Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: Encirclement Annihilation
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A dark passageway, a space that should normally be filled only with silence.
It was teeming with life. The breaths of dozens, hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of Olms heated the air.
Naturally, they couldn't all use the same passageway at once. Unless it was the widest central one, it couldn't accommodate such numbers.
Even so, though they scattered into multiple branches, they communicated with each other and skillfully converged on their destination.
The Olms' target was a human settlement.
"Are the humans idiots?"
One hero Olm voiced his disbelief.
They were currently raiding another human settlement, but the way it had been exposed was utterly ridiculous.
Amusingly, these humans seemed to have imprisoned a few of their kin. Utterly oblivious that it was tightening the noose around their own necks.
"Humans are so scattered that information doesn't always pass between them. Looks like these ones don't even know we can locate our kin."
The hero Olms burst into laughter at their comrade's words.
They brimmed with superiority. Ever since properly assembling, they hadn't faced any organized human resistance.
In truth, only a tiny fraction of those attacked by Arsen's group had survived, and most Olms hadn't even seen Arsen themselves—they'd only heard the tales and cowered in fear.
Thus, they now overcompensated, acting even braver to make up for their past retreat.
"Looks like a few dozen inside. Let's wipe them out."
Under Myushu's orders, since they couldn't capture slaves, some Olms had grown obsessed with sadistically killing humans.
It started from a psychopathic notion: if you're going to kill them anyway, at least make it fun.
Amusingly, it had gone too far, to the point of hindering combat, but even Myushu didn't rein it in.
He felt the young heroes, frustrated at failing to take slaves, needed an outlet to vent.
Of course, as Olms, rebellion against the king was unthinkable, but defying superiors was feasible—so they needed to maintain morale to some degree.
"How should we kill these humans?"
"Pulling their legs apart and ripping them feels special."
"I like yanking out the spine."
Chattering away, they waited for the door to open.
It didn't take long for their anticipation to be rewarded. A few specialists in such matters used some items to trigger an explosion, collapsing the secret door guarding the settlement entrance.
From the center of the ranks, Myushu gave the signal.
-Charge in! Prioritize rescuing our captured kin!-
-Got it!-
-Following!-
-Myushu!-
Many hero Olms resented Myushu's high-handed command, but as a hero of reversal who'd fully displayed his prowess, he had overwhelming support from the regular soldiers.
The chorus of responses to the commander's signal proved it.
'Tch.'
Sighing inwardly at the fact, hero Olm Luto dashed through the broken door into the settlement.
He vowed to himself: if he couldn't enslave humans, he'd at least kill them enjoyably.
Ripping off limbs and making them crawl like worms, gathering a few and slicing them at once with a sword, using severed heads as balls—such games were quite fun.
'Damn, too many competitors.'
He and the other hero Olms, along with rank-and-file soldiers, all raced madly. Everyone knew arriving late meant cleaning up after others.
They had to hurry even a little to claim any merit.
Then, someone running beside him shouted.
"Humans!"
"Our kin—they're here!"
Their kin bound to a massive pillar. And dozens of humans surrounding it.
Luto felt his comrades' footsteps quicken. Half probably aimed to free their kin, the other half to slay humans and earn merit.
As he debated sprinting faster, something odd caught Luto's eye.
'What the hell?'
An indescribable, eerie dissonance emanated from the humans' forms.
They barely moved, unnaturally for humans, showing no agitation even as Olms surged like a tidal wave.
It felt like they weren't real humans at all—unlike the bound kin right beside them.
And there was something else strange.
Between nearby buildings, shrouded objects covered in gray cloth matching the walls. Several of them.
Luto halted his charge toward the humans and immediately flipped over the nearest cloth.
"This is..."
Round, dark red stones.
Luto knew what they were. Common in the rear sectors, used mainly as firewood.
They burned long, but burning too much at once could cause explosions, so caution was needed. He remembered that much. But why were they here?
The thought of a trap flashed just as a booming voice echoed from somewhere.
"Attack—!"
The voice belonged to a human.
* * *
As expected, the Olms stormed into the heart of the settlement without much caution.
Their string of victories had likely bred arrogance, blinding them. As intelligent beings, had Arsen's group met them evenly from the start, they wouldn't have fallen for such a simple ruse.
But since the humans feigned weakness, the Olms treated this like hunting wild animals once more. That was their fatal mistake.
The humans lay encircling the settlement in a ring, covered by camouflage cloths.
A crude method against keen-eared Olms under normal circumstances, but it worked now.
With their numbers exceeding hundreds—nearing a thousand—the breaths, footsteps, and chatter of their own kin nearby drowned out any hint of the huddled humans.
Foolishly, they all charged at the bound Olms in the center and the surrounding humans.
"Attack—!"
At Arsen's command, the mages simultaneously cast their spells. The fire-summoning incantations they'd practically sealed away since entering these underground passages.
Squeezing out every drop of mana made the spells potent, but with limited range, they couldn't reach the settlement's center hundreds of meters away.
Eloise solved that.
"Huu...."
The staff she held—the one from the Dark Forest Guardian—unleashed its power.
Using her immense mana, Eloise wove and controlled the flames from dozens of mages into one.
Possible only because the casters allowed it, the spectacle was staggeringly grand.
"Good lord."
Floating over the cavern, manipulating a hundred-meter blaze like a fire god, she drew awed gasps from all watching humans.
Eloise herself sweated under the strain of controlling it, but few knew.
With Olms already sensing something amiss and fleeing, she spread the flames wide in the air before releasing the spell.
Meaning the inferno hovering over the settlement's central zone plummeted uncontrolled.
The flames engulfed hundreds of Olms, igniting the pre-placed combustibles in the center.
For a moment, a deafening roar and explosion shook the entire settlement—thunder right in front of their faces.
"Kuoooaaah—!"
"My eyes, my eyes!"
"Run—!"
Was there a scene more fitting for pandemonium? The thousand-strong Olm horde panicked amid fire and blasts.
Their sensitive ears were shattered by the explosion's boom without exception, and the scattered igniters blocked escape routes in an instant.
"Uwaaa...."
Terrified at their silently burning kin, the Olms scattered in all directions, forgetting even the exits.
Awaiting them: a hail of arrows—specifically, massive bolts from the fixed arrow launchers they favored.
"Fire! Kill them all—!"
The launchers salvaged from prior raids were wrecked, but humans enslaved by Olms had built them originally.
With help from undergrounders skilled in mechanics, restoration was feasible.
Mages even assisted with metalworking despite the hassle, speeding repairs.
Seven launchers ringed the settlement's outskirts, aimed inward.
"Turn, turn, turn!"
"Load arrows faster, you bastard!"
"It's heavy as hell! You do it!"
Olms normally used two to load arrows and one to crank, but human strength fell woefully short—so it took more than double the crew.
But the launchers were worth it. Six humans operating one outdid crossbows or spears by far.
"Uwoooaaah!"
The arrow rain shredded Olms mercilessly. Spear-sized bolts could kill even knights if undefended, with gatling-like fire rate.
Even heroes weren't exempt. Deafened and burned by the blast, they couldn't calmly assess and react.
Monsters that could trivially slay knights one-on-one crumpled before machines manned by ordinary humans—a tragic comedy.
Watching from above, Arsen asked Rino beside him.
"No sign of that Myushu guy. See anything?"
"No standout ones.... Maybe he died in the blast?"
"Doubt it. Heroes seem to carry relics galore—probably enough to survive magic."
Best if not, but assuming worst was safer.
Arsen's hunch proved right.
Rino pointed ahead, shouting.
"There—him!"
An Olm emerged through the flames.
Sooty but clad in flashy garb, adorned with garish jewels like a parvenu.
So blatantly a commander it almost seemed a trap—no need to ask.
"Shoot him! That's the leader!"
Spotting it, gunners swung launchers toward the commander. Fierce bolts flew.
Shockingly, the airborne bolts lost momentum before reaching Commander Myushu and plummeted.
"How...."
A gunner starting to ask how he'd blocked it had his head severed.
The last he saw: Myushu pointing right at him.
"It's attacking!"
"Down!"
Myushu watched heads roll from the gunners and allies targeting him, the launchers' strings snap—then snatched a flying object midair.
What he caught: a disc the size of an Olm palm—human head-sized.
This was the weapon that slew foes over a hundred meters away: a treasure from the king, envied by young hero Olms.
Named Wingblade.
It flew freely at its master's will, slicing enemies—Myushu's favored armament.
"Come out, all of you! Follow me!"
Shouting, Myushu hurled the Wingblade again.
The razor-edged disc spun, butchering gunners at the launchers.
Though sound was lost, the sight rallied panicking Olms toward him.
Sighing at his kin, Myushu cursed inwardly.
'Damn it all.'
Survivors numbered barely forty. Pathetic, considering over a thousand had gathered.
At least most were heroes. Feeble regular soldiers had perished.
"Gather! Gather and break through!"
But Myushu realized his subordinates couldn't hear.
Unlike him, shielded by the king's magic relic, their eardrums were ruptured by the boom.
"Shit."
Grinding his teeth at the breakdown in command, a chill ran down his spine—he turned.
A massive beast with black, lush mane—not truly alive, but imposingly lifelike mount.
A knight in dark blue armor atop it approached.
A spear in hand, its tip's cylinder whirred with a terrifying roar.
That let Myushu identify the foe.
"Roaring Monster!"
The threat that menaced them, the target the king ordered captured.
Realizing this, flight vanished from his options. Even losing all kin here, capturing it meant victory.
Drawing his sword, Myushu charged at Arsen.