Chapter 516: The man who called upon the "Abyss"
More than two thousand men, a mix of soldiers and professional butchers, finally received their orders and began changing into specially made oilcloth outfits. The cloth was complicated to manufacture but offered good protection against water.
After putting on something resembling a face mask, the two thousand butchers finished changing.
A butcher who had originally lived in a town dozens of miles away emerged from his wooden shelter, carrying a curved, pointed slaughtering knife.
He swore he had never seen so many butchers gathered together in his life, every one of them holding a slaughtering knife.
Some of the oilcloth outfits were stained and mottled. Those mostly belonged to real butchers who had brought their own clothes. Others were brand-new, presumably worn by soldiers issued fresh oilcloth outfits.
An uneasy air gradually spread through the animal cages in the livestock sheds scattered around the mountains. The cries of livestock and the snarls of wild beasts rang out without pause.
"Roaaar!"
A sharp-fanged beast roared inside a wooden cage. Although its prolonged hunger had left it weak, it had also grown increasingly vicious.
"Hold it down!"
Three or four steel forks with wide openings, much like police riot-control forks on Earth, thrust through the gaps in the wooden cage at once, pinning the beast firmly in place.
"Roaaar!"
A butcher took a long-handled pointed knife, secured it to an extension pole, and expressionlessly drove it into the main artery of the beast's left foreleg.
"Roaaar!"
"Quick, hold it down!"
"Aaah!" "Push harder!"
As the soldiers strained, blood gushed wildly from the beast's leg. The wooden tub already positioned beneath the cage was spattered with blood, and two soldiers pushed it around to catch the spray.
Meanwhile, all the other butchers and soldiers