Even though the Monster Horde had come to a stop in Jin’s world, the assault on the town of Wecha had yet to conclude. While the shield generator was no longer under Peppers’ control, its automated processes were doing an outstanding job against the Demon Rats’ final push for the town.
Many of the militia were able to fight and hold the walls despite a few minor breaches. Any rats who broke through were handled by the Jacks. The rats in the sewers system were doing their best to dig a way out, yet whenever they managed to breach the surface, the women and children handled them in the same manner as they had done since the first wave.
Meanwhile, Sandy was rushing wherever she was needed to seal the entrance and put a stop to the flow of rats appearing. (At the same time temporarily strengthening the foundation so that when the System set off a blast, it would not break the entirety of the town.)
The Mousefolks were not to blame for the escaping rats underground. There were just too many of them crawling around, and they could only handle so many at a time. Their sword and gun fighting could already put some of the Royal Zodiac soldiers in Jin’s world to shame. Poppy and Pippy were literally jumping from one rat to another, executing them by stabbing their necks or shooting their brains out. For such a small body, they were packing a lot of punch and stamina.
Even Meomi and Nyanmi, who were veteran fighters in Jin’s army, had begun to feel the fatigue. Their claws were starting to get blunt from all the slashing and scratching they had done whenever they had to wait for their busy weapons to cool down.
At this point, Meomi’s personal agenda to kill all rats was the only thing that kept her going through the fight. There were times Nyanmi fell behind, but Meomi still managed to cover her back when things got too tough.
Aside from the defences within Wecha itself, the Savants had done their best to gather as many Demon Rats as possible outside the walls. Though the shield generator had been changed to a mechanical device and did not have the same properties as Peppers’ explosive knockback barrier, the Savants stood their ground, keeping the frenzied rats in check.
Sadly, even the ‘unstoppable’ Savants could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. All of them were killed a few times because of the rampage those Demon Rats caused during their final push. But with each death, the almighty System resurrected them without delay and even restored them back stronger and fiercer to exact revenge for their deaths.
At some point, the rats had fallen in a state of frenzy and were getting even more agitated due to unexpected severe losses rather than the guaranteed win they had been promised. (Moloch had concluded there were no superior leadership around, making them fending for themselves.)
Both Nubwort and Qiu Yue gathered their troops into a sort of tortoise formation to deal with them. Their shields were forming a circle, the Goblins came in between the Orc Defenders and shot at their enemies.
Some of the Orc platoons even piled up the rat bodies and used them as a makeshift hill to create a height advantage for the goblins to fire from. There were also Orcs complementing their shields by tying rats in front of it to soak up projectile damage. It was an extremely bloody scene in which most if not all of the defenders were soaked in Rats’ blood. If not for the distinct features among them, they could already hit each other since everyone was dark red in colour.
With the System temporarily freed from its obligations in the Cultivation World, it was finally able to focus a little more on the Farming World. As its first course of action, it widened the current portals that had been deployed, increasing the number of fodder for Jin’s latest dungeon. Moloch had also used a few more luring devices at Wecha as well as the crashed flying fortress.
Speaking of the latter, the castle rescue had proceeded rather smoothly. The penguins, along with Lynn, had managed to rescue about two hundred humans. The only odd thing was that all of them very relatively young… until Lynn discovered a hidden door when one of the corridor’s stench was overbearing for her nose.
Kido opened the hidden door with brute force and found that there was a pile of deceased humans waiting to be burned for the Demon Rats steam engine technology to work. “Is that why they decided to gather that many humans from the town for this particular assault?!” Lynn felt disgusted that they had apparently used their human slaves as biofuel.
Some of the humans that had been following them along vomited at the sight and Lynn could not blame them. She would have done the same were it not for the experiences of handling animal and monster meat on a daily basis.
“Not just the humans, even those rats who were killed had been brought here.” After spending time amongst the rats, Sebastia had learned to discern between their features.
One of the bodies was the very same Rat Captain who had brought Kraft and her to the capital. Only now he was lying right in front of her, all tortured and crippled before being thrown here awaiting his incineration.
“Looks like they managed to trace the rat who brought in the enemy that stole their precious steam tech creator away.” Sebastia thought to herself. “The rat empire did not even spare the body after torturing the captain. I wonder if this is called efficiency.”
“Lynn, what do you want us to do with them?” Kido questioned.
“While they deserve a proper burial, we do not know when this castle will collapse from the previous explosion by Peppers. Let’s find more of the survivors before the rats find them and lead these people away from such an undesirable demise.”
However, the longer they stayed in the castle, the stronger the rat resistance got. Eventually, Lynn was forced to make the call to fall back.
“Mistress, a few of us will stay and continue to search for survivors. Please lead those we have rescued out of this hell hole.” Kido told Lynn who quickly agreed. She had no doubts that her peggies were capable of finding the remaining humans with their abilities. Unlike other monsters, she knew her penguins were better suited for moving in smaller groups.
“Understood, go forth and be careful. If the rats’ retaliation is this strong, it means that they are either hiding something within the castle or that’s where their main barracks are located. Send me a message when you need a portal to be dropped even if it’s just one survivor.” Lynn said that she would not mind covering the cost of any extra portals if necessary.
Yet, as time went by, the elite ninja penguins found no other survivors after combing the area twice and decided to call the operation off. “There are no survivors left. It’s all yours, Moloch.” Kido reported through the System Channel.
“Alright, but do you guys mind rampaging around a little longer? Let me conclude the situation at the seaport first.” Moloch replied as he rubbed his two cotton hoofs together.
