The empty stone hall suddenly fell silent, without a sound from anyone inside. Only the wind outside rattled snow against the window frames, an irritating rustle that grated on the nerves.
Raikage A's dark face turned purple with pent-up rage, and a thick vein throbbed on his forehead. It hung there like a fat green caterpillar, pulsing away.
He glared with bloodshot, bull-like eyes, his fist the size of a cooking pot raised in midair, yet he couldn't bring himself to slam it down. The stiff stubble on his chin bristled as he panted like a broken, rusty bellows.
"You... you little bastard! You think an army of a hundred thousand is fertilizer?" the Raikage roared, spraying spit all over the top of my shoe.
The smell of half-digested meat mixed with his foul breath and forced its way into my nostrils. "You think this is like pulling cabbages in the hills behind your house? That army could trample a great nation flat, skin and bones and all!" His ragged roar shook years of dust loose from the stone hall's ceiling. It settled all over the back of my neck and itched like hell.
I shuffled backward in disgust. The mud on my soles scraped against the broken flagstones with a shrill grinding sound that set my teeth on edge.
I picked a strand of dried meat from between my teeth, flicked it onto the floor, and rolled my eyes. "Even pulling cabbages strains your back. All I have to do is stick my Wood Release into the ground, and they'll come running to turn themselves into nutrients." I sniffed back the clear mucus the cold had brought out, utterly unconcerned.
"You don't know shit, old man. Do you have any idea how expensive good Wood Release nutrient solution is