Arena Chapter 37:
Chapter 37 Lycanthrope (Part 3)
“Lost to a human?”
The fathers face is clouded in suspicion .
From amongst the clan, the faint sound of the giggle of men can be heard .
Helgi pays no heed to it and speaks .
“I do not know how many of them there are . We didn’t even see a face and three of them lost in an instant . I am sorry, father . ”
The intermittent laughter from around, suddenly stops .
In this place there is not a single man that likes Helgi . It is because within the clan, all men compete for rank and women .
But that doesn’t mean they deny his strength .
If this Helgi returned without a chance to fight and after losing his brothers, that is not a problem to pass by, scoffing it off as incompetence .
Three of them died, but none even saw the opponent’s face? Something serious is happening here .
“You did not even see a face? That is insufficient information . ”
At his father’s words, Helgi gestures to his dongsaeng’s corpse beside him .
“That is why I brought the body of my brother . ”
He flips over his dongsaeng’s corpse and shows him the back .
“Something small flew faster than wind and lodged itself . The human is using a strange weapon that can target opponents from a far distance . ”
“Inspect the body . ”
“Yes . ”
Helgi inspects his dongsaeng’s corpse . He puts his hand inside the wound in the back and fishes around . Then, something comes into Helgi’s hand .
He takes it out and shows it to his father . It is a small crunched up piece of metal .
“You say something this small flew faster than wind?”
“Yes, father . ”
“It has a dangerous weapon . ”
“I am not positive, but my guess is there is also a summoned spirit . ”
A cold silence finds them .
An unknown weapon that slayed Helgi’s brothers in an instant . And a summoned spirit too .
The human that stepped foot into their territory this time is not to be taken lightly .
“First, we should know who this human is and how many there are . ”
“Father, I will go and find out!”
Out of the blue, one lycanthrope bursts out from the clan with confidence .
‘Jason?’
Helgi’s face becomes distorted .
Jason is the most in competition with Helgi amongst his different mothered brothers .
Seeing Helgi’s return from failure in this incidence, Jason quickly volunteered himself . It’s clearly a tactic to check himself on Helgi .
“Do so . ”
Father doesn’t seem to really care who takes this job .
“Thank you! I will!”
Jason departs gleefully . The brothers from Jason’s mother follow behind him .
‘This isn’t good . ’
Helgi’s expression becomes shadowed .
In the clan his father reigns over, lycanthropes normally center on a maternal line and form factions .
Up to now, Helgi and his brothers who are from their fathers first wife, Maria, have been holding power, but with this incident, everyone but Helgi has died .
On top of it all, there are seven brothers from Hera, the third wife .
If they succeed in this task too, they may use this to have Jason rise to the second in command .
Of course, personal strength is more important than factions, but even compared to Helgi, Jason isn’t weak . If they were to fight, Helgi would have to prepare for possible death for this rival .
‘But nothing is definite yet . Jason is impatient so he may spoil the job . ’
They will definitely succeed in at least the scouting . They just have to approach to a visible range .
But after succeeding in the scouting, what if Jason gets greedy and attacks the humans?
The picture of the human counterattacking and inflicting large damage draws itself naturally .
For the clan as a whole, losing members is not a good thing, but for Helgi, the fall of his rival is the best outcome .
‘I guess I should hope that this Jason **** dies . ’
Helgi anticipates Jason’s reckless bravado .
***
“Haha, did you say Helgi’s face scrunch up?”
“It looked like he was chewing **** . ”
Jason’s brothers snort .
“Losing to a human and returning, he should know he’s embarrassed . Humph, he strutted enough all that time and now Helgi’s limit is reached . ”
Jason slandered Helgi plenty and his brothers agreed .
Father’s rule of the clan was already going on 26 years .
From their father’s rule, the silver clan’s long history saw a lot of change .
The most marked change was the clan’s growth .
In the history of the clan, there was never a lycanthrope as strong as father . No one could challenge father .
Not only that, but father forbid unnecessary rank struggles within the clan .
Challenges and rank fights didn’t occur so men’s death rates greatly declined and due to that, the clan’s numbers increased .
Father also found a way to procure food without hunting . That was a remarkable innovation . Without difficultly wandering the terrain and hunting, they were able to easily obtain food .
As food became plentiful, the clan became ever prosperous . The clan that was no more than 20 members is now stronger than 100 .
At first there was a lot of dissatisfaction at father’s strange policies but now, everyone praises him . They say he brought prosperity to the Silver clan .
But internal dissent still exists .
And brother Jason is the prime example .
‘A lycanthrope is always about strength! Rank must be decided with strength . Kissing father’s **** and raising rank, that’s wrong!’
Jason had a lot of pity for Helgi .
He never thought that his strength fell behind that of Helgi .
But Helgi’s quick wit and intelligence enabled him to cleanly carry out his father’s commands, and thick headed Jason couldn’t do so . Because of this, the position of the clan had no choice but to follow Helgi .
Up until a little while ago .
‘Now is the chance . ’
Father’s governing style is wrong .
The clan’s numbers have grown but the men have lost courage and become weak .
Since not having to hunt to live, their senses have diminished, leading to losing to the likes of a human .
Jason’s thoughts are like this .
‘We have to return to the way it was before . I will do that . ’
He, of course, has no intention of challenging father . Because he’s too strong .
But he just needs to squash his strongest rival, Helgi .
Even monstrous father will age in due time! If he can quash Helgi, the next leader is him .
“Let’s obliterate the humans who dared step foot into our land . ”
“What?”
“You want to obliterate them?”
The brothers are alarmed at Jason’s outburst .
“Jason, our order was to scout . Father didn’t say for us to fight . ”
“Yeah . ”
“And these are dangerous humans who have a strange weapon . What if we hastily attack and in reverse, we get attacked?”
“Even the Helgi brothers suffered . ”
“Helgi brothers what?”
As Jason suddenly starts to growl, the brothers are started . Jason is flaming angry .
“You saying because the Helgi brothers couldn’t do it that we won’t be able to?!”
“No, no, what I was saying…”
“You coward!”
“Kek…! Kek…!”
Jason grips and twists a brother’s neck .
“Listen well! We will hunt all the human **** that brutally murdered Helgi’s brothers . When we return after such a huge success, father, who trusted in the kinds of Helgi, will change his mind a bit, I’m sure . He will realize that in turn for our clan’s prosperity, we have become too weak!”
“Kek…! Ah, okay…!”
Jason flings his brother down . Then he walks ahead briskly .
“Let’s go . First we have to sniff out the scent of where the humans are . ”
***
‘This won’t do . ’
I can barely sleep due to the anxiety so I decide to take a countermeasure .
“Let’s switch night and day . ”
I report to the teammates .
Everyone is puzzled so I continue with an explanation .
“Lycanthropes are nocturnal so there’s a high chance they will attack at night . In addition to that, night is when we are sleeping and our field of vision is restricted . ”
“You are saying we should sleep in the day . ”
I nod at Kang Chun-seong’s words .
“Yes, if we sleep in the brightest parts of the day, it will be more beneficial to the sentry than at night . And in the darkness of night we can frequently summon Sylph and move . ”
“That’s a good idea . ”
“I agree too . ”
Hye-su and Joon-ho agree .
Kang Chun-seong nods his head and agrees to it .
We have a simple breakfast and move, and when the sun hits about midday, we decide to sleep .
We sleep under our cloaks under the shade of a tree and because none of us slept well from the anxiety, we easily fall asleep even in the middle of the day .
There is no need to build a fire so its two birds with one stone . We now won’t draw the lycanthropes to us by firelight either .
But as the sun descends, a difficult march begins . We have to endure the discomfort of limited vision, and keep moving .
After some deliberating, I set Kang Chun-seong up front . With a physical strength buff intermediate level 1 and aura control entry level 5, Kang Chun-seong has the best senses and, even at night, maneuvers well using all five senses .
After that, Joon-ho and Hye-su follow, and I take position at the end .
Kang Chun-seong alerted us to every rock or protruding branch and fulfilled his role well .
I frequently summoned Sylph to scout the surrounding 1 . 2 km .
‘There’s no way we just pass like this . They’ll definitely come back for revenge . ’
They are bound not to be so weak as to not attack due to a fear of the gun . Would an exam be this easy?
‘Last night, there was no attack from the enemy . It is proof that they are vigilant . They are probably thinking of being prudent . ’
Precisely, they are being cautious about the power of the gun I carry . They won’t have ever seen a weapon like this, so they must be thoroughly alarmed .
If so, there won’t be an imminent large scale attack .
‘For now, they must be spying . ’
A wolf is a very intelligent animal, and more so, they said the lycanthrope has an intelligence equal to humans .
For now, they will send a few to spy on us .
They will try to discover how many of us there are, and the identity of the strange long distance weapon .
Long distance weapon, they’ll even want to know the Mosin-Nagant’s shooting range . An attack will follow after they thoroughly know those things .
If so, we cannot give them that information easily .
We have to interrupt and disturb their spying .
‘Okay . ’
I think up a trap .
“Sylph . ”
-Meow?
“Is there a strong or peculiar smelling plant or fruit near to us that can hide our body order/scent?”
-Meow!
Sylph nods her head .
“Bring it to me please . ”
Sylph flits away, flying .
Perhaps 5 minutes have passed?
Sylph comes back with a bunch of something that looks like mug wort . I bring it close to my nose and sniff and it wafts a pungent smell .
‘This will work . ’
I move to execute my plan .
“Sylph, will you erase our scent for 20 minutes? Make it so our scent isn’t where we passed by . ”
-Meow .
Sylph nods in understanding .
Then I share with the group the plant that Sylph brought .
“In 20 minutes, plan to smoosh this and rub it into your clothes . ”
“What are you planning?”
At Hye-su’s question, I answer .
“The **** will probably be tracking us through scent . They will get how many of us there are and at what distance by using their smell . ”
“You want to erase our scent to distract them?”
Asks Joon-ho .
“It is impossible to give them the slip . But if our scent disappears, the **** might feel flustered . ”
I grin and continue speaking .
“Since it will be hard to tell with their smell, they will get close to tell with their eyes . Let’s catch them all then . ”