I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 48

“I’m giving tactical orders now!” I turned around. “Jupiter, Damian!” Jupiter was already gathering magic in both hands, but Damian was out of it. Two giant golems had popped out from both sides, cornering the two front-line knights and causing a ruckus. Given the situation, I understand him spacing out, but he needs to snap out of it! I grabbed Damian’s cheek and pulled it hard. “Ouch, ouch, ouch! That hurts, Your Highness!” Tears welled up in Damian’s round brown eyes. Good, he seems to be back with it. “I’m giving orders! We’ll attack the golem that Lucas is fighting first.” Both Lucas and Evangeline are sturdy knights, but if we were to categorize their roles, there’s a difference. Lucas is a damage-tank. He’s an all-rounder who can deal damage and tank. He can perform both damage and tanking without lacking, but in other words, he can’t perfectly execute either one. On the other hand, Evangeline is basically a pure tank. She’s a specialist who is specialized in taking the opponent’s attacks. “Evangeline! Switch to full defense and block that thing. Lucas! We’re joining you now!” While Evangeline holds off one golem by herself, the rest of the party will take down the other one, which is the standard tactic. In reality, Evangeline is blocking it well with her shield. “Jupiter, blow away the armor on the golem’s chest!” “As you wish.” “Damian, are you with it?” “Yes, sir!” “Once Jupiter blows away the armor, snipe the exposed magic core. Can you do it?” “I will!” Damian nodded, gripping his magic rifle tightly. I nodded back at him. Clang! Clang! Lucas was now pushed right in front of me. Groooan! Groooan! The golem kept slamming its huge fists down, and Lucas was blocking them all with his sword, but his legs kept stepping back. Large monsters like golems are few in number, but each one is strong. Moreover, this one has an elite title, so it’s natural that a head-on fight is difficult. “That’s why we do party play!” I shouted and stretched my hand forward, Zap-! Lightning struck. The lightning that Jupiter shot hit the golem’s upper body. The blackened metal armor cracked. But the armor was unusually sturdy, and even with Jupiter’s magic, it only blackened and cracked a little, still holding up fine. “Tch, is it not enough!” Jupiter clicked his tongue, but I shook my head. “No! It’s enough!” Clank! Damian had already raised his magic rifle and was aiming. Damian doesn’t need a big gap. A very small and subtle crack is enough. “Fire!” At my shout, Damian pulled the trigger, Thwack-! The fired magic bullet shot out of the barrel, spitting out a bright yellow flame. “Whoa?!” Damian, unable to handle the recoil of the magic rifle, tumbled backward. Just before Damian, who was rolling on the floor, hit the wall, I ran and caught him with my body. Thud! “Your Highness?!” “Cough! Are you okay?” “I, I’m fine. What about the golem?!” I gave a bright smile to Damian, who was still out of it. “Look.” Following the direction I pointed with my finger, a smile of relief spread across Damian’s face. Thump, thud… The golem was slowly falling. Both knees were already on the ground, and its upper body slowly fell to the floor. Jupiter’s magic created a crack in the armor, and Damian’s magic bullet, which penetrated that gap, accurately pierced the magic core. The giant golem stopped working in an instant. “Phew.” Lucas also lowered his longsword with relief. “That was quite difficult.” “It was an elite monster much stronger than the usual ones. It suddenly got harder compared to Zone 1, so I was flustered.” It seems that this Zone 2 will be about hunting a small number of elite monsters. It would be easier to think of each encounter as a boss fight. That’s when it happened. “Hey, why are you all acting like it’s over and taking your hands off?” A scream was heard. Surprised, I looked and saw Evangeline still blocking one golem. “It’s not over here yet?!” “Oh, sorry. You were blocking so quietly and well.” “What do you mean quietly! My shield is about to get crushed!” Clang! Crash! Evangeline’s shield, which was taking the attacks, began to glow white. Evangeline’s first skill, Damage Save. It was storing the damage that the golem was inflicting. “Agh, I don’t care! Eat this!” The light gathered on Evangeline’s shield moved to her spear. Evangeline thrust the white-glowing spear forward with all her might. Evangeline’s second skill, Damage Payback! Thwack-! The damage stored up until now was released at once. The power was terrifying, and Evangeline’s spear tip pierced the golem’s hard armor like crushing tofu, Kuwagwagwang! Exploding from the inside. The right half of the golem’s body was tattered as if a bomb had exploded inside. “Ooh!” I couldn’t help but admire it. Is this the offensive and defensive skill combo of the strongest tank, Evangeline Cross! Gro, oo… The staggering golem knelt on one knee. “Alright! Finish it off!” Evangeline, excited, tried to rush at the golem. At that very moment. Slip! “Huh?” Evangeline, stepping on the fuel leaking from the golem, spun in the air and then fell spectacularly. Thud! “……” “……” A moment of silence. None of the party members, not even the golem, could move. Evangeline was lying on the floor, not moving. I wondered if she had fainted, but seeing that her earlobes were red, it seemed she was just too embarrassed to move… I tried hard to hold back the laughter that was about to come out and gestured to Jupiter. “J, Jupiter! It’s an emergency! Finish it quickly.” “Yes, sir!” Jupiter, who was giggling, snapped his fingers. Kuwagwagwang! Lightning struck, burning the remaining left half of the golem black. The golem fell to the floor. “Phew~” Jupiter, who blew on his fingertips, grinned. “Thank you for giving me the credit, missy!” No, don’t rub it in on the girl who fell! “……” Evangeline still didn’t move. I put my hand on my forehead and let out a shallow sigh. Evangeline’s trait [Clumsy] seems to have activated here. ‘Looking back, Evangeline is quite a goofball.’ When we first met, she didn’t even notice me throwing a punch. She also gets teleportation sickness, and this time she slipped on the oil on the floor. ‘I might be able to laugh it off now, but in a critical situation, it could be really dangerous…’ At that moment, Evangeline, trembling and staggering, got up and turned to look at us. Her two eyes, burning red, were visible. It was a face that said she would kill us if we made fun of her mistake. “Ahem! Ahem!” We each cleared our throats and avoided Evangeline’s gaze. Let’s not mention it and just move on. “Miss Evangeline, are you alright? If you’re hurt, I can heal you…” No, this kind and clueless healer kid?!? Damian, who had rushed to Evangeline’s side, used healing magic. Evangeline’s forehead was swollen red, as if she had hit it on the floor when she fell, and it quickly healed when Damian’s healing magic touched it. “……” It seems impossible to heal her bruised pride. Evangeline trembled, her face flushed as if she was about to explode. “Oh? Did you perhaps hit your face on the floor too?” I quickly pulled Damian away, who was tilting his head. Our kid is so kind, but he’s a bit clueless! “Ahem! Alright! Let’s quickly collect the items from the golems. They were strong, so they must have dropped good stuff.” “Yes, sir.” “This old man likes this time the best~” Lucas and Jupiter, nodding their heads, quickly ran to the golems. ‘I still need to heal more!’ Damian, who said that, was dragged away by me. Evangeline, who had been standing still for a while, muttered quietly. “No, being so considerate makes me even more angry…” But we were already running quickly towards the golems over there. Evangeline, who was blankly looking at our backs, yelled. “Just make fun of me! Just laugh at me! Hey! Where are you all going! Ughhh!” *** We were able to collect one large magic stone from each of the two steam golems. I held the magic stone in my hand and weighed it. It was heavy~, it seems like it’ll be worth some money. “Hmm… everything looks expensive.” Lucas held the golem’s engine part with the magic core attached and tilted his head. “I’m a layman when it comes to alchemy… I have no idea which parts are important.” “How would I know? Just take the ones that look like they’re in good condition.” Over there, Jupiter was just picking up the shiny parts and putting them in his pocket. As expected of a gold digger. He has a great nose for money. “Ugh… damn it… why did there have to be oil there…” Evangeline was grumbling to herself while half-heartedly searching through the golem’s remains. She seems to need some mental recovery. “Ahem!” I cleared my throat and approached Evangeline from behind and lectured her. “Junior, don’t be ashamed of such a small thing. Everyone makes bigger mistakes while living. Slipping on oil and doing two and a half spins in the air before falling is not even something to kick the blanket over before going to bed…” “……” Evangeline’s sharp eyes flashed menacingly. Her prominent fangs looked like they were about to bite me. Um, I guess this isn’t the way to comfort her. I’ll shut up. Lastly, I looked to see what Damian was doing. “Hmm.” He was seriously looking at the wall that the golem had destroyed when it appeared. I approached him. “What’s wrong, Damian?” “Here. Over here.” Damian pointed to the inside of the wall. “There’s something here, Your Highness.” “Something?” My eyes widened as I got closer. Buried in the rubble of the collapsed stone wall was… a treasure chest, without a doubt! Nice, clairvoyance! “Good job, Damian!” I was already planning to search for this, but to find it at once. If Jupiter knew there was a treasure chest, his ‘gold digger’ trait would activate and he would try to open it first. It’s better for me to open it quickly. I went to the chest with a happy face, “……?” This chest is subtly shaking. And that thing that’s sparkling between the lid and the body… it’s a tooth. ‘It’s a Mimic…’ A Mimic is a monster that disguises itself as a chest. If you defeat it, it actually gives you items, but if you open it without being prepared, you’ll have a bad time. I was about to call the other party members to deal with it, but then another thought occurred to me. “……” I glanced back. I saw Evangeline with her shoulders slumped. She’s only had rough times since coming to this city. She fainted from my 777 punch and her equipment was broken, she learned about her father’s death, and she came to the dungeon for no reason and only created things to kick the blanket over [a Japanese idiom for being embarrassed]. Especially her last mistake seems to be embarrassing right now. Well, I guess it would be. She just graduated from the academy at the top of her class, so her pride must be high, but she made such a mistake as soon as she came to the battlefield. ‘Should I comfort her a little?’ Thinking that, I gestured to Damian. “Damian, come here.” “Yes, Your Highness.” Damian trotted to my side. “Listen carefully, Damian.” I naturally put my arm around Damian’s shoulder and pointed to the treasure chest. “From now on, I’m going to deliberately touch that Mimic disguised as a treasure chest.” “Yes? Ah, yes…” I continued to explain to Damian, who didn’t understand well. “And I’m going to deliberately get caught and deliberately get eaten.” “……?” “Okay? Do you understand?” Damian looked up at me with eyes that said he couldn’t understand at all, “Heal, heal~” He gently stroked my forehead with his hand that had used healing magic. No, my head isn’t hurt! I’m fine right now!