Chapter 891 – #194_Typhoon(4)
#885
1.
The guerrilla unit, led by Eloa and Rinne, was putting on a great performance.
They instantly killed two of the named enemies and, in cooperation with other witches, killed the remaining five.
Up to this point, the plan seemed to be going smoothly.
The advance of the legion, which had been moving forward without hesitation, had faltered.
They were optimistic that they would be able to buy enough time and then join up with the main force that was gathering to stop the landing.
“Awoo-ooo!”
The situation changed when a stag, with only whites in its eyes, surveyed the battlefield and let out a long cry.
The homunculi, who had been leaning to the left and preparing for battle with the witches, retreated as if they had heard a retreat bugle.
Filling the empty front line was the enormous homunculus ‘Queen,’ which distorted the sense of perspective.
It was a grotesque sphere kneaded with entrails and flesh.
The surface of the Queen, which boasted a majesty that completely obscured the sky with just a slight movement, began to move in a lumpy manner.
Sprouting densely on the sphere were hundreds of huge lips and mouths.
“Ew! What is that….”
“It’s disgusting….”
A grotesque timbre befitting its grotesque appearance began to chorus in unison.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
The huge chorus, like the sound of a ship’s horn, became a shock wave in itself, creating large ripples on the sea.
It was a huge roar that would cause an ordinary human to vomit blood and die just from being exposed to the sound waves.
“Ugh…!”
“Kyaaaaak!”
Even the witches covered their ears with magic and squinted as they looked at the Queen.
The silence that came because the huge roar had paralyzed their hearing.
“Gueeeeeeek!”
“Gueeeeeeek!”
The moment everyone’s gaze was on the Queen, it stopped screaming, and the Queen’s lips, which had all been closed, opened wide and spewed out countless offspring.
They were chimeras that the Queen had created by disassembling its own body.
A battle method reminiscent of a warship launching torpedoes.
The difference was that what was being launched was not sleek torpedoes, but creatures made of flesh and entrails, crushed and clumped together in a gruesome shape.
“Everyone, be careful!”
Along with Eloa’s warning, the surface of the water surged roughly.
The swarm of chimeras, which had quickly closed the distance like dolphins through underwater diving, rose up all at once.
As the backs of the chimeras that had risen above the water burst open, wings with membranes sprouted.
The witches were terrified by the hideous appearance that reminded them of God’s failed creations.
“Where do you think you’re touching!”
“Witch Beam!!!”
However, since each chimera was not that strong, it was possible to respond without difficulty.
One chimera was directly hit by a spark that a witch had released and evaporated into the sea water without leaving any ashes,
Another was pierced by the lightning that a witch had swung, and fell into the sea like a swarm of insects hit by a spray.
The witches, who had been flustered by the apocalyptic monstrosity, soon regained their confidence and were slaughtering the chimeras to their hearts’ content.
“…….”
However, Eloa’s tightly closed lips did not soften easily.
The witches were killing dozens of chimeras per second, but there were still many of them.
There were hundreds visible to the naked eye.
There would be even more that were still submerged below the surface or had positioned themselves behind to encircle them.
Moreover, the Queen was still opening its mouth and throwing its offspring into the sea.
“How annoying! Just leave it to me! I’ll take care of them all at once!”
One of the witches who controlled lightning waved her wand as if she was annoyed.
“Thunder, come forth!!”
Currents flashed between the cumulonimbus clouds that thickly covered the sky.
The dark surface of the water, which had been struck by the zigzagging lightning bolts, flashed brightly for a moment.
-Kwajijijijik!
The seawater, which was rich in ions, was an excellent conductor.
Below the surface of the sea, which was flashing repeatedly like a lightning-filled cumulonimbus cloud, the shadows of the chimeras being roasted whole could be glimpsed.
“Hehe, how is it, Duke Tiferet? Not bad, right?”
The thousands of chimeras in the nearby waters, which had been crisped on the outside and inside, floated to the surface for a moment.
Then, that many more gathered from under the water.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
“Let my guard down?… If I do it a few more times, they’ll be eradicated, right? Thunder, come forth!”
The witch, who had proudly shown off her prowess to Tiferet, sent a strong current into the sea again this time.
The process was the same, but this time the result was different.
“Kkieeeek!”
“Kuwegegek!”
Unlike before, about half of the chimeras survived this time.
The ones that were partially burned or half-cooked opened their more hideous mouths and bared their bars-like teeth.
“Wh, what…!”
-Kwaaang!
Eloa’s backhand turned the chimera that had attacked the witch who was wielding lightning into a pulp.
“These guys are adapting to magic. The same trick doesn’t work more than a few times.”
“Th, that’s….”
This was the horror of the Queen.
Chimeras have an amazing ability to adapt to the battlefield and magic, and gradually become immune to the same type of magic.
The chimeras, which quickly adapt to the surrounding environment and magic, in addition to the sheer numbers that force them to consume their stamina, trap their prey in a deep swamp of exhaustion.
Even if they managed to reach the main body after fighting numerous chimeras, things would not be easy.
The Queen’s main body, which had poured all its stats into defense, excluding combat power, due to its enormous size, could not be destroyed even with large-scale magic.
It was truly a homunculus that deserved to be called a moving fortress.
“Kyaaaaak!”
A witch was finally injured by a chimera.
She was quickly rescued by the standby rescue team, but one of her legs was completely torn off by the strong grip.
Eloa clenched her teeth and looked at the legion.
Instead of playing along with the stalling tactic, they had thrown a single Queen at them and started marching again.
At this rate, the meaning of the interception was fading.
Like the enemy knight who had seen through Eloa’s weakness of being weak in one-to-many battles and used a tricky rotating tactic, they were moving with a clear intention and logic.
“Rinne, can you kill the main body?”
Rinne was more specialized in fighting great witches than Eloa.
It was unknown how effective her slash would be against the Queen, which was more like a ‘terrain’ than a living creature.
The answer that came back was as expected.
“…I can’t say for sure. What about you?”
“I can do it. But I’ll have to use most of my magic.”
On the other hand, Eloa had also hunted homunculi.
She had a record of bisecting a super-giant homunculus that was larger and had a thicker defense than the Queen.
The problem was, of course, the cost.
Even if she could reliably neutralize the Queen, it would be a bad move for Eloa, the core of the response headquarters, to be taken out of the battle.
The problem was not only her magic power, but also that all of her ‘contracts’ would be used up.
“Then I’ll take care of this place.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Rinne’s departure was inevitable.
Eloa intended to lead the remaining witches and hold back the legion that had started marching again, but.
-Kaaaaaaak!!!
An element that made the already tricky situation even trickier appeared.
A huge dragon, covered in ash-gray scales, appeared from the dark clouds, spiraling with heavy wing flaps.
It was another named enemy, the ‘Ironclad Dragon,’ which had a strong durability as it looked and used petrification breath.
That wasn’t all.
-Chwaaaaaak!
A large cutlassfish, churning the sea and flipping its body, made its presence known by creating a huge spray.
It was the ‘King Cutlassfish,’ which manipulated the flow of water to create ultra-high-pressure water currents or scattered specially alchemized dissolving liquid to melt enemies.
In other words, they were reinforcements from the legion’s side.
“Looks like we hesitated too much.”
“We were underestimated quite a bit.”
It seemed that they had decided to throw in a few more trump cards after seeing the interception unit struggling to deal with the Queen.
And it was a very appropriate response, though it was frustrating.
“Go.”
Again, homunculi must be ‘hunted.’
Using magic, wisdom, and planning as tools, they had to take advantage of the witches’ unique superiority, just like humans in prehistoric times.
No matter how skilled Rinne was, it was reckless and dangerous for her to face all three of them at the same time, and head-on at that.
Nevertheless, Rinne drew her sword and silently glared at the enemy, saying.
“It’s to protect my husband’s hometown.”
As if that was enough reason to risk her life.
“I wish you good luck.”
A swordsman who drew her sword and ran through the sea, cutting through the waves, and three monsters glaring at the swordsman.
“Cut them down.”
The area around Rinne, who had begun to draw out her magic power without fear of consumption, was dyed with magic power.
The black night sky became even blacker, the cold light of her sword shone even whiter, and the world was painted over with her dash.
Unlike the Ironclad Dragon, which had increased its altitude after sensing the danger, and the King Cutlassfish, which had dived deep into the seabed, the Queen did not have that much mobility.
“Gueeeeeeeek!!!”
Instead, it spewed out its offspring even more diligently, building a wall of flesh.
That was why it didn’t realize it.
That among the raindrops that were falling so hard that they stung the skin, there were raindrops that should not have been touched.
The barrier that surrounded the Queen’s main body like an atmosphere.
The three-layered protective magic was so powerful that it could withstand even a nuclear explosion head-on.
However, that barrier began to melt like a thin sheet of metal that had come into contact with an acidic substance.
It was clearly not showing any magical reaction, yet it was quickly being worn away and collapsing.
“…Gueeeek?!”
Bulging eyeballs sprouted on the Queen’s body, which had only mouths to spew out chimeras.
The eyeballs, filled with doubt and fear, rolled around in all directions to find the cause.
What appeared in front of it was a golden witch.
A witch that was smaller than a speck of dust compared to the Queen’s size.
Probably the main culprit behind this phenomenon.
Nevertheless, the Queen felt a sense of crisis that it could sense even with its low intelligence typical of large species.
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
“Aaaaaaaah!!!”
Following their mother’s cry, the chimeras all flew into the air at once.
However, with the barrier surrounding the main body completely worn away and its body full of particles.
There was no way to escape from Amelia Merrygold, the witch of perfume.
“Weep.”
At the same time as Amelia flicked her fingertips, a wave spread out.
The small particles that had been located between the pieces of flesh met the wave and bloomed all at once.
“Aaaa….”
“Aaaa….”
“Aaaa….”
A cluster of unnamed wildflowers bloomed as if exploding, without even giving them time to let out a death cry.
The wildflowers, which grew at a terrifying speed, covering a small island with flowers, absorbed the Queen’s magic power without holding back and destroyed its body from the inside.
The Queen’s body was weathered and crumbled, and the falling flowers scattered and fluttered.
“Wow.”
“It’s pretty….”
“Who is that witch?”
Even the witches who had been thinking of fleeing due to the bleak war situation were mesmerized by the beautiful sight.
What this scene implied was not only the beauty of magic.
“They’re here!”
“Reinforcements!!!”
Reinforcements had arrived from Gehenna.
And they were very powerful reinforcements.
