Ch.4646. So How Long Is This Damn Dolphin Going to Keep Showing Up?

The capital, the first city of the Dolphinmen, in the garden of the Dolphinman Emperor’s palace.

“Pwoo, pwoo, pwoo… pwuh! (Haa, haa, haa… huff!)”

Clang!

“Pibibik, pwu pibi! (You’re too slow, boy!)”

In this magnificently decorated palace backyard, the massive Dolphinman Emperor was in the middle of training his son and heir.

“Kigipibibi! (It’s an emergency!)”

Just then, Turttu, the Emperor’s close aide and messenger, burst into the garden shouting loudly.

*From here on, the text is automatically translated into human language for convenience.

“What is it, Turttu?”

The Emperor paused the training to inquire, and Turttu, catching his breath, replied gravely:

“The Fourth City has been destroyed by unidentified monsters! Only seven confirmed survivors!”

“…What?!”

Upon hearing this, the Emperor initially doubted the truth of the statement… but quickly dismissed his suspicion, remembering it came from Turttu.

And once he accepted the message as truth, the Emperor finally comprehended the horrific situation—the Fourth City had been destroyed.

The Fourth City. A production hub with abundant and diverse seaweed growth, livestock farming, and manufacturing of daily necessities, most of which were sent to the First City, which only consumed but produced nothing.

And now, that Fourth City was destroyed. The very city that supplied the capital with food, livestock, construction seaweed, and even essential items like baskets and tableware.

“Is… is this truly certain?”

“…Without a doubt. We have testimonies from the shamans. And—”

“And?”

Unfortunately for the Emperor, Turttu had more to relay.

“The horde of monsters that destroyed the Fourth City has been confirmed to be approaching the capital. Your Majesty, we need your decision.”

“…Damn it.”

The Emperor voiced his frustration at this cursed situation, but only briefly.

“Gather the warriors immediately! Request reinforcements from the other cities! There’s no time to waste!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

After issuing orders to his subordinate, the Emperor hastily moved to collect his equipment.

He displayed well-founded confidence that his own might as the strongest Dolphinman would surely be needed against monsters capable of annihilating the Fourth City.

* * *

‘Advance!’

Even after sweeping away an entire seaweed city with exhilarating bombardment, the underwater march of my monsters continued.

They obliterated everything in their path and smashed the Dolphinmen’s outposts along the way.

The monster legion’s advance was remarkably swift as they fed on slaughtered Dolphinmen and other monsters, while reinforcements continuously joined from the rear.

As a result, it took merely 4 hours to reach the largest Dolphinman city from that seaweed settlement, and by then, the number of monsters had multiplied several times over.

And upon arriving at the city:

‘…Indeed, monsters aren’t fools when humans aren’t watching. Hmm, as expected.’

What entered my vision, shared through Theo’s eyes, was none other than the Dolphinman army gathered to defend their city.

At the frontline stood approximately 500 pairs of medium-grade cavalry—Dolphinmen wearing full-body armor made of specially treated blue-tinted shells, riding medium-grade sea monsters.

Behind these medium cavalry were about 3,000 light cavalry—consisting of 7th-grade Dolphinmen—mounted on giant seahorses, armed with short swords and harpoons.

Behind the cavalry were hundreds of thousands of Dolphinman infantry, swarming in formation.

The Dolphinmen at the front were reasonably well-armed and maintained strict military discipline, but toward the rear, both weapon quality and discipline deteriorated—they were literally just conscripts.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t spot any enemy psychic users or high-grade monsters to intercept… but that didn’t matter for now.

‘Target.’

Following my instructions, the Hive Tunas and Hive Piranhas formed a battle line and began gathering energy in their horns.

The targets were the medium cavalry of intermediate monsters ahead.

Of course, the Dolphinmen noticed what we were planning and began approaching rapidly—but naturally, we who had prepared in advance were faster.

Tudududududududududududududududududududududududu——!!!!!

First, the Hive Piranhas’ energy bullets rained down, depleting the intermediate monsters’ force fields, and then the Hive Tunas’ powerful energy bullets flew toward those thinned barriers and exploded.

Crash!

KABOOOOOOOOM——KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM——!!!!!!!!!!!

“Keu, KEUAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

“AAAH, AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

It didn’t matter whether they were powerful intermediate monsters, skilled intermediate Dolphinmen, trained Dolphinman soldiers, or conscripted Dolphinmen.

They were all equally helpless before our overwhelming firepower, and the Dolphinmen, whose ranged attack capabilities were limited to throwing harpoons, were one-sidedly decimated without meaningful resistance.

And such a shocking scene inevitably had the effect of crushing enemy morale.

“Pipikuru!”

“Keutpipi!”

“Pipibaki!”

Strange Dolphinman language that I couldn’t understand echoed from all directions, and then the Dolphinmen at the rear of the formation lost their minds and began frantically fleeing in all directions.

Even with the monster gene’s innate effect of making monsters less susceptible to fear and death, it seemed to have little impact on the exceptionally intelligent but untrained Dolphinman conscripts.

Anyway, just as confusion swept through the enemy Dolphinman formation, suddenly the ranks parted and a group of Dolphinmen in elaborate clothing appeared.

These presumed psychic users pointed primitive psychic energy amplifiers—staffs or wands—at the monsters and attempted to unleash psychic attacks.

‘Theo, attack.’

[Affirmative.]

Woong—KABOOOOOOOOM!!!!

But one step ahead, I noticed this and directed Theo, who activated the Combination Blasters hovering nearby and unleashed firepower toward them.

Thanks to the embedded A-rank core, the Combination Blaster could independently produce firepower equivalent to a high-grade monster, and thus its destructive power was beyond imagination.

Naturally, these primitive psychic users, at best 4th-grade level, couldn’t possibly withstand it.

The psychic barrier deployed by hundreds of combined efforts was easily destroyed, and the Dolphinmen maintaining it inside were reduced to chunks of meat.

《BUOOOOOOOOOOO———!!!》

And at that exact moment, as a majestic sound reverberated, a gigantic monster suddenly appeared from the direction where I had been suspicious of the unusually thin deployment.

A massive gray-skinned whale covered in glowing purple tattoos—a Giant Psychic Whale.

‘…Isn’t it a bit different?’

I was slightly taken aback by its appearance differing from the monster I’d faced in the game, but it was still within the range I had anticipated.

Having sensed something off from the beginning, I had prepared the troops to be able to fire collectively toward that gap at any moment, so I could respond adequately.

‘Fire! And Theo, stand by!’

Therefore, I ordered the monsters to concentrate firepower on the Giant Psychic Whale instead of the half-collapsed Dolphinmen, while keeping Theo on standby.

[Query. Why?]

Even though it was only a 3rd-grade monster, the lowest of the high-grade monsters, it was still a high-grade monster nonetheless.

So Theo wondered why I had him wait, but the answer to that question appeared right before us.

“Kirikiki!”

“””””””Kikiririri!!!!”””””””

An enormous Dolphinman wearing elaborately decorated black full-body armor—the Dolphinman Emperor—led what appeared to be his royal guard of intermediate Dolphinmen to directly attack the monsters targeting the Giant Psychic Whale.

The Dolphinman Emperor is a rare Ein-type high-grade (3rd-grade) monster in the game, and his royal guard consists of 4th-grade Dolphinmen equipped with solid gear and mounted on tamed 4th-grade monsters.

In this situation where tens of thousands of monsters were concentrating firepower solely on the Giant Psychic Whale (presumed 3rd-grade), it was clear that nothing positive would come from such enemies attacking from the flank.

‘Intercept, Theo.’

[Confirmed. Proceeding with hostile entity elimination.]

And only then, understanding the intent of my command, Theo received my additional order, stated he would execute it, deployed his auxiliary arms—and charged toward the Dolphinman Emperor.