Welcome to the Man-Eating Dungeon

Chapter 7 – Night of The Flames of Catastrophe: Counterattack

“…. Tch, so the best girl died first, did she. Damn this wretched village, most of the women are lardasses”

They should have been preparing to leave the village now that only a few hours are left until dawn, but nobody would probably come to pay this frontier village a visit.

In that case, they can at least stay in this ruined village for a day.

The Claws of the Black Bear mercenary band was a small band composed of those who had broken off from a major mercenary group.

They were not big enough to have a retinue of prostitutes or merchants, so most of their jobs are dirty jobs like this, and when they don’t get a job, they would go attack villages unrequested.

In short, they were hoodlums walking the line between mercenaries and bandits.

The leader, Hans, saw that the small cask of brandy they found at the building that was formerly the village headman’s house was empty and threw it at his men.

They have already killed almost all the villagers and dealt with the ones that tried to run at the village’s edge.

After asking the details of the request, the village head was cut down with a sword to the back.

There were only 10 women decent enough to sleep with in the village, so after ravishing the best looking young girl he let his men have them.

Because the goal of this job was silencing, they were not allowed to sell the women as slaves.

Which is why after having their way with them they would be killed.

All the mercenaries knew this, and so they treated the women roughly.

They were going to be killed anyway, so even though they will get injured, there was no need to worry since they weren’t going to be sold.

“Agaa, agh, aaa, aaaa ….”

The village headman’s daughter who had just gotten married half a year ago was being skewered by two of the mercenaries from the front and back.

Because she resisted she was badly beaten, and because of that, her beautiful teeth were all broken.

To keep her from running, her feet were cut from the ankles down and thrown on top of the corpse that was once her husband.

“Pu●●y, pu●●y feels good! More! Thrust more!”

The mercenaries laughed as they thrusted their penises.

“Speaking of which, it’s too bad about that young girl, huh”

“The girl the chief slept with? She ran away in the middle of the orgy, right … Well, she ain’t gonna live long with that wound”

“Joachim’s going after her. He’s probably doing her in some bushes somewhere, no?”

“Well, he’s got a small one after all! Probably doesn’t want us to see it!”

With vulgar laughter, the mercenaries raped the woman as they chugged their drinks.

It was about time for the men patrolling to make sure they didn’t miss anything and the vice-captain’s group who was assaulting the inn away from the village to return.

The vice-captain in particular had missed his chance at the women.

If they didn’t give him his share of prostitutes in town he’s surely going to complain.

“Oi, you lot! Hurry and finish up already”

To Hans’ order, the men made disgruntled noises but they can’t possibly complain and only obeyed.

“That reminds me, I’ve never done something like that”

“Ah, the one where you do them the moment they die”

“They say it feels incredibly tight …”

*stab*, he thrusted his sword into the girl’s heart without hesitation.

Her large breasts jiggled and spurted large amounts of blood.

Seeing that, the maddened girl finally noticed the pain she was in and raised a death cry.

“Aaah!? A …. AAAAAAaaAaaaaaAAAaAaaaAAAAAAaaA!!!!”

“Wheee!! She’s nice and tight!”

“Dumbass, you’re getting your clothes dirty!”

In the midst of the screaming, the door was loudly knocked.

“Oh, if it isn’t the vice-captain”

The mercenary peeking from the slot-window smiled as he opened the door.

Hans heard all that and felt that something was off somewhere.

Sure, it was about time Gerrick and his men showed up, that much wasn’t weird.

But does that guy usually even knock?

Well, he would know what we’re doing, though.

That moment, Hans’ men screamed.

◆◆◆

What came in was certainly Gerrick and his two men.

However, they were no longer human.

Bloodless skin, actions that don’t mind the body being destroyed, and the strength that came from that. Also the slight smell of rot.

They were zombies.

“E, EEEEK!!?”

They were in the middle of drinking stolen drinks and raping women. Nevermind weapons, they weren’t even clothed.

One of the men got his windpipe bitten by Gerrick’s corpse and died.

They fell into panic.

Zombies in this world were monsters that spontaneously appear near the demon world or places with a lot of dead or traces of battle.

They had great strength but slow movements. They were a symbol of fear for ordinary villagers, but they weren’t frightening to adventurers and mercenaries if they were calm.

…… yes, if they were calm.

Almost all of these had been drinking and raping through the night.

They were drunk, they were tired, and they weren’t armed to begin with.

Being attacked right when they had their guards down, two mone men died before they knew what was happening.

When the survivors somehow regained their posture, something came in through the door.

A resin covered in flames … a flaming arrow.

When they realized it, the second arrow came in.

It seems to have had grasses or chemicals mixed in, when they caught fire they produced a lot of smoke, causing visibility to go down.

It was becoming hard to breathe, but the zombies didn’t care about that.

Hans took the shield and greatsword left by the table and ran towards the back door.

His men were screaming behind him but he ignored them.

He checked whether there was an ambush nearby from the dormer window just in case and went out alone.

In this situation, the men coming out through the front door would probably be beyond hope.

If the horses hidden outside the village were alright, he could run away on his own…

Just when he had the thought, his feet slipped.

It was a trap.

◆◆◆

I had been waiting with a crossbow from behind a thicket where I could watch the back door.

Astarte and the zombies would do something about the front.

Even if, at worst, they couldn’t kill all the mercenaries, getting them all to run away is fine, too.

Then, one mercenary came out. He was not wearing armor but had a shield and a weapon.

He looks used to it but … he was alone.

I had laid a little trap at the backdoor’s footstep.

They were hidden under a grass sheet covered in earth, a large number of small water bags containing diluted lantern oil.

The hope is to throw them off balance and make them fall, and if they fell on top of the bags, ripping them and covering themselves in oil, that would be the best.

As planned, the enemy fell and their feet were covered in oil.

I decided my aim as planned and loosed a crossbow bolt. I wasn’t a good archer but somehow I shot the enemy on the foot.

The mercenary screamed and noticed me.

I threw the crossbow away and took another loaded crossbow.

When he tried to get up I loosed another bolt. This one pierced his flank. He still didn’t fall.

The mercenary started running with his shield up front, but because of the oil his footing was unstable.

I didn’t expect him to still be able to run after taking two bolts. So I ran, I ran away to a place ten seconds away.

The mercenary raised a beastlike scream, jumped through some thickets … and disappeared.

He fell into a pitfall trap I had made behind the thicket.

When I peered in, it looked like he fell in with a bad posture, the spine on his neck was broken, he was dead.

“….. Haa”

I released the breath I held and took a rough one. I collapsed on the spot and stood there on my knees.

He died, I killed him. My second one.

If I was even slightly less prepared, if I didn’t prepare a spare crossbow beforehand, if I didn’t have the zombies dig a pitfall trap …. I would’ve been the one who died.

But still, now the mercenaries’ main force was incapacitated.

While looking at the burning house of the village headman, I prayed that Dahlia wasn’t inside.

Then Astarte came running to me.

“Master Elliott, everything in the house was destroyed. The three zombies have been used up. Also … I found the girl in the stables”