Volume 3 Chapter 11 (2/2)

Creeping its way in the very front was the gigantic Acid Slime.

It didn't have much but the slime seemed to have at least enough intelligence to squeeze its liquid body down to as slim and low as its highly dense body would allow, hence resulting to an efficient means of defense.

Behind the Acid Slime were the numerous Glow Slimes that were creeping their way forward in a similar fashion. And flying over their heads were the countless bullets being fired.

It was going great but then the Mithril Golems, upon the Dwarf Smith's instruction, momentarily stopped firing and adjusted the angle of their guns' muzzles. After a short while, they resumed firing, only this time, they readjusted the angle of their guns' muzzles for each round fired.

The bullets that flew over the gigantic slime's head began to graze it, getting closer and closer, until finally, the slime was hit. The gigantic slime wobbled greatly. However, that was it, nothing more, nothing less. The bullets stopped moving before it could exit the slime's body. The slime then continued to creep forward as it spitted out the 12.7mm bullets it stopped.

Even compared to all monsters, the physical resistance displayed here was top class.

As I thought, if anybody could do it, it's these guys, thought Zagan who struck a victory pose when he saw the scene through the eyes of a small inorganic monster that used the slime army as shield.

And then, perhaps due to being done with adjusting the angle of their guns' muzzles, the golems began to once again rapid-fire.

Despite only seeing it through the eyes of another being, the storm of mayhem was enough to make Zagan tremble.

The heavy-machineguns spewed out ten bullets per second and each of those bullets was comparable an A rank monster's full-strength attack. And yet, the Acid Slime pressed on—even though it shook wildly—as it absorbed a large amount of bullets into its body.

By all rights, the hail of bullets should have overcome the Acid Slime's [Shock Absorption] by now but thanks to the slime squeezing its body close to ground, only one out of three bullets hit it. That low accuracy gave the slime enough time to self-regenerate.

Even so, the damage done to the slime was piling up little by little. The Glow Slimes were used to shield some parts of the gigantic slime's body and thus give it more time to recuperate. The bodies of the killed slimes were then absorbed into the bigger one's body, healing it even more.

All in all, things were going as [Steel] Demon Lord Zagan had predicted it would.

”Fufufu, has no one ever told that stupid guy to never again use an already exposed trick? This is what he gets for wanting everyone's attention and recklessly volunteering in that sideshow!”

And then, the heavy-machineguns finally stopped firing due to its gun barrel becoming too hot to use.

In the meantime, the Acid Slime finally finished healing itself up and proceeded to rush ahead.

”Even that incompetent [Viscosity] could actually be of use to me. Now, my monsters, attack!!”

He made his monsters that were on standby in the white space rush inside.

As for Zagan himself, he remained outside with the A rank monsters. He was to remain there until all of his monsters have entered the dungeon.

Even when some of his monsters had entered, the firing still haven't resumed. It was as though those weapons have become completely useless. Just in case it was a bluff, the slow slimes remained in the lead, still acting as important shields.

It was the right call to assign [Viscosity] the fool's monsters to act as shields.

Halfway through, things suddenly changed. The slimes were all of a sudden wrapped in flames that came from the sides.

Slimes were strong against physical attacks but were awful against high temperature. And so, being covered in flames, they writhed in pain.

The Acid Slime wrapped the other Glow Slimes into its body in an effort to put out the flames. Ultimately, it failed at completely doing so. It had an almost nonexistent intelligence and yet it nevertheless felt injustice as it burned away.

”Wha­-what's going on!?” cried [Steel] Demon Lord Zagan.

The cause for such was simple: Golems. Although the dungeon room looked nothing but a straightforward path no matter how one looked, its walls were actually excavated wide enough to fit the golems that would hide in them. These tunnels were then disguised in order to conceal them.

Thanks to Elder Dwarf and the Dwarf Smiths' continued efforts in making golems—one for each of them each day—the amount of golems in Avalon was well more than enough. In the same way, they also prepared many weapons that could correspond with various situations.

One of those were the flamethrowers that were carried by the golems that just appeared. These weapons repurposed the napalm mixture used in the aerial corps' bombs. That's why, even when the Acid Slime wrapped itself with the Glow Slimes, the demonic flames born out of the mixture did not disappear.

Procell considered his enemies would counter his Mithril Golems and their heavy-machineguns using monsters that most likely had abilities like shock absorption or ones that granted physical damage resistance. If so, then to answer this, he made the golems with the flamethrowers hide in the tunnels where they could ambush the enemies.

And then…

”Wait, what, what's the meaning of this?”

The attacks of the Mithril Golems surely did stop and the heavy-machineguns unusable. That much was no act but…

”New golems with those damned weapons have appeared!?”

If something was broken, you simply had to replace it.

There were actually six Mithril Golems with heavy-machineguns. Also, they were setup so that they could switch with one another at any time.

Then, why had they not switched until now, one might ask. The answer was simple; Wight patiently waited for when the enemy—after being tricked—charged his troops in.

As a matter of fact, the slimes could have been dealt with much earlier but doing so might have made Zagan hesitate and thus not send in his troops.

And so, until serious damage could be dealt, Wight waited.

The slimes that acted as shields were no more, exposing the numerous prey.

The new Mithril Golems open-fired with their heavy-machineguns. Its 12.7mm large caliber bullets, released at a rate of about 10 rounds per second, travelled at nearly three times the speed of sound. When shooting a human with it, rather than opening a hole, it would make its target explode beyond recognition. That power is then increased further when it's combined with the bonus provided by Mithril Golems' crazy strength. Its destructiveness which was ineffective before was now finally on full display.

Zagan's monsters were inorganic monsters that focused on toughness. However, against those heavy-machineguns, it could not hope to compete.

Zagan's monsters' made cracking sounds and fell one by one.

”Fall back, FALL BACK!”

To decrease his losses even if by only a little, Zagan issued so.

However…

”More?”

More Mithril Golems appeared. Of course, they were also with heavy-machineguns of their own. They were positioned further back in the room so they most probably were from the adjacent room, Zagan thought.

The new ones then lined up with the first ones and the assault became even fiercer. Twice the guns meant twice the damage.

At a lightning fast speed, Zagan's monsters were exterminated. Zagan came to this realization when there were no more monsters that could become his eyes. In the end, not one monster that went into the dungeon came back.

”My… my strategy, he has seen through it..” whispered Zagan as though the words had to be wringed out of his throat.

He intended to counter Procell's strategy but got caught up in Procell's own countermeasures.

With the catastrophe just now, he had lost half of his monsters.

Furthermore, he lacked any means to break through.

What should I do, what should I do???

His joy from earlier was now replaced with gut-wrenching despair.

When he was about to give up, the monster beside him spoke up.

It was a white tiger-type monster.

It had two sharp fangs; its body was muscular and tough; and was covered in beautiful platinum and black body hair.

High-ranking beast monsters—this one included—held intelligence and could even speak.

”Boy, I mean, you, what do you intend to do? I have been peeking into your mind since a while ago and I have also seen that spectacle. So, do you want to break through?”

”Of course I do, but what about those strong attacks?”

”Hmm. Then, leave it up to me. This ought to be fun. If their opener is this enjoyable, then I'm sure the defenses further in will be even more. Good, good. I've heard from my master that this war will be interesting so I participated but for a moment there, it was boring me to death. But if things are like this, it looks like I'm going to enjoy myself.”

Such was the monster born as an A rank monster that could grow. It was a being that boasted of being one of the most powerful among the monsters of [Viscosity]'s parent.

”Please, I beg you, do something about those guys.”

”I got it. After all, for the moment, you are my master.”

Zagan threw away his pride and just wished for the defeat of the Mithril Golems.