Chapter 32: The Altar atop the Mountain (1/2)

With the battle over, it was now time to split the “spoils”. The dead imps were dismembered and evenly distributed among the survivors, while the majority of the undead soul flames were sent to me. The remaining portion was split between the named imps. Except for No.5, all of them were on the verge of evolving.

With their swords and shields, they would be undefeatable within the two-star level once they evolved.

We camped out at this spot for two days before No.5 finally came back. As always, he had that wronged look on his face whenever he saw me.

“Master, you finally remembered me…”

“Has their numbers changed?”

“…it increased a little, it’s probably at 4,000 now.”

“How long until they get here?”

“4 to 5 days…” he said as he counted his fingers.

Four to five days? That’s not enough, looks like we have to stall for time.

“Continue observing them, we need to find a way to stall for time. Be careful and make sure not to alert them.”

“But Master…I’m tired.”

“So are you saying you wish to stop working?”

“No, no, I was just wondering if I could take a break?” No.5 looked at me with his puppy dog eyes as he asked. If he had stuck out his tongue at this moment, he would’ve looked like a dog.

“Sure you can, you can take a break forever.” I nodded benevolently and pointed at No.3, Big 1, One-eye, Big 4 and Nine-finger. “Whose stomach do you wish to rest in? Take your pick.”

“…” No.5 jumped back in terror at these words. Under the strange gazes of his companions, he threw me a smile that looked more like a sobbing face and said: “Stop joking Master, I still wish to work for you.”

“No conditions?”

“No way, toiling on the Master’s behalf is this servant’s honor!” Having said that, he immediately ran off, behind him One-eye and the others were chortling at his expense.

We weren’t idling around in the two days when we were waiting for No.5’s intelligence report. I began designing new weaponry for the imps. One such design was the heavy bone shield.

To produce this new bone shield, I needed 7 units of mana and 7 sets of bones. It was made with the intention of fighting off devil zombies, but there were other uses as well. (Each unit of mana was equivalent to one Darkness Arrow’s worth of mana.)

The new shield had the same shape as the previous and was strictly speaking, a larger version of it. This new design was 1.5m long, 1m wide and a staggering 5 cm thick. As for its weight, I have no idea. It probably weighed about 150 kg.

It was designed for personal use but it could also be used by multiple people simultaneously.

The heavy weight meant that only my strongest imps could use this shield without having their mobility severely impaired. If it was a human, they would probably have to be two-star to be able to use this shield.

Unlike the other shield, this was a purely defensive weapon so in order to complement this shield, I designed a bone Mo sabre. (TL: A polearm with a very long blade.)

Mo sabres were weapons popular during the Tang Dynasty, and were deadly weapons against cavalrymen and infantry in general.

While it was called a bone Mo sabre, calling it a Mo sword wasn’t too far fetched either. It was formed of two sections, a sword body and and long hilt. The sword body was similar to a broadsword. However, it had a wider sword tip and tapered on both sides. Essentially, its blade was double edged.

This was specially designed to bring out the offensive characteristics of a Mo sabre. It allowed for hacking, slicing, stabbing and chopping; unlike the long spear which only allowed for stabbing. The sword body was 100 cm long and 1 cm thick.

As for the long hilt, it was a simple hilt design with a length of 150 cm. Combined with the sword body, the entire weapon was an astonishing 250 cm long.

This length made it easier for the wielder to fight off cavalrymen; as you could chop off the horse’s legs to restrict its movement or hack at the rider’s head.

With the new heavy shields in mind, I changed our formation to one where the heavy shieldbearers would stand in front of the army and stab their heavy shields into the ground to form a static defensive line. In order to prevent the enemy from forcefully toppling this shield wall, I stationed some large imps between the shieldbearers and the sabre wielders. Their job was to help brace the heavy shield against any oncoming impact.

At this position, the Mo sabre’s offensive prowess could be unleashed from safety. The sabre wielders merely had to mount their long weapons on the heavy shields and use the double edged blade to chop left and right as if they were harvesting wheat.

Perhaps it was due to the stricter requirements of the sabre’s long hilt, but the bone Mo sabres required an astonishing six units of mana and five sets of bones to craft.

Clearly, time was an issue as these weapons required an enormous amount of mana to craft. I must stall for time so that I can create more of these weapons. The surrounding undead have already been cleaned out during these past two days so I need the imps to venture out further. If I’m lucky, they might encounter more devils to recruit.

As of now, the amount of special infantry in my army was 20 guardsmen wielding swords and shields, 5 shieldbearers wielding the new heavy shields and 5 sabre wielders. (Named devils not included)

With just these numbers alone, fighting off the 4,000 strong zombie horde would be difficult. Winning was a given but at what cost? The losses would be catastrophic, even to the point of losing my entire army.

In order to increase our chances, I decided to lead the zombie horde around in a circle. While we marched, we would hunt the nearby undead and harvest their flames. While at the same time, recruit any devils we encountered on the way using any means necessary. As my army was doing this, I would be crafting more weapons to prepare for the coming battle.