Chapter 254: 134. The New Ones (Part Two)

historical

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

The wall collapsed spectacularly into a heap.

Harman stared at the caved-in portion of the outer wall that now resembled a crater for a moment before urgently shifting his gaze away.

He could see the giants advancing in the darkness a distance away. They were all carrying large boulders at least half of their torso in size.

“Oh my god...”

They chucked a boulder that size from such a distance away? Just what was with the monstrous power that propelled such a large boulder?!

That physical power must’ve been dozens, nay, hundreds of times greater than an ogre’s!

Such power seemed rather fitting for the race of Titans that was allegedly sealed away in another dimension by the fearful gods!

“Each and every single one is at least Viscount-class or higher.”

These monsters would occupy at least the ‘Viscount’ class if they were to be rated in the vampire ranking system. And there were thirty of them, to boot!

Even Harman would find it too much to deal with all of them.

‘Just where have all those monsters been slumbering away until now only to emerge at once like this?’

“We need to stop them.” If Ronia fell today, then the nearby villages and other territories would fall into grave danger.

If something went wrong here, then maybe even the sword king, or worse, His Majesty the Holy Emperor would have to step up.

“Fire the siege weapons!”

“You stinking giant bastards!”

The convicts roared out and tried to take aim with the ballistas and catapults, but as it turned out, the giants were not even within range yet.

But it was still a problem, even if they were.

A large ballista bolt had impaled a J?tunn’s torso. But the giant didn’t even stagger, and continued to advance. The creature yanked out the bolt, then threw it back hard.

“...!”

One of the towers operating the siege weapons was struck cleanly, and blew apart into pieces.

“Marquis Charlotte hasn’t arrived yet?” Harman wiped his cold sweat away.

The undead had begun flooding into the fortress before he had the time to react. They used the opening in the outer walls to step inside.

The first ones to rush in were the lycans. The nimble-footed creatures easily jumped over the debris of the walls.

The convicts had never seen a lycan before, and immediately became frightened out of their wits. Not only were these monsters faster and more agile than your average zombies and ghouls, their outer appearances alone were monstrous enough to make them the objects of terror.

“W-we must pray...!”

The convicts stumbled back and hurriedly lowered the weapons in their hands.

They were still hopelessly inadequate and inexperienced, and in order to offer a prayer, they had to put their weapons down to bring their hands together and concentrate.

Unfortunately for them, the undead monsters wouldn’t overlook such an opening.

-Ahaha! You stupid livestock!

-Are they surrendering? To think that they would actually discard their weapons!

The half-man, half-beast monsters nimbly pounced on the convicts and grabbed their victims with their muscular arms. The helpless humans were thrashed and thrown around.

In the meantime, zombies broke through the wall and began spreading through the gaps of the lycans rampaging around.

The living soldiers were grabbed and bitten to death. Their screams sounded out, and more boulders continued to fly in without mercy through the night sky.

“Everyone, get back!”

Alice, arriving on the scene as quickly as she could after hearing the alarm bell, clanged her gauntleted fists loudly. She rushed forward and punched the incoming lycans to blow them away.

“The wall is coming down again!”

Harman was descending the steps of the outer wall, heard that shout, and stopped in his tracks to turn his head.

One by one, portions of the outer walls were exploding and crumbling down. More undead creatures were flooding in through the breaches. It seemed that these things weren’t even aware of the gate’s existence.

For them, destroying the pesky obstructing walls would be equal to achieving a victory. As long as they killed the living, the numbers of their comrades would continue to increase. Now that powerful high-tier undead and even giants were accompanying them, they probably believed that overwhelming victory would be theirs.

“Our chain of command is insufficient!” Harman froze up in indecision. The inside of his head had gone blank.

They needed Count Jenald, but he was currently imprisoned in the official residence’s dungeon.

“What about His Highness? Or Marquis Charlotte?” Harman muttered in a daze before clamping his mouth shut.

‘You fool!’ Depending on those two and waiting for them to show up wouldn’t solve the problem right now. Since when did he become this weak, anyway?

“Get into formation, now!” Harman roared out at the top of his lungs. He held his sword tightly and dashed towards the collapsed portion of the outer wall before swinging his weapon hard. “Stop them with your shields and attack with your spears! Lycans can’t fight properly if they are bunched up in a group!”

The screams of his dying subordinates rang out, but Harman didn’t stop shouting his commands in order to organise the troops.

“You must stop them! Subjects are still within the city limits. We must defend our position until they are safely evacuated first!”

Unfortunately for him, doing that was far easier said than done.

As if to drown out Harman’s shouting, the lycans began letting out loud howls. Terror spread like a plague, only serving to worsen the chaos and confusion.

The tragic screams of humans filled the battlefield.

-Yes, be frightened, oh you humans!-

-Our masters will become the new rulers of this world!-

-Be honoured that you will be served up as our sacrifices!-

The lycans howled out noisily.

Among them was a particularly large individual that suddenly dashed with frightening speed towards Harman. It slaughtered every convict found in its way, then leapt up high towards the Paladin.

-So, you are the commander of these humans!- The creature held its claws up high before hacking down. Harman raised his sword and defended against the attack.

The claws and the blade collided, and sharp sparks exploded out.

One relied on his divinity-infused strength to hold his sword up, while the other used its brute physical strength to force its claws down.

-Greetings, human Paladin!- the lycan smirked insidiously.

Harman, still caked in his cold sweat, further strengthened his legs and back as those ridiculing words entered his hearing.

‘What incredible strength...!’

The lycan noticed Harman’s incredulous expression and smirked again.

-My name is Warbell, the leader of the Rubiru tribe that serves Count Timong.-

Harman’s sword was injected with divinity, but even then, it still trembled from the pressure. The claws of the lycan gradually forced his blade down.

-You’re fated to become sacrifices today. Stop resisting and accept your death!-

“Sacrifices?” Harman asked back and got the lycan to grin with its eyes.

-That’s right, you shall all become sacrifices that complete the warp gate Count Timong speaks so passionately of!-

Harman’s brows shot up, but even then, he didn’t forget to force the corners of his lips to curl up.

‘What a stupid beast this creature is.’

It so easily blabbed out the true intentions behind raiding this place. This had to be the reason why the lycans would never surpass the vampires.

They might mouth off some things about reaching the apex or whatever, but in the end, they were nothing more than some beasts imitating the ways of men, that’s all!

Real vampires would never blurt out their true intentions this easily!

In any case, Harman had learned the truth behind tonight’s raid. He wouldn’t have minded listening to some more of this undead beast flapping its gums, but...

‘...But, I guess that’s going to be impossible.’

More cold sweat trickled down Harman’s back.

Lycans overwhelmed even vampires in raw physical strength. Harman pushing such an undead back with his own power would be akin to asking for a miracle here.

His physical body, even reinforced with divine strength, was gradually pushed down. His sword was continuously shoved back and eventually touched his shoulder.

His expression distorted from the pain of his own blade digging into his shoulder.

-Give up your blood and flesh to Mist Calf. Then we shall...!-

-Oh hear ye, it is time to offer your prayers.- A loud, divinity-laden Spirit Speech resounded out into their surroundings. The large lycan quickly raised its head at the unknown voice.

Confusion also rapidly spread among the convicts, as well. Even though they were giving their all trying to block the lycans and undead with their shields, they still cast their glances behind themselves.

-We are the devout believers who worship his noble being.-

Feet of bones were striding forward across the snow-covered ground. They began breathing into the lengthy barrels of their muskets next.

-We might only be newly-created beings, but...-

A portion of convicts widened their eyes and looked up at the night sky.

Snow was falling from the darkness above. But these snowflakes were different from Mother Nature’s blizzard. The large and pure white flakes of snow gently settled down on their open palms and slowly melted down to become ‘holy water’.

“...!”

The convicts froze up as their gazes focused on one location. In that location was a road leading into the city. More convicts had been desperately defending this road, but they soon carefully stepped to the left and right to create a path.

-We shall obey our master’s will, and...-

A group armed with muskets was walking out from the crowd of convicts. The ends of their robes dragged along the snowy ground and revealed the naked bones underneath.

Skulls could be glimpsed under the large hoods obscuring their faces. Pure white glowing balls of light burned fiercely within their eye sockets.

-...Subjugate the undead.-

All convicts stopped moving.

They were now completely lost to unbridled astonishment. It wasn’t just them, as even the lycans forgot all about attacking, as well.

As for the other undead, their bodies were currently burning away to ashes after touching the divine snow now falling from the heavens.

One of the convicts dazedly muttered out to no one in particular, “A... musket regiment?”

With Nasus the Lich as their lead, the skeleton mages formed up in an orderly line on either side of their leader and raised up their muskets to their shoulders.

Claaack-!

They assumed the shooting position in a perfect unison and stomped hard on the ground. Their muzzles lowered to take aim at the undead in perfect sync with their movements.

-My name is Nasus!-

And lastly, the lich injected divinity into the musket held high up, then elegantly took aim at the undead.

-All of you, shall...-

Its robe flapped noisily against the wind as the Aztal Rune’s golden glow flooded out from the lich’s skull.

-...start serving our new master, Allen Olfolse!-

As the snowstorm continued to lash out, the musket regiment made up of a lich as well as skeleton mages unhesitantly squeezed the triggers.

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