Chapter 169: Evil Eye (1/2)

Initially, it didn’t take much effort for us to farm these mindless replicating skeletons. However, after another ten minutes or so, the level of the risen skeletons increased once more. We now had to face an unending horde of skeletons consisting mostly of one-stars and a sizeable number of two-stars who formed an elite corp of sorts.

The arrival of these two-stars undoubtedly made our job significantly harder as, unlike their one-star brethren, their direct combat strength wasn’t that inferior though they still weren’t a match for the lizardmen and my guardsmen. However, these skeletons gave off that ominous feeling of being endless which ,I had to say, was a major psychological stress factor.

Just from a quick glance alone, I could see that stress being turned into physical fatigue that, in turn, made some of my troops lose focus as well. Given how they had been fighting at full throttle for over twenty minutes, I couldn’t blame them for tiring out either. Thus, for the first time since this battle started, we were starting to show signs of faltering.

“Why won’t these damned skeletons stay dead…” Exclaimed Weslin, voice exasperated and slightly ragged from the fatigue as well. This four-star lizardwoman was one of the first few to leap into battle and revel in that ensuing carnage. Yet at the same time, that meant she expanded a great deal of stamina and while her four-star status afforded her greater stamina than most, even she was beginning to tire out.

While this amount of fatigue was still manageable for her, the almost sisyphean nature of this battle was beginning to grate on her nerves and threatened to throw her into the depths of despair. What truly concerned her was how long more would this battle last. Did they really have to maintain such a ferocity for the entire day?

On the other hand, Manasha was noticeably more collected in her response. She seemed to have had experience with such battles before judging from how she calmly commanded her medusas. After suppressing the enemy, she had her troops split into two and set up a rotation where one stood guard while the other rested.

‘So she already made the determination that this was going to be a battle of attrition?’

Noticing Weslin’s panicked state, Manasha immediately reminded the lizard: “Keep it together, it’s going to be over soon. Before we entered the cavern, someone activated the defensive magical array of the Door of the Dead. That person must’ve sacrificed a huge amount of souls as well, that’s why the potency of this array seemed to have been magnified several times. After every ten minutes, the undead will advance by a level but under normal circumstances, it should stop at three-stars.”

The two-star skeletons were noticeably stronger than the one-stars but thankfully, they made up less than half of the army, roughly a thousand or so. Yet, those one thousand two-stars were enough to give us a run for our money.

In light of that, our forces had to put forth their best in order to counter the undead. As for me, I decided that it was finally time for me to do so as well.

However, just as I was about to toss my conjured fireball, Weslin inexplicably led her troops in a charge towards the skeleton army. They violently dove into the skeleton horde and scattered their bony foes. All around them, the skeletons that stood in their way basically exploded in a shower of broken bones. Yet, they didn’t stop there. She continued leading her lizards forward as if she was looking for something.

“Weslin? What do you think you are doing? Don’t break away from the main force!” Unfortunately, my commands fell on deaf ears as she continued charging forward without even turning around once. Her reckless charge continued until, finally, they came to a stop in front of the valley of rat corpses that was more a blood pool by now.

Seeing that, I became even more confused. No matter how I racked my brains, I just couldn’t understand her actions. ‘Just what was she up to?’

Then, a mere second later…there was no longer a need for me to rack my brains because she gave me the answer herself. Weslin violently swept aside the skeletons approaching her and with one claw extended forward, reached for one of the rat corpses in the blood pools. Fangs bared for all to see, she viciously bit down… ‘Was she hungry or something?’

It wasn’t just Weslin, the other lizardmen who followed her all charged to the blood pool as well and began wolfing down the corpses. While some wolfed down the corpses at breakneck speeds, some of them just swallowed the corpses whole, bones and all.

‘The way you guys are behaving right now…exactly how many years has it been since you all ate? That can’t be right, can it? As the saying goes, the emperor doesn’t lack hungry soldiers, I know this logic well enough. I fed them well before we assaulted the cave and I even prepared a surplus of meat just in case so I’m absolutely sure that they already had their fill of meat.’

“You potato lizard, if you don’t get back here this instant, I’m never letting you meet Habona ever again in your lifetime!” I snapped, clearly displeased that my previous command was so thoroughly ignored.

Though I’m not sure what this lesbian had in mind when she decided to fall in love with Habona, her love for that shewolf should be genuine. Even though she probably knew that Habona would never love her, she still chose to hold onto this one-sided romance. Against such a lovestricken lizard, the threat of not seeing Habona was definitely a serious one. At least that was what I thought…even after throwing out the name [Habona], Weslin still didn’t react to my words.

‘Don’t tell me that food held a greater position in your heart than Habona? That doesn’t make any sense, it’s too strange. How could Weslin ignore the word Habona like that?!’

“Is there something wrong with her brains?” Asked Violet Snow. Like me, she knew how much Weslin liked Habona as well. The fact that she would ignore the word Habona like that, struck her as strange. There was clearly more to this situation than meets the eye.

“There’s definitely something wrong with her brains and there’s probably some special reason for it.” Even though I still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Weslin, I wasn’t willing to give up on her either. Her position in my army was a delicate one so whether it was out of principle or out of deference to Westley’s feelings, I couldn’t disregard her safety.

What made matters worse was that those skeletons had begun to notice the fact that a small portion of my army had broken off to feast on the blood pool. While they were still brainless as before, they at least had the intelligence to perform the almost instinctual task of picking on the weak.

Soon, the skeletons separated a portion of their troops to surround the feasting lizardmen. Of these, the majority were one-stars while the rest were basically two-stars except for that one three-star thrown into the mix. That’s right, the array was beginning to summon three-stars now.