Chapter 154

○ Corps Commander Dyle

Out of all of Demon King Tralzard’s Generals, Miralda was the most good-tempered, and would listen to the opinions of her subordinates.

She never made demands that exceeded their ability, and she treated them with fairness. A rare General indeed.
That was what Corps Commander Dyle believed.

He had sworn allegiance to her, and often spoke of how she was an ideal leader.

And so Dyle had always taken his duty seriously, and obeyed her orders as best as he could in order to gain her trust.

His current position was proof that he was loyal.
Of course, Dyle had also been able to rise to Corps Commander because he was not only able to follow orders, but because he had power that allowed him to survive countless battles.

And yet now, he was faced with a great problem.
Had Golan seen him now, he would have seen someone who had fallen to the ground in defeat.

That was how far he had gone.

After all, they were the Demon King’s secret weapon.
Because they were kept secret, they were not well known. However, those who did know them knew that they were some of the best when it came to group battles.

It was said that they would change the tide of war.
Miralda had been raising them carefully for such a purpose…

“…Annihilated.”

The twenty Makaras that Dyle had borrowed.
The first strike from the giant tree. That alone had killed six of them. They had died immediately.

This was in spite of their special ability, ‘Synergy,’ raising their defensive ability to a frightening degree.

And what was most unfortunate about this, was that the group leader was one of them.
As he had been in the center, there was nowhere to run.

While Ogres were considered to be one of the lower ranking races, they were closer to the middle when it came to physical strength.

And they had used ‘Muscle Strengthen.’
Six of them had dragged the tree, and then twelve of them picked it up.

Once the training was finished, even Halm the Crystal Dragon agreed that that attack had been ‘unthinkable.’

When it had happened, Halm and Dyle debated the appropriateness of using a giant tree. And their conclusion was that it would not be fair to allow the Makaras to use shields and spears while saying the Ogres could not use logs.

After all, one side was using weapons made by professional craftsmen, while the other side was using logs they had gone out and cut down themselves. People would likely complain if they ruled against it.

But even then, Dyle found it difficult to accept.

The giant tree had crushed the center and split the group into two sides.
That was the problem.

While they had already lost their leader, they would have had several plans in order to deal with this sort of misfortune.
However, it was all pointless once they were split up and could not contact each other.

At that point, the side on the right focused on defense, while the side on the left wielded their spears.
Some were too wounded to stand. And so ‘Synergy’ wasn’t so much as halved, but quartered.

Out of the fourteen that had survived, four could not move.
That left five on each side, and they chose attacking and defending respectively.

That meant the effects of Synergy dropped even lower.
Dyle wanted to scream from his seat.

Ultimately, they were smashed with the logs.
This battle was not supposed to end until the enemy was destroyed, or the leader declared their defeat. But because the scene was so comical, the referee’s decision had been delayed.

The referee must have assumed that a mere log would not be effective against the Makaras.

Information control had been their downfall in a way.
You could not expect much from the power of Synergy when there were only four or five of them.

And once the Ogres used ‘Muscle Strengthen’ while wielding the logs, well, the results were quite clear.

The Makaras that managed to survive still had wounds that would be impossible to heal completely.
They wouldn’t fight on the battlefield ever again.

The referee did start shouting at one point, but his voice was erased by the sounds of the logs. Even Dyle hadn’t heard it.

The fear of losing such valuable weapons was what made Dyle leap out and clutch onto Golan. And then the training finally ended.
All that was left were the Makaras, who had been beaten so badly with the logs.

And there was one other thing that troubled Dyle.

“…How am I supposed to tell the General?”

Only he could do it. But he didn’t know how he should do it.

The Makaras were the Demon King’s secret weapon.
The Ogres had exceeded his expectations. So much so that he was anxious about the next step in their training. That’s why he had gone out of his way to borrow the Makaras.

Both Dyle and Miralda thought that if there were only twenty of them, the secret of ‘Synergy’ would not get out.

That’s why she had allowed him to take this valuable fighting force.
Dyle had promised to send them back as soon as the training was finished.

“I can’t send a single one back, because they were annihilated.”

That’s what he would have to say.
No. Could he even say that? Would it not mean the end of all the trust he had built up until now?

What if he were to tell her that in a battle with wooden weapons, all of them had come out being completely useless.
How would everyone react?

They would think he had gone mad.
It would be seen as a joke. Or they might get angry.

“However, I still have to go.”
Rumors of their defeat had already spread. Everyone here already knew.

It was no surprise, given how many spectators there were.
It would not be good for these rumors to reach the General before he could make his report.

And so Dyle bit his lip as he got to his feet.
He hadn’t even realized that he was on the ground.

He was aghast at the idea that he could be so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice.

Dyle walked out of his tent and told his subordinates that there would be no training for the Ogres for a while.
He instructed that they should rest quietly. And then he left the camp.

He was headed to the General’s main camp. It was half a day away on foot.

However, his feet felt incredibly heavy as he moved.

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Makai Hongi