The morning sun rose blindingly bright.
"..."
Standing atop the castle walls, I stared briefly at the radiant eastern sky before reluctantly turning my gaze southward.
There, an orderly formation of monsters assembled into an army.
Exasperated, I clicked my tongue.
"Ghouls, what are they up to…"
Truly, one could call it the Vampire King's personal guard.
Despite being ghouls, they formed ranks like a well-trained army, preparing to attack with precision.
At the center, ten vampires.
Seven common vampires were checking their weapons, while two that seemed like vampire generals were holding the scepter of the Vampire Lord.
And the Vampire Lord himself - Celendion.
He sat calmly atop a carriage as if lounging, looking at our castle walls with a seemingly intrigued gaze.
It was the gaze of someone preparing for a game rather than a life-or-death battle.
That's when it happened. Through my telescope, my gaze met Celendion's.
Startling.
With his eyes gleaming red like the moon, the boyish Vampire King waved a small hand at me. That bastard.
"You're screwed, you damn bastard…"
After spewing out a curse, I pulled the telescope away from my eye and looked back.
Human forces were also assembled there.
Four full parties of hero characters.
My main party, the Shadow Squad, Dion Mercenary Group, and the Old Hunters.
Two reserve parties behind them. Lilly's and Margarita's parties.
Cannons and ballistae densely arranged on both sides. Behind them, over 1200 mercenaries.
Three hundred of the Twilight Brigade. Five hundred mercenaries who had been with us since stage one. An additional four hundred mercenaries recruited since.
'We are also prepared.'
In just a few months, we had slain thousands of monsters and cleared numerous dungeon floors.
Far fresher and younger than you immortals, these are the elite of living humanity, ripened by hundreds of years.
'Will you lose, you monster bastards…!'
Chuk! Chuk! Chuk!
The formation of the ghoul army changed.
The three hundred ghouls, who had been at the rear, moved forward and started to expand their formation.
I turned to the side and shouted loudly.
"They're preparing to attack! All forces, prepare for defense!"
The tense soldiers finished preparations on their defensive weapons.
Hero characters also gripped their equipment and swallowed dryly.
"I won't say much."
I shouted briefly.
"Win!"
Ooooooo-!
At the same time as the soldiers shouted in response to my cry,
Thud thud thud thud thud-!
Shaking the ground, the ghouls began to charge.
Three hundred Frost Ghouls.
A staggering 300 of them. Quite burdensome for the first wave.
The sight of these blue frozen corpses maintaining perfect formation as they charged was terrifying in more ways than one.
In a short time, the ghouls that had sprinted across the plains reached the kill zone area, where we had piled wooden fences as obstacles.
A typical monster army would cause a bottleneck there and take a long time to get through.
But these were monsters under the direct command of their general.
While the kill zone created with obstacles might buy us a little time, it couldn't hold them back forever.
Kwa-jik! Kwa-duk!
As expected, the ghouls easily broke down the wooden fence and penetrated inside.
The strategy of forcing a specific route using obstacles wasn't working.
However.
"Fire-!"
The delay was still taking time. In that gap, we could strike.
As soon as they entered our firing range, I gave the order, and the cannons spat out fire simultaneously.
Burburburrr-!
With an ear-splitting noise, the cannonballs were fired.
Fiiiiiing-
Tearing through the air, dozens of cannonballs rained down and soon hit the ground.
Kwagwagwagwaaang!
Erupting in brilliant red flames and black smoke, it caused a grand explosion.
The ghouls engulfed by the explosion were instantly turned into minced meat. However, neither I, nor the soldiers, nor anyone else was celebrating.
Because it had been made clear to everyone.
This type of attack... couldn't kill them.
Gruuu...
Guaaaaa!
The minced ghouls, after a moment, started regenerating their bodies one by one.
Pieces of flesh stuck together, blood scattered in all directions collected and formed a skeleton, then came together again into the shape of a monster.
This grotesque and grotesque spectacle, I looked at with clenched teeth.
They were Celendion's personal guards.
Monsters resurrected by sharing the life of Celendion himself.
No matter how hard you tried with the usual methods, it was futile.
The moment a monster died, its 'life' was returned to Celendion, who in turn restored that life to the minions, reviving them.
It was a zombie-like act, possible because all thousand monsters were a blood-kin legion, sharing 'blood' and 'life' with Celendion.
So how do you stop this?
You have to 'destroy the spirit cores.'
In this world, the spirit core, also the essence of life and soul.
Destroy that, and they fall forever, and Celendion's life stock disappears one by one.
The problem is the numbers.
How do you destroy the spirit cores of these nearly a thousand monsters individually?
'Do you know how much headache this gave me, you bloody bastards?'
With a smirk lifting the corner of my lips, I glared at the monsters approaching me.
Bang! Crash!
Thud, thud, thud!
Roar!
Dodging the pouring cannons and ballista rains, the ghoul horde repeated the cycle of death and resurrection, quickly rushing toward the ramparts.
'Come closer.'
I nodded my head vigorously.
'Closer! Even more!'
***
"I was a little excited because it's been a long time since the last human invasion."
Alpha murmured, watching the ghoul horde closing the distance to the ramparts smoothly.
"This is too boring. They're reducing the distance too easily. It wasn't like this in the past."
"..."
"Did human tactics degenerate while we were trapped down there? Or perhaps they haven't had proper experience facing a monster horde over the long period."
At Alpha's words, Beta, who was listening next to him, agreed with a grunt.
"..."
Celendion kept silent.
Next to Celendion's chair, Alpha poured hot tea into a cup with a grin.
"We might not even have to step in, Lord."
"..."
"Ah, you wanted to personally step in this time, Lord. This might be a disappointment."
If the ghoul horde succeeded in approaching the ramparts.
They would bare their teeth to the humans on the ramparts with their devastating hunger.
'Ghouls are cannibals. The incarnation of appetite. If fresh blood and flesh are within a certain distance, their aggressiveness multiplies.'
Once the ghouls get close, they would instantly covet the flesh and take the enemy's life.
For the blood-kin legion, taking life means literally 'making it their own.'
Stealing the enemy's life and storing it as the legion's extra life.
"If the ghoul horde succeeds in approaching, there will be no chance for humans at that point."
The current life stock of the blood-kin legion is a thousand.
But when they kill the enemy and take their blood and flesh, an equivalent amount of life is added.
On our side, killing life means gaining life. On the human side, they can only lose.
At that point, the outcome is determined.
That's why usually, defeating a ghoul legion has to be done at a distance.
But the human's current defense line is only watching as the ghouls close in without resistance.
"It's almost there. They've reached right in front of the ramparts. It's disappointing if the first human invasion ends this easily."
"..."
Celendion, who had been silent, finally opened his mouth slightly.
"Something's strange."
"Yes? What are you referring to?"
"It can't be this easy."
Celendion recalled the face of the enemy commander, Ash.
The face of the young human who showed such clear hostility towards him...
"Would the man who killed Orlop... fall this easily?"
"Lord, you might be overestimating the enemy. After all, didn't Orlop die from a cannon? It could be that an ordinary human got lucky and killed that spider."
"..."
"Well, the conclusion will come soon. Whether it was a commoner's luck, or the strategy of a great human."
Roar!
The vanguard of the ghoul horde reached the moat below the ramparts.
If they fell into the moat filled with holy water, even the ghoul horde would suffer quite a bit of damage, but these were Frost Ghouls.
Splat-
They froze the moat with the cold air breathed from their mouths in a single breath and jumped across.
The rampart was now right there. Still, on the ramparts, without any significant magical attack, only cannons and arrows were pouring down.
'Is this really the end, human?'
Celendion frowned.
"Handing over the fortress so futilely?"
Celendion had faced countless human fortifications for an eternity.
The grand ancient humans often thwarted the vampires by combining all sorts of novel magic and skills.
Thinking of their magical defensive weaponry and walls made of moonsilver that purified the impure, their blue flames and such, they were indeed impressive weapons of humans.
But this fortress right now?
"Is that it? Cannons and arrows, really?"
If that's all they had, destruction was inevitable.
Thud!
The hand of the foremost ghoul made contact with the fortress wall.
Scrape! Scrape!
They froze their hands to stick to the wall, repeating the process with all their limbs, crawling up the fortress wall.
Dozens of Frost Ghouls began to climb the fortress wall. Celendion clicked his tongue upon seeing this.
Even though these were just first-line scouts, these ghouls were on the verge of capturing the fortress.
"Is that all they've got..."
The moment Celendion spat those words,
Boom! Boom!
Something was being dropped in mass from the fortress wall.
Alpha frowned, Beta squinted to get a better look, and Celendion narrowed his eyes.
"What is that?"
It was... the corpses of cows and pigs.
They were dropping dozens of livestock corpses from atop the fortress wall out of nowhere.
"Uh..."
Alpha was bewildered by this new spectacle.
"What are they doing now?"
The dense scent of blood emanated from the livestock corpses which had been pre-slit.
All of the ghouls turned their gaze towards the livestock corpses.
Growl...
Grrr!
And then, as if on cue, all the ghouls dashed towards the livestock corpses.
Even those that were climbing the wall.
All three hundred ghouls had their heads stuck to the ground, tearing into the livestock corpses. Alpha smacked his forehead.
"These stupid creatures...!"
Bloodsuckers are always hungry monsters.
Ghouls need meat. Vampires need blood. Without these, they cannot survive.
Even then, the higher-ranking vampires can suppress their instincts, preferring more valuable, thicker, and magic-rich blood.
Ghouls don't have such preferences.
They simply go mad for the flesh and blood in front of them, being cannibals.
"...They sure found our army's weak spot."
Alpha, feeling embarrassed at his subordinates' lack of discipline, clicked his tongue.
"But I didn't even think of this... this method..."
"Old wars had more respect, you see. And more importantly,"
Celendion coldly snorted,
"It's not that significant."
They are just corpses of livestock after all. They'd be eaten by the ghouls and disappear in a matter of tens of seconds.
In fact, dozens of cow and pig corpses had been mostly reduced to bones already.
The ghouls' appetite was truly monstrous.
"If their only trick is to buy time, what else can they do...?"
Just then.
Rumble!
Giant cannons atop the fortress wall were aimed below.
Aimed at the flock of ghouls, tightly huddled together, feasting on the livestock meat.
"More cannons... even though it won't work."
At the same time Celendion murmured,
Boom! Boom!
Boom!
The cannons fired in unison, decimating the ghouls gathered together.
The ghouls were obliterated in an instant.
As he had done until now, Celendion tried to resurrect the ghouls by reclaiming their lives.
"...?"
However,
"...they're not coming back."
They didn't return.
Their lives... evaporated.
"Huh? What's that..."
Alpha, who had been questioning in bewilderment, was taken aback.
Celendion, he was laughing.
His mouth was curving into a clear grin, as if he was delighted.
"All their cores were destroyed. All three hundred of them."
He didn't exactly know what they had done...
"Yeah, this makes it fun to fight...!"