Chapter 161: The Ratman Captives (1/2)

“This…” That was a thousand rats, a thousand rats burnt to death by a single attack, that’s just imbalanced! Clearly, my companions agree with that statement as well!

Puppy dog eyes wide open in disbelief, Violet Snow was just as shocked as I was. “Isn’t that Shadowfang of yours an epic weapon as well, can you do that?”

“…” You’ve got to be kidding me!? If I could pull such a stunt, do you think I would still be here? I would’ve wiped out that demon hunter team who forced me back to hell in the first place.

From across the pond, the remaining 4000 over rats were witness to this terrifying spectacle. Seeing the lethality of that attack, their faces immediately paled with a portion of them promptly breaking ranks. No matter how much the rat leaders tried to threaten them, none of them would have it.

“Don’t let them escape!” I hurriedly reminded my army: “Numila, Elena, take your teams and stop them, the medusas can handle that front alone. Don’t care about those on fire, prioritize the rats who managed to escape.”

“Got it.” Elena was the first of the two to react. Signalling to the rest of her kinsharpies, they took to the skies, abandoning the desolated ratmen in favor of chasing down the deserters.

“Harlow, Majosha, make sure you guard that side, don’t let any of them escape.”

“Alright, Sis.” As she said that, Majosha smiled at her husband. With the aid of the remaining harpies, they got a lift to the other side of the inferno and blockaded it.

Thanks to Numila’s fearsome display, the ratmen’s morale was basically non-existent. All I could do to salvage this situation was to get them to focus on capturing the deserters.

Truly, that strike of hers was just too fearsome for its own good. Having burnt a couple of four-star lieutenants to a crisp in one strike, even Numila was stunned by its effectiveness. It took that reminder/yell from me to bring her back to senses. Truth be told, she only intended to fend off the two rodents with that strike. Seeing as they were both four-stars, she felt that she had to put in her 100% for that strike in order to stand a chance at all. However, things clearly didn’t proceed as she had envisioned.

Wasting no more time, she rushed off with Flametail in tow and chased down the fleeing rats, her reassuring voice echoing across the battlefield as she flew off: “Don’t worry Dearest, just watch this Harpy’s performance!”

“Amazing!” It was then that Mimiya chimed in with her excited cheering. Perhaps it was due to the tension of the battle, she had remained silent up till now. Vick on the other hand, wasn’t affected by it at all however, he was promptly restrained by Mimiya when he tried to float away.

Seeing how Numila wiped out a pair of four-stars in one strike, the already excited Mimiya practically erupted in flames as she exclaimed: “That epic weapon is AWESOME! Do you have another one? You do, right?”

“There’s still Shadowfang.” I pointed at the blade slung over my back and shrugged: “It was given to me by Harlow and Habona. Even though I still haven’t unlocked its true power, wielding it felt really natural.”

“Ah, can’t you give it to Mimiya?” Her eyes began to water up as she prepared her puppy dog eyes for an attack.

“If I find another epic weapon that suits you, I’ll consider giving it to you.” Given that Julia and Mo En had basically sold their lives to me, there’s no reason for me to be stingy with their granddaughter, besides, she’s pretty cute.

“Let’s be clear about one thing though, epic weapons are something you encounter by chance, not something you search for. I can’t guarantee that we will find one that suits your attributes.”

“No problem, as long as you remember that!” With that promise in the bag, she happily skipped about, her adorable little devil wings flapping about as she bounced up and down. Her body lifted off the ground and did a strange twirl in the air. “Hahaha, Mimiya’s going to get an epic weapon as well!”

Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself here? I remember saying that I would only give it to you if it suited your attributes, didn’t I…

There was nothing much to talk about regarding the remainder of the battle. Thanks to the harpy nuke known as Numila, the majority of the rodents who she flew over smartly chose to surrender instead of resisting…

Even if they had over 10 four-stars on their side, these leaders had completely lost all of their confidence. I couldn’t blame them for that either, that skill which wiped out a thousand rats was just that terrifying; as expected of a weapon that can support an entire kingdom!

Roughly half an hour after the battle ended, the battle report was compiled and ready to be submitted. With those rough numbers in hand, Violet Snow began her report:

“We lost 11 harpies in that battle, there were no losses within our cavalry unit, no losses for the medusas, no losses for the guardsmen…in total, we captured approximately 6000 Abaddon Rodents…the exact number is still being tallied.”

Given that the guardsmen were basically on guard duty throughout that whole battle, it wasn’t strange that none were lost. After all, I didn’t even step into battle for a second so they had no reason to either.

As for that impressive record of 6000 captives, don’t be fooled by it; that number included the injured rodents as well. For example, the rodents who were injured in the initial volley of javelin strikes were included as well. Not only that, the rodents who were still kept under watch by the hellhound riders were included in that tally as well.

Frankly, the rodents had suffered a crushing blow this time. The lightly injured ones were fortunate –at the very least, they could still be fodder after some minor tending. The heavily injured ones however, those were the unfortunate souls. With no other use for them, they were basically food for the army.