Chapter 331: 122: Dark Depths – Part 1

"I'm fine," Aoi assures me, a bit annoyed at my over-protectiveness.

I hug her large, scaly head lovingly. I'll give this stubborn blue dragon my love whether she likes it or not!

Almaria touches my wrist and volunteers, "Allow me." So, I stop my [Regeneration] and allow her to cast it in my stead.

"Thank you," I whisper as I smile, then I turn to Aoi and kiss her snout. "You may be fine, but your depth perception will suffer, so I don't think you should participate in melee combat until you've adapted to your reduced vision.

"Why are you so much gentler with her, a dragon?" Roxanne gives me sass with her hands on her hips.

"Because she's an innocent muffin, and you're a mean bitch who enjoys the abuse," I bark at her, and she pouts, mildly offended, so I grin and smoothly give her the combo, "But it doesn't mean that I don't love you with all my heart."

"Sometimes I forget who's the actual masochist here," Hana mumbles as she shares a look with the girls.

Sandoro puts down the gnomic stethoscope-like thing he uses for communication and reports, "Prince Looklwind says that he will relay our information to everyone, and he thanks us, for this will save many lives. They've offered reinforcements, but I declined."

"Get them to waive off the [Eternal Gate] fees instead, and bring more men," Yunia immediately suggests, and Sandoro nods diligently.

"Are they trying to fool us by being ignorant?" Alcander contemplates with suspicion.

But Sandoro shakes his head and disagrees, "I find it hard to believe that he faked the surprise and earnestness in his voice, so we can assume they really didn't know about the monsters' evolution."

Lina adjusts her bangs nervously as she ponders, "Gnomeria has been fighting bugs and underworld creatures since time immemorial. How could they have missed scouting the monster army like that?"

But Almaria offers a different perspective, "One monster changing is expected from time to time, but multiple? It's unheard of. Just what is going on?" She asks rhetorically with a frown.

The girls and I share a look. Could it be heretics, again?

I smile wryly and reply, "Well, I also have no idea, but it sure fits us that we'd get ourselves embroiled in trouble again."

"The Stinky Goblins dungeon was too uneventful," Hana sarcastically remarks.

"I kind of agree," Oritiki grunts and snorts.

"Nothing will be solved by talking about it. Let's discuss our strategy," Yunia interjects and pulls us back on track, then I summon one of each type of the bug so that the men can study them.

"What in Heaven and Hell…" Aisco blurts out in surprise.

"I can summon monsters," I state flatly.

He slowly makes his way to them as his eyes widen, then he produces a chantless [Fireball] above his hand and begins breathing excitedly. "Can I test it?" He whispers.

"Yes, you can. That's why I summoned them," I stiffly answer.

He shows a rare smile, though it's pretty creepy coming from him, and he gets to work testing his spells against the bugs' exoskeletons.

"This is actually really convenient," Oritiki remarks as she tries out her [Beam] on each bug. She quickly discovers that her glaive's enchantment can easily kill Frogs and Spitters from range.

"Really convenient," Anton grunts as he and the knights take a close look at the Train, observing where all of its joints are and searching for weaker spots in their exoskeletons, but the Lordsguard can't afford to be as precise as the knights in the heat of battle, so they just poke the bugs at random.

Then Hana turns to the Grosshils and the twins. "Can these four really participate in this battle? I don't know if they're at the same level as our Lordsguard," she worriedly questions.

The twins swallow heavily, and Arturus immediately confesses, "Though we have [Spear Use], we've been trained only as cavalry for now, not footmen." And Antares nods slowly.

"If you can't use a bow, then I believe you should use the gnomic weapons or one of these," Sandoro advises, then he points to an unused pile of crossbows. It's rare to see one of those since imperials, elves, and most adventurers favor [Bow Use] due to its versatility over the crossbow's ease of use.

"What sort of elf can't use a bow?" Roxanne teases with a grin.

Yunia glares at her and bites back, "The kind who has a penchant for a more noble weapon like the longsword or for the dignified position of a rider."

And that's enough levity for now, so I stop them before they start their bantering, "Let's not get too deep into the tongue fucking right now. The monster army is close-by."

The two mean girls immediately drop it as if neither had said anything, then our eyes fall on the Grosshils.

"Hermann is a really good soldier," Klein suddenly chimes in, then gives me a shy look when I turn to her.

"He's been getting along well with the rest of the Lordsguard," Anton stoically adds, trying to look as impartial as possible.

I give my rival a measuring look, and his posture stiffens as everyone's gazes fall upon them.

Ahren suddenly grabs his husband's waist and proudly gives his endorsement, "Hermann has been trained as a bodyguard, but I can say that he has a talent for anything related to fighting."

"He likely enjoys being in the middle of sweaty men," Hana grunts as she smirks.

"So do you," Hermann flatly replies without even looking at her.

Hana shrugs and sends me a sly glance. "In my case, it's mostly women, but Wolfy counts as more than one man."

But Yunia glares at me coldly. "Aren't you going to stop them?" She asks sternly.

I give her a shit-eating grin and innocently request, "Let me enjoy the rimjob just a little bit longer."

Hermann straightens his posture, then boldly declares with a stern expression, completely ignoring my playfulness, "I believe I'm ready for this battle." And I feel like fucking with him for this.

I walk up to Klein, then gently hold her face with my claws as I unleash [Sexual Charm] and kindly whisper, "And what about you, are you alright? You've been fighting a lot these past few days, so I don't want you to tire yourself out and risk exhausting yourself in battle."

"I-I'm fine, really!" She exclaims earnestly, then leans her head against my touch as her dark skin quickly becomes flushed.

"Don't worry too much about her," Hermann interjects and comes closer, then he stops awkwardly close to us and stares at me intensely. "She's an energetic woman who can take on a dragon by herself," he affirms with a grin as he lands a hand on her shoulder, then she tenses up, finally realizing what's going on.

"You mean in bed? I very much doubt that," I state matter-of-factly and return the stare.

"Wolfy…" Yunia whispers in warning, but Hermann and I are too busy having a draconic willpower contest to listen.

The classically handsome boy has a very youthful air to him that's similar to mine, giving a bit of context as to why Klein also likes him. She definitely has a thing for dominant dragons because I see a bit of Hana's fearsome gaze in him, though, obviously, he only has traces of it compared to me, the one true weredragon.

His shit-eating grin is annoying, though. He's enjoying butting his head against his Lord's, but it won't be long before he learns not to challenge a true man.

"We can still thin out the monster army before they reach our men," Ciel comes to the rescue, and I immediately snap out of it. Duty calls, and I won't play around with that.

"Yes. We have monsters to kill," I agree and turn away, but I give Hermann one last look to make sure he understands that this isn't over.

I summon a Holly and an Ice Wraith, then I instruct them to search for Red Barrels and Frogs. It doesn't seem like the bugs are using spirit monsters, and the magical capabilities of the average bug are quite limited, so my summons should be safe to scout the monster army.

We kite them with ease now that we're prepared for their tricks. It's rather tiring though, not physically, but mentally. The bugs are so fast that a single mistake brings the risk of horrible injuries, even though I can use [Bind] to summon the girls. Aoi is also getting frustrated as fighting from range greatly reduces her kill potential since she doesn't have enough "Magic Power" to truly compare with her raw physical strength.

"Control the golems," I order her through [Bind], and she readily accepts. With her superior draconic willpower, she finds it rather easy to guide the three golems' attacks and increase their effectiveness.

Alissa focuses on the scouting summons' sight, searching for the dreaded Red Barrels. Our [Wind Armor] can weaken attacks and projectiles, but it doesn't fully divert them, so a splash of acid is still a splash of acid no matter how fast it comes at us. At least the Barrels' fluids don't react to our armor, but we might still get unlucky like Aoi did.

Once we reach our men, we take a short rest and observe how they fare.

"Drink your health potions!" An officer barks an order, and everyone obeys.

Packed like sardines, they present as many spears as they can to the enemy while each line of men uses the one behind them as support to help brace against the impact.

The Horns float close to the ground and stick to the walls to not get in the way of the spells and arrows that whistle over our heads. Our men have a clear shot at anything down the tunnel from their raised platform, and they send a constant barrage of ranged attacks. A portable metal battlement provides them with protection from Spitters and Frogs, though the Horns are succeeding in killing any of either of these bugs before they can threaten our back line.

The gnomes have their own acid-spitter, and we use it to its fullest because it softens the bugs' natural armor.

The first row of gnomic traps activate, covering the floor with lava and making acid rain down from the ceiling, which are both quite effective at slowing and even killing the Trains, but the bugs behind them simply climb up onto the corpses of their fallen brethren and continue the suicide charge.

Reinforced spears shoot out of the walls, skewering the bugs and holding them in place, but the point of this trap isn't to clog the tunnel, so the spears quickly bend and break as the Trains simply slam against the rear of those who are stuck, but that helps slow their charge.

There's simply so much damage and so many obstacles that their speed is basically nullified by the time they fall on the spears of our front line, but their sheer mass and momentum make our men struggle to hold them back.

"GIVE!" One of the officers barks the order, and the men take two steps back in unison.

"GIVE!" He repeats, and the pressure eases for a moment as the men obey, then it rises once again as the next Trains reach them.

The spears break or get stuck in the pile of carcasses, but we have a stockpile to replace them, and Almaria can cast [Vine Weapon] hundreds of times if needed. However, her magic is best used for [Weaverism] to link our soldiers' emotions together, greatly boosting their morale and their teamwork, or to cast [Entangling Vines] to slow down the Trains' charge.

The men slowly fall back in perfect rhythm, steadily inching closer to the first raised platform. Hopefully, the wave will end before we reach it.

A large worm appears, slowly inching forward while vacuuming up all the bodies into its small mouth. The Janitor sucks them into a monster's version of [Warp Space], and then absorbs them. It's a mostly passive monster, and it's a bad idea to kill it, so we'll just leave it be until the wave thins out.

Then a random Witch makes itself known, only to get immediately shot down by an angry Alissa. Her ears deserve better, so if she didn't kill it in one shot, we'd all help her end her quarry.

The sound of the Barrels exploding and the occasional Witch mix with Aisco's and Roxanne's spells as it all echoes through the tunnel. Our ears eventually begin to ring from the cacophony, so the officer responsible for the back step switches to lights, and the dreary brown tunnel becomes like an avant-garde underground rave, though the music sucks.

We shield the scouting Holly and Ice Wraith from the Spirit mana pulse with a barrier of emellanat, but the two summons seemingly aren't necessary since the bugs' scout is merely a fist-sized fly that doesn't use invisibility or even [Hide Presence]. I name it a Fly Spy.

After many long minutes of fighting, the wave thins out, and the knights take over as they're more apt at killing the trickle of monsters, allowing the Lordsguard to switch out the front line for fresh soldiers and reorganize themselves.

But that only lasts for a couple of minutes as another wave nears, and everyone retreats to the next line of defense so that we may make use of its fresh traps while we thin out the wave again.

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This pattern repeats a dozen times, but when I look at my watch, it's still only 8 AM. This will be a long fight.

A Frog manages to shoot its tongue at our shields, and it strains our shield wall with its stupidly high strength, but with a quick swipe of Patrono, the tongue is severed.

Another soldier gets an unlucky splash of a Barrel's acid on his eyes, and he has to endure the pain until it's time to switch. He doesn't need to see, so his comrades support him and guide his actions to maintain the integrity of the spear wall.

Ciel's [Holy Spirit] can move among the pack of soldiers with ease, so she uses it to soothe the suffering man.

A dozen unlucky soldiers have small amounts of acid reach their skin through small openings in their armor, but none are as bad as the one who got blinded. The acid is nasty, though, as it can corrode holes into their flesh in mere seconds, but at least it isn't effective against our armor.

After a few more waves, I notice that our eyes have gradually begun to water, then we feel our mouths and noses start to burn. The acid of the bugs is being turned into steam from the heat of our spells and traps, forcing me to summon two wind elemental-wives to filter the air. Otherwise, the stress of the pain would just build up and decrease our combat effectiveness.

The fighting progresses for another hour without issue, but then the behavior of the wave suddenly changes. The Trains charge forward in a perfect grid formation, maximizing the number of them that are slamming against our spears at any one moment, so I throw Patrono diagonally to disrupt them.

We detect Frogs and Spitters hitching a ride on the Trains, hiding from our attacks by clinging to the side or ass of the Trains, then they suddenly come up and launch their attacks in unison.

The girls and I cast wall spells to block the projectiles, but just the sheer number of them is enough to wound some of our men.

"THEY'RE BEING GUIDED BY A LEADER-TYPE!" Yunia roars in my soul space.

Our men won't last against repeated attacks like these, and if we only try to kill the ranged bugs before they threaten us, we'll exhaust ourselves due to their endless numbers.

"WE HAVE TO KILL THE LEADER!" I roar back and start formulating a plan.

We don't know what's ahead of us, so just sending Alissa and Yunia is risky, but forcing me to give everyone [Invisibility] would be a strain on my already tight MP pool.

I don't have time to make a careful decision, so I just hand over Patrono to Hana as I shout, "I'LL GO AHEAD ON MY OWN AND IMPROVISE!"

"I'LL ESCORT YOU!" Alissa immediately declares, and I don't try to argue. She has the best senses, anyway.

I summon another Holly and another Ice Wraith, then I order them to follow me closely since they'll be our eyes. I shift my points into [Illusion Magic] until I unlock the level 50 spell [Invisibility], then I cast it on both of us. Our sight immediately goes dark, and we become completely invisible as all light is diverted around us, then we fly ahead while Yunia explains our plan to Sandoro.

"BE CAREFUL OF SPIRIT MONSTERS, THEY MIGHT BE PROTECTING THE LEADER-TYPE!" He shouts at the top of his lungs to be heard over the cacophony.

We fly at full speed, but nothing detects us, and we eventually pass the wave of bugs without finding out where this leader-type is, then we reach the first fork in the tunnels, so we wait until a monster comes out of one of them to choose which to advance through.

We fly deeper and deeper down, and our men start to become noticeably strained as they continue to contend with the bugs' improved coordination. We need to hurry.

Alissa believes a pitch change in the Witch's screech is what announces the ranged attack, so Sandoro gets a weredog soldier to listen to it, and the commanding officer adds the color yellow to the rave.

It seems to be successful, so no more men are blinded or wounded, but it still isn't enough to ease the pressure from the coordinated attack.

Sandoro suddenly grabs Ciel's attention as she takes a small breather and shouts in her ear, "THE PRINCE WARNS THAT A LEADER-TYPE IS PRESENT. ELITE HUNTERS ARE SEARCHING FOR IT!"

Comforting, but I still have more trust in our own strength.

We pass a few waves while the temperature continues to rise, then the tunnels become wet, evidence that we've entered the area that was flooded to stop the underworld creatures.

We meet a few slow-moving, rock-like beings that seem to be increasing their own temperature, then I realize that the rocks spread around on the floor are monster carcasses that the Thalanthro killed as they scoured the tunnels.

We just leave them be and move on, and after a few more minutes of flying, the tunnel suddenly opens up, and we find ourselves in a huge room crawling with bugs, all neatly organized in rows. Walking among them is a sort of humanoid wasp with tentacles for a mouth, which it uses to do something to each of the bugs' heads.

I think we've found the leader-types, though the number of bugs present doesn't seem to be anywhere near the entirety of their army, so this must be only an outpost.

I let the dragon out of its cage, and my breathing starts to become heavier as the thirst for blood makes my cock get hard from the anticipation, then I summon the girls.

It's time to let 'er rip.

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