Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-46

Wagyu ran through the dark night towards the center of the battlefield, carrying his comrades.

"We are almost there! Everyone, get ready!"

"Yes"

Kizuato raised his long sword and infused it with fire, while casting countless buffing spells.

The other monkeys at his side did the same, each one having a strong and powerful aura.

Celica activated her Stealth skill, giving her a temporal invisibility.

Celica last experience in war wasn't as good, loosing almost all her family. When she knew that there was still a big group of Trolls surviving in the forest, she was the first one to offer herself to go on their help. Bringing them to the town and instructing them about the Kingdom and its rules.

After having meet with various of her beloved brothers, Celica slowly became brighter, and with the help of her lover, Truhan, she gained a strong confidence over her own growth and strength.

"I won't lose my comrades anymore… Old Master, I will never forgive you for leading us all to death, just using me and my people as experiments"

Celica may have been enemies with me on the past, and its true that my servants killed most of his brothers. But she somehow got over it extremely quickly.

Trolls have a simple mindset.

The strong is always the one right. If you want to prove your point, prove it with strength. If you have a problem with me, prove it with strength. If you want to kill me, come, and use your strength to do as you say. Without strength, you can't prove anything in this world.

This is the mindset that moves Celica. Her brothers lost to a strong enemy. The enemy was always right then, being stronger.

Her Master led them to a stronger enemy, knowing that they would die.

This is what it was unforgivable.

Leading her family to a confirmed death. Trolls might like to prove their points and opinions with strength, but know when to run away and take care of their beloved ones. This is a basic survival instinct.

When Celica knew that some of her brothers decided to run away from a stronger enemy, she didn't hate on them. In the contrary, she was extremely proud of their decision, which led them to live another day, and met with her.

Inside a troll family, one can prove their points withs strength, yes, but the strong also has his duties.

The strong troll protects the weak troll.

The strong troll will rise the weak troll, so the weak troll becomes stronger.

After knowing that her former Troll Emperor threated his brothers like experiments, without caring about their deaths, Celica was glad that Kireina rightfully killed him.

The Troll Emperor betrayed the troll ideology, their trust and their love.

"I will protect my brothers, because I am a strong Troll! Even after evolving and becoming another race, my troll blood still floods across my veins! This is my root! My ideology!"

The monkeys and wolves around Celica heard her yells with amazement.

"Well said, Celica! We, the strong, must protect the weak!"

"Yes! We are here! Chargeee!"

"Awwwoooo!"

The monkeys that were mounting the wolves jumped over the ground and raised their weapons, immediately clashing with the immense group of undead.

CLASH!

BOOM!

CRASH!

Celica jumped off Wagyu's back and using her STEALTH skill, rushed through the battlefield. Infusing her knifes with a strong blue-colored flame, she needed only one slash for every undead for them to be engulfed on these blue flames, and slowly disintegrate.

Flash! Flash! Slash! Slash!

Celica ran through entire battalions, undetected by most of the undead. Her incredible speed had no rival on this battlefield.

Slash!

"Clack?!"

Celica slashed the neck of a skeleton in mere seconds, engulfing it on a strong blue flame. The skeleton couldn't do anything more than watch over as his own body slowly became ashes.

I was watching over Celica spectacle, amazed by her growth.

"Impressive, Celica. Her blue flames are extremely useful against the undead"

These blue flames are the result of Celica constant training and skill fusions.

This skill was named DARK ELF SOUL FLAMES , it was a very unique type of magic that uses the soul of its enemy as its fuel. Because of the undead usually having a very exposed soul, these flames would quickly feed on them, increasing their heat until they turn the undead whole body into ash.

What's more, these blue flames do not affect its environment, only burning its victim, and they would dissipate after consuming all its soul.

Of course, they aren't as strong as other types of Fire spells, as I could easily get rid of them. But they are very convenient versus enemies like undead.

After some time, Celica already set on fire 1/3 of the whole undead army. But it wouldn't be as easy. Suddenly, some undead wearing mage robes started to chant and cast different kinds of spells, dispelling the blue flames and healing some undead on the blink of death.

Celica glanced at these mages and set them as her new prey, however, another type of undead soldier casted a strange spell on the entire battlefield, seemingly doing nothing. But it was effective on Celica, dispelling her Stealth skill.

More than five armored undead attacked Celica, the flames of her knifes did not work, as they were being protected by a strange magic shield.

"Hmmph! Do you think that I would only have these tactics at my disposal?"

Suddenly, Celica activated a myriad of buffs, increasing her muscle size density, while covering her body with a thick energy shield.

Celica grabbed a long sword that she was saving on her Item Box, and engulfed it on a strong blue flame.

Flash!

As if she were a blue thunder, she disappeared in the front of the undead in an instant!

"Clack?"

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!

Like a powerful electric shock, a big slash cut all the undead soldiers in half! Setting them in blue flames from their insides.

Their magic shields weren't able to protect them from their insides, slowly becoming ashes.

The mage undead were surprised by Celica change in strategy.

But before they could even plan something.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Celica rushed to their backs, using her powerful strength and speed, she slashed these mages whole bodies, turning them into ashes.

Without taking any time to breath, Celica kept rushing through the battlefield slashing every undead mage she came across.

The slow undead soldiers couldn't even touch her.

Meanwhile, Wagyu used his powerful mastery over Shadow magic to engulf a big group of undead into a Shadow Zone, quickly getting rid of a big group, making the whole Shadow Zone compress itself, crushing all the undead into dust.

"Phew… Hm? Celica is wonderfully showing her growth in strength! I can't fall behind! Shadow Travel!"

Fluosh!

Wagyu suddenly engulfed himself into pure shadows, easily traveling across the deep dark of the night, while traveling on the shadows, he left a big "Shadow Tail" that slowly sank the undead that put their foot on them. The shadow tails would engulf the undead and crush them to dust inside.

The best part of these skills is that they were sensitive towards allies and companions, not affecting them. This showed Wagyu's deep and masterful control over his own techniques.

While rushing across the battlefield, Wagyu also collected countless shadows, increasing his speed and power, and making his own Shadow related skills even stronger.

"Impressive, Wagyu has refined his Combat System even more, couldn't expect less from my most trusted companion"

The undead were even more helpless against Wagyu way of fighting, some undead mages casted Light and Holy spells over Wagyu's Shadow Tails, even after being completely dispelled, Wagyu kept making more, obtaining energy from the undead own shadows, he could keep going like this for a while.

Although Kizuato haven't figured his own Combat System yet, I could already see some insights.

Kizuato raised his fire-infused long sword, and slashed three undead in one slash. Even after carrying such a huge long sword, Kizuato was able to still run and maneuver just fine around the battlefield, showing a speed that no one would predict from his build, which was muscular and big.

As he kept slashing undead spinning his own body like a flaming tornado, each time he slashed an undead into ashes, some "sparks" would come from his weapon. These sparks would accumulate over Kizuato head until it became a bright and red sphere made of pure energy.

Kizuato stopped in the middle of the battlefield and yelled, attracting the attention of the countless undead.

"Come you bastards!"

After having more than 20 undead close to him, Kizuato activated a skill named BLADE ENERGY RECOLECTION and made the big red colored sphere to fuse with his blade, increasing its size exponentially, giving off a powerful aura.

Fluosh!

"Now! Blade Energy Tornado!"

FLUOSH!

Kizuato used this new and powerful blade to spin at a ridiculous speed, creating a chaotic tornado, engulfing every undead that came rushing towards him. Inside this tornado, the undead would be greeted by hundreds of slashes all over their bodies, crushing them to pure dust!

The best thing was that even inside this tornado, Kizuaot kept collecting even more sparks, creating a new Blade Energy Sphere.

After this tornado slowly dissipated, Kizuato did not lost any second and jumped over a big group, slashing even more undead with his powerful blade. Repeating the same tornado attack each time he obtained enough Blade Energy.

I watched Kizuato with fascination.

"Blade Energy… I still haven't investigated on this type of power, but Kizuato has done incredible leaps on its development. He is a formidable warrior"

On the battlefield there was also Goruden and Jinsoku, the fastest monkeys, it seems that the usually quiet Jinsoku is very good friend with Goruden, leading to a strong team cooperation.

Jinsoku and Goruden rushed through the battlefield, raising their katana-like swords. Unlike the rest of the warriors, their swords were infused on countless shadows, each time they slashed through an undead, these shadows would grab the whole undead, dragging them around the whole battlefield.

In a few minutes, both of them were dragging more than 40 undead, 20+ each. They complexion may be swift and without much muscle, but they were actually very strong, probably using the power of countless Strength-boosting skills at their disposal.

When both of them decided that the amount of undead was enough, they stopped on place and used their shadow bindings to raise the undead to the sky.

Jinsoku jumped over Goruden shoulders and activated a skill.

"Shadow Space!"

FLUOSH!

Suddenly, a big shadow space engulfed all the undead they were dragging, quickly closing itself again.

This strange skill, according to what Jinsoku as told me, is able to store an infinite number of items and even living beings, however, it cannot retrieve them. This is why they are using them in such an unconventional way, to not accidentally trap a comrade inside.

I analyzed this powerful skill.

"Even though is dangerous, this skill is incredibly broken, one could finish anyone by just casting this over them, trapping them for eternity… But it has a big cost on Stamina and MP, and also possess a cooldown of 30 minutes. Jinsoku is probably sharing MP with Goruden with MP SHARE "

After taking more than 40 undead out of the blue without much effort. Jinsoku and Goruden started again slashing and dragging even more undead. Goruden was special as he possessed a very advanced STEAL skill, being able to "steal" a whole undead, pretty much moving any enemy towards them in mere seconds, making their work easier.

Jinsoku and Goruden had very unconventional ways of fighting, but they were impressive nonetheless, and very effective.

"Well, who I am to speak? I also fight very unconventionally"

There was also the graceful Yukionna, the Ice Wolf Empress. Her latest evolution granted her with a stronger and swifter body, making her rush through the battlefield at an incredibly speed, almost the same as Celica.

Yuki rushed through the battlefield stabbing countless undead with her ice horn, each time they got stabbed, a powerful freezing aura would engulf their entire bodies, instantly turning them into statues.

CLASH!

Yuki easily finished them by giving a strong kick, shattering the big undead ice statues into big chunks.

Yuki glanced over the battlefield, as she multi tasked on freezing more undead and shooting Ice Bullets.

"Hmmph, there is still a big amount. We still have some time until we lose our momentum and the enemy adapt to our attacks… Master should be calling Abellona team in five minutes from now… Eh?"

Suddenly, a big amount of undead started to gather in one place, and a powerful undead mage casted a strange spell, which unified the big group and slowly fused them all into a giant undead soldier.

Fluosh!

The giant undead looked like a grotesque monster made of bones and rotten flesh. Raising its gigantic arm, it clashed over the ground creating big shockwaves.

Boom! Clash! Crash!

The giant undead mindlessly crushed the ground around itself, without minding turning its own comrades into dust.

But suddenly!

CLASH!

A big flaming axe clashed over the giant neck, throwing its face to the ground.

Boom!

It was Nesiphae who quickly noticed this new undead soldier and instantly felt the need to try her strength against it.

"Fufufu! Its way bigger than me! But it doesn't matter! Snakes!"

Fluosh!

From Nesiphae hands, countless snakes were generated, which trapped the big undead, making it trip over.

"Now! Vertical Slash!"

CLASH!

Nesiphae thought that she got the undead this time, but it was the contrary, as the undead protected itself with a strong magic shield.

"Eh? Magic? This big dummy can cast magic?"

"Clack!"

The big undead opened its gaping mouth and countless magic circles surrounded its tongue.

FLASH!

Without even having the need to chant any spell, a powerful red beam blasted Nesiphae several meters away.

"Gyaaaaahhh!"

Booom!

Nesiphae big body clashed on the ground, creating a big crater.

Thankfully, her strong armor diminished most of the damage dealt.

"Fufufu… Maybe its time to go serious!"

Nesiphae quickly stood up and activated countless buffs over her body, increasing her Strength, Defense and Speed.

Fluosh!

Suddenly, Nesiphae size had tripled and her body exuded a deadly and burning aura.

"Ancient Medusa Herculean Body!"

FLUOSH!

Nesiphae casted another buffing skill, this time, increasing her size even more! She was already taller than the giant undead!

Flash!

In just an instant, Nesiphae massive body already disappeared from the crater, appearing at the front of the undead giant.

"Clack!"

The undead greeted Nesiphae with countless red beams, devastating the battlefield!

BOOM! BOOM!

Nesiphae swiftly dodged them, using a speed that shouldn't belong on such a big body!

However, the beams blasted away undead and my soldiers equally, I quickly analyzed any casualties and my soldiers were barely hanging on, Kekensha protected most of the rookies with his Light Shield.

I quickly used my Benevolent Reinforcement and Healing skill and healed most of the serious wounds on my soldiers, while giving them a boost in stats and Stamina.

"Phew… This is all I can do without using too much MP, I'm leaving the rest to my Nesiphae"

After seeing her own friends and comrades in such weak state, Nesiphae became furious and raised her axe, infusing it with powerful flames and slashing the giant undead countless times.

"Ooooh!"

The undead giant blocked most attacks with his automatic magic shields, however, the pressure that each blow gives to his body made its big body trip to the ground.

Clash!

As if falling to the ground didn't matter at all, the giant undead opened its mouth and shot a big red beam towards Nesiphae chest.

BOOOOM!

Nesiphae used her own Axe as a shield, blocking the powerful beam, and diverting it to the skies.

For a moment, the deep black night was illuminated by a bright red light.

"Now! Petrifying Glance!"

Nesiphae didn't wasted this opening and used a powerful skill. Each of the dormant snake heads on her hair quickly woke up and glanced over the giant undead, shooting powerful beams!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

These beams were able to penetrate the giant powerful magic shields, hitting it right into its body.

Any area of the giant's body that was touched by these beams would instantly become a hard rock, slowing down the undead movements.

"Clack?!"

While Nesiphae shot petrifying beams, she used her snakes to engulf her axe, increasing its size multiple times.

"Oooraaah!"

CLASH!

Nesiphae used her massive axe to clash over the undead, without giving it any time to breath.

CLASH!

The undead magic shields couldn't resist the pressure and shattered at the second blow!

"CLACK?!"

Predicting its impending doom, the giant desperately shot even more beams from his mouth, which Nesiphae tanked with her own body without worrying about personal safety.

CLASH!

A third blow from Nesiphae axe crushed the giant ribcage and split it in half, however, the bastard was still shooting beams desperately.

"CLACK! CLACK!"

Boom! Boom!

Nesiphae tanked every beam that came to her and raised her massive axe for a fourth time!

"Oooooh!"

CLASH!

The fourth swing of her powerful axe crushed the entire head of the giant, shattering it into dust.

It seems that the core of the giant was on its head, as the rest of its boy stopped struggling, dying on the spot.

Nesiphae seemed extremely exhausted, panting with great effort.

Most of her chest armor was destroyed and there were serious wounds on her chest, filled with bloody holes.

"Phew… I-I did it…"

I immediately realized that if I didn't heal Nesiphae while she is on her titan form, when going back to her original size, the wounds would become even more massive, possibly killing her.

I quickly flew towards Nesiphae and used Group Heal alongside Benevolent Reinforcement and Healing.

Her wounds slowly closed and she regained some of her Stamina.

"My dear, thanks"

"Nesiphae, please don't over do it, rest on the backlines for now"

"Y-Yes… I'm very tired"

I used my threads and quickly moved Nesiphae to a safe place, where she would be taken care by the Nursing Team.

The undead mages looked with amazement as their giant became a pile of dust and bones.

They quickly regrouped a big number of undead soldiers, summoning more giants.

Suddenly, more than 4 of the same type of undead giants appeared.

Seeing this unexpected change from part of the undead army, I quickly called Abellona team to proceed with the pincer attack, while also telling the mage teams to rush immediately, as everyone needed their assistance.

If each undead giant were as strong as the previous one, my servants would be in incredible danger, which made me worried.

"If this is their last resort, should I step in?"

When I was about to step in and stop these giants, Wagyu yelled at me.

"Master! There is no need to worry about us, please save your energy for now! We are more than qualified to deal with these giants!"

Kizuato also said the same, alongside Kekensha, Jinsoku, Goruden, Yuki, Celica etc.

They wanted to prove their strength no matter what, to show their usefulness.

"You guys… Alright, I'm counting on you, I will support you from the back"

Kekensha nodded.

"Hmmm! That is how it should be! We must protect our Empress! Light Shield!"

Kekensha casted countless Light Shields around his allies, protecting everyone on his sight.

"I will be the golden wall that protect my friends!"

After seeing Kekensha display, everyone was filled with determination!

"With Sir Kekensha help, we don't have to worry!"

I noticed that Kekensha seemed the most tired of everyone, after all, he was the one who led the first team and has been fighting nonstop, using all his MP protecting his allies.

I swiftly created around 5 Blood Fruits using my own blood, and gave them to Kekensha using my threads.

"M-Master! I'm fine, you don't have to worry"

"Drink them all, its an order from your Master"

Kekensha laughed a bit.

"Hahaha… I guess I can't negate my Master orders…"

Kekensha seemed rather hungry as he gulped the five Blood Fruits easily.

"Very well, now go"

"Yes!"

Flash!

Kekensha ran through the battlefield, shooting arrows towards the nearby undead giant.

I decided to assist my servants giving them my Blood Fruits with my threads, as this costed less MP than constantly casting healing magic.

Giving Blood Fruits to everyone was certainly harder than just casting a big group heal, but with the help of my split minds, it was an affordable task.

In the middle of the battlefield, an undead giant punched the ground, trying to catch a very fast shadow.

Boom!

"Clack?"

However, this shadow was able to easily dodge any of the giant slow attacks, infuriating him.

"Clack!!!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As it tried to catch the shadow, it started to shot countless red beams everywhere, devastating the forest surrounding him.

But suddenly!

FLASH!

The shadow appeared on the back of the giant, showing its true form.

It was Celica, who was wearing a shadow robe giving to her by Wagyu. This skill is like an "Armor" type skill that Wagyu can give to anyone, it grants an increase in speed and the ability to hide your appearance.

Celica raised her long sword and engulfed it on a powerful blue flame, clashing it on the undead giant head.

CLASH!

The powerful magic shield protecting the giant blocked the blow, alerting the giant.

However, Celica was faster, infusing Stamina and MP on the attack, increasing the power of the blue flames.

Crack!

The magic shield suddenly started to shatter, showing countless cracks.

"Hhhhhnnngggg!"

CRACK!

Using a big quantity of Stamina and MP, Celica managed to break through the magic shield, stabbing the giant with her flaming sword, which quickly engulfed the whole undead!

FLUOSH!

Such a giant being, made by countless undead, possessed a big and tasty soul, easily exposed on a skeleton body. The blue flames happily ate their easy meal, growing stronger by the second.

Flash!

Just before the giant could use his massive hands to squish Celica like an insect, she managed to jump over to the ground, and glanced back at the giant.

The giant yelled in pain as his soul was slowly consumed. It didn't possess any type of skill that could dispel this fire, making it go berserk, attacking its own allies and crushing other undead.

"Grrruooooh!"

A group of undead mages came to the giant rescue, trying to cast a dispelling magic.

However, Celica was already waiting for them, and swiftly attacked from their backs, setting all the mages on fire!

Slash! Slash!

"Clack?!"

Fluosh!

The blue flame quickly consumed these weak undead bodies, turning them into ashes.

The undead army was massive, and more mages tried to come to the giant's rescue.

"You guys never give up!"

Flash!

Celica rushed through the battlefield and used her long sword to slash each undead mage.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

"Clack…?!"

Countless groups of undead mages instantly became ashes as Celica rushed through.

When she glanced back at the giant, it was already on the ground, with half its body completely turned into ashes. Hopelessly growling.

However, there was no time to rest, as Celica noticed a group of wolves having a hard time doing any damage to a giant, getting heavily injured.

"Wait for me!"

Flash!

Kekensha Light Shields were able to sustain just an amount of damage before completely shattering, most being able to take on one giant beam before being completely destroyed.

Kekensha rushed through the battlefield, running around its allies casting countless Light Shields.

As he did this, he multi-tasked, using MP SHARE with his allies, who distracted the giants while he gathered MP on a small Mana Zone over his head.

"These giants are extremely hard to kill, if it wasn't for Celica blue flames, we would be in a way worse position… I need to cast a strong Golden Sun… Everyone, please resist!"

Booom!

A giant massive hand clashed ahead of Kekensha, who barely dodged the attack.

The Mana Zone over Kekensha head slowly expanded in size, growing stronger and stronger.

"Haahh… Almost there"

Clash!

However, a sudden shockwave closed the MP connection between Kekensha allies!

"Eh?"

When Kekensha glanced at his back, he noticed a big group of undead mages which casted a strong anti-magic seal over his whole body!

"Ugh! No! The Mana Zone was broken! I can't cast anymore Light Shields either?!"

Suddenly, Kekensha allies noticed as they were no longer protected by his Light Shields.

"Oh no! Quick! Dodge!"

Seeing this opportunity, a giant raised his hand and with extreme might, it clashed over the ground, crushing five soldiers!

Boom!

Blood and meat sprouted from the giant hand, as a big crater full of blood and dirt was the only thing left.

Kekensha cried in agony, as he saw his friends die a painful death.

"Graaaaaaaahhh!!! Nooo! You damned undead!!!"

I couldn't save them as I was busy giving Blood Fruits to everyone.

A big grieving feeling filled my heart, in the previous wars, there were always casualties, but I never experienced them in first person.

"I could had saved them… If I noticed in time… I… Ugh… Tch! Dispelling Shock!"

Fluosh!

I quickly dispelled Kekensha anti-magic seal, without a second to rest, Kekensha used almost all his MP to cast even more Light Shields, protecting its allies from the giants blows.

"Blood Fruit! Blood Fruit!"

I created countless Blood Fruits without thinking on my blood lost, and sent them to everyone who was seriously injured.

My minds multi-tasked with me, helping me open my Item Box and taking some MP potions alongside fresh Blood Monster meat, which I quickly assimilated, restoring body mass and blood.

While doing all of this, I activated my shape shifting skill and generated four new limbs, which took the job to create more Blood Fruits and send them to my servants with my threads.

"This is the most efficient way of saving my MP and Stamina, I still got plenty of MP potions and food stored, we must await the rest of the troops… Ah! They are here!"

While Wagyu dodged the blows of a giant, a powerful red breath covered the giant head, penetrating its magic shield!

FLUOSH!

"That breath! Abellona!"

A beautiful and majestic red wyvern flew around the giant, burning its head with its powerful breath, while doing this, its casted countless fire projectiles around the undead big body, making it trip over the ground.

Booom!

Abellona smiled and called its brother.

"Now, Titus!"

FLASH!

Suddenly, a powerful black colored meteorite crashed over the giant head, completely destroying it!

BOOM!

Titus quickly flew outside the crater and greeted Wagyu.

"Sir Wagyu, the reinforcements are here! Let's complete this pincer attack!"

"Yes!"

Wagyu joined forces with Abellona and Titus, rushing through the battlefield.

As I glanced to the battlefield right side, I saw the rest of Abellona team, this included his brothers, and Meiji spirits, alongside my beloved Brontes.

Brontes noticed me and waved her hand, giving me a confident smile.

"Finally! The third team! Oh!"

From my back, I noticed that the three magic teams were quickly approaching, being led by Zehe, Meiji and Rimuru.

When the undead saw this number of new soldiers, they were surprised, and some clever undead mages started to run towards the forest.

"This is it!"

.

.

.