Epic of Caterpillar

Chapter 132: War Breaks out; Undying Army

132 War Breaks out; Undying Army

[Day 120]

Today I began setting preparations for the battle with the Champion of Psychic Eyes battalion. When I woke up, I found Rydia summoning endlessly, she didn't seem tired at all and was calmly looking at the horizon. I wonder if she thinks about anything.

The Undead summoned a fused were incredibly vast. There were already two thousand Enhanced Elite Skeleton Soldiers from all classes and types. Enhanced Elites are made by fusing over twenty skeletons of Enhanced class, which can be made from over one hundred… So, it's quite a lot of power packed in each one.

Now I wonder if I will ever need the living troops. Well, the capabilities of a skeleton can only go to a certain extent without being a rare evolution variant. They also are rather dull and cannot do specific orders, even less espionage or information gathering. They can only do basic tactics and strategies and only if there is a Skeleton Commander, who is a rare variant evolution and may never show up by normally fusing them.

These skeleton soldiers are more like cannon fodder with extra benefits, I will throw them at the enemy to tire them out, so then the living soldiers can take care of the tired humans. I'm sure that even if I make over ten thousand, they can still be easily wiped out by the three Elemental Knights, so those ones will be needed to be taken care of by other soldiers, specifically the ones like Truhan, Celica, Yukan, Kizuato, etc.

Alongside these three colorful knights, there are one hundred seasoned Knight Commanders, who are probably stronger than a veteran adventurer. There are also around two hundred shadow assassin who may become a problem if I don't handle them myself, or someone fast and strong enough. Alongside this, a big group of three hundred mages are on the back, probably so they can conjure a strong area of effect spells at a safe zone.

I will have to command my troops so they get rid of the troublesome troops like mages and assassins. Probably the flying cavalry can take care of them, breaking their defense lines in the air. It doesn't seem like they brought any airborne troops. I must exploit this weakness as much as I can.

I will also take part in the war myself while commanding everyone, so that may alleviate some of the pressure that the rookies will go through.

I still think that there will be lots of casualties, but this is why I'm making almost every woman constantly give birth to goblins and trolls, to easily refill the upcoming losses.

Even as strong as I am, I cannot wipe out a giant battalion of more than ten thousand heavily armored humans, but I can at least take care of around 40% of it without trouble. Also, there wouldn't be a point at all on building the army I have made if I'm going to take care of everything myself.

I specifically made this army so I don't have to worry about everyone all the time, hopefully, so they can take care of themselves and protect their own lives.

Having my thoughts settled, I commanded the troops to organize themselves. To gather weapons, armors, and supplies. Most of the Arachne Maids were going everywhere administrating the items given to the soldiers.

My children and some of my wives won't participate in this war, neither the newest humans, as they are too new and need to forge more strength. I don't want to lead them to their doom. That is why there are the Undead for that job.

I may send the Undead Team first as they have a high affinity with my Skeleton and get boosted stats when fighting alongside big groups of Undead. Other groups are also itching for some battle, like the evolved slave team, the Alligators, Dark Squirrels, and battle capable Arachne alongside the Demi-Humans, the Slime Family, the Blood Team, etc. Well, I'm positive that everyone will have their spotlight and fight to their heart's content thanks to the massive number of humans.

I will intercept the human battalion just before they can see the Grand Forest. And for that, I need to cover up my Undead Army first, while the others remain hidden on the Grand Forest and then jump into action before the Undead Army clashes with the Humans.

For that, I've created a special type of magic fabric, made with my magic threads infused with Illusion magic. I call them Illusion Threads, and with that, I can create Illusion Fabric. This thin fabric will cover the Undead, making them almost invisible. This way, the humans won't be able to prepare for the Undead army when they seem them from far away. The fabric won't be blown away by the wind because it will be sticking itself to the Undead with several of my Lesser Flesh and Slime Minions.

It took me roughly four hours to finish the giant Illusion Fabric, but it did. Alongside this, I commanded several of my troops to move to the Grand Forest fifth layer accompanied by the Undead.

The Undead which is now more than three thousand is patiently waiting for me on the fifth layer of the Grand Forest, alongside most of my troops.

If anything comes directly to the Kingdom, there is Guubo, Redgaria, the Wyvern Emperor, the two Chimera Guardians, and the Wyverns to protect it.

I don't want to reveal the existence of the Wyverns yet, because even if I manage to kill most of the humans, there will always be some that will manage to escape in such a massive army. Revealing the existence of Wyverns may awaken old memories from some nobles that could remember the heroes raid on the Grand Forest, and if they end up calling more heroes to exterminate them, it would be troublesome.

Having everything done, I went with my wives towards the fifth layer and prepared the Undead Army alongside the Illusion Fabric, which took a surprisingly long amount of time, when I finished, it was already night.

We had a nice dinner with monsters that we hunted down on the Vast Plains and most of the warriors went to take a quick nap. However, I remained to awaken as I usually don't feel the necessity to sleep unless I have crafted things for over ten hours consecutively.

There are also several Thunderstorm Phoenix and Hydras, that will work mostly as a distraction and their explosive strength can take some unexpected knights, but because they have low intelligence, they will be taken out quite fast.

I remained on the sky accompanied by Rimuru, Wagyu, and Kekensha while the rest of my wives were taking a quick nap on the forest, some soldiers were a little bit scared and remained awake like me.

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[Day 121]

At around 3 AM everyone was already awoken and the humans were approaching us steadily. In around thirty minutes, they would reach the destined place, where they would confront the unexpected army of three thousand Undead that will appear out of thin air.

I did some last preparations like setting some [Earthquake], [Sinkhole] and [Quake] traps around, so the tremors and the hole son the ground can cause some chaos on the enemy side.

I also settled several "healing traps", that can activate a small healing domain, which was my troops can refugee for some time to regain health and even Stamina.

Wagyu and Kekensha were sent towards the frontlines as their destructive power can alleviate the pressure of the soldiers. The Undead Team is awaiting the rest of the Undead bellow the Illusion Fabric. They are an exception and will cause chaos among the enemy troops, this team is mostly made of Katara, Futima, Duruno, Gufumin, and the latest addition, Yurei, and Herbell

*If you don't remember who these guys are, they were mentioned in the chapter [The Undead Team].

Katara, Gofumin, and Yurei will cause chaos around with their corrosive and rotten poison domains, which can cause several status ailments on a massive range, mostly causing [Corrosive Poison], [Maddening], [Confusion], [Headache], [Inhibit Regeneration], etc. These three will help us greatly, causing the enemy army to enter into chaos, making most of the weak soldiers attack each other.

Futima, Duruno, and Herbell gain power while being surrounded by Undead companions, and because there are more than three thousand Undead soldiers, their power will multiply through the roof. They can also absorb the souls of the fallen and regenerate HP and MP, becoming endless killing machines that will make sure to open the way for us.

After the Undead Team and the Skeletons wreak havoc, amidst the chaos, the combined teams of the Slave Team, the Slime Family and the Blood Team will join in, while being accompanied with three hundred combined soldiers, that include Goblins, Trolls, and Merfolk, most of them mounting a cavalry of some sort.

Their raw and overwhelming strength alongside powerful magic power will penetrate the weakened enemy defenses and strike right through their flanks, possibly defeating several of the mages and long-ranged troops.

Afterward, I will sneak to the back of the gigantic army alongside my wives (Rimuru, Brontes, Nesiphae, Zehe. / Gaby, Mady, Adelle, Altani, Charlotte and Lilith stayed on the Kingdom) and massacre any mage and archer, while making sure to kill the Three Elemental Knights. I've decided to kill them instead of enslaving them because they most probably have means against my Charm and are most likely immune to forced slavery. Although there are some beauties in there, I must prioritize the winning of this battle and not distract myself on a pretty face, I have plenty already.

While I and my wives fight the three Elemental Knights, another two groups will come from the right and the left, there are made of four hundred Goblins, Trolls, Monkeys and Wolves and will be led by the strongest wolves, trolls, and ogres, like Truhan, Celica, etc.

Afterward, there will come another fully airborne team that will easily wipe out entire groups of enemies with strong magic blasts and Magic Guns. And because the enemy army lacks any of airborne troops, this will be easily exploitable.

And lastly, there is a finishing team made up of the strongest mages on the Kingdom to completely blast any remain of the enemy troops that are left. Separating all my troops in small armies is the best way to possibly win against such a massive army of ten thousand humans.

I wonder how it would be a war against the Athetosea Kingdom using their entire war power, this army was made by the Champion of Psychic Eyes. But I already assume that there are over fifty thousand Knights on such a Kingdom. This number is quite ridiculous considering that this Kingdom is considered a "Merchant Kingdom".

Fifty thousand soldiers seem to be a low quantity of soldiers compared to other Kingdoms it seems. It is speculated that the Thanatos Kingdom possesses a war power of over three hundred thousand soldiers, while the Azuma Empire has two hundred and twenty thousand soldiers…

The factor that will grant us victory on this battle will most likely be my help and that of the strongest servants I have, those who have evolved several times and possess incredible power, rivaling whole armies. The army I have managed to create would never stand a chance by themselves.

Before starting, I made sure to spread my Lesser Flesh and Slime Minions on almost every soldier. These will act whenever they are on the brink of death, and can also support them with minor buffs alongside healing.

Creating more than one thousand Lesser Flesh and Slime Minions wasn't an easy task at all, but I managed to do it last night after assimilating over one hundred tons of different monsters' meat. Although I didn't get any skill from them...

Most of their equipment was mass-produced on Aquaria's factories, using my teachings of alchemy, they managed to create several machines that combined both science and magic.

Fueled by Magic Cores and using Spirit Stones as their batteries, these factories were able to generate [Rare+++] equipment of high quality.

Although the Aquaria Kingdom already possessed such machines, they never used them in the mass production of equipment, limiting themselves to clothes, jewelry, and utensils.

While pondering these thoughts through my mind, my split minds alerted me about the humans, who were already on the "meeting place".

The thousands of humans were armed in several white-colored armors that had purple and golden markings depicting roses and various flowers. There were over two thousand heavily armored Knights led by over twenty Seasoned Knights.

In the back, there were another two thousand Light Knights, who use light equipment and weapons to strike fast, I could sense that most of them had a strong magic affinity and around one hundred were most likely Magic Knights.

On the middle, over five thousand Mages and Long Ranged attackers, who were mounting over different types of tamed beasts and horses.

Lastly, on the back there were one thousand soldiers, who were mainly composed of the strongest mages of the Kingdom, alongside them, there were the three Elemental Knights and ten Seasoned Sages.

And from the shadows and the surroundings, around two hundred Shadow Assassins were silently moving around, camouflaging themselves with the Vast Plains, a common eye would never realize that they were there.

Seeing their quick marching and their stoic and serious demeanors, I immediately commanded the Lesser Flesh and Slime Minions sticking the Illusion Fabric to the Undead to release the thin layer of Illusions, revealing a massive army of Skeletons and other hellish monsters.

Leaving the fabric over them would have slowed down their movements and wouldn't be convenient. I could had covered each one with a thin layer of Illusion, but it would take an incredible amount of time, as it takes several minutes to cover anyone with solidified Illusion magic.

As the Undead began to march, they immediately clashed with the humans, who could believe that out of nowhere, more than three thousand Undead appeared all out of a sudden. For a moment, they saw with confusion, how their companions died right in front of them, not being able to understand what was going on, some even thinking that it was some Illusion.

Clash!

Slash!

Booom!

Baam!

"E-Eh? Is this a dream?"

"W-What is going on?"

"How could they appear out of nowhere…?"

Suddenly, one of the commanders alerted the rest of the troops, yelling with a voice full of anger and fear.

"Idiots! Get your shit together! Prepare yourselves!!! It's not an illusion! We are being attacked by a massive army of Undead! Attack!!!"

"W-What?!"

"A-Aaah!!"

As the soldiers were being massacred, there were still a few that still couldn't believe how things have gone. In their years of duty, they may have never thought about such a war tactic like completely camouflaging an army with Illusion Magic and then make it appear right in front of another, who was just peacefully marching towards its destiny.

"What the heck is going on with this Undead?! They are incredibly resilient!"

"Watch out!"

"Huh?!"

As a group of soldiers was wondering what was happening, two giant Elite Undead Warriors wearing crimson red armor and wielding two giant black colored bone swords came towards their backs and slashed them into halves.

Slash!

"Gyaaahh!"

"S-Shit! They are too strong! We are supposed to subjugate a forest, not to fight a restless army of Skeletons!!"

"They are no ordinary skeleton, they are an evolved form, not even just a normal evolved form, but something way beyond that! We never knew that such a thing existed in this place!"

"Shut the fuck up and get into formation! Use your techniques! Light Magic, Fire magic, anything will do!"

"Y-Yes!"

It seems that these soldiers are weirdly unexperienced… Why is that? Did I overestimate them?

Because of how the army was marching, it took several minutes for the soldiers in the middle to notice what was happening on the frontlines. When they noticed it was already too late, as over two hundred soldiers were easily killed by my Undead Soldiers and they were already infiltrating to the back.

Seeing their stupid faces, I wanted to play around outside of plans and commanded several of my Flesh and Slime Minions to use the skill [Rise Undead] to revive the soldiers' corpses into Undead and make them fight their comrades.

"W-What is going on?!"

"They are raising! The dead soldiers!"

"W-Wait! Don't attack me, we are on the same sid- Gyaaah! My arm!"

"How can this be possible?!"

"There isn't any caster in the group, how can the corpses raise into Undead out of nowhere?!"

My wives laughed around me as they saw the ridiculous struggles and cries of the humans who were being annihilated not only by my soldiers but their former comrades.

"Aaah! Masta is playing around with humans? Can I play around too?"

"Not yet, Rimuru, at its due time"

"Guuu…"

In this way, I can use the enemy overwhelming numbers to my advantage. I never thought about this idea until now, but it seems to work quite well.

Some groups of soldiers still managed to repel the undead using tandem skills, combining their techniques and magic, they created powerful flashes of Light Magic, or Flame Slashes, completely evaporating any Undead coming their way. These groups quickly gathered more humans to fuel their attacks, and my Undead army began to have heavy losses.

However, suddenly, a dark purple colored mist began to scatter around the battlefield, which quickly expanded several kilometers around the massive army of humans.

Any normal human who smelled this poisonous mist began to experience horrible hallucinations, headaches, and intense bleeding. Some even began to melt right away, becoming poodles of blood and bones. Others humans began attacking their comrades on a nonsensical rage, even to the point of biting their necks like savage animals.

"Aaaaghh! My head! My head!!!"

"KILL! KILL!"

"H-Help! It hurts! It hurts!"

The healers and medics on the back were made useless due to the mist properties, that gives the negative status [Inhibit Regeneration] so anyone who inhales it, making the healing of injuries and status condition harder, at least for a novice or intermediate healer, who were the majority.

Nonetheless, some veteran bishops managed to dissipate the mist with a skill named [Heavenly Domain], which creates a circle that dissipates any type of malicious aura or gases, while passively recovering the health of those who are over it.

Although most of the frontline army was near its destruction, they still managed to take several Undead soldiers with their powerful Light and Fire attacks. However, the Undead arm quickly recovered itself as my Lesser Flesh and Slime Minions raised the soldier's corpses into Undead.

Alongside this, Futima, Duruno, and Herbell finally began their rampage after absorbing enough human souls, which boosted their power tremendously.

Futima let go of her hair which quickly expanded itself into a monster-like figure of around ten meters tall. Her hair resembled tentacles as it began to smash the human soldiers into minced meat, her giant jaw on the back of her head suddenly expanded and began to crazily devour anything on its way. The humans began to freak out while others tried to take her down with the same techniques than before but quickly met their end before they could even do anything.

"Gyaaahh!!! Get away from me!"

Futima grabbed six soldiers at the same time and while extending her jaws, it ate them as if they were snacks.

Crunch! Crunch!

Meanwhile, Duruno and Herbell were quite similar, both being good at swordsmanship while also being able to cast powerful magic. They made quick work of the surrounding soldiers by blasting them away with blue flame explosions and hundreds of slashes from their demon swords. Duruno also could curse anyone who saw his floating head, which facilized his work.

Seeing their Undead companions taking action, Katara, Gofumin, and Yurei began to intensify the thickness and power of their corrosive mist, while also enhancing it to spread even further, penetrating several ranks to the backline, beginning to affect even the soldiers who weren't participating directly on the fight.

Due to this, the three Elemental Knights were pressured to act but were stopped by the Knight Generals who told them to wait, as their power could be used later on when things get even worse.

While this discussion happened, I quickly identified the three Elemental Knights, they were Thunder, Wind, and Nature or Adam Rudhale, Haemir Qinric, and Faylen Qinric respectively. The Wind and Nature Knights seem to be elves and related to each other, while the Thunder knight is a human from a Noble Family, he seems to be the most worried about the soldiers.

Suddenly the Commanders on the back began to order the powerful mages and long-ranged attackers to blast away the Undead threat. Using their combined effort and numbers, they slowly wiped out the entire Undead Army in less than two hours.

However, my Undead army did their work, and even surpassed my expectations, taking the lives of over eight hundred soldiers on the frontline, while leaving the rest heavily crippled and damaged.

Having the first phase of my plans finished, I quickly commanded my troops to continue things as planned.

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