Kuro no Maou

Chapter 501.3

Chapter 501.3

The Black Demon King 501 – Part 3

Chapter 26: Storm of Gluttony

Battle at the Supply Base

Even for an insta-kill, the octopus’ end felt a bit too abrupt.

“Hmm... This doesn’t look as bad as I thought.”

It seemed that our little princes was satisfied with the feeling of having defeated that Gluttony Octo..

“Good job, now keep it up.”

“Uh-huh, leave it to me.”

Ursula was finally starting to give her usual feeling of grandeur, probably due to her single-handed victory boosting her confidence.

“White Yaksha Princess – Anastasia” had four arms capable of unleashing Ursula’s dreadful “Drain” spell at the same time. Such power was enough to completely neutralize my “Grenade Burst”.

She had no other special ability, but even so, not even the medium sized octopuses were a match for her.

As if making fun of these gluttonous monsters, the White Yaksha Princess was throwing her arms at every octopus that came near her, disintegrating them one after another as if she was consuming them.

The Gluttony Octos didn’t have hard scales nor high mobility. Anastasia, on the other hand, could swing her arms with such speed that not even I would be able to dodge them without putting all of my strength into it.

A light tap was all she needed to make an octopus’ head to vanish, and her slapping motions brushed any tentacles away with ease. Her overwhelming offensive power was capable of making an enemy disappear with a mere touch, so I didn’t even have to take care of Ursula’s defense. The octopuses around us were falling like flies at a tremendous speed.

However, their numbers seemed to be much higher than our annihilation power.

The number of octopuses crawling down the street wasn’t decreasing, and the walls and roofs of buildings were still being swarmed by them. And even more octopuses were still coming down from the sky.

“–Agh, stay strong! Push them back!”

Cliff’s orders echoed in the turmoil of the battlefield.

Back when the Gluttony Octos began their attack, the battlefield was instantly thrown into a state of chaos, as we were shocked to see that the stone wall that was supposed to be the village’s first line of defense had been completely bypassed by the enemy.

So far, the only ones who have been able to defeat the octopuses rather comfortably were Ursula and I, and the rest of the soldiers here were struggling against tough soft monsters that swords and spears do not work well.

The infantry were being tragically skewered by the octopuses’ spear-like tentacles before being completely gobbled up by their horrifying maws, which were covered by sharp, round fangs.

The heavy knight unit led by Cliff, on the other hand, couldn’t be defeated that easily thanks to their superior defensive power, but they were still struggling to defeat them with raw physical power. Unfortunately, they seemed unlikely to have the might needed to break through the octopuses’ sheer numbers.

“Ursula, don’t go too far ahead.”

“I think I can kill a few more.”

“Don’t, we should hold our position for now.”

As it turned out, fighting with Magic like this had left Ursula with a bit of extra time on her hands, so she was starting to get bored about not fighting at a faster pace. Though her bloodlust wasn’t that strong yet, she was still able to follow my instructions obediently.

She kept swinging with Anastasia’s four arms with the same freedom and flexibility the octopuses’ tentacles had without moving from her position nor recklessly throwing herself at the enemy.

“This is bad, the wind barrier is starting to come apart.”

It appeared that not only the infantry but the sorcerers were being gradually taken down as well. The frog was slowly but steadily closing in on us once more, and at this rate, we would soon be engulfed in that white darkness again.

At first, we had secured visibility in an area of about 50 square meters around the main gate thanks to the sorcerers’ wind barrier, but now the area had decreased to about half. Perhaps several of our Wind Mages had already been killed, or had been driven to the point where they had to break off their focus on the barrier in order to defend themselves.

If we were to lose our field of vision at this point, the soldiers here would be completely annihilated by the enemy.

To be honest, Crusader soldiers dying wasn’t something I would be particularly concerned with, but at this moment, I wanted to have as many allies as possible. So I would help them stay alive as much as I could.

Ursula kept on making short work of the octopuses around us, and since I didn’t have to worry about her defense, that gave me the chance to focus on providing cover fire for our allies. The area outside of Anastasia’s range was well within reach for me thanks to my black magic.

I didn’t even have to worry about wielding a weapon, so I could devote myself completely to using my “Grenade Burst” over and over again, like a fixed grenade-launching turret. My grenades incinerated any octopuses that found themselves within their detonation radius. The fact that any houses caught in the blast would burn and collapse too was, well, slightly entertaining, to be honest.

“Waaaaaaaaaah! This isn’t going anywhere!!”

“This is useless! Run away! Run awaaaaay!!”

However, the support provided by Ursula and I proved to be in vain, since the Crusader soldiers saw any opening generated by it as a chance to turn tail and flee.

Throwing their weapons, the infantry that was still on the stone wall rushed down to ground level and began to run away at full speed.

“Hey! What are you doing, deserting under enemy attack! You’re Crusader soldiers! Get back to your posts and protect this base!!”

If such a poor speech could have made them return to their posts, the soldiers wouldn’t have fled in the first place. Even if they had somehow managed to muster their courage, it was clear as day that the top of the stone wall was already completely occupied by the swarm of octopuses, and that there was no realistic way to recapture it.

Due to the infantry having escaped without permission, Cliff’s heavy knight unit –which was still fighting hard– had no choice but to fall back to the rear. Though Cliff may have wanted to execute them for abandoning their posts in order to make an example out of them, there was no way he could spare any effort towards that. Even the heavy knights themselves were about to be completely overwhelmed by the swarm of octopus.

“Looks like this is as far as we’ll go.”

No matter how hard I and Ursula fought, the two of us alone wouldn’t be able to change the course of this battle. For the time being, since we still had the ability to stay relatively safe in our positions, we could afford to provide cover fire to allow for as many of our allies to fall back. Then we would be able to turn our offensive on any octopus that tried to chase over them. That was the plan, but then...

As I thought about that, a light-purple wind, which looked like a poison cloud, blew in from the sky, forming ribbons that circled in the air. I suppose I could describe it as a weak tornado.

The purple airflow hit a group of soldiers that was running towards us and swallowed them all.

“Ah, it’s hot, gwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!”

The field was suddenly filled with painful screams. But the true tragedy was being perceived by my eyes: It was the sight of humans being melted alive.

The purple wind was actually a powerful acid. So it was like an acid breath.

First, the white surcoats the Crusader infantry wore over their armor burned away and crumbled instantly, then their iron helmets and chainmail melted away as if they had been thrown into a blast furnace.

At the same time as that happened, their limbs turned into a reddish-black goo and began to drip down like an egg yolk. The soldiers’ agonizing expressions weren’t visible for long –the moment the purple acid gas came in contact with them, it was as if someone had splashed water over a watercolor portrait.

Being strong enough to melt iron in a matter of seconds, the acid breath hit their flesh directly, and since they had no magical defense, the infantry collapsed on the spot. They barely retained any semblance of having once been living human beings, and the ground beneath them wasn’t covered in a pond of blood, but instead a gruesome pile of melted human flesh.

I found myself turning away from that horrible sight. Though I had seen many men being cut down and burned to ashes, this was the first time I saw someone being melted away.

But I had to see it. It was a horrifying way to die, but I had to find the source of this deadly acid breath more than anything.

“I see, that has to be one of the 10-meter variants.”

I ended up not having to resort to looking around me or sensing its presence. The shadow of a giant octopus was starting to become clear beyond the white fog.

It was only natural to see such a big octopus right away. After all, it was standing upright, so it towered well over the village’s stone wall.

Well, it was still an octopus, so I wasn’t sure if “standing” was the word, but it seemed to be fairly perpendicular to the ground.

Its tentacles were as thick as those trees that not even a grown human would be able to completely wrap their arms around, no matter how much they tried to stretch out. The tentacles were arranged in a way that made the giant octopus look like a quadrupedal beast, but since they were devoid of joints, the octopus walked completely different from a beast. They wriggled about as the octopus advanced, though its head wouldn’t sway.

I kind of wanted to think about the mysterious ecology behind these octopuses, and to try to figure out why they walked like that, but I had no time for that.

I could only afford to think that it walked in an absurd manner as it easily crossed over the 5-meter tall stone wall as if it was nothing but a low fence.

“Wait, there’s two... three... four? Dammit, this is hopeless.”

To make things worse, it wasn’t only one. As they approached, I could see four of those giant octopuses looming toward us with an overwhelming presence.

I saw the first two of them by simply looking straight ahead. Then, I noticed the third one by looking slightly away to the left. And the worst of them all was the fourth one, which was already behind me, right in the middle of the village. The fact that they had already invaded the village itself was proof that these giant octopuses could fly just like their smaller counterparts.

“Those are going to be a lot harder to deal with, even for Anastasia.”

“That’s right.”

“What should we do, Priest Kuroe.”

“Well, we have no other choice, do we...?”

I let out a sigh, and after coming to terms with my mind, I finished my sentence.

“...We’re running away.”

I carried Ursula in my arms and started to run away with all my strength.