Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 97
Chapter 97: Episode 26. The Army of Malicious Commander (4)
I wanted to find altars and get more monsters, but that would take a longer period of time. Meanwhile, the Malicious Commander was running around busily. A storm struck wherever he stopped. The commander separated his army into two groups: one for conquering dungeons and the other for attacking humans. The Doom Contribution had been constantly increasing.
The word insane best described the commander.
Demons, who were even outside of China, started to notice the presence of the Malicious Commander and his army.
“This is a headache.”
If I let the commander be, the other demons, who had finished assaulting the angels, would unite to attack the commander.
If the archdukes or dukes united, they could be great threats to me. Furthermore, the Malicious Commander and his army did not know anything about the demons. It was obvious that the demons would crush them.
I had a couple of solutions. First, I could try to warn the Malicious Commander, which would help him prepare for the demons’ attacks. Another solution was beating him up to some extent. The commander then would stop slaughtering the humans and would get ready to fight the demons.
After all, the commander and his army would last only ninety days. Therefore, it was beneficial for me if they could fight the other demons during that period. Even the slightest damage that the commander did on the demons would be worth the six thousand achievement points that I had paid.
Of course, that price included Saman’s dungeon. Thanks to the chaos that the Army of Malicious Commander had brought, I could quickly and silently conquer the dungeon.
Standing on top of the Griffin, I looked down on the ground.
Hundreds of humans, each wielding their weapons, were blocking the pathways.
They would soon run into the monsters on the grounds.
“Griffin, wipe out anyone that is in the way.”
Screech!
As soon I commanded, the Griffin spat out “Fire and Lightning” from its mouth. It was Griffin’s own skill, and it was perfect for wiping out a large number of weak enemies.
Booom!
Fire and lightning struck the ground and melted everything. The men wielded only weapons and armors of poor qualities. The armors did not protect them from the Griffin’s skills, and they were heavily injured by the heat.
A small number of survivors were terrified and ran away.
A large number of human casualties could increase the “Doom Contribution score” by a very small amount. Killing just a few hundred men would barely count. The best way to prevent the score from/increasing was stopping the Malicious Commander as soon as possible.
A Saber Tiger caught a human who was trying to run away. That was the last battle scene that I saw. Then I tuned out.
“For the emperor!”
The Malicious Commander was ruthless like his name. He had already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people with his army of fifty thousand. The commander divided his army into ten groups of five thousand soldiers. The groups of soldiers were wiping out every single living thing that they could find.
Whenever the commander’s golden sword flashed, a life was taken away. The Malicious Commander was directly commanding the main effort of his army, and they were attacking other demons’ dungeons. Slashing thousands of low-level monsters, the army had already reached the twentieth floor.
Everything was going well so far.
The commander’s soldiers were invincible.
Death made the soldiers even stronger, and the monsters were no match for them.
“As the negative mana increased, they are getting stronger,” I thought.
The Malicious Commander ground his teeth. He could not forgive the thieves who dared to steal treasures from the treasure house. However, the demons were worse than the thieves. They had attempted to invade middle earth and threaten the emperor so frequently. Had they not interfered, the emperor could have easily united the continent, and the empire would stand strong.
“Because of the curse of the gods, the emperor was destined to fight demons,” the commander thought.
And the commander hated the “gods” the most. The emperor became overwhelmingly powerful, and his tremendous strength destroyed the balance. The gods wanted to recover the balance, so they cursed the emperor. The emperor was destined to spend the rest of his life defending middle earth against the invading demons. The gods forcefully made the emperor into a guardian.
The emperor took a chance to escape from the destiny. Although he was falsely blamed for some of the conduct that he never committed, the emperor stood strong and marched forward. The emperor’s attitude strongly motivated the Malicious Commander and his army to safeguard the treasure house with all their efforts.
The commander and the army were so loyal to the emperor that they could even die happily for the emperor if the emperor wished so.
The commander and the army pitied the cursed emperor, and they were willing to carry on the emperor’s will.
“Son of a bitch! How dare you make me squander all my points! Don’t you dare think that you will return alive!”
At that moment, a large number of monsters appeared from the other side.
The commander could immediately tell that the monsters looked much different from what he had seen so far.
And in the center was a demon.
“It will not be easy,” the commander thought.
The Malicious Commander sighed silently.
Because he had divided his army into ten groups, there were only five thousand soldiers by his side at the moment. And the number had decreased to four thousand as they advanced through the dungeon.
The demon looked very unhappy. Frowning, the demon frequently yelled the word “points.” The Malicious Commander could not fathom what the word meant, but the demon soon took out a giant ax.
“Malicious Commander or whatever you are, you are dead today! I will smash you…”
“Retreat!”
Although the Malicious Commander was ruthless, he was a commander after all.
He did not want to start such a hard fight in the middle of the enemy’s territory.
“What? Retreat? You son of a bitch! I won’t let you go!”
The angry demon started chasing the commander and his army with his monsters.
The chase was tight. The commander’s army was running away as fast as they could, but the demon and his monsters were catching up at a tremendous speed.
Thanks to the experienced commander’s orders and the skeleton soldiers’ swift action, the army received only small damages.
Furthermore, the commander had placed the strongest soldiers, who were called “skeleton knights” near the entrance. The strong knights helped the commander and his army escape.
The commander and his soldiers quickly merged with the rest of the army, which was waiting outside the dungeon.
Behind them were demons and monsters. Unfortunately, the majority of the commander’s army was not present; they were attacking the other demons’ dungeons. Even though most of them were gone, when the retreating soldiers and the soldiers waiting outside merged, the total number of soldiers increased to thirteen thousand.
Although the commander’s army got larger, the demons, who were chasing the commander, did not notice the change. The Malicious Commander sent out messengers and ordered the other half of his army to lay low nearby. When the demons and the monsters entered a narrow region, the commander ordered a full-fledged attack.
“For the emperor!”
Boom! Boom!
The soldiers were marching in an orderly fashion. The loud footsteps of the soldiers frightened their enemies.
“You…! You fucking undead! Don’t you dare!”
The demon was Marquis Delate. A message informed him that his dungeon was under attack. As soon as he received the message, he returned to his dungeon.
When he went back to the dungeon, he sent a message informing Archduke Oculus of the invasion, and he started defending his dungeon against the enemy. Unlike his expectation, the Malicious Commander and his soldiers were very strong. Delate had already lost a lot of monsters while he was attacking the angels. Therefore, he had to spend points to purchase more monsters. Otherwise, he might lose the dungeon.
Shaking his hands, Delate used up all of his points. He had been saving the points for the Auction of Devildom. Delate became extremely furious after he spent all of his points.
The rage blinded his mind, and the demon soon fell into a trap.
Crash!
There was no way out. The formation that the soldiers created was very tight. It was slowly strangling Delate.
“Kill them all!”
Delate yelled angrily.
It was a heated fight. Although Delate was cornered, he did not easily fall. After all, Delate spent a tremendous amount of points to purchase many monsters for defense; the total amount of points spent was about 1.5 million. There were two ways for accumulating such wealth. First, he had been saving diligently. Furthermore, he earned a lot of points by hunting angels. The large number of monsters that he purchased was indeed worth the points.
“I need more time,” the demon thought.
However, death was at Delate’s doorstep. He was constantly losing his monsters. If the loss continued, Delate might lose his life in the battle.
If Delate had more time, he could still hope.
Delate believed that his master, Archduke Oculus, would not let his demons die. Delate had called for help, and he believed that Oculus would answer. If Oculus came to help, the other demons would, too. The reinforcement would then crush the Malicious Commander and his army.
The marquis immediately ordered his monsters to start defending. The monsters and Delate gathered and tried to buy time until help came.
And then it came.
Splash-!
Many green stems soared from the ground.
The circumferences of the stems were over five meters, and their lengths were longer than tens of meters. The giant stems looked frightening.
Boom! Boom!
The stems started pressing down on the skeleton soldiers.
Delate had seen this skill in the past.
He smiled slightly.
“My master, Archduke Oculus!”
Oculus and three other dukes appeared.
The table had turned.
When I arrived at the battlefield following the footsteps of the Malicious Commander, I found the battlefield filled with dead bodies.
Furthermore, the battle was still going on.
Tens of thousands of monsters and the Army of Malicious Commander was still fighting.
“Am I too late?” I thought.
I calmly touched my head.
Five demons caught my eyes first.
The Malicious Commander was skillfully commanding his army, but he was cornered.
Had they been mediocre demons, the Malicious Commander would have a chance. However, after I checked who the demons were, I nodded slightly.
“Oculus and his dukes,” I thought.
Then it would make sense that the commander was losing the battle.
In fact, it was amazing how the commander had not perished yet.
Thanks to the chaos that the Malicious Commander had brought by attacking a bunch of dungeons, the strongest demons had come to battle.
“It is better to retreat,” I thought.
For now, I wanted to focus on weakening Archduke Ufa. Having a hostile relationship with Oculus was not the best idea at the moment.
Oculus was known for his incomprehensible mind.
Ariel, Ufa, and Pandemonium each had different characteristics. If I wanted to attack any of them, I could devise a plan based on their traits. However, attacking Oculus would be different.
During the previous life, Oculus successfully grew the largest number of the Tree of World and gained so much benefit. However, it seemed that he did not want to become the Dark Lord. He acted similarly during the Last Battle. There were also other incidents where I could not understand the hidden meaning behind Oculus’ actions.
However, Oculus was not dumb for sure. He was quick in taking as much benefit as he could under any circumstances. Oculus accomplished the most achievements and special events.
Oculus was indeed unfathomable.
Out of all the archdukes, he was the hardest to confront.
Furthermore, I was outnumbered; Oculus had way many more monsters than I did. If I did not plan on forming an alliance with Oculus and attacking the Malicious Commander together, retreating would be the best move that I could make.
The other demons and soldiers were so intensely engaged in the fight that none of them noticed my presence. It was the best time to retreat.
However, something unexpected happened just when I knocked off a couple of monsters and tried to retreat.
“Ah…!”
The Malicious Commander looked at me.
Despite the far distance, his stare was fixed exactly upon me.
Clang!
There was a moment of silence. Then, the commander dropped his sword as though he could not believe what he was seeing.
“Marvelous mana! Overwhelming presence!”
Then he trembled.
“Emperor!”
Riding his horse, the commander started to approach me.
I freaked out for a moment.
“Emperor?”
What the hell does that mean?
A large number of soldiers were approaching me, following the commander.
The soldiers had been moving in formations throughout the battle. However, when they were running towards me, they broke the formation and ran in a completely disordered fashion.
The commander and his soldiers did not care about the monsters nearby.
They fell over and threw their shields. It was a complete mess. When a soldier fell down, the others stepped on his body and continued running.
Even the mighty Oculus seemed puzzled. He looked as though he was asking “what the hell is going on?”
The Malicious Commander was different. Soldiers? He did not care at all.
As a result, he was the first one to come to me.
Bump!
He dismounted from his horse and took off his helmet. Then he knelt on his knee.
“Maxium meets the emperor.”
“…”
He had many scars on his face. The commander looked masculine, and I was okay with it.
I had never expected such an encounter.
It was indeed surprising that the commander suddenly approached me and knelt before me.
The commander was about to cry, although he could not, because he was already dead. However, had he been able to, he would have cried out loud and hard.
“Finally… finally, you have been freed. Hahaha! Now we can mock the gods and unite the continent. Hahaha!”
“I do not know what you are talking about.”
“Ah! You must have lost some of your memory! I guess the mana of your heart has not been fully opened. Do not worry. I know how to awaken the mana. I, Maxium, will take care of the emperor with my soldiers!”
The soldiers behind the commander got into a formation.
Although they were mere skeletons, their quivering bodies made loud noises.
There were different emotions among the soldiers: excitement, tension, and fear.
“Heart?” I thought.
In the middle of the chaos, I was able to catch the word “heart.”
“The heart of the Hell Lord,” I thought.
I thought about the heart of the Hell Lord, which I got serendipitously from an Easter Egg.
Is this item somehow related to the Malicious Commander?
