Book 10, Baruch – Chapter 43: The Ratmageddon Wave
Within the endless mist, an endless swarm of rats came. All of the warriors, including the Sacred Legion, the Shadow Legion, and the others felt terror in their hearts. But despite their terror, they still had to wield their weapons and attack those magical beasts.
If the magical beasts didn’t die, they would die!
“Kill!” Arrows rained down like the rain upon the wave of rats, but the defense of the Stoneater Rats was simply too tough, while the Shadowmice were too fast. Only a few Shadowmice were killed.
And then...
The wave of rats slammed into the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows’ forces.
“Crunch, crunch.” A terrifying series of crunching sounds.
A seemingly infinite number of rats charged forward, biting to death all of the human soldiers who sought to block them. Not only was their flesh stripped; even their bones were devoured. The Sacred Legion and Shadow Legion, all combined, had ten thousand warriors of the seventh rank.
But ten thousand warriors of the seventh rank, in the face of that rat wave, was absolutely nothing.
This was because the rat wave had a terrifying number of rats of the seventh rank, while ordinary Stoneater Rats and Shadowmice of the fifth rank, when charging in mass, could still bite a warrior of the seventh rank to death. Ten thousand warriors of the seventh rank...in front of a tidal wave of hundreds of millions of rats, utterly disappeared.
“Flee!” Some soldiers cried out in terror as they began to run.
Once the first began to flee, many of the other terrified soldiers began to flee as well. They couldn’t resist the rat wave at all.
However...
They couldn’t flee!
The Shadowmice and Stoneater Rats were extremely fast, far faster than humans. The fleeing warriors were quickly surrounded, then devoured. Even Guillermo and Weiss Porter were so terrified that their faces turned white, and they quickly began to flee.
“Quick, quick.” Weiss Porter and Guillermo didn’t try to resist at all.
The attack of the rat wave caused nearly half of the enemy force of a million soldiers to disappear, with not even the bones remaining.
“Linley, it’s enough to make them surrender. Don’t let this slaughter continue.” Delia couldn’t bear to watch any more.
Linley glanced at the three Violet-Gold Rat Kings, and one of them grinned towards Delia. “Sure. Hey, Linley, just make the announcement. As long as the humans kneel down and raised their hands up in a token of submission, the rats won’t attack them.”
Linley nodded slightly.
“Everyone, listen up. Kneel down and raise your hands in surrender. The magical beasts won’t attack you if you do so!” Linley’s voice rang out like thunder from the skies.
Hearing this sound, the hopeless soldiers immediately began to kneel down and raise their hands up.
At the same time, the Violet-Gold Rat King opened its mouth. “Shkreeeee!”
The high pitched screech rang out in the mist, and all the rats, as though having heard an order, bizarrely moved passed all of the kneeling soldiers, attacking the other soldiers.
“What to do?” Guillermo was in a state of total panic. Both Weiss Porter and Guillermo were using protective spells to defend themselves.
“How should I know?” Weiss Porter was terrified as well.
Right now, there were over ten rats nearly a meter long staring at them. The ten rats were either violet colored or gold colored, and the violet-furred rats had hints of gold in their fur, while the gold-furred rats had tints of violet in their fur.
Under a normal situation...
High level Shadowmice were violet at the seventh rank, and were known as Violet Shadowmice.
High level Stoneater Rats were gold at the seventh rank, and were known as Gold Stoneater Rats.
But from the seventh rank to the Saint-level, the fur of Violet Shadowmice would slowly turn a violet-gold color, while the Gold Stoneater Rats would see their fur also turn to a gold-violet color.
These ten rats were clearly of the eighth or ninth ranks.
“Squeak squeak.” One of the Stoneater Rats of the ninth rank suddenly pounced at them, biting through Guillermo’s Lightguard spell at one chomp. At the same time, Weiss Porter’s magical defense also came under assault and was broken through, but the ten rats didn’t immediately continue their assaults.
They were very intelligent, not one bit lower than humans in intelligence.
Guillermo and Weiss Porter exchanged glances. Their foreheads were covered with sweat, and their backs were also slick with sweat. They understood...if these ten rats charged toward them, they would instantly be bitten to death. Not even their bones would be left.
But just at this time, Linley’s voice rang out.
After exchanging glances, the two didn’t hesitate at all.
“Thud!” Their knees hit the ground, and their hands raised up.
Instantly, eight of the ten rats left, while the other two stayed there, staring at them. The rats were very smart; the ten rats had instantly discovered that these two experts of the ninth rank, Guillermo and Weiss Porter, were the enemy leaders.
Enemy leaders had to be taken alive, of course.
After the morning fog slowly dissipated, Linley’s side could clearly see that large number of kneeling enemy soldiers, all of whom were surrounded by ten, no, a hundred times their number of rats and mice. The visual effect of these massive numbers alone were awesome and terrifying to behold.
“Swish!” A sudden flash of light, as a gold-colored rat with a tint of purple in its fur scurried over, letting out two squeaks.
“What? Only three hundred thousand enemy soldiers are still alive.” Bebe said in surprise. Bebe naturally could understand the language of rat-type magical beasts.
The three Violet-Gold Rat Kings narrowed their eyes in delight. One of them looked at Bebe. “Bebe, what do you think?” Bebe looked at the endless sea of rats and sighed, “They really are powerful. It’d be so awesome if these rats obeyed my command.”
Who could possibly resist an army of hundreds of millions of rat-type magical beasts?
“Oh, that’s easy.” The leader of the violet-gold rats let out a few high pitched screeches, and Bebe instantly grew excited.
Linley looked at Bebe in confusion.
“Boss, from today onwards, these hundreds of millions of rats will obey my command. Haha!” Bebe was extremely excited. At the same time, he also let out a few high pitched squeaks which also encompassed the entire battlefield. The countless rat-type magical beasts all lowered their heads and bowed towards Bebe.
Linley was secretly shocked.
Stoneater Rat swarms and Shadowmice swarms were frighteningly strong. Linley had known of this since he was young. But Linley had felt that a rat wave of several million rat-type monsters was already very frightening. But several hundred million...this was simply terrifying.
“Which army can possibly resist these hundreds of millions of rats?” Linley secretly shook his head.
This was like when the magical beasts of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts came charging out. Even Fenlai City itself was broken through in moments, and both the Holy Union as well as the Dark Alliance lost a third of their territory. One could imagine how terrifying magical beast swarms were. And the Forest of Darkness...was the home of rat-type magical beasts.
This small portion of the rat-type beasts within it was enough to lay waste to an Empire.
But of course, that was assuming Saints did not get involved!
The leading Violet-Gold Rat King laughed towards Linley. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Harry [Ha’li]!”
“My name’s Hart [Ha’te]. I’m number two.” A second Violet-Gold Rat King said immediately.
The final Violet-Gold Rat King nodded and was about to speak, but Linley interjected, “You must be Harvey [Ha’wei], right? Bebe often speaks to me of you.” The only Violet-Gold Rat King which Bebe had made friends with in the Forest of Darkness was Harvey. The others, he didn’t have much of a relationship with.
“Are the three of you truly giving control of this rat swarm to Bebe?” Linley asked.
This rat swarm was simply too enormous. How could these Rat Kings give them to Bebe to control?
The Violet-Gold Rat King, Harry, said disdainfully, “You don’t understand. In the Forest of Darkness, every so often, there will be a massive internal slaughter amongst the rat swarms. More than half will die, and the weak will be destroyed.”
“More than half?” Linley felt shocked.
The third-ranked Rat King, Harvey, explained: “It’s simple. The lower-ranked the rat, the faster they breed. A single litter can contain a dozen or several dozen. How can that be allowed to continue? If that continues, the Forest of Darkness wouldn’t be large enough for them to survive in. That’s why they engage in internal warfare, weeding out the weak and lowering the numbers.”
Linley understood now.
If the rat-type magical beasts were allowed to develop as they pleased, most likely the entire Forest of Darkness would be devoured by them. Their numbers had to be controlled.
“Thus, Bebe.” The Rat King named Harvey patted Bebe’s shoulder with his little paw and said in a friendly manner, “This rat swarm is yours to control. It doesn’t matter how many you get killed. The Forest of Darkness needs to keep the number of rats under control anyhow. Sooner or later, the weaker ones will die.”
Linley couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
No wonder there were so many rats of the fifth through seventh ranks, and even several that were higher. So the weak ones had been weeded out long ago. Those grey Stoneater Rats and black Shadowmice were probably still in the growing phase.
“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely complete your mission and let more than half of them die.” Bebe chortled, then looked at Linley. “Boss, how about...let’s use these rats to take over the entire Anarchic Lands?”
“Unify the Anarchic Lands?”
Linley’s body shook slightly, but then he laughed.
“Boss, the two enemy leaders are being escorted over.” Weiss Porter and Guillermo were being brought over.
“Guillermo?” Linley looked at Guillermo. This was a familiar face.
Seeing Linley, Guillermo forced out a smile. Linley laughed calmly. “This time, the Radiant Church and Cult of Shadows have really tested my limits. Because of our agreement, I had to just watch the battle happen and not interfere.”
Guillermo and Weiss Porter’s hearts were trembling.
“It’s fine. I’ll let your Radiant Church and Cult of Shadows also learn what that feels like.”
Linley looked at Bebe and laughed. “Bebe, from today onwards, join forces with Barker. Let the rat swarm and the human army attack together. Divide into ten units and begin to attack the territory of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows in the Anarchic Lands.”
“Yes! I, Bebe, will definitely succeed.” Bebe intentionally puffed out his chest, then issued a very proper military salute.
Barker’s eyes were shining as well. “Lord Linley, don’t worry. With these hundreds of millions of rats, uniting the Anarchic Lands will be simplicity itself.” By now, even the elite legions of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows had been destroyed. Who could possibly block these rats?
Guillermo and Weiss Porter’s faces instantly turned even paler.
They exchanged glances, terror in their eyes. They could imagine what was going to happen.
Yulan calendar, year 10022. September.
What would later be described as the war of the ‘Ratmageddon Wave’ began. Hundreds of millions of rats, divided into ten units, each containing the terrifying number of tens of millions of rats, began to move in unison with Baruch Kingdom legions of twenty thousand human warriors.
The hundreds of millions of rats and the two hundred thousand human warriors had been divided into ten groups.
These ten groups began to attack the Cult of Shadows and the Radiant Church in the Anarchic Lands.
Rat-type magical beasts of the eighth and ninth ranks could understand human speech, and in addition, some of the eighth and ninth ranked experts of the Baruch Kingdom set up soulbinding contracts with some of the powerful rat-type magical beasts. This made it even easier to control the rat swarm.
The rat wave was unstoppable!
The attacking rat waves, even when faced with giant falling boulders by city guards, were able to chew holes straight through the walls. After all, the Shadowmice and Stoneater Rats often ate rocks for food. They bore straight through the walls, then swept through like a flood into the cities. The city guards simply weren’t able to stop them at all.
Wherever the rat wave passed, cities crumbled and surrendered.
Even the Sacred Legion and the Shadow Legion had been annihilated. Who could resist such a terrifying rat swarm?
The ‘Ratmageddon Wave’ was only comparable to the ‘Apocalypse Day’ on year 10000 of the Yulan calendar. In addition, the difference between this and the ‘Apocalypse Day’ was that this time...the boundless rat wave totally listened to the commands of Linley’s side.
This news quickly spread to the O’Brien Empire, the Yulan Empire, and the various other major forces.
At the same time, this information quickly spread towards the headquarters of the Cult of Shadows and the Radiant Church. But what could they do? After all...Linley hadn’t deployed any of his Saints to join the battle. He only deployed an army of magical beasts.
However, the number of magical beasts in his army was simply too astonishing.