The Conscript Wants to Be Discharged!

My gaze quickly assessed the armament level of my subordinates.

Helmets with many large and small scratches.
Gambesons protecting the torso down to the knees, and arm and leg guards.
Three with shields, and one each with an axe and a mace.

‘It’ll be difficult to deal with them while maintaining distance.’

Although having shields makes it easier to block the ghouls’ attacks, considering that the monsters’ grip strength is embarrassingly strong compared to humans, it was regrettable that we didn’t have spears to keep distance and block opponents.

‘At least we should be able to fend off those coming from the front.’

With the shield-bearing subordinates blocking the front and the axe and mace wielders dealing with ghouls trying to come through the gaps, we should be able to hold out sufficiently. We need to lure the ghouls approaching from the front and right side to one place and avoid exposing our rear as much as possible.

“You guys, can you handle the ghouls from the front and right?”

“Yes!”

“We’ll try, no, we’ll do it.”

“What about those coming from behind?”

There were five ghouls approaching from our rear encirclement. For easier defense, we had to block their approach.

“I’ll go.”

“What?”

“What do you mean?”

I gripped the sword handle tightly and looked at the approaching ghouls while turning my back to my subordinates.

“You guys hold out well, I’ll take care of those guys.”

It’s right for me, who has relatively decent armament compared to my subordinates, to fend off those guys. At least that’s what I think.

“Hundred-man Captain!”

“It’s dangerous!”

Seeing my subordinates worrying about me as their superior, a smile leaked out, but this is the surest way for all of us to survive.

“Don’t worry, five ghouls are easier to deal with than people.”

Honestly, dealing with five at once isn’t easy, but the survival rate should be higher than facing armed enemies.

Their method isn’t a battle of systematic coordination to attack the opponent, but rather a hunt to surround and attack an isolated target. So it should be easier to deal with than people.

“You monstrosities that just feed on corpses! Try and kill me too!”

I shouted with fighting spirit welling up from my core and charged at the five ghouls.

The moment I charged at the ghouls, seeing my action, they spread out to try and surround me.

‘Two on the right, one on the left, two in front.’

As the ghouls spread out to the sides to surround me, I changed direction towards the lone ghoul on the left and swung my sword at it.

-Swish!
-Kieeek!

The sword I swung aiming for the ghoul’s head didn’t reach it. The ghoul, seeing the attack coming at it, stepped back and avoided my attack. The sword tip barely grazed its snout without inflicting damage.

But it didn’t matter. What I aimed for was the ghoul’s body that had lost its posture while avoiding the attack.

“Hah!”

The ghoul’s body was wide open as its center of gravity shifted backward while stepping back, lifting its feet off the ground. I thrust my sword sideways towards the ghoul’s exposed body.

-Kieeek!

The sword tip penetrated the ghoul’s chest, scraping ribs and piercing the lungs. The ghoul, stabbed in the chest, spewed black blood from its mouth as it died.

‘Still, four left.’

I had dealt with one, but there were still four ghouls behind my back. I tried to quickly pull out my sword and turn around to take a stance before my back was attacked, but.

The moment I turned around, I saw a ghoul’s front paw swinging at my face. I quickly ducked my head to avoid the attack.

“Shit!”

Seeing thick dark hair scattered in the air due to the black, thick claws, I threw my body to the ground while ducking my head to avoid the ghoul’s follow-up attack, then kicked off the ground to get up.

“Die!”

-Kieeek!

I jumped up, kicking a clump of dirt off the ground, and swung my sword with all my might to behead the ghoul that had attacked me.

“!?”

The sword that had dug halfway into the ghoul’s neck got stuck in the middle, unable to cut through its neck bone.

-Kueek!

“Ugh!”

The ghoul with its neck half-cut died, but I, unable to quickly retrieve the sword stuck in its neck, exposed my back to the attack of a ghoul approaching from behind. The thick cloth of the gambeson was torn and the wool stuffing inside burst out, but fortunately, the ghoul’s claws didn’t dig into my flesh.

“Aaaah! This was brand new, you bastard!”

At the ghoul that had ruined the new armor I had bought at great expense from a merchant who recently came to the fortress, I pulled out the sword blade stuck in its neck and stabbed the pommel end into the ghoul’s eyeball.

-Grrrr!

The ghoul foamed at the mouth and collapsed as the handle dug into its eyeball about two finger joints deep. Having taken down three ghouls in a short time, I took a stance again and glared at the remaining two ghouls.

-Grrrr.
-Grrrr.

“…”

Without even time to wipe off the ghoul’s brain matter and blood stickily clinging to the sword handle, I gripped the sword and glared at the two ghouls. This time, both charged at me simultaneously.

One jumped into the air, while the other kicked off the ground attempting a physical charge at me. I lifted my leg and delivered a front kick to the face of the ghoul rapidly approaching me by kicking off the ground.

-Crunch!

The ghoul’s face grotesquely crumpled as it was directly hit by the front kick, its teeth scattering in the air. I was pushed back by the impact and thrust my sword at the other ghoul pouncing on me.

The sword thrust in a straight line grazed the ghoul’s nape as it passed by. I shoved my left gauntlet into the mouth of the ghoul trying to bite me with its jaws wide open, blocking its biting attack.

To the ghoul that had pounced on me and mounted my body, now trying to bite off my left arm along with my gauntlet by closing its jaw, I dropped the sword I was holding and pulled out the dagger at my waist with one hand, stabbing it into its temple.

-Thud!

The sensation of piercing through the ghoul’s tough skin and skull, penetrating all the way to the brain, was felt through the tip of the dagger.
After a brief struggle, the ghoul’s body went limp like a marionette with its strings cut.

“Phew…”

Pushing off the ghoul that had collapsed on top of me, I shook off the ghoul’s black blood smeared on my face and armor. I turned to look at my subordinates fending off the remaining ghouls.

“Shit! Shit! Hold the shield straight, you crazy bastard!”

“Ugh! It’s coming over! Can’t you smash its head properly?!”

“Swing that axe properly!”

At the feet of my subordinates exchanging friendly conversations even in this urgent situation, four ghouls lay fallen.

“…Heh, you brats.”

I picked up the sword I had dropped on the ground, gripped it tightly with both hands, and charged towards the ghouls rushing at my subordinates, swinging my sword.

“Huh? Hundred-man Captain!”

“He’s here! Push forward!”

“You bastards! You’re all dead!”

“Let’s go!”

Seeing me slash the ghouls’ backs, my subordinates pushed back the bewildered ghouls and counterattacked. We quickly finished off the remaining ghouls and sat down on the ground.

“Huff, huff! This is killing me.”

“What a hassle, with these ghoul bastards suddenly popping out.”

My subordinates, covered in the ghouls’ black blood from head to toe, sat right down on the blood-soaked ground and cursed the suddenly appearing ghouls vehemently. I looked at them and tapped each of their helmets once.

-Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.

“Well done, no one’s hurt, right?”

At my question asking if anyone was injured, the subordinates looked over themselves and fortunately answered that no one was hurt. I too sat down next to my subordinates to recover our strength for a moment before returning to where the 2nd team leader was.

After rejoining with the 2nd team leader, I took the subordinates who had cleared away and cremated all the corpses, and returned to the place where we had been attacked by ghouls. We searched the surroundings and found the ghouls’ nest.

“Ugh, disgusting smell.”

“Indeed, I wonder how many corpses they’ve stored in there?”

From the ghouls’ nest, dug into the side of a mountain as a dugout, the smell of decomposing corpses wafted strongly. I wasn’t particularly curious about how many prey (corpses) they had stored in there, so we immediately piled firewood at the entrance of the dugout and lit a fire.

-Crackle, crackle!

As the fire caught on the firewood and the surface of the logs cracked, red embers glowed inside the cracks, increasing the firepower. As smoke filled the inside of the dugout, the ghouls hiding inside came out.

-Grrrraak!
-Kueeek!

The ghouls rushing out of the nest with monstrous cries had their heads smashed one by one by us waiting at the entrance, and were sent to the afterlife. When no more ghouls came out, we shoved their corpses along with piles of firewood into the dugout to burn the other corpses inside as well.

Thus, the extermination of the ghouls and destruction of their nest was completed. After making sure the fire wouldn’t spread to the surroundings, we returned to the rendezvous point.

Meeting up with the remaining 3rd and 4th teams in front of the rock we had set as a reference point, I was about to return to the village, but I couldn’t.

“What? Is that true?”

“Yes, it’s certain. We’re coming back after confirming it with our own eyes.”

The group that had left in the opposite direction from the one I led, the 3rd and 4th teams, had also discovered a pile of corpses on the other side, and they found wheel tracks of a cart there.

“Although the tracks disappeared midway as if they had been erased, when we continued moving in that direction, we came across a palisade.”

“A palisade?”

“Yes, at a glance it wasn’t a bandit hideout or anything like that, but a fortress built for military purposes.”

“Shit, I thought something was strange. There’s no way corpses would suddenly appear.”

A palisade presumed to be a rebel fortress was discovered.

‘These crazy bastards, were they building a secret base deep in enemy territory?’

I don’t know whose idea it was, but whoever built a fortress right in the middle of enemy territory was certainly a madman.