Chapter 497: Mother...
Outside the palace, Scorpion City was deadly quiet except for the raging sounds of battle.
The frequent sounds of heavy, hurried footsteps echoed through the streets, creating an atmosphere filled with fear and uncertainty.
Scorpion Men, women, children, the old, and the young all hid behind their closed doors and windows, holding their breath.
Each and every one of them could feel the palpable tension hanging over their city.
No, not just over their city.
It was hanging over their heads.
The miserable cries of fallen clansmen cut deep into their hearts like a surgical blade.
For the Scorpion Clansmen who had never experienced such a devastating situation, this new experience was something they found difficult to bear.
Mothers and their children wept bitterly inside their homes.
Some were even praying and begging their King to come to their aid. To most Scorpion Clansmen, their King had become their spiritual pillar.
They firmly believed he could solve every problem in the Bleeding Desert. And now that their world was crumbling around them, he was their only hope and their savior.
Just as many ordinary Scorpion Clansmen were praying and hoping their King would step forward and stop the war, the hurried footsteps on the streets suddenly increased.
"What is going on?"
"Why are they running?"
"Is something chasing them?"
Fear and panic gripped the hearts of many Scorpion Clansmen.
They covered their mouths and held their breath as they peered through the narrow openings of their doors and windows.
Even the children who were too frightened to make a sound had their mouths covered tightly by trembling parents.
As for the courage and pride that every Scorpion Clansman claimed to possess, right now, it had all gone out the window.
On the streets, the tension was palpable, blanketing everything like a second skin.
"Don’t look back! Run!"
"We need to get out of the city!"
"No! My child!"
"My leg! My leg! I can’t feel my leg anymore!"
Some fell to the ground, screaming in pain, while others gritted their teeth and pushed their bodies to the limit just to escape.
Their faces were etched with horror that refused to fade.
Bang! Bang!
"Open the door! Open the door! Quick!"
"Please... Please... Open the door."
"Open the door. It’s your father..."
"Hurry up! I’m your brother! Open the door!"
The desperate voices echoed through the streets, each one carrying a different kind of fear.
Some were begging their families to let them inside.
The once orderly streets of Scorpion City had become a place where every passing second felt like a struggle for survival.
Behind the closed doors, families listened to the desperate cries outside while praying that whatever was happening would never reach their homes.
Yet, with the sounds of battle growing louder in the distance, none of them could convince themselves that they were truly safe.
Terror and tension spread through Scorpion City like an ocean current as those who managed to return to their homes banged on the doors as quickly as possible while shouting desperately.
Doors were opened for some, while those who were too scared to approach their doors refused to open them.
Many pleaded with those inside to allow them in, but the only response they received was silence.
"I’m going to die!"
"I’m going to die!"
An ordinary Scorpion Man covered in blood muttered disoriented as he left what used to be his parents’ home and returned to the street.
Tears streamed continuously down his face.
From behind, a deep gash stretched across his upper back and continued down toward his tail. As for his tail, it had been brutally chopped off, with blood gushing from his ghastly injuries.
By a stroke of luck, he had managed to escape before the undead could finish him off and had run back toward his home as if his life depended on it.
It was supposed to be his only sanctuary.
But who would have thought his own family would refuse to open the door for him?
Thud!
He collapsed onto the ground, his bloody eyes slowly losing focus while his heart pounded heavily against his chest like a war drum.
"I don’t want to die..."
"Please... I don’t want to die..." he whispered weakly.
When they had been conscripted into the war, he had thought this was his chance to prove himself.
Fight for his homeland.
Make his family proud.
Prove that he was a true Scorpion Man.
Those thoughts had filled his heart with courage when he first marched toward the palace.
He had never imagined that only a few minutes later, he would be lying on an open road covered in his own blood, desperately begging for someone to save him.
Unfortunately for him, under the terror of their enemies, no one gave him even a glance. Those who could still move ran past him with all their might.
Some did not even look down as they stepped over the blood staining the road. Others were too frightened to notice him at all.
Everyone was focused on one thing.
Survival.
But what was the terror that had caused the proud and arrogant Scorpion Men to lose their will to fight?
What had they seen that could crush the confidence of an entire clan that had stood at the top of the Bleeding Desert for generations?
The answer was approaching.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Turning his head, the wounded Scorpion Man looked toward the nightmare for one last time.
His trembling eyes widened.
Deep within them, there was no longer any hope.
Only despair.
In the distance, a roaring pillar of blood rising toward the sky, almost reaching the clouds as it moved toward him.
It came like an unstoppable tide. It sometimes resembles a beast of many mouths and sometimes carries thousands of weapons.
An absolute terror.
Wherever it passed, everything was swallowed.
People screamed and fled, but their desperate attempts to escape were meaningless before such an overwhelming bloody tide.
The blood seemed to stretch endlessly across the battlefield, turning the entire area into a crimson nightmare.
The wounded Scorpion Man stared at the approaching horror as his trembling body gradually stopped moving.
He could only watch.
"Mother..."
The word escaped his lips weakly and then his vision slowly darkened.