“Alright/Okay!” As his commands were passed along, all three of them gave a loud murmur of assent.
Then, putting one finger on his ear, he continued to talk for a few seconds; this time though, his addressee was someone inside the control room.
Oink! Oink!
Before he was done whispering though, they spotted the other pig charging in their direction in an enraged manner. It seemed as if it was furious about its companion’s death and now, it was determined to take revenge on them.
Seeing the other horned-pig rushing at them, the Thread Mistress was about to raise her hands and create a barrier when she saw the Burly Guard raise his hand while uttering, “No need to use your trait for stopping the beast, that’s my job. Like this, you won’t get tired easily.”
Then, putting his shield in front of himself, he took a professional stance as he put all of his weight and power behind it.
Bam!
After their heavy face to face collision, much to the surprise of those watching this battle from their houses, the Burly Guard was still standing in his previous spot just like an immovable mountain.
‘Ah… this feeling of numbness again…” Taking a quick glance at his hands, the Burly Guard pondered to himself.
On the other hand, the horned-pig appeared to be slightly shaken too due to the engagement since it didn’t move for almost a second.
Swish!
This small window of time was enough for the Supersonic Sword to make his move as a line of sword was drawn in the air as he slashed toward the horned-pig’s neck.
“Thread Mistress… your turn!” Seeing a superficial wound opening up on the beast’s neck, the Burly Guard shouted toward the Thread Mistress.
Swish~ Swish~
Immediately, like a whip, one filament after another tried to cut the wound deeper, until finally, once again, blood started to spray outside.
Squeak~
A few moments later, another dead pig was lying motionlessly on the ground.
“Phew… good job everyone. Now let’s-“
“Be careful!!!” Screamed the Thread Mistress. This was the very first time anyone had seen her scream like this.
Bang!
Letting out a breath of relief and happiness, the Burly Guard was just about to give his next orders when abruptly, his voice was cut off by an incoming shadow from above.
Fortunately, the Thread Mistress seemed to have spotted the incoming shadow at the very last moment as she waved her hands and a barrier of threads intertwined together instantly.
However, even the barrier could only sustain the immense might put behind the shadow for only a slight moment as it was soon ripped into shreds all at once. And this short period of time was only adequate for the Supersonic Sword, the Thread Mistress, and the Bloody Touch to escape from the range of the descending shadow. The Burly Guard, who was standing at the very center of the incoming attack, however, could only watch with no time to react whatsoever.
“Ahhh…”
And so, with the barrier gone and powerless against the gigantic shadow, it immediately crashed on the Burly Guard’s body, directly squashing him under itself.
“Burly Guard!!!” Seeing this horrifying sight before them, Supersonic Sword and Bloody Touch both screamed their guts out while their faces became ashen white.
As the four meters Winged-Pig was successful in his attack, not wasting any more seconds, spreading its long wings, it flew into the sky once again.
As the Winged-Pig was gone, all three of them rushed to the location where the Burly Guard was previously standing at. After taking a glimpse at the Burly Guard’s now nauseating condition, however, their face went even paler.
“No, Burly bro… Blergh~” A second later, the cute girl could no longer hold herself as she kneeled on the ground and began vomiting all over.
Right now, they witnessed that there was no part that was left unscathed over the Burly Guard’s body and almost every part was lethally wounded as bits of mingled and gory flesh were scattered all around him. Soon, blood began to cover everywhere too.
If they could perceive inside his body too, they would’ve realized that almost every bone within his physique was either broken or shattered into tiny pieces.
Anyway, noticing that the Burly Guard was still alive, the Thread Mistress knew this was no time to be dilly-dallying as she shouted in the direction of the puking Bloody Touch, “Hurry! Right now! Heal him right now before he’s gone forever!”
Catching her screaming voice, Bloody Touch momentarily stopped vomiting all around as she uttered with the utmost difficulty, “I-I can’t… these in-injuries are too much even for me… it’s… it’s truly outside my current Trait power to heal him… I’m sorry… uwuuu, I’m shoo shorry…” By the end of her words, she was already crying rivers as tears and snot filled her face.
Taking in her helpless words, the Thread Mistress’ face became a lot darker as she could only stare at the broken body before her. Completely powerless.
“It’s… It’s… O-okay… tell… them… to… lo-look after… my… fa-fam-” At this point, they heard a very muffled and low voice. This was the Burly Guard’s last words as he drew his final breath and was gone forever. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even finish his last sentence entirely before dying with his eyes wide open.
Perceiving the meaning of his final words, the Thread Mistress sat beside him as she phrased while gently closing his eyes, “Alright, now be at ease and rest all you want. Thank you for everything… you can leave everything else to me.”
Meanwhile, almost the whole world had gone entirely quiet as everyone watched this bloody corpse in utter silence.
Soon, tears of grief and sadness started running down and dripping from many eyes.
At this very moment, the world was grieving over the death of a hero.
“He died a hero… ahhhhh…” At a random market, a man started to cry out loud as tears of extreme sadness overcame him.
“Why… why should he die?! He didn’t deserve to die… this world is so fucking unfair… those beasts… those fucking beasts!!!” At another place, another Burly man in tears was yelling sadly.
Simultaneously, inside a particular house, a family of three were watching the gory sight of the familiar dead corpse without making any sounds.
After what seemed like an eternity later, a confused five years old little girl phrased while looking at their television brokenly, “Da-daddy? Daddy, defeat the monsters… Why… mom… why isn’t daddy waking up, mom?”
Hearing the little girl’s words, the stunned woman who was also staring at the screen to this moment finally gathered her wits a bit as she placed both of her hands on her lips while an intense wave of sorrow and tears drowned her, “Honey…”
Remembering how the last thing they had done was to fight after her husband had revealed his life-long secret of being an abnormal a few days earlier, she felt even worse, ‘No… honey, you can’t leave us like this… please come back… I’m not angry at you anymore, please…’
“Daaad… Nooo… Ahhhhhhhh…” The other member of this family who happened to be a teenage boy also began to scream and weep in total misery and anguish as if he had gone insane.
As gloom and heartache filled Earth, a true hero was born into the heart of many. Albeit, he was already dead.
Although hundreds or maybe thousands of soldiers had died in this great war of invasion, within the heart of these common people, this single death outweighed the death of thousands.
Because, to people, one million is just a statistic but one death is a tragedy.
