I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 571

「Silver down! Silver down! Escort ship Silver has crashed-!」

Crash! Boom!

The escort ship Silver, spinning as it fell, crashed into the forest.

A swarm of flies gathered around the crashed Silver. They began to tear it apart like ants disassembling their prey.

Kellybay didn’t hesitate for long. The old dwarf blacksmith’s hands quickly manipulated the instrument panel.

Chiiiiiik-!

Thud…!

The thrusters fired in reverse, and the escort ship Gold came to an emergency stop in mid-air. At the same time, a flustered communication from Lucas came through Zerónimo [a communication device].

「Kellybay, you can’t…!」

“Sorry, but.”

Kellybay glared and looked around the inside of the airship.

“I have to go save my son.”

The crew aboard Gold nodded in unison.

The crew currently aboard the escort ship Gold were all dwarves, Kellyson’s retainers.

They couldn’t just leave when their king had crashed.

Gold, having turned around in mid-air, shot like an arrow towards the forest.

And at the same time,

「All fleet, halt-!」

Fleet Commander Macmillan shouted.

The air fleet, having stopped accelerating, came to a halt. Macmillan, as if having made a decision, commanded in a firm voice.

「Let’s join the rescue operation while maintaining the defense mode! Right now-!」

Clunk, clank!

Thud-!

The airships, having turned around in unison, flew into the forest, following Gold, which was flying ahead.

Endless swarms of flies poured out, but their attack power couldn’t penetrate the airships’ magic barriers. The air fleet advanced, crushing the flies with their hulls.

「Damn it, there are too many!」

「We can’t even secure a forward view!」

「Check the direction with scan magic and maintain the distance with the allied ships on the left and right! We just need to hold out until we save Silver!」

Then, suddenly, the flies retreated.

The flies, which had been ramming into the airships, scattered in perfect unison. The captains were bewildered as they checked the suddenly clear view.

Lucas urgently shouted.

「Everyone, be careful!」

Lucas knew well.

The sudden change in the monsters’ movements was never a good sign.

Boooooo…

The Fly King, floating in the distance, let out a long cry.

The three halos above the Fly King’s head began to spin fiercely, and the outermost halo began to glow white.

The Fly King stretched hundreds of legs in all directions, and immediately after.

Clack-!

Hundreds of legs met in front of its chest at once.

Zzzzzzzzzing!

Immediately after, an enormous shockwave poured out from the Fly King.

In the sky, all the clouds were pushed away as if swept away, and on the ground, all the trees in the forest swayed their branches as if they would break in the opposite direction.

The air fleet was also swept away by this shockwave. And.

Crack, crack, crack!

Clang…!

The magic barriers surrounding the airships shattered helplessly.

「T-the magic barrier has been nullified!」

「What is this…?!」

「It’s completely dead! It’s not recovering!」

The Fly King’s cry reached the ears of the panicked humans.

Boooooo…

The ominous sound seemed to be one of satisfaction, and also.

Screeeeeeeech!

It seemed to be sending an attack signal to its own kind.

The flies, which had retreated for a moment, swarmed in from all directions. The airships urgently opened their gun ports and poured cannon fire at the flies clinging to them.

「Damn it! There are too many!」

「Lord Macmillan, what should we do?! Please give us an order!」

「Lord Macmillan-!」

Macmillan was momentarily frozen in panic.

The magic barrier, the last bastion that made the airships the strongest weapon of modern humanity, had been nullified.

Even so, should they force their way through the flies to rescue Silver?

Or else…

While the main fleet paused to engage the swarm of flies, Gold, piloted by Kellybay, poured all of its remaining firepower towards Silver.

“Targeting point set! All guided missiles, fire!”

“Guided missiles, all fired-!”

Dudududududu!

The rear launch bay of Gold opened wide, and dwarf-made guided bombs poured out towards the set coordinates.

The guided missiles, accurately fired with long trails of smoke, bombarded the area around the crashed Silver in a circle.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Flames erupted, and the flies were swept away.

While the crew fired machine guns in all directions, Kellybay, who had opened Gold’s hatch and come outside, shouted towards Silver below.

“Kellyson! Are you alive-?!”

Thud!

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the side emergency door cover of Silver fell off, and one by one, the surviving dwarves inside poked their heads out.

“Oh, Father…”

Kellyson, who was bleeding from his forehead, likely injured during the crash, also crawled out.

Kellybay let out a relieved chuckle.

“You sure have a tough life, you rascal!”

“Who do you think I take after? Never mind that, hurry and throw me something!”

“Alright! Here it is!”

Kellybay threw a rope. Kellyson, having caught the end of the rope, grinned.

“… !”

Immediately after, the young dwarf king’s face hardened. Kellyson yelled.

“Dodge it, Father-!”

“What?”

Kellybay gritted his teeth and turned to the side, and met.

The eerie, gleaming red compound eyes of the swarming flies, and.

Boooooo!

Crash-!

The swarming flies, swirling as they flew, slammed into the side of Gold with their bodies.

Gold’s co-pilot desperately tried to maintain balance, but a group of flies slammed into the opposite side in succession.

Crack! Crash-!

Another group.

Bang! Thud!

Another group…

Crack!

The flies covered Gold from all directions, and the armor of the airship, which had lost its magic defense, scattered like fish scales.

Gold, battered and dented, staggered and finally failed to regain its balance. The massive body of the airship flipped sideways and fell straight to the ground.

Kellyson, with wide eyes, yelled.

“Fatherrrrr!”

Boom!

Gold crashed a little distance away from Silver.

In Kellyson’s ear, who was staring blankly in that direction, he heard the screams coming from the communication device inside Silver.

「Gold down! Gold down! Following the escort ship Silver, Gold is also down!」

「The next swarm of flies is coming from the Fly King!」

「We can’t recover the barrier! We can’t hold out any longer-!」

The remaining fleet tried to descend towards the two ships, but they were barely able to handle the flies flying towards them.

The flies, as if they knew how to avoid the fleet’s fire, were skillfully dodging the barrage with evasive maneuvers and clinging to the ships.

The magic barrier had also been nullified.

At this rate, it was obvious that the main fleet would soon suffer the same fate as Silver and Gold.

Kellyson, clenching his fist and trembling, quickly pushed himself back into Silver. He grabbed the communication device and shouted.

“Retreat! Now!”

There was a moment of silence on the communication device.

Kellyson shouted again.

“At this rate, we’ll be annihilated! It’s my fault that Silver crashed in the first place because I didn’t do proper maintenance. You don’t need to feel guilty, so hurry! Before it’s too late!”

Macmillan hesitated.

But Lucas did not hesitate.

「Order the retreat, Lord Macmillan!」

「B-but!」

「Do you want to lose the entire fleet here? If you hesitate any longer, we’ll be annihilated! Hurry!」

Lucas’s thunderous shout echoed.

「We must retreat, now!」

Macmillan swallowed.

The silence was short, but it felt like an eternity. And finally, Macmillan commanded.

「All ships, retreat…! Continue firing and retreat at full speed!」

The airships turned around in unison. It was already impossible to hold out any longer. Some of the airships had already had their armor torn off, exposing their interiors, and some were even on fire.

Thud-!

The fleet began to retreat.

Kellyson stared blankly up at the fleet moving away to the north, when he heard a voice from the communication device. It was Lucas.

「Lord Kellyson.」

Lucas did not offer condolences or apologies. Instead.

「I wish you good fortune in battle.」

He said a brief farewell.

Kellyson chuckled and replied.

“To the air fleet and the World Guardian Front, good fortune as well.”

Kellyson grabbed his hammer, which was rolling around inside Silver, and held it in his hand.

“Please make sure to exterminate these damn pests.”

Click-

The communication was cut off.

Kellyson, holding the hammer, staggered back out of Silver.

Boooooo-

Thousands of flies were swirling in the sky directly above the crashed Silver and Gold.

And… in the southern sky over there.

The Fly King, who had paused his advance for a moment, was slowly approaching.

Only two of the halos above his head remained, and the halo that had glowed white during the unidentified shockwave attack a moment ago was scattering into dust.

“If you are also an airship.”

Kellyson chuckled without realizing it.

“I don’t know who made you, but you’re pretty amazing.”

Screeeeeeeech!

Towards Kellyson and the dwarves, the thousands of flies swirling in the sky poured down in a vortex.

***

Two days after the Fly King appeared. Noon.

I gritted my teeth in front of the returning airships.

Two of the sixteen airships that had been dispatched had not returned. The escort ships Gold and Silver.

Kellybay and Kellyson, and their dwarf subordinates…

They had not escaped from the crashed airships. They had either died in the crash, or if they had survived, they would have been captured by the Fly King as food.

“…I.”

I shuddered.

“I hastily ordered the deployment of airships that weren’t even fully maintained, and this happened…”

I covered my forehead.

Why did I do that?

It wasn’t like me. It was a deployment order that was completely unlike me.

Was I also shaken by the appearance of an enemy I had no information about?

Because the memories of the strategy I knew were useless, I lost my composure and recklessly deployed troops. As a result, this damage occurred.

‘I made a careless judgment, relying only on the defensive power of the airships… why…’

Thinking that I had lost Kellybay, who had dedicated himself to me and Crossroads for a long time, I couldn’t think straight.

As I closed my eyes and blamed myself, Lucas spoke in a firm voice.

“My lord. Now is not the time to blame yourself.”

“… !”

“Even at this moment, the Fly King is advancing towards Crossroads. We must find a way to delay his advance and a way to cut off his breath.”

The words that followed sent a chill down my spine.

“You must protect the world.”

“…”

I took a breath and glared at Lucas. Lucas nodded.

“I will continue to report on the damage to the air fleet. All ships have begun repairing their magic barriers, and the escort ships Kite One and Kite Two have suffered particularly severe damage and have entered emergency maintenance…”

The magic barriers were completely nullified due to the unidentified shockwave emitted by the Fly King, and because of this, the fleet suffered damage even while retreating.

In conclusion, even if the magic barrier devices were repaired, the number of ships that could be redeployed was reduced to about ten.

Macmillan, with a somber face, was seen directing repairs in front of the fleet. I bit my lip.

‘While the airships are being repaired, I must use other methods to delay him.’

An additional defense line is being urgently constructed on the two-day distance from the Black Lake to Crossroads, but this alone will not be enough.

What other methods do I have?

As I was counting in my head, someone came running from inside the city, panting.

“Your Highness!”

When I turned around, it was Serenade and Diermuid.

Serenade shouted with a bright face, wet with sweat.

“We’ve found historical records!”

I widened my eyes. Serenade held up an old book in her hand.

“It’s a history book that records the Fly King’s demise!”