Chapter 347
The necromancers’ group battle unfolded in a fierce manner.
At first, it was a fight of about twenty on each side, but once the undead were summoned, it turned into a massive 50-to-50 battle.
Explosions went off in all directions, undead howled, and shards of curses scattered through the air.
“Break through! Push in!”
“Throw up an ice wall, Maelyn!”
“No need to overdo it! Just send undead and fire curses from the rear!”
Everyone strained their throats, screaming at the top of their lungs as they fought.
Before they knew it, cards or items were no longer on their minds.
The only thought left was to win.
While the bloody battle raged on in the palace front yard, Elisa, aboard the ghost ship, took a slightly different approach.
‘If I get too close, I’ll get caught in Maelyn’s Darkness-flame spells, and if I fire cannonballs, I might hit our own side.’
In the end, Elisa chose to target the inner castle.
Tilting the three ghost ships slightly, she unleashed a simultaneous bombardment downward, wiping out the soldiers atop the walls.
All the necromancers who could defend against it were already fighting at the palace.
With Elisa’s one-sided shelling, the defenses of the inner castle were shaken, and eventually—
[The north gate of the inner castle has been breached!]
[Morale of the Aoun Kingdom’s soldiers drops to an extreme low.]
[Morale of the Karl Kingdom’s soldiers rises.]
The Karl Kingdom had succeeded in breaking through the gates.
Seeing this, Simon took up the badge of the supreme commander and issued an order.
“We will execute Plan E as discussed. Except for the minimum defensive force, all troops, move up to the palace.”
The order from the supreme commander, who held full command authority, was a complete retreat to the palace.
No holding the gates, no street fighting, just a full withdrawal.
Among the beastfolk lieutenants there was some resistance, but the supreme commander’s order, given by a Guardian, was as good as the king’s own command.
In the end, the soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom moved according to Simon’s words.
‘Good, for now…’
BOOM!
“Simon Follentia!!!”
Through the surging flames and ice from all directions, Hector charged forward.
His mouth gaped open, but before he could unleash his breath attack, the Dark Blaze from the Skull Drones circling Simon struck first.
Hit by successive fireballs, spewing black smoke, he was forced back by Maelyn’s Blizzard and a rain of other students’ curses.
“Damn it!”
Retreating through the explosion, Hector smashed a tree in frustration. A fellow siege team student cast Cancellation on him and chided,
“Hector! With them holding out with undead and spamming curses like that, a frontal breakthrough is impossible.”
“Vermin…!”
Grinding his teeth, Hector glanced back, noticing that his own siege team was starting to watch him warily.
“From now on, I’m taking command!”
At last, Hector began to think of how to use his allies.
* * *
“Dick! Maelyn! Hold out for ten minutes!”
Meanwhile, Simon had entered the palace and was preparing a new black magic spell. Dismissing the Skull Drones and reattaching the skulls to their bodies, he unfurled four magic circles in the air.
<Simon’s Original – Magiv System>
The magic circles floating in the air linked with the circles of the skeleton mages. Taking a deep breath, he focused, changing the runes and formulas.
With the Magiv System, Simon changed the spells used by the skeleton mages, then led them back outside the palace.
BOOM!
The moment he stepped outside, an explosion went off at his feet. In the short time he’d been inside, the enemy’s offensive had grown far stronger.
“Ha ha ha!”
A male student, using Spirit Form, broke through the defensive flames of the holding team.
Spotting Simon, he formed a scythe in his hand and rushed at him.
<Bounce>
The instant he released Spirit Form to attack, a curse shot toward him like lightning. His body was hurled back to where he had come from.
“Hey! What are you spacing out for?”
Maelyn, panting, came up to Simon after firing the curse.
“If you’ve got something ready, do it already!”
“Thanks.”
Maelyn was the one making the greatest contribution in this battle.
Throwing up ice walls, hurling flames, pinpoint curse shots, and simultaneously managing skeletons with her will. She was in perfect form.
Simon slowly closed his eyes and raised both arms.
‘Rise.’
He could feel it.
The monster buried beneath.
‘Rise.’
With his will, he slowly roused the monster.
KUUUUUUUUUUUUNG!
Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently. The students, locked in frenzied combat, faltered and stepped back.
“W-what now?”
“…An earthquake?”
Maelyn quickly turned her head to see Simon muttering something with his eyes closed, as though chanting an incantation.
“There you are!”
<Strangle>
Hector swung his arm, sending a curse flying.
<Cancellation>
Maelyn darted in front of Simon, sweeping her arm to nullify the curse.
“Vermin, you dare!”
“Not a chance.”
As the two exchanged fierce curses, the ground began shaking more violently.
Deciding curses weren’t enough, Hector broke through Maelyn’s ice and rushed Simon directly.
KWA KWA KWA KWA KWAANG!
The ground suddenly shattered apart, and something pitch black erupted from below. Hector, mid-charge, slammed into it and was sent flying with a crash.
“Wh-what the hell!”
The gaping maw of a mountain-sized monster burst from the ground.
—KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
At the sudden appearance of the colossal monster, everyone was struck speechless.
“T-that’s… isn’t that it?”
Maelyn, trembling, looked at Dick.
“That’s the one Simon caught in the sea during the 3rd BMAT!”
“Yeah, it’s the Abyssal Horror.”
With patches of scales left, its flesh rotting away, the zombified Abyssal Horror was far more grotesque and terrifying than one could imagine.
Simon gave an Absolute Order.
[Wipe them out.]
THUD!
With every twist of its massive body and swing of its arms, the Abyssal Horror sent siege team students flying by the handful. It was like watching a mountain in motion.
“Stop it!”
The siege team fired all manner of black magic, but the monster pressed on as though their attacks were nothing more than an itch. Each blow shattered the ground and flung students away.
“Hey, commoner! What the hell is going on? You guys said you hauled up that monster’s corpse to sell it!”
“Heh, well, it’s a bit of a long story…”
The Abyssal Horror, salvaged from the sea floor, was put up for auction in parts. The organ that produced its breath and certain skin tissues were sold for a high price by Vanilla, and Simon earned 2,000 gold.
However, the shell of the Abyssal Horror, with its key parts removed, had no buyers. Simon had hoped some noble might purchase it for display, since it was a rare monster, but its condition was so poor that it was ignored.
Someone offered to buy it for 30 gold, but Simon refused, deciding to use it himself instead.
Thus, with the help of the master necromancers he had befriended last time, he had the Abyssal Horror zombified.
“Its duration is twenty minutes, a one-time-use undead.”
“What? Twenty minutes, one-time-use? What the hell is that even for?”
Dick shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, it’s proving pretty useful right now, isn’t it?”
It certainly was impressive.
Even when the siege team students unleashed their attacks, the Abyssal Horror showed no sign of taking any damage.
‘Hoo…’
Hector panted, glaring at the Abyssal Horror.
Simon had taken that thing down in perfect condition during the 3rd BMAT.
‘If he did it, then I can too!’
Hector leapt into the air. Almost fully transformed into a sea dragon, he fired his breath onto the monster’s back, and the Abyssal Horror, lifting its mountain-sized body, gave chase to Hector.
“What is this, some kind of kaiju manga?!”
While the two monsters fought fiercely—
—Sorry to interrupt the battle, but we have to pull back now!
Elisa’s urgent voice came from the cards of all siege team students.
—The soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom are coming up. If you stay there, you’ll be surrounded!
She was right. Supreme Commander Simon’s order had been a retreat to the palace.
The soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom, fleeing from the inner castle, were now rushing up the stairs toward the palace.
If they stayed, they would be pincered from above and below.
—I’ve prepared a ghost ship behind us, get aboard!
Looking down, they could see the stairs packed with Aoun Kingdom soldiers.
In the end, the siege team students had no choice but to board Elisa’s ghost ship.
—KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
The Abyssal Horror roared, trying to knock the ghost ship from the sky, but even that monster could not fly.
“Well, we managed to drive them out once.”
Maelyn wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at Simon.
“What are you going to do now?”
The situation was still overwhelmingly disadvantageous for the defenders. Over six hours remained, and the inner castle had already fallen.
While their own troops were climbing the stairs, ten times as many Karl Kingdom soldiers would soon pass through the inner castle and enter the city.
The siege team students would descend again once the Karl forces advanced, and in the end, the entire palace would be surrounded.
Even if all forces took refuge inside the palace, an indestructible object, necromancers had plenty of ways to attack the soldiers within, such as poison gas or wide-area curses.
“Leave it to me.”
Simon spoke, then looked toward the Abyssal Horror. The creature began descending from the city streets it had climbed earlier, following Simon’s command.
Then, using the supreme commander’s badge, Simon gave another order.
“All forces, move into the palace.”
The black-clad soldiers of the Karl Kingdom began climbing the stairs, chasing after the retreating soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom. Simon and the other students immediately went to provide support.
They wrung out their last reserves of Darkness to harass the Karl Kingdom’s pursuit, buying time for their allies to reach the palace.
“Hurry!”
“Quickly, quickly!”
By the time the soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom began entering the palace, the Karl Kingdom’s troops had reached halfway up the slope.
“Ugh, disgusting.”
Even Maelyn frowned at the sight, the slope was packed with Karl soldiers. The soldiers of the Aoun Kingdom, uneasy, filed into the palace.
Murmur murmur murmur.
“The palace is cramped, head into the Obsidian Mine!”
“Move quickly!”
Civilians, seeing the soldiers pushed back to the palace, trembled in fear, clutching each other.
The king, who had been sitting resolutely on the throne, was startled when the soldiers abandoned the walls and entered the palace, but he said nothing, trusting in the Guardians.
“Just a little more.”
Even as the Karl soldiers drew ever closer, Simon murmured quietly.
“Just a little more, just a little more.”
The Karl soldiers were now at the palace gates. Hector and the siege team students, who had been holding back on the ghost ship, disembarked.
“They’re boxing themselves in.”
“Anyone know a good poison gas combo?”
The siege team already carried an air of certain victory.
But Simon calmly waited, four magic circles floating in the air. The skeleton mages also stood with their staffs ready.
“Sir, the enemy is coming!”
“So, the kingdom ends here.”
As murmurs of resignation spread among the soldiers inside, Simon, still preparing black magic, opened his palm.
Seeing his stance, Maelyn flinched.
“Hey! Don’t tell me…?”
Simon’s palm was facing downward. The skeleton mages all slammed their stafs into the ground at once.
Simon, eyes closed in concentration, slowly opened them. A faint yellow hue flickered in his irises.
Perfect focus.
[Corpse—]
He clenched his fist and moved his lips.
[—Explosion.]
THUD!
From somewhere far away, a tremor was felt.
KUGUGUGUGUGUGU—!
The tremor grew, accompanied by a deafening roar. And then—
――――――――――――!
In an instant, the entirety of Aoun Castle was filled with a dark blue light.
KUKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
The ground collapsed. The Karl soldiers climbing toward the palace screamed as they were swept away.
Pillars shattered, houses crumbled, hills gave way—everything fell apart. The area was instantly shrouded in thick black smoke as Karl soldiers fell like rain.
“You insane bastard!”
Hector’s eyes went wide as he shouted.
“You actually used Corpse Explosion on that Abyssal Horror…!”
KURRRRRRRRRR!
The capital of a kingdom.
Aoun Castle began collapsing into ruin at the hands of its own defenders.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters