he was all alone—a broken-legged, destitute baron with no means to ever rise again.

Baron Jin Fu could only hope that Leech wouldn’t abandon him, for the sake of the territory.

Leech directed Jonney to organize the scene and shouted, ”Tend to the wounded first! Bandage their injuries! Reinforcements from Bonta Market will be here any minute!”

And indeed, the reinforcements from Bonta Market arrived quickly.

The barbarian woman, Lin Nuo, arrived with her Cavalry. She immediately dispatched the Wandering Knights as scouts to survey the area and stand guard.

...

「Bonta Market.」

At the crack of dawn, the Horse-headed Eagle flew back to Bonta Market. It carried Jonney on its back and clutched the corpse of the robed monster in its talons.

A pungent, bloody stench filled the air.

The smell was partly due to the flesh beginning to rot in the heat, and partly because the robed creature had clearly never bathed. Caked-on patches of filth, the stink of excrement, and yellow stains assaulted the senses, testing the limits of a normal person’s stomach.

Leech was even reluctant to reanimate it as one of his undead.

’Controlling this thing would be no different from controlling a dung beetle!’

”A Half-Beastman!” Bai Lu cried out.

Leech turned to look at Bai Lu as she hurried over. The faint, pleasant scent from the young woman mixed with the foul stench, making Leech feel slightly dizzy.

The combination was cloyingly awful.

’No wonder elves and Half-Beastmen don’t get along,’ Leech thought.

He asked, ”Is this a Half-Beastman from your Panbo Continent?”

Leech was suspicious. Were these the same Half-Beastmen who had attacked Kunq Green Oasis and the slave caravan? The dying words of the slave master claimed the attackers were nine feet tall, but this corpse was about the height of an ordinary person.

”It’s the lowest class, a dwarf Half-Beastman,” Bai Lu said with a nod. ”These creatures reproduce at an astonishing rate. I remember a time when they covered the mountains and plains, seemingly without end. However, their intelligence is low... This one is wearing a robe, but he doesn’t look like a Half-Beastman noble.”

”Nobles?” Leech caught the key word.

”Half-Beastman nobles are as intelligent as humans, and they aren’t as ugly as the dwarf Half-Beastmen. They don’t consider the dwarf Half-Beastmen to be the same species, much like how your human nobles don’t consider slaves to be their equals,” Bai Lu said. ”Half-Beastman nobles enjoy adorning themselves like humans do, but none of them would ever look like this. Unless... he’s the illegitimate son of a Half-Beastman noble and a dwarf Half-Beastman.”

The string of terms—’dwarf Half-Beastman,’ ’Half-Beastman noble,’ ’Half-Beastman’—made Leech’s head spin.

He coughed, cutting Bai Lu off. ”That’s not the case in my domain. My slaves have the opportunity to earn their freedom! They can even learn to read.”

”But in the eyes of other human nobles, it’s perfectly normal,” Bai Lu countered. ”I’ve heard that some Half-Beastman nobles even like to keep dwarf Half-Beastmen as pets.”

”...”

Leech stared at the corpse of the dwarf Half-Beastman on the ground. ’The Half-Beastman nobles probably don’t look much better,’ he thought.

”The group that attacked Date Palm Village were dwarf Half-Beastmen riding Wargs,” Leech said. ”Does that give you any ideas?”

Bai Lu looked at Leech, her expression grim. ”Half-Beastmen rarely act alone. The Warg Riders are a small but powerful part of the dwarf Half-Beastman army. If they’ve appeared near your territory, it means there are many more of them around. You should start preparing immediately.”

”I’m already making preparations!” Leech said, turning away.

’If there’s a Half-Beastman army lurking nearby, I’m not about to fight them to the death,’ he thought. ’That is, assuming those Half-Beastmen are smart enough not to come looking for trouble with me.’

He decided to first reanimate the robed dwarf Half-Beastman into an undead. After investigating its memories, he would go back to Bai Lu for confirmation.

Bai Lu caught up to Leech. ”You should help me get back to the Panbo Continent. Only the elves can stand against the Half-Beastmen.”

”There will be a chance,” Leech said.

’A few dozen Warg Riders already had me tearing my hair out. Charging into their main camp would be suicide.’

”They’ve already reached the Lu Leiyi Continent!” Bai Lu kept pace with Leech, pleading, ”They will attack this continent relentlessly, until their kind covers the mountains and plains!”

”Long before that happens, it’ll be a headache for the King and the various Dukes,” Leech said, stopping to look at Bai Lu’s exquisite face. ”When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. Surely you don’t think my few hundred Soldiers can defeat hordes of Half-Beastmen covering the mountains and plains, do you?”

Leech was already walking away. She stopped, helpless.

She knew Leech was right. But the sudden appearance of the Half-Beastmen on this continent made her grow ever more worried. A voice in her heart called to her incessantly, urging her to return to the Panbo Continent, to return to the Mother Tree.