◈ 006. [STAGE 0] Decisive battle
Dawn began to break in the distance.
Everywhere in the fortress, which had been locked in the deep blue night, was dyed red by the morning sun. I was standing on the walls of the fortress.
far away… … A group of spiders surrounded the outpost.
The spiders, who had been crouching still as hard as rocks during the night, began to move slowly with the sunlight.
The sight of hundreds of monsters stretching their long legs all at once was terrifying.
I couldn’t tell when I looked at the game screen over the monitor. A terrible horror was there.
gulp.
Unknowingly, dry saliva went down my throat.
Can you really defeat it? those guys? With devastated soldiers and low-level characters?
“majesty.”
Then someone called me from behind.
When I turned around, Lucas, the blonde escort knight, walked towards me. I nodded slightly.
“Lucas.”
“It is windy. You are inside.”
“no. You should watch their herpes. That way, this side will also deal with it and deploy troops.”
It wasn’t empty talk. I was really looking at their herpes.
no, not exactly… … Where is their ‘queen’? I was desperately looking for it.
Lucas, who was staring at me from the side, shook his head slightly.
“Your Highness is a truly unpredictable person.”
“huh?”
“Your Highness looked extremely dangerous just a few days ago.”
Lucas’ well-groomed face showed concern for me.
“It was as if he wanted to destroy himself.”
“Did I?”
“yes. From the beginning when I started attending… … You did. As if he was anxious to break somehow… … .”
A smile crept across Lucas’ lips.
“But now it is different.”
For no reason, I awkwardly smiled and turned my head.
“haha. ‘Cause I’m a madman with madness. Wouldn’t it be strange if the situation suddenly changed?”
“… I have no way of knowing whether the reason Your Highness changed was because of a life crisis or some other reason.”
Lucas muttered vaguely.
“I like the current Highness.”
“… .”
“Please stay as you are now, Your Highness.”
Haha I laughed out loud and patted Lucas on the shoulder.
“Let’s do our best today for that ‘front’. Lucas?”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Lucas replied vigorously.
I think I’ve roughly finished grasping the enemy’s positions. I went into the base with Lucas.
“Lucas.”
After walking together in silence for a while, I opened my mouth.
“If this operation fails… Don’t bother trying to save me, escape alone.”
“yes?”
“You will be able to survive.”
because you are the main character
Even if I fail, you have to protect this world.
So I said that with all my heart.
“majesty.”
However,
“a knight does not abandon his lord.”
Lucas laughed at that. I laughed too.
“Even if that son of a master is an incompetent madman?”
“Your Highness is neither incompetent nor crazy. I always believed that way.”
“… .”
“Finally, I will come after servicing the soldiers. See you in a while.”
Lucas lowered his head and ran down to the barracks.
“… Thanks Lucas.”
Towards my main character who helped me clear the difficulty level of Iron Man of Hell and who is also with me here. I muttered like that.
***
The operation itself is simple. In fact, it’s so simple that it’s embarrassing to even call it an operation.
“I don’t need to explain anything about the black spider army, but there is no way to beat it with the current straight attack method.”
A place to summon the party members and explain the strategy at the end.
“Then we should be mean and dirty.”
I smiled and pointed my finger outside the fort.
“Do you know what those spiderlings’ biggest weakness is?”
The party members were bewildered. I was given an explanation.
“These guys are a group. Individual objects do not have the ability to think. Then who will give these guys orders?”
The answer was Lucas.
“Are you the queen?”
“okay. In this legion of monster pups, there is an entity giving orders, a queen.”
“But the queen… .”
Lucas knew what he was trying to say. I nodded.
“I’m only giving orders to my children from a very far place that I can’t even reach with the naked eye.”
“… .”
“Even if you try to break it, it is usually impossible. It’s difficult to locate, and even if you can locate it, it’s difficult to attack.”
right! I snapped my fingers.
“But I have the ability to locate the Queen.”
Characteristic Mapping.
It is an ability that allows you to locate enemies on a dot-shaped mini-map.
“And to Damian.”
I looked at Damian.
“You have the ability to snipe that bastard.”
Characteristic clairvoyant.
The ability to hit without fail.
I see and Damian shoots. I intended to snipe the queen with this and put an end to it.
“But Your Highness.”
Lucas broke out in a cold sweat.
“The Black Spider Queen isn’t a battle entity, but you won’t be able to kill it with a normal arrow. Even if a sniping is possible… … .”
“Mana Cannon.”
I pointed to the top of our heads.
“Utilize the artifact mana cannon installed on the highest cannon of this forward base.”
The first thing I found when I was looking for something useful at the outpost here was this mana cannon.
It is an SR-class artifact. It should be enough to damage the queen.
“The Mana Cannon is definitely an artifact of great power. But the range isn’t that long… … .”
“That part has also been calculated. I’m going to increase the range by forcibly causing the cannon’s mana core to explode.”
It was easy to say, but to explode the mana core was no different from saying that the artifact would be scrapped.
Artifacts with broken mana power organs are likely to be broken.
But now that they all look dead, who cares how expensive artifacts are? I was willing to break it.
“The operation is like this! I look for the queen, and Damian shoots the queen. In the meantime, all of you.”
I looked around Lucas Ken Lilly in turn.
“It’s to stop them.”
The three swallowed dry saliva at the same time. I waved at Lucas.
“Lucas. you command the soldiers Take your time by staying on the wire for as long as possible.”
“yep.”
“Especially, the area near the central battery where the mana cannon is located must be defended. certainly!”
“I will risk my life to make it happen.”
Lucas said with a determined face. I turned my eyes to Ken next to him.
“Ken.”
“Yes yep!”
“Take it. I collected all the remaining health potions in the fortress.”
I handed Ken a potion belt with red potions hanging from it. Ken took it bewildered.
“You go out of the fort, get their attention, and repeat hiding. Disperse them by attracting attention.”
“… .”
“The principle of action of black spiders is simple. It attacks the nearest human being.”
I continued to speak to the pale-faced Ken.
“But their cognitive abilities are not very high. If you’re hiding, they won’t find you.”
“… .”
“Hiding after attracting attention. Repeat that to draw them to other places as much as possible and divert the attacks coming to the base to you. can you do it?”
Ken, who grumbled at this, nodded heavily.
“I’ll try, Your Highness.”
“thanks. Good luck.”
I patted Ken on the shoulder and turned to the next member of the party.
“Lily.”
“Yes, Your Highness the Prince.”
“I have to entrust you with a painful role.”
I handed over a potion belt with a blue mana potion attached to it. Lily pursed her lips and accepted it.
“There is only one entrance from the outpost here to the central battery where the mana cannon is located.”
“… .”
“If the wire collapses and the spiders attack the battery, block the entrance with your body and activate your flame skin to withstand their attacks.”
Flame skin nullifies physical attacks instead of consuming mana. If you have this much mana potion, you should be able to hold on.
As expected, Lily was unmoved by the command to use her body as a barricade.
Although blood oozes from the bitten lip.
“The entrance passage is narrow and spiders cannot come more than one or two at a time.”
“… .”
“I just hold on. That should be it.”
I was afraid of blades and ordered Lily, who had acquired this trait, to receive them with all her body.
And Lily was a strong person. She nodded slowly.
“I’ll try, Your Highness.”
“good.”
I turned to the last party member.
“Damian.”
“… .”
“You move with me.”
Damian silently nodded. It was a frightened face, but it didn’t run away or avoid my eyes.
The operation instructions ended with this. Actually, there were a few more things I wanted to instruct, but
doong-! ridge-! ridge-!
Outside, the sound of drums announcing the approach of enemies rang loudly.
“The Black Spider Legion is coming! Monsters are coming!”
The skirmisher’s desperate cry rang out. Tension grazed his spine.
It begins.
A tutorial stage that will make the difference between life and death for all of us.
***
Above the central battery.
The mana cannon maintenance man looked at me in a cold sweat.
“Are you sure, Your Highness?”
“Don’t worry, just do as you say.”
“Yes yep!”
The maintenance man gritted his teeth and tore off the control sphere surrounding the mana cannon’s magic core.
Pats Chutz… … !
The mana pouring out of the magic core rode the barrel of the cannon and bounced like an electric current.
If it were me, I would have watched Mana’s movement for the first time, marveling at it. I couldn’t afford that now.
I clenched my teeth and looked across the wall.
Doo doo doo doo-!
were coming
Swarms of black spiders everywhere.
To slaughter every living human being with its ferocious claws like pitchforks.
“Form up!”
Lucas, standing on top of the castle wall in the forefront, commanded.
“We will wait as long as possible until His Highness the Prince defeats the Spider Queen!”
“yes!”
The soldiers answered in unison.
It must be thanks to Lucas that the soldiers are able to hold on and stand like that despite losing their fighting spirit and collapsing.
Lucas, who skillfully coordinated the deployment of the soldiers, turned to me and nodded.
I also nodded my head.
Kendo took a deep breath as he prepared to leave the castle wall, Lily stood on the first floor of the passageway to the battery, and even Damian stood next to me.
After taking a look, I carefully activated the attribute.
‘Making a map.’
Along with the feeling of scanning the entire terrain, a dotted mini-map appeared in the upper right corner of my field of vision.
This was the first time I actually used it because it was a skill that could only be used once a day.
I ran my tongue over my dry lips and quickly checked the map. Where are you? where are you?
‘Where is the Queen?’
But
‘Huh?’
Soon after, I noticed something strange.
‘The boss monster mark… … .’
invisible
The enemy queen, the key to this operation.
‘doesn’t exist?’
on the map… …
invisible
Doo doo doo doo-!
A swarm of black spiders was already rushing right in front of the castle wall.
