I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 187

Lucas and Evangeline had been waiting on the ramparts throughout the entire defense battle.

There was no situation where they needed to go out and fight, nor were there any enemies engaging in close combat. Thus, their strength was fully preserved.

Clatter! Clatter! Clatter-!

The two knights, mounted on their horses, charged forward like tanks.

The Salamander Legion’s firepower was concentrated on the two who burst out of the gate.

However, the first barrage was completely neutralized by Reina, who swept a tornado across it.

“That mage officer, I don’t like him personally, but…”

Lucas muttered, glancing back at the ramparts.

“His skills are undeniable.”

“If his skills were also trash, I would have kicked him out a long time ago! Giddy up!”

Evangeline spurred her horse and took the lead.

Ordinary salamanders continued to spew fire, but Evangeline blocked them all with her shield.

Lucas, running right behind her, swung his sword left and right.

Thwack! Slash!

The salamanders in the path of the two knights were all split in two, spraying blood.

In an instant, they approached the closest Giant Salamander.

The Giant Salamander slowly turned its massive body, aiming its fiery maws at the two of them.

Lucas and Evangeline split to the left and right simultaneously, as if they had made a promise.

Thud! Thud!

Fireballs fell where the two knights had been just moments before.

However, the two knights had already scattered and were burrowing under the Giant Salamander’s massive body.

“Haaah-!”

Lucas’s [Willpower Strike] flashed as he thrust his sword down,

“Uraaaah!”

Evangeline thrust her spear, using [Damage Payback] to release the damage accumulated in her shield.

With Lucas’s sword strike and Evangeline’s spear thrust, one of the Giant Salamander’s thick legs was severed.

The Giant Salamander twisted its body, letting out a heavy scream.

The head, which had been raised high, lowered. The two knights, having spotted their prey, simultaneously lit up their eyes.

“Here I go-!”

Thud!

Evangeline, riding her horse and approaching the Giant Salamander’s neck, kicked off the saddle and sprang up like a squirrel.

It was a movement that was hard to believe, considering she was wearing heavy armor.

The Giant Salamander tried to spew fire at Evangeline, but,

“Don’t… spew fire!”

Evangeline slammed her shield down on the monster’s crown. Bang!

The impact caused the Giant Salamander’s head to drop even lower. Low enough to be reached by Lucas’s sword as he rode his horse.

Flash-!

Lucas’s sword emitted a brilliant burst of light.

He combined his 1st skill, [Willpower Strike], with the sword aura generation, a unique ability of his newly acquired sword, [Karma Eater].

There was no way anything could survive this attack.

It was truly a killing blow!

Clang-!

Lucas’s powerful upward sword strike cleanly severed the Giant Salamander’s neck.

The monster’s massive body collapsed to the ground, spilling lava-like blood.

“One down for now.”

Evangeline landed with a thud next to Lucas, who was muttering as he shook the blood off his sword.

“That’s a good start!”

“There are four more left. Let’s not be careless and keep going.”

The two knights remounted their horses and rode towards the next Giant Salamander.

As the battle continued, and Lucas and Evangeline were taking down their third Giant Salamander,

Puff!

Evangeline’s horse was visibly exhausted. Evangeline was flustered when the horse didn’t move properly.

“Huh? Why is it like this? Are you hurt somewhere?”

Evangeline, examining her horse, smacked her own forehead.

“Oops! The armor was too heavy… !”

The [Golem Armor] that Evangeline was wearing provided immense defense but also had tremendous weight.

Moreover, she had been doing acrobatics on the saddle while wearing such armor, so even the toughest warhorse had its limits.

‘If I was going to ride a horse, I should have worn lighter armor!’

Why did she always make these small mistakes? Evangeline stroked the mane of her panting horse.

Thanks to the shield Margherita had cast, the horse hadn’t been burned, but the field was still a sea of fire.

Heroic characters, being superhuman, were not greatly affected, but it was natural for ordinary warhorses to tire more easily.

“What should we do? We can’t fight like we did a moment ago.”

“There’s no choice. Let’s return to the castle and then…”

Lucas stopped mid-sentence. Fireball barrages were raining down from above.

“Damn it, get out of here!”

Lucas instinctively spurred his horse to get out of the path of the barrage, but then he paused.

Evangeline, who was trying to escape the barrage zone, was moving too slowly. Her horse wasn’t moving properly.

Before they could do anything, a fireball barrage fell on them.

Boom-!

“Evangeline!”

Lucas shouted in front of the thick smoke.

A moment later, Evangeline’s voice, coughing, could be heard from within the black smoke.

“I’m… okay…”

Despite being hit directly by the fireballs, Evangeline was not seriously injured. Her armor and shield were only slightly scorched.

“Ugh, the horse…”

However, the warhorse that had been caught in the fireball explosion was killed instantly.

Evangeline grieved next to the fallen horse.

“Ughhh, I’m sorry…”

“This is not the time for that!”

Lucas quickly grabbed Evangeline by the back of her neck, put her behind him, and moved away from the area.

The fireballs that fell in succession caused tremendous explosions.

“Since we’ve lost our mobility, it’s going to be a blitz! We have to finish this as quickly as possible!”

However, with feints no longer possible, the monsters’ targets became concentrated. Barrages continued to rain down on the horse that Lucas and Evangeline were riding together.

While approaching the fourth Giant Salamander, Lucas’s horse was eventually caught in the barrage and collapsed.

Neigh!

“Ugh?!”

“Whoa!”

The two knights who had fallen from their horses quickly regained their footing. However, flames continued to fly in from all directions.

Bang! Thud!

Evangeline held her shield forward and blocked the direct hits of the fireballs, while Lucas swung his sword to deflect the smaller attacks.

The two were stuck in place, just getting battered by the flames.

‘Was it a mistake to come out here with just the two of us in the first place?’

Lucas bit his lip in the sea of fire.

He had become confident in his own martial prowess during the previous battles.

He had judged that he and Evangeline alone could handle the situation.

Rather than bringing other soldiers and causing unnecessary sacrifices, he thought it would be better for the two elite knights to finish it. That was his thinking.

But was he wrong? Was it a reckless operation?

‘If the Lord were here, what kind of strategy would he have ordered?’

Ash’s face flashed before his eyes. He missed the confident smile of the one who always gave the best instructions.

‘No, that’s why!’

Lucas gritted his teeth.

Ash had said that he trusted Lucas and was leaving it to him. He had said that Lucas, and no one else, could handle the commander’s job.

He had to repay that trust.

Lucas gripped his sword tightly. It was then.

Whoosh-!

A streak of bright blue wave shot out from the ramparts, hitting the fourth Giant Salamander in the face.

Booo-!

The monster, which was about to launch a barrage at Lucas and Evangeline, screamed and twisted its body.

Surprised, they looked towards the ramparts and saw Junior. Junior, having squeezed out his last bit of strength to cast the spell, was collapsing to the ground.

“Now’s our chance!”

The barrage had momentarily weakened, and Lucas and Evangeline dashed forward with all their might.

Once they succeeded in approaching, the rest was instantaneous. Lucas and Evangeline quickly slashed down the fourth Giant Salamander.

Thud…!

Next to the fallen monster’s massive corpse, Lucas and Evangeline were panting.

“Is there only one left now?”

“Yes, we just need to take that one down…”

The last Giant Salamander was particularly far away. About 50 remaining ordinary salamanders were gathered with it.

They couldn’t just run in there without a plan. Lucas wiped the sweat and soot from his chin with the back of his hand and clicked his tongue.

‘How should we take it down…?’

***

At the same time, on the ramparts.

“Hmm…”

Damian was pondering.

He was looking down at the magic rifle [Black Queen] in his hand.

‘The Prince told me to only fire this gun three more times.’

He didn’t tell him the reason, but Ash had repeatedly told him not to fire the Black Queen more than three times.

He didn’t know why he was suddenly restricting a weapon he had been using well, but if Ash said so, he had to follow it unconditionally.

So, he had fired only two shots earlier and had saved the last one.

“…”

Damian looked at the battlefield again. He saw Lucas and Evangeline, who had lost their horses and were isolated in the sea of fire.

Eventually, Damian made up his mind and nodded.

‘Let’s fire the last shot here too.’

Damian, holding the Black Queen and taking aim, pointed the muzzle at the Giant Salamander, but then he paused.

Ash had told him to fire only three shots, but he hadn’t said to kill only three enemies.

If he was going to fire one more shot, he should hit as many enemies as possible to make the rest of the battle easier.

‘Align the firing line well… so that I can hit as many as possible with one shot…’

Damian ran to the edge of the ramparts and finished aiming.

He took a breath. He pulled the trigger.

Thwack-!

With a resounding firing sound, the magic bullet was fired.

The magic bullet that flew to the end of the battlefield accurately pierced the Giant Salamander’s eye, penetrated its head, and then additionally pierced and killed two ordinary salamanders that were standing guard around it.

Thud…!

The last Giant Salamander collapsed, spewing flames.

“Whew.”

Damian felt relieved as he watched that.

With this, they had overcome another hurdle in this defense battle…

“…Huh?”

Then, Damian noticed something strange.

Something black aura was spreading out from the magic core of the Black Queen. Like smoke…

《I’m… hungry…》

It sounded like he heard a voice.

‘What was that?’

He rubbed his tired eyes and looked down at the magic rifle again, and the Black Queen was as it always was. Smooth and beautiful as usual.

‘…Did I see things because I used my eyes too much today?’

Damian, tilting his head, slung the Black Queen back over his shoulder.

As soon as Damian’s gaze was gone, the black aura began to spread out again from the magic core of the Black Queen.

It was an ominous color, like the darkness of midnight.

***

Thud…!

With Damian’s support fire, the last Giant Salamander fell.

Lucas and Evangeline took down the remaining ordinary salamanders one by one.

The ordinary soldiers also rushed out of the gate to help with this process.

After defeating all the monsters and putting out the fires that had spread across the field, the sun was already setting. The defense battle had taken a full day.

As he returned to the castle walls, Lucas suddenly felt a sharp fatigue.

Evangeline had already leaned against the ramparts and started dozing off as soon as they returned.

“You’ve worked hard, Acting Commander.”

Reina, who was directing the post-battle cleanup, smiled at Lucas.

“I must acknowledge your bravery. But, you won’t last long with that method. You only have one life.”

“…”

Lucas agreed. Today’s battle was definitely more clumsy than usual.

In conclusion, they had managed to get through it safely, but the process was dangerous and sloppy.

Above all, Lucas himself, who was giving the orders, lacked confidence.

In the end, they needed Ash on this front.

‘Lord…’

Lucas muttered inwardly, looking at the party members who were sprawled out, exhausted, all over the ramparts.

‘Please come back soon…’

***

[STAGE 7 – CLEAR!]

[STAGE MVP – Damian(N)]

[Level Up Characters]

– Lucas(SSR) Lv.45 (↑1)

– Evangeline(SSR) Lv.45 (↑1)

– Jupiter Junior(SSR) Lv.54 (↑1)

– Damian(N) Lv.43 (↑2)

[Deceased and Injured Characters]

– None

[Acquired Items]

– Salamander Legion Magic Stones: 290

– Giant Salamander Magic Core(R): 5

[Stage clear rewards have been distributed. Please check your inventory.]

– R-Rank Reward Box: 5

>> Get Ready For The Next STAGE

>> [STAGE 8 : A Lucky Day]