WolfWrites

The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 20 - Abominations

Added 2022-07-26 23:12:14 +0000 UTC

Cassandra
Year 819 | Month 1 | Day 12

I know that monsters were just let out all around the world, but…

Is this really a fair a mount of monsters for one specific area?

This question does several loops around my mind as I watch the carnage going on around one of the direwolf dens that I happened to be passing by while making my way back to my cave.

The area around the den is full of corpses of various different kinds of monsters, including those vethrokin from earlier, except with no queen this time, plenty of scarlet rabbits, and a few other types as well.

Amongst the ones that I don’t recognize, one of them is called – according to the note I get from identifying it – a dark hellionite. It has some very charred looking skin – a little similar to my failed attempts at cooking – with two eyes made out of what looks like magma and a body shaped kind of like a dog, or a smaller wolf.

There’s also a walking plant with the mouth of a flytrap plant, the shape of a horse, and claws that extend out of its body in the form of thorns that is called a veniose trapper, along with a monster who has the simple appearance of an everyday tiger called a nekotrai. Except with some faint sparks of electricity running through its eyes.

But amongst the corpses of all of these monsters, along with the direwolves, there are also dozens of living ones, all fighting amongst each other.

I guess the System’s reasoning for releasing them into areas that already have monsters is pretty good. At this rate, a lot of them will kill off either each other, or the other monsters in the area, leaving only a bit more monsters than there was prior to this left alive.

Anyways, time to move on. Unless I want to be dragged into that mess.

Which I don’t.

Fortunately, either the monsters don’t notice me, or they’re too busy fighting amongst themselves to attack me, allowing me to get away without any trouble.

After that, it just takes me about an hour or so to get back to my cave. And unsurprisingly – considering the still rotting corpses scattered around the place – there aren’t any monsters nearby.

I let out a sigh of relief at that fact, only to regret it a second later as I instinctively breathe in the scent of decaying flesh.

Right as I’m about to enter the barrier, I hear groaning beginning to come from one of the rotten corpses.

Huh?

I turn around to look, only to find some sort of meter-long mass of flesh and blood crawling across the ground.

Whatever it is doesn’t seem to have eyes, but despite that, when I focus on its body, the identify note appears in my vision anyways.

How did I miss that?

The abomination – which is somehow groaning without a mouth – slowly crawls over the rotting corpses towards me.

I guess a monster without a nose wouldn’t be bothered by rotting corpses…

Deciding that a single monster isn’t really much of a problem for me, I begin to sprint over towards it, only to turn around again and rush back into my barrier as over a dozen others begin to leave the shelter of the foliage outside.

Nope.

Once I reach the shelter of my cave, I turn back around to see around eighteen of the blobby creatures moving amongst the rotting corpses towards my cave. However, when they reach the barrier, they simply stop moving for a few seconds and begin to crawl back to the corpses again.

Uh… what?

Can they not break the barrier? Or maybe they just don’t have the intelligence to know that I’m beyond the barrier?

Nothing happens for several minutes as the abominations simply seem to make themselves at home outside of my cave, leaving me awkwardly standing inside of it without a clue as to what’s going on.

It isn’t until I notice that the smell of rot is fading that I realize something.

Are they… feeding on the scent given off by the rot?

Because they’re obviously not eating the rotting corpses, seeing as they are still sitting right there, but there’s no scent anymore.

I stare at the things for a few more minutes before eventually taking a step outside of the barrier, only to hurry back inside as they all suddenly begin to crawl towards me again.

Once I get back inside, they stop again and begin moving back to the corpses.

So they don’t want to bother dealing with the barrier, but they do want me. And the rot outside.

That or they can’t differentiate the barrier from a normal wall. Which I wouldn’t put past a monster whose body is just a mass of flesh and blood.

I glance up at the sky outside before finding the sun almost setting.

Well…

This isn’t how I envisioned myself clearing the objective for my mission, but I might as well take advantage of them being here.

If they become too enraged by it, then I can probably just escape. Because they’re obviously too slow to catch me.

Which means I just have to wait.

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Half an hour later

I quietly hum to myself from my spot on the bed with my legs hugged to my chest and my chin resting on my knees as I watch the countdown on The Calling of Wrath’s cooldown slowly tick down.

Not much longer…

Looking away from the skill’s countdown for a second, I focus on the abominations casually eating the rot scent outside.

Hmm. I kind of want to keep one around to keep devouring that scent, but then monsters would start coming back again.

Which would be bad.

And would completely negate the point of leaving those corpses there untouched in the first place.

I continue staring at them for a few seconds before returning my attention towards the countdown and finally lowering my legs to the ground.

Looks like it’s almost time.

Just another ten seconds left.

I get up from the bed and begin moving towards the barrier before pausing right next to it.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

And here we go!