After the weird occurrence that happened in the blink of an eye, the first thing that I noticed was that the surrounding was odd. Really odd. Like never seen before. Never heard before.

For example, the sky was dark, but I could somehow feel that it was the dusk. And up in the sky, the moon was of beautiful red color, like the color of the blood. It was full moon, too. In other words, the blood moon. A good omen that we, the Onis, like.

When I gazed at the surrounding, I noticed that there were many floating lands above us. As for the place we were in, it seemed like a forest… Rainforest, if I dare say, but the atmosphere just wasn’t right. The trees were very unfamiliar and unheard of, even in the documentaries and encyclopaedias.

As the great general of Naraka empire, I had to study terrains to make sure my troops would have an upper hand no matter where the battle was. Therefore, as long as this kind of forest and plants existed in the world, I should’ve heard of it at least once.

 

But…

There was one possibility.

The realm of the dragons.

Although it existed in the same world as the other Omness (races)’s lands, the Dragon’s Continent was located past the violent seas and other tribulations far too strong for other Omness to withstand. Thus, a perfect retreat for the dragonkin who were so tired of having something to do with the other Omness that they viewed as inferior and often, worthless.

Were we transported to the dragon’s realm? To the other side of Sphaela that we had never ventured before?

Only after seeing a real, living dragon would my theory be proven.

 

“Where the heck are we?!”

“Damn, what’s this odd place?”

“Is it the elves’ doing?!”

“What? This ominous place… It’s definitely you Onis’ doing, right?!”

“What kind of black magic did you use?!”

What pulled me away from my thoughts were the loud shouting from the people who had regained their consciousness.

Right. The Onis and elves were now shouting blames to each other, blaming the other for ending up in this odd situation, transported to who knows where.

And will we even make it back from here? Nobody knows.

I could somehow understand them feeling despair and confusion from this bizarre situation, however…

 

“So annoying…,” I muttered, completely irritated.

This game of blaming the other party was utterly pointless. If they could calm themselves to think for a moment, they’d notice that this place was unknown to both our races. Instead of exerting energy on such a pointless matter, it’d be better to allocate it to finding a solution.

“You all—…!!”

I was about to shout and tell my comrades to be quiet and think rationally when suddenly, I felt an intense murderous intent.

I scanned my surrounding, then pinpointing a direction that I sensed to be the source of the murderous feeling and what greeted my eyes were big eyes that were peering at us.

There were… more than five pairs of eyes.

 

“Everyone, shut up! Pay more attention to your surroundings, we’re being targeted!”

Just as I shouted, I immediately noticed that I was too late.

The creature that owned numerous big orange eyes staring from the dark inched closer in the blink of an eye, perhaps it jumped, perhaps it used a skill, I didn’t manage to see it clearly. But when we realized, the creature opened its big mouth and—

“Aaaah!”

Several people were instantly swallowed by the odd creature with many eyes. Elves, onis… It didn’t matter who. All of them in the vicinity—they had become the monster’s food.

 

“Retreat!” The young crown princess suddenly commanded with a loud and clear voice. I glanced at her and saw that although her hands slightly trembled, her voice was still steady, and she still looked calm if nobody focused on her hands.

Not bad for a cheeky young one.

“You guys, retreat too! Prioritize your safety!” I immediately issued the same command as her, to my own troops. At this moment, this was the best course of action we could do.

One by one, both Onis and elves that snapped out of their fear-stricken body started scattering around, trying to escape from the dangerous monster.

After making sure that everyone reacted to my command, I was about to head to another direction when I noticed that everyone who were running around just now—no matter which direction they took—all of them suddenly stopped and retreated back quickly.

 

I turned to see what was going on, and I felt my heart sunk.

I realized that we were actually surrounded by weird gigantic creatures of different types. But none of them resembled dragons, and there was no dragon in sight. Perhaps this place really wasn’t the dragon’s realm. But if so, where are we?

“W-what are they?!”

“Just where the hell are we?!”

Voices could be heard, all of them were filled in fear. Some people even started crying.

Even though nobody said it yet, it seemed that all of us had a feeling that we were in an odd and unknown place that didn’t seem to be safe at all, thus explaining the fear. Fear of the unknown was indeed frightening, even more so when it related to one’s life.

 

“What are you doing, being overcome by fear like this? We’re all brave soldiers! Are we just going to wail in fear until they eat us all?! We have to fight to the last drop of blood!” I shouted, trying to raise the morals of my people.

“G-great general is right!”

“We aren’t weaklings!!”

The Onis started to let out their war cry.

And under the command of the young crown princess, the elves also regained their composure and fighting spirit.

We immediately broke out into a fight—with the monsters.

 

“Take this!!”

“What do you think of this?!”

“Die! Die!!”

“Protect!!”

Split into two, the Onis fighting for their lives on the east while the elves on the west, everyone mustered their courage and strength to fight against the unknown, heinous, odd creatures.

Since we had no idea about these monsters at all, everyone seemed to reach a consensus even without discussing it: that we ought to try everything and find out what kind of attacks could work against them.

Perhaps they’d have different weaknesses and strength, seeing that they were of different forms and features.

Several people also cast protective magic, both physical and magical. We already knew that the monsters attacked physically, but there was still a possibility that they’d attack using magic. We should be prepared for everything and not underestimate our opponents.

 

I took out my trusty longsword and infused it with dark magic.

“Have this!!” I roared as I sprung towards the closest monster to me, attacking it with all my might.

“Graaaawrrr!” The big one-eyed monster roared when my magic-infused sword hit its flesh. However, the black aura surrounding my sword seemed to be absorbed by the monster’s flesh as they slowly faded away.

Eventually, my sword bounced, but I was glad to see that my attack cut through the monster’s flesh quite well. Its flesh was split open and yucky green liquid started to flow out of the opening. Perhaps it was the monster’s blood.

But my happiness only lasted for a moment.

Not too long after, the monster’s cut flesh seemed to heal itself.

 

“Tch…,” I retreated as I observed the monster.

Though it seemed to be unscathed, its movement slowed down as it seemed to wriggle about.

Is it because it’s healing?

Seeing that it didn’t seem to be attacking, I took a quick glance at my surrounding.

 

“No way!! Your dark magic didn’t have any effect to that monster? But your dark magic is so powerful!!”

“My arrow was eaten!!”

“My sword bounced!”

“This monster duplicated itself after I split it into two!!”

“My lance broke!! Don’t be fooled by its appearance! Its skin seems weak, but it’s sooooo freaking hard!!”

It seemed that everyone was having difficulties.

We couldn’t find any attack that proved effective against the monsters.

Not any single one of them.

This was bizarre…

 

As I retreated while trying to fight against the monsters in my surrounding, I suddenly I felt someone bumping against my back. I glanced behind and was surprised to see that it was actually the crown princess. The crown princess glanced at me in surprise as well and that was when we understood that we were being cornered.

The other Oni and elves were actually close to one another as well, but nobody had the time or even the spirit to scold each other. Everyone was only surprised when they noticed that we were cornered to such a state and could only feel their hearts sinking.

 

“Is light magic proven effective against the monsters?” I asked.

The princess seemed to jolt a bit, perhaps not expecting me to talk to her first, before she answered, “No. Is dark magic not effective against them, too?”

“No,” I said. I thought that if dark magic had no effect against them, perhaps the opposite of it, light magic would have some effects.

“What about other magic?”

“We’ve tried them as well. Some seemed to be effective, but when we tried it again to make sure if it was really the monster’s weakness, it had no effect,” I said as I found myself puzzled as well.

“Same goes here…,” the princess said, disappointment apparent in her voice.

 

We can’t escape.

Any kind of attacks—physical and magical seemed to not really be effective against them.

As for magic attacks—none of the elements seemed to be any of the monsters’ weakness…

This is tricky…

What can we do, then?

We can’t just give up and be the monsters’ food…

 

I tried to think hard on what we could possibly do.

It doesn’t make sense that nothing seems to work against them.

What if they actually work, but only in a small quantity?

That means, we’d need to exert a lot more efforts and power to defeat them.

But there are just too many monsters…

I scanned my surroundings to count the number of my people and the number of monsters.

We’d exhaust ourselves to death at this rate.

I secretly glanced at the elves and counted them in secret.

…I was taught that if we were to face a very strong enemy, if the quality of our strength couldn’t do, we’d need to have superior quantity of manforce…

But, to work together with the elves…

But… I didn’t know what else we could try on our own.

 

While I was in dilemma about this decision, the crown princess suddenly turned around after initially throwing her face away as her eyes locked with mine. She seemed to be hesitant to say something. Just like a kitten who didn’t want to relent, but eventually, she gave in and opened her mouth.

“Say, why don’t we put aside our countries’ quarrel for now and unite to fight against these monsters?”

She asked a question that I also wanted to ask her. So, that resolved my dilemma as I readily answered.

“That’s my plan as well. We’ll end up being their food if we don’t join forces. Together, we might actually have a chance.”

Both of us nodded—this was the first time we ever came to agreement on something, in a very short moment, on top of it.

Funny how life played us.

 

“Everyone, listen! No matter who you are, Onis or elves, we’re all comrades in arms for now, to defeat these monsters!” I announced.

“Exactly. Preserving life is our priority and we have better chances if we join forces!” The crown princess followed after my declaration.

“But… Princess!”

“Great general!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!!”