Bloodhound’s Regression Instinct

Chapter 12

Yan’s footsteps were very light.

In contrast, Cruel’s footsteps behind him were heavy and sluggish.

Cruel glared at Yan who was ahead of him.

‘What the hell is that freakish sight?’

Did he think he was some kind of savage in the wilderness?

He was walking with a rough gray monster skin turned inside out.

Was he prepared for a possible downpour?

But that didn’t make sense, since he had tied all kinds of strange things to the skin and hung them around.

But that wasn’t the important thing.

Drag, drag, drag.

“Hurry up.”

“Th… this!”

“What.”

Cruel shouted with a flushed face.

“Now you pull too! Why are you making me do this alone!”

Thud!

A crisp sound of impact and Cruel fell back.

The middle of his forehead was stained red.

“I’m making you do it because it’s your punishment.”

“…That’s ridiculous!”

There were several ropes tied to Cruel’s waist, and at the end of them were goblin corpses.

Yan was using Cruel as a transport for the goblins he had killed.

“…I’m not the kind of person who does this. I’m from the Dwight Count’s family…!”

“Bastard.”

“…!”

Cruel’s eyes widened.

He didn’t think Yan already knew that.

“How, how did you know that!”

“I heard it from here and there. What. If you’re done talking, stop the nonsense and do your work.”

“By… by imperial law, it’s illegal to make a minor under 15 do this!”

“You’re a mana user, aren’t you? Or do you want to run to the chief instructor and tell him ‘he broke the imperial law!’?”

“…”

If Cruel had been really ordinary, he wouldn’t have made him do this.

It was insane to make a 15-year-old boy drag twenty goblins along.

‘But that guy can handle mana well.’

He was soaked in sweat, but he had managed to drag them so far.

It wasn’t an impossible task.

“…I shouldn’t be doing this right now.”

“You should.”

“Then at least untie this!”

Cruel grabbed the rope around his neck and shouted.

The end of the rope was in Yan’s hand.

It was like a dog leash, no, like a slave being dragged around.

Cruel felt extreme shame and humiliation at being the target.

“You’ll be a hassle if you run away. I have a lot of work to do.”

“Ah, I won’t run away!”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I’ll be caught right away if I run away like this, why bother!”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Yan scratched his chin at Cruel’s desperate scream.

“Well, it is a bit funny to see you like this, right?”

No matter how much of a jerk Cruel was, it was something to have a rope around his neck and drag him around.

It seemed like he had gone too far.

In the end, Yan untied the rope around Cruel’s neck.

“You know what happens if you run away, right?”

“…I know!”

Yan shrugged his shoulders and moved forward.

Cruel secretly gritted his teeth.

‘Damn you! When I get my mana back, I’ll make you die a painful death.’

Cruel’s eyes were filled with malice.

Whack!

“Ow!”

A stone flew and hit Cruel’s head.

“I can see what you’re thinking in your thick skull. If you don’t want to crawl on all fours, stay still.”

Yan turned his head slightly and said.

Cruel quickly lowered his head.

‘F*ck!’

Crawling on all fours in front of someone was worse than dying.

* * *

‘It was around here somewhere.’

Yan searched his memory as he scanned the mountain range.

The place where the ‘monster’ was sleeping.

If he had a map, it would have been easier, but he had to rely on his recollection alone.

“Huff, huff. Hey! How far are you going!”

“Quiet and follow me. If an ogre shows up, we’ll die together.”

“Hmph!”

Yan chuckled as he saw Cruel cover his mouth.

He didn’t know, but the mountain range he was climbing was cleaned up by a single being.

He was looking for that ‘monster’ now.

By the way.

‘How does that pathetic guy become such a vicious bastard later?’

No. If he hadn’t kept pampering him, he would have been doing bad things with a rag in his mouth by now.

And.

There was something that bothered him since a while ago.

“Huff, huff.”

He felt a faint killing intent from Cruel, who seemed to be dying of exhaustion.

At first, he thought he really had a grudge, but now he wasn’t sure.

More than that, the direction of the killing intent was not limited to him, but spread out everywhere.

‘Something’s wrong with him.’

If he was hiding his eyes and faking his expression, that killing intent wouldn’t make sense.

‘Is he learning some kind of magic skill?’

If there was black magic in magic, there was magic skill in swordsmanship and martial arts.

Magic skill (魔功).

A wicked skill that achieves faster than ordinary skills, but blackens the user’s mind and body and eventually turns them into a madman. ‘Hmm.’

Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at Cruel, who was sweating profusely.

But.

‘I can’t see it clearly.’

He didn’t have a container to hold mana, so it was hard to see other people’s things in detail.

Cruel lifted his head slightly when Yan stared at him.

“Huff, why. Want to trade?”

“No. I was thinking of adding a few more.”

“……Crazy.”

Well, it’s none of his business, right?

He thought so and turned his body.

No one forced him to learn magic skill, it was his own choice.

Then it was strange to interfere.

Yan stopped thinking about Cruel and turned his attention to the ‘monster’s’ nest.

After searching the mountain range for about two hours.

“……Found it.”

Yan muttered as he looked at a place that looked like a cliff.

Cruel came up to where Yan was standing, panting.

“What did you find? What’s on this cliff?”

Cruel looked around and frowned.

“You must have had a hard time dragging those things behind you?”

“Huh? Are you going to give me some medicine now?”

“Now drop those things one by one down there.”

“What?”

Yan pointed to the cliff below.

“Why?”

“Just do it. Just do this and one more thing and you’ll be free.”

“F, free?!”

Cruel, who liked the word, suddenly scowled.

“But what’s the rest, again.”

“After you throw all the corpses, run to the gate we passed earlier.”

“Gate?”

“The place where we came from the training camp to here.”

He wanted to ask why he had to do that, but he didn’t say it out loud.

If he did, he would have a headache.

Yan handed him a crude dagger and he cut the ropes that were hanging all over his body.

Then suddenly.

‘Wait. If I have this dagger…….’

Couldn’t he do something to that bastard?

What he learned was not martial arts, but swordsmanship.

The dagger was shoddy, but it was better than clumsy punches.

Cruel glanced at Yan.

Yan was staring at the cliff as if he had something on his mind.

Squeak.

His lips curled up wickedly, and he gripped the dagger tightly.

‘Yeah, I have to pay him back……!’

Thud!

“Ow!”

“You bastard, trying to die.”

Yan, who was only looking ahead, somehow hit his head with a stone.

‘Monster-like kid.’

In the end, Cruel gave up on ambushing Yan and did as he told him, throwing the goblin corpses down the cliff.

* * *

A dark chamber that had been undisturbed for hundreds of years.

In that chamber, a skeleton wearing a splendid ritual robe was laid to rest.

Thud, thud-thud.

A loud noise echoed in that place.

The sound of flesh falling and splattering broke the silence of the chamber little by little.

Zing.

Something changed in the skeleton that seemed to have been buried for a long time.

Between the eye sockets of the skeleton, a red light glowed.

Thud, thud.

Crack.

Another noise rang out.

Creak.

The skeleton gritted its teeth and slowly raised its upper body.

Then, when no sound was heard for a few minutes, the skeleton stopped moving while sitting.

It looked like a mechanical device.

The red light in the eye holes also faded gradually.

Then.

Thud, thud.

Crack.

The noise became faster and faster.

Kraaaaaa-!

The skeleton finally screamed.

Then, a crimson aura began to rise above the skeleton’s body.

Soon, the aura intertwined and drew a large magic circle.

And then, the skeleton was swallowed whole by it.

* * *

Cruel did as Yan ordered, throwing all twenty corpses and turning his body around.

“……Huh? Hey! 974! 974!”

But Yan, who had been watching him all this time, was gone as if he had sunk into the ground.

“Where did he go?”

Cruel narrowed his eyes and looked around.

‘Can’t I just run away now?’

It was a blow to his pride, but for some reason, 974 was definitely hiding his strength.

So it was best to avoid friction with him as a fellow trainee, but….

‘If I get a chance to get out of here, I’ll kill you for insulting a noble…….’

Shiver!

Cruel’s back suddenly shivered.

He didn’t feel this nervous or goosebumps even when he faced his father….

Cruel turned his head back to the cliff.

‘The sky…… is changing!’

The purple sky was shaking.

The clouds began to rotate around where he was standing. Every time, cold sweat ran down his back.

Then, he remembered what Yan had said.

“Stack these here and run to the gate we passed earlier.” – italic

“The place where we came from the training camp to here.” – italic

Now he had a little idea why he said that.

‘……You bastard! What the hell did you do!’

Cruel immediately poured mana into his legs and started running.

At that moment.

A fierce echo burst out behind him.

Kraaaaaa-!

Fear gripped his heart.

His whole body trembled.

He barely turned his shaking head and saw it.

‘A, a skeleton!?’

A huge magic circle appeared on the cliff.

And in front of it, a skeleton mage wearing a ritual robe was looking down at him.

He couldn’t move a muscle as he met the red eyes of the skeleton.

The splendid outfit didn’t match the bones, and it looked rather ridiculous.

“Hu, huff!”

The overwhelming magic power that crushed him made even that appearance terrifying.

Especially the crimson magic power that was pouring out of him was the most bizarre.

Kraaaaaa-!

The skeleton roared and the scattered aura changed into different shapes.

From ice spears, fireballs, gusts, to arrows of darkness.

Suddenly, the ground shook and an earthquake occurred, and a tornado swept the earth and uprooted the trees.

The majestic mountain range quickly turned into a barren hill.

‘A skeleton…… that uses magic!’

Faced with the monster that was spraying disaster magic that could be called ‘the flower of war’ at least 6th circle.

Cruel had to use the acceleration technique by squeezing out the remaining mana from his container.

Kwakwakwakwakwang─!

The ‘monster’ chased after Cruel, who had dirtied his nest.

Kraaaaaa-!

* * *

Grrr.

“Huh?”

“What, what was that?”

The trainees were doing their tasks and wandering around when they suddenly felt a chill.

More and more trainees felt that sensation.

“……If you want to live, run to the gate now!”

“Everyone, go down to the gate!”

Lorena and Casa, who were at the front, also started to act as soon as their spines tingled.

“Gate? Why the gate?”

“I’ll explain on the way down, hurry up!”

The two, who were always relaxed, shouted with urgency, and the trainees started to rush to the gate.

“Hey, princess.”

“Don’t call me that, or I’ll kill you.”

“Anyway. You felt it too, right?”

“……It seems like something went wrong.”

Lorena and Casa quickly descended the mountain range, discussing the aura.

“I don’t know much about strong people, so I can’t tell. How strong is this?”

The Beowulf ducal family was a great family where many strong people flocked.

Lorena, who grew up in that gap, might have some idea of how strong this creepy aura was.

Lorena was cutting off the branches and bushes that were in the way.

‘He’s more soft-hearted than he looks.’

He must be clearing the obstacles for the trainees behind him.

He looked like he didn’t care about anything around him until he entered the Blade Mountain Range.

Lorena opened her mouth cautiously after thinking for a while.

“I’m not sure, but…… I think it’s comparable to His Grace.”

“……What? The Duke of Beowulf?”

The Duke of Beowulf was one of the four dukes of the empire and the guardian of the north.

He was one of the top five people in the empire in terms of strength.

“I’m not sure…… I don’t know.”

Casa snorted.

“Can’t the instructors stop this? Then we’re doomed.”

“Then that’s our fate.”

At that moment.

Bang. Bang-bang. Bang-bang-bang.

A huge explosion sounded from behind.

“Kyaaak!”

“Sa, save me!”

The ‘monster’ was already on their tail.

The faces of the trainees who lacked stamina were filled with despair.

“Tsk!”

Lorena bit her tongue hard and stopped running and turned her body around.

Casa looked at Lorena with a shocked expression.

“Hey, you don’t……!”

“You go first!”

With that, Lorena charged toward the ‘monster’.

“That, that crazy……!”

Did he want to die by running there?

He couldn’t save everyone anyway. He should have prioritized his own life.

‘Is he one of those types?’

The type who can’t stand not helping others.

But Casa, he was not that type.

Even if he was, he shouldn’t have been.

He had a heavy burden of ‘family’ on his shoulders.

Casa slapped his cheek once with a loud sound and started to head to the gate faster.

* * *

Lorena was flying to the back, avoiding the trainees who were rolling down.

When she reached the last point.

“Kyaaak!”

A female trainee was sitting down, pale and vomiting, screaming.

A fireball flying toward her.

Lorena’s body moved faster than ever before.

Taah!

Lorena kicked the ground and jumped out.

And then she grabbed the collar of the female trainee and threw her far away.

Kwaang!

A large hole appeared where the female trainee had been sitting.

Kraaaaaa-!

The ‘monster’ roared as its attack was in vain.

Lorena opened her eyes wide at the identity of the ‘monster’ that was glowing in front of her.

“……A lich? Why is there a lich here?”

She thought that and pulled up mana from her container to counter the magic that was coming soon.

But.

“Tr, triple casting?!”

She was shocked when she saw the three magic circles in front of her.

Even a genius mage could only do double casting.

And not to mention low-level magic, they were all casting high-level magic.

Lorena picked up a crude sword that was lying on the ground and stared at the ‘monster’.

‘I won’t give up until the end.’

As soon as she made up her mind, the ‘monster’ seemed to finish casting.

Kuwaaaaa.

Perung.

Whiiing.

A pillar of fire, ice arrows, and gravity that crushed the atmosphere mixed and headed toward Lorena.

A desperate situation.

When all the things she had gone through in her family flashed before her eyes.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

“Your Highness didn’t have to come.”

Along with the voices that suddenly came, the magic that was shot at her began to shatter.

The ice arrows disappeared when they collided with the golden aura, and the pillar of fire was swallowed by a black dragon that appeared from somewhere.

“……Who?”

The heavy gravity was lifted.

Then Lorena lifted her head and saw the person standing in front of her.

A man with a dazzling aura all over his body like the sun.

His lips curled up slightly.

“It’s been a while. Young Lady Beowulf.”

She recognized the familiar voice.

The reincarnation of the ‘Founder’.

It was the appearance of the crown prince.