The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

141 Strong meat offering

Having learned that Bufudin had been killed by an attack carried out by an unknown enemy, Gargya ordered that his army move out and took command himself.

But as a usurper, Gargya didn't have complete control over the High Kobold nation. Now that General Bufudin had been defeated, if he were to gather all of those loyal to him, it was possible that the rest of the nation would take the opportunity to stage a rebellion.

That was why Gargya had deliberately gathered those rebellious towards him and placed them on the frontlines. Behind them, he had placed units of archers and mages to act as slave-drivers.

He would use the rebellious High Kobolds as disposable war slaves, making them charge at the enemy as suicide squads, while having the other troops observe from behind to make them fight and prevent them from running.

"With this, they can't even run away, let alone disobey me!"

It wasn't unusual for nations outside the Boundary Mountain Range to use units of slaves as fodder, but in the area within the Boundary Mountain Range, where there hadn't been any wars of national scale for a long period of time, this was a revolutionary idea.

However, the attackers had already passed through the gate. Thus, the slaves were tightly-packed as they marched through the nation's main street at the front, with the slave-drivers and those protecting them behind the slaves, and the elite battalion commanded by Gargya's army behind them.

"It seems that the enemy is very confident. They're getting ahead of themselves," Gargya growled in the Kobold language in a displeased tone as he looked through a magnified image produced by a High Kobold Mage's light-attribute magic.

Behind the gate that had taken a humanoid shape for some reason, there was a Noble Orc standing at the front, with Ghouls and a small number of High Kobolds raising their weapons.

"Gargya-sama, the Arachne and Empusa that were mentioned in the howls are nowhere to be seen," one of Gargya's subordinates told him.

But Gargya merely snorted. "They're no doubt in hiding. Send the slaves out and smoke them out!"

At Gargya's command, the slaves charged forward. Unlike Bufudin's army, they hadn't lost their ability to reason. In their hearts, they wanted to become allies with the enemies that were apparently an allied force from the Ghoul nation and Zanalpadna, but the slave-drivers behind them were like beasts.

Even if they were to avoid the slave-drivers' arrows and spells to escape or muster their courage to rebel, the lives of their families and the citizens were in danger.

They didn't have morale, but they couldn't disobey.

But something emerged from within the ground, behind the slaves.

"... Garuh?"

Gargya's eyes grew wide as he saw a small silhouette... Vandalieu, emerge from the ground between the slaves and the slave-drivers.

The slaves carried on, not noticing Vandalieu who had appeared silently behind them, but the slave-drivers stopped for a moment in surprise.

"Become a wall," Vandalieu said.

And then, with a thunderous noise, a tall wall formed from the ground.

The slave-drivers and Gargya's main force behind them could no longer see the enemy army and the slaves due to the wall that was rising high into the sky.

Still, their movements only stopped for a moment.

"GAAAAH!" Gargya screamed, giving the extremely simple order to attack and tear apart Vandalieu, who seemed to be the cause of the wall's appearance.