Blood-Boiling Mud Locusts

"Wooo—!!!"

A shrill horn tore through the night. But the sound had not come from the outer defenses. It came from within the allied army, from the direction of the rear camp.

Something was wrong. Shien frowned and immediately broke off his sparring match with Ivan.

Under the coverage of Battlefield Perception, he detected a dense, teeth-grating rustle beneath his feet, as though the whole stretch of earth were boiling.

The next instant, screams erupted.

The shallow soil beyond the camp burst open with a bang. Countless dark shapes broke through the ground. Mud locusts the size of hounds brandished dark-red bone scythes and lunged madly toward the camp.

Shien jumped onto a wagon roof to survey the scene. His gaze tightened as a sense of danger flashed through him. "Blood-Boiling Mud Locust..."

When he had first arrived in this world and learned he was bound for the Eternal Night Wall, he had crammed through plenty of relevant books so he would not die without knowing why.

One of them, the Red Moon Bestiary of Magic Beasts, described this kind of Magic Beast.

In its original form, it was merely a thumb-sized Rot Grub, so fragile a farmer could crush it underfoot. But under the Blood Moon's light, the blood in these insects began to boil.

Within minutes, they devoured one another and shed their shells again and again. Their bodies swelled to the size of hounds, their soft forelimbs warped into dark-red bone scythes, and their mouthparts evolved into flesh-grinding gears capable of chewing through Refined Steel.

What chilled Sheen most was where they had appeared.

Blood-Boiling Mud Locusts were Demonic Beasts that lived in swarms only where Blood Moon radiation was strong. They had always existed solely beyond the Eternal Night Wall.

This might be wilderness, but it still lay inside the Wall's defenses. Even the lingering light of the Most Holy Origin Furnace could be felt here. A calamity from beyond the Wall could not simply hatch out of nowhere.

"An aberration on this scale... could never occur naturally." Shien's gaze swept over the churning pits in the earth. "Unless there's a source of contamination nearby as potent as Blood Moon light."

All those thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

The locust tide surged in every direction like a flood, yet nothing broke through the ground at the center of Sheen's camp.

That was because, throughout their journey north, Sheen had forbidden the group from camping on soft earth. He had insisted that both the camp and the artisans' wagon train set up on firmly packed gravel or bedrock.

The wagons around the perimeter were also linked end to end, with damp-proof hardwood boards laid beneath their wheels. They offered a measure of defense.

Shien had originally intended these measures as advance drills before the group reached the Eternal Night Wall.

Unexpectedly, they proved crucial. The Blood-Boiling Mud Locusts could only emerge from the soft ground outside the camp, losing the advantage of a surprise attack from beneath its center.

Even though the insects had not burst out beneath the camp's center, the soldiers and knights on the perimeter instinctively shuddered at the sight of the hideous swarm of Aberrant insects.

Each mud locust was swollen to the size of a hound. Its scythe-shaped forelimbs dripped scarlet, and its shrieks were both revolting and terrifying.

Someone started to take half a step back, then froze as he looked up.

Hans's head swayed from side to side in the wind atop its wooden post. Its empty eye sockets stared straight at them.

Higher still stood Sheen in the firelight, his silver hair streaming, his expression carved from ice.

Ivan immediately moved in front of Sheen, only for Sheen to push him aside and draw his longsword. He had no intention of hiding behind Ivan.

Silver flashed as the blade left its sheath. Shien's voice rang out like steel: "Spearmen, use the wagons as shields. Do not retreat! Stab the gaps in their lower belly plates! Knights, cut down anything that gets through! Church Knights, seal every breach in the ground with burning oil!"

His cold voice cut through the insect cries and forced the chaos back into order.

Elsewhere, Blood-Boiling Mud Locusts poured from the fissures in sheets. An initial estimate put their number at nearly a thousand.

Their bone scythes flailed wildly, and their mouthparts made metallic clacking sounds. Each leap carried them several meters with a shriek that seemed to rip through the air.

Dark shapes blanketed the camp's outer ring in an instant, striking fear into every heart.

Days of training together, coupled with Sheen's sharp command, paid off at the critical moment.

The spearmen steadied their formation first.

Sheltered in the gaps between wagons and shield boards, they thrust their spears out like dragons, skewering the leaping mud locusts one by one in midair.

Their arms trembled. It was their first time facing such Aberrants. Yet not one of them gave ground.

"Stab the belly! Aim for the gaps in the plates!"

"Hold the line! Don't leave an opening!"

Spearpoints stabbed out like driving rain. More than a dozen mud locusts were pinned against the wagon sides, their fluids splattering across the boards with a sticky sound.

The knights assigned to finish off stragglers followed close behind. Whenever one broke through the spear formation, they brought their swords down in heavy chops.

Dark-red insect fluid burst across the ground. Mixed with the burnt stench, it made every stomach clench.

Ten days ago, these monsters would have scattered the group in an instant.

Their movements were still raw and their ranks not yet tight, but they had held against the first impact of the insect tide.

This was the result of Sheen's ten days of formation training.

Meanwhile, the church knights galloped toward the perimeter. Fabian shouted, "Holy Flame Knights! Seal the fissures with me! Leave the swarm nowhere to escape!"

They rode in a circle around the breaches, pouring their stockpiled oil into every newly opened pit.

"Light it!"

Torches fell. Lines of fire spread like snakes, tracing a blazing net across the ground.

Mud locusts trying to burrow up from below burned in the flames, letting out piercing shrieks.

The inner ring of spearmen and knights held back the swarm's frontal assault, while the knights outside sealed every remaining breach with fire.

Trapped in this makeshift killing ground, the insects were swiftly skewered, crushed, and burned.

In less than half an hour, the nearly thousand Blood-Boiling Mud Locusts that had charged into the camp were slaughtered. With the oil still burning, no more came through; they turned elsewhere instead.

The ground had become a reeking, charred mire. Blackened limbs lay scattered in the firelight, sizzling. The camp was a wreck.

Even so, only a few of Sheen's people had suffered superficial wounds. Not one had died.

For novices facing their first surprise attack by Aberrants, the result was almost a miracle.

The soldiers gasped for breath and gripped their spears in excitement. Some even laughed because they were still alive.

A fervor they could barely contain was rising on every face.

Perhaps... under Sheen's command, they truly could survive at the Eternal Night Wall.

Shien, however, did not share the soldiers' relief.

He stood above them, gripping a sword still smeared with insect fluid. His gaze passed beyond the firelit edge of the camp toward the distant battle lines.

At what he saw, his face darkened slightly.

Apart from his own, the camps of the other four newly appointed lords were in complete chaos.

Soldiers and knights fled in every direction as mud locusts poured in like a black tide.

The sight was as different as heaven and earth from Sheen's camp, where the defenders held firm in formation.

Even the Holy City Army's main camp, commanded by Bishop Castian, had fallen into some disorder.

Most shocking of all, the camps of the Holy City Army and Roland faced the largest swarms. Their numbers ran into the tens of thousands—more than ten times what had struck his camp.

Shien turned at once and raised his voice. "Church Knights and all knights of the Third Tier or above, come with me to aid Bishop Castian! Everyone else, hold this position. Keep the oil burning!"