Chapter 128: No Questions Asked
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 128: No Questions Asked
“My companion. You haven’t forgotten the plan, I trust.”
The Snake Queen spoke to me.
A battle.
Especially a large-scale battle like this, is filled with countless variables.
It’s almost impossible for things to proceed exactly as planned.
But even so, we must stick to the main plan.
If we can’t, we’ll be nothing more than a disorganized rabble with superior numbers.
“Gekgek.”
Our forces are superior.
The armies of the Snake Queen and Argentavis.
On top of that, the beasts that had remained neutral have now joined our side.
If we push them back using our numerical advantage, we should be able to win easily.
Assuming, of course, the enemy plays along.
They aren’t fools; they must have prepared a way to make up for their lack of numbers.
The King of Birds has the ability to brainwash, so it’s possible some of our allies could be turned against us.
Of course, the plan was to pressure him the moment he appeared so he wouldn’t even have a chance to use his brainwashing, but it never hurts to be careful.
We have the advantage in numbers, but that alone doesn’t guarantee victory.
This fight would be a battle of the leaders.
In other words, it was highly likely to be decided by the fight between the spirit beasts.
The King of Birds, Bifang, and the Rakshasa Bird.
Versus the Snake Queen, Argentavis, and Gomodo-Lania.
The enemy might have some hidden forces, but this was their known strength.
I couldn’t imagine any hastily recruited reinforcements being stronger than those spirit beasts.
A 3-on-3 showdown.
The side that wins this fight wins the war.
We could each take one opponent and win our individual fights.
…That would be ideal, but if even one of us loses, the entire plan will fall apart.
A single defeat could very well lead to everyone’s defeat.
The best strategy is the Gomodo secret technique: ganging up on them and taking down the enemy leaders one by one.
Of course, they wouldn’t just stand there and let that happen.
So, what should we do?
Take one down as quickly as possible, then join the others.
In cruder terms, we’d jump them.
“I will take on the King of Birds, but he will not fall easily. In the first place, if I could defeat him on my own, this war would have ended in an instant.”
The King of Birds is a formidable opponent.
I don’t think the Snake Queen will lose, but Gaechalgoatal is her equal. Therefore, the idea of her finishing him off first and then helping the rest is not a viable option.
When she faces the King of Birds, the Snake Queen plans to conserve her strength.
She’ll probe his defenses and hold out until an ally who has defeated their own opponent arrives to help her annihilate the King of Birds. That is the gist of this operation.
“Bifang will also be a tough opponent. The former King of Birds will face him, but if Bifang decides to focus on evasion, he won’t be easy to take down. His attacks have such a wide range that our side would also suffer great damage.”
Apparently, Bifang is the second-in-command.
Indeed, when I looked at him with my wild eyes, his level was higher than the Rakshasa Bird or the Jian Bird.
Frankly, his appearance alone screamed, “I am the strongest.”
“The Rakshasa Bird is different. I cut off its wing, so it won’t be able to evade even if it wants to. This means that as soon as we find it, we can settle the score immediately.”
One of the Rakshasa Bird’s wings is definitely severed.
Therefore, it’s the one we can deal with first.
If Argentavis or the Snake Queen were to face the Rakshasa Bird directly, it would probably be over very quickly.
But that would mean I’d have to face Bifang or the King of Birds.
It’s not that I couldn’t hold my own, but they are birds that fly in the sky.
As a lizard that crawls on the ground, they could simply ignore me and fly to support the Rakshasa Bird faster than I could. That’s why I had no choice but to take on the Rakshasa Bird myself.
“A heavy burden rests on your shoulders.”
“Gekgek.”
It’s fine.
I’m the lizard who took down the Jian Bird Duo. How could I not win against a single bird with an injured wing?
Besides, it didn’t seem like a combat-specialized type anyway.
“There’s a chance the plan could go awry, but it’s better than having no plan at all. Even if we don’t join up, as long as we each defeat our assigned enemy, we will naturally win the war.”
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
The earth trembled.
The sight of countless troops heading towards Gaechalgoatal’s nest was truly a spectacle to behold.
The jungle was a place densely packed with giant trees.
Moving so many troops at once would present many difficulties.
But the one leading the charge was none other than the Snake Queen.
The trees collapsed powerlessly the moment she touched them.
Craaaash!
She blazed a trail, and the beasts followed the Basilisk.
“Caw! It’s the Snake Queen!”
“War, it must be war! Kaaaw!”
Parrots flew about, making a fuss.
We were advancing so boisterously that any beasts not involved in this conflict had long since fled.
Despite that, a great number of beasts stood in our way.
They were Gaechalgoatal’s forces.
There were flightless birds like the Terror Birds, and even a few creatures on par with the Megatherium I had faced in the Little Dragon’s territory.
I knew their strength better than anyone.
Under normal circumstances, it would take time to break through them.
They specialized in stalling for time with their immense stamina and tough bodies.
But we had the Snake Queen.
“Ssshaaaaaa!”
The Snake Queen let out a great roar.
The roar alone was enough to strip the leaves from all the trees.
Gaechalgoatal’s forces were startled by the sound.
They scrambled to scatter and avoid the attack.
The Snake Queen’s true form is a Basilisk.
And that means, the moment you meet her eyes, it’s already too late.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
The Gaze of Petrification.
Every living creature that met the Snake Queen’s eyes turned to stone.
“…Grwong?”
Its power was so immense that even our own allies hesitated for a moment.
“Kieeeek!”
Cheers erupted immediately after.
Each of those enemies was an elite soldier capable of fighting a Sword Dragon.
To see them neutralized with a single glance was more than enough to make the rank-and-file soldiers cheer.
“The effect is not as great as I’d hoped. I see a few who are immune.”
Not as great?
Then what does that make me?
But as she said, there were a few enemies who resisted the petrification.
They must have taken the Cockatrice and used its ability to build up a resistance to petrification.
However, it wasn’t a major problem.
“Kuaaaak!”
“Grrrrrr!”
We had more than enough troops to deal with them.
“One hus… band… one… wiiiife!”
A unicorn—no, a massive beast that should now be called a Unicorn—swept through the battlefield.
“Oh? The unicorn has joined us. …Seeing that its horn is missing, it seems it was the one who gave me its horn.”
Argentavis commented with interest.
Even without its horn, the overwhelming physical power from its massive body was more than enough to handle those enemies. Moreover, the enemies affected by petrification shattered into pieces just by bumping into its body.
The Snake Queen’s area-of-effect attack.
And the charge of the emboldened beasts.
The tide of battle had turned in our favor.
But there was no way the enemy would just stand by and watch.
“Uooooooh!”
The sky suddenly became incredibly bright.
A mass of flames, as if another sun had been created.
Just as the Snake Queen had reduced their numbers with a wide-range skill, they were trying to use a wide-range attack to reduce ours.
Naturally, those flames belonged to Bifang.
“If you had come from the start, we could have avoided all this unnecessary bloodshed. Wouldn’t that have been nice?”
Argentavis looked up at the sky.
“Don’t worry about this.”
No sooner had he spoken than Argentavis vanished.
Swhoooosh!
The sound of air being torn apart.
Argentavis soared high into the sky and flapped his massive wings.
Whirrrrrrrrrrr!
A fierce wind, imbued with Argentavis’s profound internal energy, began to blow.
Swoooosh!
A giant mass of flames fell toward the ground.
And Argentavis’s whirlwind enveloped it.
Wouldn’t adding wind to fire just make it bigger?
I had that thought, but I soon realized it was a needless worry.
Argentavis’s whirlwind completely engulfed Bifang’s fireball and shot up into the air.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The massive fireball naturally dissipated in the air.
“I received the unicorn’s horn, so I suppose I should earn my keep.”
“Uooooooh!”
Argentavis flew towards Bifang at high speed.
We could leave Bifang to him.
Having recovered his body with the unicorn’s horn, he didn’t seem like he would lose to Bifang at all.
“That’s mostly taken care of. The remaining forces should be enough to clean this up. Let’s disperse as we discussed.”
“Gekgek!”
I nodded.
We each took 20 percent of the total forces and headed in different directions.
The Snake Queen to face the King of Birds, and I to face the Rakshasa Bird.
Now that Bifang had appeared, the others would show themselves even if we did nothing.
If the three of us ganged up on Bifang, he would die a futile death in less than a minute.
But if that happened, it would become a 3-on-3 fight, not a 1-on-1.
The Snake Queen had said we needed to avoid that situation because of Gaechalgoatal’s ability.
That’s why she and I were separated.
To lure the King of Birds to the Snake Queen’s side, and the Rakshasa Bird to mine.
Of course, it was possible the King of Birds could appear before me, and the Rakshasa Bird before the Snake Queen.
If that happened, we could still gain an advantage.
If I could stall for time by avoiding its attacks as much as possible, the Snake Queen could join me with the Rakshasa Bird’s head in tow.
With the battle having progressed this far, they had no choice but to act according to our intentions.
It was while I was dealing with the swarming troops.
Swish!
A black feather suddenly flew at me.
Thwack!
I immediately swung my hand and knocked it away.
“Hey, it wouldn’t have hit you even if you stood still.”
As expected, the Rakshasa Bird revealed itself.
“That was just a greeting, you know, a hello.”
…It should be missing an arm.
Something was strange.
I could feel an alien energy.
“Sigh, that damn Jian Bird just had to waste time. Now everything’s a complete mess.”
The Rakshasa Bird wore a look of annoyance.
“Well, it died at the hands of the Snake Queen because of it, so I guess it got what it deserved.”
What’s with this guy?
Does it not know that I killed the Jian Bird?
Could it be thinking that the Snake Queen rescued me after they retreated?
And that the Jian Bird was killed by the Snake Queen?
“You know, you look a little smaller.”
So that’s why it’s standing there so relaxed.
I was currently using Miniaturization to reduce my body size.
It had taken my Gekgek Death Beam and was relatively unharmed.
In other words, it didn’t even consider my smaller self a threat.
For whatever reason, its severed arm seemed to have reattached, and its power seemed to have been enhanced as well.
“It’s a pain to fight, and besides…”
Just like a subordinate of the Human-faced Bird, it’s running its mouth again.
Its attire was reminiscent of the woman I saw in the Snake Queen’s mental image.
This time, too, it had deliberately appeared in that form.
To get on the Snake Queen’s nerves.
If I let it get away here, the Snake Queen would have to see this form again.
[「Status: Miniaturization」 has been deactivated.]
C-c-crack.
[Due to the effect of 「Miniaturization LV5」, 「Status: Gigantification」 is now applied.]
“Wh-what?”
The Rakshasa Bird hastily got into a stance.
[Activating 「Reverse Scale LV5」.]
“Sh-shit. Why did you suddenly get so big…”
Ssssssssss.
[Temporarily acquiring 「Gekgek Death Beam LV5」.]
“W-wait a minute. I just…!”
You never learn, do you?
No questions asked.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
A blue beam, imbued with the profound art of Gekgek, pierced through the Rakshasa Bird’s abdomen.