Chapter 80 - The Banquet of Dragons (2/2)
Besides, the real question was whatever would happen if Dungeon City were to be destroyed. The city would most likely be occupied by monsters, after which it would take quite a long time to reclaim. Moreover, Tsutomu’s future party members might even die in the process. If he wanted the best results, he should stay and fight off the Stampede here instead.
[…Yeah, right…]
At this point, all that was just a front he put up. All Tsutomu wanted out of this was to help at least those four, even if it meant risking his life. That was all there was to it, and he felt embarrassed to admit that outright.
When Tsutomu first arrived in this world, he had gained infamy as the ‘Lucky Boy’ and had not been able to party up with anyone as a result. That was what made him hate the people of this world wholeheartedly; it did not matter to him whether the bad Explorers or the general populate lived or died. After all, they were all someone else — it was no different to him from hearing news reports of people’s deaths overseas.
But then, thanks to the Guild’s suggestions, he had met Garm and Amy, partying up with them. And during the following fake news incident, he had been saved by Camille. The Forest Apothecary lady, the Deputy Guild Master, the folks over at Silver Beast — they all had helped him at some point. Back in his original world, Tsutomu had not been very good at interpersonal relationships, but after getting involved with the people here, he had started to see some change.
Tsutomu heaved a deep sigh and held his head with one hand, then promptly raised his face up, making no effort to hide his annoyance. Seeing Tsutomu’s true reaction, Camille nodded in satisfaction, while Amy alternated her sights between the former two, confused.
“…All right, I understand. Thank you for talking with me, everyone — even though this must be a busy time for you all. I’ll excuse myself now.”
“…Huh!? You mean we’re not actually running away!?”
“Oh, Amy, you… Well, go on, Tsutomu. I’ll take care of this little princess for you,” Camille said as she grabbed Amy in place.
“Thank you. Again, sorry for asking a weird question, everyone,” Tsutomu said and promptly exited the Guild building. After he was gone, Camille let go of Amy.
Tsutomu had made the decision to help out — first by sending information on the Dragons to the northern city. Once he got back to his room, he checked the documents he had written in the morning and picked up his three Magic Bags, passing them over to the supply convoy heading to Uga’ol.
Tsutomu talked to the coachman, asking if he could bring those items straight to the Labyrinth Conquerors and offering to pay a lucrative amount of G for it. The coachman was surprised by how much pay was being put forward, but nevertheless agreed.
――▽▽――
And then, two days later, the Stampede clashed against the defenses of Uga’ol. The quadrupedal Earth Dragon was in the lead, charging at the city wall. Unfazed by cannon fire, it eventually broke through the wall, after which the other monsters poured inside through the newly opened hole. The airborne Dragons unleashed black flames and lightning bolts as they flew by, causing utter chaos inside the city.
Information that had been sent beforehand suggested that the black flames could be extinguished with Holy-elemental attacks; thanks to that knowledge, the defenders could prevent the city from burning to the ground. The airborne Dragons flew straight for Dungeon City, while the monsters on the ground continued to raid this city in search of food.
The Labyrinth Conquerors had anticipated the influx of monsters, however, and had scattered food and Magic Stones all over the city, luring the invaders into carefully chosen paths. Relying on the lure locations and instructions from allies hovering above using <<Fly>>, the Clan members evacuated the city residents to avoid contact with the monsters.
Still, avoiding detection by all monsters proved to be difficult, so the Uga’ol soldiers and the Labyrinth Conquerors also moved all over the city, eliminating monsters that were closing in on the residents.
The soldiers, having no experience fighting the types of monsters that had invaded the city — or any large monster, for that matter — could only help with long-ranged attacks from the safety of the wall-tops. Because of that, their performance was poor, resulting in several casualties.
The Labyrinth Conquerors, on the other hand, had experience with many unforeseen situations and were able to work quickly. The Clan Leader, the silver-haired Elf, gave precise commands to her subordinates to protect the city’s inhabitants, while the Deputy Clan Leader fought one-on-one with the Earth Dragon.
Amid all this, there had been a few people who had not responded to the evacuation order, mistaking it for the easy Stampedes of the past. They had packed their things and rushed out to evacuate upon hearing that the wall had been broken through, but not knowing their escape routes, they had ended up wandering around and killed by the monsters. Apart from that, the defenders were able to keep casualties to a minimum.
Overall, the Labyrinth Conquerors were doing a good job — their evacuation direction was precise, and the Earth Dragon was successfully stalled. Leon, temporarily working under the Labyrinth Conquerors’ commands, was also a great help. Working in conjunction with the Clan Leader, who levitated with <<Fly>> to get a clear view of everything and give out precise orders, Leon moved quickly by hopping from roof to roof, assisting the ground combatants wherever they were struggling with monsters. Thanks to his efforts, casualties and injuries among the residents were kept considerably low.
And thanks to the food scattered along the chosen paths, a large portion of the monsters were moving through the designated areas. The residents watched on, trembling with fear as the monsters ravaged the city.
But then, at one point, a child cried, attracting a group of monsters and causing chaos to break loose. One of the Labyrinth Conquerers used <<Combat Cry>> to draw the monsters to them instead, managing to keep the people out of harm’s way… but the Explorer died, swallowed up by the wave of monsters.
After most of the monsters had passed through the city, the soldiers and the residents started to feel relieved, but were promptly warned by the Labyrinth Conquerors. There were still some monsters left in the city, so they could not let their guard down until those creatures were all eliminated.
The extermination of the few monsters within the city was left to the soldiers, while the Labyrinth Conquerors went to intercept the Earth Dragon. Joining up with the Deputy Clan Leader, who had been fighting it alone all this time, they eventually managed to slay the Dragon, albeit with some casualties on their side.
After that, the people began to work on restoring the ravaged city. Buildings had been burnt, roads destroyed, the wall broken through — not to mention many had died, eaten by the monsters, their remains left a mess. Corpses, both the people and the monsters’, had to be cleaned up quickly, otherwise they could become the source of an epidemic.
Flies, sensing the decay of flesh, had already sprung up to lay their eggs on the corpses. Soldiers and members of the Labyrinth Conquerors led the way in disposing of the corpses; they unrolled large Magic Bags, put ice into them to help slow down the decomposition process, and then threw the corpses in.
Creatures with consciousness could not be put into Magic Bags, so living humans could not be put into them — but corpses were a different story. The residents watched on in horror as one body after another was put into the seemingly bottomless bags.
Once the human corpses were taken care of, the following step was the collection of monster corpses. Magic Stones, furs, and other materials extracted from the monsters would go toward funding the city’s rebuilding efforts. For the time being, the corpses were put into Magic Bags; their resources would be extracted at a later time. The Earth Dragon, on the other hand, was being harvested right away — eventually, all that was left of it were bones with bits of flesh stuck to them.
The work went on all night, but everything ended without further issues. The Labyrinth Conquerors Clan Leader sat down in a chair and closed her eyes. She had been going without a wink of sleep, directing her subordinates and processing their reports; now she could finally relax.
[…I can’t imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t received all this information.]
Tsutomu’s compilation of information had safely been delivered to the Labyrinth Conquerors, and it included things such as the hardness of the Earth Dragon’s shell and how to extinguish the Black Dragon’s flames, which had been the keys to defending the city. The Clan Leader had already expected the Earth Dragon to break through the wall with its tackle attack, but Leon’s reports and Tsutomu’s information were the things that had made her a hundred percent sure.
Moreover, ways to extinguish black flames had not been known to her before, so the delivered information had been a lifesaver. If not for it, the buildings would have burned to the ground, and the people who had been burned by the black flames would have been all dead.
[Those damned fools…]
She thought back to the accidents during the evacuations, in which the combatants had to put their lives on the line, using <<Combat Cry>> and <<Warrior Howl>> to pull monsters away from the people. If she had kept on top of things, she would have cast <<Fly>> for them to make their work safer. While raising her face up and rubbing the inner corners of her eyes, she bit her lower lip in frustration.