Conquest

Editor: iballisticbunny, Amaranth

Shaar regretted choosing this direction when he saw the Odins were beginning to line up in a formation. He immediately began to cautiously retreat and used his agility to silently climb on the trunks. His movements were vigorous like a lynx and his body bent like a cat in order to climb from one tree to another. This process was slow since he tried to make each movement as light as possible, until he moved over a dozen trees away and entered depths of the forest. Only after distancing himself from that group of Odin soldiers, Shaar reluctantly increased his movements to speed up and enter further into the forest.

However, very soon a squad of Icefield hunters suddenly appeared deep in the forest, which immediately sent Shaar’s heart up his throat.

These guys’ sharpness was strong enough to threaten and expose Shaar’s hideout!

Immediately stopping all his movements, he hid himself in a thick branch of a large tree......

Using his sharp eyes, Shaar spied through dense foliage and got a glimpse of a squad full of majestic Odin soldiers coming closer. Both tall and burly, every one of them looked very capable and vigorous. Each of them had cold expressions on their faces while wearing animal skins and carrying a short axe. A hidden violent aura could be seen in their eyes as they quietly stood there in a circle.

The most terrifying thing for Shaar was that, more and more Odins were gathering at that place. Beside those Icefield hunters, there were a dozen Odins who were wearing strange animal skins. These guys didn’t carry any weapons but they were wearing various accessories made of strange types of animal bones. An old, but big and skinny Odin with a wild disordered hair stood out amidst among them. He was wearing a large fur lined robe with nothing underneath unexpectedly. This Odin seemed to have the highest rank among them as everyone else maintained a considerable distance and respectful stance towards him.

A fire was quickly lit on the ground and that skinny Odin grabbed a handful strange powder from his leather bag, throwing it into the fire. Immediately, that flame turned into a bizarre green as the flames erupted.

While this fellow scattered the powder into the fire, his mouth started to cast some strange notes. Since Shaar didn’t speak the Odin language, he couldn’t understand what that guy was saying. Nevertheless, while that Odin was singing, the others around him started to kneel while prostrating around that green fire......

A strange feeling crept from Shaar’s heart.

This Odin......Is he a magician?

Ah, no, he heard that the Odin didn’t call them magicians, but......gothi?

The Odin soldiers at the back quickly carried over two wild animals, a living wolf and even living grizzly bear!!

These animals were tied up and put next to the fire while they were still fiercely roaring furiously and making threatening expressions. However, the Odin gothi walked towards them with a strange smile and stroked their fur with his hand. Suddenly, that wolf felt something and seemed extremely frightened and did not even dare to struggle. Pitifully shrinking its head, it started to make some whining sounds......

The gothi put on a gloomy smile and gently put his hand on the wolf’s head while pressing his fingers, which resembled a dried twig on it. The chanting coming from his mouth became increasingly more erratic as the wolf’s cry gradually disappeared.

When the gothi’s fingers gently pinched the wolf’s head......Shaar stared at him with widened eyes as he saw this strange scene......

A transparent light was gently “pulled out” of the wolf’s head by that gothi!!

That mass of light was very weak and after it “detached” itself from the wolf’s body, that wolf immediately stopped moving and turned stiff.

Suddenly thinking about his experiences during the dragon hunt, Shaar’s heart started to pound like crazy!

It’s....... the Soul!

This gothi unexpectedly “pulled” the soul from a living wolf with his bare hands!!

With a solemn expression, the gothi held this mass of light in his hand and gently threw it into the green flame......

*Bang* the green light flared up and from within the flames, a painful loud howling rang out!

The gothi used his finger and directly pulled a mass of green flame from the blaze and it turned into a dozen smaller green luminous spots on his hands. Gently flipping with his finger, he shot those light particles on those burly Odin warriors surrounding him!

When those light particles fell on the Odin warrior’s body, chest and head, it immediately fused with their bodies. Suddenly, each warrior lifted his head and howled a painful cry!

A painful expression could be seen on each of those Odin warrior’s faces as their muscles constantly distorted. Each one of them started to bare their teeth and some of them even started to shed tear and snot. It seemed as if an enormous pain was being inflicted upon them as some even began to struggle to remain standing. Their body began to stiffen and swayed from side to side like puppets, before they suddenly tore apart their fur lined robes. From their bare chest, one could see their muscles were rapidly inflating with the naked eye. The surface of their skins quickly burst open, but soon a new layer of skin would cover their wounds and a thick black fur started to grow out of this new layer of skin. Even their faces started to grow a dense fur......like, like......

Monstrosities made of half wolf and half human?

Their initially cold eyes suddenly turned into a strange green! As if there was a green flame radiating within their eyes!! Although they previously had a cold stare, there was at least a hint of human emotions in them. However, now within two pair of green flames there were no longer any traces of humanity left in them.

(Burning the soul of beasts and injecting them into a human body......could it be ......)

Shaar’s expression changed abruptly.

Could it be the “Spirit Beast Warriors” from the legends?! He once heard a tale in the tavern of Primal Wildfire Town from some passing mercenaries who were boasting about their exploits while getting drunk. Some of them mentioned that the Odin Empire’s army had monsters called “Spirit Beast Warriors” with extremely high battle efficiency. Those legends mentioned that the Spirit Beast Warriors were like ferocious beasts in combat with almost an infinite strength, feeling neither pain nor fear. Furthermore, they had extremely strong fighting capacities, as if they were possessed by the souls of powerful beasts.

Those warriors who became half werewolves continued to growl and the thin Odin gothi arrived in front of grizzly bear. Baring its teeth while growling fiercely, its cry gradually turned to whining when the gothi came closer. It was as if it had a premonition of danger and despair was getting closer.

The gothi put on a smiling face, but it was a strange kind of smile, the kind without slightest bit of joy, but instead radiated a cruel aura. Putting his hand on the bear’s, he started to do the same procedure as last time. While his mouth chanted some strange tones, his fingertip made the same pulling motions and soon a green light was ripped from the bear’s head!

It was very obviously that bear’s soul was shining much stronger and brighter than that of the wolf’s. Throwing the mass of green light into the green flames, the raging fire was immediately set ablaze.

The gothi also seemed somewhat exhausted and his forehead was full of sweat. His face looked pale and the incantations coming from his mouth also got quieter while the pace of his breathing obviously increased. Holding his hand over the first, he put it in like a claw then he gently waved. The green light was once again separated from the fire, but the gothi’s magic seemed unable to support the consumption. His palm which shouldn’t be burned by that flame suddenly emitted smog and scorched his hand.

The gothi frowned a bit as if he couldn’t feel the pain but he had a somewhat nervous appearance. He quickly grabbed that mass of green flame and pressed it against his palm, before throwing it away with his charred claws.

Behind him, a row of Odins warriors with the biggest and the strongest body came forward. Their excitement was written all over their faces as if they were filled with the anticipation for the upcoming event. This team of Odin warriors had the tallest statures and each one of them was at least two heads taller than Shaar. Moreover, they wore thick heavy armor and carried a long steel axe.

A dozen small bear soul fire hit those guys’ bodies and soon they let out a deep, loud roar. More than a dozen of Odin warriors roared towards the sky, while forcefully pounding their chests. The muscles on their body started to swell rapidly as their heights instantly shot up. Their bodies swelled to such a degree that it deformed their body armor while issuing some distorting noises. It seemed like these fellows were not feeling the pain and only howled like wild beasts. Finally, as if feeling their body armors were nothing more than shackles, some of them casually stretched out their fingernails, which were turned into claws, and tore it off.

That originally thick metal armor was like a fragile paper in their hands as it got easily torn off!

Still sitting on the tree, Shaar’s heart started to jump madly after seeing this......

What insane strength! Shaar, at least knew very clear that although he possessed a monstrous strength, he would probably wouldn’t be unable to tear apart a metal armor with his bare hands even if he wanted to! These Odin monsters could easily pierce a metal armor with their fingernails and tear it at the very least......His own finger weren’t that hard!

Even after the Dragonblood’s strengthening, he was afraid that he couldn’t achieve it.

Damn, hard as steel! Those Odin’s monsters hands were truly hard as steel!

Looking that those guys muscles, their swollen arms were almost as thick as his thighs! Their bare body parts were covered with black hair and their mouths quickly grew a pair of sharp canine fangs – were these fellows still human?!

Shaar’s heart was pounding madly and he knew clearly that he accidentally stumbled on an Odin gothi performing some magic ceremony on those berserkers. Right now under him, there were all those horrifying half human, half beast monsters. Even unarmed, they could still tear apart an armor with their horrendous strength......Once he was discovered, there would be only a slim chance of survival.....

Ah no, it was a certain death!!

Even though this hillbilly was bold in this kind of situation, it was unavoidable that his heart would beat like a drum and a chill went down the back of his head.

He even subconsciously held his breath and cautiously crotched on the branch, not daring to move a muscle.

However, exactly at that time, the ceremony continued underneath him, immediately robbing all the colors from his face!!

※※※

It was very obvious that this ceremony had not ended yet. As dozens of those crazy Spirit Beast Warriors prostrated on the ground while growling and roaring quietly. The gothi who continuously refined those two animal souls, looked extremely exhausted. An Odin who was standing next to him wore a similar fur lined robe and that acted like the disciple of the gothi, walked towards him while saying few words. That skinny gothi closed his eyes and wiped off his sweat, before shaking his head while opening his eyes to say a few words.

Soon again, several shadows which were tied up were once again brought out from the forest. However this time, Shaar’s eyed reddened while sitting on his tree!

This time, they didn’t bring tied up beasts, but humans!!

Several injured Byzantine soldiers were tied up and brought here. Seeing how the bloodstain was still wet, it was obvious that they were captured not long ago. This scene immediately shocked Shaar as there were people he knew!

One of the captives brought over was a tall burly guy who wasn’t much shorter than those Odins. This kind of physique was quite rare among Byzantine men and this guy’s robe was cut in several places. Fresh blood was still flowing and while they were bringing him over, he was constantly shouting curses with his bulging neck.

Shaar immediately recognized him. This was his brother-in-arm from the Praetorian Guards, Sarbar! He was the previous strongest man among the Praetorian Guards and he even wrestled with Shaar. In the Praetorian barracks, except Kevin and that cunning Kato, this uncouthly guy was the one he got along with the best. This time, he came along with Kevin and the others to ride north in order to rescue Butler. How did he managed get captured?

Did they defeat Kevin?

Anxiety swelled in Shaar’s heart.

Sabar sweared loudly and foul-mouthed them although he knew clearly that most of those Odins couldn’t understand him; it still didn’t stop this man from launching all kinds of insults.

Moreover, Shaar also knew the second guy who was tied up!

It was Kato!! It was that cunning Kato! The Kato who secretly slipped him a bottle of liquor during the first day when he entered the military camp!!