The Wastrel Prince Becomes Ruthless Chapter 68

The battle at the outer fortress of Valaris was still raging fiercely.

“Don’t let them climb over the ramparts―! Use your spears and clear those bodies now!”

The shrill voices of the commanders, already cracked and hoarse, echoed across the battlefield.

It had already been over forty minutes since Yuwon left his position.

When Yuwon had still been there, no one had imagined the monsters would reach the walls so quickly. Yet the moment he departed, the creatures surged forward as if they had been waiting, attacking even more ferociously and pressing the allied forces back.

That led directly to the situation now.

The moat of Valaris Castle, once praised as a natural fortress, had long since lost its value, filled to the brim with monster corpses.

And the bodies kept piling up, layer upon layer, becoming footholds for those behind them until they finally reached the towering walls themselves.

“Don’t bother trying to kill them—just push them off! If one side breaks, the gate becomes dangerous immediately!”

Commanders stationed along the ramparts all shouted nearly identical orders like parrots.

That was just how dire the situation was.

The allied soldiers, already exhausted and on the verge of collapse, clung on with sheer willpower, frantically pushing back the monsters that climbed the walls.

“Uwaaaah―!”

Human screams rang out more frequently than before.

A soldier trying to push away an enemy with the tip of his spear lost his balance when the monster thrashed—and fell from the wall.

Degeureureu―

Thanks to the massive stairway formed from piled monster corpses, a fall no longer meant instant death. Instead, something far more brutal awaited below.

Puk―!

“Glrk, k-kkuaaaah―!”

The moment the man tumbled down, the monsters lunged eagerly, baring their teeth and claws to tear him apart and devour him.

It would have been far better to fall from a high wall and die instantly.

“U, uwaaah―! Everyone run… kugh―!”

At last, the one thing that must never happen—happened.

Under the relentless assault, one section of the wall was breached, and monsters poured through.

“Where do you think you’re going! Get back and hold your positions! If this breaks, every other area becomes vulnerable! Return to your posts—! Ghk!”

Bbeok―!

The commander, desperately trying to regain control of the soldiers and fix the mistake, never finished his sentence.

A monster climbing the wall smashed his helmet with a long claw and pierced straight through his skull.

Kruaak! Kwak―!

Kyareuk―! Kyareureuk!

Monsters swarmed through the breach, overrunning that section of the rampart completely.

“…Damn… shit….”

Profanities spilled unbidden from the soldiers’ mouths.

Even areas that had barely managed to hold out against enemy intrusions could not escape the spreading collapse.

Fighting with only the front to worry about had already been difficult—now they had to watch their flank as well.

The flames closing in were not limited to the soldiers fighting at the vanguard.

The commanders, too, felt their heels burning.

‘Is this the end…? The duty our house has protected for hundreds of years ends with me… Ah….’

From the high vantage point where he surveyed the battlefield, Count Valaris gazed at the breached wall with hollow eyes.

The breach meant more than just an opening for enemies to flood in.

The moment the final bastion—their proud wall—fell, it was clear that allied morale would crash to the ground.

Despair descended upon Valaris.

Having secured victory, Yuwon left no room for escape and finished the creature completely.

Kwa-deudeudeuk―!

His energy sliced through the soft flesh of the creature’s palate, pierced straight through bone, and ground its brain into pulp.

A force that shredded everything it touched—flesh, bone, all of it.

Through the White Dragon Sword, Yuwon felt vividly the moment of the monster’s end.

‘It’s over.’

Pung―!

The creature’s skull, overwhelmed by the energy, burst from within.

Hudeudeudeuk―

Bright red flesh, blood-soaked bone fragments, and pale gray brain matter rained down like a downpour.

When the creature had risen from the river earlier, its spray had reflected rainbows—but the rain Yuwon created was only red.

The upper half of its head was simply gone.

The huge “ceiling” that once covered Yuwon vanished as well, leaving him drenched in crimson rain.

The headless beast collapsed. Standing inside its lower jaw, the only part remaining, Yuwon lightly hopped down to the ground.

Tak―

“At least I managed to kill it somehow. Hoo….”

Even with its head blown off, the creature’s enormous body remained.

In fact, it looked even larger now.

Standing upright, it had seemed roughly five to six meters tall—but now that it lay limp, it was nearly half again that size.

‘Disgustingly huge.’

Yuwon looked back at the monster’s massive corpse with indifferent eyes.

‘It was certainly an extraordinary creature… but I worry whether its death will trigger some major change on the battlefield, just as I feared.’

A giant monster whose scales could block sword energy capable of slicing through iron like tofu. It was no ordinary creature.

‘I’ll know once I return. I just hope they’re holding out….’

Yuwon turned toward the path he had come from. His eyes carried clear concern.

Just as he prepared to head back—

‘Wait… what if I used these scales that can even withstand sword energy to make armor or hidden weapons?’

The passing thought halted his steps.

‘Now that I think about it, its fangs would be quite….’

The idea made it impossible to simply leave this valuable corpse behind.

Yuwon glanced between the corpse and the path back before making up his mind.

“A short while should be fine.”

Yuwon immediately began dismantling the corpse.

“I can’t use the White Dragon Sword for this.”

Was it too noble to use? No—that wasn’t the reason.

The White Dragon Sword was simply too long for dismantling work.

Yuwon searched his clothes and drew a dagger that fit his hand perfectly.

And then—

Seuk seuk― Seogeok― Udeudeuk―!

Avoiding the scales, Yuwon targeted only flesh and bone.

For ordinary animals it might have been difficult, but for someone well-versed in handling serpents, avoiding scales posed no trouble.

Since he had already committed to the task, Yuwon set aside his worries about the allies and focused fully on dismantling.

‘If I concentrate and finish quickly, that’s better.’

While working, Yuwon examined the creature’s bones again.

‘I couldn’t see clearly because of its scales earlier, but these bones are harder than steel.’

He still had no concrete ideas for using them, but anything stronger than steel would surely have a purpose.

Cheerful at the thought, he continued dismantling.

Because he only prepared pieces manageable enough to carry, the bones, flesh, and scales were sorted and removed in one continuous process.

‘Then next is….’

His next target was the creature’s pair of venomous fangs.

When its skull exploded, the fangs had been blasted far away by the shock—he only needed to retrieve them.

“With this size, I could make a longsword.”

The creature was large enough to swallow Yuwon whole.

Each fang was the size of one of Yuwon’s legs.

Then he discovered something within the creature’s body—a strange organ emitting a thick venomous aura.

‘Is this a… core?’

It was an organ Yuwon did not recognize.

The original venom gland in the creature’s head had been destroyed along with its skull, so something else located near the heart, radiating venomous energy, was clearly unusual.

At that moment, something inside the inner left pocket of Yuwon’s chest wriggled.

‘Hm? Why is this little one suddenly reacting?’

The Dragon-Scaled Serpent, which had been hiding deep inside the closed pocket, squeezed out through the pocket’s side where the button’s influence was weaker and peeked its head out.

Piii―

The Dragon-Scaled Serpent showed tremendous interest in the inner core before its eyes.

The gaze shooting out from its two tiny eyes was, quite literally, fixed on the beast’s inner core.

“Why? Do you want this?”

Piiik― Pik―

He did not know what it meant, but seeing the creature nod its thumb-sized head, he felt he could roughly guess.

“Not yet. Instead, I’ll keep it safe for now, so when we have time later, we’ll take a slow look at it together. All right?”

Piiiing―

When Yuwon spoke gently, the Dragon-Scaled Serpent smacked its lips but immediately agreed and returned to its place.

The serpent’s enthusiastic reaction sparked new curiosity in Yuwon.

‘Seeing this little one take an interest, it seems like there really is something… Well, I can figure that out slowly.’

Yuwon set the inner core aside carefully so it would not get damaged and continued the dissection he had briefly paused.

Five minutes passed like that.

After finishing the dissection, Yuwon stacked the creature’s corpse neatly into the subspace pouch.

It was spacious enough for several strong men to lie inside comfortably, yet the creature’s corpse was so large that the once-roomy subspace soon filled to the brim.

“Whew, at least it all fits. I thought I might have to slice up the meat and throw it away… It barely made it in.”

Had it not been for the subspace pouch, he would have been forced to throw away this precious thing with tears in his eyes.

Seeing the pouch stuffed so tightly it looked like it might burst made him feel secure.

Finishing the dissection completely, Yuwon dusted himself off and rose to his feet.

In the distance beyond the riverbank, a densely packed great jungle came into view through Yuwon’s gaze.

‘Beyond that must be more creatures like this one. Once things in the Capital settle down, I’d like to come back again at least once.’

Already having spent an extra five minutes on the dissection, Yuwon did not linger on the thought.

He only took in the sight of the Southern Great Jungle, spoken of like a legend, from afar.

That was all.

Tadak―

Yuwon’s two legs, infused with inner strength, lightly kicked off the ground.

He returned straight toward those who would be waiting for him.

“Have the reinforcements still not arrived!”

In the desperate tide of battle, Count Valaris’s voice was sharp.

“W-We managed to contact the Capital. They said they would send whatever forces they could as quickly as possible, even if they had to use teleportation magic, so we should receive another message soon.”

It was not something the Count found satisfactory.

“Unless the Capital’s Swordmasters all come, elite troops won’t make much difference. The number that can be sent by teleportation magic is far too small. Keep requesting more reinforcements. Focus on the southern territories near Valaris that can arrive within two or three hours rather than the Capital.”

“Yes, understood! Regarding what you mentioned, we have already received word that reinforcements have departed from three nearby territories.”

Following the Count Valaris’s command, the allied forces abandoned the outer fortress, retreated into the inner fortress, locked the gates tightly, and prepared for the second phase of battle.

Inside the inner fortress, the evacuated citizens and the wounded were mixed together, creating an indescribable chaos.

Beyond the inner fortress walls, the outer fortress blazed fiercely.

The homes and livelihoods of Valaris soldiers, set aflame by their own retreating hands, burned and spewed black smoke.

The outer fortress was no longer in a state to be held. If they stubbornly tried to defend it, they would all truly be slaughtered.

The Count’s decision was the best he could make in this worst-case situation.

Thankfully, the beasts that had occupied the outer fortress were unable to advance into the inner fortress due to the blazing inferno and waited for the flames to die down.

The allied forces were granted a short but desperately sweet moment of rest.

Exhausted from the fierce battle, the soldiers ate their meals and checked on the families who had evacuated.

A brief yet overwhelmingly sweet peace.

Even so, while most soldiers rested, a small group of scouts continued monitoring the enemy’s movements from the high grounds of the inner fortress.

‘Damn… those bastards I want to burn alive…’

They had seen the beasts for so long that they were sick of them. But then, something strange entered the scout’s view.

“Huh… Huh!? Hey!”

“What is it? What happened!”

“Over there, look over there! The monsters are fighting each other!”

What the scout saw was real.

The beasts that had been working together so well until now were suddenly tangled, fighting one another.

“What…? Oh, h-hey… it’s real!”

The scout’s superior confirmed the sight with his own eyes.

The beasts, who moments ago had been targeting humans with single-minded fury, were suddenly mixed together in chaotic battle.

“Report this to the Count immediately!”

“Yes!”

The scouts rushed to inform the Count. Shocked, the Count abandoned what he was doing and ran up to the walls to confirm it with his own eyes.

The beasts, already tangled indiscriminately, were now splitting into sides and fighting fiercely.

“Ah…! It’s real. It’s truly real…!”

The Count had felt like his head would split at the thought of another battle once the fire died down, but finally, a weight lifted from his shoulders.

Why the beasts suddenly began killing each other was of no importance to him.

‘It’s enough that their numbers are decreasing.’

The good news did not end there.

As the Count let out a sigh of relief, a fierce energy surged in the distance and seized his attention.

‘This energy…!’

How could he forget the energy of the one with whom he had exchanged swords at full power?

‘His Highness has come…!’

The moment he felt Yuwon’s energy, goosebumps rose all across the Count’s body. Only then did he fully realize.

‘During the time His Highness was away, he must have struck down the Enemy Leader! That’s why, having lost their focal point, the beasts began fighting among themselves!’

The Count infused magic into his eyes to enhance his vision.

A small figure in the distance was rapidly approaching, slaughtering beasts as it came.

It was unmistakably Yuwon.

Suddenly, an indescribable strength surged within the Count’s body.

He had been exhausted by the hopeless situation, yet now, all he could think of was helping Yuwon, who was fighting alone, and annihilating every enemy.

“Open the gate. It is time to exterminate the enemy.”

The name Yurion Aphahiel.

Under that great name, the curtain of counterattack rose.