Novel Full Chapter 415: Not When The Enemy Is Already Inside
Chapter 415: Not When The Enemy Is Already Inside
Ruuuun!”
“They’ve breached the city!”
“Don’t look back and keep running!”
The streets of Delwig were chaos. Shouts rang out from alleyways as civilians scattered in every direction—some dragging children, others too frozen to move, and a few even gripping farming tools or rusted weapons as if they could fight the horrors spilling into their city.
“If you snooze, you’re food!”
Even amidst the running and shouting, someone found a way to make a joke out of the situation. Whether the speaker was trying to make light of the condition or to actually state a fact, no one knew. Actually, no one even had the audacity to think about the statement let alone question it.
Anyone who had the time to do that would probably be “food” as the speaker had stated.
“Squad—split! Half of you secure civilians, the rest with me!” Captain Apnoch’s command cracked like a whip, his men obeying without hesitation. Shields locked, they pressed forward, forming a wedge to clear a path for Damien and Arielle toward the disturbance.
Damien’s eyes swept the scene with calm detachment. The cobblestones were cracked and torn, claw marks gouged deep into the streets.
Ahead, the hulking bodies of mutated mana beasts lumbered forward—spines jutting like broken glass, eyes glowing red with demonic haze.
Only two of these things had managed to breach Delwig’s walls, and Damien quickly noticed how.
They had clawed one another into a grotesque staircase, forcing the first pair high enough to scramble over the battlements before the alarm was raised and the barrier activated. The rest of the horde outside now clawed and howled in futile rage, denied their path.
He tilted his head, watching the faint shimmer of the activated barrier glimmer above the rooftops. Nothing outside could enter now—not even another mana beast. The timing had saved them. And yet… Damien’s lips curved into a quiet smile.
’If it were me, could I slip inside regardless? Maybe blow up the whole barrier?’ The thought lingered as he stepped down from the carriage.
The smile faded when his senses tugged toward the cobblestones near an alley. Three more beasts had clawed their way from beneath, bursting out of collapsed tunnels.
Two were Grade Five, snarling like rabid wolves, but the third radiated the heavier weight of a Grade Four. Their claws dripped with soil and blood—the tunnels they’d come from proof enough that this wasn’t a random breach.
Damien’s eyes narrowed as the realization sank in. So the hideouts reach all the way here…
“Contact! Three ahead!” Apnoch roared, his shield snapping up. His squad surged forward with disciplined steps, spears bristling, blades gleaming in torchlight.
Arielle’s fingers danced as she whispered incantations. A barrage of crackling bolts of wind-fire cut through the air, slicing one of the Grade Five open in a sizzling spray of blood. Another staggered back from the blast, only to be skewered cleanly by Apnoch’s front line.
Damien watched, arms folded at first. The men were good—well-drilled, strong, fearless in their execution. He respected that. But still… their breaths grew ragged far too quickly.
The mutated beasts moved without fear of death, hurling themselves forward with reckless abandon, as if pain meant nothing. Apnoch’s men held the line, but every clash left dents in their shields and blood on their arms.
Damien finally shifted his weight forward. His gaze fell to one of the half-collapsed tunnels, sigils faintly glowing along the inner arch of the broken stone.
Almost erased, yet still pulsing faintly with remnant energy. Not Delwig’s handiwork—no, these were foreign arrays. Sloppier in structure, etched with secrecy, not defense.
“This wasn’t chance,” Damien muttered. “Someone built this… as a cage.”
Apnoch grunted, forcing a beast back with a shield bash. “What?!”
Damien didn’t answer. His gaze lingered. If it had been a cage, then it had also been opened deliberately. “Was it because we found the last hideout?”
The ground shuddered. From the largest of the tunnels, something far more sinister emerged. A hulking silhouette hauled itself into the open air, claws raking furrows in the cobblestones.
Its body was jagged stone wrapped in sinew, a grotesque parody of a predator given life. The aura it carried pressed down like an invisible weight, locking the breath in soldiers’ lungs.
A Grade Four mutated beast—yet its demonic infusion lent it a pressure that made weaker men stumble back. The stench of corruption burned the nostrils, bitter and acidic.
The squad’s formation wavered. “Steady!” Apnoch barked, raising his blade. His men tried, but every instinct screamed to run. The creature’s roar cracked across the streets, rattling windows and scattering debris.
Damien stepped forward. His fingers brushed the air, and with a flash of blue essence that glowed as it formed a portal, Fenrir emerged—towering, monstrous, eyes like burning ice.
The wolf’s presence swallowed the beast’s oppressive aura in an instant. Soldiers gasped, knees trembling not from fear but awe.
“Hold formation,” Damien said quietly. His voice was calm, certain. “This one’s mine.”
The stone-skinned abomination lunged, swinging claws large enough to tear a man in two.
Fenrir met it head-on, his fangs locking around the creature’s forearm with bone-crushing force. Cracks spread across the monster’s stone-like skin as Fenrir growled, shaking it violently.
Fwoooosh~
Damien moved in, blade flashing. Each strike carved deep channels through the beast’s rocky armor, black ichor spraying with every cut.
Kreeeeee!!
It shrieked, thrashing, but Fenrir held firm, dragging it to the ground with unrelenting savagery.
The fight was short and straight to the point. A final stab split its core, the corrupted essence within spilling like tar before evaporating into the air. The oppressive aura faded at once.
Silence hung, broken only by the ragged breaths of Apnoch’s men.
One soldier whispered, “What… what is he?”
Damien wiped his blade clean, expression unreadable. He glanced once more at the faint sigils carved into the tunnel entrance, a spark of thought in his eyes.
Someone had designed this. Someone had placed these monsters here, just beneath Delwig. Maybe someone from the inside.
He exhaled slowly, sheathing his weapon as Fenrir’s towering form dissolved back into essence. “This city isn’t impenetrable,” he murmured to himself. “Not when the enemy is already inside.”
The words hung heavy in the ruined street, as Delwig’s soldiers realized this night’s battle had only just begun.