Chapter 140: Survival of the fittest

Birkyne, the last surviving member of the three Pure-breed Vampires who worshipped Hihiryushukaka, the evil god of joyful life, was having trouble with rebuilding his organization.

“To think that I would gain sole control over the organization in this form,” he muttered with a self-deprecating laugh.

He had once planned to turn Ternecia, one of the other Pure-breed Vampires, into a puppet to rule the organization together with Gubamon. And then he had thought that one day, he would do the same to Gubamon to take sole control over the organization.

That had been a long-term plan, spanning hundreds, thousands or perhaps even tens of thousands of years, but… less than three years had passed since then. Despite that, Ternecia and Gubamon had died… they had been destroyed.

If their souls had remained, it would have been possible to turn them into Undead with the power of the evil god of joyful life. Turning a Pure-breed Vampire into an Undead was impossible for Birkyne, but it should have been possible for Hihiryushukaka. Toying with life was the duty of that evil god, after all.

However, Birkyne knew that wouldn’t happen. He had been told through a Divine Message from Hihiryushukaka that their souls had been destroyed.

“Less than three years have passed since then… A period of time that is like the blink of an eye to me. In that short time… DAMN IT!”

The sorrowful expression on his attractive face was erased for a moment by anger as Birkyne crushed the glass in his hand and smashed his fist down into the table that he was sitting at.

With a thunderous sound, the table that was made of Elder Treant wood, stronger than a steel shield, broke into pieces.

But this did little to stop Birkyne’s anger.

“Gubamon, that crazy old fool! Disposing of not only his Noble-born Vampires but his Subordinate Vampires with his own hands as well! Does he not know how much I have suffered because of that?! HUH?!” he cursed his fallen comrade with foul words, saliva flying from his mouth.

Gubamon, who had gone mad with paranoia, had tried to use all of his own subordinates as materials for Undead. He had been destroyed by Vandalieu before carrying this task out to completion, but for Birkyne, who now had to rebuild the organization under his control, the damage that had already been done was too great.

The three Pure-breed Vampires had dispatched Vampires to every region to make backroom deals with royalty and nobles and to act as the masterminds pulling the strings behind the bosses of crime syndicates.

There were some, like Earl Thomas Palpapek of the Mirg shield-nation, who contacted the Vampires directly, but many others were unaware that they were making deals with Vampires; they didn’t know that they belonged to the low-ranking parts of a Vampire organization unless they were close servants of a crime syndicate’s boss.

This structure had allowed the organization to cut these people off like lizards’ tails when things went bad, and even if an enemy with sharp intuition caught on, only a single Vampire would be lost.

When Ternecia was defeated, four of the Five Dogs, her close subordinates, had been killed, while the last one had betrayed her. However, the Noble-born and Subordinate Vampires scattered across the various nations had remained. That was why Birkyne and Gubamon had been able to continue by taking them all in except for the organization that had been destroyed by the adventurer party, the Five-colored Blades.

However, Gubamon had killed almost all of the useful Noble-born and Subordinate Vampires, turning them into Undead. The only ones who had escaped this were those who had tried to carry out Gubamon’s reckless orders and been killed by adventurers and knights, or those who had immediately gone into hiding and fled the continent or into regions where Gubamon couldn’t find them.

Thus, the only Vampires left were those so insignificant that Gubamon hadn’t noticed them – young, Noble-born Vampires who had been Vampires for less than a century, or Subordinate Vampires that were essentially small-fry.

Of course, there was no way that such lowly Vampires could make deals with royalty, nobles or corrupt merchants, nor could they control criminal syndicates from the shadows. The Subordinate Vampires hadn’t even been told Birkyne’s name.

Given this, it wasn’t difficult to imagine how much Birkyne and his subordinates had suffered in trying to rebuild the organization.

There were even some cases where the smaller organizations had been taken over by the surviving underlings before Birkyne could reach out to them. These organizations had done reckless things, resulting in the exterminations of both the organizations and those who had taken over them.

“Damn it… If only Grant Roche, Raleigh Rodriguez, Miles Rouge… If only I could have taken in one of the Vampires that had been in charge…!” Birkyne groaned in frustration, recalling a few names of the Vampires that had led Gubamon’s faction.

Those Vampires were now serving under Vandalieu along with those who had been turned into Undead, however.

The ritual to summon the souls of dead Noble-born Vampires and revive them as Undead couldn’t be carried out without the blood of the Noble-born Vampires’ parent, so Birkyne had no way of confirming whether they were alive or not.

It was difficult to imagine that Hihiryushukaka would deliver such trivial details to Birkyne through Divine Messages.

“This is all Vandalieu’s fault!”

The truth was that Gubamon had been mentally driven into a wall not by Vandalieu, but by Birkyne’s own plan to turn Ternecia into a puppet, but… Birkyne seemed to think that Vandalieu’s very existence was the cause of everything.

“Now that things have come to this, I have to take him in no matter what. He has already become someone that I cannot fight. In order to take him in, we have to monitor the Sauron Duchy that he’s going in and out of more closely -”

“Birkyne-sama, I have a report regarding the Sauron Duchy,” said one of his Noble-born Vampire aides, having appeared after seeing that Birkyne had calmed down.

“… It’s you, Mortor,” Birkyne muttered.

Mortor, one of Birkyne’s ‘Four Confidants,’ a Noble-born Vampire of Dwarf origin.

Mortor lowered his bald head in a bow and delivered his report. “This is information from a spy in the occupying army, but it seems that Duke Marme has appealed for action to be taken by the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords. Among the fifteen Swords in the imperial capital, there is no movement from the First and Second Swords, but there are reports that the Third Sword has left the capital, so I believe this information is true.”

“What is the possibility that this movement is a decoy?” Birkyne asked.

The Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords were a secret force under the emperor’s direct command, and all fifteen of them had designated numbers. But only the names and faces of the First to Third swords had been revealed.

By having these three revealed, the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords’ existence was made known to a certain extent to criminals within the empire itself as well as to other nations; this was a form of public relations that deterred enemy attacks.

Thus, the First to Third Swords were not actually truly formidable; the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords could be accurately referred to as the Twelve Swords. Knowing this, Birkyne suspected that this public movement was a decoy. With that said, even this decoy had strength greater than a B-class adventurer.

“I do not know,” said Mortor. “However, the ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider and his companions have departed the continent, so I suspect we could send a few of our people in.”

Even Birkyne and his Vampire organization did not know the identities of the non-decoy, true members of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords.

Though Mortor didn’t dare utter this out loud, even Birkyne wouldn’t be able to defeat them if they were gathered in one place.

If such enemies were on the move, that Dhampir and the resistance members who had apparently become his subordinates were finished. That was what Mortor thought.

He thought that this would reduce his master’s temper a little, but his master gave him an unexpected order.

“I see… Well then, send those who are proficient at gathering information to the Sauron Duchy. If multiple of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords have been dispatched, they should at least be able to force Vandalieu to show his power to some extent in exchange for their lives. Make sure they don’t miss it,” said Birkyne.

“Certainl… huh?”

“Of course, strictly order them from interfering. There is no point in this if they do not return alive with the information,” Birkyne continued. “But don’t make them observe from the sky above. According to your reports, the mages of the occupying army that have tried that have gone mad, so just in case.”

“No, I understand that, but… Birkyne-sama, do you believe that the Dhampir will survive a battle against the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords?” Mortor asked.

It was the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords they were talking about. Multiple of the Noble-born Vampires that were Mortor’s subordinates had been defeated by them. Monstrosities that were almost immortal unless their heads were severed or their hearts were destroyed, who were also masters of advanced combat skills and magic, had vanished without a trace.

It was likely that Mortor himself wouldn’t be able to win if he faced them. That was how powerful these enemies were.

But Birkyne predicted that Vandalieu would likely win against multiple members… around five or so of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords. “That’s right. He will likely emerge victorious, even if multiple Evil-breaking Swords come after him,” he said. “For you, it may be difficult to believe, but he killed Gubamon. Perhaps he would be defeated by all fifteen, but just a few won’t be able to kill him. If they were so exceptional that they were capable of that, it wouldn’t have been strange for them to have caught my tail by now.”

With this, some proper information regarding Vandalieu would finally be obtained. If several hindrances would be removed in the process, it would be killing two birds with one stone.

That was what Birkyne thought. It was possible that he was the one among Vandalieu’s enemies who was evaluating Vandalieu’s strength the most accurately.

Meanwhile, inside the Boundary Mountain Range, Gargya, nephew of the previous king of the High Kobold nation who had successfully staged a coup d’état with Bugitas’s support, was sitting on the throne, eating meat.

He gave a gleeful cackle. “Ravovifard, the evil god of release, is incredible. It was the right choice to stop worshipping Rishare, the god of hunting, who refused to give me his divine protection.”

Even for a High Kobold, who had appearances resembling bipedal wolves, Gargya was unusually large and beast-like.

Abundant fur; large, gleaming eyes; thick fangs and sturdy limbs… the presence given off from his entire body was enough to know that Gargya was no ordinary individual.

“The power that fills my entire body is wonderful… My level that had stopped increasing is going up like crazy, and even my Rank has gone up. Just from killing my sheetty, annoying old man, my mother, my stuck-up uncle and my cousins.” Gargya cackled again. “Don’t you think so, you guys?”

However, the High Kobolds and citizen women waiting in the throne room… or rather, being made to wait in it, seemed to feel nothing but repulsion and fear towards him.

In order to conceal these emotions and prevent them from being revealed on their expressions, they kept their faces looking down and didn’t answer, even when spoken to.

Gargya groaned at their attitudes. Not because he found it unpleasant; in fact, it was the opposite.

“You females are quiet during the day as usual. Even though you cry and shout so much on the bed…” he said, tormenting them with his words.

The women’s shoulders trembled in unbearable frustration, tears of sorrow welling up in their eyes. This sight sweetly stimulated Gargya’s sense of superiority.

“Do you think that I did something heinous? Don’t misunderstand; it was because the male you looked up to as king was weak that you became my possessions. The strongest male in the group is the one who is served by the most females, the one who violates and impregnates the most. Even beasts know this; it is obvious, isn’t it? Kuhahahah!”

With those words, Gargya sank his teeth back into the lump of raw meat attached to a bone that he was holding in his hand… the meat of a High Kobold who had disobeyed him.

Males whose cunning had been their only redeeming feature, who had refused to give up their females despite being weak. Having slaughtered these males, Gargya used their meat for his dinner that night rather than burying them.

“You… beast! Fiend!” one of the High Kobold women shouted at Gargya, unable to bear the sight of her own husband’s remains being eaten any longer.

But even these words only made Gargya happier.

“Beast? Fiend? Isn’t that just fine! Us High Kobolds are monsters! Beings that welcome savagery and live in darkness! This is what is right for us! What is wrong with taking females from weak males! What is the problem with killing the children of those males?! Lions and monkeys do the same! Alright, I shall violate you tonight and impregnate you with my child!” Gargya shouted, his fangs bared.

The Kobold woman broke down in tears, mumbling the name of her dead husband. Another Kobold woman… Princess Lulu, who was being kept alive as a hostage, embraced that woman.

“Remember this, I am an example of how High Kobolds should be!” Gargya declared.

None of the women here agreed with him. To them, his words were nothing more than the ramblings of a madman.

In fact, the only ones supporting Gargya, who had staged a coup d’état to kill the king and slaughter all of the princes, were the High Kobolds who had obeyed him since before the coup d’état, and General Bufudin who had been dispatched here by Bugitas.

The other High Kobolds and the citizens were merely being forcibly suppressed by Gargya and Bufudin’s power.

Gargya had wanted to kill all of the High Kobolds who opposed him as well as their families, but Bufudin had stopped him.

He was trying to achieve Emperor Bugitas’s ambition of unifying the southern region of the continent into a single great empire that worshipped not Vida, but Ravovifard. Thus, the number of available soldiers couldn’t be decreased just to make examples.

In order to achieve this ambition, the women and children had been taken hostage, and they would be turned into war slaves to conquer Zanalpadna and the other nations that were still resisting.

However, Gargya had no intention of settling for becoming a king of a vassal nation to a great empire ruled by Emperor Bugitas.

Ambition, huh. Bufudin, you dog who worships Emperor Bugitas… no, I suppose you’re a pig. One day, when I grow more powerful, I’ll take over for him. You can daydream as long as you want until then.

If survival of the fittest was true, then Bugitas himself would become meat for the strong as well. And Gargya believed without a doubt that he himself was that strong individual.

Gargya had already received Ravovifard’s divine protection. In other words, Ravovifard had no intention of making Bugitas his only priest. He wouldn’t mind in the slightest if Gargya could surpass Bugitas and take his place. That was how he interpreted things.

“- One day, you will stand at the top. That is the foolish delusion that you have in your head, isn’t it?” said Princess Lulu, bringing the cowering women and gloating Gargya back to reality.

“… What are you talking about?” Gargya asked her, suppressing his discomposure despite having the thoughts in his mind seen through.

But he couldn’t trick her.

Princess Lulu laughed at how shallow Gargya was, revealing her white, well-shaped fangs. “If your current state is the right one for us High Kobolds as you said to everyone earlier, you will one day be killed mercilessly by someone who is stronger than you. My wretched cousin who has gone corrupt with power, you will die a mortifying death like the ones you delivered upon my father and brothers,” she said, delivering her prediction with her eyes shining with a dim, hatred-filled glow.

Gargya felt a chill as he heard his cousin’s words.

Perhaps by hearing them, he had realized for the first time that he was not an exception to the law of survival of the fittest.

“GARURURUGAH!” Gargya shouted at her in the Kobold language for her to be silent.

But perhaps because his discomposure could be seen in his behavior, it was not only Princess Lulu, but the citizen women as well, who were fearlessly giving him rebellious glares.

The moment Gargya tried to turn his discomposure and humiliation into anger, he heard a distant howl.

In the High Kobold nation, distant howls weren’t noises made by stray dogs. They were a solid method of communication. According to this howl…

“A large-scale enemy attack?! What has Bufudin been doing?! Has he lost himself in the women I gave him?!” Gargya shouted.

Though part of his job was to act as a supervisor, Bufudin had been dispatched by the empire to protect this nation. But even as Gargya shouted, the next distant howl came and informed him of the situation.

“I-impossible… Bufudin, killed in battle?! You have to be kidding me! GUOOOOHN!” Gargya howled, commanding his entire army to move.

The hearts of the women behind him danced, sensing that his end was near.

A short while earlier…

Bufudin’s subordinates, who were watching the gate in the wall of the High Kobold nation, were taken aback by an unexpected guest.

“Budirud, fugogah?!”

For some reason, General Budirud, who was supposed to be attacking the Ghoul nation, had come with his army.

The Orcs and the Noble Orc commander in charge of them were flustered, wondering what was going on.

“Bugogogoh Ghoul pugyubah.”

The Noble Orc noticed that there were Ghoul women behind him, tied up with ropes. This was what he thought: Budirud had successfully conquered the Ghoul nation, and he was here to deliver the Ghoul women who were prisoners of war to their general, Bufudin.

The Noble Orc didn’t know whether it was an offering or a bribe, but that was probably what it was.

He did have questions, such as why General Budirud had come personally rather than sending subordinates, or why the offering wasn’t being made to Emperor Bugitas. But those who had sworn loyalty to Bugitas had a tendency to become more ferocious the more powerful they were.

Questioning someone as powerful as General Budirud would result in the Noble Orc commander’s own death.

“Bugohah! Bugobuh!”

At the Noble Orc’s order, the Orcs hastily opened the gate.

Budirud started to lead his army and the Ghouls through the gate –

“Bufuh!”

But a Noble Orc with an enormous hammer resting on his shoulder stood in his way.

“… Who are you? You can’t fool my nose. For that Budirud, who loves putting on airs, you smell strange. There’s a strange smell coming from inside your cape… What is that? Whatever, you’re definitely a fake. All of you Noble Orcs and Orcs stink of dirt!” he shouted.

This Noble Orc was Bufudin, who was supposed to be tormenting the women given to him by Gargya. Having smelt a stink that he had never smelled before… a stink that included the scents of multiple insects and plants, he decided that none of the Noble Orcs in the group in front of him were real.

“Holy-Son-dono.”

“So, we were found out after all. Well then, get up.”

“You bastard, who are you hiding inside your cape -” Bufudin recognized the voice that came from inside the fake Budirud, but his surprised shout was drowned out by the groan let out by the gate.

“UOOOOHHHHN!”

“BUGOH?!”

“BUGYAKIH?! Go and get the dog-heads! There’s something wrong with the gate they made!”

The gate had suddenly taken a humanoid form. It was now mowing down the Orcs that had been guarding it and knocking down the Orc archers, standing to the side so that it wasn’t in the way of Budirud’s army.

“That’s the signal!” shouted Basdia.

“GROOOH!” Vigaro roared. “Kill them! Take them down!”

“Now is the time! You may avenge your king and princes freely!” shouted Zadiris.

Vigaro, Basdia and the other Ghouls who had pretended to be bound smashed their fists into the Orc-shaped Earth Golems, taking hold of the weapons buried within them.

The Orc soldiers flickered, and then the illusions vanished, revealing the High Kobolds hiding within them. They were those who had sworn loyalty to the previous High Kobold king. They had fled to Zanalpadna as a result of the coup d’état staged by Gargya.

In addition to them, the Arachne and Empusa warriors, Eisen, Pete and the other plant and insectoid monsters, as well as Kasim, Fester and Zeno, all emerged from within Vandalieu, who had been hiding inside the fake Budirud’s cape.

“There really is something about it, just as we were told.”

“I-it was really itchy!”

“… Really? I don’t think it was as bad as we were told.”

The three of them had been infested by harmless insects and plants and equipped inside Vandalieu.

Now, they attacked the flustered army of Bufudin.

Unable to close the gate as it had turned into a Golem, and seeing enemies appearing out of nowhere, Bufudin’s army fell into a state of panic.

One after another, they were cut down where they stood or stabbed in the back as they tried to flee pathetically.

“Don’t falter, soldiers! BUGOOOOOH!” Bufudin roared.

His army recovered from their confusion.

“BUGYAAAAH!”

“BUGAAAH!”

No, to be more precise, they lost the reasoning that gave them the ability to be confused. As if they had become beasts, they bared their fighting instincts and faced the Ghouls and Arachne.

They swung their weapons with bloodshot eyes and bared fangs; they were truly berserkers.

Not that any of this changed the battle situation for the better however.

“GOGAAAAH!”

“Iron Form! Iron Wall!” Kasim activated martial skills from the Armor Technique and Shield Technique skills, and then grunted as he stopped an attack from a Noble Orc that that had charged straight towards him.

“Slicing Moon!”

“Invisible Slash!”

Now that the Noble Orc had stopped moving, Fester’s longsword and Zeno’s short sword swept in from the sides.

“Gubuh…!”

Kasim exhaled as he pushed aside the Noble Orc, who fell to the ground with blood pouring from his mouth. “My arms are numb… but aren’t these guys weaker than we heard?” he asked.

“They’re full of openings. Could it be that these guys are just Orcs wearing blonde wigs?” said Fester.

“Fester, there aren’t any Orcs that would do that. And considering Kasim had used his martial skills, it would be impossible for an Orc to make his arms go numb,” Zeno pointed out.

Kasim and his companions, who had become as capable as Class adventurers through their training, were bewildered by how weak their enemies were; it was difficult to believe that they were Rank 6 Noble Orcs that were supposed to be capable of using advanced combat techniques and magic.

Perhaps the Noble Orc they had just defeated was a particularly weak one. That was what the three of them thought, but similar fights were occurring all around the battlefield.

“BUGAAAH! VIOLATE! FEMALES!” a Noble Orc roared as he raised his halberd and charged at Zadiris, who had stepped onto the front lines, completely unprotected.

One would think that his heavy, three-meter tall body would turn her into a bloody, mangled corpse before he could violate her if he charged at her like that, but it seemed that he had lost the intelligence necessary to realize this along with his confusion.

The Noble Orc’s halberd fell towards Zadiris.

But at that moment, Zadiris vanished.

“BUH?! BUGEH?!”

And then a spear of light was fired from thin air, smashing the Noble Orc’s head.

Zadiris, who had fooled the Noble Orc into mistaking her position with an illusion created through light-attribute magic, seemed perplexed as she looked at the Noble Orc, who crumpled to his knees with blood spraying from his head like a fountain.

“According to the boy, one should say, ‘it was an afterimage’ at a time like this, but… he fell for it so easily,” she muttered to herself.

Note: “It’s an afterimage” is a famous manga reference where the character speaks the line after tricking his opponent with an illusion, I think.

“Mother, hurry and conceal yourself! These guys are full of openings, but they’re persistent!” shouted Basdia, who was fighting multiple Orcs and Noble Orcs at once.

Indeed, she was decapitating Orcs one after another and slashing Noble Orcs’ torsos in two, but the enemies kept attacking her without fear.

With their eyes sparkling and saliva dripping from their mouths as they ran their gazes along Basdia’s tall, sturdy body that also possessed feminine curves.

“This really is unpleasant… maybe I should have had Tarea make me some armor that shows less skin,” she said.

“I agree!” said Eleanora from above as she flew through the sky, splitting Noble Orc heads with her longsword.

“It does make you excellent bait, however,” said Bone Man, cutting down the Orcs that had stopped in their tracks as they admired Eleanora’s slender, beautiful legs.

“We don’t need it~” said Eisen.

Bufudin’s soldier’s attacks were focused on Kasim and his companions, who were supposed to be humans that were weak when compared to Noble Orcs, as well as Zadiris, Basdia, Eleanora and the other women.

The ones attacking the women in particular seemed to take no notice of their comrades and those more powerful than themselves being killed.

“Absorb, ripen, eat!” groaned Eisen.

As she had a high level in the Allure skill, enemies were coming after her one after another. However, the Orcs and Noble Orcs were caught in the branches growing from her back and had their spirit absorbed by her Spirit Siphon skill.

And once a certain amount had been absorbed, they would be strangled to death by the branches, with the iron apples produced through the absorbed spirit being thrown at other enemies.

“This feels strangely empty,” said Vigaro.

“Gishaah.”

Vigaro, Pete and the rest of the men weren’t being taken notice of by Bufudin’s army; they were simply performing the task of taking down enemies from the side as they relentlessly attacked the women.

“BUGAH! You useless fools!” Bufudin cursed his disappointing subordinates as he raised his hammer and charged at the fake Budirud. “It seems that you defeated Budirud, but you can’t defeat me! I’m even stronger than him!”

With the Transcend Limits skill activated, the muscles in Bufudin’s body expanded, making him grow even larger. Meanwhile, the fake Budirud merely unsheathed an enormous sword from beneath his cape and raised it.

Bufudin felt a momentary chill as he looked at that enormous sword’s black, sinister blade, but he ignored it and charged on. “Mountain-breaking Hammer!” he roared.

Bufudin wielded a super-heavy Obsidian hammer coated in Adamantite, and strength that had been polished through defeating countless foes. On top of that, the Transcend Limits skill was active.

Even an Archdemon wouldn’t have escaped unharmed from such a blow.

Though the sword wielded by the imposter was quite large, Bufudin would smash him along with the sword.

“True Blade.”

Instead of smashing the imposter’s sword, the hammer was sliced through without a sound.

Impossible, Bufudin thought as he opened his eyes wide in shock, but the sword that had cut through the hammer went on to cut him clean in half, from the top of his head to his crotch.

“I will praise your spirit for charging at me head-on,” a voice said in the Orc language.

Before Bufudin could recall whose voice this was, Bufudin’s consciousness was swallowed by the darkness… and then joined the spirits serving Vandalieu, who was still hiding inside the cape.

“You seem to be on good form, Prince,” Vandalieu said.

Prince Budarion had defeated Bufudin with the sword that had been made for Borkus from a fragment of the Demon King.

“Indeed, it is thanks to you, Holy-Son-dono,” Prince Budarion said with a nod, now certain that his own strength had increased.

His level increased by a surprising amount through the Experience Points gained by defeating Bufudin, and his Attribute Values increased.

Prince Budarion had gained Mububujenge’s divine protection years ago, but even so, his growth had slowed down after reaching Rank 10. He had been aiming to become equal with his father and one day surpass him through diligent training in the years and decades to come.

However, he was now growing at a rate that was as if he had returned to being a boy who had just started training.

“So, this is the power of a Guidance skill,” Prince Budarion muttered. “But still, these enemies are too weak. No, rather than being too weak… they have too many openings. Even Bufudin was once a general known for being cautious, to the point of cowardice, but…”

“Well, they’re like beasts who don’t fear death, aren’t they,” said Vandalieu.

“Beasts who don’t fear death… indeed, that is what they appear to be, but if that were the case, shouldn’t they have been more formidable?”

“That’s not necessarily the case. To be more precise, they’re foolish soldiers, less than beasts, whose feelings of fear have been paralyzed.”

Indeed, soldiers that didn’t fear death were threats. Enemies prepared to die wouldn’t stop struggling until the very end.

However, Bufudin’s army had gone mad; they were beasts rather than soldiers. They had simply lost their ability to reason and turned into fools that prioritized their desires over their fears. That was why they repeatedly carried out reckless attacks out of anger and greed, continuing to thrash about, unable to associate the corpses of their companions with their own impending deaths.

And they had no coordination with each other, not using magic… or even martial skills.

Magic wasn’t something that could be used by beasts on rampages with their fighting instincts and desires, and though martial skills weren’t quite on the same level, they needed reasoning and concentration to use.

In exchange for becoming unable to use these, the Orcs had a dull sensation of pain and they could continue fighting without faltering until they died. However, because their sensation of pain was dulled, they were full of openings, leading to quick defeat by their vital points being destroyed in single blows from Basdia and Eleanora.

“Their Attribute Values are high and they’re well-equipped, but they’re a group of wild Orcs acting on their own. I think that’s what they’re like. I have a feeling that Buburin’s army at his frontline fort and Budirud’s army that we defeated at the Ghoul nation were more difficult to defeat as groups,” said Vandalieu.

“So, this is the fate of those tempted by Ravovifard… Bugitas, where do you intend to lead your vassals…?” Prince Budarion asked the empty air, but his question fell on nobody’s ears except Vandalieu’s, being drowned out by the clashing of swords and dying screams.

Bufudin’s subordinates didn’t regain their sanity after his death; they continued fighting in their mad states. But as they had only been stationed here to protect the nation and maintain public order, the size of the army itself wasn’t that large.

The enemies would run out of numbers before long.

But a distant howl could be heard, and then a powerful howl echoed from the High Kobold nation’s palace.

“Holy-Son-dono! Prince! That is the High Kobold king’s nephew, who has become Bugitas’s dog! It seems that he is going to come and face us personally!” said an allied High Kobold, translating the Kobold language.

And as several more distant howls resounded, the High Kobolds began to move.

“Well then, I’ll go on ahead. Arachne, Empusa, Pete, Eisen, Kasim and everyone else, regroup,” said Vandalieu.

“Again?!”

“He’s doing it again, oi, stay still!”

Name: Zadiris

Rank: 9

Race: Ghoul Elder Wizard

Level: 27

Job: Great Philosopher

Job level: 28

Job history: Apprentice Mage, Mage, Light-Attribute Mage, Wind-Attribute Mage, Philosopher

Age: 298 years old (Has undergone age reversal)

Passive skills:

Night Vision

Pain Resistance: Level 3

Superhuman Strength: Level 1

Paralyzing Venom Secretion (Claws): Level 2

Increased Mana Recovery Rate: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)

Mana Enlargement: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Active skills:

Light-Attribute Magic: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!)

Wind-Attribute Magic: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)

No-Attribute Magic: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Mana Control: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!)

Alchemy: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)

Chant Revocation: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)

Multi-Cast: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Surpass Limits: Level 3

Housework: Level 1

High-speed Thought Processing: Level 2 (NEW!)

Unique skills:

Zozogante’s Divine Protection (NEW!)

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