“What did you say?”
Shaiven couldn’t believe her ears as she was being briefed.
The messenger then said, “General Juenler has died, and around 400 Vampires were killed in war.”
The fact that 400 out of 1,000 Vampires had died meant that they had fought hard until the end, so Shaiven couldn’t get too angry at them. The enemy had simply been too strong.
“The enemy was Black Scale?”
“Yes.”
“How many soldiers did they bring…”
“There were 300 of them.”
“300!”
“They were all Cockatoo warriors. General Juenler’s troops were ambushed where they were stationed, and the village wasn’t the best foothold for defense…”
“Shut up!”
Shaiven slammed her fist onto the desk.
Cockatoos were as big as horses, but they had the ability to freely swivel to both sides. It was easy for them to fight even in the narrow streets of the village. Additionally, 300 soldiers could easily be divided and quickly invade the village.
It was Juenler’s fault that he had failed to defend against the ambush, but he could no longer bear the brunt of the blame since he was dead. That meant that Shaiven would have to take the blame. She should have kept the possibility of an ambush in mind.
‘In order to quickly attack Juenler’s troops with cavalry, the Lizardmen would have had to reduce their provisions. So they would have procured supplies locally. Black Scale and Danyum… No, did all the other countries form an alliance?’
Shavien had of course been thinking of attacking Black Scale and Joint, the Gnolls’ country. But only she and a few generals knew about it, so she didn’t think her plan had been leaked. Black Scale and the other five countries were enemies in the first place. Shaiven didn’t think there was any reason for Black Scale to help the others.
‘Was the king of Black Scale afraid of a big country forming?’
Shaiven informed the other three generals about the appearance of the Black Scale’s cavalry. Then she told them to be thoroughly prepared to defend themselves. Since the troops were far apart, though, she didn’t think they would encounter Black Scale’s cavalry.
However, there was another problem. Overtime, about 100 soldiers that had been a part of Juenler’s troop had broken away from the rest of the troop, and around 500 of them had returned to where Shaiven was alive.
The reports from these soldiers were absurd. Rather than chasing away the enemy troops, the Cockatoo warriors of Black Scale had been claiming the lands that White Tooth had taken control of. At a glance, it was a move that Shaiven couldn’t understand.
Mobilizing large troops would be a burden on the country, so they had to move with a clear goal in mind. And even if they reclaimed the land, it would be returned to the Satyr country, Danyum, rather than become Black Scale’s territory.
Only after Shaiven sent a scouting party did she realize what was going on.
‘Those Lizardmen are receiving almost an unlimited amount of supplies. I knew that the Lizardmen of Black Scale enjoyed fighting, but I didn’t know they would fight like that for another country as well.’
Even though there were only 300 of them, the speed at which they reclaimed lands was nothing to sneeze at.
The Vampire soldiers were chosen out of the young people from the other countries, so their numbers were limited. The villages with only a small number of soldiers thus couldn’t help but surrender to Black Scale. There was nothing to be done about that.
In the meantime, it would have been good if the other three generals had continued to advance forward, but even they were being sluggish.
Now Shaiven had to make a choice.
‘Should I reorganize the 400 survivors of the defeated troop and have them face the 300 Lizardmen, or should I call on the rest of the 3,000 soldiers and attack Black Scale with 3,400 men?’
The first option didn’t seem advantageous to them.
‘The God of Blood and Rotten Meat will surely help me. And even if they were all elite soldiers, we would still win. But the enemy is all cavalry. It’s up to the enemy if they want to fight or not.’
The latter choice wasn’t such an attractive option either.
‘Of course 3,400 is enough to attack Black Scale. And if we attack Black Scale, we would be able to replenish our army with new soldiers. But if we don’t properly finish things right now when the other five countries are discouraged, another problem may arise.’
As expected, the God of Blood and Rotten Meat ended up making the decision for Shaiven. Shaiven received a divine revelation to head east in her dream. And Shaiven, who woke up when the sun began to set, called her adjutant in.
“Summon all the generals and soldiers. We will launch an attack against Black Scale now.”
.
***
Wisdom said, “If we bring the enemy together, are we gonna do a joint attack?”
Sung-Woon shook his head.
“…That would be good, but would we have enough soldiers?”
Everyone was taken aback by Sung-Woon’s question. And AR, the god of the Nixes, was most surprised. It could be said that not only the main force, but also the capital of the Nixes had suffered a crushing defeat. And although she had still been hiding the fact, the god of the Renards, Lunda, wasn’t in the greatest situation either due to the loss she had suffered at the hand of Sung-Woon and the Vampires. The Satyr god, Crampus, and the Troll god, Wisdom, could produce enough soldiers to assemble an army, but they could only contribute 500 and 300 soldiers respectively.
The only one who had barely been affected was the Kobold god, Jang-Wan.
Jang-Wan said, “My troops can participate in the battle.”
“No. You’re too far away.”
Relative to Black Scale, Joint, the Gnoll country, was on the opposite end of the continent, while Mangul, the Kobold capital, was the second farthest.
“You wouldn’t make it in time anyways… Wisdom and Crampus would be the only ones who could actually help in a joint attack.”
At those words, Wisdom calmly voiced his assent, and Crampus nodded with his eyebrows furrowed to show his reluctance.
“The Vampires will likely go after the fortresses near Automation rather than marching across the wilderness.”
If the Vampires went through the wilderness, it would be difficult for them to avoid the sunlight in the middle of the day, and most importantly, there would be no people to feed blood off of. And so, it could be assumed that the Vampires would go through the mountain range where villages scattered along, where there would be shadows to shield them from the sunlight.
“It would be best to chase away the Vampire army with my cavalry of 300 Lizardmen, along with Wisdom and Crampus, all the while keeping our distances from each other. If they notice we’re launching a joint attack, they’ll take out the ones closest to them provided they’re smart enough.”
Wisdom then asked, “But if we’re too far away from each other, how are we going to capitalize on a joint attack? White Tooth’s rear scouting party sometimes falls as far back as two days’ travel away. With that distance, Black Scale would have to defend against the first attack alone.”
“Do you think we won’t be able to defend ourselves?”
Sung-Woon was confident because he had reliable backup.
Wisdom shrugged and said, “As long as you think you can do it.”
“And it doesn’t matter if the joint attack takes place on flatland since some of their troops would be exhausted by that time,” Sung-Woon said. “The rest of you will have to focus on chasing away the Vampires with your own troops. And Jang-Wan, you’ll have to use your troops to reclaim areas that belonged to AR.”
Reducing the number of Vampires wasn’t just a matter of claiming territory. The majority of the Vampires believed in the God of Blood and Rotten Meat, so Faith points would continue to be produced. Reducing the numbers of Vampires outside of the battlefront would thus be beneficial to them.
When their discussion wrapped up, Sung-Woon alone pondered on the concern he hadn’t told the other players about. Jeol Woo-Bi, 癤Woo bbit瑜swem ssik, was definitely another player. And if they really were a player, they would have used fewer Faith Points than the other players until now.
‘There is a reason though.’
Jeol Woo-Bi played the long consistent game to their advantage. It wasn’t strange that they hadn’t used as many Faith points. They had been winning until now, so there was no reason for them to waste the resource. There was one time they used a good amount though.
It was when they took over Juenler’s body with Divine Control when attacking the capital of the Nixes, but they hadn’t used the skill for too long. Sung-Woon assumed that they wouldn’t have used a lot of Faith points.
‘But…the territory of White Tooth is the largest in the third continent as of now. Additionally, while the growth of their troops are attracting the most attention, the overall population of Vampires have grown significantly as well. These Vampires believe in the God of Blood and Rotten Meat, which means there’s a chance that Jeol Woo-Bi has a high Divinity level.’
In Sung-Woon’s opinion, while Jeol Woo-Bi had introduced Vampires, an unprecedented with pretty formidable power, Jeol Woo-Bi themselves were a force to be reckoned with as a player. It would be unwise to jump to the conclusion that they had gotten to this point only because the Vampires were a cheat species.
‘If I did my calculation correctly, the highest level they could be at is 17?’
Sung-Woon frowned at the thought of the Divinity skill a player would receive at level 16. If Jeol Woo-Bi really was at a level above 16 and remained levelheaded to the end, things could get troublesome.
‘Well…in that case, there’s still a way.’
***
Shaiven had already heard about the fortress that Lakrak built, but the fortress was even more formidable in person. All the trees within hundreds of meters of radius around the fortress had been cut down, so it was impossible to sneak up to it, and the path leading to the fortress was in a zigzag pattern, making it difficult for wagons to traverse.
Furthermore, the fortress walls presented an even greater challenge. There was a hill with a sixty degree slope next to the fortress gates, and beside the hill was a cliff rising at close to ninety degrees. Even if they could somehow scale the hill, there was another 7 meter tall rampart standing in wait.
Shaiven said to her adjutant, “…What do you think?”
“Out of all possible mounts, I think only the big weasels can make it up there.”
“Let those who were originally Renards and Trolls attack the walls.”
“What about the fortress gate?”
“We’ll bring a hammer big enough to break the gate.”
“That will cause a lot of exhaustion for the troops.”
“If we step on the dead bodies on the path to the gate, the slope will be more gradual. No, wait…”
“Did you think of a better idea?”
Shaiven smiled.
“Is there a need to use Vampires to make a staircase?”
“What?”
Shaiven’s gaze turned towards the rear end of the army. Vampires needed living people to feed on, as it made it possible for the Vampire army to operate efficiently. Moreover, an army going into battle would need just as many people to follow the army and carry their things. Should the amount of supplies decrease, the workers with nothing to do would become food, which was also true for Shaiven’s troops.
Shaiven then said, “Our troops did a supply run the day before yesterday at the Satyr village, so slaves are unnecessary unless the battle lasts too long.”
“Oh, I get what you mean. You’re saying that the slaves should be used as meat shields for arrows, which would then decrease the enemy’s combat supplies.”
Shaiven nodded.
“And apparently a rumor is going around among the slaves.”
“What kind of rumor?”
“That all five gods have given up on them, but there is one god who hasn’t.”
“What? Are you talking about the God of Blood and Rotten Meat?”
“No.”
Shaiven shook her head.
“The Blue Insect God.”
“What? By the Blue Insect God, you mean…”
“The god of those Lizardmen. And they also think that the Lizardmen of Black Scale are going to save them. Make them line up and run to the fortress. There will probably be some who resist. Just suck their blood dry and kill them. Then we’ll trick all of them by saying that if the Lizardmen are going to save them, they will open the gates.”
“Understood.”
After bidding Shaiven farewell and taking his leave, the general suddenly turned around as if he just remembered something.
“But queen Shaiven.”
“What is it?”
“What if…they really open the gates for the slaves?”
Shaiven let out a puff of air from her nose.
“They would open the gates and act as saviors? Even better. That’s when we would carry out our full atack.”
Shaiven thought that the only savior of the land was the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.
***
“It’s the third time already.”
“Yes.”
Aizan, the Halfling the Vampire army brought along as a slave, nodded. The Kobold slave he had recently befriended seemed wrought with fear. The two of them became close due to their similarity in height, but it seemed that their friendship was coming to an end.
“And we’re next.”
“I know.”
Aizan nodded.
The Kobold was referring to the third time that the Vampires took the slaves away. Aizan and his Kobold friend were part of the fourth group along with many other slaves of different species. With their hands tied up, they could guess what was happening. And the Vampire soldiers had explained to them a few times. There was a fortress up on the mountain, and the fortress belonged to the Lizardmen.
The Vampires were making excuses and using them to reduce the enemy’s combat supplies, thus making the path uphill easier while tiring out the enemies. And the slaves had nothing else to believe in but salvation, which made them the obvious choice for baits.
The Kobold tightly closed their eyes.
“It’s here. It’s our turn.”
Aizan didn’t reply. .
And a Vampire said, “Let’s skip the story. Your goal is simple. Run towards the gates of the Lizardmen’s fortress. If the Lizardmen really are saviors like you believe they are, they would open the gates. Don’t you think so?”
No one protested; the dead slaves lying by their feet had gotten killed for doing so.
Aizan thought to himself, ‘I wonder which option would give me a higher chance of surviving. Escaping the group and running somewhere else, or running towards the fortress.’
Aizan struggled to choose between the two, but there was nothing he could do about it. And standing before the fortress, he thought the first option would give him a better chance. Even though it was the middle of the night, there were dead slaves at the bottom of the fortress, who had been shot by the Lizardmen with great aim.
‘The road turns three times until it reaches the fortress gates. But no one even made it beyond the second turn…’
Aizan laughed on the inside and wondered if the Lizardmen of Black Scale really were saviors. One thing was for certain: they were sharpshooters as they were rumored to be.
Then a Vampire soldier said, “We’re aiming at you with arrows from behind. I’ll count to five. Run towards the fortress. One, two, three…”
Everyone hesitated when the Vampire had counted to three. Aizan looked at the dead body next to him.
‘They’ve already killed someone as an example. We need to run now!’
Aizan began to run. And as he did, the Vampire soldier standing behind him struck his Kobold friend for hesitating.
“…Five! Run!”
Aizan prayed that the nickname he had back at his village, Fast Feet, still applied. There was no knowing who his prayer was directed to.
‘Please!’
Just as Shaiven had thought, the dead bodies piling up on the ground made it a little easier for the troops to go up the slope. But no matter how many died, it wouldn’t be enough to take them to the fortress.
As Aizan tripped himself and staggered, an arrow brushed past his ear. If he hadn’t accidently stumbled, he would have died.
‘If only I can survive!’
When Aizan reached the second turn on the way up, he heard a noise coming from the fortress.
‘What is that sound?’
Aizan looked up. Something flew towards him from the fortress. It was a butterfly that glowed blue.
‘…A butterfly?’
But something stranger than the sudden appearance of a butterfly was happening. The fortress gates were opening.
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