Chapter 5: First Kill
The Ghoul horde marched toward the gate as the hurried footsteps of the guards echoed from atop the walls while the town’s warning bell chimed loudly.
It didn’t take long for the humans to react.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The sound of arrows ripping through the air echoed one after another as Ronan’s eyes widened.
Their speed...
It was so fast.
He only sensed that something was wrong before he heard them slicing through the air.
But Ronan’s shock had only just begun.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
The sound of metal colliding rang out repeatedly.
One after another, the arrows bounced off the Ghouls’ bodies, catching the human guards off guard.
Regardless, they continued firing.
After all, it at least managed to slow down the Ghoul horde for a moment.
Meanwhile, Ronan, who was near the rear, suddenly felt himself falling behind as he struggled to keep up with the others.
Their speed was far beyond what he had expected.
More importantly...
His own Ghoul body’s speed was leagues below that of the others.
Ronan immediately felt out of place.
On top of that, they were actually attacking a human town.
These two races were mortal enemies.
This wasn’t a game.
It was a fight to the death.
His gaze shifted to his right shoulder, where he saw an arrow piercing straight through it.
For a brief moment, his mind went blank.
He...
He had actually been hit?
Damn it...
If he hadn’t noticed himself slowing down for a split second, he wouldn’t have even realized it.
He felt no pain.
It wasn’t because of adrenaline.
Rather, it was a racial trait unique to Ghouls.
Ronan quickly squeezed into the middle of the horde, using the other Ghouls as shields.
After all, the arrows couldn’t even damage them.
To him, however, they posed a life-and-death threat.
Ronan, a Mortal One Star Ghoul, was only as strong as an ordinary human.
Worse still...
He was like an untrained human.
Only by sticking close to his companions would he have any chance of surviving.
Finally, the Ghoul horde made it through the barrage of arrows and arrived before the town gate.
Boom!
Bang!
A deafening crash echoed as the gate shattered and collapsed onto the ground.
The leading Ghoul had broken through it with ease, demonstrating the terrifying strength of the Transcendent Realm.
From what Ronan had seen, they weren’t just far more durable.
Their physical strength was on an entirely different level as well.
Beyond the gate, the familiar sight of human homes entered his vision.
But Ronan was anything but happy.
Standing in the streets was a human army numbering nearly six hundred.
Swords and spears gleamed beneath the torches that illuminated the town.
Swish!
Swish!
The sound of arrows filled the air once more.
Only this time...
They were burning arrows.
Ronan hurriedly ducked.
Once again, every Ghoul except Ronan easily blocked the attack as they charged straight into the human army.
"Attack!"
A human commander roared as the soldiers charged toward the invading undead.
"Rooar!"
"Raar!"
The Ghouls answered with savage growls as they pushed past one another.
The smell of fresh flesh drove them into a frenzy as they charged forward without hesitation.
Even Ronan was affected.
Thankfully, his will was strong enough to resist the urge.
"I was so close to getting myself killed there..." Ronan muttered, glancing at the arrow still lodged in his shoulder.
He would have definitely died if he had rushed in alongside the other Ghouls.
After all, they were in the Transcendent Realm.
He was only Mortal.
All it would take was a single slash from one of the soldiers to kill him.
He had already died twice.
Ronan wasn’t willing to bet that the saying, "The third time’s the charm," applied to him.
If he died this time...
What if he never came back?
Knowing this, Ronan deliberately stayed behind the Ghoul horde.
Their first clash had already filled the battlefield with the metallic scent of blood.
The Ghoul horde smashed into the soldiers’ formation while the humans attacked with everything they had.
Yet every strike was met only with metallic clangs as they failed to break through the Ghouls’ defenses.
But alas, it didn’t take long for the Ghoul horde to become surrounded.
Although the humans couldn’t truly injure them, they could still restrain and delay them...
Long enough for their commander—a Transcendent Realm expert—to make his move.
The army’s tactics were enough to buy them time as Ronan and the other Ghouls found themselves trapped under a relentless barrage of attacks.
Ronan tried to keep himself as safe as possible, but he was still injured. Various cuts appeared across his body one after another as the dreadful feeling of death slowly crept into his heart.
Ronan hurriedly looked around, searching for a way out and desperately thinking of a solution.
But if he dared to run, his master would instantly sense it, and he would die.
Yet if this continued...
Wouldn’t he die anyway?
Just as Ronan was searching for a solution, a weak voice suddenly echoed beside him.
"He...lp... me..."
One of the dying soldiers, lying in the middle of the Ghoul horde, muttered weakly.
His body had almost been ripped in two as he lay on the ground, his lower torso crushed into a bloody paste while blood trickled from his lips.
Seeing this, Ronan lost all sense of reason for a brief moment as an overwhelming hunger seized him.
Fortunately, he quickly snapped out of it and swallowed hard.
Then his expression turned resolute.
"I can’t die."
Ronan spoke decisively.
He didn’t know what had come over him, but he quickly approached the dying soldier and stretched out both hands, tightly gripping the man’s neck.
The soldier’s eyes widened in terror as he looked at the Ghoul strangling him to death.
Ronan watched as the soldier struggled for a few moments before eventually going still.
Only then did Ronan stand up and step away from the corpse.
He couldn’t help but stare at his own hands.
He had just killed a human...
He really had.
Yet...
Why didn’t he feel anything?
It felt no different from stepping on an ant.
Ronan slowly clenched his fists.
"It was either him... or me."
He didn’t know why he said those words.
Maybe he was trying to convince himself.
Or maybe he was simply searching for a reason to justify what he had done.
But regardless...
He had really killed another human.
Before Ronan could dwell on it any longer, his expression suddenly changed.
"This is...?"
[Ding! Host has gained 0.001 Essence from killing a Mortal One Star human.]