TtOW! - Chapter 24: Terminate the Incursion! (Patreon)

Honestly, the reports coming from this province are utterly disgraceful.  They say these ‘wulver’ are a people who care about nothing but battle.  Who understand no language but violence.  Who see the whole world as either predator or prey and only trade words with the former. I knew the state of education in the provinces was atrocious but this level of ignorance is simply unacceptable.  Pathetic even!  Savages like what the cowardly locals describe do not truly exist, in my experience.  I have negotiated with countless other races, even the arrogant Sun Elves several times my age, and let me tell you the truth.  There is no one, and I mean no one, who will not accept the Empire with open arms once they understand the bounty our advanced civilization will bring them.  No one would choose to scrounge for scraps in a primitive tribe when faced with our abundance and culture.  And these wulver will be no different.  It shall hardly take me a day to bring these primitives into the fold!

-A report to Elteno by Consul Proclus Caecilius Tutor, shortly before his death at the hands of a wulver warpack

***

Taog trembled, his eyes going wide.

“How…how is this possible?  The Exploratores wouldn’t have missed a pack this size, the Empire should have caught them days ago!  They should have been stopped at the border; at the very least the Empire should have put out an alert!”

Ateia had already pulled out her bow.

“Taog!  Think later!  We need to move!”

“Observation: From friendly Ateia and Taog’s reactions, this unit speculates the group below is not the aforementioned Legion?”

Ateia shook her head.

“No!  It’s a wulver warpack, Seero!  Let’s go before they spot us!”

But it was too late.  The trio heard a howl, which was quickly joined by others into a mighty chorus.  A small scouting band had just crested the hill, and now rushed towards them at full speed.

“Attempting diplomacy with third party faction.  Greeting: Hello, this unit is designated NSLICE-00P…”

Taog called out to her as he hoisted his shield and stepped in front of Ateia.

“Seero!  Wulver attack first and talk after!  You can’t talk to them until you prove you’re not prey!”

NSLICE-00P created a mana barrier as the first wulver reached her, leaping towards her with claws extended on his hands.

“Observation: Friendly Taog’s assessment appears to be correct.  Hostile intent detected, engaging termination protocols.”

NSLICE-00P engaged her helmet and assault rifle arms and immediately opened fire.

[You have slain Wulver (Level 8)!]

[Gained 5 Personal XP and 3 Dungeon XP!]

She quickly turned her arms, taking down the wulver’s two companions.

[You have…]

NSLICE-00P adjusted the notifications, turning it into a kill counter at the top of her screen.

[Wulvers slain: 3]

To the cyborg’s side, Taog grunted and fell back as a wulver crashed against his shield, only for a power shot from Ateia to catch the assailant right on the forehead.  His HP barrier manage to catch the blow and deflect the arrow, but shattered in the attempt.  As such, nothing was protecting the wulver when Taog thrust his sword up from below and into the wolf man’s torso.

NSLICE-00P formed a group of magic circles to her side, magic missiles bombarding two more wulvers rushing for Taog before he could stand back up.

[Wulvers slain: 7]

She noted the effectiveness of the magic missiles against the wulver and continued her assault.  It was not long before the scouting party was annihilated.

[Wulvers slain: 10]

However, the scouting party was not alone.  More howls rang out all around the group, with two more scout parties rushing up the hill.  The trio turned to run but a returning party appeared behind them.

“Seero, let’s get out of here!  Can you carry us again?!”

“Negative Response: Hostiles are to be terminated and friendlies are not predicted to be at risk. Engaging hostiles.”

NSLICE-00P had been an enforcer for a ruling party for much of her life.  While she did have evacuation protocols, retreat was always considered the last option in her calculations.  After all, her creators would not want their enforcers to show weakness, or to leave hostiles at large in their home territory.  As a result, NSLICE-00P generally would not retreat unless she calculated an imminent risk of termination or mission failure.

And in this case?

Panels opened on NSLICE-00P’s shoulder, two anti-personnel missiles launching at the scout party behind them and nearly wiping out the group.  NSLICE-00P quickly turned her machine gun arms to sweep over the few survivors.

[Wulvers slain: 22]

Magic circles continued to form above her, bombarding the other two parties with magic missiles and light beams.  Not a single wulver made it even halfway up the hill.

[Wulvers slain: 48]

In this case, the wulvers had proven terribly vulnerable to NSLICE-00P’s arsenal, and seemed to lack any sort of ranged attacks to retaliate.  NSLICE-00P already held the high ground, with clear lines of sight on her opponents.  And thanks to her dungeon mechanics, she wasn’t about to run out of ammunition anytime soon.

In other words, she calculated that the risk of termination for herself and her allies was acceptably low at the moment.  And as the wulvers had already demonstrated unprovoked hostility, she had designated this group for termination.  So she would not stop until the situation changed or the threat was neutralized.

Inside the monster hanger, both Lilussees and Rattingtale’s eyes widened.

“Wow, that’s, like, a lot of wolfmen, or something.  Boss are you, like, sure about this?”

“Boss-queen, run-flee now!  The vicious wolf-man-things will tear-rip us to shreds, yes yes!”

Back outside Ateia and Taog gulped.

“W-Well…Seero is really strong…”

“Yeah, but strong enough to take on an entire warpack?!  Alone?!”

“I mean…she sort of is doing it already?”

“And what happens to us while she does?”

“Answer: Friendlies Ateia and Taog are currently designated as priority assets.  This unit will evacuate friendlies if the risk of termination reaches unacceptable levels.”

“I’d rather us not risk ‘termination’ at all!”

Ateia rubbed her chin.

“Well…if Seero can stop them…then shouldn’t she?”

“Ateia?”

“...they’ve made it this far.  Somehow, the Legion hasn’t detected them yet.  There are a lot of farms and towns between here and the next Legion outpost.  So a lot of people are going to die before the Legion stops them.  If…by some chance, Seero can turn them back…”

Taog went silent.  He instead turned to watch as NSLICE-00P wiped out yet another scout party.  At this point, the main warpack had noticed the commotion, and were starting to move towards the hill.

He heaved a sigh.

At the end of the day, what choice did he have?  If NSLICE-00P didn’t want to leave, he couldn’t particularly make her.  And if he and Ateia tried to flee on foot, the wulver would run them down in minutes.  Like it or not, he was stuck here until NSLICE-00P decided otherwise.

So he gulped and gripped his weapons.  Ateia nocked another arrow.

And the wulver stormed up the hill.  They were met by a hail of lead, missiles, mana beams, light beams, fireballs, poison bolts, magic missiles, light beams, and the occasional arrow.  They split up, surrounding the hill and attack from the flanks, but NSLICE-00P’s sensors could not be deceived.  She appeared to them to have eyes on the back of her head as magic circles faced anywhere her weapons did not.  They sent their toughest warriors, hoping to endure the barrage, but mana-infused bullets cut them down as easily as any other.  The fastest among them hid behind their stalwart comrades and leapt forward as they fell, but NSLICE-00P had already accounted for them and they made it little further.  Some of the wulver attempted to respond with claw strikes, spells, or even whatever sticks and rocks they could find but few of them could match NSLICE-00P’s range.  Even those that did found their meager attacks blocked by mana barriers.

So eventually, the wulver abandoned all tactics and simply rushed the hill enmasse.  NSLICE-00P had slain more than a hundred at this point but the wulver measured in the thousands.  Surely she could not cut them all down before they made it up the hill, and even if she could, she surely must run out of projectiles and spells before the wulver ran out of bodies, right?

But the wulver were unaware they were fighting a dungeon.

Never fight a dungeon in a war of attrition.

As the wulver forced their way up the hill, inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, NSLICE-00P put

some of her new spells to use.

[The spell Pitfall has increased by 3 levels and is now level 4!]

[The spell Earth Wall has increased by 3 levels and is now level 4!]

[The spell Vine Grasp has increased by 3 levels and is now level 4!]

[The spell Fire Blast is now level 7!]

[The skill Earth Magic has increased by 2 levels and is now level 7!]

[The skill Nature Magic has increased by 2 levels and is now level 3!  Spell choice available!]

[The skill Fire Magic is now level 6!]

[The skill Multicasting is now level 6!]

[The skill Farcasting has increased by 2 levels and is now level 3!]

[You have achieved the feat: Strategic Mage!]

NSLICE-00P used multiple Pitfall spells to dig a large trench all around the hill, using Earth Wall to form a small rampart on the far side with the displaced dirt.  She then used the Vine Grasp spell to fill the trench with plant matter.

And then set the whole thing on fire.

The wulver found themselves faced with a roaring inferno and ground to a halt, leaving them as sitting ducks for NSLICE-00P’s continuous barrage.  Oh, and the occasional arrow and damaging potion from Ateia.

Taog just stared at the events occurring before him, blinking repeatedly.

She was doing it.

She was actually holding back an entire warpack by herself.  Well, Ateia would argue vehemently that she was contributing but that was besides the point.

An incursion that would take an entire comitatenses legion to push back and they couldn’t take a single hill from one girl.

Taog started to tremble.

It had been one thing to see NSLICE-00P blast her way through the confined halls of a dungeon, or take down a young demon lord in minutes.  It was another thing entirely to see her slaughter hundreds of wulver in the open field.  He couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine as he watched the scene of absolute hell in front of him, full of fire and blood and death by invisible projectiles, with sounds like thunder assaulting his ears.

Who exactly was this girl?!

Meanwhile, in the Monster Hangar, Rattingtale was also trembling, having much the same thoughts as Taog.  He and Lilussees had been waiting by the entrance in case they needed to beat a hasty retreat, but now they were frozen at the scene they saw from the live feed.

“Oh, wow, she’s, like, totally doing it.  I guess we were, like, worried for nothing.  Well, I’m going to, like, go lie down then, or something.“

Rattingtale just continued to tremble as Lilussees returned to her room.

Maybe he should gain a few more levels before he got started on any of his plans…

Author’s Note:

Just FYI I am moving at the end of the month, and at the stage where I really got to get some stuff done for that.  I should be able to maintain one a day, but eh underpromise overdeliver as everyone who’s ever worked customer service always says, so delays might be possible depending on how quickly I get everything settled.  Joining Writathon while I still have both work and an impending move was an incredibly wise and not at all impulsive decision!

As for the story.  I’m going to tally the XP and levels at the end, or something.  Don’t feel like putting single wulvers into the XP calculators hundreds of times after all lol.

Because we didn’t have enough termination the last few chapters, so we need to make up for it now!  We didn’t even get to terminate Lar for goodness sake!

…the wulver might be rethinking that whole ‘let’s attack everyone we see’ culture now.

Anyways!

Will NSLICE-00P defeat an entire wulver incursion basically by herself (Ok, Ateia, you can have 1% of the credit, if we’re generous)?  Will Taog realize exactly who they’ve signed on with?  What will this mean for the plans of The Great-High King of all the land?  Tune in next time, to find out!