I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 378

Rumbling…

Kugwagwagwang!

The right side of the wall began to collapse.

Shattered iron plates fell like hail, and crushed wall fragments created dust clouds as they poured down. A thick cloud of dust enveloped the area.

Kilik!

Kikikikik!

The goblins below cheered at the sight.

It was the result of countless lives of their comrades being thrown away without hesitation. Finally, they had brought down this high wall where the humans had been hiding like rats.

They could see the red blood of the humans hiding behind there…!

As the shaking and collapse subsided, the goblins could no longer hold back and rushed through the gaps in the collapsed wall.

The desire for destruction and the urge to kill, pushed to their limits, dominated their minds.

And, from within the thick rising dust-

A huge cavalry spear emerged.

Thwack-!

Thud! Thwack!

The cavalry spear, piercing through the dust, instantly impaled the goblins.

Following that, a large shield flew in, crushing the goblins’ bones.

The terrified goblins hesitated and retreated, revealing the human shield warriors positioned within the dust cloud.

Evangeline, at the forefront, took a step forward and commanded.

“Nothing changes!”

Behind the five heroes with shields, hundreds of soldiers with shields also appeared.

“We will become the wall! We will stop the monsters here!”

It was Evangeline’s party and the melee combat soldiers who had rushed down as the wall collapsed.

Standing firmly in the gaps of the collapsed wall, Evangeline shouted.

“If we can just hold out, our other allies will annihilate the monsters! So…”

Clenching the handle of her cavalry spear tightly, Evangeline growled softly.

“Let’s fight!”

Kiriik!

Kyaaaa-!

Towards the narrow gaps, over thousands of goblins began to pour in, screaming.

Evangeline and her heroes also shouted back, charging forward with their shields raised.

Evangeline truly believed that if they could just hold out, their allies on and outside the wall would eliminate all the remaining goblins.

That was why she had come down here without hesitation, where the monsters were endlessly surging.

But Evangeline didn’t know.

How long this battle would last.

And how terrible it would become.

***

There is a game genre called Musou [a genre of hack-and-slash action games where the player fights against hordes of enemies].

It’s an action game genre where the character controlled by the user sweeps through the battlefield with exhilarating moves, easily defeating weak enemies and winning the war.

The thrill of coolly defeating weak enemies is the main enjoyment of this type of game.

However, even in these games, there is a point where most users commonly feel fatigue.

1,000.

Even in these action games where you can defeat enemies refreshingly without stress, users feel fatigue when the number of enemies defeated exceeds 1,000.

That’s why most stages are set up so that you can win with around 1,000 kills.

Even in a game where you’re not actually fighting, but just controlling a virtual character, it’s like this, so how would it be in reality?

No matter how powerful the heroes are, even if their opponents are weak goblins-

They are bound to get tired after defeating even a hundred enemies, let alone a thousand.

Their bodies and minds become tattered.

“Haa! Haa!”

How much time had passed since the start of the battle?

The assault of the attack force had long since stopped. We had lost our mobility and were trapped in the middle of the goblin legion.

Seeing the wall collapse, we all became impatient. So we didn’t let up on the attack.

But the goblins were far more numerous than I had thought.

Our hero party’s charge had quickly taken thousands of their lives. But there were still many more left.

Their depth was thick, and as much as we dug in, they filled it back up.

In the end, the backlash from pushing too hard came back.

The heroes, who had poured all their strength from the beginning of the battle, quickly became exhausted and were eventually stopped in the middle of the goblin legion.

“……”

Looking around, I saw the red eyes of the goblins surrounding us in a circle.

How delicious a prey a cavalry that has lost its momentum must be.

But none of us talked about retreating.

Everyone just gripped their weapons with tired hands, glaring at the monsters with venomous eyes.

The goblins in the mid-to-rear ranks that our attack force was drawing attention to.

If we retreated, these guys would join the goblins that had advanced and rush towards the collapsed wall.

Then the burden on the wall defense team would increase even more.

It would be hard enough to hold out with the wall already collapsed…

‘Here, we have to draw their attention to the limit and reduce their numbers.’

No one said it, but it was clear that everyone was thinking the same thing.

So, even though they were all exhausted, they were fighting bravely…

“Hoo, hoo, khuk!”

Kuilran groaned, shaking his fists, which were covered in green blood.

Due to the inherent limitations of a martial artist who has to stick close to the enemy, he had to roll around entangled with the goblins and had suffered minor injuries all over his body.

“Tch, arrows…”

Verdandi threw her empty quiver on the ground and held a dagger in each hand, reversed.

All consumables, including arrows and throwing daggers, were depleted.

Now the Holy Grail Expedition had to fight with their own bodies, but they wouldn’t be able to fight for long since they were injured from the start.

“These bug-like things…!”

Dusk Bringer growled, grinding his sharp teeth.

As expected of a dragon with notoriously poor fuel efficiency, Dusk Bringer’s output had noticeably decreased as the battle turned into a long one.

He had breathed dragon breath several times during the battle, burning the goblins in groups, but that had caused his output to drop even faster.

At least his knights were used to this kind of hard fighting and were maintaining their condition…

“Hoo.”

Finally, Lucas.

Even after [Full Body Descent] ended, Lucas was still rampaging. His kill count alone had far exceeded 1,000.

It was a great performance worthy of a protagonist, close to being a match for ten thousand men, beyond being a match for a thousand.

But, no matter how much of a protagonist he was, he couldn’t fight endlessly.

Although he was trying not to show it, I could easily tell that his stamina and mana were quite depleted.

‘If the battle had gone according to the initial plan… would it have been okay then?’

Originally, the Leprosy Extermination Unit and the Shadow Unit should have been included in the attack force.

If that had been the case, it would have been like adding one more defense unit and one more firepower unit, so the completeness of this attack force would have been much higher.

A more flexible and efficient battle would have been possible.

But, they weren’t there.

The Leprosy Extermination Unit had suffered severe injuries during the Shadow Unit rescue operation and had been admitted to the temple, and the Shadow Unit had been killed and injured, and the party had been disbanded.

‘Where did I go wrong?’

I retrace the moves I’ve made so far.

It might have been a battle where we could have fought much more efficiently and with less damage. But, because of my wrong judgment…

“They’re coming-!”

At that moment, goblins began to pour in from all directions at once.

It seemed that they had been preparing to hunt, and were finally pushing in as our movements became noticeably slower.

Even if we had only brought heroes who were skilled in close combat, if we continued to be attacked like this in the middle of them, the damage would inevitably increase.

So, I gritted my teeth and muttered.

“…I declare.”

I quickly unfurled the folding flag in my hand. Lucas, who was standing over there, was horrified and shouted.

“My lord, don’t…!”

But, the flagpole in my hand was already digging into the ground.

“This land is, the territory of the Empire-!”

Whirr-!

[Imperial Territory Declaration] was activated.

Kugugugung!

The mana that poured out of my body constructed a gray wall. In an instant, our attack force was protected by a gray mana fortress.

Now, a much more efficient battle would be possible…

“Cough.”

…My vision turned bright red.

An ringing sound echoed in my ears, and it felt like my insides were burning. Blood dripped from my nose and mouth.

I pushed myself a little too hard. Using this skill twice in one day.

The heroes and soldiers around me rushed to me in a panic. But I gritted my teeth and shouted.

“Fight-!”

“… !”

“I’m fine, so go fight!”

I am not a perfect player.

My moves are full of flaws. There must be plenty of missed opportunities and breakthroughs that I missed.

But looking back at them and regretting them is not what I should be doing now.

One by one, reduce the number of enemies.

If they are monsters that will only stop when the last one is annihilated, then we have no choice but to defeat them one by one, no matter how slow it is.

Move forward.

Advance, no matter what.

“Fight-!”

The heroes and soldiers, gritting their teeth, stood at the edge of the mana fortress. Monsters poured in like waterfalls from all directions.

I breathed heavily and opened the stage information window.

Thanks to our attack force and the firepower force on the wall constantly killing goblins, the number of remaining goblins was now just over 10,000.

If the wall defense force could hold out somehow, we could calmly reduce the remaining ones…

That was when it happened.

Kwangg! Kugwagwagwang-!

“… !”

A terrible explosion rang out, and I looked in that direction.

I saw a group of goblin suicide bombers pouring towards our defense force, who were blocking the gaps in the collapsed wall.

And, the walls that had already collapsed were collapsing further to the left and right…

***

‘Huh?’

Buried in the debris, Evangeline blinked blankly.

Her whole body was stiff as if she had been beaten.

After coughing roughly, Evangeline was able to recall why she had ended up like this.

‘Damn it, those suicide bombers…’

The firepower force on the wall was prioritizing taking out the suicide bombers on the ground.

But in the end, a group of suicide bombers had succeeded in reaching the defense force and had exploded spectacularly.

The heroes with shields, as well as the ordinary soldiers, were caught in the blast.

Evangeline, who had been caught in the explosion head-on, had also been blown far away.

‘No limbs are missing…’

She had bruises, but all her limbs were moving. It was an amazing defense for her own body.

Evangeline quickly got up. But immediately after, her legs gave out and she knelt on the ground.

‘Ugh!’

The damage had accumulated to the point where even her amazing defense could not handle it.

Evangeline gritted her teeth, used her spear to support herself, and forced herself to stand up.

‘Move, move… move!’

Soldiers who had died in the explosion were scattered everywhere.

Even her fellow heroes who had been holding shields and blocking the goblins at the front line just a little while ago.

She squeezed her aching eyes shut to calm herself, and Evangeline glared straight ahead.

‘If the front line has collapsed, the goblins will push in further… I have to stop them, even if it’s just me!’

As she had expected. Through the thick dust cloud, the countless footsteps of goblins were approaching.

Evangeline gripped her spear and shield, determined to resist with all her might.

Then, someone grabbed Evangeline’s shoulder.

Evangeline, startled, turned around and saw an old veteran of the Twilight Legion, who had been leading the defense force soldiers.

“Miss! You’re safe!”

“Ah…! Commander, you’re safe too!”

“More importantly, this is not the time for that! We have to retreat! We can no longer stop the enemies here!”

The old veteran pointed to the left and right in turn.

“The left and right walls have collapsed further! It’s no longer a gap that can be blocked by a defense force!”

“Then…”

“I ordered the defense line to retreat! The monsters will attack the closest humans, so we have to protect the firepower force on the wall!”

“…”

“You must retreat as well, Miss! Hurry!”

Evangeline, looking at the corpses of her allies, gritted her teeth and retreated. The old veteran shouted in a hoarse voice and retreated with her.

“Retreat! To the wall, retreat-!”

The surviving melee combat personnel dragged their bloodied bodies and set up a line at the entrance of the stairs leading up to the wall.

Evangeline, at the forefront, glared at the goblin horde with haggard eyes.

Kilik!

Kiriririk!

Screaming, goblins poured in through the gaps in the collapsed wall.

About half of them rushed towards the wall stairs where Evangeline and the soldiers were.

But the other half were digging into Crossroads.

Evangeline gritted her teeth as she glared at the monsters pushing into the city.

“…All the citizens of Crossroads have evacuated, right?”

Under Ash’s orders, all civilians had evacuated to the northern city.

And the remaining soldiers, alchemists, and other personnel were gathered on the wall.

It was terrible that the dirty feet of those monsters were trampling on Crossroads, but at least there would be no damage since it was an empty city…

“…The temple.”

But at the old veteran’s reply, Evangeline’s face hardened.

“In the temple… there are priests and the wounded…!”