Chapter 178: The Terror of the Biochemical Maniac
Unlike the false information that the powers had seen, the current situation within the Green Vines Empire can be described as prosperous in all aspects of agriculture, industry and commerce.
With the exception of the highest levels, who knew of the true crisis, ordinary people and the backbone of the empire were all in a floating state of mind at the moment.
It's like drinking two or three cups of horse urine and feeling like the universe is mine, that kind of expansion.
First and foremost, it is the magician class, who were held in high regard by the Eternal Night Queen. Each individual's mentality was overly inflated, thinking that all problems could be solved through technological innovation.
Although in theory, this can indeed be achieved, the problem is that the empire doesn't have that much time, and they are facing enemies with accumulations which are far too profound.
Secondly, headed by Sophie, the emerging capitalist class, looking at the tremendous profit they bring in, it feels like nobody in the whole world can compare.
Anyone who hinders them from earning money, each and every one of them, will all need to die.
With their wealth and equipment, these "elites" started to become full of themselves, and even the military was partially following along in the same floating state as them.
With the provocation of the Terra Kingdom, the previously set time for rest and recovery is proving insufficient, and the internal public opinion for war is soaring.
This is a problem that the Queen of Eternal Night is well aware of, and though she feels helpless, she cannot avoid tackling it.
Although the world of Eternal night is indeed a bunch of rotten fish and shrimps, the terrifying enemies beyond this world are still a challenge for the empire. The next step is to embark on extensive infrastructure projects and accumulate more technological knowledge.
This world will inevitably belong to the empire in the future, but the ending should not be a pyrrhic victory, but a seamless integration of the existing forces to confront the arrival of the Seven Gods.
So, at Roger's suggestion, the Queen of Eternal Night allowed Sophie to incite the emotions of the magicians and the military to trigger this retaliatory battle.
The intelligence was made public, and all the enemy's preparations were clearly laid out on Duncan and Sophie's table.
But the Imperial people, under the protection of the Queen of Eternal Night, have won too many victories and already consider themselves invincible. Even the Orcs who were defeated before will surely be easily defeated this time.
The mistake of being arrogant and underestimating the enemy, and the failure that results even though it was known that the enemy's strength may be beyond control, is not something the Queen of Eternal Night wants to forcefully intervene in.
Such a lack of calmness shows that the people of the Empire do indeed need to experience failure to see reality.
At the same time, what Roger hopes to correct is the magicians' bad habit of always rushing to the battlefield.
Magicians, who possess the world's most advanced production technology and have access to the highest level of scientific knowledge about the universe, are research talents, engineers, and the most advanced artisans, but they use themselves as mere cannon fodder. This is the epitome of wastefulness!
As long as the Green Vines Empire continues to make technological breakthroughs, a single magic crystal cannon could replace the majority of the destruction caused by mages. How can they be viewed as mere soldiers to be sacrificed on the battlefield?
"The New Arcane Arts" has brought about a trend of job switching and Che Guevara is also striving to correct the mentality of mages, but Roger finds it all fruitless as the mages still prefer to personally engage in battle...
You must accept the consequences if you don't even view your opponents as human
At this moment, the Empire and the orcs have already engaged in a fierce battle. With their direct destructive ability suppressed, the mages convert their magic into beneficial spells for their own side aswell as summoning creatures which spread across the battlefield.
The magicians of the Secret Magic Society are now ten times wealthier than before.
The combat effectiveness produced from wealth is also quite considerable. Even with the presence of Tasika, the priest blessed by the gods, the wealth gap cannot be bridged, and the defensive line of the orc kingdom begins to crumble.
At this moment, the experts dispatched by the powers arrived to join the battle.
Tasika's order to them was not to directly attack the headquarters of the Empire's military, but to confront the summoned creatures and relieve pressure on the orcs' defensive line.
For the troops, this was a low-risk order, and they all worked hard to execute it.
Time flowed silently. General Duncan's intuition told him that Tasika wanted time to delay, and following the enemy's plan of procrastination, more terrifying battles could happen.
He led his own guards to the front line, attempting to break through the enemy line, and achieved great success in a single battle.
However, before he even encountered the orcs, he heard the chaos coming from the rear.
The special forces of the Snake tribe, which Tasika initially arranged, had already moved to the imperial wizards' camp using the "earth escape technique" without any magical fluctuations.
As respected mages, even in the midst of a fierce battle, they received the most thorough protection, and it was impossible for ordinary means to easily break through to them.
But who could have thought that the orcs had a special unit that had mastered special digging techniques, allowing them to move "silently" like swimming in sand, and they were right beside them.
The Snak tribe was already good at digging in the sand, but their speed was limited.
It was the specially designed armor that used mechanical power, allowing them to increase their underground speed exponentially.
Of course, this kind of progress also had its drawbacks, as it could still be detected by sound.
However, at the moment of intense fighting, the magic users' attention was all focused on the unbreakable orc defense line. Where would they find the energy to pay much attention to their feet?
The package on Snikt squad's back had been unpacked and laid out underground in the wizard's territory. It instantly activated the forbidden spell array.
This is also a modern magical equipment that miniaturizes and modularizes the anti-magic field. It needs to be arranged in advance and can be maneuvered during the battle.
Thus, in an instant, the empire's prideful magical support was silenced.
The life-saving props on the magicians' bodies were activated one after another. The Snikt special forces were trained specifically to deal with magicians, with extremely strong magic resistance and willpower, they quickly snuck up on the imperial magicians and delivered merciless stabs.
"Damn it, this is a mage hunter!"
Sophie guessed the profession of these Snikts. Her face darkened.
Mage hunters are a special profession that targets magicians, and most of them are advanced thieves.
They have very high magic resistance and willpower, are proficient in close-range assassinations, and have some spell-counter abilities, all created specifically to counter the world's most powerful magicians.
Oh, by the way, the earliest mage hunters were magicians from certain organizations who developed them for the same purpose.
The Snikt special forces of the Orc Kingdom were clearly heavily funded, from their mobility, to the anti-magic field, to their skilled assassination techniques, they instantly dealt great damage to the empire's magicians.
This is still because they are all individually wealthy, although caught off guard by the anti-magic field, they still have enough life-saving equipment.
"Reinforcing monks! Prepare to disengage and retreat in an orderly manner!"
General Duncan knew their attack had failed today, and the mages in the rear were in trouble. He had to go save them.
If he didn't give the Orc Kingdom a suitable lesson, he might continue to guard Naito City and be unable to be promoted for several years.
However, if he sacrificed the three thousand mages in this desert, he was likely to face imprisonment.
However, he also felt terrified. The enemy was intentionally luring him forward in a defensive posture. It was obvious that the reserve team was targeting the Empire's mages, and he was afraid that they would strike a fatal blow as soon as he acted.
"Keep them, it's time to avenge these executioners!" Tasika's clear voice sounded behind Duncan.
The elite first legion of orcs changed their previous defensive posture and actively rushed out of the trenches. They cooperatee with those strong players supported by the consortia and entangled General Duncan's troops to prevent them from retreating.
Suddenly, this border army was surrounded, and the situation they faced was cascading towards the abyss.
Sophie's tail stretched out behind her, and her silky fur stood on end.
She had just used her handgun to shoot the Snikt man who targeted her, but the knife that skimmed past her scared her to death.
She took out a test tube from her bosom, containing a strange green liquid, which she directly smashed on the corpse of her enemy in front of her.
At the same time, she kept muttering under her breath, "Lydia, your invention must be reliable. My life, the entire expeditionary force's lives, depend on you!"
The green liquid seemed to have a life of its own as it quickly drilled into the corpse. In less than a second, the supposedly dead enemy began to move again.
But soon, it became clear that it was not just any movement. It was like an inflating balloon, rapidly swelling up and becoming hundreds of pounds heavier.
His skin was so swollen that it was almost transparent, with many green insects wriggling inside. This unnerved Sophie, causing her to instinctively retreat.
Bang!
The bloated corpse quickly exploded, unleashing countless green insects that shot out like arrows.
They were highly intelligent and if they hit an orc, they would quickly drill into their body. The elite Snyek hunters would then convulse in pain, losing their combat ability and kneeling on the ground.
If they encountered an Imperial citizen, the creatures would melt into the host's body and turn into a kind of hormone that stimulated the wound to contract and stop bleeding.
Soon, the skin of the orc infested with green worms turned green and sharp bone spurs grew on their hands. Their limbs folded back as they shot towards the terrified Snikt hunters at an astonishing speed.
In the span of a few breaths, the entire Snekt squad was annihilated and transformed into parasitic hosts, modified by the green worms.
They scurried like spiders, charging towards the frontline of the conflict, covered in the counter-produced green worms.
There were more orcs there, they considered the first assimilated target as an enemy, launching a new wave of parasitism.
Either the green worms and parasitic hosts were all killed, or all enemies within their perception were transformed into their own kind, the difference between is to great to search casually, they would not stop if left alive.
"Is this Lady Lydia's latest invention?" A magician looked at the ravaged battlefield and asked Sophie.
"Yes... luckily we didn't fail!" Sophie stuck out her tongue. Originally, she had doubted that Lady Lydia was too stingy, only giving her a small vial.
Now she knew that just a little amount of fluid was already extremely potent...
Although the scene was disgusting and horrifying, at least they survived, didn't they?
...
...
Eventually, the fierce and target-seeking green bugs brought an abrupt end to the battle.
An outbreak of a disaster similar to biological warfare occurred among the orcs, as the parasitic nature of these green bugs possessed super-strong vitality, strength and speed that exceeded those of advanced warriors. Additionally, even a minor scratch from them could result in mutatious infection.
Moreover, their parasitic larvae could jump at incredible speeds, making it practically impossible to defend against them.
Fortunately, they only fought based on instinct. After several minutes without finding a new target to attack, their bodily functions would decline, making it relatively easy to eliminate them.
However, they still caused significant trouble for the Orc Kingdom, hindering their attempts to chase down the Imperial Army's retreat.
After sustaining over five hundred casualties among the three thousand magic-users led by Sophie, they managed to stabilize their emotions and continued fighting, an important factor in Tasika's prevention of pursuit.
The Empire could not breach the Orcs' defensive line, but it was a fool's errand for the orcs to try and keep the Imperial Army from leaving.
Moreover, who knows if the Empire will unleash a second weapon like the one that instantly wiped out the Snaiket Squad.
Lord Charles didn't mention that the magic-users possessed such countermeasures. The special forces squad of one thousand soldiers is an impossible resource to regenerate in the short term and required much investment to train...
The half-dragon princess' heart was practically bleeding.
Roger didn't expect Sophie's life-saving item to be so powerful.
It can only be said that the destructive power of alchemists can be estimated, but the things produced by magic potions and biochemical masters are completely incomprehensible by ordinary people.
It is necessary to understand it more deeply!
After symbolically chasing for a while, the orc army retreated and began to clean up the battlefield.
In this battle, the orc side suffered 7,000 casualties, most of whom died in the frontal defense. More than 2,000 people, including the Snekt combat team, died from the destruction caused by green worms.
The Empire lost more than 10,000 ordinary soldiers, most of whom were killed during the retreat and pursuit.
What the Empire was most heartbroken about was the deaths of 500 magicians.
Although most of them were intermediate and advanced magicians, that kind of temporary forbidden magic field could not completely lock legendary magicians, but this number was a heavy loss for the Empire for a long time.
But the people of the Empire didn't care about their losses. Both soldiers and magicians have the courage to continue fighting despite the huge losses.
What they couldn't tolerate was failure. Although the retaliatory war penetrated deep into the Kambusak Desert and killed many orcs, the production of totem bracelets continued. It is clear that the goal of warning and deterrence was not achieved.
Although Duncan managed to save the main force and kept the losses to a minimum, this could not conceal the failure.
After returning home, Duncan and Sophie were overwhelmed by a barrage of condemnation. Countless people in the empire regarded them as sinners.
Prior to this, the empire had an undefeated record of victory, which was broken by them. It is quite frustrating, isn't it?
Of course, another important reason for the failure was that the Queen of Eternal Night didn't participate in the war. Otherwise, even the worst situation could have been reversed, right?
However, as the monarch was always concerned about his reputation, he surely became angry this time, and in the end, all the blame would be placed on Duncan and Sophie.
The two individuals also remained silent, unable to accept the failure. Both of them submitted their resignation letters, expressing their willingness to take responsibility for the failure.
The Eternal Night Queen rejected their resignation and punished them by withholding their salary for three months. They were to remain in their current positions for further observation, and the standard compensation was given to the fallen soldiers of the war.
"I, as the emperor, am responsible for this failure, and the Secret Magic Council and the military are also at fault. Every individual in this empire who contributed to the war should have considered the possibility of failure. I hope everyone will reflect on what caused this failure so that we can embrace greater victories."
The speech of the Eternal Night Queen in the Starry Palace, was published in the "Long Live the Queen" newspaper and simultaneously uploaded to the fearless space, has triggered a feverish discussion within the empire.
