Chapter 56: Hunting the Ratmen Part 1 (2/2)

Bone spear was a fast casting spell that only required a second of prep before I could toss it. Furthermore, it was even faster than my darkness arrow and fireball, making it perfect for such a sneak attack.

Like a sniper’s bullet, the bone spear pierced through the ratmen’s head before he even saw it coming.

Mhm, not bad. The damage isn’t as much as the fireball but it’s definitely a tier higher than my darkness arrow.

“Chit chit…” With his dying breath, he gave out a pained squeak that definitely attracted the attention of any nearby kinsman.

“Well, you definitely can’t run away now.” She gave me an evil look, the kind where their eyes seemed to be laughing at you. Seems like she’s pretty pleased with this development.

“Ah well, I never intended to run away anyway. It’s just that I didn’t feel too comfortable about fighting an enemy I had no information about.” I gave her a shrug as I said so.

Guess there’s no avoiding it now…with that, I sent out my orders: “Battle formations!”

Upon receiving the order, my devils immediately took up their positions like a well-oiled machine and within seconds, our formation was ready.

“One-eye, I’ll leave the commanding to you.”

One-eye: “Understood, Master.”

Violet Snow ordered her hellhounds to guard our flanks along with the guardsmen. Having done so, she turned to me and in a rare display of affection, reassured me: “ Don’t worry, they only number around a thousand. They shouldn’t be more than 1200.”

Around a thousand? Judging from our previous battle with them, a thousand ratmen weren’t that much, given their combat strength.

However, just to be safe, I decided to reconfirm this fact: “ How do you know that?”

“We got here by following the trail of that army of ratmen. Normally, their hunting parties are around 20% to 30% of the total strength of the entire clan. That ratmen army we met was roughly 300 rats strong.

“This means that this clan should have a strength of 1000 to 1500 rats. 1500 is the the absolute maximum, their real numbers shouldn’t be this much. Don’t forget to count those dead ratmen inside that number as well.”

“Besides, I’m not that stupid to challenge them without any assurances. Based on that previous battle, I’ve noticed that your devils are exceptionally strong. Especially those geared devils, they should be able to handle a number at least three times theirs. With my hellhounds added into the mix, this battle should be a done deal.”

“…alright, you win.”

This cute little puppy actually started plotting from the moment she met us…you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

While she technically took advantage of us, I still wasn’t mad at her. Instead, her exploitative actions merely seemed smart to me. After all, she didn’t actually force us to help her, she merely hid some information from us.

During our previous battle, we basically suffered zero losses. While some unlucky guardsmen got infected by their toxin and thus were unable to fight now, their equipment weren’t lost. As such, it was just a simple matter of swapping in some reserves.

Furthermore, she was right about my devils being strong. With those refined equipment aiding them, the fangs and toxins of the ratmen shouldn’t be able to kill them. In fact, their swords should be able to hack them to death in a slash. These equipment were after all, labors of my love.

Just as the formation was set up, a large swarm of ratmen circled around the corner ahead of us.

In just a few seconds alone, their numbers rapidly swelled as they crashed into us like a tidal wave of fur.

“Hold the line! Don’t retreat! Hold that line!” One-eye shouted from behind the Mo sabre wielders.

As usual, the shieldbearers were at the forefront of the formation, with a heavy slam of their shields, they rooted their bone shields to the ground, forming a shield wall. Under the command of No.5, a number of reserves went up to brace these shields as well.

The ratmen swarmed at the shields in a maddened frenzy that threatened to overwhelm the shieldbearers. Thankfully, the reserves came in to brace the shields in time. It was then that the meat grinder kicked into action.

With a deadly swing and stab of their razor sharp sabres, the rat swarm in front of the wall was quickly thinned out in a gory display of blood and death. Before the majority of the swarm could reach the wall, the sabres would lop off their heads or skewer them in a quick thrust.

Within the ratmen swarm was an exceptionally large, black-furred ratmen. He had an extremely burly physique and was at least 2 meters tall. While he looked extremely powerful, he gave off a sense of clumsiness as well.

Next to him were a group of 1.8 meter tall ratmen encircling him. They numbered slightly over ten and judging from their defensive stance, that giant ratmen in the middle was probably their boss.

The ratmen boss was busy commanding the swarm in midst of that defensive ring. From his vantage point, he was able to see the deadly effectiveness of our Mo sabres. In just a few seconds, nearly 30 ratmen died before they even had the chance to touch our shield walls.

Feeling the pressure of this, he immediately ordered the ratmen to avoid the shieldbearers and instead attack our flanks.

While they had no information on the geared devils, they were basically long time acquaintances with the hellhounds. Both sides were extremely familiar with the other’s tactics. And it was this familiarity that made him decide to attack our flanks.

Truth be told, while these ratmen were one-star, they were probably at the bottom of the one-star rung. They didn’t possess many ways to kill their opponents directly. Instead, their main offensive power was their toxin but this required time to kick in. Furthermore, they actually had to bite their opponents in order to spread this toxin.

These two shortcomings were fatal to the Abaddon Rodents as they faced off against the stronger and well-armed devils. With their shields and deadly swords preventing the rats from getting a clear bite in, these devils were their natural nemesis!

“Chit Chit Chit!!”

Under the orders of the ratmen boss, the ratmen on standby split into two groups, one to attack our left flank and one to attack our right flank.

The lack of mobility was the biggest weakness of the shieldbearers. They couldn’t change formations easily and required the cooperation of others to do so. Furthermore, they posed no threat on their own.

It was precisely for these reasons that the ratmen boss decided to flank us.