Chapter 41: The Deceit of Jima
Poor Chuanlu, who hardly ever led the charge, rushed to the front, unaware that his soldiers had already fallen asleep peacefully.
Waving his dimensional stone staff, he shouted, “Fight, die! For me! Me!”
The rat ogre beneath him yawned and stood there, dozing off.
The winged knights, restraining their startled steeds, looked at this ratman dimensional sorcerer, who angrily thumped his staff against the rat ogre below him, shouting, “To, to, battle!”
One of the winged knights asked, “My lord, what is this big rat saying?”
The bearded winged knight replied, “Scared, I guess.”
Chuanlu, with keen ears, glared at the oblivious humans ahead. These human beings had no idea they were about to die! To become sacrifices for the big horned rats.
He cursed, “Human thing! Thing! Die! Die!”
After he finished cursing, Chuanlu felt something was off. Why were there no ratmen beside him? Had they all fled? Impossible, there had to be some sound if they were escaping. Why was it so quiet?
Looking back, he saw that the rooftops and streets were filled with sleeping ratmen. One ratman rolled off a rooftop and landed on the ground, still sound asleep, with a sleeping rat nearby blowing a bubble from its nose.
At this moment, only Chuanlu was awake, and the scene grew increasingly awkward.
Chuanlu tried to break the awkwardness with a smile, exposing a row of yellowed teeth.
The confused winged knights gradually restored order, forming neat rows, raising their long hollow lances.
“Form up! Form up! Prepare to charge!”
Behind them, through the dust of the ruined city gate, the silhouette of a war mammoth grew clearer, with groups of tall figures beneath it.
The battlefield did not bode well for Lady Kisryev. To avoid being caught in a two-front battle, one side must be broken first.
Everyone understood this.
Seeing the winged knights’ horses pointing at him, Chuanlu calmed down, his eyes deepened as he gripped the green dimensional stone, a cold smirk appearing on his face.
As expected of my rival, almost more cunning than me. Did they think I hadn’t anticipated this situation? Breaking the deadlock was simple….
He bit the dimensional stone hard and raised his dimensional stone staff, as green lightning danced upon it.
As long as he electrified all the sleeping rats, wouldn’t that be enough?
The green lightning burst forth, arcs striking at the surrounding ratmen, instantly filling the entire battlefield with snake-like currents of electricity.
The scene was quite spectacular; hundreds of ratmen turned into smoking figures, shaking on the ground, literally electrocuted. The awakened ratmen foamed at the mouth, stood up, and convulsed. This sight startled the pretending-to-sleep ratmen into standing up.
“Charge!”
With the red warhorses carrying the knights began to gallop, their hooves pounding the ground, the lances aimed at a group of dizzy ratmen.
Chuanlu continued to cast spells, green electric light illuminating his rat face as he roared, “Die! Die!”
The magic wind flowed with the will of this powerful spellcaster, the air growing restless. All the winged knights could taste a heavy metal flavor in the air.
The bearded winged knight took the lead, wielding his hollow lance, aiming to jab at Chuanlu.
Green lightning struck him, scattering across his armor, unable to halt him by even a fraction, as the rat ogre beneath Chuanlu lifted and drilled toward the bearded winged knight.
But the hollow lance was longer, nearly five meters long, piercing directly at Chuanlu.
“Fool! Fool!”
Chuanlu shouted, extending his hand as blinding electric light erupted from his palm, causing the hollow lance to explode instantly.
The bearded knight’s mount also took a direct hit from the rat ogre, tumbling to the ground, while the bearded knight rolled several times.
Chuanlu shouted excitedly, “Human thing! Thing!”
At this moment, his vortex spell took shape. The emerald lightning swirled like a tornado, sweeping through the ground, causing all unfortunate souls nearby to scream as they were electrified and their bones gleamed.
In the face of such terrifying battlefield magic, the mounts of the winged knights could no longer restrain themselves, fleeing in all directions to escape from the erratic lightning tornado.
Seeing the terrified winged knights running amok, Chuanlu felt a surge of happiness, with only a bit of regret that due to that human interference, the target of his spell had deviated greatly from the center of the winged knights, landing behind, resulting in insufficient lethality.
But it was still better than last time.
Last time, Chuanlu’s vortex spell had backfired, tearing apart the formation of ratmen.
Now, Chuanlu’s green lightning tornado drifted toward the city gate, where the roars of the Northern folk turned into wails.
The Northern folk had originally surged into the city gate, but the front line clashed right into Chuanlu’s “masterpiece.” The green lightning tornado blocked all paths ahead.
In a panic, the Northern folk turned to flee, colliding with others who were excitedly shouting that the city had fallen. The fleeing soldiers became entangled with the army, interfering with each other, pressed against one another, forming a massive mound of bodies.
The green lightning tornado ruthlessly swept through the densely packed crowd, causing the frightened war mammoths to trample around heedlessly.
Listening to the sounds of agonizing screams, Chuanlu felt no psychological pressure; at least fewer Northern folk died compared to the ratmen he killed last time, and besides, those humans held no further value.
Now, victory undeniably belonged to him; the winged knights were in disarray, and the demoness’s ridiculous scheme had ultimately been thwarted by him.
The bearded winged knight, alone, attempted to charge again, hoping to follow the stories of legendary heroes, to turn the tide through one-on-one combat, only to be thrown against the wall by the rat ogre, which then collapsed.
Chuanlu turned to look at his army. It was time to reap the spoils, but all he saw were rats fleeing with their heads in their arms and rat heads flying into the sky.
A mournful tune resonated in the air as the ratmen fled in all directions, crying out, “The piper from our dreams has come to kill us! The piper from our dreams has come to kill us!”
At the end of the line, rat heads continued to fly up, but compared to the massive ratman army, it merely looked like a mouse nibbling on an elephant, it would take a long time.
However, this did not stop the ratmen from scurrying away, each one faster than the last, finding holes to dive into.
The recent large-scale slumber had already diminished their organization, and with the nightmare becoming reality, the naturally timid ratmen didn’t care about anything else. They just needed to escape.
At this moment, beneath the rubble of the brick wall, the bearded winged knight stood up, angrily raising his sword and charging at Chuanlu.
Chuanlu did not regard the bearded winged knight as a threat. Instead, he focused on the rear of the army, the rat heads constantly taking flight. He couldn’t see who the attacker was, but he could sketch out the opponent’s form in his mind.
A nearly three-meter-tall demon with a bald head and shattered lips, incredibly powerful.
Knowledgeable Chuanlu also knew of their extraordinary class, capable of mass slaughtering with fear. Beyond that, he couldn’t think of much else. He guessed that given the demoness’s powers, it was unlikely she could maintain it for long.
As long as he jumped out like those foolish human beings beside him and stopped the “Huge Sword Piper,” it could very well inspire morale and prevent the collapse of the army. But the reason why those human beings are foolish was that they would foolishly waste their own lives.
More than one winged knight attempted to kill Chuanlu, still unaware that the ratmen army was on the verge of collapse. They could not see it but continued to charge at Chuanlu, attempting to kill him and reverse the situation.
One warhorse, carrying a winged knight, charged straight at Chuanlu. Weaker than the bearded winged knight, the rat ogre easily dodged his lance, penetrating him with a solid drill, blood staining the wings at the back of the winged knight’s waist.
“Bear God protect me!”
The bearded winged knight leaped over his fallen warhorse and charged at the rat ogre.
“Fool! Fool!”
Chuanlu shouted, commanding the rat ogre to hurl the corpse in its hands at the bearded winged knight, then turned and fled expertly, not even glancing at the rat army.
His life was his own; besides, the clan in this place was not his kin.
He fled without psychological pressure while the rat ogre carried him, effortlessly finding the tunnel leading underground to escape.
The entire process was smooth and unproblematic.
As he ran, Chuanlu pondered once again about where he had gone wrong.
Perhaps the bitter taste of failure had made his mind, exhilarated by the black lotus, calm down considerably.
“That pile of liquor!” he suddenly slapped his head, “That was directly handled by the demoness. How could I steal it?”
Chuanlu imagined that it must have started with a few ratmen stealing liquor to drink, only to be discovered by others, who then blackmailed them with reports… and so the rumor spread like wildfire.
Although the liquor came from the demoness’s hands, she used it to profit, right?
This thought stubbornly arose, like a stubborn old man insisting on persuading him.
Yes, that’s correct. Wait, why am I having this thought?
A voice in his heart emphasized once more that the demoness was indeed out for profit.
Chuanlu bit down hard on his tail to calm himself.
“It’s simple, it’s a lie; I deceived the ratmen.”
At the center of the battlefield, the impeccably dressed demoness removed her veil to present herself, saying to the crowd. The bearded winged knight was extracting his sword from a ratman corpse, saying, “No one asked you to explain.”
“Just because no one asked, should I not speak? If I don’t speak, how will everyone know my achievements? Without knowing my achievements, who will give me respect and rewards? Mortals only see the achievements of swords and blades, they don’t see the deeds of schemes and poisons.”
Jima spoke passionately.
The bearded winged knight gripped the Bear God amulet tightly. In the darkness, with only the fire of battle as a light source, the uncovered demoness emitted a terrifying charm as he said, “But we’re still fighting.”
An elder Kisryev lady, wielding a frying pan, chased a few ratmen, hitting them on the head while crying and shouting, “You killed my son!”
Jima ignored her and made a trumpet shape with her hand, saying, “The ratmen were all deceived by me! Those strong liquors were cursed, specifically to trick the ratmen into drinking; I had spat into them.”
The bearded winged knight could not help but ask, “Spit?”
“Hei~tui~~” Jima turned her head and spat, “It was used as a medium for the curse.”
Even her spitting gesture was full of charm.
The bearded winged knight, however, had a thought and asked, “So you inviting me to drink that day wasn’t bribing me?”
“Firstly it was to deceive the ratmen,” Jima said. “Secondly, it was to try to get you to have a sip.”
“You really are a true-to-life demon.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
The bearded winged knight quickly distanced himself from this demoness.
