Monster - Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Our Adventure

As the Aztecs launched their counterattack against the invaders, a wooden boat made of palm wood drifted in the coastal waters at the edge of the battlefield. From a distance, the boat, with its high, upturned ends, appeared empty, drifting all alone. However, anyone who got closer would have seen an eight or nine-year-old girl lying flat inside. Her long hair was braided, her face painted with blue and white greasepaint. Her unusually light-colored eyes stared up at the blue sky, reflecting the clouds. In her arms, she clutched a very worn-out rabbit doll.

The clear, azure seawater gently rippled under the afternoon breeze. The sound of the water washing onto the beach was like falling rain, exceptionally clear to the ears of the Sentinel and Guide, both enhanced by their special abilities.

Lin Sandie had assigned a task to both herself and Little Fool: to intercept and kill any invaders who tried to escape.

But before that, there was one more step to take.

That was to disperse the Aztecs who had been enslaved by the Spanish.

Lin Sandie had assigned this job to Eagle and Branch, who had already learned to ride off-road motorcycles. However, the time was not yet right, so they had not yet appeared.

In her Spirit Separation state, Lin Sandie raised her perspective and saw the Spanish leader on the distant sandy ground. He was fully armed, mounted on his horse, and delivering a pre-battle speech.

Under the afternoon sun, the leader's armor glinted silver. He raised the fine steel longsword in his hand and shouted:

"...The war is about to begin! We are the King's emissaries, and also God's emissaries!!"

"Holy comrades! We should not fear war!!"

"For all of this is for Christ! For the King!"

"We are fearless!!"

"We are fearless!!" the soldiers in front of him, holding spears, daggers, and matchlocks, roared in unison.

And just then, on the low slope opposite the Spanish invaders, with the forest at their backs, countless Aztecs in strange armor began to emerge.

"The Goddess is with us!!!" The Aztec chief, Five-Person Killer, raised his long axe with one hand and roared. Following his voice, the sound of a conch shell, serving as a horn, was blown.

"Woooooo—"

The conch horn sounded, again and again, as Five-Person Killer led his people charging down the slope.

"Kill—!"

"Matchlock men! To your positions!" The Spanish commander on horseback felt a twinge of fear seeing this group of Aztecs, who had changed so drastically in just half a day. Nevertheless, he suppressed his unease and began to issue commands.

"Long-range stone-throwers, in position!!" someone on the Aztec side roared back.

Lin Sandie's prediction was correct. The rate of attack from the stone-throwers was indeed much faster than that of the matchlocks. Furthermore, she had already calculated the distance and relayed it to the Aztecs. As a result, the long-range attackers with their large stones were not swept up in the battlefield's chaos. Instead of the blood-pumping fervor of the melee, their focus was one of calm precision, flinging one prepared stone after another at the matchlock men who were crouching to aim, effectively becoming stationary targets.

Even if the stones flung from such a distance were only the size of a child's fist, their velocity alone was enough to stun a Spanish invader wearing a helmet.

"The Goddess is with us!!!"

While the ranged attacks were underway, the heavily armored warriors had already roared and charged into the enemy's formation. Fearless of death, they swung their long axes, hacking viciously at the horses' legs. The moment a cavalryman fell, his neck would receive a heavy blow. Some Aztecs even ripped off their helmets before slitting their throats.

The whinnying of horses, the agonizing screams of pain, the stirring sound of the horn, the cries of battle—all sorts of sounds echoed across the entire beach.

The once-warm afternoon beach was now covered in blood and death.

War is cruel. Even though the scene before her was different from the wars she had imagined, seeing the blood stain the ochre sand and watching people fall one by one, Lin Sandie was still momentarily stunned.

She was just an ordinary woman from a modern, civilized society. When had she ever seen such a scene? Even though she had anticipated this outcome, and despite everything she had experienced, witnessing it firsthand still left her shaken by the loss of life.

"Little Rabbit?"

"Blow it." Lin Sandie quickly came to her senses, suppressing her unease and pity. She prompted Little Fool according to the original plan.

The moment her words fell, Little Fool, still lying in the small wooden boat, puffed up her cheeks and blew hard into the black air-raid whistle she held in her mouth.

A sharp, piercing whistle echoed across the battlefield. With this signal, Eagle rode the off-road motorcycle toward the enslaved Aztecs on the shore.

"Drop what you're holding and leave the beach immediately! Or God will bring down punishment!"

Eagle and Branch shouted in unison. Combined with the bone-chilling, piercing whistle and the roar of the motorcycle, the Aztecs, who had only been cooperating under duress, scattered in an instant. After years of fighting the Spanish invaders, none of them truly took the title of "God's emissaries" to heart.

The commotion in the rear caused the fighting Spanish invaders to rapidly fall apart. While not everyone lacked faith, there were certainly some who were more loyal to gold than to God.

"Get up. They're coming over," prompted Lin Sandie, who had been monitoring the battlefield. At her words, Little Fool stood up in the wooden boat, unhesitatingly nocked an arrow, and shot down the first invader to enter her range.

Blood stained the seawater. Seeing that the short-statured Little Fool was struggling a bit, Lin Sandie took out a bow herself. Coordinating with her "Island," she shot down one invader after another, hoping for it all to end quickly.

If the unjust are not punished, then justice loses its meaning.

At that moment, Lin Sandie was still comforting herself. She was always like this, needing many reasons to motivate herself.

Just as Lin Sandie was forcing herself to face the situation despite her unease, a deafening explosion, like a clap of thunder, suddenly erupted. She felt a massive wave rise up from behind, flinging her high into the air. The black fog of her spirit form was nearly dispersed.

With no time to dwell on the fact that her Spirit Separation state could be attacked, Lin Sandie endured the intense pain of her spirit nearly shattering. She pulled her attention back from the invaders rushing toward the shore, retracting the "Island" she had been maintaining to cover the wooden boat. She saw that she was now some distance from the boat's original position. The boat itself had been overturned, and Little Fool was nowhere in sight.

Her mind went blank. Without a second thought, Lin Sandie retracted her consciousness back into the rabbit doll. Her vision filled with churning seawater, and a stream of white bubbles appeared beside her—air being squeezed out of the doll by the water pressure. Lin Sandie scanned her surroundings and saw a trail of blood rising through the churning blue and white water. Panicked, she quickly channeled her mental energy and released an "Island" at its maximum range.

After a moment of helpless searching in the sea, Lin Sandie finally spotted Little Fool.

White bubbles were continuously escaping from the corners of her mouth and her nose. Blood seeped from a gash on her forehead where she must have hit something. Yet, she showed no hesitation, struggling to tread water and move toward the doll. When she finally grabbed the sinking rabbit doll, more bubbles escaped her mouth, and a relieved smile appeared on her lips. But after that smile, her limbs suddenly began to slow, as if she had lost all her strength.

This Little Fool didn't know how to swim at all!

Boom! The invaders' seafaring ship in the distance fired another cannonball. Although the shot wasn't precise, its area of effect was extremely wide. The water around them churned again. Little Fool was thrown into the air and then dropped back down, but she never let go of the rabbit doll.

Lin Sandie knew that it took very little time for a child to drown, not to mention that Little Fool had just struggled desperately to swim over and grab the rabbit doll, swallowing who knew how much seawater in the process.

Using Spirit Separation again, Lin Sandie grabbed the unconscious Little Fool, lifted her out of the water, and carried her to the nearest beach.

"Goddess! God's Favored?" Having dealt with most of the invaders on the coast, Eagle and Branch saw this scene. Suppressing their fear of the distant cannons, they jumped off their motorcycle and ran over.

Feeling her own spirit on the verge of collapse, Lin Sandie stuck the Whisperer into the ground. At the same time, she unfastened Little Fool's clothes and placed a hand on her heart, only to find that both her heartbeat and breathing had stopped.

An icy chill ran through her. Lin Sandie forced herself to remain calm, placed the soaking wet rabbit doll under Little Fool's neck as a pillow, and ordered Eagle:

"Go tell Five-Person Killer to finish up. Kill all the invaders and cut off their heads."

"Branch, kneel beside God's Favored, pinch her nose, and breathe into her mouth. Twice."

Perhaps because the Goddess's tone was not as calm as usual, Eagle didn't dare say more and immediately turned to leave. The battle was already nearing its end; the Spanish invaders were no match for the well-fed, better-equipped, and more numerous Aztecs.

Not to mention the Aztecs had a strategy for this fight.

After understanding what the "Goddess" wanted her to do, Branch immediately knelt beside God's Favored, pinched her nose as instructed, and gave her two breaths.

After Branch gave two breaths, Lin Sandie began to perform vertical compressions on Little Fool's chest. The two of them repeated this process until Little Fool coughed up seawater and her heartbeat and breathing returned. Only then did Lin Sandie breathe a sigh of relief.

Feeling that she had done something incredibly meaningful, Branch wept with joy. She was about to praise the Goddess when she saw an invisible force embrace God's Favored the moment she woke up.

"Little Rabbit...?"

Lin Sandie didn't speak. Guilt had already overwhelmed her. She just held Little Fool tightly, the terror in her heart finally subsiding a little.

But in her Spirit Separation state, she still couldn't feel the rise and fall of Little Fool's breath or the warmth of her body. At that moment, Lin Sandie wished more than anything that she had a human body.

If she hadn't lost her composure after witnessing the cruel scene, this danger wouldn't have happened. It was her fault. Lin Sandie clutched Little Fool's clothes, her guilt and terror mixed with a deeper anger—anger at herself, and anger at the invaders who had attacked them with a cannon.

"Little Rabbit, you're hugging me too tight. It hurts."

"Sorry." Lin Sandie quickly loosened her grip.

"It's not your fault, Little Rabbit. This is our adventure." Sensing Little Rabbit's sorrowful mood, Little Fool comforted her earnestly. Little Rabbit had said before that adventures would have dangers; that was normal.

"Goddess, God's Favored, we are victorious!" Covered in blood, Five-Person Killer walked over excitedly, awaiting his next instructions.

"Throw their bodies into the sea nearby. Throw all the heads in too. Let the people on that distant ship see," Lin Sandie commanded coldly. Her unease had vanished after the recent peril. Lin Sandie knew that in a world like this, she couldn't afford a shred of soft-heartedness or naivety. She had someone she had to protect, and a single moment of carelessness could get the other person killed.

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