I became a legion lich

218 Creative plan

If they continued straight down, the next territories would be the terrain of violent monsters, so they didn’t have the intelligence to investigate their enemies or know when to retreat or advance.

Thanks to the dwarf skeletons advancing their work, the army was able to resume the march sooner than expected and with the manticore territory empty, they headed straight for the territories of the violent monsters.

It took less than two days’ travel to reach the territory when marching at full speed, as Athos forced the skeletons to run the entire way. Human skeletons were carried by monsters, while demihumans were fast enough to keep pace with monsters.

The wyverns who went ahead reported that the monsters they would encounter in the next territory were a pack of acid wasps, wasps a meter long each.

Wasps didn’t have a stinger, but they were capable of squirting acid from their lower bodies, making them even deadlier. The wasps formed an underground nest and created something similar to an anthill as there was no slope or other suitable place for them to form their nest.

Malic and Wylver just watched them from afar and avoided approaching, although they suspected that there were at least a few tens of thousands of acid wasps and that the tunnels must spread hundreds of meters underground.

Possibly there was more than one entrance, but it should have been hidden and the wyverns weren’t able to find it. The wyverns considered the idea of attacking the nest alone, but without knowing how many wasps they had or their strength, it was better to wait for the army to arrive and bombard the nest with magic.

They were confident of destroying them all or at least being quick enough to escape in an emergency, but many of the corpses would be destroyed and wasted by their destructive spells.

Athos didn’t seem to mind small losses, but a few thousand would definitely be missed.

.....

When the skeletons arrived, Athos ordered the skeletons to stop at a safe distance instead of rushing as they usually did.

“Why did we stop?” Treevor asked as he approached.

“I’m not crazy trying to get close to a nest of tens of thousands of goblin-sized wasps. Let’s finish this off from a distance.” Athos looked at him with a disgusted face, imagining how annoying it would be to face a tide of thousands of giant insects flying at them.

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“Magic bombardment, then? I’ll order the mages to start casting and-” Treevor started to order the mages, but Athos had a different idea.

“No, let’s be more practical here. We have no reason to face insects head on, so let’s get creative here. But order the mages to prepare area spells, just in case.” Athos smiled as he pointed to his temple. He thought of a good idea and ordered the army forward, without explaining anything to Treevor.

‘Well, when the master smiles like that it’s because he thought of a crazy plan, but it almost always works out, so I won’t question it too much.’ Treevor thought, trusting Athos and waiting for his command.

Such a large army would never go unnoticed and in less than a minute they began to hear an annoying hum of insect wing flapping. They could see giant hornets erupting from a hole in the distance like a geyser.

If Treevor had skin, he would be turning pale right now. He was stronger and confident of surviving against all those giant bugs, but the sight of all those squirming bugs and the deafening buzz of wings getting closer and closer was chilling.

Athos felt the same, but his gray skin just glowed a little brighter and the nearby skeletons thought it was the effect of him conjuring something with the magic organ and ignored it, saving him embarrassment.

‘Hey, shouldn’t we raise the barriers now?’ Emilia asked apprehensively as she saw the giant wasps getting closer and closer. She began to cast spells as she prepared for combat, but Athos ordered her to wait.

‘Wait for them to be on top of us before we start.’ Athos responded and continued to watch the approaching insects, although he was also casting spells in case things went wrong.

The acid wasps continued to leave the nest as if they had no end and quickly approached the skeletons, which continued to advance without stopping. The insects did not attack immediately upon reaching them, but flew over the army.

With the exception of the pincers on their head, wasps had no close-range attack methods, so they tended to fight at medium range. Their greatest weapons were their acid and their overwhelming numbers.

The acid wasps squirted their acid as far as they could to try to cover as many enemies as possible and that was the moment that Athos was waiting for.

‘Now! Activate the field of the dead!’ Athos shouted and a curtain of darkness covered the army and began to rise. The corrupted world energy corrupted the grass the undead were stepping on, the flying acid wasps, and even the acid in mid-air.

The acid dissolved into the corrupted energy as what little fell on the skeletons quickly disappeared, leaving only a few small marks on the black bones. The wasps were the next to fall, unable to breathe or see anything.

The wasps writhed in pain as they hit the ground and the undead quickly killed them, giving them no chance to fight back. Some wasps tried to throw acid at random or bite the undead that attacked them with their pincers, but the acid disappeared as soon as it came into contact with the environment and the skeletons only abandoned one of their bones to free themselves.

Insect-type monsters took a long time to die, so the skeletons needed to hit several times to kill them. Athos and the high-ranking Skeletons continuously injected life force into the field of the dead and lifted the corpses of insects.

‘So that’s why you waited for the wasps to get so close. How did you know that acid would be affected too?’ Treevor asked in surprise as he looked outside the field of the dead.

Many acid wasps were taken aback and killed by the appearance of the field of the dead, but more were arriving and flying around the gigantic dome of corrupted mana, unable to enter.

The wasps tried shooting acid outside or circling the field of the dead, but it had no effect. Some broke in to try to attack the threat, but retreated almost immediately.

‘Everything in the world has energy and acid is no different. But it was a gamble whether the acid would be corrupted fast enough to take effect or whether a few skeletons would get hit.’ Athos responded and ordered the skeletons to continue advancing.

They were interrupted by the wasps, which began to panic and throw themselves into the field of the dead. The wasps burst out of the nest, crawling over each other to get out of the hole as soon as possible.

‘Why are they doing this?’ The wyverns asked in disbelief, watching the acid wasps willingly throw themselves against the field of the dead.

‘That’s why the underground nest is also being affected by the field of the dead. The spell affects the world’s energy in a perfect spherical barrier that also affects what’s below us. You haven’t noticed this until now because you can’t use earth magic or spread your senses underground.’ Treevor reported, using earth magic to detect vibrations underground.

He could feel thousands of insects crawling under one another in confusion, not knowing what was attacking them or where they were supposed to go. Treevor felt a chill through his bones and quickly stopped feeling underground.

‘We just need to stand here and they will kill themselves?’ Emilia asked doubtfully, watching the stupid wasps shoot acid at the field of the dead until they dried out and then invade the field of the dead only to fall to the ground.

The wasps writhed on the ground until a skeleton killed them and the life force within the field of the dead transformed them into new undead.

As if answering, the insects stopped their mindless invading and flew over the outside of the field of the dead and tapped their pincers menacingly.

‘Why did they change their behavior?’ Athos asked angrily. He was enjoying the free life force and didn’t want it to end so quickly. He feared the bugs would scatter and begin to flee, but Wylver had a bird’s-eye view and understood the situation.

He could see that a hole had opened up in the earth some distance from the skeletons and the wasps began to come out, quickly followed by a wasp twice the size of the rest. The queen was fleeing through a different tunnel, using the others as bait to escape.

‘Master, the queen escaped through a different tunnel and is on the run. Should I intercept her?’ Wylver asked.

‘Are there many wasps following it?’ Athos asked back.

‘I can’t count perfectly because of the distance and because they are very close to each other, but there must be a maximum of two hundred.’ Wylver replied, I don’t understand Athos’ lack of motivation.

‘Then let them get away. A few hundred is not a big loss. If we attack the queen, the wasps around the sacred field will ignore us and fly back to protect the queen.’ Athos ordered and Wylver obeyed, though he was disappointed in the lack of action.