Monsters were simple-minded creatures, far less complex and thoughtful than humans –
Northern thought understanding them would be a herculean task.
But he wasn’t even trying, and somehow, he understood them way better than he thought he would, and his only evaluation was:
‘…they are just too simple-minded.’
Usually, when humans marched to war, they always sent scouts first. After the scouts have confirmed the situation, they would then send the infantry, who are the expendable “meatballs” of the battlefield – well, put it however, they are the ones who end up dying the most.
Then the generals usually took the backstage, venturing into battle when the tide was critical. It was a strategic move, either to raise the morale of their soldiers or destroy the morale of their enemy with the outlandish power and might of the generals.
But the monsters had it way different – they didn’t care about all that logic, tactics, or strategies.
They just took the bull by its horns.
Northern and the rest of the generals marched in front, while the others marched behind them, each squad straight behind their general.
Each general also had an assistant, and for Northern, it was the familiar face he was tired of seeing at the prison mine.
He worried if the hideous creature would not tear him from behind while they were in war, but he was kind of confident it wouldn’t happen. The creature was strong, incredibly so.
Northern looked left and right, it was a straight array of generals, all of them taking a steady but not slow march to the battlefield.
‘I guess I didn’t observe it before because I didn’t have the luxury to – they really have their generals in front.’
He walked silently for a couple of minutes, only watching Mr. Fluffy, who amazingly was able to keep up.
Then he raced his mind back to the surprises that made him so confident about this battle.
Northern never thought or expected that evolving a talent would cause so much change – he didn’t know it meant so much.
And now, he couldn’t help but think he had undermined the extent of his Talent Copying System.
Sparks of excitement shimmered within his blue eyes as he inspected the changes on the panel:
[Copied Talents]: [1/1]
Talent: Singularity
Class: [S]
Talent (True) Name: [Me, Myself And I]
Description: [I am the only one, it is me, myself and I! All others strengthen me]
Talent Ability: [Soul Clone]
Attributes: [You cannot access this information at your soul rank]
Talent Progression: [0/1000]
Apart from the attribute part, which left a bad taste in his mouth, Northern was more than impressed.
Losing six hundred fragments sure took its toll on him, but it was worth it.
Although most parts of the effect seemed to be locked out because he was a walker.
But still, Northern was happy, perhaps it was the thought of days to come that made him feel so elated about this ability of his.
With talent fragments, he could continue to evolve talents however he liked, however, it was a tit-for-tat situation; if he focused on evolving talents, his personal growth would be slow.
If he focused on his personal growth alone, his talent growth would be stagnant, and when he ranked up his souls and the limit of talents he could copy increased, he would be forced to pay attention to the new copied talents.
Of course, the only way to make up for all of these is to become a voracious hunter of monsters – and maybe target ones that gave more talent fragments, leverage his time and ability on fighting stronger monsters.
Either way, he had to become incredibly strong to get by the days to come.
Northern’s eyes peeled forward as the landscape seemed to subtly shift to something he had not been seeing for the past few hours of walking.
Compared to the other landscape he was used to, this field was a healthy lush of brown grass that swayed gently beneath the caressing touch of the wind.
Thrown opposite them beneath the darkened sky, a throng of monsters awaited. They were like the previous ones, but different at the same time.
They resembled large lizards with razor-sharp spines protruding from their backs and lethal claws.
They stood powerfully on four legs and snarled viciously from afar like mad dogs waiting to be unleashed.
Suddenly, from behind, a queue of battered monsters began to make their way to the front.
Northern gave a slight frown as the slaves lined up in front of them.
‘This is really their culture… it’s sort of disgusting.’
They were reptilian in nature with almost crawling legs, but unlike the lizard-like ones, they stood on two legs.
An enormous, intimidating creature made its way to the front. Its frame was bulging with power, two pairs of arms, two formidable legs with thick muscles rolling beneath their stony surface.
Like the rest of the monsters, this one also had sharp spines protruding from all over its back, and crude, large teeth jutting within its maws.
They wielded no weapons and were primal to the core. The general spread its claws and allowed a deafening roar.
The Nightterror, who was already in front of the mass, let out an equally intimidating growl, one that seemed to shake the dark heavens.
Collision commenced, the enemy began to charge at them with frightening speed.
The ground trembled, as did Northern’s heart. He stood, suspended in his thoughts – wondering if he would survive this, what his first action should be.
He gulped and killed the thousand thoughts that ran around his head.
Then he let out a slow breath through his mouth, managing to calm himself, he fixed his eyes on the fast-approaching horde.
‘Swing, just swing,’ he said internally to himself.
As the first group of monsters approached, savagely tearing down the meat shields before them.
Northern in that split second finally understood why the meat shields were necessary – although he felt disgusted at himself much later.
Because of that two seconds it took the enemy to sever the flesh of the monster in front of it, Northern was provided more than enough time to gather himself and lash out with his blade.
As the mortal blade swung viciously forward, it easily sliced into the supposedly hard skin of the monster like tofu.
Pulling his hand backward, Northern withdrew and lunged the sword straight forward, sleekly piercing the monster’s abdomen.
<You have killed a Disaster Beast Razorlf>
[You have slain a Disaster Beast Razorlf]
Even as the two voices overlapped each other, Northern ignored them and quickly reposted for the next one, as it lashed out, raising two legs, he swung his sword over his head, slashing it.
He quickly jumped back, gritting his teeth.
‘Damn, it’s shallow.’
The inexperienced and stupid Northern did not know that a battlefield was not the kind of place where you take a moment of rest to yourself – not when the battle had just begun.
From behind, crude claws slashed across his back –