On the muddy road, the entire carriage procession was forced to stop. Many unsuspecting people stuck their heads out to see what was happening, but upon witnessing the bloody scene, they couldn't help but fall silent.
It was too horrifying—someone eating a human being in broad daylight.
"You... you..." The driver who had first shouted at the stout man to get lost swallowed nervously. "You're eating people?"
It was a pointless question.
But those words seemed to flip a switch. The stout man's eyes turned ferocious as he fixed his gaze on the driver.
The next moment, he lunged forward on all fours!
CRUNCH—!
In the blink of an eye, the stout man was upon him. He opened his blood-soaked mouth, bit down on the driver's face, and without hesitation tore away a large chunk of flesh!
Blood sprayed!
The driver let out a agonized scream. The next instant, the stout man tore open his throat. His head drooped, and he fell silent.
The stout man dragged the driver's body from the carriage and threw it to the ground. He ripped open the driver's abdomen with both hands, pulled out the entrails, and ate them raw.
His mouth chewed noisily, blood overflowing with every bite.
This grotesque scene threw the carriage procession into utter panic. Many people screamed.
Hearing the screams, the stout man turned his head again. His cold, vacant eyes stared at them. He still held a piece of the driver's intestine in his mouth. He slurped it in, chewed a few times, and swallowed.
"So many people... so many delicious organs..." The stout man muttered words that only terrified people further. "I have a very keen nose. I can smell it. I can smell all of you!"
Many felt a chill run down their spines. But some forced themselves to calm down, grabbed a crossbow, and shouted, "Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! There are many of us traveling together, and he's alone..."
FWOOSH—!
Before he could finish, his eyes flew wide. The stout man had lunged at them again!
Seeing the creature about to land right in front of him, he frantically raised his crossbow and fired wildly. He missed.
It's over... Regret and fear filled his heart. But then he saw a flash of silver light slash up from the ground!
SCHLICK—!
The stout man reacted incredibly fast. Sensing something wrong in midair, he twisted and managed to kick off against the incoming greatsword. Using the force, he backflipped several times before landing steadily.
Everyone had seen the stout man lunging at them and the crossbow bolt fly wide. They thought the speaker would surely meet a terrible fate. But to their surprise, the young man who had joined them halfway through the journey had forced the creature to retreat.
Nidhogg, mounted on Torrent, looked at the tip of his Lordsworn's Greatsword. A little blood stained it. He couldn't help but mutter, "The wound is still a bit shallow."
The stout man instinctively sensed danger.
He looked down at his thigh. A bloody gash had been carved by the greatsword. He extended a finger, dipped it in the blood, and put it in his mouth to taste.
Then he fixed his burning gaze on Nidhogg. "You're dangerous. But your flesh... it smells the most delicious..."
GURGLE—!
With a strange sound, the stout man's body began to swell rapidly—like dough rising, but more irregularly, like bulging bubbles.
In an instant, the stout man had grown to two or three meters tall. Little remained of his human form.
Instead, he looked like a massive pit bull. No—it was a bulldog with a pup attached. One large, one small.
The smaller one was attached to the larger one's belly like a wallaby. Its mouth was full of fangs, like a wild boar's tusks.
This bizarre transformation shocked every member of the caravan. Their faces went pale, and they sweated like rain.
Some had already begun praying to the One God and his holiness.
Others were pinching their own skin, wondering if they were trapped in a nightmare.
Nidhogg calmly rode forward, positioning himself before the caravan, standing between them and the massive monster.
He recognized this one. An Apostle. And a familiar face.
This bulldog Apostle was the one who, during the Eclipse, had used his keen sense of smell to track Guts and Casca, hungering to devour the branded sacrifices.
Of course, he had then run afoul of Guts, who had just unleashed his fury. He became the first Apostle to be cut down by the Dragonslayer.
Nidhogg hadn't expected to meet him here.
"All of you, get back." Nidhogg waved to the caravan members without looking back. "I'll handle this."
The caravan members needed no further encouragement. They desperately wanted to flee this place, to escape this terrifying monster.
One after another, they shouted, turned their carriages, and sped away into the distance.
As their wheels rolled away, the bulldog Apostle sniffed twice, as if receiving some kind of signal. Then he charged after them with a speed his massive frame shouldn't possess!
The caravan members cried out in terror!
The drivers cracked their whips, wishing their horses had more legs to run faster.
Nidhogg leaped from Torrent's back and landed on the ground. He had no intention of retreating. He watched the bulldog Apostle leap toward him!
CRASH—!
He swung his Lordsworn's Greatsword. The blade whipped up a whirlwind from the ground, actually halting the bulldog Apostle's momentum and lifting the giant off his feet!
In an instant, the bulldog Apostle crashed onto his back. The ground shook. Earth and stone cracked beneath him.
One of the Apostle's arms and one of his tusks had been severed by Nidhogg's strike. They flew through the air, landing with twin thuds far from the main body.
"GRAAAH—!"
The bulldog Apostle let out a agonized roar!
He struggled up on one arm, both eyes rolling wildly. Fanged mouth panting, he stared at Nidhogg before him.
Then, unexpectedly, with his remaining hand, he ripped into his own abdominal cavity. He tore open his belly like cutting cloth and pulled out a long, slick length of intestine.
These intestines spilled from his gut onto the ground, writhing rapidly, then lashed upward like tentacles, reaching for Nidhogg.
Nidhogg didn't mount his horse. He didn't summon spirit ashes. Instead, he walked straight toward the snake-like intestines reaching for him. His pace quickened.
In an instant, he had charged into the midst of the writhing mass!
Seeing this, the bulldog Apostle quickly tried to retract his intestines, intending to bind Nidhogg tightly and savor him slowly.
But then came a sound of tearing!
A whirlwind of silver light mercilessly shredded the surrounding intestines. They were all severed!
Nidhogg, cloak streaming behind him like a black spear, burst through and closed the distance, charging straight at the bulldog Apostle's face.
Those intestines hadn't slowed him at all.
"You—!"
Before the bulldog Apostle could finish a single word, Nidhogg's Lordsworn's Greatsword savagely severed the smaller, pup-like head from the Apostle's body.
In the same motion, Nidhogg stepped onto the severed smaller head, leaped, and—amid the bulldog Apostle's howls—calmly split the main head in two with his greatsword!
Finally, he landed on the monster's decapitated shoulder. He reversed his greatsword and, with a wet THUD, drove it into the severed neck!
An Apostle's vitality was beyond imagination. To ensure it was truly dead—to prevent it from playing dead and escaping—Nidhogg had to take no chances. Decapitation and disembowelment were necessary.
THUD—!
After a long pause, the massive body of the bulldog Apostle finally crashed to the ground.
Nidhogg leaped aside. The golden brand on his chest pulsed with light.
「Quest」 Eliminate Low-Rank Apostles and Low-Rank Invaders in the Kingdom of Midland (2/?)
「Sub-quest」 Defeat the Bulldog Apostle (Completed)
「Reward」 Level Up: LV 61 → LV 62