Chapter 174: The Chieftain's Curse

Winigo walked straight toward the chieftain's tent of the Snow Leopard tribe.
"Hey, is anyone in?" Winigo kicked open the cowhide flap of the tent and poked his head in to ask.
The answer to him was a battle-axe made of raw iron.
The chieftain of the Snow Leopard tribe was a muscular, fierce woman. She swung a large battle-axe in one hand while holding a half-person-high castle tower shield in the other, charging forward like an enraged wild boar.
"Whoops!" Winigo cried out in surprise. A burst of airflow erupted beneath his feet, kicking up a flurry of snow and dust that blocked the fierce woman's vision, while the same airflow propelled him sliding backward several meters. With a heavy thud, the battle-axe struck down, embedding itself deep into the ground.
Winigo did not use character construction. He smiled faintly and pulled a tube from his back.
"I haven't used this in a long time," Winigo chuckled.
He whispered a prayer to the Lord of Wishes, beseeching her for power. Amidst Winigo's "pious" prayers, the maiden-like deity responded.
Bestowal, ice, magic bullet.
Symbols representing three different magical properties adhered to the small tube under the divine power of the Lord of Wishes. Winigo skillfully dismantled his silver revolver, inserted this alloy tube into it, and reassembled it into a strangely shaped, elongated pistol.
This pistol, combined with a shoulder stock made of lightweight metal, formed a rifle with a peculiar style.
Its bullets were magic-condensed ice projectiles. Utilizing the kinetic energy provided by the original revolver cartridges, the moment they left the muzzle, they transformed into sharp, conical ice bullets that pierced enemies before bursting into a small puff of ice mist.
This was a very interesting concept.
With a deity's divine power, achieving this was as natural as breathing. Winigo hadn't asked the Lord of Wishes for anything in quite a while, so this time, that mischievous maiden-like deity gave him a surprise without hesitation.
After all, she was a deity outside the rules, unrecognized by the pantheon and lacking the title of a "true god," yet possessing the essence of a "god" through stolen divine power. Winigo was her only worshipper and her sole channel for replenishing faith-power—fortunately, Winigo still managed to satisfy her.
Picking up the revolver with its numerous attachments, pairing it with a magic ring that increased accuracy, and biting down on a "Hit" card gifted by the Lord of Wishes, Sophia, Winigo's hit rate instantly skyrocketed to the level of a military archer.
Winigo raised the rifle and fired a rapid six-shot volley straight at the face of the Snow Leopard tribe leader. While the leader raised her tower shield for defense, Winigo used the empty sky to slide backward several meters, skillfully retrieving a speedloader to reload with fresh ammunition.
"In the name of Galla, chieftain of the Snow Leopard tribe, I curse you!" roared the Snow Leopard chieftain. Hiding her body beneath the massive tower shield like a moving fortress wall, she charged straight toward Winigo.
Winigo slid his feet, skating around to Galla's right side. Galla hastily spun around, refusing to give Winigo an opening.
Winigo was not in a hurry. He quickly glanced around; the Prism Mercenary Corps was holding its own against the warriors of the Snow Leopard tribe. Although the Prism side had fewer numbers, whether it was the genetically modulated basic soldiers or high-end combatants like Sophia and Soft, they all outclassed the Snow Leopard tribe by a head.
Moreover, Sophia and Soft each commanded a section of the soldiers. Their command was textbook-standard with not a single flaw to be picked, effectively utilizing their own strengths to fiercely assault the Snow Leopard tribe's weakest point, forcefully breaking through, tearing open a weakness, and expanding their advantage bit by bit.
Therefore, Winigo did not need to rush.
He circled around Galla, firing a few shots at her whenever an opportunity arose. Although Galla spun around quickly, her vision was blocked by the shield, preventing her in time from seeing Winigo's movements.
If she poked her head out to check, she would find Winigo's bullets heading straight for her head.
Consequently, Galla was forced into a very flustered state. Before long, her left shoulder, right leg, and waist had all been grazed by Winigo's bullets due to her delayed defense, leaving those areas ice-cold and completely numb.
Galla soon discovered that Winigo's weapon could only fire six times before it had to stop to reload something. Therefore, when Winigo's firing ceased, she boldly poked her head out to observe. Seeing that Winigo was indeed reloading, she roared and charged forward, swinging her battle axe.
Just as Winigo was about to move, he suddenly felt his feet go soft. Looking down, he saw several golden light rings appearing and disappearing beneath his feet at some point.
"I curse you in the name of Galla, chieftain of the Snow Leopard tribe!" Winigo suddenly guessed that this was probably the special ability possessed by Galla as a tribal leader.
Taking advantage of the motion of looking down, he rolled to dodge Galla's ferocious axe strike. Before the numbness in his legs could recover, he used the airflow of the open sky to spring back several meters, raising the muzzle to fire continuously and prevent Galla from closing in again.
"Interesting," Winigo chuckled.
He began to pay attention to the flickering light rings at his feet, dodging these dangerous little things. As a result, Winigo could no longer nimbly circle around Galla to look for openings as he had before.
"If this is the extent of it, I will be disappointed," Winigo said.
His footsteps slowed down a fraction, and Galla immediately seized the opportunity to lunge forward. Despite her massive build, her speed when sprinting was by no means slower than when Winigo utilized the open sky.
It was just that turning was too difficult for her. With a slight tip of his toes, Winigo shifted sideways by several meters, dodging Galla's horizontal slash and raising his gun toward her chest.
"You're out of arrows!" Galla screamed. Her arithmetic wasn't great, but she could certainly count a mere six bullets.
Bang...
A bullet grazed the upper edge of the shield and struck Galla directly in the mouth.
"Oh, right, a revolver can be reloaded directly without using up all the bullets; didn't I tell you that?" Winigo spread his hands. "Well, I suppose I really didn't tell you."
The bullet struck right inside her vulnerable oral cavity. Combined with the propulsion of gunpowder and the energy bestowed by magic, the bullet entered through the mouth, tumbling inside to tear out a cavity within the brain, churning Galla's fragile brain into a total mush.
"Nice shot!" Winigo snapped his fingers. "Hmm, perfect, let's try that one."
He fished a reagent bottle out of the Transaction Cave, shoved the purple foreign matter inside into Galla's mouth, and paid it no further mind.
By this time, the battle over there was also nearing its end.
Winigo cheered gleefully and joined the fight. Utilizing the agile mobility granted by the open sky, he skated across the snow, occasionally raising his gun to fire wildly.
At such a range, positioned comfortably in a spot for sneak attacks, Winigo's actual kill count wasn't particularly high, but it clearly made the Snow Leopard warriors miserable.
Soon, the Prism Mercenary Corps' advantage became increasingly obvious, forming a crushing dominance.
At that moment, the deceased Galla let out an inhuman roar.
"Parasitation successful." Winigo snapped his fingers.
The Snow Leopard warriors watched with joy as their chieftain walked toward them; however, their joy quickly turned into endless terror.
Galla launched a ferocious assault against the Snow Leopard warriors.
Her strong muscles exerted astonishing strength. Driven by some unknown ability, this corpse generated far more brutal strength than Galla herself ever possessed, alongside a fierce desire to fight to the bitter end without fear of injury.
She—or rather, it—charged straight at the warriors, using its most practiced shield-slam to send several people flying, and cleaved the strongest warrior before it into two halves with a single axe stroke.
"What's going on?" The little wolf-princess darted to Winigo's side at the first opportunity and asked in a low voice.
"Remember those purple zombies in the black forest earlier? I used xenogeneic cells and active substances from those zombies to assimilate a new parasite, using it to control corpses," Winigo explained in a low voice. "It doesn't understand language, but the parasite reacts to specific audio frequencies, so..."
"I don't understand," the little wolf-princess answered honestly.
"Uh... anyway, just blowing the flute will do." Winigo took out a self-made bamboo flute and blew a few notes.
This crude bamboo flute had only four pitches, yet through the combination of the length and brevity of those four pitches, it could derive hundreds of different signals. As soon as Winigo's flute notes sounded, Galla over there came to a halt. By this time, the Snow Leopard tribe, having lost their will to fight, could no longer pose a threat.
"Why did it stop again?" the little wolf-princess asked quietly.
"It can't eat. It consumes energy generated from the degradation of its own fat and proteins, and replenishing that is troublesome. So I keep it from moving unless necessary," Winigo explained. "You wouldn't understand anyway."
The little wolf-princess shrugged in imitation of Winigo and chuckled.
"Soft, incorporate the Snow Leopard warriors. Bring the old and young as well," Winigo commanded.
"The Malza people? Sir Scamon will not tolerate such a thing," Soft reminded him.
"It doesn't matter," Winigo spread his hands. "I am executing Her Majesty's decree; let him go complain to the Queen."
"That excuse isn't very good," Soft gave a bitter smile, but nonetheless carried out the order.
Winigo had taken a fancy to these Malza warriors. He intended to slightly modify these people through some minor methods, erasing their Malza characteristics so they could become ordinary residents of the kingdom and serve as laborers and soldiers for the Prism Manor.
Sophia looked with an unfriendly expression at Galla's corpse, walked over to Winigo after a moment, and gently tugged at his sleeve.
"Oh?" Winigo exclaimed. "Don't worry, this thing rots away after being used twice. Remember those purple zombies in the black forest last time? It's like that..."
Sophia couldn't help crying out, "I just want to ask, do you really have to use such evil things?"
"Evil?" Winigo chuckled darkly. "Sophia, things have never been evil or kind—only human hearts are. A weapon is just a weapon; it is neither righteous nor unjust."
"But I still feel uncomfortable," Sophia complained, throwing a rare little temper tantrum.
Winigo chuckled and reached out to wrap an arm around Sophia's shoulders.
Sophia's face flushed red instantly. She didn't use force, merely struggling just a tiny bit.
With Sophia's strength, if she truly wanted to struggle, she could easily toss Winigo away.
"This thing is called a Zaku," Winigo irresponsibly pulled out a familiar name from his impressions. "Battle-axe, shield, yup, very fitting name. Let's call it a Zaku."