NOVEL NEXT Volume 9 7
I, my monsters, and our equipment were being transported to [Pig] Demon Lord Agares’s dungeon by the Darkness Dragons.
Time was of the essence. The enemy was part of an alliance formed to oppose me. If I took too long, he might be able to call for help.
"What a crass-looking dungeon"
"Kuina doesn’t like it either"
The [Pig] Demon Lord’s dungeon was a castle-type.
More likely than not, castle-type dungeons were chosen by self-aggrandizing Demon Lords. Moreover, his choice of design was just awful.
At any rate, after landing, we assembled near the entrance of the dungeon.
The Avalon-Ritters formed a defensive wall in front while Abyss Howls set up Transfer arrays.
When the humans saw the large number of nightmarish dragons, they ran and fled as fast as they could.
Which was the correct decision considering the dungeon was going to turn into a battlefield.
We would be as considerate as we could, but even so, some humans that have ventured in dungeon could still be harmed.
Unless...
"I’ll leave our first wave to you, Rorono. Take Tiro and the three knights and rampage as flashily as you could. Once we’ve shown them we’re to be taken seriously, declare [War]. If they’ve accepted to do a formal [War], we’ll regroup and start again. If they don’t, we’ll continue rampaging as is until we break the crystal."
If possible, I would like for them to accept our declaration of [War].
It wouldn’t change things too much if they did, but the moment our dungeons were connected by the white space, the humans within the dungeons would be transferred to a different space where time didn’t flow, thus eliminating the risk of the adventurers getting caught in the crossfire.
The humans had nothing to do with this fight. I didn’t want the blood of such blameless creatures to be on my hands.
As for the [Pig] Demon Lord, he should find a formal [War] to be also favorable and would most likely accept it.
After all, unlike me, he didn’t have a way to transport large amount of fighting force over a long distance. At the very least, none that he could prepare right away. So, as things were, we were the only ones on the offensive.
In a [War] though, because of the white space, he would have the option of sending his monsters to attack Avalon and try to break my crystal.
One thing that wouldn’t be in his favor in accepting my declaration was that it would remove the chance of him getting assistance from other Demon Lords. But then again, we made such good time that that was almost an impossibility.
Plus, a [War] has the allure of having the possibility of receiving a reward from the Creator, should it strike his fancy.
"Mhm, leave it to me, master. I’ll show you the power of the new models."
From a while ago, monsters of the [Pig] Demon Lord had come out of the dungeon and surrounded us at a distance.
Seeing as they were not attacking, their purpose was more likely to gather intelligence.
Their bewilderment was very apparent.
"My lord, the Transfer arrays had been set up as well as our defensive formation."
"Good work, Duke."
With this, we could begin at any time.
Rorono’s three knights were also now active.
There was the red knight that had heavy armor and a gigantic piledriver.
The eccentric white knight that was basically ordnances with wings.
Lastly, there was the black knight that had an elegant body. Additionally, two swords were hanging from its back while two machine guns were holstered at its hips.
Each of them was made with a different concept in mind.
The red knight was specialized in charging attacks; the white knight was for long range and aerial bombardment attacks; and the black knight was for adaptability.
They were accompanied by a total of ten Avalon-Ritters.
Needless to say, it was a sight to behold.
"Shall we begin, Rorono? Their scouts have returned, so they should have fortified their defenses a bit. That should be enough of a stage for your knights. Go and show me their might."
"Mhm, leave it to me."
How reliable.
I was sure she would do as well as I had expected, perhaps even more.
"Aura, you’re making dissatisfied face, you know?"
Maybe it’s because she didn’t get the chance to draw first blood? But even so, I’d expect such a reaction more from Kuina than her.
"Oh, I’m not questioning your decision or anything. It’s just that, when I see those goblins and orcs, I have this extreme urge to blow their heads off. So, when you didn’t make me join the first wave, I felt frustrated, I guess... I wonder why though"
"Maybe it’s because you’re an elf?"
A tale that was commonly told about elves was how orcs would go to their villages and violate their women.
Perhaps, that deep seethed hatred was even embedded to their DNA.
"Anyway, I’ll go rampage later. Rorono-chan, save some for me, okay?"
"Sorry, I can’t promise that. We’re going to fight with the intention to annihilate all of them."
Rorono was fired up, alright.
The enemy aimed for her, so it was only natural she was pissed off.
All preparations complete, I decided it was time to go in.
"Alright, let’s go."
"Mhm"
After Rorono nodded, sounds of activity came from the three knights and the Avalon-Ritters.
◇
Generally, Demon Lords would place the weaker monsters in the early floors of their dungeons and the stronger monsters in the deeper areas. That way, they would be able to get a wide array of adventurers delving into their dungeons.
However...
"Hoh, it seems they’re giving us a grand welcome."
In the first dungeon room of the first floor, right when we entered, hundreds of monsters were assaulting us with their murderous intents.
The [Pig] Demon Lord’s dungeon was a castle-type and, typically, the first dungeon room of such a dungeon was a wide entrance.
That being the case here, there was not much cover. It was a good place to take advantage of the enemy’s great numbers.
However, that was a foolish plan against us. If they had known of the tactics we used, they definitely wouldn’t have picked this place.
The enemy forces were primarily composed of C rank High Goblins.
Additionally, taking command of the goblins were several B rank Goblin Lords.
Goblin-type monsters were generally weak, but they were capable of reproducing extremely quickly.
Moreover, even though the Goblin Lord was just a B rank monster, it had a skill that made goblins it commanded stronger. Army-wide strengthening skills were such powerful skills that they were almost exclusive to A rank monsters and above.
"Rorono, this is quite the sight, isn’t it? I’d say the enemy numbers at around 300. Meanwhile, our side only has the three knights and the Avalon-Ritters as well as you and Tiro. It’s 300 versus 15. Do you think you can win?"
This time, I was going to make Tiro to just sit back and not fight but still earn experience points for some level ups. Additionally, Rorono herself wasn’t going to intrude either. So, it was more like a 300 versus 13 fight.
Furthermore, an open field, despite the lack of cover, still presented some advantages to the side that had the larger force.
"Master, our enemies this time are quite clever. Assembling a large number of High Goblins and then augmenting their low stats with the Goblin Lords’ skill, they have a good amount of quantity and quality. Even so, such petty tricks stand no chance against my knights. We will crush them."
"I look forward to it, then."
From this moment on, this battlefield was going to be Rorono’s stage. Any unnecessary interference from me would only sully the beauty of her performance.
And so, I stood beside Tiro and became nothing more than Rorono’s audience.
By the way, the aforementioned Tiro was simply rubbing her head against my leg. Geez, what a cheeky child.
A few moments later, the goblin force charged at us like an avalanche.
In response, Rorono raised her hand. With just that gesture, the golems began to move.
The ten Avalon-Ritters then stepped forward. The mass-produced Avalon-Ritter models had guns and swords as their standard weapons. Right now, the ten were equipped with their guns.
If the Mithril Golems had the heavy machinegun Browning M2 caliber .50, the Avalon-Ritters had the improved version of that: the EDHB 02 Ascalon. If the Browning M2 wasn’t supposed to be carried and then fired by human infantry but rather to be used while mounted on something like a combat helicopter, the Ascalon was even more so. In fact, if a human tried to fire the Ascalon, they would be blown away by the recoil.
And so, the ten Avalon-Ritters fired their guns in even intervals.
In no time at all, a lot of the High Goblins were turned to minced meat. Which was no surprise, considering the Avalon-Ritters’ stats and their weapons’ firepower.
"Gumooooooooooooooooooooooo"
While using the High Goblins as shields, the Goblin Lords shouted like that.
The goblins were desperate to find a way to escape the onslaught of bullets coming their way. And surprisingly, they did. By digging holes in the ground.
Against heavy machineguns, digging trenches was a correct tactic.
However, it wasn’t just heavy machineguns that the goblins were up against.
One of their other opponents was the fighter-airplane-looking white knight that just took off.
"Rorono, there’s something intriguing attached to the white knight"
"Mhm. This time, it’s in bombardment mode"
Attached to the white knight’s wings were two large containers.
When it opened, certain words popped in my mind: missile launchers.
While flying at high velocities, the white knight showered the goblins with missiles. It fired more than a hundred missiles, each one with tremendous power and accuracy.
And because the goblins were grouped together after digging the holes that they thought would save their lives, they became easier targets.
"On top of the missiles being guidable, it seems they’re even stronger than the bombs the Darkness Dragons use."
"Mhm. Those missiles aren’t ordinary bombs, after all. It has a magic spell that is powered by the white knight’s excess magic power, which is a lot due to its twin drive system. Such destructive power is out of reach for the Darkness Dragons."
"I see."
"There are also other reasons that make it hard for the Darkness Dragons to use those things. For one, it takes me a whole day to finish a container’s worth of missiles... a whole day, and yet it was gone in an instant..."
"Well, it’s no wonder you feel that way after using those things against enemies of only this caliber."
"It’s to showcase the power of the white knight though, so it couldn’t really be helped."
After it spent all of its missiles, the white knight hovered in the air and then removed the containers. The reason it could hover like that was most likely due to some anti-gravity mechanism it had.
Obviously, a fighter airplane that could hover was absolutely overpowered.
Next, the white knight readied its guns and then unleashed a barrage of bullets from up high... though it might be more accurate to say that it repeatedly sniped at the goblins.
"The guns that the white knight uses has a caliber of .905 or approximately 22.9mm. That is almost twice than what Aura’s anti-materiel rifle has. In order to reduce the recoil and obtain stability, I made use of an anti-gravity unit."
"How crazy"
"And in order to increase its accuracy and precision, there was a need to also increase the weight and power behind each shot. If need be, it could also do rapid-fire. If this much wasn’t done, the white knight would fall far behind Aura, the truly absurd one, who could freely control the wind."
Increasing the weight of the bullet and the kinetic energy it had would certainly make it travel in a straighter trajectory, thus also increasing the accuracy.
At any rate, in less than a minute of a bullet storm from the front by the Avalon-Ritters and from the sky by the white knight, the 300 goblins were almost annihilated.
At that point, the storm stopped.
"Gumooooooooooo"
A Goblin Lord turned around and ran.
As it fled, I then felt an upsurge of magic power. In the next moment, the red knight was in motion. It was afloat thanks to another anti-gravity unit and was using all of the magic power produced by its twin-drive system to charge forward and attack with its right-arm-turned-piledriver.
The moment after that, the red knight vanished.
Even with my eyes, I failed to follow it.
At the same time that it vanished, a gigantic metal stake appeared and pierced through the running Goblin Lord. A couple of Avalon-Ritters along the path to the goblin were also blown away.
And then, after what felt like forever but actually was less than a heartbeat, the Goblin Lord exploded with tremendous force.
Rorono did mention that the red knight possessed the greatest charging speed, but this felt more like teleportation to me.
My eyes were involuntarily wide open. Considering the red knight’s charging speed and power, it could take out even an S rank monster. There would only be a few individuals who would be able to react to its charge, especially if it was the first time they saw it.
"The new thrusters seem to be working as designed. With that, nothing can escape the red knight. Within a distance of 200 meters, not even the white knight could."
"That’s not to mention its power."
"Mhm. It probably could compete even against Duke’s attacks when he’s in his dragon form."
The red knight’s piledriver was originally supposed to be Tiro’s weapon. And now that it was customized for the red knight, it was stronger than before.
"Ah!"
"What’s wrong, Rorono?"
"The enemy’s too weak. I haven’t even gotten a chance to show off the black knight yet... what a shame"
I unconsciously smiled wryly.
"There should be others chances for that soon enough. This is only the first clash, after all."
Through our overwhelming fighting force, we decimated our foes.
But before we pushed through, there was something I had to do.
And so, I had made the Avalon-Ritters gather some of the High Goblins that miraculously survived and bring them before me.
Goblins mostly had the intelligence of mere beasts, but High Goblins were at least capable of speech.
"I want you to relay a message to your master. Ahem..."
Alright, sound authoritative. I have to let them know just how serious we are.
"’We accept your declaration of war. The price for the sin of attempting to harm my daughter is death.’ Deliver that and this message as well: ’if you do not want to engage in a formal [War] or if we simply do not hear from you within five minutes, we will resume our invasion. Do you want to die while cowering or do you want to die while fighting? The choice is yours.’"
For me, whatever he chooses was fairly inconsequential.
I didn’t want the humans to be caught in the middle as much as possible, but it wasn’t to the point I would consider it a priority. I would not hesitate just because humans were in the dungeon.
Now, I wonder how he’ll answer.
While waiting for a reply, I talked with Rorono about my impressions on her three knights.
But then, after a while, I began to hear a voice in my mind.
<<Children of the Planet, the [War] between [Creation] Demon Lord Procell and [Pig] Demon Lord Agares shall hereby commence. Go and show me your radiance, Children of the Planet>>
Through the Creator’s voice, I knew the [Pig] Demon Lord’s answer.
After the announcement, I felt the sensation of being transferred to the white space.
All of the monsters I brought to invade the [Pig] Demon Lord’s dungeon were safely brought there while all of the humans and animals in both dungeons were relocated elsewhere.
I wonder what kind of medal he has.
If we break the [Pig] Demon Lord’s crystal, I would gain access to making the [Pig] medal. If it turns out his medal was an A rank medal, then I would have another A rank medal without destroying the [Crimson Cavern] and thus losing a convenient place to earn experience points.
I haven’t had a formal [War] since my fight against [Evil], [Viscosity], and [Steel]. My blood’s boiling. Alright, time to begin the massacre.