Uno

My “army” was ready. Thirty-three Lebirs with a captain leading every team of ten, two units of electric rod operators (blue-plated and black-plated) and… Ratlings. A lot of Ratlings.

The little creatures were led by a slightly distinct member of their species. Maybe more than slightly - a spider-like appendages attached to its back were sight to behold even in a fantasy world. The interesting fact was an absence of spear thrower on its back. This probably meant that it was of a different class? Different race? Maybe it was just a mutation? I already met a similar being before. Why hadn’t I dissected it? Stupid. Stupid! Analyze wasn’t really helpful, as it provided me only with a standard description of the Ratling specimen, slightly changing the name to the Iron Ratling Mechanic, instead of a Spear Thrower.

Oh, and it also added a small line of text indicating that “It has a natural talent when it comes to working with machines and is able to both create and repair them”. Yet even the threat level of the said monster remained the same!

It was leading its people - that much was clear. The Ratlings were standing in a precise formation just few meters behind it - four rows of ten, and all ready to follow.

Ah, who cares?

No time to worry about that. I have enemies to kill.

My monsters were stationed in the main room of the floor, impatiently stomping in place. Not prolonging the inevitable I simply gave an order to march.

The Lebirs moved first, their squads walking one after another, each recognizable by the Crackling mace their leader sported. The mechanical precision they walked with was really a sight to behold. I felt like taking part in a parade.

One-two, one-two they marched, legs and arms moving synchronously.

They may be dumb as bricks, but at least they looked menacing.

After they marched the black Rod team and blue Rod team.

What?

I knew my naming sense was skewed, but simple was still the best as I said before!

Anyway, eight Lebirs were carrying each weapon, having much less trouble after adding these handles on the sides. It was still unwieldy, but adding anything more was simply not economical.

On the other hand it should be possible to create a handheld version of it. More so since I have a special type of monster growing in my dungeon, called the Battery Devourer. Analyze said that its parts could be used in manufacturing artifacts. While I was far away from creating a farm and mass-producing them (which wasn’t that bad of an idea in itself) I would rather focus on something else. Namely - making sure that after the modification the Devourer would simply produce the needed batteries instead of killing it and reusing the remaining pieces. After all why add another step to the process which I could skip entirely?

Then again, what would that accomplish, really? There was no way to actually attack from afar, so it would be used by my Lebirs as one more option in melee. Which made it a cheaper version of Crackling mace, since the attacker might paralyze the opponent, but smacking enemy down with a (relatively) fragile material wouldn’t add any damage.

It wasn’t that bad when considering expanding my arsenal, the question was how easy was it to make.

On the other hand, creating something like a crossbow with an electric tip should also be possible and much more tempting...

But that was an idea for later.

After the main weapon teams trudged the Ratlings - shuffling their formation a bit, but still moving orderly. There were about forty of them, all basic ranged soldiers, not counting the mechanic. While their worth would be limited in a water environment (since spear throwers don’t have enough penetration to attack underwater targets) they still can be useful.

I was planning for most of my forces to stay above water, pelting the arriving enemies with electricity and stopping them with shielded Lebirs. I had a distinct advantage in fighting over the land after all.

Yet no plan survives the contact with an enemy and because of that I had my trump card ready too. The ditch between the lake and my domain was already unblocked in the preparation. I still hesitated though. Since water in the lake was flowing outside and because of that using it willy-nilly would probably create an ecological catastrophe - something that I wasn’t too fond of.

Mostly because I didn’t know how the Gods would react.

So yeah.

My group entered the forbidden zone a few minutes later, the snakes still engaged in their cannibalistic feast. At least the rate at which new arrivals were appearing was visibly lowered by now.

Lucky!

It meant that there weren’t endless amounts of Glass Snake Maws. Just a whole lot of them.

I could work with this.

The Lebir teams strode forward, this time with shields ready. Abominations black armor was reflecting the light, as their captains watched the rippling water. Their weapons crackled with intense electricity, but other than that only a sound of chewing could be heard.

I frowned internally.

While I knew that commanding from the front was an honorable idea, there was one problem with it. Honorable warriors were the first to kick the bucket. And - more importantly - these maces were really hard to make!

With a grumble, the captains retreated a tiny bit. And then a tiny bit more.

Now they were standing in the second row, ready to pounce. Still too close to the danger in my opinion.

Oh well.

You couldn’t cure stupid.

Still, my Lebirs were waiting, ready to defend.

Their sudden stop was a silent signal to the black Rod team, who walked forward with straightened backs, just like during their training. They quickly untangled the cord from the weapons back and dragged it towards the nearby outlet. I installed a few of these before. Then one of them plugged it in and the weapon hummed with power in response.

It was enough to gain the attention of our enemies.

Their brethren probably didn’t taste that good, because they jumped on an idea of devouring some new victims. About hundred of eyeless heads lifted up at the sound and hissed in unison.

Creepy. Last time the battle was totally silent, not counting metal scrapping the rock or a serpent dying breath. So now, we were not an enemy, but just prey? I don’t think so!

After voicing their challenge the Glass Snake Maws turned as one and started to swim towards my forces.

This time however we were ready. It wasn’t a surprise ambush, but a head-on battle.

To answer them the electrified rod was dipped into the water. The effect was instant.

A choir of screams.

Snakes of all sizes trashed in water, while it slowly tore them to shreds.

Few of the smarter ones avoided this hellish landscape, where their brethren were being cooked alive and skirted the side of the battlefield in order to engage my Lebirs.

The first wave of the snakes came and crashed upon abominations shields, few if not any of them getting a short end of the stick. Once again I cursed my weapons. Maces were really not enough for foes like these.

Smith-abomination, you’ll be next on the production line!

Still, there wasn’t much that I could do right now.

Then the Ratlings came to the rescue.

Like real veterans they calmly divided into the teams of three or four, concentrating fire on incoming enemies. Some of them were turned into the runners, gathering ammo from their tunnels and bringing it back to the frontlines.

Above all, the mechanic hissed and pointed, sending warriors to the parts of the weak parts of the defensive line, not allowing it to break. Which was much better than anything I had done before…

Was I just outshined by a rat?

It seems like I’ll have to check how much did they evolve while I wasn’t looking.

Also…

Was that a sentence? Had they already created their own language?

I wonder how advanced it was...

This required an investigation. Maybe even a dissection? Hmm… no. I should be able to summon it since it was an already present evolution. And that meant that the preset should be available for browsing.

Let’s check after this whole mess was over.

And focus!

The battle still raged all around.

The main force of the Glass Snakes was being mercilessly electrocuted, while my defensive squads were doing their jobs.

With a few loses, I might add, but the additional Lebirs were already summoned, slowly making their way towards the lake.

And at this critical time, an enemy boss appeared.

A large, discolored tentacle landed smack dab in the middle of my black Rod team, decimating the weapon and its handlers.

It was electrocuted in the process, but that didn’t seem like a deterrent.

I motioned the blue Rod team to advance and they did, connecting their cord to the closest electrical outlet in seconds.

They barely had the chance to attack when the tentacle smacked their weapon again.

Only this time something went wrong.

I mean more wrong than my warriors getting killed.

*Boooooom*

An enormous explosion happened.

I managed to see that the blue-plated Lebirs shattered to pieces as soon as electrical energy touched their armor. Which in turn resulted in shrapnel being strewn all around them.

The damage was immense - more for the snakes than my Lebirs, as additional pieces of metal lodged in their armor did nothing.

Pieces of flesh and scale came raining down in a moment.

Another large “recipient” of the damage were Ratlings.

Out of forty not even a third survived, most more or less hurt. Many were limping, some lost an eye or ear. Still, they never retreated, throwing their spears at advancing enemies. While their iron skin mitigated most of the damage they still had unarmored weak points - eyes, ears, underbelly etc.

I shook my head and ordered a retreat, the enemy not looking much better than my minions.

So it had come to this…

[Release Erosion Rays.] I spoke slowly and observed as more and more underwater monsters were making their way towards the rampaging tentacle.