I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 131

The morning sun shone with dazzling brightness.

‘…….’

Standing on the ramparts, I gazed at the bright eastern sky for a moment, then reluctantly turned my head south.

There, a neatly arrayed army of monsters stood.

I was so dumbfounded that I clicked my tongue.

‘For ghouls, what is this…’

Indeed, they were worthy of being called the Vampire King’s personal guard.

Despite being ghouls, they were lined up in perfect formation like a well-trained army, preparing for an attack.

In the center were ten vampires.

Seven ordinary vampires were checking their equipment, and two who appeared to be vampire generals were attending to the Vampire Lord.

And the Vampire Lord—Selendion.

He was sitting as if reclining on a palanquin, looking at our ramparts with an air of amusement.

His gaze suggested he was preparing for a game rather than a life-or-death battle.

It was then. My eyes met Selendion’s through the telescope.

With a grin.

The vampire king, with his red eyes curved like moons, waved his hand slightly at me. That little bastard.

‘You’re dead, you son of a bitch…’

I spat out a curse and took the telescope away from my eyes. Then, I turned around.

The human army was also lined up there.

Four full parties of hero characters.

My main party, the Shadow Unit, the Dion Mercenary Group, and the Old Hunters.

Behind them, two reserve parties. Lily’s and Margherita’s parties.

Cannons and ballistae lined up densely on the left and right. Behind them were about 1,200 mercenaries.

Three hundred Twilight Legion soldiers. Five hundred mercenaries who had been with us since Stage 1. And four hundred mercenaries we had recruited since then.

‘This side is also elite.’

In just a few months, we had killed thousands of monsters and cleared dungeons several floors deep.

We were a much fresher and younger elite of living humans than you immortal monsters, who reeked of centuries of decay.

‘Do you think we’ll lose, you monster bastards…!’

Clack! Clack! Clack!

The ghoul army’s formation changed.

About three hundred ghouls from the rear moved forward, beginning to spread out their formation.

I looked to the side and shouted loudly.

‘They’re preparing to attack! All troops! Prepare for defense!’

The soldiers, tense, finished preparing to fire their respective siege weapons.

The hero characters also gripped their equipment and swallowed hard.

‘I won’t say much.’

I shouted briefly.

‘Win!’

Oooooo-!

As the soldiers roared in response to my shout,

Dududududu-!

The ghouls began to rush forward, shaking the earth.

Three hundred Frost Ghouls.

Three hundred all at once. It was a bit much for the first wave.

The sight of the pale blue, frozen corpses running in perfect formation, as if measured with a ruler, was terrifying in many ways.

The ghouls, who had dashed across the plain in an instant, soon reached the kill zone where we had set up obstacles with wooden fences.

A typical monster army would get bogged down there, causing a delay.

But these were monsters directly commanded by their legion commander.

The kill zone created with obstacles might buy us some time, but it wouldn’t hold them back permanently.

Crack! Crunch!

As expected, the ghouls easily broke through the wooden fences and pushed their way inside.

The path restriction using obstacles was not working from the start.

However.

‘Fire-!’

Anyway, we were buying time. We just needed to attack them in that gap.

As soon as they came within range, I shouted, and the cannons fired all at once.

Boom boom boom-!

With ear-splitting sounds, cannonballs were launched.

Whoosh-

The dozens of cannonballs that tore through the air soon landed on the ground.

Kugwagwagwang!

They erupted in grand explosions, spewing out crimson flames and black smoke.

The ghouls caught in the explosions were instantly turned into mincemeat. But neither I nor the soldiers were happy.

Because we had all been clearly warned.

That such attacks… could not kill them.

Grrrrrr…

Graaaaaa!

The ghouls, who had been turned into mincemeat, soon began to regenerate and rise one by one.

Pieces of flesh that had been torn apart stuck back together, and the blood that had been scattered everywhere was sucked back in, forming bones and reassembling into the shape of monsters.

I stared at this bizarre and grotesque sight with my mouth tightly shut.

These were Selendion’s personal guards.

Monsters resurrected by sharing Selendion’s own life.

No matter how much we killed them with ordinary methods, it was useless.

As soon as an individual died, their ‘life’ was returned to Selendion, and Selendion would give that life back to his subordinate, regenerating them.

This zombie-like behavior was possible because all 1,000 monsters were a bloodline legion, sharing ‘blood’ and ‘life’ with Selendion.

What did we ultimately have to do to stop this?

‘We have to destroy their spirit cores.’

The core that could be called the essence of life and soul in this world. The spirit core.

If we destroyed that, they would fall forever, and Selendion’s life stock would also disappear one by one.

The problem was the numbers.

How could we destroy the spirit cores of these 1,000 monsters one by one?

‘Do you know how much I racked my brain to solve this, you blood-soaked bastards?’

I smiled, raising one corner of my mouth, and glared at the approaching monsters.

Bang! Kwagwang!

Thududududuk!

Graaaaaa-!

Braving the rain of cannonballs and ballistae, the ghoul horde was rapidly surging towards the ramparts, repeatedly dying and regenerating.

‘Come closer.’

I nodded my head firmly.

‘Closer! Closer!’

***

‘It’s been a while since our invasion of the mortal realm, so I had some expectations.’

Alpha muttered, watching the ghoul horde steadily closing the distance to the ramparts.

‘This is too boring. They’re giving up ground so easily. It wasn’t this easy before.’

‘…….’

‘While we were trapped down there, have human tactics regressed? No. Perhaps they haven’t had the experience of facing a proper monster army in all these long years.’

At Alpha’s words, Beta nodded, ‘Uh-huh!’

‘…….’

Selendion remained silent.

Alpha smiled, setting a hot teacup on the table next to Selendion’s chair and pouring tea.

‘Perhaps we won’t even need to intervene, Lord.’

‘…….’

‘Ah, Lord, you wanted to take action yourself this time. You might be disappointed, you know?’

If the ghoul horde succeeded in reaching the ramparts.

They would sink their teeth into the humans on the ramparts, driven by their destructive hunger.

‘Ghouls are cannibals. They are the embodiment of hunger. If there is fresh blood and flesh within a certain distance, their aggression doubles.’

Once they approached, the ghouls would instantly crave human flesh and take the lives of their enemies.

For the bloodline legion, taking life meant literally ‘making it their own.’

It meant taking the enemy’s life and storing it as spare life for the legion.

‘If the ghoul legion succeeds in approaching, the humans have no chance of winning at that point.’

The bloodline legion currently had a life stock of 1,000.

But if they killed enemies and took their blood and flesh, they would gain that much life.

They gained life by killing, while the humans could only lose.

The outcome would be decided at that point.

That’s why defeating a ghoul legion usually had to be done from a distance.

But the current human defense line was just watching the ghoul horde relentlessly close the distance.

‘It’s almost time. They’ve reached right in front of the ramparts. This is going to be a very boring first invasion of the mortal realm.’

‘…….’

Selendion’s mouth opened slightly, breaking his silence.

‘Something’s strange.’

‘Yes? What do you mean?’

‘It shouldn’t be this easy.’

Selendion recalled the face of the enemy commander, Ash.

The face of the young human who had shown such clear hostility towards him…

‘Could the man who killed that Olop… really be defeated so easily?’

‘Perhaps you’re overestimating the enemy, Lord? After all, Olop was killed by a cannon, wasn’t he? Maybe it was just a lucky shot by an ordinary human who happened to kill that spider.’

‘…….’

‘Well, we’ll soon see. Whether it was the fate of a nobody or the achievement of a great human.’

Graaaaaa-!

The vanguard of the ghoul legion reached the moat below the ramparts.

If they fell into the holy water filling the moat, the ghoul legion would take quite a bit of damage, but these were Frost Ghouls.

Crack-

They froze the moat in an instant with the cold air they exhaled, then leaped across it.

Now, it was right at the ramparts. Still, there were no significant magical attacks from the ramparts, only cannons and arrows were being fired.

‘Is this really the end, humans?’

Selendion frowned.

‘Are they really giving up the ramparts so easily?’

Selendion had faced countless human ramparts over the long years.

The great humans of ancient times used to combine all sorts of innovative magic and skills to stop vampires.

The magical siege weapons, the ramparts made of moon silver, and the blue flames that purified evil were all terrifying weapons of the humans, even now.

But this rampart now?

‘Is it just cannons and arrows? Really?’

If so, they would have no choice but to perish.

Thud!

The hand of the foremost ghoul touched the rampart.

Crack! Crack!

Freezing the rampart with their hands, they stuck to it and climbed up, repeating this with both hands and feet.

Several dozen Frost Ghouls began to climb the ramparts. Watching this, Selendion clicked his tongue.

It was only the first wave sent for reconnaissance, but it looked like these ghouls were about to capture the ramparts.

‘Is that all they had…’

The moment Selendion uttered those words,

Thump! Thud!

Something was dropped from the ramparts above.

Alpha frowned, and Beta took a step forward to get a better look. Selendion narrowed his eyes.

‘What is it?’

It was… the corpses of cows and pigs.

They had suddenly dropped dozens of livestock corpses from the ramparts.

‘Uh…’

Alpha was bewildered by the unfamiliar sight.

‘What are they doing now?’

The scent of blood spread thickly from the livestock corpses, which had been pre-cut.

The ghouls’ gazes all turned to the livestock corpses.

Grrrr…

Grrrrrr!

And as if they had made a promise, the ghouls all rushed towards the livestock corpses at the same time.

Even the ones climbing the ramparts. All three hundred ghouls buried their heads in the ground and began to devour the livestock corpses. Alpha smacked his forehead.

‘Those stupid bastards…!’

The bloodline were always hungry monsters.

Ghouls needed meat. Vampires needed blood. They couldn’t live without it.

However, the higher the vampire’s rank, the more they suppressed their instincts and preferred higher-value blood with a higher concentration of magic and life force.

Ghouls didn’t have that.

They were just cannibals who went crazy for the blood and flesh in front of them.

‘……They’ve accurately targeted our legion’s weakness.’

Alpha, ashamed of his subordinates’ appearance, clicked his tongue.

‘But I never even considered this tactic…’

‘Old wars placed more importance on decorum. And, more than anything.’

Selendion muttered coldly.

‘It’s not very meaningful.’

Just the corpses of livestock. They would be devoured and disappear in a few tens of seconds in front of the ghouls.

In fact, the dozens of cow and pig corpses were almost reduced to bones.

The ghouls’ gluttony was immense.

‘If this is all they have, it won’t be useful for anything other than stalling for time…?’

It was then.

Whirr!

Giant cannons on the ramparts were aimed downwards.

Towards the ghoul horde, which was gathered together, devouring the livestock meat.

‘More cannons… even though they know it won’t work.’

At the same time as Selendion muttered,

Boom boom boom!

Kugwagwagwang-!

The cannons fired all at once, turning the gathered ghouls into mincemeat.

The ghouls were instantly shattered and annihilated.

Selendion tried to regenerate the ghouls as he had done before, once their lives were returned to him.

‘……?’

However.

‘……They’re not being returned.’

They didn’t come back.

The lives… had evaporated.

‘Yes? What do you mean…’

Alpha, who had asked in confusion, was startled.

Selendion was smiling.

He was clearly curling up both corners of his mouth, as if he was enjoying it to death.

‘All of their spirit cores have been destroyed. All three hundred of them.’

I didn’t know exactly what method they used…

‘Yes, this is how it should be. Now, this is a fight worth fighting…!’