I Became the Tyrant of a Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 751

The monsters that had poured out from behind Hecate bared their teeth, claws, and tentacles…

Thud-!

Just before the attack landed, Hecate’s body was suddenly lifted into the air, as if someone had snatched her up by hand.

Following that, the remaining Glory Knights and even Junior were also lifted into the air.

Hanging in the air, Junior looked down at the swarming monsters below and broke out in a cold sweat.

“Wow, that was a close one…”

After lightly blocking the incoming tentacles with magic, he let out a sigh of relief.

Junior looked up and waved his hand.

“Nice timing, Bodybag!”

In the air was the telekinetic mage, Bodybag, her face flushed and sweating profusely. Around her, all the retired soldiers from the barracks were floating in the air.

Bodybag wasn’t as fast as Diarmuid, but she was capable of pseudo-flight.

So, she had flown to the rescue with Junior, and while Junior was dealing with the surrounding monsters, she had been lifting the retired soldiers into the air.

After finally snatching up the last of the Glory Knights and Junior,

Bodybag struggled, carrying dozens of people in the air, and began to fly towards the city wall. Junior assisted Bodybag with wind magic.

“…”

Hanging in the air with a blank expression, Hecate watched Junior’s profile as he used wind magic beside her.

Hecate slowly opened her mouth.

“I remembered.”

“Huh? Remembered what?”

“What I want to do.”

A faint smile appeared on Hecate’s lips.

“Something very absurd and ridiculous, something I’ve only ever imagined… something like that.”

***

At the same time.

Near the southern city wall.

“Waaaaaah! Aaaaaaah!”

“Help me, someone help meee!”

The cooks and volunteers screamed incessantly.

Since soldiers needed to eat and drink to fight, the cooks always had to remain within the camp, no matter what.

The cooks had received minimal combat training, and their basic combat abilities were low.

To them, the fleshy monsters with tentacles and teeth were terrifying and dreadful enemies.

“Uwaaaah! Uwaaaaaaaa!”

Among them, the cafeteria waiter who had volunteered for this battle and confessed to Evangeline was in a panic, tears and snot streaming down his face.

《Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!》

Crash! Clang!

A monster that had rushed in swung its tentacle, overturning all the kitchenware.

The waiter screamed and hid under the table. The fallen dishes clattered loudly as they spilled to the floor.

Someone grabbed the shoulder of the waiter, who was cowering and trembling. The terrified waiter looked up to see the head cook, a large man, holding a kitchen knife and shouting.

“Hey, newbie! Get a grip! Are you going to die like this?!”

“Y-yes? Y-yes, I guess so?”

“You have to fight back! The cooks are soldiers too! You had basic training, didn’t you?!”

“B-but, how can we fight against those monsters…?!”

“Who said anything about killing them? Don’t just cower and tremble, grab anything hard and block their attacks!”

The head cook handed over a large pot. The head cook nodded at the waiter, who awkwardly took it.

“Just hold on a little longer! The rescue team sent by the Prince will be here soon!”

“W-will the Prince really care about us cooks…?”

“Of course, he will! That’s the kind of person the Prince is!”

The head cook grinned, pulled out another kitchen knife in his other hand, and charged at the monsters with a loud shout.

The sound of dishes breaking, people screaming, and monsters roaring…

Amidst the noise that filled his ears, the waiter, who was cowering with a pot over his head, suddenly opened his tearful eyes wide.

“I, I too…”

The Lord’s heir, who always fought for the city—Evangeline, his unrequited love, came to mind.

Hadn’t he said proudly to her that he wanted to know what kind of battles she fought? That’s why he had enlisted.

But what was this pathetic state he was in now?

“I too…! I’ll prove that I deserve to live in this city…!”

The waiter barely crawled out from under the table and stood up straight, shouting.

“Come on, you monster bastard!”

And there it was, right in front of him.

A hideously drooping fleshy monster.

A terrifying monster with long, swaying tentacles and clicking teeth all over its body. Right in front of his nose.

《Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.》

“…”

《Will, eat.》

His legs gave way from fear.

The waiter collapsed to the ground, and that was his stroke of luck.

Crack-!

The tentacle aimed at the waiter’s heart barely missed, glancing off the pot. The impact alone shattered the pot, and the waiter was thrown backward.

Thud!

“Cough! Hack, cough!”

The monster slowly approached the waiter, who was barely managing to catch his breath, taking one step, then two.

The waiter, sensing his death, squeezed his eyes shut, and then,

Thwack! Thud! Thwack-!

Powerful impacts echoed through the kitchen.

“…?”

When the monster’s attack didn’t come, the waiter cautiously opened his eyes, which were trembling.

And what he saw before him was…

Thwack! Thud! Whoosh!

He saw afterimages of Evangeline moving like lightning.

The young knight in white armor, her white muffler fluttering behind her, was crushing the monsters with a single blow using her weapon, a combination of sword and shield, and then rushing to the next monster.

In an instant, the monsters that had attacked the kitchen were annihilated. Evangeline shouted without breaking a sweat.

“The monsters are all dealt with! Everyone, quickly evacuate to the city wall!”

“T-thank you, Lady Evangeline!”

“It’s nothing. It’s my duty. Oh, if anyone has been bitten, please tell me! I’ll administer the antidote right away…”

After quickly and concisely giving instructions and handing over extra antidotes to the head cook,

Evangeline turned to leave for another location.

And then, she made eye contact with the waiter, who was still huddled in the corner, unable to move.

“…!”

For some reason, the waiter felt ashamed and wanted to hide. The young man lowered his head, his face flushed.

“I-I’m sorry for showing you such an unsightly scene…”

“What is there to be sorry about?”

Evangeline approached the waiter, took his hand, and helped him up, smiling brightly.

“We all have different roles, but we are all fighting together on this battlefield.”

“…”

“Do your best in the remaining battles. Then.”

Evangeline lightly tapped her foot and flew away like the wind to rescue others.

The waiter, who had been watching her retreating figure with awe, then looked down at his legs, which were still trembling.

“…”

As the waiter lowered his head, the head cook approached and patted him on the shoulder.

“Lady Evangeline is right. Now, let’s go where we can fight.”

“Yes…”

With a mix of joy, shame, and sadness.

The waiter gathered his belongings and began to evacuate with the other cooks, his steps faltering.

***

Bang! Bang! Fwoosh…!

Success flares for the rescue operation exploded in the sky throughout the city.

I glanced to the side as I grasped the overall situation. I saw Lucas silently checking his equipment.

I asked cautiously.

“Are you really sure you don’t need to go?”

“Each of us has a place and a role that we need to fulfill.”

Lucas drew [Excalibur] and [The Granted Sword] in both hands and took a deep breath.

“It is true that I am worried about my comrades left in the barracks, but it is also true that I am more needed in the current battle.”

“…”

“Instead, Junior, who is as strong as I am, or even stronger in one-versus-many situations, has gone to the barracks. It will be fine.”

I had originally intended to send Lucas and other melee heroes to the barracks.

However, because the barracks were too far from the city wall, sending Lucas and other vanguard heroes would mean sending only one or two of them.

Moreover, to safely escort the non-combatants there, at least two parties would have to be dispatched.

It was Junior who volunteered to go to the barracks for rescue at this time.

‘Please leave it to me. I will definitely rescue the retired soldiers in the barracks.’

Since Junior was so well-trained through many battles, I decided to entrust the barracks rescue to him.

Of course, not alone, but with the telekinetic mage Bodybag, who was excellent in utility and shone in various situations besides combat. A duo of mages.

‘If Junior-nim takes the firepower and I take the support, the two of us will be more than enough. Please let us go.’

I decided to trust the two veteran mages who volunteered.

The barracks rescue team that had left earlier had just fired the success flare. I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness.

In addition, the evacuation of non-combatants such as cooks, priests, and alchemists was carried out one after another.

And the elite heroes who were not assigned to the rescue team and remained by my side looked down at the center of the city with grim faces.

Grooooooo…!

The corpse of the giant reindeer monster, which was spewing out monsters in all directions as if regurgitating the monsters it had eaten.

In the middle of this huge mass of meat, where hazy steam was still rising… a demon-type monster with its horns raised was staggering with hazy eyes.

《Agh, aaaaah…》

Cromwell.

The enemy monster commander, who had shed his layers of skin and finally revealed his true form.

‘We have to take him down now before that guy does something weird again.’

I took a breath and exchanged glances with the heroes around me.

It was a situation where we had to avoid close combat as much as possible, but we couldn’t miss this opportunity.

While the dispatched rescue team was rescuing non-combatants and the four defensive walls were individually defeating the zombie remnants,

We would strike the enemy’s main camp with the remaining forces. The core, so to speak… Cromwell’s main body.

“Let’s finish this in one go.”

I shouted, pointing the banner forward.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

Led by Lucas, the elite heroes in thick armor smoothly slid down the city wall and began to rush towards Cromwell.

At the same time, I turned my head sharply to the side.

“Lily, activate all the prepared artifacts!”

“Yes!”

Lily, who had received my order, sent hand signals to those around her.

Then, the mages and alchemists on the Crossroad Fortress wall, where the artifacts were installed, began to move busily.

The Black Dragon Wall [Night Bringer], which surrounded the fortress, had a structure that transformed on-site, so if a new wall was installed, new defensive equipment that could be used on it also had to be installed. This was a problem.

In this battle, the Black Dragon Wall was completed just before the siege. Cannons and ballistae could be immediately transferred and installed as trained.

However, artifacts required magical engineering processes such as connecting to a magic furnace. So, they were simply installed on the Crossroad Fortress wall, and only those with a firing angle were used.

But now, the enemy was inside Crossroad.

All the artifacts installed on the fortress wall could be used if their direction was changed. Even the firing angles were all perfect.

‘But we can’t just turn the city into a wasteland.’

Of course, we had to be prepared to turn it into a wasteland if necessary, but we still had to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Among the artifacts, we decided to select and use those that would cause less damage to the city while effectively eliminating the enemy.

Whirr!

Clunk! Clunk!

At the same time as all sorts of artifacts were being loaded and aimed at the enemies,

“Please… let’s hit the jackpot this time… please be worth the expensive price…”

Along with Lily’s muttering prayers, the alchemists carefully took out and installed a large metal plate-shaped artifact.

An SSR-grade artifact that would send the target imprinted on the metal plate flying to the end of the southern field.

It was [Start Over From the Beginning!].