Jin watched the sudden turn of events take place from inside the Dungeon Maker and wondered if the Southern Soldiers would be able to at least defend against the first wave of these Zurglings, granting him enough time to organise a proper defensive ground force against this additional monster horde.
“Nubwort, you seeing this?” Jin queried and the Orc Leader immediately teleported into the Dungeon Maker to assess the situation.
“They are swarming us just like the Demon Rats and they appeared to be fiercer and faster than those pests, granting that they do not have any mechanical parts on them.” Nubwort analysed as they viewed the imagery from the C-130.
“We can call upon the C-130As that are still parked in Bulwark Port to sortie, but it will take some time to reach the Southern Capital unless the System assists with the travelling.” Nubwort estimated that they would need at least half an hour to send his Artillery Orcs into the air and a few hours later to reach the Southern Region barring any weather problems.
“Let’s send out the planes en route and in formation first instead of just teleporting straight ahead. This way, we can cramp a few of your troops inside of those planes and airdrop them into battle. The System also tells me that by teleporting in mass will be cheaper for us to use them as the gateway points.” Jin decided as they watched the Southern Soldiers display their discipline.
It was clear that this was not the first time they had experienced a ground battle and their defence formation was quite effective against the first wave of Zurglings. Spears had been laid out a few metres away from the edge of the wall, guaranteeing that any Zurgling who jumped over would be pierced to a sorry state.
Shieldbearers were ready to push the dead Zurglings off the spears, but not before stabbing them a few times to ensure that they were really dead. This way the Spearman could stay in formation and not waste too much strength and energy swing their spears needlessly. (Not as if they have the space to do so since they were in such tight formations.)
Under normal circumstances, Archers would assist from the back yet this time around they were keeping their ammunition intact for the flying hordes. Nevertheless, with the new high grounds, courtesy of Spiky, it enabled them to drop down firebombs from a safe distance instead of throwing them. That was the only support they could give at the moment.
“Sorry Nubwort, give me a moment. Pippy, Poppy. Are you guys ready to intervene?” Jin called the Mousefolks via the System Channel.
“Aye aye, Master! Just one last check and our platoons will be able to blast off at the speed of light.” Pippy replied happily as he squeezed his automated climbing gear to ensure that the air boosters were working.
“Slight change of plans. There are now enemy forces on the ground which are numerous enough to make up a monster horde on their own. I want you to assist the Southern Soldiers with their ground defence. Let the aerial squadrons worry about the flying mobs. Don’t worry about them, it appears that their power boost was more than we had anticipated.” Jin informed them.
“Assuming they know how to use their powers.” Pippy chuckled. “As Master Zeru taught us before: ‘Having power means nothing unless one can utilize its full potential.’ “
“Oh, I totally get that feeling. I still feel some of my powers are underutilised.” Jin lamented his own situation. “I will talk with some of the other minions to act as your reinforcement, but it will still take some time.”
“Don’t worry, we will buy as much time as possible for ya. For our dear elder disciple. Hehe.” Poppy said as he requested the System to open the portal for his advance troops to proceed first. (Not before Pippy knocked Poppy’s head for teasing their master since Zeru’s was both Jin’s and the Mousefolks’ masters. Oh what a complicated relationship.)
The Southern Soldiers were doing decently in their defence against the massive tidal wave of monsters until they found that their efficient defence was proving to be a bane. A few Zurglings managed to jump on top of the corpses of their brethren, thereby avoiding the spears and made it through. They then took the opportunity to move deeper into the Southerner’s defence lines where some of their support was working overtime to bring extra ammunition or tend to the wounded.
Unfortunately, because of the strict formation, there was little those Southern Soldiers could do and only hope that the stray Zurglings could be killed by the guards responsible for protecting the backline. They understood that it would be foolish to break formation, as more monsters could potentially bypass them that way and that would result in more casualties.
Noticing their situation, the System promptly changed the portal coordination and sent the Mousefolks towards the vulnerable backend. This time, the System was being a little creative with its teleportation and instead of opening a usual portal, a temporary beam of light was shone on the spot where the Mousefolks would land. (Hence the promise reaching there in the speed of light.) And this too stunned the monsters momentarily allowing the Mousefolks to join into the fray with a better advantage.
At the same time, The Southern Guards did their best to deal with the stray Zurglings who had been focused more on destroying the supplies rather than kill anyone in sight. Suddenly a speedy creature moved through the crowd after that momentary flash of light and annihilated two Zurglings with just one slash to their necks each.
“Impossible!” Cried out some of the guards, as they recognised the one responsible as Mouseman, who was significantly smaller than the Zurglings, yet had such an easy time dealing with them.
“Oh, guess I used too much strength on that one.” Poppy snickered as he checked whether his weapon had become blunt by the blow. The guards’ shock only increased when they saw that the other stray Zurglings within the vicinity were also killed in the exact same way and many Weremice were standing on the roofs, lamp posts and balconies of houses.
They were literally everywhere and their eyes were fixated on the wall, checking for any Zurglings that managed to escape the tight formation. The moment they spotted one, thread needles could be seen flying out of their machine gear attached to their waist and they flew thanks to the magical wind coming from their back. It was more apparent with the attachment of a cape that they had and a one-eyed Panda embroiled into the red cape.
Upon a closer look, some wondered how the Weremice were able to control those thread needles as they moved extremely smoothly, flying from one spot to another in a matter of seconds. But none of that mattered since there were more important things at hand such as the continuation of the tasks they currently were on.
The Healers continued to tend to the wounded while the support team brought over more arrows for the Archers who patiently waited for their turn and bombs for the Knights. Meanwhile, some of the more talented chemists were creating firebombs in the midst of the chaos to keep the supply ongoing.
The Archers on the high ground wanted to render some help to the ground troops but the situation of the flying horde coming closer made their commanders worry about the lack of ammunition…until they saw a few monsters flying off from the top of Spiky. Since they were not coming at them and instead, facing the incoming Flying Monster Horde, they could only assume that they were the allied monsters that Leopardo reluctantly accepted help from. Thus they were ordered not to hit any of such monsters as much as possible else, they too would not hesitate to kill their allies. (Or so they heard.)
“Control your aim! Fire swift and true so your every arrow scores a hit! Remember, each strike has to be a killing blow or I will personally hound you even after death!” The Southern Commanders bellowed out commands as the Archers took their formation and nocked their arrows.
But before the Flying Horde could come in range, those allied wyverns simply swooped from the skies and towards them, brandishing their lances and wyvern fire to the winged monsters, causing them to crash to the ground.
Surprisingly, the Zurglings did not care whether it was a monster or human. As long there was meat right in front of it, the swarm would simply tear each and every limb to feed on. As the Zurglings munched on those monster’s stored energy, they mutated right at that instant, growing additional muscular limbs or even wings. Some of the deformed cat and dog faces even transformed, taking on more birdish features, most likely because of the Nine Ocean’s Phoenix’s magical energies.
For those who had grown wings, they turned to the skies and started flapping their broken deformed wings in hopes that they could transverse the skies like the others at the top. While a little clumsy at first, most of them got the hang of it pretty quickly and headed towards the Southern Capital Walls. They might not be the most apt at flying but it represented a new target which the soldiers had to waste their precious amount of arrows. Such a transformation inadvertently increased the number of flying monsters as multiple monsters had fallen from the Goblin Wyvern Knights’ counter-attack.
“Damn it!” Wyrstriker said as he knew that his counterattack could eventually give the Southern Capital more trouble.
“What do we do, Captain?” His Vice-Captain asked as he too saw what their attacks were doing and suddenly they heard the crackling of thunder which gave the Lead Goblin Wyvern Knight an idea.
“If we can’t crush them to the ground, we throw them up to the skies! Otherwise use sufficient firepower to obliterate them into ashes!” Wyrstriker answered and his trusty Vice-Captain immediately relayed the orders via the System Channel.
