NOVEL FROG Chapter 51: Kamikaze
Ten days passed by in a flash, while Zyrus and the ophidian warriors remained unaware of the troubles coming their way.
Zyrus spent his days on awakening more warriors and studying the domain he had created. His troops had grown by leaps and bounds in the process. Now, he had more than 50,000 summons under his command.
Hordes of Verdara beetles were coming from the south as if their butts were on fire. Although Zyrus was concerned about the cause of their frenzied behavior, he gladly accepted the free meal.
After leaving a 1000 empowered and 4000 normal ophidian warriors to guard the warehouse, he moved towards the south to meet the horde head-on.
Red sky and barren land.
No matter where he went, the environment remained the same. The rivers had dried out and vegetation was nowhere to be seen. If not for the timer on his cube he would have believed that he was stuck in a loop.
The only positive thing was that he was getting used to the power of his class. The title's effects were improved twice due to his progress and he could now teleport across 5000 miles. His mana recovered almost instantaneously, and it allowed him to awaken and empower thousands of ophidian warriors every day.
If it was anyone else instead of Zyrus, there was a very high chance that they would become drunk by such power. Fortunately or unfortunately, Zyrus’s current power was not even 10% of his peak strength.
‘Less than two weeks left…’
Zyrus frowned as he observed the map. His forces had cleared out a fourth of the continent. Even then, there was no way he could reach the red zone with the time he had left.
It wasn’t his first time leading thousands of soldiers. However, unlike before, he didn’t have a command structure. Even after all of his experiments he was unable to summon soldiers with self-awareness.
‘Agh- fuck!’
Zyrus doubled over in pain as he felt like thousands of needles were stabbing his insides. There was only one reason why he felt like this all of a sudden.
“Everybody gather around,” Zyrus shouted from the top of his lungs and teleported to the highest mountain nearby.
His summons had died in just a blink of an eye.
‘A lot of them.’
Zyrus scanned his surroundings and soon enough, he found the source of unease he had felt since the past week.
He opened the map, and there it was.
Thousands of red dots were crawling towards his direction. Only a single gigantic circle remained on the Glemorax king’s location.
‘These bastards got me good this time,’
Zyrus had no clue as to how they did it, but he was unable to sense their movement by using the map. Although he didn’t believe the cube to be some sort of omnipotent entity, he didn’t expect that it would have such a flaw.
The cube hummed in his palm as if it was infuriated by Zyrus’s thoughts. Though he found its action amusing, he couldn’t afford to waste time at the moment.
He was pretty sure that he would be facing the new aliens, ‘Glemorax,’ from now on.
The fact that they were able to wipe out one of his squad was enough to tell how strong they were.
Zyrus was tense and excited at the same time. The opponents this time were most likely a tier above the Verdara beetles. The fights would be hard to win, but that also meant that he would be able to awaken rank two summons using them.
‘Around 10,000 miles away…’
He calculated the time it would take for them to arrive. He had no intention to engage in a serious battle before he figured out his enemies' strengths and weaknesses.
‘Two hours, one at the very least,’
Zyrus used teleport with cold eyes and arrived at a plain wasteland. Wars were won with speed, and thus, he had no time to hesitate.
“Summon”
*Shatter*
“Summon”
*Shatter*
“Summon”
.
.
.
‘Huff…huff…’
Zyrus panted for breath but still, he kept summoning 500 ophidian warriors again and again. At first, he believed that the summons' limit was set by the sanctuary to maintain the balance. However, the reality was that even if the sanctuary allowed it, there was no way that someone at level 20 could summon more than 500 creatures at once.
As an expert in dimensional magic, it wasn’t difficult for him to figure out how the ‘summon’ skill worked. It was an altered version of mass teleport. One’s mana and league of existence determined how wide and stable the pathway connecting both sides would be.
Both Zyrus and the ophidian warriors were on the same continent. Even then, it was hard for Zyrus to use the same skill over and over again. There was no way he could summon them in the sanctuary without the system’s assistance.
The only downside of getting a new class was also this. Previously he had the simple mage class which later evolved into ‘Voidwalker.’
He had a 1000 years to practice the same set of spells over and over again. It was no surprise that he was able to use them without the system’s assistance.
‘On the bright side, this is the perfect place to practice my summoning skills…’
Zyrus wiped the sweat from his forehead and shamelessly teleported back to the mountain ranges.
Although he wanted to observe their fight, an open plain wasn’t suitable for that. He had only given one order to the ophidian warriors: Get as many corpses as you can.
The ophidian warriors had 12h cooldown after they were killed. And from the Verdara beetle’s movements, he could guess that the Glemorax had started moving since a week ago.
It took them 7 days to reach the middle of the continent from its edge. If they kept moving in his base’s direction then it would take them another 3-4 days to arrive.
‘I can do 5 more suicide attacks,’
Zyrus grinned evilly and started running towards his base.
5 times was more than enough to know them from the inside out.
…
On the other side, three advance parties of 10,000 Glemorax moved out from the main army. From the moment Zyrus observed them with his cube, they were unable to detect Zyrus using the hive.
Their situations were reversed now. The closer they reached their destination the less control the hive had. It was the first time when the Glemorax chief faced this world’s resistance.
This sudden change made him cautious, but still, he didn’t believe that it would affect the final outcome.
In order to find the target he had sent out a third of his army. A group of 10,000 Glemorax was enough to wipe out any native force on this planet.
One of the group marched in their original direction while the other two moved left and right. They moved faster compared to the main army, and in just an hour, they passed through the dry forest.
In front of them was a barren wasteland with no end in sight.
But that wasn’t the only thing that greeted the advance party.
“Captain! Look over there,”
“Hahaha.. we’re lucky this time,” A ten feet tall Glemorax guffawed as he saw the summons Zyrus had left behind.
40,000 ophidian warriors stood out like a sore thumb on the cracked lands. Despite their opponents having four times their numbers, not a single alien was afraid.
“What are your orders captain?”
“As usual, don’t let anyone escape.”
“We understand.” Ten Glemorax who were a foot taller than the rest bowed their head and walked away.
All of the aliens were two meters tall with muscular builds and black exoskeleton. On their head were two crimson eyes flanked by golden horns. Apart from the clawed hands just like the Verdara beetles, they had another pair of spear-like hands.
The ophidian warriors weren’t staying idle while observing the aliens either. Zyrus had focused on both quality and quantity this time. Out of the 40,000 warriors, 8500 of them were empowered.
They deployed a wedge formation as per Zyrus’s order. 5000 empowered warriors stood at the center while the rest reinforced the middle lines.
Compared to them though, the glemorax’s attack was straightforward. It wasn’t like they didn’t know any decent formation, they simply didn’t need one.
Blade-like crimson wings flapped on their backs as they charged ahead. While Verdara beetles used their wings for swift and unpredictable movement, the Glemorax used them for attack. Just like every other part of their body.
*Puchuk*
Some skewered the ophidians warriors with their spear-like hands while others rammed into their heads with their golden horns.
*Cut*
*bang*
The ophidian warriors fought in a frenzy as they punched the aliens with all their might. Unfortunately, it didn’t achieve anything else apart from pushing them back.
Their red armor was almost impenetrable. Even when they hit their wings, it was the ophidian warriors who were cut into pieces.
It was a one-sided massacre. A fourth of Zyrus’s summons were killed in just five minutes.
“Be careful, something’s not right,” The Glemorax captain advised the ten squad leaders as he observed the battlefield.
They were the only ones with intelligence in this advanced party, and because of that, they were able to feel an eerie sensation.
The battlefield was clean and quiet despite the ongoing slaughter.
Too quiet.
Their opponents neither spoke a word nor did they leave behind a corpse after their death. They were cut, stabbed, and smashed into pieces, but all they did was stare into the glemorax's eyes.
There were no emotions in their eyes. The captain had seen the dying gazes of countless enemies. Fear, hatred, relief, hope… he was used to seeing all these emotions in their prey’s eyes.
But this was different.
He knew that their enemy was a summoner, and they couldn’t get rid of these weaklings without killing their leader.
However, something was off about the enemies this time. Even a summoner couldn’t use their summons like cannon fodder. A lot of time and energy were required to summon a large army like this from another dimension.
Another 5000 ophidian warriors died when the glemorax army charged into the center of their formation. It was at this moment,
*Tear*
For the first time, a glemorax fell. An empowered ophidian warrior stabbed the alien's eyes and yanked its head off.
More than 2000 glemorax had charged into the center of the wedge formation. All of the ophidian warriors at the edge were dead.
Nonetheless, they had served their purpose.
The 3500 empowered ophidian warriors along with the ones in the rear, closed the gap in an instant. It was a stupid act as now they were exposed from both sides.
But it was enough.
They had fulfilled their master's command as 2000 aliens were trapped in the center.