Chapter 105: Retreat

When beasts are cornered, what do they do? They never just wait to be slaughtered! Driven by the instinct to survive, even the gentlest rabbit will struggle. But humans are not beasts. Highly socialized life and intelligence have worn away much of humanity's animal instincts, so some people in desperate situations will choose to wait for death—unless someone leads them in choosing resistance. Because socialized life has also endowed humans with another formidable instinct: collective consciousness.

This was exactly the situation now. As the dense tide of ant-men surged forward once more, these warriors, just transformed from farmers, did not collapse as Victor had anticipated. Two dozen War Bear mercenaries cursed loudly, laughed heartily, and traded jokes with one another while loosing lethal bolts from their crossbows at the monsters below. Spurred on by these veterans, the other militiamen also fired with everything they had.

Victor wondered why he, too, felt no fear. In the past, watching war movies on Earth, he had thought those charging soldiers were utterly foolish—if it were him, he would certainly find a place to play dead. But now he understood. As long as comrades beside you were fighting with all their might, a warrior would not feel fear—or rather, he simply had no mind to spare for it. And so he stood at the brick wall, feeding bolt after bolt into the heads of ant-men. In truth, while others inspired Victor, his very presence was the greatest inspiration to the soldiers. If he fell in battle, these troops would collapse instantly.

Sharp arrows cut through the curtain of rain, piercing the ant-men's carapaces. Green fluid splattered everywhere, smearing the ground in viscous, oily stains. The two Spirit Monkey militiamen were especially impressive—wielding heavy bows, every arrow punched clean through an ant-man's skull. In fact, they had slain more ant-men than Victor himself.

Victor knew the soldiers' efforts were futile. These ant-men were simply monsters that cared nothing for life or death. They charged forward through the hail of arrows, driving themselves onward with all four limbs, until they reached the edge of the trench. Without hesitation, they threw themselves in, letting their companions trample over their bodies until a ramp was piled up level with the palisade.

"Throw down the torches!" Barrit roared.

As dozens of ant-men leaped into the trench flooded with lamp oil, a dozen or so oil-soaked wooden torches were hurled down from behind the palisade. The oil pool ignited. Merciless flames instantly engulfed the ant-men. Waves of heat rolled upward—even standing atop the tall palisade, Victor could feel the scorching warmth.

This lamp oil was a mixture of palm oil and lard. Oil extracted from oil palms burned at an extremely high temperature, and lard burned long and steadily. Even though a moderate rain was falling from the sky, the oil pool blazed fiercely. But what was truly despairing was that the ant-men kept throwing themselves into the fiery pit one after another, and before long, they would extinguish the flames with their own bodies.

Yet this never came to pass. Every ant-man that leaped into the fire pool was instantly set ablaze, and in turn made the flames burn even more fiercely. The air was thick with a pungent, acrid stench—the smell of scorched ant-men.

Watching the ant-men leap one after another into the oil pool, only to ignite like great torches, everyone stared in stunned silence.

"Ha ha ha! These fearless bastards are afraid of fire!"

"Jump! Jump! I hope all you monsters burn to death in there!"

"The great Lord of Radiance must be protecting us!"

The flames formed an insurmountable barrier, devouring every ant-man that leaped in. The soldiers laughed and chatted loudly, their pent-up emotions ignited along with the burning ant-men.

"Ha ha, my lord, these monsters are afraid of fire!" Gru walked over, laughing joyfully.

Barrit said calmly, "It's not that they're afraid of fire—it's that their blood is as flammable as oil."

Victor nodded. Barrit had observed keenly; the green blood on the ground was indeed burning as well.

"My lord, these monsters are truly strange. If they were mindless beasts, they have hands like men and know how to retreat. But if they have intelligence, why would they be so stupid as to keep jumping into the fire?" Barrit stroked his beard and continued, "I suspect these monsters are like soldiers—they must obey their commander's orders. So it's likely there's a special commander creature among them. If we could kill it, the situation might change."

Victor glanced at the several Alchemy Militiamen standing nearby. They, too, would execute Victor's orders without hesitation, just like these ant-men. Victor had a vague sense that these ant-men were deeply connected to alchemical creatures. First, the ant-men's forms were designed entirely for combat—they could run and charge on all four limbs, and when fighting, they could stand upright to free their middle pair of arms, which meant they could wield more weapons. Second, their elemental attributes and behavioral characteristics were very similar to alchemical creatures. The only thing that puzzled Victor was this: if the ant-men were alchemical lifeforms, they must be combat units, yet their individual strength was far too weak. No matter how numerous they were, they could never have been a mainline unit of the Alchemy Empire.

"I need to go to the upper camp."

Seeing the ant-men begin to retreat, Victor decided to use this lull to visit the Alchemy Tower. Before the second assault had begun, one ant-man corpse had already been sent to the Element Extraction Platform by the Alchemy Militia. Now Victor wanted to ask King the Tower Spirit for some answers.

Barrit was greatly alarmed and quickly said in a low voice, "My lord, you cannot leave here now! If you do, our soldiers will grow suspicious, and soon they will collapse."

Victor frowned and turned to look. Sure enough, the soldiers were glancing his way from time to time before pretending to chat and laugh with their comrades as if nothing were wrong.

Victor's expression shifted between conflicting emotions. The ant-men had stopped leaping into the fire pool, but this lamp oil would eventually burn out. If no solution could be found, the camp being overrun was only a matter of time. And the key to turning things around might well be in the Alchemy Tower! But Barrit's warning made sense too. If Victor left the brick wall, these soldiers would likely truly collapse—after all, they were not professional guards.

Just as Victor was hesitating, the ant-men made a new move. They approached the burning trench once more, and this time they stood upright, hurling clumps of mud at the fire pool with all their might.

"Shoot them dead!" Barrit's face changed dramatically, and he shouted the order.

The soldiers also understood the ant-men's intention. Everyone loosed arrows at the ant-men trying to extinguish the flames. This time, the ant-men were noticeably cleverer. They crouched low, using their middle pair of arms to keep hurling mud into the fire pool while raising the bodies of their fallen comrades in front of their heads as shields. In this way, even crossbow bolts could not kill them outright.

Now everyone's faces grew grim. With the ant-men's numbers, it wouldn't be long before the trench was filled.

"Concentrate fire on one of them!" Barrit called out.

The soldiers immediately focused their shots on a single ant-man. It was instantly riddled into a pincushion by the dense volley of arrows, but the moment it fell, another ant-man responsible for hauling dirt behind it took its place. And so the ant-men continued, weathering the storm of arrows with an unimaginable order, bit by bit, casting clumps of earth and stones into the burning oil pool.

As the despairing soldiers frantically slaughtered these ant-men, Victor looked down and saw countless more still converging on the hill camp. He estimated roughly that over ten thousand ant-men had already gathered on the front side alone.

Victor gritted his teeth and said to Barrit, "Before the flames are smothered by the ant-men, we have no choice but to organize everyone to retreat using the ropes behind the camp!"

Barrit said in a low voice, "My lord, while we're protected by the palisade, we can still hold out. If we retreat into the open, I'm afraid we won't escape these monsters."

These creatures could run on all four limbs like horses, reaching charge speeds of up to fifty kilometers per hour. Barrit did not think retreat was a good idea.

"I know! But we have no choice. Even if the ant-men stop throwing in dirt, the lamp oil will burn out eventually. Retreat might still offer a chance at survival—if we stay trapped here, we'll be annihilated sooner or later." Victor continued, "We'll hold the palisade and keep drawing the ant-men's attention, buying time for everyone to retreat. How many survive? That depends on their own luck."

The ant-men were surging in from the southwest, concentrated mainly on the camp's front face, while the rear of the camp was a steep slope. The lookout had reported no ant-men sighted in that direction.

Barrit thought for a moment, then sighed. "It seems this is the only way. My lord, you go organize the retreat! Leave this place to me!"

"I'll leave last. Otherwise the soldiers will collapse, and without the soldiers to hold the line, no one can retreat safely." Victor shook his head.

Barrit nodded solemnly. He understood that this was indeed the key to organizing the retreat. Whether it was drawing the ant-men's attention or suppressing their rate of filling the trench, the palisade line absolutely could not crumble first.

"Very well! My lord, I will fight by your side to the very end!" Barrit nodded firmly.

When the soldiers heard that their lord would stay to the last to cover their retreat, they fired their arrows at the ant-men with even greater ferocity. For a time, the ant-men's pace of filling the trench slowed.

"Shake, go to the cave and bring that brick. Then notify Lilia to come see me." Victor quietly instructed the Alchemy Militiaman Shake.

Soon, Shake returned with Lilia and a tall, burly man with a dull, expressionless face.

"Victor, I won't leave! I want to stay with you."

The moment Lilia came up, she threw herself into Victor's arms, weeping piteously, her tears falling like rain on pear blossoms.

Victor let out a long sigh. Lilia's feelings for him were genuine—but she was only an ordinary person. If she stayed by his side, her chances of escaping alive were almost nonexistent.

"Lilia, listen to me!" Victor cupped her tear-stained face in his hands. "You're not abandoning me to flee alone. You have a far more important mission. You must find a way to survive and deliver this brick to Countess Sylvia. She will definitely come to rescue me."

Victor handed the brick to Lilia. This was a special brick. According to the Alchemy Crows' reconnaissance, over thirty thousand ant-men had already entered Victor's domain. Facing such a vast horde of fearless monsters, the York family would certainly not mobilize all their forces to rescue Victor—even if Sylvia wanted to, she could not convince the family. Unless there was enormous profit that would make the York family willing to endure severe losses to save Victor. The special brick possessed exactly that kind of value.

"Someone else can do it! I just want to stay with you!"

Lilia wept, clinging tightly to Victor's waist, refusing to let go no matter what. In her eyes, there was no way to survive the final retreat. If she was going to die, she would rather die together with her man.

Victor gently stroked her damp hair and said in a low voice, "Listen, Lilia. I'm not going to throw my life away! There's a hidden door in the restricted zone of the upper camp that leads straight down to the foot of the hill. I'll retreat from there. However, the slope is steep and there are no ropes. You're just an ordinary person—you can't possibly make it down. And I have Reynold and the others protecting me. These monsters won't kill me easily."

"Really?!" Lilia raised her head and asked.

Victor nodded heavily. Then he turned to the dull-faced burly man beside him and asked, "What's your name?"

The man bowed. "My lord, my name is Karn."

"Has he already held for twelve hours?" Victor murmured.

Karn was a recently created Taurus Militiaman, timed at exactly twelve hours. Victor had originally thought they could hold out for twenty days—he never imagined they would be retreating after just twelve hours.

"Karn, your mission is to protect Lady Lilia and obey her commands!"

"Yes, my lord."

Victor then whispered to Lilia, "Lilia, Karn will protect you. Go directly to Nelsen. I have two more men with Benson—they will follow your orders too. Remember, don't concern yourself with those fleeing for their lives on the road. In this situation, everyone is the same—everyone can only look out for themselves! The sooner you reach Blackfort Town, the greater our chances of turning this around!"

Victor stayed behind to cover the others' retreat, not out of pure nobility. Facing a boundless tide of ant-men, the camp was surely lost; fleeing was the only option. Letting the people scatter in all directions would actually help conceal Lilia. As for the common folk, Victor had done what he could—holding the line to the very end and giving them a chance to escape. As for Victor himself, with the Alchemy Militia protecting him, his odds of survival were actually the greatest.

In truth, Victor was also reluctant to abandon his domain easily. As long as he could wait for the York family to wipe out these monsters, he would still be the rightful lord here. Victor was unwilling to give up No. 7 Alchemy Tower. He planned to lure the monsters to the upper camp, then leave through the hidden door, regroup with Reynold and the others plus the five Alchemy War Mastiffs, and then continue to elude the monsters within his domain for some time.

Victor believed that although these monsters were numerous, his domain was also vast. With the coordination of the Alchemy Crows, he could completely avoid them. After all, the individual strength of these ant-men was nothing impressive. If things truly became hopeless, he could still flee then—though by that point, he would forfeit his legal claim to the domain by abandoning it.

Lilia stopped her tears and kissed Victor fiercely on the lips. After a long moment, she gave him one deep, lingering look, then turned and walked toward the camp. The Taurus Militiaman Karn followed silently behind Lilia, while three Alchemy Crows circled above her.

Watching Lilia disappear from sight, Victor sighed. In this domain, Lilia was the person he cared about most. But when the nest is overturned, not a single egg remains intact. Victor had already created the best possible conditions for Lilia's escape—sheltered by the common folk, attended by militia, and watched over by Alchemy Crows on alert. Now it could only depend on Lilia's own ability!

Victor composed himself and turned back to look below the palisade. The lamp oil still blazed fiercely; the endless tide of ant-men still cast dirt into the trench through the storm of arrows; and the soldiers behind the palisade still fired furiously at the monsters below. So far, no one in the camp had been killed—but very soon, many would lose their lives.

"What a cruel world!" Victor raised his bow and shot an arrow through an ant-man's head, his dark eyes cold as ice.