Zhuge vs. the King of Darkness

I, Kyle, was currently experiencing something bizarre.

As I led the army and followed Jegal’s forces north, Jegal’s army was slowly retreating?

I called Winston and Kureha to discuss this.

Winston gave his opinion.

“Someone like Jegal would have already grasped our strength. Therefore, it’s unlikely they’re running away out of fear. And retreating like this must have a reason other than wanting to waste supplies.”

Kureha offered her thoughts.

“Two possibilities… either there’s a trap, or there’s another army bypassing through the Bohark Forest.”

I pondered, and it made sense.

“It’s probably not a trap. We were originally aiming to attack Marquis Sains’s castle, and there are no places for the enemies to ambush us around here. It must be a bypass. We’re returning to the garrison. The enemies are short on food, so stalling for time is advantageous for us.”

Kureha spoke again.

“If the enemy goes further south from the Bohark Forest, it’s dangerous… We need to keep them in check.”

I agreed.

“First, send scouts to the Bohark Forest. If there are enemies, I’ll give Winston an army to keep them in check.”

Winston replied.

“Yes!”

—

Jegal’s army was continuously retreating as the Tentacles advanced faster than expected.

A scout’s report came to Jegal, stating that the enemy was returning.

Jegal muttered to himself.

“They noticed the Bohark Forest bypass operation! And they also know we’re short on food.”

Marquis Sains’s army should be passing through the Bohark Forest west of the mining area by now.

Jegal wrote a letter to Marquis Sains.

[The enemy has noticed the Bohark Forest bypass operation and is returning to their garrison.

I, Jegal, will move my army south to keep the enemy forces at the garrison in check.

Marquis Sains-nim, please continue south and attack Minji Barony.

If you happen to encounter the enemy’s army, engage in battle.

Our forces are not weak either.

And since we are short on supplies, retreating would be a significant loss.]

Jegal gave this letter to a messenger, put him on the fastest horse, and sent him to Marquis Sains’s army.

—

The scouts I, Kyle, sent to the Bohark Forest returned.

A considerable number of human soldiers were moving south from the Bohark Forest west of the mining area.

I ordered Winston.

“Winston, I’m entrusting you with 10 Cardinals and 40,000 elite Tentacle soldiers. Go into the Bohark Forest now and keep the enemy forces in check.”

Winston replied.

“Understood!”

“And it’s about time the Slime reinforcements arrive. Keep sending scouts west of the Bohark Forest to make contact with the Slime reinforcements. In urgent situations, I authorize you to take preemptive action and report later, according to your judgment.”

“Yes! My liege.”

Soon, my hidden card, the Slime reinforcements, would arrive.

If I know the enemy but the enemy doesn’t know me, I can win the war.

—

Marquis Sains’s army received Jegal’s messenger and was quickly passing through the Bohark Forest, heading south.

They were almost past the west side of the mining area when a scout reported that there was a massive army of Tentacles ahead.

Marquis Sains sent a messenger to Jegal and then advanced his army.

Inside the Bohark Forest, two massive armies collided.

The human army moving south consisted of Marquis Sains, nobles, 143 knights, and 70,000 soldiers.

The Tentacle army defending below consisted of Winston, 10 Cardinals, and 40,000 elite Tentacle soldiers.

Battles in the forest are different from battles in the plains.

The view is obscured by trees, rocks, and grass, making long-range attacks difficult, resulting in almost entirely close-quarters combat.

Also, the terrain is uneven and jagged, making it difficult to maintain formations, leading to chaotic battles.

Marquis Sains, in preparation for the chaotic battle, created 70 units of a thousand men, each centered around a noble.

A thousand-man unit is a unit commanded by each noble, consisting of 2 knights and 1,000 soldiers, who fight by gathering around a flag bearer holding the noble family’s flag.

If the flag bearer dies, another soldier picks up the flag and becomes the flag bearer, serving as the rallying point for the thousand-man unit.

Marquis Sains’s thousand-man unit was assigned 5 knights and 1,000 soldiers.

As Marquis Sains’s army pushed through the trees, they saw a massive army of Tentacles ahead.

Marquis Sains gave a signal, and with the sound of trumpets, the soldiers gathered into thousand-man units in a rectangular shape of 40 x 25 men.

The thousand-man units simultaneously pushed through the forest grass and advanced towards the Tentacles.

The Tentacles ahead began to scream and charge.

The Tentacles, being wild creatures, could move more freely in the forest than on the plains.

The Tentacles moved quickly by freely extending their Tentacle legs, wrapping them around branches, and pulling themselves along.

The front of the human army was covered with swarms of Tentacles both on the ground and in the trees.

Dudududududududu

“Kieeeeek!”

“Kyaak! Kyaak!”

Each noble and knight encouraged the soldiers of their thousand-man unit.

“We are the proud Gale army! We will not lose to such barbaric monsters! Just do as you have been trained!”

The shield bearers at each corner of the thousand-man unit held up large shields in preparation for the collision.

Behind the shield bearers, the pikemen extended their pikes, creating a hedgehog-like formation to skewer the approaching Tentacles.

Soon, the Tentacle army collided with each thousand-man unit.

Some Tentacles sprayed green acidic liquid from hundreds of Tentacles emerging from their bodies as they fell from the trees, melting the bodies of dozens of soldiers below, armor and all.

“It stings!! Save m…”

A knight archer accurately shot an exploding arrow into the Tentacle’s mouth, causing the Tentacle to explode from the inside, but this caused the acidic liquid to spread even further.

At that moment, the priest of the thousand-man unit used purification magic, turning all the acidic liquid into light and dissipating it.

At the front of the thousand-man unit, Tentacles covered in armor used their massive momentum to body-slam the shield bearers.

Kwaang Kwaaaang Pajijik

Some shield bearers had their shields dented or blown away.

The mages reduced the impact with mana barriers, and the priests cast buffs such as strength enhancement and defense enhancement on the shield bearers to somehow block the attacks.

One Tentacle was about to body-slam again, but a pike accurately entered its eye, causing the Tentacle to scream in pain.

“Kkieeeeek!”

As the Tentacle paused due to the pain in its eye, three mages simultaneously launched fireballs, causing the Tentacle’s body to explode and burst into flames.

As the initial collision ended, the Tentacles surrounded the thousand-man units and engaged in close-quarters combat.

The knights unleashed auras, constantly encouraging the soldiers.

A Tentacle leg wrapped around the hand of a pikeman and lifted him up, causing the pikeman to drop his pike and scream as he was lifted into the sky.

“Uwaaa! Someone save me!”

A knight infused his sword with aura and slashed, cutting off the Tentacle leg, and the pikeman fell.

A mage sent a wind cushion, allowing the pikeman to land safely back in his original position.

The knight saw this and shouted, encouraging the soldiers.

“Our army is stronger than those monsters! Humans can cooperate!”

The soldiers of the thousand-man unit saw their comrade’s life being saved, and their morale increased.

However, the Tentacles, as if to show that they could also cooperate, began to launch other Tentacles into the thousand-man units.

Two Tentacles grabbed each other’s multiple Tentacle legs, creating a cloth-like structure, and another Tentacle sat on top of that cloth.

The two Tentacles swung the cloth widely, and at that moment, another Tentacle pushed the cloth with its Tentacle leg, using that force to fly and fall into the thousand-man unit.

A priest who was using healing magic inside was hit in the head by a blind Tentacle body and collapsed with a concussion.

The Tentacles that fell inside the thousand-man unit thrashed around, swinging their Tentacles in all directions since they were surrounded by enemies.

Screams were heard from all over the thousand-man unit.

“Uwaaaak! A Tentacle fell next to me!”

“Kkyayak! Mages are weak in close combat! Save me!”

The nobles in the center of the thousand-man unit each took out their weapons and attacked the Tentacles.

One noble held a rapier imbued with aura in his right hand and thrust it at a Tentacle with fencing-like speed, causing the Tentacle to fall apart in pieces.

A martial artist noble jumped and then fell, strongly stomping on a Tentacle from above with his iron boots.

Kwaaaang

With a noise, a blue circular wave spread around the noble’s feet, and the air beneath his feet compressed, crushing the Tentacle like an aluminum can.

Marquis Sains surveyed the situation on the battlefield with sharp hawk-like eyes.

Due to the sudden cooperation of the Tentacles, many priests, mages, and archers were regrettably lost, but the nobles and knights fought bravely, and it was still a close battle.

From the north, the sound of something massive approaching the human army began to be heard, dududududu.

These were things that Marquis Sains did not recognize.

Marquis Sains asked the knight next to him.

“What is that sound? Could it be the Giant Ents?”

The knight replied.

“Didn’t we receive a report that the Giant Ents were not moving last time?”

As Marquis Sains looked north, 20 massive golden projectiles were melting and destroying the trees as they fell towards his thousand-man unit.

It was the artillery fired by Lime Sensei in Slime form.

Marquis Sains urgently shouted.

“Priests! Mages! Block the projectiles!”

The priests and mages simultaneously cast defensive magic, and layers of barriers piled up on top of the thousand-man unit.

If the priests and mages only had to block the golden projectiles, they could withstand it, but they couldn’t concentrate because they were busy blocking the attacks of the surrounding Tentacles.

The golden projectiles shattered the magic and crashed into the thousand-man unit.

Kuang Cheolpeodeok Chiiiiik

In various places, soldiers covered by the massive projectiles melted and screamed in agony.

“Marquis-nim, save me!”

“Keueoeoeo. I can’t feel anything anymore…”

Marquis Sains survived by having the Marquis and the surrounding knights unleash auras to disintegrate the approaching projectiles in mid-air.

However, the surrounding thousand-man unit had already melted into red water, and the red blood cells were soon decomposed into yellow water.

Marquis Sains, seeing his thousand-man unit collapse, led the remaining soldiers through the swarm of Tentacles towards another thousand-man unit and merged with them.

The army of Slimes rushing from the north was almost close to the human army.

The commander of the Slime reinforcements was the Poison Slime Adeben.

Adeben volunteered to be the commander this time to see the world.

Adeben shouted.

“For our friend Kyle, let’s wipe out all the humans!”

The Slimes shouted.

“Our hero Kyle! Our friend Kyle!”

“Slimes help friends in need!”

Adeben took the lead at the front, and as he charged straight into a human aiming a spear at him, the human exploded with a kwaaang sound.

In various places, Slimes body-slammed into humans, and the sounds of kwang kwaaang echoed.

A knight wielding a sword covered in aura charged at Adeben.

As the knight swung the aura sword down from above, Adeben dodged slightly to the side and fired green poison liquid.

The knight raised his sword diagonally upwards from below to deflect the poison liquid, but a drop splashed on his face.

The area of the face where the poison liquid splashed turned black with a chijijijik sound.

The knight groaned in pain.

“Uwaaaa! Cough. Cough. I can’t feel my face!”

The knight spun his sword once from above and slammed it into the ground, causing five streams of aura to split the ground and shoot towards Adeben.

Jiiiiiiing

Another Iron Slime blocked Adeben, surrounding its body with mana and colliding with the aura.

Kuaaaang

In the moment that the Iron Slime blocked the aura, Adeben jumped and covered the knight’s head, causing the knight’s face to turn black and die.

The human army was blocked by Tentacles to the south and Slimes to the north, sandwiched like a sandwich.

To make matters worse, the Tentacle heroes who had been watching the battle from below joined the battle, leading the Tentacle guards.

Each time Winston, who had become a monster, swung his aura-covered claws, soldiers were split apart, armor and all.

Lime Sensei’s massive golden projectiles fell on another thousand-man unit, melting the soldiers of the thousand-man unit.

The human army could no longer withstand it.

Marquis Sains gave the order to retreat.

“Retreat! Retreat! All troops retreat into the Bohark Forest on their own!”

The east side of the human army was blocked by the mountains of the mining area, and the south was blocked by Tentacles, and the north was blocked by Slimes.

The humans had no choice but to go deeper into the Bohark Forest to the west.

The surviving knights and nobles gathered around Marquis Sains.

Marquis Sains’s group struggled to break through the swarms of Tentacles and Slimes and entered the forest.

The Marquis had already given up on all the other soldiers.

As Winston rushed towards the Marquis, a noble blocked him but was torn into 6 pieces by Winston’s claws.

The Marquis screamed in terror.

“It’s a monster! It’s a monster!”

He thought it would be bearable until the Slimes came, but now everything looked like a monster from a nightmare.

After more sacrifices, Marquis Sains managed to escape into the forest with a few nobles.

Marquis Sains’s army was almost completely annihilated here.

The Bohark Forest is a wild area that does not allow humans to enter.

It is dangerous even for exploration teams that come fully prepared, and those who have entered the Bohark Forest will probably never come out.