CHAPTER 424 – DEFEAT!

"I've got to give it to these Dwarves. They're putting up one hell of a fight." Elna said as she watched a tank-like vehicle shoot hot steam at a group of Alice's monsters, scalding them harshly.

The Dumetorian forces had been stalled out at one of the most heavily fortified positions on the highway to the Dwarven Capital after running head on into what was basically a mechanized division. Seeing as breaching the magically sealed Gates would require more force than the monsters could provide on their own, Alice decided to find a bypass, which had seen them run head-on into a surprisingly powerful force armored force backed up by flamethrowers and gunpowder units.

"But still, why do the Dwarves in this world have fucking tanks and guns? Doesn't that completely fuck with the setting? This is supposed to be high fantasy, not steampunk." Elna rolled her eyes finding it strange and stupid.

"Have you never played any game or read any high fantasy story with Dwarves? They're always doing this kind of stuff." Merkyul said as he watched a tank shoot its cannon and obliterate a large bat-winged creature.

"It's why Mama wants them." Alice said as the five of them stood on a large rocky formation, Alice happily sitting at the edge and swinging her feet. Black Company was intentionally being held back from participating in battle as Akagi wanted this to appear as a monster invasion, the appearance of which would be undermined if they intervened. "The Dwarves have advanced knowledge of magic and technology and are good at putting them together, so Mama wants their help."

"Yeah, they're basically what if Imp but shorter, more grumpy, and had a beard." Sabia laughed as she imagined Imp objecting to such a comparison.

"And if there was more than one." Roxlex said with a nod.

"Good thing for us, Imp isn't making copies of herself." Hitamguchi agreed.

"Yet." Merkyul noted that it may be only a matter of time before that happened she'd managed to create Alice's Erika body and Daikael was doing Daikael things. "So, what's the next move, Erika? At this rate, your summons might actually get beaten here, and there are only so many branches of the highway system that will take us toward the Capital."

"Maybe you can summon Puppers and let him glass this whole army?" Hitamguchi figured the Wyvern would be more than enough to punch through the Dwarves' defenses.

"Puppers would be able to win, but a Wyvern showing up underground would make it pretty obvious something is not quite right about this 'monster invasion' wouldn't it?" Alice turned to her, and while one couldn't see Alice's face, it was apparent that she was giving the Elf a Are you stupid? look.

"I-I-I mean..." Elna stuttered, realzing how dumb her comment was.

"Mama probably broke some of her common sense when she was torturing her." Alice snickered.

{You're lucky I can't noogie you, kid!} (Elna)

“And also Mama banned me from using him specifically.” Alice added.

{Though I do have an extra special friend Mama didn't say anything about. Mostly because she doesn't know about him.} (Alice)

"Giant Wyvern aside, do you have an idea for how to turn this around? If we do nothing, Lady Akagi's plans to imperil the Dwarves may be at risk." Sabia asked, knowing that the young girl likely had some kind of special summon tucked away in her proverbial sleeve.

"I figure we just use more force." Alice said as she turned back to the battle and raised her hand to create a huge summoning circle behind her troops. "Now! Appear, wormy!" She called out the name of her summon, which caused some chuckling from Black Company.

"Wormy? What? Is it some kind of stupid..." Elna's derisive comments stopped dead as she watched the horrifyingly grotesque form of Alice's summon rise from the summoning circle. "WHAT THE HELL?!? You have a Mouther?!? HOW?!? WHEN?!? WHY?!?"

{Those things are fucking nightmare fuel! Why do you have one?!?} (Elna)

"Ugh..." Merkyul cringed as he watched the slimy multi-tentacled creature flail about while its misshapen mouth clicked and clacked as its disfigured teeth moved like appendages. "I... I fought one of those in Demora's cove once..."

"I can still feel the slime on my skin." Sabia shivered as she recalled falling and slipping in a puddle of the green substance. "Never again..."

"Hey... Isn't that thing actually a pretty high-rank monster?" Hitamaguchi asked as she watched the beast shamble toward the battle. “Isn't that overkill too?”

"Its high ranking enough to act as a hard wall against players of mid-level or lower. Hell, even a group of them could put up an annoyingly good fight against low to mid high-rank players if they didn't pay attention to what they were doing." Merkyul replied.

"Against Dwarves I'd imagine it will be overkill." Roxlex nodded as the creature's tentacles shot outward and began grabbing Dwarves and their war machines before either slamming them together or throwing them against the walls with a splat. "Its physical attacks can crush a man flat and that's not even touching on its annoying special ability..."

"Yeah... This thing's definitely overkill." (Black Company)

_____________________________________________________________________________

Bogram POV

"By the Ancestors..." Commander Bogram could barely believe the horror before his eyes. He'd begun to believe that the tide had turned as the horrific monsters assaulting them melted and cowered before their war machines, but then out of the darkness appeared a monster so horrible that it defied imagination.

The Mouther was a ferocious creature, one whose gelatinous purple/black body seemed to bend and squish like a putrid bag of water. The creature's singular large mouth seemed to rotate and twitch as its multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth clicked together, almost making it seem like a gateway to hell. In addition to its horrifying appearance, it was huge. Its size took up most of the highway's length, and its slimy body coated the immaculately maintained road beneath it in a substance so disgusting and fowl that it was hard to believe it would ever come off.

"Concentrate all fire on that creature! We need to hit it with everything we've got." Bogram screamed at the top of his lungs, ordering the tanks and other artillery to aim and fire at the Mouther in an attempt to destroy it.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Shots rang out as a thunderous roar echoed throughout the highway. Dozens of cannons fired one after another, desperately trying to destroy the creature before it closed in on the main fortification line that'd been built to block the monster army's path. Dwarves were excellent at defensive warfare and their multi layered defensive techniques were perfectly suited to confined environments like this.

"Use the heavy flame cannons! Empty your stores of napalm if you have to! Burn that disgusting creature and purge it from our home!" Bogram called out to the flame teams, who began pumping the gel into their machines before unleashing massive torrents of fire that jetted forward like a water hose and doused the Mother in white hot flame. "Burn the beast! Send it back to hell where it belongs!"

*WOOSH*

"Shyaaa!" The Mouther screamed as it was doused with fire, its flesh bubbling and boiling as it was covered in a liquid so hot it could melt stone.

"That's it, lads! Keep at it!" Bogram said with a hint of hope in his eyes. Mouthers had an annoying ability to regenerate, but with this much fire damage, such an ability wouldn't be as effective. As a torrent of fire rained upon the Mouther a barrage of cannon fire crashed into it, compounding the damage and pushing the creature back.

"Commander, I think it's working!" A Dwarven officer cheered as the other creatures backed away, likely out of fear of the flame after witnessing what it'd done to the Mouther. “We're going to kill that monster!”

"Don't start celebrating yet, boy. Until these creatures are burned to ash the battle isn't over!" Bogram chided him as the Mouther screamed, though this time it seemed not to be a scream of pain but something else.

{A strange monster like that can't be defeated so easily. I have a bad feeling about this...} (Bogram)

"Hmmm?" Bogram squinted his eyes, observing the burning creature as it flailed about, noticing a black energy ball forming within its mouth. "Wait... What is that?" He asked as he pulled out a pair of binoculars for a better look.

"Shyaaa!" The Mouther screamed once again as the energy ball grew larger. “Shyaaa!”

"Is it charging up some kind of magical attack?" The Dwarven officer asked a nearby Artificer, who merely shook his head nervously.

"I-I couldn't say, sir. I've never seen a creature like this before." An Artificer wasn't as good at detecting magic at such long ranges as a dedicated mage, which were few and far between in the Dwarven military due to their race's general lack of affinity for that kind of magic.

"Shyaaa!" The Mouther screamed as the energy ball grew larger still and it was at this point that Bogram realized what was going on.

"Dammned beast!" Bogram yelled as she leaped from his observation platform to the area below where the flame cannons were being fired from. "Stop the attack! Stop!" He screamed as he grabbed one of the crew by the shoulder and tossed them away from the gun.

"Commander?!" The Dwarven artillerymen looked at him, confused by his actions.

"We've walked right into its trap! The creature is converting your attack into-" Bogram's warning was interrupted by a massive energy blast fired from the Mouther, which cut through the army's ranks like a hot knife through butter.

"Shyaaaaaaa!" The Mouther screamed as the black beam incinerated countless war machines with its attack before eventually turning toward the flame cannons, intent on giving them the same treatment.

"Get away from the guns! Move!" Bogram said as he tossed a nearby Dwarf away before leaping out of the way just in time for the beam to destroy the gun and carve a deep cut in the stone below.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *WOOSH* *BOOM*

Explosions sounded off throughout the Dwarven position as secondary blasts triggered as ammo and munitions were set alight. It was a truly awesome site to behold, though from the Dwarves' perspective it was the last thing they wanted to see.

Mouthers had an innate ability to take a portion of the damage received and store it in their body as energy, and once it exceeded a certain threshold they'd fire it back at their opponent in a devastating attack, hence why Black Company and other players hated fighting them. Normally it wasn't this devastating, but the Dwarves had done so much damage to the creature so quickly with their attacks that it allowed for a rapid, if not instantaneous build-up of power, one that was both unexpected and utterly disastrous for the Dwarves' unprepared defenses. With the chaos of its counterattack sending the Dwarven lines into disarray and many of the big guns knocked out the Mouther moved forward and used its tentacles to crush the remaining defenses.

"Dammed beast!" Bogram growled as he helped a wounded soldier back to his feat. "We need to hold it here! We cannot afford to retreat further up the highway!" He yelled, trying to rally the troops while knowing that it was likely hopeless. They'd taken up this specific position along the highway specifically because it lacked any easy way of bypassing it where as the same could not be said for areas further back. The Dwarven highway system was intricate and usually contained secondary routes so as to prevent a total shutdown in case of cave-in, something that would ultimately prove to be a fatal defensive weakness in a situation like this.

"Commander, the men are starting to flee!" An officer said, reporting that several of the front line formations had begun to break and men were abandoning their war machines as they fled for their lives.

"I... Dammit... I can't even blame the bastards." Bogram's fist clenched so tightly from his frustration that it nearly tore through his armored gloves. "Do whatever you can to halt the collapse and send a message up the cart way to have the rear guard begin preparations to hold at the junction. It's not ideal but-"

"There will be no need for retreat." A woman's voice interrupted him as a moment later a pillar of blinding white light engulfed the Mouther, vaporizing it and all other creatures nearby.

"What?!?" Bogram's eyes widened in surprise as he watched pillars of light banish the creatures, wiping out an army of Darkness that his men were barely managing to hold back in seconds. "Who..." He quickly turned toward the direction of the woman's voice finding a dark-skinned Elven woman with blonde hair standing alongside a bunny-ear hooded figure that carried a large, ornate, pair of scissors on her back. They were standing where he'd been moments before on the watch tower and the one with scissors seemed to be nonchalantly sitting with their legs over the railing. "Wait... Aren't you!"

"Now's not the time to get slack-jawed, Commander." The Elven woman said as she and the other person landed next to him. "There are still more of these creatures to defeat." She was clearly not dressed for life in a cave and Bogram instantly knew she was a Sun Elf due to her desert attire.

"Shiva Aziz... But I thought the Dawn Order..." Bogram shook his head, deciding not to kiss the gift horse in the mouth. "I'll do what I can to rally my men, can you two handle these creatures to give us time to re-organize?"

"We can do better than that, old man!" The hooded figure, a light blue-haired girl spoke as she pulled the giant scissors off her back. "Azi, can I wipe them all out? Pretty please!" She said, nudging Shiva in the shoulder. "You got the blow up that big ugly one, so it's only fair I get to have some fun!"

"Even if I said no, you'd just charge out there anyway..." Shiva sighed as she shook her head. "Just be careful out there, Camilla. I'm sure you can tell that there's more going on here than meets the eye." With her permission, Camilla's eyes lit up with anticipation as she leaped forward onto the battlefield and single handedly drove back the monster army, slicing and stabbing each with her scissors and doing what the Dwarves had struggled to do for months in a matter of moments.

"I... That girl..." Bogram could barely speak from shock as he watched the girl effortlessly dispatch the creatures.

"A new recruit. She's got a lot to learn, but her heart's in the right place." Shiva said as she turned to him. "Commander Bogram, reinforcements have arrived. The Dawn Order will drive these creatures back into the darkness from whence they came."

Spoiler

Shiva!

rUpsHGH.png [https://i.imgur.com/rUpsHGH.png]

Camilla!

8cBN9hL.png [https://i.imgur.com/8cBN9hL.png]

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