Chapter 141: Horde Invasion (01)

Our day started pretty normal, except for Mei's attempts at doing everything by herself.

Pairing her with Claire proved to be effective though, as she always had something new for Mei to take care of.

Anna: "The news... they are talking about the fire again."

They had not yet mentioned the disappearance of the AOTG members, but...

Miwen: "I think the news should be at least a step behind the investigators. The fire was pretty obvious, and it became headlines almost instantly, but the lack of information on the AOTG is actually more of a problem than a relief."

There is no way they wouldn't have noticed their disappearance too. If it's not being talked about, the police might've forced the press into keeping it a secret until they gather more information.

Either that, or they already know exactly what went down and see me as dangerous, preparing a trap while preventing the news from publicizing my name, that way, they don't risk me fleeing the country or taking a hostage.

Either way, I've already prepared some basics if we need to flee, and in one dungeon raid I can get enough material to trade in any world I go. I can also use my Gift for the same purpose. As long as I have some mana or a ticket, I should be able to get some money.

More importantly, what we had to do today wasn't going to change because of that.

Inside the Kingdom, the plans were to start the next event.

It was another Invasion type, but this one thankfully only had to do with a monster horde.

The difficulty meter was around the middle for this one, but with Elizabeth here, and the ability to call the Merchant if he was needed, I was confident we could tackle it.

Yet, if possible, I would like to win an event all by ourselves.

Not only because the Merchant always has an annoying price, but also as a matter of pride, since all our victories up until this point were debatable.

The MerchanT wasn't really trying to fight in his Invasion, and the First Daughter also didn't seem interested in a conflict.

We only won against Elizabeth thanks to the Merchant, and even if my system thinks the Snow White Wolves were a success, I couldn't disagree more.

As such, I wanted to try to win this one using the current power of the Kingdom, and not anything else.

And so, once the event started, a lot of noise came from the forested areas.

Monsters started flying high, and soon enough, a few were coming out of the forest.

Their numbers were easily in the hundreds, perhaps even thousands.

Among them, 3 types got my attention the most.

First of all, they had four big meaty pillars that appeared to be monsters themselves as I could look at their status.

Those things were infinitely producing monsters, but their mobility seemed a little weak.

Then, they had three wyverns. I couldn't tell their levels, or anything about their status either, which basically meant they were too strong for my skills to work.

Cassandra: "Oh look, your family came to see you."

Angelica: "They are wyverns, not dragons."

Cassandra: "So cousins don't count for family matters?"

That clearly wasn't the problem, but Cassandra likes teasing Angelica the most.

Elizabeth: "They are level 212... 222... and 219..."

Another perk of having Elizabeth around, I guess.

Their levels were too high for any of us to defeat them, except, of course, our Demon Queen.

The only problem...

Elizabeth: "As for that one... 301."

A giant troll stood tall, towering over any other monster. He looked incredibly bulky and menacing, and yet...

Miwen: "They are not coming..."

While they were moving, it was not to rush in our direction.

Not the type of behavior you'd expect from monsters.

Hell, even standing like that, in such large numbers is a mystery, as monsters are known to attack or kill each other to show dominance and superiority, or to acquire leadership of another group.

Elizabeth: "They are preparing a formation. That monster has a title. He's a [King]."

Miwen: "Hm?"

Cassandra: "It's the same as your world's Superior Monsters, just a different nomenclature from our world. It's just that it works better as after Titled Monsters, you get Named Monsters. But your World has yet to realize this concept."

With a roar, the troll signaled that the battle began, and they finally came rushing in our direction.

It was basically a 3 vs many, but... there was one thing I could do to increase our odds.

They are in my kingdom, and in here, even a being like the First Daughter shall abide by my rules.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that inside this place, I'm basically a God.

As the monsters came rushing in, I started modifying the plains, elevating the terrain to make two hills that tunneled the monsters that were approaching.

With the girls on the walls taking care of the flying ones, this made it possible for each of us to fight against a single, or two opponents at a time as the rest of the monsters went to attack Elizabeth's barrier.

Using this method, we could remain somewhat safe in this battle while diminishing their numbers. The only problem was that we couldn't keep up with the breeders this way, so... I told Anna to cause a landslide when enough monsters were in the tunnel, and we came back to the wall.

With a bunch of them dead at once due to being buried, their lines became that much thinner.

Miwen: "Let's go again."

We moved to a slightly different location, and I started the same process.

Again, the monsters came with no regard for their own safety, only to find themselves killed by the girls and I, until the tunnel was filled enough and I could bury them again.

Mia: "That's good, we can take a bunch of them down like this."

Miwen: "No... we won't win like this."

The breeding pillars weren't going anywhere, and as long as they stood, my kingdom points would end before the monsters of this horde had all died.

Still, we had managed to acquire a temporary advantage, and I wasn't going to let be in vain.

Miwen: "We'll do a charge. Mia, you and I will go together. We need to kill the closest breeder. Anna, I'll do the tunnel again, but inverse this time, hold the small opening as best as you can."

With a swing of her sword, Anna took down a bunch of the monsters right in front of us, and Mia and I could rush to the breeder while killing the easy prey.

Diminishing their numbers right now wasn't the priority though, so we didn't try to pick any fights, using our magic to keep enemies away.

Eventually, Mia went for the kill on the first breeder, and since she seemed to have it covered, I took the opportunity to secure one of the valkyries as well.

???: "Thank you, warrior. My name is Eir, and I-"

Miwen: "Come with me and obey. If everything goes well, I can rescue your friends."

I didn't have time to make friends, any second wasted would increase the chances of us getting completely surrounded.

In this operation, speed was the deciding factor.

As such, I had lent Cassandra to Mia.

Those two couldn't be further apart in personality, but... they make an incredible combo.

Cassandra can correct Mia's mistakes on her end since our wolf girl is not as experienced with weapons as the other girls, and all the while, her status gets boosted, together with her Gift and her beastification, she gets insanely strong for her level.

Thus, she managed to destroy that breeder monster quite rapidly.

Coming back to Anna was the only problem though.

The Valkyrie was faster than me, and so was Mia. I couldn't keep up with their speed, and it was a matter of time before I got surrounded.

Seeing this, Mia threw Cassandra my way, but while I managed to deflect the opponent right in front of me, I was surrounded, and there was no way for me to react in time to a stab in the back coming from a monster equipping a lance.

But then...

A small dagger came out of my shadow, together with a hand, and a full body.

Lana: "Don't misinterpret, it's just because the food was nice."

The cute little cat came in to save my ass.

She had gained a few levels thanks to the massive amount of monsters we were killing, but she still didn't overstretch and simply aimed at the enemy hand, stabbing it and deflecting what would otherwise be a sure hit.

Due to her height, she had to jump out of the shadow and ended up just diving back into it as soon as her job was finished.

With Cassandra in my hands though, I managed to reach Mia and the Valkyrie we rescued, and we went back to the safety of the wall.

This was mostly due to the monsters instinctively avoiding going through the tunnel, even if the shape was different now.

It's obvious that if you use the same strategy every time, anyone, either with reasoning or instinct, will start to be cautious about it.

But that was also part of the plan. I didn't use the battle of the Thermopylae just to thin their lines, but also to condition the enemies.

By creating a "no-go" zone between us, even in small numbers, we could move way better through the battlefield.