Chapter 163: Spoils of War (1/2)
From the moment I defeated that ratman overlord, the look everyone gave me changed.
In the past, they used to treat as a commander c*m auspicious item…truth be told, I kind of deserved that label seeing as my combat strength wasn’t anything to write home about. Even after obtaining Shadowfang, I wasn’t able to unleash its full power because I didn’t possess the ability to use its corresponding skillset, and also because of a variety of other minor issues.
Even after mastering that flashy Revolution Slice, Shadowfang was in its sealed form. However, at least my combat strength received a substantial boost since I learnt a skill that suited it.
Just look at those quivering ratmen. In the past, they were only afraid of the influence I wielded, now they were afraid of me because of my influence and strength.
“Chit chit chit…”The ratman overlord used his unintelligible chits to try and communicate with me as before. However, this time I didn’t need any translation to know what he was trying to say.
Hmph, isn’t it too late to beg for your life now, little ratman? I chuckled mentally to myself as I sneered at the rodent.
“It’s begging for its life.” Once again, Violet Snow chimed in with her highly appropriate translations. “It only wants to live, no matter what you want, it’s willing to offer it to you.”
“I don’t want to listen to its nonsense, help me translate this to those nine ratmen, if you guys want to live, kill off that idiot together, if you can’t do it, you can join him in death.”
“Alright.” Violet Snow turned to the quivering ratmen lieutenants and in the midst of their astonishment, passed down the message I gave her.
To kill or not to kill? In the face of death, was there even a need to hesitate? After exchanging a brief look with each other, all nine lieutenants came to the same decision…
Ten minutes later, there was an unrecognizable rat corpse lying before me.
Having done their ghastly deed, the nine ratman lieutenants turned towards me in unison and gave me a submissive smile. Needless to say, their intention was clear to me –none of them wanted to be the next sacrificial lamb.
Knowing the futility of resistance, their eyes burned with ingratiating fervor as they did their best to present their useful side to me.
“Go settle in your own subordinates, as for those slain ratman lieutenants, I’ll leave it to you all to split the spoils.”
Seeing that I had no intention of settling past debts, the lieutenants breathed a collective sigh of relief.
After expressing their endless gratitude and thanks, they hurried off to gather the rest of their subordinates. Looking at them try to outdo each other, I bet they planned on stealing some subordinates in the midst of this chaos so as to better serve me.
As for me, I didn’t particularly mind them gaining more subordinates. After all, with that terrifying Flametail under my command, there wasn’t even a need for me to fear a revolt given that one blast was all it took to wipe out a thousand ratmen.
Besides, if they weren’t able to defeat me with over 10 000 elite ratmen, I doubt any one of them would dare to even think about rebelling now that they had suffered such heavy casualties.
Thus, the battle truly came to a close and the battlefield tally was quickly compiled.
From that battle, we gained almost 6000 ratman slaves. However, over a thousand of these slaves were severely injured to the point where they would never recover. Thus, there was only one fate awaiting these burdens: “ration duty”. The worthless didn’t deserve any pity from me.
Once we harvested their souls, bones and fed their flesh to our warriors, we would be left with nearly 5000 ratman slaves. Of these 5000, 9 were the four-star lieutenants I had just interacted with. Over 500 of them were three-star warriors while the rest were two or one-star warriors.
Honestly, I had to hand it to Violet Snow. Her guerilla tactics worked out splendidly. Thanks to her constant taunts, the rats were thoroughly incensed to the point where they emptied their nest of elite rodents. Their plan was to wipe her out but we all know how that plan ended…
The severely wounded rations were herded into a corner after which I left it to the medusas to handle their processing. Seeing as they didn’t eat souls, there was no risk of them sneaking a few bites.
However, the moment some of the other prisoners saw their kinsrodent get dragged off so violently by the medusas, they became agitated. Some of the more hot blooded ones even tried to rescue them. Unfortunately, in the face of overwhelming might, resistance was futile and these foolish rats ended up sealing their own fate.
“Drag out all the rebels and process them as well.” Naturally, the medusas didn’t show any compassion as they carried out instructions. To them, these rats were nothing more than food.
It didn’t take long before the dissenters were dragged out, their limbs broken and dislocated before being tossed into the pile of heavily wounded rations.
Seeing that, the nine ratman lieutenant grimaced.
Well, tough luck, with that ugly mug of yours, how do you even expect me to forgive you guys? Don’t you know that being handsome makes it easier for you to be forgiven?