Chapter 156 : Chapter 156
Chapter 156. Plague City (6)
Chitter…!
The Ratman slave soldier had no name.
Since having no name created problems in forming a self, the slave soldier took the name he was most often called by his superiors as his identity.
It was 'Grub'.
One day, Grub died.
It wasn't in battle.
It was on the day he was sent to the Weird Priesthood, when he came to serve none other than the Archpriest as his new master.
The last scene in his memory was cold.
A hard altar, a gleaming blue blade, a mumbling incantation, a sharp syringe needle, things like that.
After something was injected into his body, his limbs grew cold and twisted painfully, then his eyes closed.
In his final moment, he thought he saw his master, the Archpriest of the Weird Priesthood, baring his teeth and smiling, but there was no way to know if it was real or a hallucination.
And then, at some point, Grub was alive again.
Once more as the Archpriest's servant.
The place was a battlefield.
Chiiik! Chitter!
Clang! Kang!
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-!
Screams, the clash of weapons, gunshots.
The smell of gunpowder and blood.
It was a hot battlefield, a stark contrast to his cold death.
Grub sniffed and chittered, prostrating himself flat on the ground.
The command of the Archpriest, who had become his master in his second life as well, was seared into his mind like a brand.
A single phrase, 'Kill and wound the enemy.'
The survival instinct he had learned from birth to survive suggested one method.
Just once, to thrust the blade in his hand into a gap in the enemy's armor.
“Uwoooah! Come on, all of you!”
He saw his target.
It was a big brute with smooth black skin.
A creature called an Orc, but Grub didn't know the names of other species.
As soon as he recognized it as an enemy, he crawled quickly to approach, then leaped out in a surprise attack and thrust his blade into the gap between its armor plates.
It wasn't difficult, as the armor was crudely woven from leather and iron plates.
The sharp metal plunged deep into its muscular flank.
“Huh?”
The brute turned around.
“Rat bastard! I’ll get you!”
“Chitter…?”
That was the last scene Grub saw.
A looming shadow. A body gripped as if to be crushed. Something flying in with a whoosh. A vision split in two. The warm centerline of his body.
“Hmph.”
The Orc Bambarum flicked his axe.
Blood and entrails splattered from the axe that had split the Ratman in two.
Bambarum tensed his stomach muscles.
His flank felt warm, then blood gushed out and the blade was dislodged.
Blood was spurting out, but it didn't matter.
A wound like this would heal quickly if he just worked up a sweat.
This was a battlefield.
One he loved so much.
“Hwaaaaaaah!”
Bambarum roared.
As he roared, he swatted away a rat bastard with his axe.
He shattered another one's face with his fist.
Warm brain and blood poured out in a rush.
Bambarum had always wanted a fight.
All Orcs did.
A fight where blood boiled and sweat flowed.
A brawl with monsters and bigger, stronger foes.
He had fought countless times in his life, and his last fight had been in the wasteland.
It was a fight against humans and dwarves who had brought cannons and mages.
It was the most intense fight, and he had died there, but when he opened his eyes again at some point, he was on a battlefield.
Now, Bambarum was a subordinate of a new Great Chieftain.
Strangely, the Great Chieftain wasn't an Orc, but a human.
It didn't particularly bother him.
If you were stronger than him, you were a chieftain and a great chieftain.
Similarly, because he was stronger than most Orcs, Bambarum was called a 'Big'un'.
Thankfully, the Great Chieftain had led him to another battlefield.
To this place filled with man-like rats and rat-like monsters.
“Fiiiight! Come ooooon!”
Bambarum shouted as he crushed a rat-person's skull with the handle of his axe.
And then he suddenly looked back.
He saw a big brute.
A monster bigger than the old Great Chieftain, more massive than the ogre he had once hunted.
The creature, which had two large rat heads, was holding two spiders in its hands and stuffing one into each of its mouths.
Bambarum wanted to take that creature's head off.
So he ran.
He mercilessly struck down the rat-people and monsters blocking his path and picked up speed.
The moment he had closed the distance enough, the moment the creature looked this way, he leaped.
His two hearts beat wildly.
The creature opened its maw.
He gripped his axe with both hands and brought it down.
He intended to split its maw and head in two.
Then, the creature's maw flashed.
Bambarum suddenly felt the area below his waist go empty.
Looking down, he saw his lower body swallowed by a pillar of light that had shot out from the monster's maw.
Squeezing out his last bit of strength, Bambarum threw his axe and fell helplessly like a boulder from a cliff.
Shaaaa-
A pure white, soft light engulfed Bambarum.
It was a light prepared by the human Great Chieftain, taking him to a place to prepare for the next fight.
Before his consciousness faded into a haze, the last thing he saw was the monster shaking its head with an axe embedded in its maw, and an arrow flying towards its eye.
It was an elf's.
Whoooosh-!
A direct hit.
Paninan smirked.
As a proud Paradise Elf, it was a shot that could not miss.
With a strong bow, a sharp arrow, and even mana imbued in it, it must have pierced its brain.
The Orc that became bait had its lower body vaporized, but that was none of her concern.
The King had taken him in before he died, so he would come back to life on his own.
It was the moment she was searching for her next target with a cold smile.
Kyaaaaaa-!
A roar that shook her eardrums.
It was the monster's scream.
The monster she had just hit was still alive.
Not only was it alive, but it was opening its maw towards her.
Pipipiping!
Rapid fire.
Paninan hastily fired arrows.
Three shots, four shots, five shots.
The arrows embedded themselves in the eyes, neck, and inside the maws of its two heads, but the creature didn't stop.
Its wide-open maw flashed green, and the beam that had blown away the Orc's lower half was fired this way.
Paninan squeezed her eyes shut.
“Aaaah… huh?”
She was alive.
How?
Paninan raised her head.
Dozens of Ratman zombies had formed a wall, taking the beam in her stead and deflecting it.
Three Necro Ogres had attached themselves to the monster and were engaged in a power struggle.
“Hey, Elf! Snap out of it!”
With a slap, her face was turned.
The one who slapped her was a necromancer.
Pale skin. Red eyes. A vampire woman with long black hair flowing over her leather armor.
A distant senior in the King's legion and one of the disciplinarians.
“Our lord is fighting the enemy commander himself, and you dare to be careless? You arrogant elf. Get up! Pick up that precious bow of yours!”
“I-I'm sorry.”
“If you're sorry to our lord, then get up and fight!”
Paninan staggered to her feet, picked up her bow, and ran.
As an elf from Paradise, she would have considered a mere vampire a one-arrow kill in the past.
But she couldn't ignore the order of one of the King's longest-serving confidants.
The vampire watched her back for a moment before chanting a spell.
“Blood, flesh, and death, arise and become one….”
The pulped Ratman zombies began to rise.
They clumped together, being shaped into the form of a giant.
Tisha, the vampire necromancer.
Once under the command of Count Calvenia, she had gained a new life.
She had gained a new position and purpose in her lord's legion, and the opportunity to venture out into a wider world beyond the narrow county.
After the recent eastern expedition, the possibility of her power growing had even opened up.
Creating Necro Ogres on the spot in the middle of a battlefield was something she couldn't have even dreamed of before.
“It is all thanks to my lord's grace….”
She had to repay that grace.
By becoming stronger and gaining more subordinates, by becoming an unrivaled force for her lord on every battlefield.
It wasn't an easy task, as the lord's legion included humans, the Lumer Legion, Beastmen, Orcs, and even elves.
That was why she had to try harder.
“…Uwoong.”
“Charge. Take down that monster with your brothers.”
The newly created Necro Ogre charged.
Four Necro Ogres and dozens of skeleton soldiers began to tear apart the giant mutant rat monster that had harmed the lord's army.
Tisha turned her head as she created skeleton soldiers from bones.
Far in the distance.
Beyond the gunshots, cannon fire, and the bloody melee, there was a large empty space in the middle of the battlefield.
That was where her lord was.
Her lord was engaged in a one-on-one duel with an enemy mage.
It was a completely different sight from her previous master, who had built his own fortress, sat in the middle of it, and sent his troops forward like consumables.
Tisha vowed once more.
To be a source of strength for her lord on this battlefield, the next, and until the very last.
***
In chess, there is a rule called castling.
It was a rule I enjoyed using when I first started getting into online chess.
Simply put, it's swapping the positions of the king and the rook. Strictly speaking, it's placing them in the middle ground, and there are a few conditions, but it's practically the only special rule that allows you to move two pieces at once.
The advantage of this move is that you can move the vulnerable king to the side while simultaneously moving the powerful rook to the central front, where its characteristic breakthrough power can directly threaten the opponent's king.
In reality, the tactic of secretly swapping the most powerful unit with the unit where the commander is, to counter-ambush an enemy force that was aiming for the commander, has long been favored.
However, if I were to compare this fantasy world to chess, I don't think I would be so fond of castling.
For one thing, it's hard to tell who is the king and who is the rook here.
To be precise, the king's combat power can be comparable to that of a bishop, a rook, or even the queen.
Because a commander in this world isn't just a smart tactician, but can be a superman who overturns the front lines.
And I have strived to become such a king.
Fwoooosh…!!
Flames that incinerate the ground.
Chwaaaaa!
A rain of light javelins from the sky.
Uwooooo---
The sky opens a gaping, torn mouth and pours out lava, and the earth opens its mouth to swallow that lava and everything standing on the ground.
[[Infernal Meteor] deployed.]
[[Miracle: Sacred Spearhead] deployed.]
[[Siollus' Pouring Heavenly Fire] deployed.]
[[Devouring Purgatory] deployed.]
I looked down at the traces left by the disaster, aware of the notification windows popping up in the corner of my vision and the corresponding decrease in my mana.
“Chiiik!”
A huge something bursts out, breaking through the lava-covered ground.
It is a massive monster of tentacles, slime, amorphous flesh, and a swollen rat's head and tail.
On top of the monster rode the Archpriest of the Weird Priesthood, Rakkash Papuccino Kallas.
His six arms each formed hand seals, unleashing a barrage of spells like a bombardment.
[[Warrior’s Insight] deployed.]
[Skill acquired.]
[Soulbinder's Breath (Level 4)]
[Inevitable Disaster (Level 7)]
[Rakkash's….]
The notification window grows longer and longer.
I ignore it.
With all sorts of curses on my body, I use the help of the spirits to leap backwards.
I slow its offensive, blocking the barrage of purple light beams with defensive spells and the monster's advance with earth magic.
Since the battle began, I have been delving into the creature's abilities, and above all, the abilities of the sacred relic it possesses.
As a result, I learned that the creature wielded almost infinite mana.