Standing amidst the army, Yuma dozed off due to the lack of sleep.
When suddenly, his eyes jolted open upon seeing a screen.
[Prepare yourself. The demon will soon exit the cave!]
He turned toward Lacius, who’ve long returned from blocking the cave entrance and shouted, “Get ready, the demon is coming!”
Lacius’s face turned serious as he shouted, “Everyone, prepare for combat!”
The soldiers around began to move. First, the shield bearing soldiers in the vanguard raised their shield while surrounding the cave entrance.
Then, the soldiers holding spears prepared themself to thrust their spear toward the demon or throw it to injure the demon.
Meanwhile, most blessed hid themselves among the crowd while preparing to deal a killing blow toward the demon.
Once the demon almost exited the cave, everyone could hear a weird sound coming from the cave.
Soon, a gigantic two meter tall chicken appears in everyone’s view.
Lacius, Tsukiko, and Yuma, who had hidden themselves near the rear, looked at each other in confusion.
“Is that the demon?” Yuma asked
“Perhaps.” Lacius replied while preparing to activate his power.
Tsukiko twitched her mouth, “Ain’t that just a chicken? Except slightly bigger?”
Tsukiko wanted to continue ridiculing that chicken. But when she saw what that chicken was doing right now, she quickly shut her mouth as it turned into one of fear.
The instant that chicken left the cave mouth, it jumped through the shield bearing soldier’s encirclement.
Although there are some spears wielding soldiers that responded in time and attacked the demonic chicken as it jumped, the amount of injuries it received is simply negligible.
The moment it passed through the vanguard, it began attacking the soldiers in the rear. With every attack, pieces of flesh and blood are torn and strewn on the battlefield.
Yuma and Tsukiko, who stood quite a distance away, saw the bloody scene and felt their stomach churn while their expression turned pale.
Still frozen in shock and fear, they even forgot to turn their head and kept staring at the battlefield.
It’s unknown who first started it. But in panic, the surrounding soldiers began to throw their spear toward the chicken that currently stood tall among them, which further increased the chaos and casualties.
As it madly kills the surrounding people while evading or knocking the spear thrown toward it with its wings.
It’s unknown how the chicken does it, but it occasionally lets out an inhuman clucking that sounds like a human’s wails.
Seeing his army being slaughtered like nothing, Lacius led the surrounding blessed to move forward.
With a frown, he shouted at the top of his voice, ”Every soldier, retreat!”
The soldiers nearest to him began to retreat. When those located far away saw the people around them had begun to retreat, they silently followed suit.
That chicken saw the retreating soldier and tried to follow after them. But, just when it tried to attack a retreating soldier, it got blocked by a wall of earth created by Lacius and several others blessed.
When it tried to jump through the earth wall to continue its chase, Lacius shouted toward two blessed with divine strength who had run toward the chicken. “The two of you, hold it down.”
He then turned toward Hars and the two blessed who had previously controlled the horse Yuma and Tsukiko rode. “Hars, when the demon began to spew fire and poisons, I want you to block it with your power. Alan and Rumina, go lead the other fire and wind blessed to burn that demon!”
The three of them nodded and got into action.
While the two blessed with divine strength are fighting against the chicken in a melee. Rumina and another fire element blessed and created a ball of fire which she shot toward the demonic chicken. Meanwhile, Alan led two other wind elements blessed to help control and make sure the fire continued to burn.
Although the fire created by Rumina’s group has weakened upon reaching the chicken. It is still hot enough to cause some of its flesh to be burned into crisp.
Being burned once more, the chicken screamed in pain and opened two of its three beaks.
From its beak, red flame and purplish liquid can be seen condensing.
Hars who’ve seen it, quickly controlled his blessed power to create several balls of water and shot them toward the demonic chicken’s beak.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The instant a ball of fire and purplish liquid shot out of its beak toward the two blessed with divine power. The balls of water Hars created have successfully shot toward the demon.
Those water balls Hars has created arrived slightly late. Nevertheless, one of them still successfully collided with the flame spewed by the demon.
Although it failed to extinguish the flame, it still slightly weakened the demon’s flame.
Seeing the flame has been weakened, the blessed that has been targeted by the demon’s flame raised a shield he had picked up and tried to block the chicken’s flame.
When the shield came into contact with that flame, it exploded and slightly injured him.
As for the other blessed targeted by the purplish poison ball, they have jumped backwards upon seeing the demonic chicken’s attack.
When the ball of poison struck the ground, it sizzled as the earth began to turn black.
With no blessed holding it down, the demon prepared to run away when Lacius shouted, “All soldiers, throw your spear! Rumina and Alan, use your power and burn that demon!”
The soldiers that heard it began to throw their spear toward the demon.
Lacius then created a wall of earth that blocked the demon chicken’s escape.
The demon chicken wished to jump above the wall. But Lacius controlled the earth under it to collapse, which resulted in a small hole.
The hole caused it to lose its balance and failed to collect its strength for a jump. Instead, it hit the earth wall Lacius created and caused it to dent and crack.
Meanwhile, the other earth element blessed created an earth wall in front of the blessed with divine strength to defend them from the throwing spears.
While being occupied by Lacius’s power. The spear thrown by the soldiers and the ball of fire created by Alan and Rumina have arrived toward it.
Seeing it, Lucius used all of his remaining power to create several walls and holes that blocked the chicken’s escape route.
After doing so, he slumped on the ground from exhaustion.
Yuma and Tsukiko, who had followed after him, quickly supported the falling Lacius.
After being heavily injured from the volley of spears and fire. The demonic chicken looked toward the place where the soldiers had gathered with red eyes before running towards them while ignoring the attacks launched at it.
Once it arrived in front of the army, it began killing the surrounding soldiers.
As blood filled the earth, screams of pain, help, and fear intermixed with the chicken’s manic clucking.
After five whole minutes of rampage, the demonic chicken finally fell down from its injury.
***
When Lacius’s army has just begun fighting.
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric sat on his chair while frowning.
“That chicken is much more powerful than I initially thought. Also, Lacius’s move to double the amount of soldiers sent seems to backfire.” Cedric messaged his temple, upon seeing the soldiers messily throwing spears toward each other. “I guess I need to warn Lacius to train his soldier’s discipline. Otherwise, the casualties brought by friendly fire might be even higher than the ones caused by that chicken.”
While he nervously watches them busy fighting against the chicken, Cedric recalled something and asked, “To level up, does Yuma need to get the last hit on that chicken?”
After all, killing enemies to level up seriously sounds like something out of an RPG game. So, he is curious about how the EXP distribution works.
[No. He simply needs to stay nearby when the chicken is killed. The nearer he is, the better.]
“Ohh..” Cedric nodded and continued watching the battle while asking. “How does NE creature allow a person to level up?”
[After killing a NE infected creature, some of its energy will turn into GP while some will be dispersed to the surrounding or absorbed by surrounding creatures.]
“Won’t absorbing it make the surrounding creatures become infected by NE too?”
[No. After possessing a creature or taking a form, NE will stop becoming purely an energy. Instead, it will turn into three components. One part is pure NE used as an energy source for that creature. The second part is used to modify or create the physical form. This part is extremely similar to GP and can be converted to GP after the creature is killed. The last part existed as a ‘glue’ in a form between GP and NE, this part can safely be absorbed by creatures in the world.]
“Huh? Killing NE infected creatures will give me GP?” As Cedric read the System’s answer while watching the battle in Crystal Cube world, he just realized it after the System said it twice.
“How much GP will I get from killing that chicken?” Cedric asked in shock.
[It should be around 0.05 GP]
“Eh? So little? I thought it would be much more.” Cedric felt a bit disappointed and lost the mood to continue chatting. So, he focused on observing the battle in the Crystal Cube world.
Seeing the chicken’s rampage as it killed dozens of soldiers, Cedric’s frown deepens. Luckily, the chicken finally got exhausted after five minutes of rampaging while being attacked by dozens of blessed.
Watching the chicken will soon get killed, Cedric sent a message toward Yuma.
[Quick, run toward the demon before it dies!]
When he saw Yuma following his word and ran toward the demonic chicken, Cedric nodded in relief and watched Yuma’s surroundings.
While waiting for the chicken to die and allow Yuma to level up, Cedric calculated the amount of casualties while feeling a bit sad.
“Well, although the casualties are pretty high. But for the sake of killing that demonic chicken, it is worth it.” He said in an attempt to cheer himself. When suddenly, the System sent a message.
[I won’t be too happy if I were you.]
“Huh?” Cedric is confused as to why the System suddenly said such a thing.
[It’s been around a year since a NE infected creature began to appear in your world. Such a long time span should’ve been enough for more than one NE infected creature to appear.]
“Huh?” Due to his confusion, Cedric feels himself turning into a parrot that continuously repeats the same noises.
After regaining his senses, Cedric asked. "Then, why didn’t I see other demons around the place that has been enveloped by Negative Energy?"
[Most of NE infected creatures, or demons as you like to call them, are pretty territorial. So, if other demons have occupied a place, the other has most likely gone to other places the moment they mutated.]
“Why don’t you tell me?”
[You’re the god of that world. So, it is your responsibility to manage it and make sure everything works as you intended it. Furthermore, the System has mentioned ‘creatures’ (plural) when you saw the mist shaped Negative Energy before. It’s your fault that your reading comprehension is extremely low.]
[Luckily, from the System’s detection. Except for the place where the demon chicken resides, there hasn’t been any sudden increase in NE density. Which means the other NE infected creatures haven’t begun any large-scale killing in your world.]
Cedric slumped in his chair while scratching his head. “Sigh… I feel I might turn bald from stress.”
[No worries, there are divine items that can heal balding in the shop. Do you wish to see them?]