Chapter 15 - Mutant (5)
“Kieek! What on earth is that!”
A sight that couldn’t help but astonish all the goblins who came out to fight unfolded before them.
Literally, red glowing eyes were gleaming everywhere. Bizarre monsters with huge bodies were forming groups and charging towards their village.
All the paths were already dominated by those monsters.
No, even in rough terrain that could hardly be called a path, they appeared and charged. It was a perfect encirclement offensive.
“F-fight!”
With the panicked chieftain’s cry, a battle without a moment’s hesitation broke out.
The goblins, shouting war cries and yells, shot arrows wildly or threw spears at the incoming monsters, and the rare sorcerers fiercely resisted by shooting fireballs or throwing rocks pulled from the ground.
“They’re fighting a bit better…”
She, commanding troops from inside the nest, clicked her tongue softly as she saw a goblin warrior’s thrown spear break through and penetrate an allied shock trooper’s armor, and a sorcerer’s fireball explode, bringing down two or three soldiers at once.
As the village was large and its level of development high, the battle was more intense and destructive compared to before.
Already, corpses of broken and damaged ones were piling up on the ground.
“M-monsters! They keep coming!”
But they didn’t stop. They didn’t care at all whether their comrade right in front was cruelly burned to death or died impaled on a spear.
Rather, they just trampled on their comrade’s corpse, using it as a shield and stepping stone to push forward.
The goblins stirred at this unhesitating behavior.
Loyal soldiers who would gladly give their lives for the hive with just one order from the queen… It was by no means easy to face head-on these unidentified beings, coming in darkness and silence, knowing no fear or terror.
“Kieeek!”
“P-poison! It’s poison!”
Some monsters that finally reached the bottom of the walls where goblins were holding out using earthen walls and palisades as shields began to spray poison from their venom glands all at once.
Although the range was shorter than bows and javelins, the powerful acidic poison created by synthesizing various demonic beasts’ poisons, including the tier 3 demonic beast Ragadon’s, was a strong poison that melted skin on contact and destroyed respiratory organs when its vaporized smoke was inhaled.
The goblins’ resistance wavered instantly. Through the gaps that appeared, numerous monsters swarmed in at once, climbing the walls or trying to break them with their large bodies and blades.
“Be purified!”
Just as they were about to be overrun, the sorcerers stepped up.
Instead of giving up on attack spells, they started using their sorcery to purify the poison and toxic vapors.
“Tch…”
Seeing the goblins holding out, she clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth.
Clearly, the goblins attacking this time were not few in number, had a solid system, and their special individuals were of high level.
They weren’t opponents that could be defeated by simply charging in. More precise and swift command was needed.
‘It would have been impossible without the auxiliary brain.’
And now, she was capable of that.
Concentrating her mind, she looked down at the chaotic battlefield through the eyes of the flying scout.
At the same time, she minutely controlled her thousand soldiers.
Fully grasping which parts were vulnerable and which parts had fewer enemies, she moved her troops to intensively attack such places.
“The gate is broken!”
While other places were somehow holding out, the gate on the east side of the village where troops couldn’t be concentrated broke.
It was achieved by the power of shock troopers who thrust and swung blades with their strong force, thick legs, and solid bodies.
Through the gate broken by the shock troopers, countless troops poured in.
“Block them! Block them!”
They had to pull troops from other sides to block them.
The chieftain, becoming urgent, commanded the goblins while raging about, but the battle structure had already changed from a siege to urban warfare, to a melee.
From now on, it became purely a battle of strength. Both the attacking side and the defending side desperately poured in soldiers.
“Kyaak!”
With a battle cry, a goblin warrior’s swung sword cut through the hook legs and exoskeleton of one pouncing on him in one go, and after dodging a swung large blade by leaping into the air, he landed on top of a shock trooper’s head, instantly thrusting his sword into the head armor, killing the shock trooper with a much larger body than his own in one strike.
“This is overpowered!”
Although her soldiers clearly had overwhelming size and strength, the goblins, centered around special individuals who could handle the special power of magic, didn’t collapse easily.
[There are two options]
「1. Retreat」
「2. All-out offensive with full forces」
The system gave two options to her as she raged.
“Of course we have to finish this!”
However, her eyes flashing red in the darkness, she struck the chair armrest hard enough to break her hand, then instantly chose an option and growled.
Although her body is just sitting still in the nest right now, her mind connected to countless hive members is on the fierce battlefield.
The excitement of the battlefield shook her emotions, and the result was this rampage bordering on madness.
“Hold on. The Sky God will surely protect us!”
“Kill them. Don’t leave a single one alive!”
The desperate struggle between those wanting to hold out and those determined to kill continued.
Countless corpses piled up on the ground, and the war continued until the dark sky slowly began to brighten.
The result of the fight where both sides consumed all their stamina and nutrients to the point of exhaustion was a narrow victory for the goblins.
“Ha, haha!”
The goblin chieftain let out a hollow laugh and collapsed as he saw the handful of survivors left and the completely destroyed, devastated village.
Nothing was left after the black wave like a disaster rushed in. Almost all the soldiers were dead, and now no brave and capable warriors remained.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t hold back the laughter that escaped at the thought that they had somehow survived.
“Did you see! This is the power of us watched over by the Sky God. We survived even this terrible monster attack!”
The half-crazed goblin chieftain prayed to the sky and shouted towards the remaining goblins.
Clearly, there was still hope. After all, goblins have excellent reproductive ability, and as long as there are females in the underground breeding pens, they can continue to produce special individuals.
If only given time.
“Kieek! They’re coming! Coming again!”
“…This can’t be.”
However, the monsters that attacked them last night didn’t give them that time.
Because beyond the destroyed and collapsed earthen walls, with the dawn sunlight brightening, a group of monsters rushing here was visible again.
[All troops that went on the offensive annihilated. 1,000 units lost including scouts]
“…”
At that time when the goblin chieftain was falling into despair.
She too, in the nest, was just hanging her head without saying anything.
However, she wasn’t despairing. Even at this moment, she was moving troops.
[Troops that finished growing have deployed, clashing with the goblins]
The troops deployed to finish off the goblins were those that had just grown into adults today.
Since such troops are continuously being produced in artificial uteruses even at this moment, their soldiers are being replenished daily.
No matter how short the goblins’ reproduction cycle is, it couldn’t be faster than this.
“Aah… Nooooo!!!”
The goblin chieftain, sensing doom, shouted as he saw the red gleaming eyes of the monster rushing fiercely towards him.
At the same time, she, her eyes flashing in the nest, moved the body of the soldier she was possessing, instantly piercing the chest of the goblin chieftain trying to escape with sharp hook legs.
* * *
“Kill them all. Don’t leave even one alive.”
I sent a large number of workers along with the soldiers. All those corpses of my soldiers and goblins lying there. They were all nutrients that could be utilized.
We suffered too much damage from this war. We were able to finish it and secure victory by immediately sending additionally produced troops, but to fully recover the lost troops, we’d have to stay put for several days.
We had to fill that loss by any means necessary. This is the wilderness where anything can happen.
‘Still, is it a gain since we took down one player?’
[Achievement, PVP (1) completed. 1 trait point awarded as reward]
If there’s any consolation, it’s that we were able to take out one player as intended.
The achievement recognized by the system was proof of that.
「Personal message: 1」
“What’s this?”
That’s when a message I hadn’t seen before arrived.
As I opened it naturally, confused by the window flickering before my eyes, there was a desperate message written there as if sent by someone else.
「Please, just this once, please! I don’t want to die! I absolutely…」
「I won’t act up again! I-I’ll do anything, so please…」
「Hey you son of a bitch, who the hell are you, you f…」
「(This is a message sent by a non-existent being)」
The messages that kept arriving in quick succession without me being able to do anything suddenly cut off at some point.
Along with the ominous sentence saying it was a message sent by a non-existent being.
“What does this mean?”
[These are the rules of the game you are participating in]
Frozen, I couldn’t help but ask like this.
Then, as if it had been waiting for this moment, a system message appeared.