I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 545

Flash-!

Light flashed inside the forward base.

I, who had been waiting with my lips tightly bitten, shouted.

“Now! Everyone, charge in!”

Thud!

Led by Lucas, Torkel, Nobody, and Chain, we dashed forward, followed by me, Diermuidin, Hannibal, and 30 soldiers.

“Ugh?!

“Let go, you monster bastards!”

“Get out of here! Everyone, wake up!”

In the center of the forward base, the soldiers who had regained their senses were barely escaping the grasp of the scarecrows.

The scarecrows themselves weren’t very strong, and they were sloppy, likely because most of the power they had taken from the victims had already been given to the legion commander. The soldiers were escaping from the scarecrows without much difficulty.

We rushed towards them.

“Waaaaaah!”

“Get lost, you monster bastards!”

The heroes, charging like bullets, swung their swords and shields, Diermuidin unleashed magic, and Hannibal sent out spirits.

Close behind them, the 30 soldiers fiercely swung their spears in all directions.

Creak…….

Clatter, creak, clatter……!

The scarecrows retreated, making grotesque noises.

All the captured soldiers were gathered in one place, so they were able to regain their senses with Janice’s ultimate skill, and we were able to save them all. Even Janice, who had collapsed from exhaustion.

Whoosh! Swish!

The scarecrows quickly retreated, moving out of our attack range.

The Scarecrow Legion Commander, ‘The Oldest Scarecrow,’ standing in the middle of them, growled.

《To interfere with the end of the harvest… you pests of the autumn season.》

“Who are you calling a pest, you damn monster bastard?”

I stood in front of the soldiers and smirked.

“The hostages were the biggest problem, but now that we’ve solved that… I can beat you to death without hesitation.”

《Oh, really?》

The mouth made from the ripped straw sack of the Scarecrow Legion Commander twisted into a hideous grin.

《Have you really solved it?》

“……!”

He slowly opened his chest, which he had been covering with both arms.

Mikhail was trapped there.

“Mph! Uuuuph!”

He seemed to have regained his senses thanks to Janice’s ultimate skill, but the Scarecrow Legion Commander’s strong arms were holding Mikhail tightly, not letting him go. His long fingers were pressing down on Mikhail’s mouth.

The Scarecrow Legion Commander, seeing our expressions change, chuckled, creak, creak.

《And, I don’t understand. Hostages are one thing, but… this place has already been occupied by our legion. Do you think you’re safe?》

Urrrrrrrr!

Scarecrows swarmed around us.

There were more of them than we had previously identified. Hundreds? No, maybe thousands…

There were many felled trees in front of the forward base, so it seemed the commander had used his authority to create a lot of new scarecrows.

Lucas, horrified by the number, shouted.

“Can monsters multiply, my lord?!”

“It’s not multiplication. He’s making new scarecrows out of wood, and then that legion commander is injecting his malice into them to make them move like puppets.”

Creak, creak, creak…

The swarming scarecrows, like a horde of praying mantises, bumped their limbs against each other, making hideous noises.

“Ugh……”

“T-too many……”

Not only us, who had rushed in to rescue them, but also the soldiers who had just been freed. Everyone was pale and sweating.

The Scarecrow Legion Commander, facing us, made a gesture as if licking his lips with his nonexistent tongue and laughed.

《I’ll harvest all of you.》

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The scarecrows all started running towards us at once.

They were sloppy monsters that could only exert the power of wooden dolls if they couldn’t kidnap victims. Still, their numbers were terrifying, and most of our forces had been captured and had their power drained. The situation was clearly overwhelmingly disadvantageous.

‘It’s time to test the performance of the new equipment.’

I glanced at the flagpole in my hand.

Nightmare Slayer, [Light and Shadow].

Normally, it can be stored at the waist as a ceremonial longsword, but if you use the transformation gimmick that combines the scabbard with the handle after drawing the sword, it becomes longer like a spear… and can be used as a flagpole like this.

Flap-!

And equip my personal equipment, [The Great Commander’s Flag], on this flagpole.

The flag and the flagpole. These two combined, finally complete a single great banner.

“This place!”

I shouted and planted the great banner on the ground.

“Is the forefront of the world-!”

My ultimate skill, [The Foremost Flag], activated.

Whirr-!

The summoned magical wall bloomed like a flower.

The wall rose up, surrounding and protecting our allies. In an instant, another new fortress was created inside the forward base.

But the situation had only improved slightly. We were still surrounded by an overwhelming number of enemies.

Creak!

Creak, creak, creak!

The countless scarecrows, with sinister laughter, began to climb the wall all at once.

“……”

At that moment, Diermuidin looked at me intently.

As if to say, show me more if you have more tricks up your sleeve.

As if to prove my stubbornness further.

‘I’m going to show you anyway!’

I gripped the new flagpole tightly.

Why is this equipment named [Light and Shadow]?

Where there is light, there is shadow, and where there is shadow, there is light.

Thus, light and shadow are inseparable.

Just as the two White Nights, who were each other’s copies, each other’s doppelgangers, circled each other.

The special ability of the Nightmare Slayer, [Light and Shadow], made from the magic cores of these two great mages, is to…

‘Duplicate the user’s [Traits].’

As if I were duplicated and there were two of me.

It allows you to equip twice the number of trait slots as a normal character—up to six in total—and doubles their effects.

It wouldn’t be that useful for other characters. At best, it’s a trait that only applies to the individual.

But all of my traits affect all of my allies.

The effectiveness of the traits is incomparable to anyone else!

[Attack Totem Lv.3]

– Just by deploying on the battlefield, it raises the morale of allies, providing a 15 percent bonus to the attack power of all allies.

[Defense Totem Lv.3]

– Just by deploying on the battlefield, it raises the morale of allies, providing a 15 percent bonus to the defense power of all allies.

These are the traits I originally enjoyed using.

And, here’s a new trait I got in my third year!

[Master of Nurturing Lv.1]

– Increases the experience gained by all allies fighting alongside by 10 percent.

[Good Quartermaster]

– All allies feel less fatigue and can continue fighting until the end.

[Unbreakable Spirit]

– Raises the morale of allies by one level.

And the final touch in the last slot.

[Super Buffer]

– Enhances all buffs provided by the commander character by one level.

That’s the end.

I also have traits like [Main Order] and [Map Making], but these are the six I’m currently using.

Each of the equipped traits is already overpowered, but with [Super Buffer] increasing the effect by one level, and then the [Light and Shadow] equipment effect doubling it again.

On top of that, there’s the [Great Commander’s Flag] attached to this flagpole.

[Great Commander’s Flag (EX)]

– Category: Flag (Sub-Equipment)

– Durability: 10/10

– Provides the following buffs to all forces commanded by the wearer

> Strength +10, Agility +10, Intelligence +10, Stamina +10, Magic Power +10

> Increases physical resistance by 10 percent, magic resistance by 10 percent

> Increases physical penetration by 10 percent, magic penetration by 10 percent

> Increases all types of elemental resistance by 10 percent

> Morale does not drop below ‘Normal’

Buff!

Buff! Buff! Buff! Buff! Buff!

It was a veritable barrage of buffs-!

Flash-!

Terrifying gray magic surged from the flag, and the buffs, which had gone beyond their limits and were almost out of control, began to rain down on all the allies around me.

Not only the heroes and soldiers who had come to rescue us, but even those who had been sitting helplessly after having their power drained. They blinked in surprise.

“W-what, suddenly I have strength…”

“My fatigue is gone?”

“What is this? My body was trembling just a moment ago…”

“I feel like I can take on anything…!”

The soldiers, who had been hesitant due to the number of scarecrows, all regained their fighting spirit.

They picked up their dropped weapons, put on their discarded armor, and began to stand next to us, one by one.

“What, the armor feels light…?”

“Huh! Is it just me?! I feel like I can see better?!”

“R-rejuvenation, I’m rejuvenating!”

“My lord, this power…”

Torkel, Nobody, Chain, and Lucas also looked at me in surprise.

“…What is this.”

Diermuidin stared at the scene with his mouth open.

“How can an individual have this much karma… and even share it with his subordinates? What is this…”

I smirked.

“Diermuidin, you said to sacrifice the non-elites to maintain the front line and preserve the elites.”

“……”

“My answer is this.”

I forcibly transform all my heroes and soldiers into elites.

By plastering them with equipment bought with money, leveling them up, and finally pouring buffs on them with my abilities.

If everyone becomes an elite, fatigue won’t accumulate on specific heroes, and there won’t be a need to sacrifice anyone in particular.

Diermuidin, looking at me as if he was dumbfounded, shook his head.

“This is a shortcut.”

“I know.”

“It’s not a structural, fundamental solution.”

“I know.”

“It will become a deformed front line that relies entirely on one commander, you.”

“I know.”

“Can you truly… handle it?”

“I will handle it.”

I swung the flag once and simultaneously stretched my hand forward.

“The final all-out offensive of the monsters is less than a year away, there’s no way we can’t endure it…!”

At the same time, automatic defense turrets formed around the magic fortress,

Thudududududung!

Spraying magic cannonballs in all directions.

The scarecrows that were climbing the wall were shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions. I commanded the soldiers.

“Have you all regained your senses?!”

The soldiers answered in unison.

“Yes-!”

“Don’t be overwhelmed by the numbers! They are just weak wooden dolls like straw!”

They are monsters that are good for nothing but instilling fear.

And their fear has no effect in front of my passive, [Unbreakable Commander].

Numbers? What do numbers matter?

The soldiers here have all taken a full bath in Ash’s top-grade special buffs, they are all warriors worth a hundred men!

“Wipe them out! Don’t leave a single one, annihilate them all-!”

Waaaaaaaah-!

The soldiers shouted and ran to the edge of the wall.

And they engaged in battle with the hundreds and thousands of scarecrows that were climbing up.

***

Although I had raised the soldiers’ morale with various buffs and morale-boosting traits.

The soldiers who had been captured and released were not actually in a state to fight normally.

They had been subjected to the Scarecrow Legion’s harvest. If they didn’t regain the power they had lost, they wouldn’t be able to fight normally in the future.

For now, the ordinary scarecrow monsters were weaker than ordinary monsters, so they could fight somehow…

‘I have to regain the power that was taken.’

In the end, the subject of the harvest.

I had to defeat the Scarecrow Legion Commander.

《You’re really cute.》

And he… was watching his subordinates being torn apart on my wall, from a distance.

The Scarecrow Legion Commander smirked.

《Keep playing with my subordinates like that. I’ll finish absorbing this guy’s power.》

The Scarecrow Legion Commander resumed harvesting Mikhail.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

At least he had been unconscious before.

Mikhail screamed terribly in the face of the pain of having his soul extracted while fully conscious.