I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 19

“Ugh, ugh, ugh!”\n\n”How are we supposed to take down a monster that big…!”\n\nThe appearance of the boss monster threw the soldiers on the ramparts into chaos.\n\nThe firing of cannons and ballistae ceased, and the fire net that had been maintained flawlessly instantly loosened.\n\nGrrrraaa!\n\nGrrrraaaaa-!\n\nThe Living Armor, having passed through the loosened fire net, poured in through the front and sides of the wooden outer wall.\n\nThese monsters were rushing to kill the closest human.\n\nTowards Jupiter, who had fallen and fainted from the impact of the fall.\n\n”Damn it! We need to form a battle line!”\n\n”Protect the mage!”\n\nJupiter’s four party members rushed to form a battle line in front of Jupiter.\n\nHowever, they too had suffered considerable injuries from the fall. Moreover, all the horses that had been running wild had scattered and fled.\n\nThe end of a mobile unit that had lost its mobility was as clear as day.\n\n‘I’m going to die!’\n\nI gritted my teeth.\n\nI couldn’t lose Jupiter, a hero party, in a place like this!\n\n”Damian!”\n\nDamian looked at me. I urgently pointed towards Jupiter’s party.\n\n”Snipe the Living Armor heading towards Jupiter’s party!”\n\n”Yes, sir!”\n\nWithout a word, Damian quickly turned the direction of his crossbow.\n\nFwish! Fwish! Fwish-!\n\nShots flew in quick succession.\n\nThwack! Thwack!\n\nThe one-shot-kill arrows accurately pierced the Living Armor.\n\nThe problem, however, was that… Damian was the most precise sniper in the world, but his firing speed wasn’t fast.\n\nGrrrraaa-!\n\nThe number of Living Armor pouring in through the loosened kill zone was too great; it was impossible to stop them all with Damian’s sniping.\n\nLukas shouted at me.\n\n”Your Highness! We need to redirect the cannon fire to support Jupiter’s party!”\n\n”No!”\n\nI refused outright.\n\n”The fire net must be maintained as it is! If the kill zone disappears, the number of those breaking through will increase!”\n\n”But!”\n\n”Focus on restoring the fire net first! The soldiers are all out of it!”\n\nI ran to a soldier who was stammering in front of a cannon on the rampart and smacked him on the back.\n\n”Get a grip, you idiots! Don’t be intimidated just because that monster is a bit big!”\n\nThen the soldier immediately came to his senses.\n\n”Huh?! I, I’m sorry, Your Highness!”\n\n”Huh?”\n\nI was rather taken aback. What? Is my back smack that painful?\n\nLooking down at my palm, I suddenly realized the reason.\n\nMy passive skill, [Unyielding Commander]!\n\n‘Soldiers within 10m of me recover from mental status ailments.’\n\nI looked at the soldiers trembling with fear on the ramparts.\n\nCould it be that ‘recovering from mental status ailments’ means not only dispelling debuff magic but also fixing shaken mental states?\n\n‘Then, if I run around the battlefield like crazy, I can restore the soldiers’ mental state to normal?’\n\nAs soon as the thought struck me, I made a quick decision. I turned sharply to Lukas.\n\n”Lukas!”\n\n”At your command.”\n\n”I’ll take care of calming the soldiers and restoring the kill zone! Lukas, you!”\n\nI hesitated for a moment, but I finally blurted it out.\n\n”Take charge of the rescue team.”\n\n”……!”\n\n”Open the gate and go out to rescue Jupiter’s party.”\n\nI couldn’t lose an SR-grade mage here. Absolutely not!\n\nAnd the only one who could go into that hell full of monsters and rescue Jupiter was, inevitably, the protagonist, Lukas.\n\nLukas quickly scanned the battlefield.\n\nEven now, Living Armor that had escaped the kill zone were rushing in with terrifying momentum.\n\nThe armored monsters were roaring horribly as they charged towards Jupiter’s party.\n\nTo go into a death trap and rescue his comrades.\n\nA reckless order.\n\n”Yes, Your Highness!”\n\nBut Lukas looked at me with a face that didn’t waver in the slightest and nodded.\n\n”I will return immediately.”\n\n”……I’m counting on you, Lukas.”\n\nIt was a decision that could potentially lose both an SR-grade mage and an SSR-grade knight.\n\nBut I decided to trust Lukas. I decided to bet on this guy’s innate good fortune as the protagonist.\n\nLukas flew down the stairs of the rampart. Please, protagonist!\n\nI hurriedly ran along the outer edge of the rampart, smacking the soldiers on their backs.\n\n”Get a grip, get a grip, you morons! Are you going to die like this!”\n\nWhack! Whack!\n\nThe soldiers who were hit by my stinging back smacks all jumped and came to their senses.\n\n”Ugh?!”\n\n”That hurt!”\n\n”Y, Your Highness? What……”\n\n”Get a grip and fire the cannons! Can’t you maintain the kill zone properly?!”\n\nRunning at full speed along the rampart, I yelled at the top of my lungs, hitting the soldiers’ backs, cheeks, and shoulders.\n\n”Are you scared of that monster? Really?!”\n\nThe soldiers looked at the giant ghost floating in the sky. They all still had terrified faces.\n\nSo I told them honestly.\n\n”I’m scared too, damn it!”\n\n”Yes?”\n\n”Of course, I’m scared! If you’re not scared of something like that, you’re not human!”\n\nThe monster was bigger than a human.\n\nThe monster was more powerful than a human.\n\nIt was natural to feel primal fear. Being afraid was not something to be ashamed of.\n\nBut!\n\n”But ordinary people will feel even more fear towards those monsters than we who are trained!”\n\nI ran along the rampart once, smacking each soldier on the back once. Everyone came to their senses.\n\nBut even though I knew they had come to their senses, I ran in the opposite direction once more, smacking each of them on the back again.\n\n”Think about the fear your mother! Your wife! Your sibling! Your child! will feel when they see that monster!”\n\nThe faces of the soldiers who were hit by my back smacks were filled with bewilderment and a new kind of fear.\n\n”Think about what will happen when this place is breached and those monsters enter the city!”\n\n”……!”\n\n”Imagine the helpless civilians being massacred by those monsters! Think of the countless children who could be sacrificed because you’re frozen in fear!”\n\nHuff, huff, oh my. Running back and forth on the rampart once made me so out of breath. I feel like I’m going to throw up.\n\n”We have to stop them here.”\n\nI continued to shout, even while panting.\n\n”We are the final line of defense that stops the monsters and protects the people!”\n\nThe soldiers were still terrified, but they grabbed the cannons and ballistae again with trembling hands.\n\n”If you’ve come to your senses, fire quickly! You bastards! Pour out all the ammunition you have!”\n\n”Yes, sir!”\n\n”Fire! Fire-!”\n\nBang! Bang! Thump-!\n\nThe cannons roared again, and the ballistae began to fire. I also yelled at the top of my lungs.\n\n”Fire, fire! Burn those monsters to a crisp-!”\n\nThe kill zone was barely restored.\n\nThe center of the wooden outer wall was once again blocked by crossfire, and the Living Armor began to melt away helplessly.\n\nHowever, the number of monsters that had poured into the outer wall while the kill zone was neutralized was considerable.\n\n”Open the gate!”\n\nAnd into that field of monsters, Lukas rushed out alone.\n\n”Giddy up, giddy up-!”\n\nLukas on horseback disappeared like a flash. I clenched my fist tightly.\n\n‘I’m counting on you, Lukas!’\n\nThe fate of this stage, no….\n\nThe fate of this entire game. It’s in Lukas’s hands.\n\n***\n\n”Huh?!”\n\nJupiter opened his one eye wide.\n\n‘Where am I?’\n\nJupiter quickly scanned his surroundings.\n\nIt was the field in front of the south rampart of Crossroads. He was lying there, fallen.\n\n‘I remember my horse suddenly going crazy and throwing me off.’\n\nWhat happened after that?\n\nWhat happened?\n\n”Sir Jupiter! Have you come to your senses?!”\n\nA desperate shout flew towards him. Jupiter struggled to push himself up, supporting his upper body with his hands on the ground.\n\nHis forehead was wet, and when he touched it, blood came out. It seemed he had injured his head when he fell.\n\nHis waist also ached, and every time he moved, he felt a sharp pain.\n\n”Oh, what a hardship for someone my age……”\n\n”Sir Jupiter! Time is of the essence! Sir Jupiter!”\n\nLooking towards the voice, his party members were surrounding him, protecting him.\n\nGrrrraaaaa-!\n\nAnd towards those party members, the Living Armor were roaring and rushing.\n\n”……?!”\n\nThe spinning in his head immediately turned cold. Jupiter came to his senses and grasped the current situation.\n\nJupiter’s party was isolated.\n\nThey had all been injured from falling in the field, and Jupiter had fainted.\n\nBefore they could even attempt to return to the city, they were attacked by the Living Armor.\n\n”The rescue team will be here soon! We have to hold out until then…!”\n\nThe mercenary who was telling Jupiter the situation urgently swung the iron mace in his hand.\n\nThwack!\n\nThe helmet of one of the Living Armor that had rushed in was dented by the mace.\n\nGrr, ack-!\n\nBut the Living Armor only paused for a moment before roughly thrusting the spear in its hand again.\n\n”Damn it! It’s still standing after getting hit by that?!”\n\nThe mercenary spat out a curse.\n\nThe other party members were the same.\n\nThey poured attacks on the Living Armor that were rushing in like a flood, but the Living Armor did not fall easily with ordinary attacks.\n\nEven if they fell easily with magic attacks, they continued to move with physical attacks unless the entire armor was destroyed.\n\nThis was why the Living Armor were difficult to deal with.\n\nEven though all of Jupiter’s party members were N-grade, they were hero characters.\n\nThey were skilled individuals who had faced many monsters, but the Living Armor, which were numerous and each one was tough, were not easy opponents.\n\nEventually,\n\n”Cough?!”\n\nThere was a casualty.\n\nIt was the mercenary who had been telling Jupiter the situation.\n\nHe had succeeded in crushing the fourth Living Armor with his iron mace, but the Living Armor, with only its upper body remaining, crawled over and stabbed him in the calf with a spear.\n\nWhile he was staggering in pain, several more Living Armor rushed in.\n\nHe swung his iron mace with all his might and crushed the leading Living Armor,\n\nThwack! Thwack!\n\nBut the other Living Armor pierced his chest and abdomen with their spears.\n\n”Kuh… ack……”\n\nHe struggled in pain and tried to swing his iron mace again, but the monsters were faster.\n\nThwack! Thwack-!\n\nAfter mechanically pulling out their spears, they stabbed again.\n\nThere was no emotion in the monsters’ movements. They were simply drawing the optimal path to kill humans efficiently.\n\nJupiter’s eyes flipped as he watched one of his party members being brutally murdered.\n\n”You damn monsters…!”\n\nJupiter quickly tried to use magic to wipe out the Living Armor in the area, but the magic power did not gather properly in his hands.\n\nPerhaps because he had fallen headfirst when he fell, his control over his magic power was not working properly.\n\nJupiter pressed his forehead and tried to gather his magic power.\n\n”Kuh, damn it…! Quickly…!”\n\nThwack! Thwack-!\n\n”Ugh, aaaaack!”\n\nIn the meantime, the second party member also fell.\n\nIt was the mercenary who had been deflecting attacks with his shield.\n\nHowever, as the shield was broken by the Living Armor’s fierce attacks, his entire body was simultaneously mutilated.\n\n”Ugh, ugh, ugh! Damn it, damn it!”\n\nThe third party member who was fighting next to him turned and ran away. No, he tried to run away.\n\nBut as soon as he turned his body, the Living Armor threw their spears at his empty back.\n\nWhoosh! Whoosh-!\n\nThwack! Thwack!\n\nThe third party member, who was instantly pierced by the thrown spears, fell to the ground without even screaming.\n\nHe trembled in the pool of blood he had spilled and soon died.\n\nThe small defense line that had been maintained by just a few people was instantly annihilated.\n\nJupiter smelled the scent of the Living Armor right in front of him.\n\nThe smell of rusty armor and rotten water.\n\nThe smell of drowning.\n\n”You should have just stayed buried under the lake……”\n\nHe barely managed to gather a handful of magic power at his fingertips. Jupiter shouted and stretched his hand forward.\n\n”Is it so upsetting that this old woman is getting her salary in peace?!”\n\nFlash-!\n\nA blue lightning bolt flashed and swept through the area.\n\nThe Living Armor standing in the front all fell, charred black.\n\nIt was effective, but it was less than half of his usual output. The lightning bolts that had been falling in several streaks now fell in just one.\n\n‘This is bad.’\n\nLooking at the Living Armor that were rushing in behind the charred armor, Jupiter clicked his tongue.\n\nAnd he shouted to the last remaining party member.\n\n”You should run away!”\n\n”Yes, yes?!”\n\nThe last party member was a young mercenary who still looked immature. Jupiter shouted again.\n\n”It’s better for one person to live than for everyone to die! Hurry up and run, you brat!”