Ch.204204. Infection War (2)

In the history books of the future, this conflict would be recorded as the “Infection War,” and it naturally began with the invasion of the Evil God of Plague.

This army, numbering at least one million—a figure beyond imagination—began sporadic invasions through border regions without discrimination.

It started with a flanking invasion toward the snowy regions of the northwestern continent.

The leadership had determined that a direct assault on the border defenses—consisting of nests established by Panima’s crow forces—would be suicidal, so they tried to be somewhat clever…

“I-it’s frozen…!”

“R-Reverend of the Plague! The plague-mosquitoes we sent for reconnaissance have disappeared!!”

The problem was that this northwestern snow region was colder than they had imagined.

Even troops who couldn’t feel pain or temperature thanks to the plague frequently turned into frozen statues as their bodily fluids completely froze.

Moreover, even if they advanced as far south as possible to avoid freezing, the already slow plague forces moved even more sluggishly in the cold.

In reality, they couldn’t travel more than 2km even when walking continuously for 24 hours without rest.

Therefore, abandoning their original plan, they reverted to their standard tactic:

“””””””””DIG-THE-GROUND!! DIG-THE-GROUND!!”””””””””

“Dig through and advance forward!!”

This was an operation to tunnel through mountains using the sheer numbers of ratmen—essentially a human wave tactic applied to digging.

While not as specialized in tunneling as mole beastmen, ratmen were naturally more adept at excavation compared to other races.

With their numbers, boring through relatively soft limestone bedrock was merely time-consuming, not particularly difficult.

Even if the tunnels collapsed… it wasn’t a major problem.

Meanwhile, they didn’t limit their invasion to land routes.

The plague forces constructed numerous vessels using trees that remained alive even after being cut down, then set sail toward the Albion Islands across the sea.

This was the homeland of the Sun Elves, or High Elves.

Of course, the High Elves’ defenses weren’t so lax that such crude rafts could successfully land on Albion.

BOOM───!! KABOOM!! WHOOSH!!!

Bombardment after bombardment after bombardment.

Magical artillery fire rained down from the sky like precipitation, beginning one hour after they left port, attacking the plague-vessels.

The firepower of the coastal batteries built along the shores of Albion Island—the Sun Elves’ homeland—was formidable, firing amplified “magic” as ammunition.

A Level 3 elemental magic Fireball, amplified by enchantments on the batteries, could completely incinerate a ship large enough to carry 300 people in a single hit.

The magically formed flames mercilessly disinfected even magical diseases, making environmental concerns irrelevant.

Anyway, back to the main point.

Like elsewhere, the plague forces began mindlessly pushing their troops toward the defensive line established by the Dawn Empire in the south.

Rat Beastmen skilled in wall-climbing scaled cliffs, while plague soldiers mounted on giant plague-mosquitoes flew over fortress walls.

These monstrous mosquitoes—large enough to carry humans while flying, with chitin shells as tough as metal—swarmed in great numbers.

They sprayed plague-infected fluids from their proboscises, while the mounted plague soldiers hurled javelins soaked in contaminated sewage.

This combination of aerial forces that could simply ignore most fortress walls and ratmen seemed simple yet surprisingly difficult to counter, but…

“Fire! Fire!”

Whoooom……!!

“Shields up!!”

RATATATATATA───!!!

This was a situation that could be handled if the wall defenders were extraordinary.

The forces defending the walls were the Dawn Empire’s Avenger Legions. These superhuman soldiers, armed with sturdy shields and modified magical muskets, were demonstrating prowess that made the expression “worth a hundred men” entirely appropriate.

Magical muskets aimed casually into the air without even shouldering them. The lasers fired from these weapons not only had enough power to bring down mosquitoes with a single shot, but their accuracy was abnormally high.

With each shot, a plague-mosquito would have its head cleanly severed and fall, while dozens of rat beastmen swarming like army ants would be dropped with each volley.

They easily blocked the plague fluids shot by the mosquitoes with their shields and deflected the javelins thrown by the mounted plague soldiers.

The walls built by dwarves wouldn’t collapse from such trivial attacks, so at first glance, the battle situation appeared to be completely in the “Avengers'” favor.

But these apparent attacks were all just a diversion. In reality, like “Despair,” they were betting everything on underground passages.

While continuously launching flashy offensives to buy time, thousands of rat beastmen were somehow carving through the thick granite bedrock.

The durability of mountain ranges carved by the gods themselves was incomparable to ordinary rock, but they overcame this disadvantage through the brute force method of sheer numbers.

It didn’t matter if several thousand died while digging tunnels through the bedrock. This was the extreme disregard for life characteristic of Evil Gods—the mentality that everything would be solved if they could just create and pass through a tunnel.

As a result, tunnels began to form under the mountain range over time, and the number of casualties increased for various reasons proportional to the length of the tunnels.

Moreover, as the corpses of the dead accumulated, the situation became increasingly unfavorable for the plague forces, because the Dawn Empire specialized in employing necromancers.

The intermediate vampire necromancers, a kind of special position, raised the enemy’s corpses, and although these mass-produced undead were clearly limited by their low rank, they were still quite useful in large-scale battlefields.

Even low-quality undead could create variables on the battlefield, accumulating enemy casualties and plummeting their morale.

Nevertheless, several passages gradually formed in the rock face, and thanks to countless sacrifices, they would soon be able to emerge on the other side.

Thus, with smiles full of joy, the rats diligently dug until they faced a gap where light leaked through, and they excitedly destroyed the wall—

Rumble, CRASH!!

“They’re out. Incinerate them.”

───WHOOOOOOSH!!!!

The rat beastmen who were happily trying to emerge through the passage were greeted by soldiers wearing different equipment who had been waiting for them, exposing them directly to flames.

Wearing even thicker and heavier armor than other Avenger Legion soldiers, they wielded specially crafted magical muskets that spewed flames.

These magical muskets had tubes at the end connected to their armor to supply magical power, resembling flamethrowers in both form and function—which was indeed their actual role.

Modified from a new weapon called the Dragon Breath-Musket, which was inspired by special shotgun ammunition called Dragon Breath, this was literally a flamethrower powered by magic.

In form, it resembled something like a handle protruding from the main body, similar to an elongated tonfa that could also be used as a police baton.

And as similar as the form was, the operating principle was quite similar too.

Connected to a magical power tank attached to the user’s armor, it continuously received magical power, converting it into holy flames that were continuously expelled.

The firepower projected over a substantial area was quite excellent, but in exchange, the range was rather ambiguous and was little more than spray against intermediate-level or higher enemies.

Of course, that only applied to intermediate-level or higher enemies.

The rat beastmen had neither thick armor that could block the flames from the flamethrowers, nor did they have much durability or toughness, partly due to their small stature.

Their only advantage was their irritatingly large numbers.

At least the ratmen at the front were somewhat elite troops.

They were a head taller than other rat beastmen and were relatively well-armed with sturdy equipment, unlike the naked slaves.

These elites, who could fight on par with human warriors and were dimensions apart from the slave rats who barely wore a rag—

───WHOOOOOOSH!!!!

In the end, they were all equal before the holy flames of the flamethrowers.

“””””””””SQUEEEEEEEEEEEK───!!!”””””””””

“””””””””KEEEEEEEEEE──!!”””””””””

“””””””””SAVE MEEEEE───!!!”””””””””

As the rat beastmen’s near-final screams echoed throughout the tunnel, the bodies of the ratmen exposed to the flames for more than a few dozen seconds carbonized and crumbled to black ash.

Their armor, pieced together from rusty and decayed scraps of metal, couldn’t block the flames at all, and the magic of the plague priests was no more effective than glass before the pouring holy flames.

And so, before long, all that remained at the tunnel entrance was the dust of crumbling rat swarms.