Sleep is essential for human beings. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The experience of being very tired from occasionally not being able to sleep due to work or other reasons has been experienced by many people at some point in their lives.

Most cases of insomnia caused by stress can be resolved by an experience of extreme fatigue like this, and while how long it lasts is another question, the quality of sleep is usually better than usual when you are so tired that you can't keep your eyes open.

So.

What if you're already extremely tired and still can't get enough sleep?

The first thing that will affect you is your concentration.

It can be easily used when you are full of energy and rest, and even play with fancy knives such as "walking around your fingers", but when you are extremely deprived of sleep, you may even cut yourself by cutting a vegetable in your hand.

Even the smallest details that require concentration are counted, and even walking can cause you to stumble as if your body is no longer your own.

Then there's your memory.

You start doing things over and over again and forget about the fact that you've done them several times before.

A lot of things become trance-like, they're like instincts, and you lose your ability to judge things or even lose the ability to distinguish between friend and foe because you forget them. You become like a hedgehog with a spike at a harmless rabbit and a harmful wolf, and you start hurting the people around you, and you forget about what you hurt them.

This is followed by the ability to express oneself in language.

Something is etched in your memory, even before your eyes. You know exactly what it causes and happens, but when it comes to moving from the brain to the mouthpiece, the mind becomes like a myriad of tiny pieces, and the whole process cannot be effectively pieced together to express itself in coherent language.

The action is like a stiff puppet, and the language is like a hillbilly who hasn't used it in ten years and still suffers from stuttering.

The Lamanites brilliantly summed it up as "the walking dead" in an idiom - and this is exactly what our Miela feels best to call herself right now.

She was almost unable to hold the sword in her hand.

This well-balanced longsword, which weighs 1.7 kilograms, can easily swing continuously and even hold it with one hand when it is in perfect condition, but at the moment, even when she makes a starting move, she feels like the tip of the sword is hanging from a huge piece of lead, and if she is not careful, it will fall to the ground, and the door will be wide open.

Also drooping was the eyelids with long, curly eyelashes, and both of Mira were jumping from a long time without adequate rest. In the Loan culture, eyelid jumps are believed to be something big to happen, while the Lamanites believe that "the left eye jumps for fortune and the right eye for disaster" - maybe they are all right, and who knows, it is not surprising what can happen in the face of exhaustion.

"Whew-" She exhaled, her skin unaware of the loss of consciousness from overwork or the cold wind, and the sweat slid across her with only the slightest sensation.

"Shhh But even breathing seems to be getting harder.

I want to let go of everything.

"Uh-" As soon as the thought came to mind, Mira decisively bit her lower lip to dispel it with pain.

She exerted herself a little too hard in the extreme fatigue, and the smell of blood on her bitten lips began to fill her mouth, but even the pain only briefly dispelled the strong fatigue, and in an instant it came back again.

It's like there's a demon whispering in your ear.

"Give up, give up, put down the sword, lie down and close your eyes and get a good night's sleep"

"Shut up—" The girl began to lose track of reality, and she whispered as she tried to adjust her position and change her center of gravity to rest her bruised right leg.

It was a bad decision, ignoring the fact that she was no longer able to control her body in this situation, and Mira took this step that caused her to almost fall.

"Smack-"

"Hold on. Filippo grabbed her and screamed like this. The young man was not much better, holding a torn shield in one hand to protect most of his body, while the other hand clutched the already scarred stabbing sword.

The four villagers standing opposite were armed with heavy knives with heavy heads, and two improvised spears on the ground had been cut off, the result of the cooperation of Mira and Filippo, who stopped the first wave of attacks, but it was uncertain whether the two sides could reconcile in exchange for a chance to talk.

"It's all said, witch, you know, the monsters that attacked you are also related to witches!" Because he didn't have armor, the young man's energy was more reserved than that of the Luo An girl, but the sentence he had emphasized repeatedly still couldn't completely convince the villagers on the other side.

Because of them.

From the old mixed village.

"Where can the aristocratic dogs spit out ivory, those ghouls may be your dark magic. The leader of the villagers was the head of the family that Margaret wanted to help that day, and his messy black hair was tied on the left side with a small pigtail common to highlanders.

"If I had the ability to do this, would I still be surrounded by you here, stupid!" Filippo burst into a foul mouth in anger, but then there was some commotion outside.

"Big brother, there's something here again!" a voice shouted from the shabby thatched hut.

"Still haven't you gotten rid of it!" "Big brother, what should I do?" The chaotic voice was bustling, and the villager at the head gritted his teeth and didn't know which side to deal with first. And Mira, who finally couldn't hold back her spirit and began to be in a trance, the last thought that came to her before closing her eyes and fainting was-

How did it all come to this?

――――

They first appear in the evening.

Although these ...... "things" should be considered excellent ambushers, they were not able to give the group a real surprise when the team included two experienced scouts, Henry and Ornor.

Just like Orno, Henry noticed their presence from a long distance, and after realizing that they were clearly coming to attack his group, the sage and his seriousness demanded that everyone immediately take up arms and be ready to deal with them.

But even he was able to do that.

They were moving so fast that the encamped team was surrounded before they could get back on the road, so Henry decisively abandoned the idea and asked the men to prepare for the defense.

Fast.

That's Mira's first impression of them.

There are not a few creatures in nature that can outrun humans in terms of running speed, and even brown bears that seem to be sluggish and honest can actually easily catch up with humans.

Quadrupeds have an innate advantage in this, and to be fair they run much slower than bears, so the girl should not be surprised by this. But she still left such a deep impression, which is inseparable from the second impression she had of them.

What an abomination monster is this?

Although Mira is not very long, she has seen many ferocious beasts in her life for more than ten years, and there are no longer a few, but whether it is a huge blue dragon lizard or a dinosaur, it gives her more shock and tension, and even has a unique sense of appreciating the unique beauty of mountains and seas.

Vigorous and powerful predators, as a magnificent and cruel part of nature, reflect the surrounding environment.

But what appeared in front of me under the torches and the evening light was definitely different from them.

It has the appearance of a human, its facial features, and even the whimpering sound from its mouth is no different from that of a human. but he walked on all fours.

Even if you don't understand what it is, as a living person, a feeling of nausea arises.

Then they met its gaze.

It was an animal-like pair of eyes, full of pupils and completely devoid of whites.

Uncanny.

It is like placing the animal's behavior in a human shell, in which it has no link of its own, and it cannot be integrated into the natural cycle of the environment, but can only make everything it goes to death.

It was neither created by nature nor conceived from the womb of any mother.

Everything about it was distorted as if it had been deliberately distorted to make a mockery of itself to the gods who created humanity.

This feeling is indescribable, like a churning of internal organs, which makes the living beings instinctively disgusted.

No one asked any more, and that was before Henry said their names.

After hearing the name "Inferior Ghoul", out of fear or disgust, people swung their swords and other weapons that could be handled, and again and again, desperately, turned the four-headed strange thing back into an immobile state.

Until their hands, feet, and necks turned into a puddle of foul-smelling gray-black filth, several mercenaries continued to attack in anger.

"Clean up your weapons and armor with clean water and don't let their bodily fluids get on you!"

Even the blood was poisonous to living beings, and the black blood from the hacked ghoul caused the grass to hang down nearby, and when I looked back a moment later, it had begun to turn black from the bottom, and it was obvious that it was completely necrotic.

"What the hell is this blasphemous existence, is the witch nearby!Damn it, get out of here!" the mercenary shouted to hide his fear.

After the battle, Mira noticed that her hands were shaking.

Henry, on the other hand, told everyone with a serious face that this was just the beginning.

-- His judgment was correct, as always.

"Knock knock knock—" The sound of horses' hooves trampled heavily on the stone slabs, and the wind whistled past their ears.

"Uhh

"Horno, left!" Mira staggered, her white hair fluttering to her movements, her reins in one hand and her sword in the other.

"Whew-" The wind blew the elven girl's blonde hair wildly, and the carriage was bumping up and down at high speed, but it didn't seem to have any effect on her movements. She drew her bow, and the moment the arrow left the string, a cyan glow that could be seen clearly in broad daylight spread out.

"Bang-click-" The bow that had been temporarily sharpened from wood last night could not withstand the blessing of magic, and exploded in two the moment it was fired. The flying bowstring cut through the side of the elf girl's face, and the blood flowed down but she was unmoved, and the eyes that exuded the light blue ** power were focused on the arrow.

The sound of the flight was sharp and piercing, and with the help of wind magic, the arrow shot by Orno seemed to have surpassed the speed of sound.

"Knock-click!" made a blue-blue trajectory, and the arrow struck the monster, which was far larger than the ghouls before it.

There were already some traces of trauma on its thick cuticle, judging from the length of the scratches, it should be caused by a large sword-like weapon, and obviously the defense power would not be lost to ordinary leather armor, but under the impact of such high-speed arrows, the epidermis was still shot through like a piece of tissue paper.

"Boom!!" "Bang-" The giant ghoul with his spine amputated fell to the ground and rolled around a few times, crushing several low-level ghouls behind him like wringed out towels, and the elf girl who had overconsumed magic power fell directly on the flat carriage with a flash of blue light in her eyes.

Barrow caught her in silence.

"It's coming!" and Filippo shouted on the other side, and the rest of the ghouls pounced out of the woods and charged towards the slow-moving carriage.

"Defend back!" Henry shouted, but it wasn't him who was the first to strike. The old butler Ferruccio finally had an answer to where his battlefield experience came from, and he clutched a makeshift riding spear made of small balsa wood that was not even straight, and slammed the tip of the spear with the horse's hooves and stabbed the ghoul closest to the carriage to death.

"Click-boom!" compared to the sage's way of fighting, which was much more savage, and he took Barrow's long-handled axe and slammed it with one hand.

"Mira, your right!" Filippo shouted again, and the girl turned sharply, and then narrowly slashed the ghoul that was coming at her with a sword.

But after all, she was still young and lacked strength, and the sword she wielded with one hand was too light, and the ghoul disappeared nearby without paying attention to the shallow wound.

"Where have we gone!" the team continued to move on, and Mira panted as she grabbed the reins and turned the horse's head. Moro shouted from the carriage that it wasn't because of their eyesight, it wasn't because the elves chose to settle in the Bao Forest and why the road was abandoned, and it wasn't hard to guess from the fact that it was called the "Marsh".

There is fog outside the forest, there is fog in the forest, there is no fog outside the forest, there is fog in the forest.

The winter rain that had fallen a few days ago washed away the whole world, and when you went deeper into the forest, the heavy humidity here began to show its original appearance.

"Go on—" "Bang-boom!" The merchant's reluctance to give up his goods finally became apparent, and as soon as Moreau's words fell, a giant ghoul suddenly appeared and knocked over the carriage in which he and a merchant were located, in a manner like a brute bull.

"Haaaa

As a result, the sword cut down and didn't even split the skin, not to mention, and because of the backshock, his right hand was sore for a while, and he almost didn't let go of the weapon in his hand.

But her act of buying time was to help the mercenaries and merchants, and after shouting "We're all right, you guys should get out of here", Moreau grabbed the merchant, who finally recognized the facts, cut off the reins, turned on his horse, and fled from the overturned carriage. Then, after Filippo came to help, the two cut down a few more ghouls and hurried to evacuate.

Unable to determine the direction in the fog, coupled with the presence of these strange and aggressive ghouls, Mira and Filippo, who were anxious to join Henry and his group, ran all the way, and finally somehow escaped to this ruined and abandoned village.

Many of the classical Lamanic buildings in the village prove that it is clearly a human creation, and the reason for its abandonment has nothing to do with witches. Therefore, the exhausted two decided to take a short rest, but as soon as they dismounted to let the war horse rest, they walked towards the village and found that they were not alone.

More than a dozen heavily armed bandits were checking whether the ancient well in the village was still usable, and when they looked at it, they turned out to be their old acquaintances, the same inhabitants who had fled desperately at first.

Apparently they did embark on the path of becoming bandits.

After that, there were no surprises.

Although both sides were also troubled by ghouls, they were clearly more willing to communicate with weapons than to open their mouths, who had no trust.

“...... Wake up—"

"Wake up—"

"Smack!" a hot sensation came from her cheeks, and Mira crawled up with a spirit. "I'm sorry, but you slept too deeply. Filippo clasped his hands together and apologized, and Miss Loan shook her head, knowing what was going on.

A few minutes of rest was not enough but it regained her spirits, and the girl took a deep breath and reached for her saber, only to notice that something was wrong.

"It doesn't seem like the ghouls are here. Filippo took the initiative to explain to her that there was no shouting outside.

"Let's hurry up and have a look, maybe it's the eldest lady. The young man said this, and Mira nodded in agreement, and with his help, she got up.

The armor on her body made her feel extremely heavy in this state, but the girl took a deep breath and walked out anyway.

Thick fog filled the village, and she noticed that the highlanders were all hiding in the corners of their houses.

The noise ranged from distant to near, small to large, and the fog made it impossible for them to see what it was, but by this time, many people could also make out that it was clearly a human voice.

The sound was a little messy, but it was clearly not the movement of a ghoul crawling, but more like a human walking. And most importantly, the sound of walking is accompanied by the unique metallic sound of armor colliding.

"Wow-" Breaking through the fog, standing at the forefront was an Imperial knight in full armor and carrying an axe and gun.

"Uh-" There was a small commotion among the villagers lurking in the shadows, and they exchanged words for a while, then nodded to each other as if they had made a decision.

"No—" Mira furrowed her eyebrows, and Filippo next to her seemed to sense something.

The young man sniffed his nose, but was too tired to be sure if it was his delusion.

"Knight!" a villager who had unarmed was dispatched, "Knight-sama of the Empire, we are nearby villagers-" More and more armor and footsteps sounded, and he began to plead with each other.

"Not true. ”

“...... Stop," the villagers are still complaining.

“...... Stop it. Mira realized that something was wrong.

"Go back!" she shouted involuntarily, and the knight raised his axe and spear aloft.

A strong rancid smell filled the air, and in the next second, countless walking corpses dressed in Imperial soldier armor and holding weapons but covered in high decay broke through the fog and walked out.

The sharp, heavy blade of the axe split open the collarbone, and the villager fell to the ground with twisted expressions in pain.