339 Taking Action (1/2)
At first, it was a light shower of rain. Ten minutes later, however, it had become a massive rainstorm. This was weather that both sides preferred not to see, but the undead held more of an advantage in such weather.
Perhaps it would cause the undead's reinforcements to arrive slightly later, and the undead would be slightly affected by the torrential downpour, but it could not significantly influence their situation.
However, this was doubtlessly unpleasant weather to be fighting in for the defending adventurers. With such a mega rainstorm, ordinary humans on the attacking side would most likely choose to rest in this weather as well. After all, the current temperature was still rather cold, and even the average strong human wouldn't be able to handle vigorous exercise and sweating in the rain, which would easily lead to them catching a cold. It was quite common for even powerful individuals to fall ill if they fought in such weather.
Not only that, the icy coldness of the rain droplets and decrease in vision would bring about a sense of discomfort for the humans, seriously affecting their morale.
It was common sense for any human battlefield commander to avoid commencing battle in cold and heavy rainstorms at all costs, unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, not only would the army's combat strength be seriously weakened, but it would also be quite difficult to deal with the following effects—the army would likely be greatly weakened after the battle as well.
The living were limited by environmental factors, but the undead, who were no longer living, had it much better.
The undead did not know illness. Although they disliked wielding weapons which would become slippery in the rain, and torrential rains would also affect their vision and slow them down—maybe even forcing them to find their lost teeth and eyes washed away by the rain—they wouldn't be incapable of fighting simply because of some rain.
”Damn it, how much longer is this rain going to go on for?”
I wasn't being frustrated because of the difficulties for the combat situation. To me, as long as the end result was acceptable, the process was unimportant.
My direct subordinates and I had limited power. We weren't, and we didn't intend to become, all-encompassing nannies. Since these Contract Heroes had the resolution to obtain great rewards in combat, they would naturally require the resolution to know that they would possibly die in battle. I didn't intend to overly interfere… and to be honest, it was impossible for me to interfere much. After all, there were countless battles in this world, and future battles would escalate in level. After a certain time, even SemiGods would be appearing on the battlefield in hoards—it would be impossible for me to take care of every battlefield even if I wanted to.
And since I was hoping for these ”Dimensional Guardians,” my ”Game Player replacements,” to speedily grow and mature, it would actually be best for me to not interfere too much with their growth. Truly strong individuals needed to make it past tough situations where their life was on the brink. Unless this battle became one where our side was certain to lose and be eradicated, I didn't actually intend to interfere.
The only reason I came here was that Samantha and the wood spirits requested it of me, and as for why I went and weakened the undead's forces, it was simply because I wanted to perform an experiment…
”Roland, did you know that it's unseemly when a man acts like a tsundere?”
I decided to ignore the silly cat's comment. I definitely was no tsundere who would volunteer to babysit some novice adventurers! I was simply frustrated right now because the torrential rain had interrupted my planned experiments, hence my foul mood.
”…Is there a way to get rid of all this rain?”
”Not for me. It's not like I'm an archdruid. They're the ones most skilled at controlling the weather. Isn't Eaglestorm one of your subordinates? Why don't you try having him control the weather?”
Although it was what I expected to hear from Harloys, I was still disappointed.
As long as a mage was sufficiently prepared, they were indeed all-powerful. But the prerequisite was a sufficient amount of preparation. At the very least, I knew that the mages in the Cloud Tower had the ability to control the daily weather of the city of Arlo. However, this required plenty of support structures and mage towers' assistance, and any weather-related mega AOE spell was actually a major category of forbidden spells. At the very least, it required a mage at the SemiGod level and required a long time to cast.
Yet right now, Harloys was still only at the Gold rank, limited in power level due to the magical pet contract which forbade her power level from exceeding the master's. Even if she knew some spells that could change the weather, she wouldn't be able to use them without the foundational power level required. But it was so rare that I could latch on to one of her sore points, so I definitely wouldn't let her have it easy—verbally, of course.
”Tsk, how useless. Eaglestorm, you say? Let's not even mention how he's currently én route to the Bardi Empire's capital, but even if he was here, he's only a druid at the Legend rank. He wouldn't be able to do anything about this situation.”
”Hmph, it's all because of your weak power level that's dragging me down. In that case, how about having 'Mars' activate earlier than planned?”
”Wouldn't that make him into a premature newborn? I'm still hoping he obtains plenty of souls as nourishment in this battle. Rejected!”
”…Shouldn't you have a method to change the weather as well?”
”Sure, I have the ability to change that torrential rainstorm into a torrential blizzard. It'll probably become headline news the very next day, with such a large blizzard appearing in late spring. But what will we do after that? Compete in who freezes to death first? I think that out of all the species, the undead that don't need to eat or drink and don't feel pain will definitely win a survival of the fittest competition.”
Alright then, I and the silly cat stared at each other and confirmed that neither of us had a method available to us that could change the weather.
*Boom!*
Suddenly, there was a loud thunderclap. But the strange part was that this thunderclap originated from the ground and shot towards the sky, piercing through the clouds.
*Boom!*
After some more continuous rumbling that illuminated the entire area with lightning, the clouds dissipated and this area returned to peaceful and quiet weather.
This was obviously the result of something unnatural. However…
”That's strange, didn't that originate from the undead's camp? Did some powerful undead use magic to dispel the clouds? Why would they act so suicidal?”
The undead army's general command center was merely some temporarily constructed low-level Soul-Absorbing Towers. And in this messy and disorganized command center was a single two-story tall white house that stood out from its surroundings. Various flowers and plants grew all around it, and there were even servants tending to the house.
The titan giant Yins was patiently tending to the plants, while the other titan giant Hatley maintained his pose of tossing javelins, as if he wanted to throw yet another one. At this moment, the real owner of this house suddenly entered.