Hell Mode: Volume 4, page 6
“Thanks, good job,” Allen said. “And I see Krena and the rest getting started.”
With Cecil’s attack serving as the starting signal, Krena and Dogora, with Keel and Sophie a slight distance behind, had begun charging into the Demon Lord Army on their Bird Bs together with all the Doras and Cerbys. As the Dragon Bs wiped out the Rank B monsters with their breath attacks, Krena and Dogora cooperated with the Beast Bs to clean up the leftovers.
“They’re doing well,” Allen commented. “Looks like it was the right call choosing the part of the camp with all the beast-type monsters.”
“Mm, looks like it,” Cecil agreed.
The Demon Lord Army was composed of a large variety of monsters: undead types, such as zombies and skeletons that could wield weapons; beast types, such as large bears and wolves; giants, such as ogres and trolls; and dragon types, such as basilisks and wyverns. They were grouped according to their types, and the No-life Gamers were currently attacking the beast types, which were all in the west.
The goal of Krena’s group was to kill as many of the Demon Lord Army’s forces as possible. It would be hard to finish off the undead, and the giants had high HP and often possessed regenerative powers, but beast types were relatively easier to kill in spite of their higher Attack. Numbers were very important in a war, so it was a good idea to start with those easiest to kill as a way to quickly bring enemy numbers down. In addition, these monsters could not fly, making it easy for Krena and the others to break off the engagement.
Allen and Cecil, however, had a separate objective.
“Allen, they’ve started.”
“Mm, I see them over there. Here’s a Blessing of Heaven for your MP.”
“Thank you.”
The fires caused by Cecil’s Petit Meteor had alerted the rest of the main camp that they were under attack. Torches and campfires blinked into existence in overwhelming numbers. At the same time, a different kind of light could be seen: that of Healing Magic being cast. Those who could use Healing Magic were using AoE spells to heal their comrades, giving off glows that even Cecil could see with her naked eyes.
They sure are spamming those spells. Now, who’re the casters?
Through Bird D’s Night Vision, Allen spotted a robed skeleton with a staff that looked like a necromancer casting Healing Magic left and right. Not too far away were several other monsters doing the same.
Bird F’s Awakened Ability, Messenger, enabled Allen to convey what he himself was seeing—as well as what he was seeing while Sharing with a Summon—directly to someone else’s mind as information. He used this now to let Cecil know where to attack.
“You take care of that skeleton with the staff. I’ll handle this side.”
“Understood. Keep me updated.”
“Will do.”
After the short exchange, both of them shifted into action.
Eat this and die!
Ten Stone Es appeared in midair and immediately entered free fall, aiming straight for one of the glowing spots below. Apparently the necromancer did not have very high HP, as it died instantly when the Stone Es used Explode.
Allen and Cecil’s goal was to wipe out the enemy’s healers. They were prioritizing, in addition to the healers, enemy commanders and those with special abilities that enabled them to deal significant damage from a long distance. This, too, was common sense in a war. Thanks to Cecil’s Petit Meteor, it was now very easy to identify whom they needed to target first.
“I think I’m starting to get the hang of this,” Allen murmured.
“Me too!” Cecil replied confidently, using Earth Magic to create massive boulders and letting them fall without mercy.
I should try to conserve my Rank E magic stones as much as possible. That said, not to toot my own horn here, but I really am getting better at this. It feels great knowing that I’m improving.
Now that he was getting used to the task, Allen lowered the number of Stone Es he sent to each necromancer to around one or two so he could target more of them at the same time.
Ah, the Doras are down by three. Gotta keep sending replacements.
The more Summons that disappeared, the greater the burden on Krena and Dogora, who were fighting at close quarters. As such, Allen was trying to keep abreast of the situation and sending Strengthened reinforcements as needed.
As Allen continued backing up the front lines and attacking the enemy’s healers, the Demon Lord Army finally launched its counterattack.
“Something’s flying our way!” Cecil shouted in warning as dozens of winged stone statues closed in.
“Ah, gargoyles,” Allen replied as he ordered the two Bird Bs to climb higher. “Griffs, go up.”
“KIEEEE!”
Hah, they’re so slow. They’re nowhere close to catching up to Griff. Take this!
The incoming assailants were promptly blasted out of the sky with Stone Es.
“Okay, if there are any more monsters that make it all the way up here, I’ll take care of them immediately. As long as we remain higher than them, we’ll have the overwhelming advantage.”
“I know, right?”
As always, Allen looked like he was having a ton of fun killing monsters. After this, undead types and other fliers came after him and Cecil, but the pair shot them down as soon as they appeared, all while continuing to rain death on the targets on the ground.
“Oh?”
“What happened?”
“The 30,000 outside the north gate are coming this way.”
Aww, so soon. We were just about done wiping out all the healers and were about to pick up the pace killing the rest.
The main camp had already lost troops in the tens of thousands, making it impossible for the nearby force to continue standing idly by. The 30,000 that had been camped in front of the north gate were now heading for where Krena’s group was fighting, aiming to catch them in a pincer maneuver.
Allen used Messenger to convey what he had seen through Night Vision to his companions, then instructed them to regroup with him while the Dragon Bs and Beast Bs helped buy some time. In the blink of an eye, the No-life Gamers were reunited once again.
“Allen, I killed sooo many of them!” Krena cried, covered from head to toe in red monster blood.
“I saw.” Allen nodded appreciatively. “Good job!”
“We got a lot too,” Cecil said with a grin.
“I saw it! Your Extra Skill is awesome, Cecil!” Krena gushed about what an awe-inspiring sight it had been from the ground.
“I know, right?” Cecil replied. Still grinning from Krena’s compliment, she turned to Allen. “We’ve dealt the Demon Lord Army a pretty big blow, right?”
Allen nodded. “Yes we did. But looks like it’s not enough.”
“Not enough?” Keel asked back. “As in, we haven’t killed enough yet?”
Allen shared what his Spirit B was conveying about the situation within Tiamo. It had been two hours since they had launched their night attack and the elves were mobilizing every last person, but they were still far from healing all their forces.
“At their current pace, it’s going to take them until daybreak.”
Just as it had been in Nest, half a day was nowhere near enough. Even after everyone was healed, yet more time was still needed to form their ranks back up.
I gotta get a feel for how long these things take.
Cecil looked at him quizzically. “What should we do, then?”
Feeling his companions’ querying gazes, Allen stopped deliberating and made a judgment call. “Let’s attack the 50,000 in the south too. You guys can keep going, right?” he asked with the nonchalance of asking online friends if they could still stick around for another raid.
Dogora, also drenched with monster blood, was the first to answer. “Sure, I’m down. No problem.”
Everyone else nodded to indicate their agreement, then the whole group got back onto their Bird Bs and flew south.
In this way, the No-life Gamers continued racking up their kill count, all while vigilantly monitoring the Demon Lord Army’s movements.
Chapter 4: Rohzen, the Sovereign of Spirits
The No-life Gamers continued their assault through the entire night, killing a total of 40,000 monsters north and south of Tiamo. Thanks to taking out the enemy scouts first, they arrived in the south to find the monsters more or less oblivious about what had happened in the north, allowing them to use the element of surprise a second time. As a result of their efforts, the command structure of the Demon Lord Army was thrown into complete disarray and was in no state to attack Tiamo. Consequently, Tiamo earned a day of breathing space.
This did not mean Allen now got to sit around doing nothing, though. All throughout the fighting, Allen had been listening in on the military meetings happening in both Nest and Tiamo via the Spirit Bs he had left behind in each location. This was how he learned two pieces of critical information.
First, the Demon Lord Army had established their main base of operations in Fortenia, which they had already taken over. Although they had pushed the front this far south, burning and destroying the fortress and settlements along the way, the bulk of their forces was still stationed in the elven capital and was being dispatched in a steady stream of smaller units.
Second, Tiamo was not the only city currently fighting. At the moment, the battlefront involved three other cities along the same latitude as Tiamo.
It’s a stroke of luck that there are four cities all at the same latitude that are fighting simultaneously. This is how the elves had been able to continue keeping the queen’s location a secret—turns out it had been intentional.
After conquering Fortenia, the Demon Lord Army realized that the queen was nowhere to be found. This naturally meant she had evacuated south, so the Army continued pushing on in hot pursuit. If they had directed the full brunt of their forces against Tiamo or one of the other cities on the same latitude, it would have surely fallen. However, the elven generals did all they could to obfuscate which city the queen was in, and it worked: the Army, desperate as it was to kill her, decided to split into four in order to launch attacks on all the cities at once. Thanks to this, all four were still standing, and Tiamo had held out just long enough until Allen’s arrival.
As the queen’s location was highly confidential, not even the soldiers in Tiamo knew she was here. The only people privy to that information were the select few guarding the building where she was staying. The other soldiers were only told that their efforts were directly tied to the safety of their queen. They believed this, applying themselves to their duties with burning motivation.
Ever since they arrived in Rohzenheim, the No-life Gamers had constantly been on the move. There had been no time for them to learn the details of what was happening in the war. Now that Allen had all the information he needed, however, he and his companions were able to take their next course of action.
The Gamers traveled to the three other cities, bringing three generals of Tiamo along on their Bird Bs. One general was left behind in each city—along with a certain number of “elven elixirs”—so they could inform the local generals of the situation in Tiamo and help adapt the local troops’ fighting strategies around the recovery items.
Every city was filled with a huge number of injured soldiers and refugees—Tiamo alone had nearly 700,000 refugees. If their city were to fall, every last one of them would be mercilessly slaughtered and eaten by the Army’s monsters. Every single elf therefore fought as though their lives depended on it; even the noncombatants were more than eager to lend a hand where needed. When Allen dropped by each city, he buffed the residents with his Fish-type Summons, which he then left behind so they could renew the buffs again every day.
Allen had done everything he could. Each city would be seeing more than 100,000 troops returning to the fight, meaning they were no longer at risk of falling within the next few days. Naturally, he expected these changes to prompt adjustments in the Demon Lord Army’s strategies, but that would not be for a while. It would be hard for a force that had seen such overwhelming success for so long to suddenly pivot away from strategies that had seemed to work so well so far.
＊ ＊ ＊
The following evening, Allen and his companions had finally returned to Tiamo and were walking down a corridor inside the largest building in Tiamo. This place within the heart of the city was where the queen was staying. Although it was a far cry from a palace that had housed generations of royalty, the interior design here truly brought to life the simplistic beauty of the wood grain.
“We’re finally back, Lord Allen!” Sophie’s bright voice greatly contrasted with the clouded look that had been on her face before the night attack.
“Yeah, finally. I have so much sleep to catch up on.” In fact, I wanna dive into bed right this second. I don’t even care about eating—I’ll worry about that after I wake up.
After fighting throughout the night, all the Gamers looked exhausted.
“I understand how you feel. But before that, we really should report back to Her Majesty.”
“I...suppose. Yeah, you’re right. Let’s do that.”
Allen expected Sophie to then say that she would arrange the audience, but in a welcome surprise, she started walking straight toward the room used as an audience hall, bringing the rest of them along.
She gets to go right through because she’s the queen’s daughter? Welp, works for me. Saves us the wait.
Sure enough, when the No-life Gamers arrived at the room in question, the large door was opened for them right away. This reminded Allen of how, in the games he played during his previous life, he had also been able to approach the kings and queens without ever having to make an appointment.
Another thing that Allen had learned through Spirit B was that, among those he believed were elven generals, there was one who was of an even higher position: the man he had met in Nest named Lukdraal had the rank of “field marshal.” And above Lukdraal was the grand marshal, who commanded all the military forces of Rohzenheim.
Today, the queen was sitting upon her throne. Sophie approached, the rest of the Gamers following behind. The same flying squirrel from before was perched on the queen’s shoulder, and once again it met Allen’s eyes.
Why’s it looking at me again?
A beat later, the creature made a big yawn, then clambered down to the queen’s lap, where it curled up and promptly fell asleep. Apparently the little guy was sleepy too.
Allen had fallen silent, his attention fixated on the flying squirrel, so it was the queen who spoke first. “So, how fare the other three cities?”
Allen started. “Oh, right. All of them are still standing. I left them five hundred elven elixirs each. That should be enough to help them all make a comeback.”
Though doing so completely depleted my stock of Blessings of Heaven. To make more, I ended up using 2,500 Rank B magic stones. I mean, I’ll probably need a lot more. Should I ask for a few planting pots so I can make more at the same time?
“WHOOOAAA! IT’S A MIRACLE!” the elven generals cheered loudly.
Since Allen was so groggy, his reply lacked his usual verve and vigor. Seeing this, Sophie took over reporting for him. She spoke of how he had buffed all the soldiers and provided enough recovery items that more than 100,000 soldiers had rejoined each city’s forces. When the generals heard this, they burst into excited discussion.
“In other words, over 300,000 troops have returned to active service!”
“However, the Demon Lord Army started sending large birdlike creatures into the sky this morning. A night attack like last night’s won’t work again.”
Apparently the enemy had bolstered its airborne forces, but Allen had no intention of attacking in person again that night.
I should probably dispatch Dora to go take care of those flying monsters, though. It’s important to crush the seeds of problems as early as possible.
“Lord Allen... Thank you for everything you have done so far,” the queen said from her throne, lowering her head.
“You honor me,” Allen replied.
“Thanks to your actions, the lives of many powerless elves have been saved. Please allow us to reward you in some way, Lord Allen.”
We’ve only killed 40,000 so far—there’s still 2,960,000 left to go. Ah, calculating in the number that the elves have killed as well, maybe it’s actually somewhere between 2,700,000 to 2,800,000.
According to the generals, the elves had only been able to fight defensively this whole time and therefore had not made too much of a dent in the Demon Lord Army’s forces. They had pulled in some numbers in the first day or so, but after the fall of the northernmost fortress, they had been on the back foot ever since. However, despite being so badly outnumbered and their lack of offensive capability, they had still been able to kill around 200,000 to 300,000 of the Army’s powerful monsters, which was pretty good, considering. The combined size of the elven forces, including those in Nest, Tiamo, and the other three cities that had been saved, was now around 600,000.
“The battle is far from over, so... Ah.” Since she’s offering, there is something I can ask.
“What is it? Do you wish to take my daughter’s hand?”
“My! Your Majesty!” Sophie blushed furiously.
“Hm? No, I don’t need that.”
There was an awkward silence.
Huh? Did a route get triggered just then? Allen’s head was so fogged up due to drowsiness that he failed to fully register what the queen had said.
“There are actually two things I want to ask.”
“O-Of course. Do tell.”
The other Gamers looked at Allen with curiosity, wondering what he would say. The elven generals also pricked up their ears.
“First thing: magic stones. Please let us collect all of them.”
“Certainly. Grand Marshal Siguul, how many magic stones do we have in Tiamo at the moment?”
“It pains me to say so, but we used up almost all of them running the magic ships.”
