Thalia looked at the black shape revealed beneath the light of the setting sun with eyes struck by panic.
Its massive body, wrapped in scales, curled tightly like a volcano just before spewing lava, then soared high into the air.
At the top of it, a gigantic reptilian head flashed its red eyes and looked down at them.
The strength left Thalia’s legs, and she collapsed to the ground.
When the monster, which had been spewing hot breath from its nostrils, spread wide the wings wrapped in black membrane, it felt as if the whole world had been engulfed in pitch-black darkness.
Varkas drew his sword and shouted in a sharp voice.
“Prepare the subjugation equipment at once!”
No sooner had his order fallen than knights rushed out from among the people scattering in confusion.
They surrounded the monster, drove things like iron stakes into the ground, then connected thick chains to their ends.
Soon after, dozens of steel harpoons flew like arrows toward the monster’s gigantic body.
Thalia covered her ears.
A thunderous roar had burst from the mouth of the monster as it raised its head high.
Each time its massive body, bound by dozens of chains, twisted violently, the ground trembled, and several stakes that could not withstand the force were ripped out and shot into the air.
“Everyone, get back!”
At the same time someone’s shout rang out loudly, the monster that had broken free of its restraints swung one wing fiercely.
Thalia screamed.
With the monster’s wingbeat, two or three tents were swept away, and five or six servants who had not managed to prepare were flung away like sheets of paper.
One of their bodies, twisted at a bizarre angle, rolled close to her.
It felt as if she were having a nightmare.
“Bring more equipment!”
Varkas’s rough voice barely held on to her consciousness, which was about to blur.
Thalia put strength into her trembling legs and barely managed to stand.
Then, with a face as if her soul had left her body, she watched Varkas charge like a flash of light toward the monster rampaging savagely.
He was charging toward the huge maw of the monster, whose body alone looked well over thirty cubets, about nine meters, in size.
“Varkas!”
His name burst from her mouth like a scream, and at the same moment, the monster’s wing flew toward Varkas like a whip.
Thalia watched the sight with eyes filled with terror.
The black wing, large enough to cover the sky, covered Varkas’s body in an instant.
Her world, too, was dyed completely black.
But the next moment, the pale blade in Varkas’s hand tore through the thick membrane in a long line as if it were a sheet of paper.
In an instant, Varkas cut across the monster’s wing and even severed the thick bundle of muscles connecting it to the body.
The monster, having lost one wing in the blink of an eye, lost its balance and staggered greatly.
Not missing that opening, Varkas pulled a chain sickle from his waist and threw its hook-shaped blade into the hideous maw packed densely with awl-like teeth.
Then he slid sideways, connected the chain to a stake fixed into the ground, and yanked the chain with brute force.
At that, the monster, whose lower jaw had been pierced by the chain sickle, collapsed helplessly like a fish caught on a hook.
At the monstrous strength that was hard to believe had come from a slender, graceful body like a dancer’s, Thalia opened her mouth in astonishment.
Varkas, gripping the chain with both hands, shouted loudly at his subordinates.
“Hurry and finish it!”
Soon after, dozens of harpoons lodged into the monster’s body.
The beast covered in black scales writhed its house-sized body and resisted desperately, but it was helpless against the fierce barrage of attacks.
In an instant, the monster, which had taken on the shape of a hedgehog, stuck out its tongue and sagged limply onto the ground.
Only then could Thalia let out the breath she had been holding.
“Are you all right?”
A guard knight who had hurriedly run over from somewhere looked down at her with worried eyes.
It seemed he had rushed to the battlefield while searching for her, for he, too, was holding a sword in one hand.
The man hurriedly shoved it back into its sheath and reached out to help her up.
Thalia roughly slapped his hand away and approached Varkas, who was retrieving the equipment from the monster’s body.
Varkas, who had been winding the loosened chain around one hand, moved only his eyes and swept his gaze over her from head to toe.
Even at that dry gaze, as if he were checking the condition of an object entrusted to him, anger did not rise in her at that moment.
Without realizing it, Thalia asked in an anxious voice.
“•••·• Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”
As she examined him closely with trembling eyes, she saw dark red bloodstains blotched along his nape.
Thalia reached out and touched his neck.
Fortunately, it did not seem to be Varkas’s blood.
Just as she let out a sigh of relief, the crown of her head suddenly prickled.
Thalia lifted her gaze and found Varkas looking down at her with eyes that had widened ever so slightly, and she hurriedly lowered her arm.
At his silence, cold sweat sprang from her pores.
Was he dumbfounded that a woman who hit his face or threw things at him all the time was now pretending to worry about him?
Thalia, fumbling with a flustered expression, muttered as if making an excuse.
“If someone I’ve known for nearly ten years ended up hurt right in front of my eyes, I’d have bad dreams. I don’t want to have nightmares because of you.”
“•••It is fortunate, then, that I have no intention of appearing in Your Highness’s dreams.”
For some reason, relief washed over her at his hateful reply, no different from usual.
Thalia let her shoulders droop, aching dully from how tense she had been.
Varkas was quietly looking down at her and seemed about to say something when screams sounded again from afar.
Thalia turned her head and drew in a harsh breath.
Black monsters were covering the entire sky.
The guard knight muttered with a devastated expression.
“Why would a flock of wyverns appear at this time of year••••••.”
“Instead of wondering about that, go bring out the subjugation equipment! Your Highness, come this way.”
Varkas, who immediately regained his composure, gave orders in a sharp voice, grabbed her wrist, and strode across the campsite.
Thalia stayed close behind his back and moved her legs as if the soles of her feet were on fire.
Everywhere, there was the smell of blood and the smell of flames.
Chaos.
The chaos she had waited and waited for had finally broken out.
And yet she could not feel anything like joy.
Only freezing terror moved through her blood.
“Sir Siarkan! We have set up a defensive barrier over there!”
As she stared blankly at the monsters smashing wagons and tents indiscriminately, someone shouted loudly.
Varkas immediately turned that way.
“Do not come out from here under any circumstances.”
Varkas led her, half out of her mind, to the center of the campsite and spoke in a firm tone.
Thalia turned her head and looked around.
A group of people had taken shelter in front of dozens of baggage wagons lined up like a wall.
“Defensive magical tools have been installed in the wagons. You should be safe here.”
“W-what about you?”
Varkas let her question go in one ear and out the other and immediately turned around.
Thalia urgently grabbed hold of him.
“Are you crazy? Where are you going right now!”
“The defensive magic will not last long. We must deal with the monsters before then.”
Varkas firmly removed her hand and ran toward the place where the melee was unfolding.
Thalia stared at his retreating back with a devastated expression, then soon chased after him frantically.
“No! Don’t go! Varkas! Varkas!”
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