Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
chapter-177

The next day at noon after...

Speaking of new information since the military meeting held last night, the Giamut Empire had said in a magical communication in Nest City that they would provide food and material support for Rosenheim. General Lucidral in Nest City told me a lot about the situation in the Central Continent, along with the support from the Giamut Empire.

The Demon King's army in the Central Continent had already begun to move, and within a day or two, they would make contact with the fortress that the Giamut Empire had built at a key point on the northern border.

Their number had remained unchanged at 2 million, divided into around 200,000 units per fortress, and they were advancing toward 1,000 fortresses. That was just as I had predicted.

He said that it was meaningful that the Giamut Empire had come to the aid of Rosenheim in that situation. It seemed that some of the Magic Ships were already on their way to Nest, assuming that the elves wouldn't refuse them once they announced their support.

It was said that the Emperor of the Giamut Empire was a rare and wise Emperor who reached the position of Emperor at a young age.

The fact that 600,000 Elven Elixirs had been offered and their value had already reached the ears of the Emperor. The support was a stepping stone to obtain elixirs as cheaply as possible in the future.

And if Rosenheim survived with that support, the 4 million reserve troops of the Demon King's army might go to Rosenheim.

Either way, it would be to the advantage of the Giamut Empire.

Even in the situation where the Demon King's army was attacking, the head of a nation always seeks the interests of the nation.

I was currently a few dozen kilometers north of Tiamo.

My purpose was to confirm the movements of the Demon King's army that has retreated to the north and to take action in the future.

"I can see them. Can you too?"

"Yeah, I can."

Cecile and I were riding a single B-rank Bird summon to save summoning slots. And I was sitting facing Cecile. I was riding in the front, meaning I was facing backward from the direction we were going.

Normally Cecile should ride in the front and me in the back, but once the battle starts, I was going to be her shield in case something happened, so we were sitting facing each other.

I was turning around to place a large, shallow flower pot on the back of the B-rank Bird summon to create the [Blessing of Heaven]s. The siege battle the day before had consumed a considerable amount of [Blessing of Heaven]s, and I need to replenish them.

Thanks to the fact that we defeated the Demon King's army pretty well in all 4 cities, the Demon King's army retreated and didn't attack. The loss of 100,000 magical beasts seemed to be a sufficient reason for not having a daily offensive battle.

In the meantime, I was going to produce the [Blessing of Heaven]s. To prevent the enemy from seeing my work, we were flying pretty high.

I discovered the end of the ranks of the Demon King's army retreating from the Tiamo invasion through the eyes of B-rank Bird that we were riding and I was using on.

"Hmm. At this rate, it looks like they'll meet up with the neighboring army tomorrow. We have to stop this."

"Is it bad if they merge?"

"Yes. We won't be able to defend if they merge, increase their numbers and only focus on one or two cities at a time instead of 4."

(I knew they wouldn't just retreat.)

Since 4 cities, including Tiamo, were currently on the defensive, the Demon King's army had divided its forces into 4 and was attacking at the same time.

The Demon King's army seemed to have some wisdom, and after the night raid 3 days ago, and the heavy defeat in the defensive battle yesterday, they seemed to have changed their strategy. I didn't know what they were going to do since they were still just marching, but it looked like they were going to join up with the neighboring army from the direction they were going.

It would be bad if the divided armies were to join forces and concentrate their forces to bring down 1 or 2 cities instead of 4 simultaneously. Since we were at war, if the ones we needed to protect were hit, even if we subsequently eradicated the enemies, it would mean defeat.

"What were we going to do?"

"Of course we're going to harass them. It's not a defensive battle, so we're free to move. Well, we'll have to destroy them individually."

In a defensive battle, you have to make moves to protect the city, so you can't overreact. But in that situation we could attack without worrying about that.

I used the F-rank Bird summon to communicate that day's mission to my friends flying around us. F-rank Birds [Transmission] can only be heard by the person targeted, so it's a convenient way to communicate strategy.

We reached the rear of the Demon King's army, which had been reduced to 100,000 in number as they marched.

"Allen, it's getting noisy. I think the enemy has noticed us. Are we still doing it?"

B-rank Bird summon was quite large and easily visible, and the Demon King's army recognized it as an enemy based on its activities so far.

Dozens of flying magical beasts from the Demon King's army came to us.

"Of course. We're going to go a little ahead, and then you're going to use [Small Meteorite]."

I was going to be working on the [Blessing of Heaven]s all day. Since I was able to collect the magic stones last night, I wanted to make them while I still had time. I was going to keep working on it as long as we didn't get attacked by the enemy.

Cecile seemed to understand what I was trying to do.

The Demon King's army was marching northward, but the size and speed of the magical beasts varied. Depending on the type of magical beast, there was more than double the difference between the fastest and the slowest. Naturally, the back of the march seemed to have more slow-moving magical beasts.

Bipedal Ogres and Trolls were at the tail end of the Demon King's army. They were also bipedal, but they seemed to be riding on the backs of quadrupedal magical beasts because their bodies were made up of lightweight bones or something.

We rose about 3 kilometers high to scatter the Demon King's army, and then I summoned a B-rank Dragon summon to defeat the flying magical beasts.

Then, Cecile began to focus her consciousness to activate the Extra Skill.

"Drop it around here."

"..."

I told Cecile, who was concentrating her attention, where to drop it, and she held up her hand in that direction without replying.

"[Small Meteorite]!"

With Cecile's shout, a huge, red-hot boulder fell from the tail end of the procession of the Demon King's army, a little closer to the direction of travel.

Nearly 10,000 troops were burned to the ground at once.

(Ugh, this experience is so good. The defensive battles were counted as fighting with the elves, so I only got 10% of the experience.)

In the night raid, 6 of us fought together, so we received 80% of the experience per magical beast, but in the siege battle, we were considered to have fought together with the elves, so we received only 10% of the experience per magical beast, the lowest experience distribution. 

10% was the minimum experience earned when the number of participants were 253 or more.

Thanks to the buffs of my Fish summons, I received experience on all the magical beasts that had been defeated in the 4 cities, which amounted to 200,000.

But in that attack only 7 of us were present, so the experience was 80% per person.

"Thanks, that was pretty good. Here, use the Ring."

I gave the Mana Recovery Ring to Cecile to replenish her mana.

When Cecile used to fly in a separate Griffin, we were afraid of dropping the Ring, but now that we were riding together, I could give her the Ring.

"Thanks and I dropped where you wanted it."

"Yeah. Look, they don't seem to be very intelligent."

What Cecile had just defeated were not the rear-most magical beast but the one in the center. She activated her Extra Skill [Small Meteorite] when there were 20,000 left in the last row.

The 20,000 Trolls and Ogres at the tail end of the line, enraged and unaware that they had been split up, came after us.

The magical beasts in front of the location where the meteorite was dropped continued their march and did not seem to chase after us.

We lowered our altitude and moved slowly so that the magical beast could follow us sufficiently.

"But the plan was to attack a platoon, right? That was not a platoon though."

Our plan was to attack a platoon of the Demon King's army and defeat them one by one. But that time I forced the Demon King's army to make a platoon by using [Small Meteorite]. Cecile seemed to feel that something was different.

"Well, yeah. If they are not, let's make them a platoon."

The Demon King's army that was in the direction of travel from the [Small Meteorite] did not come back, so the 20,000 magical beasts were completely split up.

After less than half an hour of travel, we stopped moving and waited at a slightly higher position than the magical beasts.

""Giigi!!""

A group of B-rank Insect summons were waiting for the 20,000-strong Demon King army. The number of Child Alipons had increased by 3,000 since the awakening skill's cool down time passed after noon.

I lost about 500 of them the day before, so in total I had 5500 Child Alipons. They had already been buffed with Fish summons.

I also told Sophie and Kiel to support them and B-rank Dragons.

"Well, I want to collect the magic stones. It's a bit much, but we can go."

(It took me quite a while to lead them here, and we need to hunt about 20,000 to be efficient and level up.)

Based on the strength and ability of my friends and summons, I had found that the number of magical beasts we could defeat at a time was 20,000.

The Trolls and Ogres, realizing that they were trapped, stiffened for a moment, but they seemed to attack regardless.

Child Alipons surrounded the enemy.

"Okay, you're ready. Lay waste to them."

""Oh!""

After Allen used F-rank Bird to give instructions to the entire group, the battle began.