Ch.60Chapter 60. Conquering Bluetan (2)

Chapter 60. Blutan Conquest (2)

Kwak-!

Tuntuni soared toward the next village.

As always, I could leave the cleanup to Kanto and the cavalry.

It might seem like I’m always dumping the dirty work on them, but dealing with cultists is actually their primary job.

One might ask why cavalry are only assigned to hunt cultists when they have horses.

Of course, cavalry can gang up on and capture lower demons if needed.

Even lower demons couldn’t withstand the power of an experienced warrior group.

Still, the reason they only face cultists is because there would inevitably be sacrifices otherwise.

Lower demons aren’t pushovers. They’re fundamentally beings that exceed human reaction speed.

The cavalryman who draws aggro at the front is guaranteed to die.

In the tribal federation where the birth rate is nearly zero, the death of a soldier is devastating.

To minimize casualties, warriors should handle cultists while asymmetric forces (like Lakye) should deal with demons.

Hero units against hero units, regular units against regular units.

Isn’t that the basics of real-time strategy games?

Let’s take a moment to watch our precious regular units fight.

I turned my 360-degree vision backward.

“Finish them with one strike!”

“Off with their heads!”

Our warriors were handling the cultists who were panicking after their demon died.

As expected of medieval tanks, the cavalry.

While cultists have slightly better physical abilities than ordinary people, they’re still just slightly stronger humans.

The physical abilities of barbarian warriors who grew up throwing axes and slashing at each other since childhood aren’t far behind.

Decades of honed killing techniques are a bonus. Add to that the mobility of horses?

“Aaaagh!”

“W-where is our god?!”

“Master…!”

It’s just a free pass. The cultists fell without ever managing to stop the cavalry.

At this rate, they’ll clean up and follow us within three minutes. I can confidently leave it to them.

“Over there. It’s there.”

While this was happening, Tuntuni, flapping his wings in flight, arrived at the direction Lakye pointed to.

This is the second demon house in the second village.

“I’ll go.”

Lakye jumped down. With a crash, the roof shattered.

Another demon will turn to ashes. It must feel like sudden death to them.

At this point, it’s not ninja massacre but Lakye massacre.

The scorpion-like demon inside the house made a kirik- sound as it turned toward Lakye, but the outcome remained unchanged.

Sak!

Lakye’s curved blade cut off its tail and sliced through its head.

The scorpion demon turned to ashes without even making a scream.

Another 3-second kill.

“Just six more times and we’ll reach the city.”

Lakye climbed back onto the roof with a relaxed smile.

The time it takes to climb back up is shorter than the time it took to jump down.

He’s become such a veteran.

“There! That’s right!”

Paya and Tuntuni were hunting demon eyes.

Though they can fly, they’re slow and weak creatures that are helplessly torn apart by Tuntuni’s claws.

“There are quite a lot of them.”

This village has an unusually high number of demon eyes. Was it a strategic stronghold?

– I’ll help for a moment.

Lakye nodded and threw wooden pieces from the roof he had broken.

The demon eyes fell to the ground skewered.

The remaining eyes were taken care of by arrows that came from somewhere.

“Lord Malak and Guardian Lakye have defeated more demons!”

“They’re no match for us! Kill them all and follow Lord Malak!”

It was support from the cavalry who had arrived without notice.

They all seem high-spirited, suggesting they suffered no casualties.

I should help a little just in case.

I raised five zombies and gave them the order to ‘attack anyone not on horseback.’

They should at least serve as meat shields.

– Let’s move to the next village.

“Yes!”

Malak’s special forces killed six more demons without any special twists.

They were all lower demons, and it took less than 3 seconds to kill each one.

We cleared eight villages in less than two hours and entered the city.

– Will you be alright?

I asked Lakye.

Although we had discussed this beforehand, I was still worried.

Even with the personal blessing making him stronger, there are three mid-level demons.

If even one of them is level 7, or even level 6, it would be tough.

“No problem.”

Lakye just nodded confidently.

“I have your support too, Lord Malak. We will be victorious.”

Aren’t you too confident?

My support is just five zombies that get torn apart in a second and some DoT healing.

– I’ll do my best.

I didn’t want to be negative, so I let it go.

If I could just use the Totem of Confusion on the three mid-levels, this would be an easy fight.

But life is never that simple.

– Let’s go.

I steeled myself.

Paya drove Tuntuni to the lord’s mansion, and Lakye jumped down.

The same pattern.

Crash!

He infiltrated the mansion.

– Hmm.

This enemy territory looks suspicious.

All the lights are out, and cobwebs hanging everywhere make it feel like a haunted house.

There’s also some unidentified powder spread around.

Cobwebs… could there be a spider demon?

Kirrrruk-!

It really is a spider demon.

A giant spider with tentacles instead of hair on its legs appeared from the opposite side.

It’s big because it’s mid-level, but it doesn’t look particularly strong.

Where are the other two? Seeing the spider appear first makes this feel like a trap.

Lakye drew his curved blade and perked up his ears. He seems to be looking for the other two.

While they were both searching.

With a swish! sound, a shadow rippled behind Lakye.

“…!”

Lakye quickly turned and dodged, spotting something moving in the darkness.

The rippling shadow began to take form. Some kind of stealth ability?

The shadow turned out to be a giant leopard emitting green light from its eyes.

The spider and leopard slowly moved to pressure Lakye from front and back.

– There’s one more.

“I’m keeping that in mind.”

Lakye moved cautiously, not having confirmed the last one yet.

I used my 360-degree vision to track their movements and activated the Healing Totem.

When this blessing is used, the area where the blessing is cast glows with blue light.

That should help a bit with visibility.

The soft light drives away the darkness around Lakye.

– There’s a demon above.

There was a moth-like demon clinging to the ceiling.

Not just a moth, but a grotesque moth with four giant tentacles protruding from its lower body.

Ah, I’ve seen this in the “World’s Most Disgusting Bugs Ranking.”

It’s something like a Ganges moth.

That unidentified powder must have been spread by this creature.

“What a hideously formed creature.”

Lakye frowned as he slightly moved his eyes to confirm the moth.

Spider, moth, and leopard.

Being mid-level, they should each have at least one special ability.

The leopard has stealth, the moth has powder, and the spider has webs, I guess.

– Are you feeling alright?

The powder floating around is a bit suspicious.

Could it be powder that causes status effects?

“I was a bit concerned at first, but it’s fine now. Thanks to you, Lord Malak.”

Lakye answered while continuing the standoff with them.

It seems there was some harmful effect. My Healing Totem must have neutralized it when activated.

Let’s remove the powder from the list of threats.

Kheung!

The leopard demon, unable to bear the long standoff, charged in.

It’s quite fast. Faster than the rabbit I saw before.

“Hut.”

Lakye barely dodged this time.

The spider seized the opportunity and spewed out cobwebs.

Smoking cobwebs shot toward Lakye.

Cobwebs with smoke? Could they be acidic webs or something?

I didn’t need to warn him about the danger. Lakye avoided them with a tumbling move.

A movement superior to acrobats I’ve seen on TV.

If the moth had attacked at this moment, it would have been threatening, but.

Kirik!

The moth that was pouncing from behind screamed as it was hit by the cobwebs.

It makes a chiiik! sound as the contacted area melts away. So they are acidic webs.

The leopard and spider attempted to attack again, ignoring this.

Several exchanges continued like this.

After continuing the standoff, I understand now.

Despite having different special effects, the three demons failed to create any synergy.

The spider couldn’t even distinguish friend from foe and just spewed webs whenever Lakye stayed in one place.

The leopard, with its stealth ability and excellent burst mobility fitting for an assassin position, was just acting as a main tank trying to catch Lakye’s ankle.

Kirik!

The moth, unable to fully spread its wings and thus restricted in movement, just kept getting hit by cobwebs.

These bastards have never fought together before.

I was tense because there were three of them, but they’re just a disorganized rabble.

Now I understand. Why would there be three mid-levels in such a small area?

They must be demons who can’t even handle one mid-level demon’s worth of work, so they joined forces to occupy Blutan.

They all seem to be around level 5. Maybe even weaker than level 5.

Just when I was feeling relieved that this would be resolved easily.

‘Lord Malak! Lord Malak!’

I heard Muri’s voice from afar.

Is she shouting at Totem 1? What’s happening?

– I’ll move for a moment.

“Yes.”

Thinking Lakye could hold out, I briefly moved to Totem 1, and.

“The tribal federation headquarters is under attack!”

Ah, nothing ever resolves easily.