Chapter 74 – Veneral Weapons
A large red dot is heading towards Prasion.
As I watched the movement through the map, a question suddenly crossed my mind.
“…Commander. Have bugs ever penetrated the city in the past?”
Bugs do not have specially developed observational abilities. So, if some of the bugs had never seen the ‘city’ in person, they couldn’t tell where it was.
In the first place, whenever they entered Area 39, they could not properly grasp the location of the unit and were constantly being annihilated.
─No. So far, not once has the city been pierced by bugs.
“But how do the bugs know the location of the city so accurately?”
─That’s…
Rien couldn’t answer and blurted out her words. Apparently, she couldn’t understand the situation either.
For now, Netoru decided to give up thinking about the answer.
Anyway, the important thing now is not how the death worm knows exactly where the city is. There must have been some way.
In the first place, the movements of the pursuit-type centipedes were also the same, and they were already showing abnormal changes somewhere.
Even in the midst of this, Lien conveyed the information she had obtained through her observations in a calm voice.
─···A new underground passage has just been confirmed. Apparently, the Death Worms have dug new burrows and sneaked into the rear.
“Are there any other bugs? I don’t think the Death Worm will move alone.”
─There is. But that number…
Across the audio channel, she heard Rien swallow her moans. Netoru quietly waited for her words.
Soon after, not only death worms but also icons of other bugs began to appear on the map one by one.
─···To date, a total of 137 have been observed. Even now, it continues to be added through the underground passage. But most of them are spiders. Maybe the bugs appearing here and there are the main forces.
What is the main force?
At Rien’s report, Netoru twisted her lips. It was because the situation was absurd. The existence of a bunch of bugs he hadn’t known about so far puzzled Netoru.
So, what is the bunch of bugs that we’re excitedly smashing right now? Could it be bait?
She thought the ratio of locusts and centipedes was too high, she said. Thanks to her, the fight was half over the moment she blew up the spider that was building the artillery emplacement.
‘Could it be that he tricked us?’
Maybe it was all a trick to have defensive formations around them like they were building a nest.
It’s just a bug, so I’m subconsciously thinking that ‘it can’t be’.
Her head was hardened because she was too accustomed to fighting with guys who had no strategy or tactics. Even Netoru.
It was like getting used to the enemy.
She came to understand her enemies so well that before she knew it, she thought of herself as they did.
As if waiting for tactical magic bullets to be used in the first place, it is too blatant that bugs poured out from underground.
“… Tsk.”
Anything is good. The first priority is to address the current situation. Netoru checked the map. Of course, the distance is far. It was not an easy distance to catch up with.
All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind at that moment, but my thoughts were short-lived. The moment Netoru made up his mind, he spoke to the 1st platoon leader, Chandler, who was nearby via voice channel.
“Chandler. Take care of our platoon kids and follow me. I’ll go first and block them.”
─What? What is that all of a sudden…
Before Netoru could hear all of that, he kicked the ground while increasing the power of the holy cavalry.
Then, Lien’s voice was heard.
-Are you okay? The number of enemies is too many. No matter how much, wasting time alone…
“I can’t just sit back and watch. If you match the speed with the other troops, you will be late. So someone has to go ahead and take the time.”
─·······.
Rien was silent as if she couldn’t bear to deny it.
Although it is now said to have lost its former glory, Prasion is still a large city with tens of thousands of people living there.
It is obvious what will happen if the death worm reaches the city. If not, thousands of people could die. Even if he was a defense force, he was all a soldier for maintaining peace. It was impossible to fight the bugs without the holy cavalry.
So, Netoru pulled the control rod and called Ceres’ name.
“Ceres.”
“… I’m fine, so turn up the output.”
It seemed that Ceres had already made up his mind. Netoru, who tightly gripped her control rod, extended her magic pass without hesitation, and pushed her magic power roughly.
And at that moment, the ground that Ceres’ holy cavalry was stepping on could not stand the force and was crushed, and the air around them shook as they moved forward.
2.
I wish I had continued digging like this and went all the way to the city.
Moving through the basement was limited.
Moving while digging a hole with an excavator built into the body takes a lot of energy, so it requires a long break,
When the resulting by-products accumulated in the body to a certain extent, it was necessary to go up to the ground and vomit them out.
But when you get to the surface, the story is different.
You don’t have to excavate hard rocks that block your way, just move your body. Therefore, it consumes less stamina and moves faster.
In that respect, to Death Worm, the ground was an open and free space for movement.
───Whoa!
The Death Worm crossed the ground without hesitation according to the data it received. Every time the gigantic body length of more than 100m wriggled, messy dust was raised, and the surrounding trees and bushes were being torn out.
The movement was close to a natural disaster. Pushing through a forest alone, the monster furiously moved forward.
The current order given to the Death Worm was simple.
Reach the ‘goal point’ as quickly as possible.
I don’t know why. I just follow orders because they are given. So, without questioning anything, the Death Worm dutifully followed orders.
And while watching such a death worm, the monster thought.
Humans responded faster than expected.
Thanks to this, the troops did not gather properly.
Originally, it was intended to capture the city with a force larger than this.
‘…Did I underestimate it too much?’
As a result of observing so far, District 39 was a place where there were many particularly poor aspects than other places. That’s why the monster thought it would be able to procrastinate quite a bit if it was moderately frightened.
But their decision was quicker than expected. I thought I could drag it out for about a week no matter how hard I tried, but that prediction was completely wrong.
At least, they tried to induce the attack of the tactical magic bullets by baiting things with the end of their ‘life’, but in this way, the original plan was bound to be disrupted.
… But it doesn’t matter.
Anyway, the enemies were consuming their stamina while dealing with the bait, and it was impossible to catch up with them in that state.
Even now, the bugs left behind were thoroughly fighting for time.
So, if the city is captured like this, the enemies will be unable to do anything. No, I was thinking of making it impossible.
Unlike bugs, humans have many behavioral restrictions. Since they were easily shaken by the death of their own kind, the monster intended to take advantage of such human habits.
If tens of thousands of humans in the city were held hostage, the humans would be unable to do anything.
But that was then.
The monster could feel the advancing army of bugs slowing down for a moment.
It wasn’t hard for the monster to know why.
──Find an aptitude object
Information is passed directly through the connected network.
And as soon as they found an enemy object, the moving spiders immediately prepared a combat posture, turned their muzzles at the enemy hesitatingly, and began to fire.
──Quaaaaang!
Gunfire rang out in succession, and shells rained down on the ground.
The mound of earth soared wildly, and with the explosion, black smoke containing hot heat rose dizzyingly.
It was a simultaneous volley of fire. There are too many focused shells to be considered dodging.
But,
Even after receiving such fierce fire, the holy cavalry, which appeared while clearing black smoke, did not stop running.
Other bugs belatedly spew fire from their muzzles at approaching enemy entities, but it was impossible to stop the holy cavalry’s charge.
An invisible, intangible force guards the holy cavalry. Countless number of bullets were distorted from the tip before even reaching the body.
The monster was well aware by now that it was an incomprehensible force called magical power. A mysterious power that allowed humans to fight against the bugs.
Eventually, the fierce rush of the knight,
───Poohwook!
A large sword blade pierced his body as a death worm, and it finally stopped by applying a tremendous impact.
It was only about 2km away from the city where the revolution started—Prasion.
3.
At that time, Prasion was locked in silence.
The dark sky was slowly turning blue and cold, but it was still too early for the citizens to wake up.
Still, a few diligent citizens are getting up to prepare for their daily routine,
But then.
──Quaaaaang!
“…!”
I heard gunfire. The moment he realized that, Natsuo immediately got up from the bed.
The hazy consciousness was awakened in an instant. I thought it was a dream for a moment because it was the sound I heard so much on the battlefield, but it was absolutely not.
“What, what? This sound just now…”
“You didn’t hear me wrong, did you?”
“Bug? Did the bug come all the way here?”
The unit members who were using the same hospital room also hurriedly got up and became noisy. None of the people here said that they had just heard something wrong.
“… Shelling from around here?”
Aren’t they wrong too? Natsuo felt cold sweat running down his back.
And the next moment.
Belatedly, the bell announcing an emergency situation began to ring loudly throughout the city.
Early morning,
The sleeping city awoke just like that.
