He Became The Most Insane Emperor Of All Time [EN]: Chapter 172

“Screech! Hold them back! Spearmen to the front, riflemen-”

Thump!

“Kehek!”

“Charge! We break through while they’re in disarray!”

After the breach in the walls and gate by the Sylban Cannon, there was no stopping them.

The Crash Hammers were true to their name, specializing in charges like a hammer smashing through.

“Taste my hammer!”

“Kehek!”

“Get out of the way, shotgun coming through!”

Bang!

“They’re swarming! Grenadiers!”

“Here you go. Eat this!”

Boom! Boom!

Assault infantry fully armed with war hammers, magic-powered shotguns, and magic grenades.

Their charge was devastating to the Ratmen, who hadn’t expected the sudden collapse of the walls.

Numerical superiority was meaningless. The Ratmen, individually weak, needed to form battle lines to fight effectively, but they weren’t given the time.

“Hold firm! Squeak! Fire hand cannons and ballistae!”

Of course, some managed to form ranks.

[Purification Storm activated]

Whoosh!

“Kuaaaak! Hot! Squeak squeak squeak!”

But those were invariably met with purifying flames.

Hovering in the air, diving only to set those groups ablaze before fleeing, the Ratmen burned to death without offering any real resistance to me.

If I were alone, they might have tried sniping, but the relentless charges of the Crash Hammers made any proper response impossible.

“Don’t fall back! If we just hold out, they’ll be overwhelmed by our numbers-”

Thwack!

“This one’s the general, I guess.”

There was one Ratman whose attire was particularly flamboyant. Undoubtedly, he was the commander or general of the Ratmen.

“Squeak! The general is dead!”

“Run away, there’s no hope, squeak!”

That was the end of it. Ratmen were fundamentally more cowardly than even goblins. With their commander dead, they began to rout like ghosts.

Of course, there was nowhere for them to run here. But the Ratmen had dug tunnels.

They fled into those tunnels, literally like rats scurrying away.

“They’ve all run away, what do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? Sergeant Hank, release all the people enslaved here.”

There were quite a few dwarves enslaved in the occupied territory.

The Crash Hammers unlocked the shackles and chains of the dwarves held in each labor camp.

“W-we never thought you’d come to save us!”

“Thank you, you’re all heroes!”

“Thank you!”

The freed dwarves were all in poor condition, but they embraced their rescuers and rejoiced.

“Oh, my, to be called heroes….”

“We’ve really become heroes. Following that human man….”

“But these people are so starved. They won’t last long like this….”

The Crash Hammers were pleased to be called heroes, but they were also troubled by the fact that the people they had saved would soon die of starvation.

The problem wasn’t just the lack of food to feed them all, but even if there was food, those in a state of starvation also needed medical treatment.

Fortunately, I had a solution.

“Gather them all around me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Just do as I say, Sergeant Hank.”

“Understood.”

Hank ordered his men to gather the freed people in the plaza.

“I-I wonder what they’re gathering us for?”

“Maybe they’re going to give us food?”

“I asked earlier, and they said they don’t have enough to share… Besides, they said we’re too weak to eat it without dying….”

The dwarves, gathered as instructed, buzzed with anticipation as they looked at me and the Crash Hammers.

I stepped forward before them, holding Silver Rose.

“I salute those of you who have survived and endured until this moment. But we must leave this place again for operational reasons, and you must arm yourselves and defend it.”

“B-but we’re in no condition to fight!”

“I’m not telling you to fight. Just defend it. If the enemy comes, gather together, make them afraid, and flee before they charge. That is your mission.”

We had just captured this place, but for operational reasons, we had to quickly push to another front.

Unfortunately, the regiment-sized Crash Hammers didn’t have the manpower to occupy this place.

If the enemy’s follow-up forces came to attack, there was no way the Crash Hammers could defend it.

But from the beginning, I had considered the slaves to be liberated on-site to some extent, so I intended to use them.

“You can use the weapons the Ratmen left behind. And your depleted energy….”

Swish-

Whoosh!

From Silver Rose, a refreshing blue light of divine power spread out.

[Prosperity Divine Order, Blessing of Abundance deployed]

[Bestows a widespread blessing that temporarily alleviates hunger and restores starvation]

“T-this… my energy is returning!”

“I’m not hungry anymore. I can hold out for a while?”

“It’s a divine order. Is that person a paladin?”

I used the authority of Prospera, the guardian deity of the empire, the god of prosperity and civilization.

It consumed a considerable amount of divine power and imperial spirit, but it wasn’t too much to use now.

These people would not only be the necessary force right now, but also a bill to present to the Dwarf King later.

If I rescued and supported those who had been freed from slavery before returning them, he would treat me better, unless he had no conscience at all.

“T-that’s amazing.”

“No time to be amazed, Sergeant Hank. We must advance again.”

“But there’s one thing I’m worried about.”

“What is it?”

“Those tunnels. If we leave them unsealed, won’t the Ratmen target this place again through them?”

“Hmm, that’s quite plausible?”

“Then let’s seal them quickly.”

Hank’s words were valid. But I immediately shook my head and said.

“No, we won’t seal them.”

“Yes? Then how….”

“Sergeant Hank, the Ratmen would never think we’d use this to our advantage, right? We’re not rats, after all.”

“S-surely?”

“That surely.”

I smiled wryly and asked.

“Do you have the confidence to charge into the tunnels?”

Of course, it was incredibly dangerous. If the Ratmen tried to collapse the tunnel, they could be buried alive.

But what if they were caught off guard without even that chance?

“This time, you’ll be even greater heroes.”

I asked Hank and the Crash Hammers, but their answer was already determined.

“Heh, then let’s do it!”

From the start, they were the type who would be corpses without their guts [fearless and reckless].

* * *

“They’re coming again!”

“Block that side!”

“We need heavy infantry support here!”

At the same time, in Anvil City.

The counterattack against the Ratmen was successful.

The Ratmen were helplessly losing the lower sectors.

But the problem was that the operation was going too well.

“I swear on Rune and the Anvil Throne, I’ll smash all your heads in!”

Bang! Boom!

Squeak! Squeak!

“Hoo, hoo… it’s endless. Even with preparations, it’s this bad.”

The Dwarf King knew that the Ratmen would launch tunnel attacks as planned, so he had prepared for it.

The forces attacking the lower sectors were small, while the forces remaining in the capital, Anvil City, were all the other dwarf legions, so he expected to defend easily enough.

As expected, defense was easy at first. But when ‘they’ appeared on the front lines, the situation changed.

“The Warpfiends are coming! Defense is impossible!”

“The Dragonblood Warriors are charging again. We don’t have enough troops to stop them!”

Dragonblood Lord.

The lord of the Ratmen who had taken the blood of the Underdragon, Kerebres.

As his forces were deployed, the dwarves began to be pushed back instead.

Even with the advantage of defense!

But it was only natural. No matter how many they killed, they kept digging tunnels and appearing endlessly.

No matter how strong and brave the dwarves were, it was impossible to stop this attack from the start.

“Ha, they could have destroyed us long ago, but they were testing the waters. We’ve become so pathetic….”

“Your Majesty! We can’t defend any longer, please take refuge!”

“Enough! I, Galbar Oldstadt, master of the Anvil Throne, will die here as a proud Dwarf King!”

Even the sturdy steel rune armor of dwarven make was tattered, but the Dwarf King’s fighting spirit was still burning.

“Children of Rune! Fight with me!”

“For the Anvil Throne!”

“Oooooooo!”

The legions were scattered to defend the entire city.

The king and his guards began their final charge towards the Dragonblood Warriors, the enemy’s most elite forces.

The Ratmen, mutated by eating the blood of the dragon, had grown as large as trolls.

Their physical prowess alone overwhelmed the dwarves, and their numbers were considerable, so they were by no means easy opponents.

“Krrr, insignificant shorties. We will kill you, crush you, and use you as livestock feed.”

“Shut up, you’re just thieving rats!”

Thrum!

The Dwarf King’s warhammer, Lightning Fury, struck the Dragonblood Warriors with lightning.

Some were struck by the lightning and died, burned to a crisp, but those who were even slightly missed did not lose their tenacious lives.

“Krrr! Spit!”

“Ugh! You bastards!”

Rather, they spat thick black blood at him. The highly acidic poison not only melted the Dwarf King’s armor but also sapped his vitality.

The Dwarf King, exhausted from the accumulated fatigue of a long battle, found it difficult to move any further.

Thwack!

“Kugh!”

Boom!

He was stabbed by a Dragonblood Warrior’s spear once more. It wasn’t yet a fatal wound, but he was slowly being surrounded.

There was no longer any way to hold out.

“Your Majesty, it has been an honor to be with you.”

“Likewise, my guards. Well done.”

The king and his guards, sensing their end, exchanged their last greetings.

The enemies came to take their lives.

The Dwarf King closed his eyes tightly.

-Are you giving up already?

“Huh?”

At that moment, a telepathic message using magic was heard. It was a familiar voice.

“Franz, is that you-”

-First, watch your feet.

Kaboom!

At that moment, the ground beneath them shook violently from an explosion.

“Cough, cough! Damn, did we arrive properly?”

“Sergeant, it looks like we’re surrounded by enemies?”

“Then what are you hesitating for? Attack in all directions!”

The tunnel created by the explosion, but what appeared from the tunnel was not Ratmen.

It was the Crash Hammers Dwarf Special Forces.

“You bastards, taste the bombs!”

Kaboom!

They began to pop out from all directions, killing the surrounding Ratmen indiscriminately. They threw bombs, fired shotgun volleys, and if they didn’t have those, they charged with hammers and axes, smashing their heads.

“Were you waiting for us, by any chance?”

And the man leading them, Franz, was already flying to the Dwarf King’s side.

“Ha, haha! Of course! Can I complain about why you’re only coming now?”

“The Ratmen had dug so many tunnels that it took a while to bury them all. Thanks to that, there won’t be any more reinforcements.”

Franz, the Emperor of the Empire, said, twirling Silver Rose around and then gripping it tightly.

“Then are you ready to sweep them away?”

“Of course!”

No sooner had the king and emperor said those words than they rushed towards the isolated enemies.

That day, not a single Ratman survived in Anvil City.