Tales of the Wickedly Vicious Underground Empire Chapter 17

An explosion echoed in the dark of the night.

The members of the bandit group [Rotten Wolf], who made Mt Dahl their base, were startled because of the surprise attack.

“Boss! It’s enemy attack!”

“I know! Who is it that dares attack us?!”

“I don’t know. I think it’s the people from the Underground Labyrinth….”

The people that were sent to the Underground Labyrinth have not come back even after a week.

Because they saw the goblins entering Underground Labyrinth, they expected that there was something inside the Underground Labyrinth. They didn’t have the slightest intention to help them since it decreased the number of mouths that needed to be fed, so they didn’t worry about it at all. If he had been a smart leader, he would have raised his guard and abandoned this base to hide in another location. However, the only thing Zarudo could be proud of was his strength.

When he heard the cries of his followers, he went out to observe the situation.

It was a poor fort made from soil and trees, so the defence was only average. Behind them was a steep mountain which can’t be climbed, while the front was surrounded by walls with traps planted around it. Unless they knew where the traps were, there was no way for them to avoid it.

But…

“s.h.i.t!” Zarudo cursed.

Somehow, the enemy was able to avoid all the traps. At this time, the sound of an explosion echoed once more.

“Wh-What is this!?”

He looked at the direction in which the sound of the explosion came from.

At first, he thought it was a mangonel. But somehow, it was different.

[ED: a mangonel is a type of catapult used in the medieval times.]

At that moment, Zarudo regretted turning towards the sound.

He regretted it from the bottom of his heart, cursing himself as to why he looked. Then, the figure of the nightmarish monster reflected in his eyes.

“Arghhh! Help me!” “Nooooo..!” “It hurts! It hurts!” “I’m sorry, please… Don’t kill me!” “AHAHAHA! Kill me! Please! AHAHAHA”!

The monster was about five meters tall.

It was a monster with a humanoid figure that was constructed by a material called ‘humans’. This monster had innumerable faces that spat out curses while its countless hands and legs struck the building.

[TL: I think this monster will looks like this… monster with more hand and leg.]

If there was someone who knew about this monster, they would have said that it was a [Necro Golem].

[TL: It was shortened version of Necropolis according to other TLer, the author shorten it so i just follow swift]

It is a monster that keeps moving because of the grudges of dead people.

It is a strong weapon, because it can receive a lot of pain before it dies.

Zarudo regretted looking at this nightmarish monster, because the materials used to make this monster were his subordinates. He thought that the people sent to the Underground Labyrinth had been killed, but he never imagined what happened after that.

Could it be that… They were turned into this horrifying existence?

“Fight back! We need to fight them!” To dispel their fear, he used the skill [Encouragement] on his subordinates.

Upon hearing their leader shout, the subordinates who were panicking from fear started to fight back.

The golem, which was made up from corpses, destroyed the walls and advanced slowly. If you look at it carefully, its legs were actually lumps of meat mixed together that wriggled like snakes. On the contrary, the innumerable hands were tied with the other hands near it like vices.

Even though the fort was made of trees and stone, if even one part of it was destroyed, it would be easy to kill the humans inside it.

Countless arrows were fired at the Necro Golem.

“Use oil and fire arrows!”

Even though he wasn’t smart, when it comes to fighting, it’s a different story.

Zarudo remembered that the weakness of undead monsters was fire, so he immediately ordered his subordinates to attack it with fire.

The subordinates changed their arrows to fire arrows with amazing speed, and fired them towards the monster.

“Ahaha ahahaha hahaha!” “Ahahaha!” “Hehe!“ ”KYAHAHA!” “HYAHAHAHA!” “GYAHAHAHA!”

[TL: I swear it is really just a laughter and every kind of laughter.]

[ED: At least they didn’t add OP style laughter. It’d be never ending.]

Even though it was aflame, it only staggered for a short moment.

The bandits were shouting in joy, but in the next moment, they quietened down.

This is because the Necro Golem started to move like nothing happened. Just like what its name suggests, it’s a golem. It is not an undead monster. Thus, it didn’t receive much damage from fire, which was the weakness of the undead. Of course, the arrows were effective; but the fire that was the weakness of undead monsters wasn’t effective at all.

“HIII!”

“Hel, HELP ME!”

“NOOoooo!!!!”

Three people were caught by the golem and had their bodies smashed by it, ending their lives quickly.

“Woah, did it absorb them?”

“Am I dreaming?”

After the Necro Golem killed the bandits, it absorbed their bodies into the areas that were burned by the flame arrows.

“Escape to the secret path!”

“It’s useless! The monster just broke inside the path a little while ago.”

“Then, we have no choice but to jump from the wall!”

When they realized that they couldn’t win, they tried to escape by jumping over the wall.

However, they weren’t permitted to escape.

Dozens of arrows made beehives of the bandits who tried to escape.

The thieves that died didn’t understand why the goblins could use bows.

The goblins numbered more than eighty.

Most of the goblins from underground labyrinth that could fight were here. Even if they were unskilful, the arrows would still hit their targets with this number. They fired the arrows under the direction of Purukku. Actually, most of the arrows missed, but still, the quant.i.ty made up for it.

Because of that, the bandits were having a hard time jumping off the walls. Luckily for the bandits, the range was not that long. So, if they stay inside the fort, they wouldn’t need to worry about getting hit.

However, inside the fort, they would become the Necro Golem’s prey.

“Arrows incoming!”

“There’s a lot of them!”

“d.a.m.n, it became dark here!”

“It’s magic!”

One of the bandit members who could use magic cast a spell to break through this situation.

“_____ Bestow, Darkness….”

The magician, who had gone forward to support his friends, was. .h.i.t by arrows in the throat and died.

With the magician’s friends astonished by how he easily died, the Necro Golem easily killed the bandits who had stopped moving.

It was the thief, Lorna, who killed the magician.

Lorna doesn’t have the skill to aim for the magician in a night battle.

However, the problem was solved with the artifact that Alrac granted her. It was a charm called [Streetwalker’s Amulet] that enabled her to have a wide view in the dark of the night. Combined together with the power of a map that could search for enemies, she was able to easily distinguish between allies and foes. Thus, Lorna could read the movements on the battlefield.

Furthermore, because of the big figure that invaded the fort, a large portion of the walls had already been breached.

A terrible sound echoed and clouds of dust were whirled up. When Zarudo’s visibility was blocked, he started to escape.

If he wasn’t wrong, those clouds of dust were arrows. Even though Lorna also shot an arrow at him, it didn’t injure him fatally.

And then, Zarudo ran for his life.

Luckily, the Necro Golem was busy killing the bandits in the fort, so he was ignored.

“HEHE, serves you right!”

[TL: Not 100% sure]

[ED: I think it’s right.]

He didn’t care about the lives of his subordinates.

They only got together because they shared the same goal. There was no friendship, trust, or loyalty there.

But, the path he was escaping by was blocked by goblins, together with a muscular female warrior who only wore clothes that resembled underwear.

[TL: probably loin cloth and a cloth that wrapped her breast.]

“I have been waiting for you.” Jen announced.

“Whe-Where did you come from!?” Zarudo exclaimed in shock.

Zarudo didn’t understand how they could have set an ambush here, but he didn’t have any choice but to break through. Fortunately, the opponents were only a small number of goblins and a woman. He drew out his magic scimitar, which glowed red, and struck at her.

The moment their swords clashed, he would invoke the power that was able to instantly burn his opponent to ashes. Even if she didn’t die, the moment when she flinched in pain from the burns, he would kill her.

“HAAAAAA!!!!” Zarudo shouted with all his soul.

“OOOOO!!!” The female warrior also shouted with all her might.

The blades made an intense sound when they clashed. Then, the magic scimitar showed its power, and flames roared. Jen’s body was getting burned by the flames! …Rather, it was supposed to.

The flames that were supposed to burn her alive avoided her as if they didn’t want to touch her body.

Zarudo’s eyes widened from surprise.

Jen wasn’t stupid enough to overlook this opportunity. She repelled the scimitar and cut off his arm before he could defend himself.

Looking at Zarudo who had lost his arm, and had already suffered a fatal injury, the goblins quickly surrounded him and thrust their swords and spears into him. Just like this, the leader of the [Rotten Wolf] bandit group met his end.

Their skills were equal. However, he was terrified, had been injured by an arrow, and also looked down on his opponent. These factors were what made the difference during the battle. Another factor that also played a part in her victory was that Jen had equipped earrings that were able to resist and negate the flames from Zarudo’s scimitar.

After all the bandits in the fort were exterminated, the Necro Golem that had finished its duty disappeared.

The golem is a powerful weapon. However, it will disappear the moment it completes its mission.

While looking at the silent fort, Lorna felt a sense of accomplishment.

“WE WON! IT IS OUR VICTORY!” One of the goblins yelled.

“Yes, that is right.” Purukku, who was beside the goblin that shouted, confirmed it while gulping audibly.

He savoured the taste of victory calmly.

In a few minutes, Jen, who killed the bandits’ leader, returned.

“It seems to be over.” Jen commented.

“Ah, yes.” Lorna replied simply.

The female warrior had a fierce smile on her face as she showed off the leather bag that contained the head of Zarudo.

Originally, she was already an aggressive woman. However, it increased even more when she started living in the Underground Labyrinth, where her soul started to become corrupted. However, Lorna didn’t mind it because she remembered that the joy she felt when killing the bandits was the same as Jen’s.

“Now then, Halva-sama said that we are to help the humans.” Lorna stated.

“Still, it’s such a mystery. She doesn’t look like someone who would help other people….” Jen mused.

“Well, it was a request from Derito.” Purukku cut into their conversation.

He was being guarded by several bodyguards, while the rest were ordered to take control of the fort.

“Derito’s?” Lorna questioned.

“After he was healed by Alrac-sama, he seemed to have requested to attack the bandits in order to rescue the girls that were being held by the bandits.” Purukku explained.

Lorna and Jen looked at each other with a wry smile.

It definitely seemed like something the priest would say.

“After she heard about it, Halva-sama gave the command to attack. Since Alrac-sama also wanted to perform a surprise attack, he also gave his permission.” Purukku said faintly.

“Is it possible that she was worried about how she attacked him before?” Lorna asked bitterly.

[TL: not 100% sure]

[ED: it seems to be something like that, yes]

If that was so, Lorna wouldn’t permit it.

Even if her opponent was an existence like a storm, someone who made you feel like you would rather give up, she couldn’t do that. Even if she would die in the process, she would definitely not allow it.

“…. I don’t know.” Purukku said after he thought about it. “For Halva-sama who moves only by her emotions, and Alrac-sama who moves logically… From time to time, they may move totally opposite to their policy. It can be seen from the command that Halva-sama gave this time, because she was listening to Derito’s suggestion. This can be said be said to be an improvement.”

“…You, unexpectedly… You do think about things like this.” Jen was surprised by Purukku’s answer.

“Even though I am not smart, I still think many things. Otherwise, I would not be able to survive as the head of the goblins. I am good at studying the mood of people in particular.” Purukku grinned.

As they were speaking, one of the goblins approached them.

“I found it! I found the place where they keep the human girls!” The goblin announced.

“Alright. Guide us there.” Purukku ordered.

The story was supposed to end happily when Purukku arrived at the jail cells where the bandits kept the women as their playthings by sending Lorna and Jen away, but the both of them followed him anyway.

When they arrived at the dark dungeon, Lorna and Jen shrunk back from the terrible smell. On the other hand, Purukku and the goblins didn’t mind it and kept walking.

When the two women looked inside the dungeon, they frowned.

The girls inside the dungeon were half alive. No, it was more accurate to say that they’re dying. Amongst them was also a child. The evil deeds they committed by killing the bandits a short while ago could not be compared with what they did to these women, or so Lorna and Jen thought.

“Carry them out.” Purukku ordered his subordinates.

They were placed onto a simple stretcher, and the goblins proceeded to carry the women out from the dungeon.

After they repeated this action several times, only Lorna and Jen were left inside the dungeon.

But…

“That child…” Lorna murmured unconsciously.

Would she live?

Her condition was so severe that she couldn’t speak because of the pain.

(Did she get beaten?)

Her face was swollen and ugly. After all, her eyes were gouged out, and she also lost most of her teeth. However, the other girl who was carried out was also in the same condition.

Some of her limbs were severed from her body.

Both her hands and feet were cut from the root. If they didn’t stop her bleeding properly, it would be a miracle if she survived.

“We have carried out Halva-sama’s orders.” The goblins reported.

“……” The three commanding officers remained silent.

They would probably die in the middle of being transported back. Lorna and Jen thought so. Of course, they would also die if they were left like this.

If they die in the middle of transportation, they would become material for the golem, or become food for the goblins that attacked the fort. On the other hand, they would also become food for beasts if they were left here. Either way, they would not have a good end.

“…..Ah.” One of the girls moaned.

“Good luck. If you can survive till we reach the Underground Labyrinth, you will be saved.” The female thief tried to soothe the girl who was trying to say something.

As Lorna wondered if the girl could hear her, the girl gave a small nod.