Chapter 132

Chapter 132

The morning sun rose blindingly bright.

"..."

Standing atop the castle walls, I stared briefly at the radiant eastern sky before reluctantly turning my gaze southward.

There, an orderly formation of monsters assembled into an army.

Exasperated, I clicked my tongue.

"Ghouls, what are they up to"

Truly, one could call it the Vampire Kings personal guard.

Despite being ghouls, they formed ranks like a well-trained army, preparing to attack with precision.

At the center, ten vampires.

Seven common vampires were checking their weapons, while two that seemed like vampire generals were holding the scepter of the Vampire Lord.

And the Vampire Lord himself - Celendion.

He sat calmly atop a carriage as if lounging, looking at our castle walls with a seemingly intrigued gaze.

It was the gaze of someone preparing for a game rather than a life-or-death battle.

Thats when it happened. Through my telescope, my gaze met Celendions.

Startling.

With his eyes gleaming red like the moon, the boyish Vampire King waved a small hand at me. That bastard.

"Youre screwed, you damn bastard"

After spewing out a curse, I pulled the telescope away from my eye and looked back.

Human forces were also assembled there.

Four full parties of hero characters.

My main party, the Shadow Squad, Dion Mercenary Group, and the Old Hunters.

Two reserve parties behind them. Lillys and Margaritas parties.

Cannons and ballistae densely arranged on both sides. Behind them, over 1200 mercenaries.

Three hundred of the Twilight Brigade. Five hundred mercenaries who had been with us since stage one. An additional four hundred mercenaries recruited since.

We are also prepared.

In just a few months, we had slain thousands of monsters and cleared numerous dungeon floors.

Far fresher and younger than you immortals, these are the elite of living humanity, ripened by hundreds of years.

Will you lose, you monster bastards!

Chuk! Chuk! Chuk!

The formation of the ghoul army changed.

The three hundred ghouls, who had been at the rear, moved forward and started to expand their formation.

I turned to the side and shouted loudly.

"Theyre preparing to attack! All forces, prepare for defense!"

The tense soldiers finished preparations on their defensive weapons.

Hero characters also gripped their equipment and swallowed dryly.

"I wont say much."

I shouted briefly.

"Win!"

Ooooooo-!

At the same time as the soldiers shouted in response to my cry,

Thud thud thud thud thud-!

Shaking the ground, the ghouls began to charge.

Three hundred Frost Ghouls.

A staggering 300 of them. Quite burdensome for the first wave.

The sight of these blue frozen corpses maintaining perfect formation as they charged was terrifying in more ways than one.

In a short time, the ghouls that had sprinted across the plains reached the kill zone area, where we had piled wooden fences as obstacles.

A typical monster army would cause a bottleneck there and take a long time to get through.

But these were monsters under the direct command of their general.

While the kill zone created with obstacles might buy us a little time, it couldnt hold them back forever.

Kwa-jik! Kwa-duk!

As expected, the ghouls easily broke down the wooden fence and penetrated inside.

The strategy of forcing a specific route using obstacles wasnt working.

However.

"Fire-!"

The delay was still taking time. In that gap, we could strike.

As soon as they entered our firing range, I gave the order, and the cannons spat out fire simultaneously.

Burburburrr-!

With an ear-splitting noise, the cannonballs were fired.

Fiiiiiing-

Tearing through the air, dozens of cannonballs rained down and soon hit the ground.

Kwagwagwagwaaang!

Erupting in brilliant red flames and black smoke, it caused a grand explosion.

The ghouls engulfed by the explosion were instantly turned into minced meat. However, neither I, nor the soldiers, nor anyone else was celebrating.

Because it had been made clear to everyone.

This type of attack... couldnt kill them.

Gruuu...

Guaaaaa!

The minced ghouls, after a moment, started regenerating their bodies one by one.

Pieces of flesh stuck together, blood scattered in all directions collected and formed a skeleton, then came together again into the shape of a monster.

The grand ancient humans often thwarted the vampires by combining all sorts of novel magic and skills.

Thinking of their magical defensive weaponry and walls made of moonsilver that purified the impure, their blue flames and such, they were indeed impressive weapons of humans.

But this fortress right now?

"Is that it? Cannons and arrows, really?"

If thats all they had, destruction was inevitable.

Thud!

The hand of the foremost ghoul made contact with the fortress wall.

Scrape! Scrape!

They froze their hands to stick to the wall, repeating the process with all their limbs, crawling up the fortress wall.

Dozens of Frost Ghouls began to climb the fortress wall. Celendion clicked his tongue upon seeing this.

Even though these were just first-line scouts, these ghouls were on the verge of capturing the fortress.

"Is that all theyve got..."

The moment Celendion spat those words,

Boom! Boom!

Something was being dropped in mass from the fortress wall.

Alpha frowned, Beta squinted to get a better look, and Celendion narrowed his eyes.

"What is that?"

It was... the corpses of cows and pigs.

They were dropping dozens of livestock corpses from atop the fortress wall out of nowhere.

"Uh..."

Alpha was bewildered by this new spectacle.

"What are they doing now?"

The dense scent of blood emanated from the livestock corpses which had been pre-slit.

All of the ghouls turned their gaze towards the livestock corpses.

Growl...

Grrr!

And then, as if on cue, all the ghouls dashed towards the livestock corpses.

Even those that were climbing the wall.

All three hundred ghouls had their heads stuck to the ground, tearing into the livestock corpses. Alpha smacked his forehead.

"These stupid creatures...!"

Bloodsuckers are always hungry monsters.

Ghouls need meat. Vampires need blood. Without these, they cannot survive.

Even then, the higher-ranking vampires can suppress their instincts, preferring more valuable, thicker, and magic-rich blood.

Ghouls dont have such preferences.

They simply go mad for the flesh and blood in front of them, being cannibals.

"...They sure found our armys weak spot."

Alpha, feeling embarrassed at his subordinates lack of discipline, clicked his tongue.

"But I didnt even think of this... this method..."

"Old wars had more respect, you see. And more importantly,"

Celendion coldly snorted,

"Its not that significant."

They are just corpses of livestock after all. Theyd be eaten by the ghouls and disappear in a matter of tens of seconds.

In fact, dozens of cow and pig corpses had been mostly reduced to bones already.

The ghouls appetite was truly monstrous.

"If their only trick is to buy time, what else can they do...?"

Just then.

Rumble!

Giant cannons atop the fortress wall were aimed below.

Aimed at the flock of ghouls, tightly huddled together, feasting on the livestock meat.

"More cannons... even though it wont work."

At the same time Celendion murmured,

Boom! Boom!

Boom!

The cannons fired in unison, decimating the ghouls gathered together.

The ghouls were obliterated in an instant.

As he had done until now, Celendion tried to resurrect the ghouls by reclaiming their lives.

"...?"

However,

"...theyre not coming back."

They didnt return.

Their lives... evaporated.

"Huh? Whats that..."

Alpha, who had been questioning in bewilderment, was taken aback.

Celendion, he was laughing.

His mouth was curving into a clear grin, as if he was delighted.

"All their cores were destroyed. All three hundred of them."

He didnt exactly know what they had done...

"Yeah, this makes it fun to fight...!"