Nothing was respawning. 

With a hint of tension, I looked down at the corpses of the ghouls swept up by the bombardment, and soon, I found myself grinning widely. 

"They're done for! They're not getting up again!" 

I looked around at the still dazed soldiers and called out again. 

"We got them, all of them!" 

Whoa-! 

Finally, a beat late, the soldiers erupted in cheers. These nervous guys! Still, I love them! 

‘I had worked out how to destroy the spirit cores of the vampires while exploring dungeons.'

When I first encountered a vampire in the Colosseum. 

After driving a silver sword into its body and launching a magical attack, its spirit core was exposed. 

When I destroyed that core, it screamed out in its death throes. 

While exploring dungeons afterward, I attempted to refine this strategy based on different conditions and situations. 

The conclusions I came to were as follows:

1. A sufficiently powerful magic attack will expose a vampire's spirit core. 

2. At our party's current level, the damage from our magic attacks is insufficient, making it difficult to expose the spirit core using magic alone. 

3. However, if we land a physical attack with a silver weapon—vampires' weakness—and follow up with a magic attack, the damage from the magic attack is amplified. 

4. If we destroy the exposed spirit core in this manner, the vampires can no longer regenerate and die. 

5. Profit! 

In short, if you use a magic attack while a silver sword is lodged in them, the silver serves as a catalyst that amplifies the magic damage, allowing us to expose their spirit cores in one fell swoop. 

This enables us to secure a definite kill. 

As for the lesser vampires, the ghouls, they burnt to death just from having their spirit cores exposed without needing any further steps. 

‘But of course, we can't go through this laborious process for every single one of the thousand ghouls.'

So, I came up with a trick. 

Sticking pieces of silver into the bodies of livestock. 

There was plenty of silver powder and fragments leftover from making silver equipment piled up in the blacksmith's shop. 

We painstakingly stuck those into the bodies of the livestock and used them as bait. 

Ghouls will go for the flesh of any living creature. 

Whether there's silver mixed in, or poison, they'll blindly rush in and start eating. 

This allows us to lure them all to one place and they're literally stuffing silver into their own bodies. It's killing two birds with one stone. 

Now all we have to do is top it off with a powerful magic attack. 

‘The mages have to conserve their magic power. They need to save it to deal with the vampires; it'd be endless if they wasted it on ghouls.'

So, I made preparations! 

An artifact that shoots magic, the Mana Cannon, made by emptying all the SR-grade magic cores we had! 

I nodded in satisfaction as I looked at the five Mana Cannons cooling down next to me. 

These were the guys that had just shot down onto the ghouls' heads. They work splendidly, as expected of the new model. 

It's the same artifact as the cannon used in the tutorial stage. 

Of course, back in the tutorial stage, I had intentionally caused a magic core to go berserk to increase its power, and Damian had aimed it himself, so the power was incomparable. 

But these cannons are still very powerful. At least, they're sufficient as a cannon that projects magic damage. 

‘We've prepared hard too, you monster bastards.'

With a grim smile, I stared at the silent enemy line. 

I deliberately let their army approach without any damage. 

Even knowing it wouldn't work, I had normal cannons fired at them. 

If they noticed our methods, they might have come up with other strategies. 

But those naïve bastards kept rushing towards the fortress in textbook fashion. 

So I gathered them together and took away 300 lives all at once. 

‘Now what will you do, Celendion?' 

30% of the army's lives vanished in an instant. 

In this situation, what move would the enemy make next? 

And then- 

Chek! Chek! Chek! Chek! 

Honestly, they sent out the next army. 

The second wave of the ghoul army. Again, about 300 Frost Ghouls. 

I narrowed my eyes. I could see a clear difference from the first wave earlier. 

At the very front of the enemy line, 

Ten pale figures, draped in ragged black cloaks and drooling, were marching at the front. 

Fallen Blood. 

Degenerate vampires. Beasts chasing blood. 

Elite monsters. 

Crrk... 

Kyaaaa-! 

The Fallen Blood at the very front let out a hideous scream. 

Its flipped eyes blazed with red light as bright as car headlights. Frightening. 

Ta-a-at!

Ten Fallen Bloods started to rush forward.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

And right behind them, a horde of Frost Ghouls pursued.

'Still daring to crawl forward after witnessing their defeat?'

Then, it's nothing but a thorough incineration for you. Accept it graciously.

I yelled to my soldiers.

"Are the silver powder bombs ready?!"

"They're ready!"

"Fire! Give them a full course!"

I stretched out my arm and roared.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

Boom! Boom!

Cannons simultaneously launched the shells.

Ordinary shells, yes, but filled to the brim with special silver particles and fragments!

Boom!

A shell precisely landed above the head of the leading Fallen Blood, exploding magnificently.

Silver powder scattered in all directions from the exploding shell. The Ghouls caught within the blast radius disintegrated as if melted.

However, they soon began to regenerate.

You think I'm just going to watch that happen?

"Old Hunters!"

I looked at two wizards waiting on the side.

"Jupiter, show them what you've got!"

"Of course, Your Majesty."

Jupiter and her fellow wizard respectfully nodded.

Donning leather gloves, Jupiter chuckled ominously.

"I've longed to stand atop these walls again."

Jupiter was fully geared.

She wore the old Empire's military uniform, covered with the golden breastplate and Screaming Set of 3 I'd given her.

Jupiter's fellow wizard placed his hand on her shoulder, aiding her magic power supply.

This wizard was an ice attribute, so in a situation where he couldn't deal damage to the Frost Ghouls, he had shifted to assist Jupiter.

Crackle, crackle...

Lightning began to gather around Jupiter's magic orb, floating in mid-air.

A fierce flash sparked in Jupiter's one eye.

"This Jupiter still has plenty of fight left... I'll show you!"

The magic orb flashed, a thundercloud formed, and then a massive bolt of lightning struck from the sky.

Boom!

Dozens of lightning bolts hit the ground.

The Ghouls, engulfed in the silver powder and fragments, were entirely incinerated, leaving not even bone fragments.

Completely obliterated, down to their soul cores.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

But the remaining bastards kept coming undeterred.

There was a limit to the amount of silver fragments, so the bombardment was now over.

The silver shell + magic attack combo had ended with that one round.

Then it's time to bring out the next move!

"Burnout!"

I looked back and shouted.

"Ready to work?"

Burnout, lying prone behind a giant custom ballista, was ready to fire.

Unable to speak due to the gag, Burnout just nodded slightly, and instead Godhand responded.

"Leave it to us, Your Majesty. We'll annihilate them."

I trusted them.

I had made fifty silver arrows, forty of which were Burnout's.

And Burnout's custom ballista used ten arrows at a time.

"Don't hold back, pour it all out!"

With my shout, Burnout's eyes lit up as she pulled the trigger.

Whoosh!

An enormous launching sound echoed as hundreds of silver arrows were fired at once.

Silver arrows rained like a storm above the Ghouls' heads.

Boom!

They exploded as soon as they struck the Ghouls.

Silver arrows, enhanced by Burnout's passive skill for explosive attributes, swept across the enemy lines.

A truly carpet bombing-level force.

Godhand had once teased Burnout, asking if she could do anything else but bomb, but I didn't see it that way.

'Bombing is all you need to do! Look at the impact!'

Silver arrow + explosive magic.

This combo brought down the Ghouls, melting their soul cores. They collapsed, never to regenerate again.

Between Jupiter's magical bombardment and Burnout's silver arrow bombing, more than half of the 2nd legion of Ghouls was annihilated in an instant.

Yet, the remaining half of the Ghouls still mindlessly rushed towards the fortress,

Screeeech!

The frontmost Fallen Bloods, too, were screeching and charging forward.

These Fallen Bloods withstood everything – the shell, the lightning, the silver arrows, the explosion – and didn't even flinch.

Even the ones missing limbs or trailing entrails kept dragging themselves, regenerating as they crawled towards the fortress.

Unlike the Ghouls, they hadn't reached the point of soul core destruction.

'Disgusting bastards.'

I turned my head, tongue clamped between my teeth.

"Damien."

Like he had been waiting for my call, Damien sprang forward.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Take out five Fallen Blood. Don't use too much force."

"Understood! I'll control my strength."

Damien needed to conserve energy for the later battles. However...

'With Damien's sniping now, maintaining the frontlines becomes much more manageable.'

Standing at the end of the castle walls, Damien took a deep breath and pulled his crossbow to his chest.

His posture was neat. Had he been practicing alone?

Whoosh!

A silver arrow launched from the end of Damien's crossbow.

The launched arrow pierced through the neck and chest of a Fallen Blood hobbling across the plains, its legs blown away.

Thud!

Gah...?!

The bastard who had been ensnared by previous bombings had his core exposed, and Damien's arrow effortlessly pierced his life away.

And before the first one to be penetrated fell to the ground,

Ping! Ping! Beep-!

Four consecutive arrows shot out, piercing through the necks, chests, and eyes of successive Fallen Bloods.

Gah....?!

Guh?

Arrgh...Agh.

Thud! Thump! Whump!

Just like dominoes.

Five of the Fallen Bloods leading the charge collapsed to the ground all at once.

“...”

Bewildered by the spectacle, I turned to Damien, who was nodding his head with an innocent expression.

"Five, sniped!"

"Well, you...you could have taken it a bit slower..."

What's the point of giving orders if he's going to wipe them out in seconds?

I was about to tell him to take out the rest of the Fallen Bloods, when I saw the burst blood vessel in Damien's eye.

“...”

Damn his Far-Sight. If only his durability was better, he would have crushed the entire game.

"You did well. Take a rest for a bit."

It was still too early to claim victory.

After patting Damien's shoulder, I glared at the remaining Fallen Bloods and ghouls that had reached our vicinity.

"Drop the rest of the livestock corpses! Archer unit, ready!"

"Yes!"

The rest of the prepared cow and pig corpses fell all at once down the castle walls.

Roarrr!

The ghouls that had approached closely started feasting on the meat all at once. I gestured in the meantime.

"Archer unit, ready!"

Skull, Oldgirl, and the regular archers loaded silver arrows into their bows and aimed down from the castle walls.

"Fire!"

Whoosh!

A shower of silver arrows poured over the ghouls that were greedily feasting on the livestock.

Roar...

Groan, groan.

Even after being peppered with silver arrows and letting out gnarly screams, the ghouls continued to chew on the meat.

"Finish them off."

At my signal, the artillerymen standing by the mana cannons activated them all at once.

Boom! Boom!

Whoosh-!

A mana bombardment swept across the area beneath the castle walls.

When the thick smoke cleared, the ghouls were all sprawled out, fatally wounded.

The corpses of the completely wiped out first wave formed a small mound beneath the castle walls.

Of course, it wasn't over yet.

Growl!

The five surviving Fallen Bloods.

These bastards didn't even bother looking at the livestock corpses, climbing up the castle walls from the start.

Gaaaaaaaaaah-!

The first Fallen Blood to reach the top of the castle walls let out a dreadful roar.

The vigor of this bastard, who had pushed through artillery, magic, and a shower of silver arrows to reach here, was beyond words.

However, its eyes were spewing out horrifying hatred.

Its exposed fangs flashed menacingly. The bastard on the wall was scanning around for a victim to drain.

Thunk-!

And then Lucas' sword cleanly cut through its neck.

The sacred sword emitting a red aura created a beautiful silver flash as it chopped the bastard's neck.

Defense-ignoring damage.

Also known as True Damage, the sacred weapon tore through the bastard's core in a heartbeat, causing it to perish.

Puff!

Evangeline's cavalry lance struck the throat of the second Fallen Blood that climbed up after.

Similarly, its core was ripped apart, and it fell from the castle wall without even screaming, dead.

Thud!

Lucas swirled his sword on the ground to shake off the blood, and

Clank!

Evangeline adjusted her shield.

The two knights glanced at each other, nodding simultaneously.

"A one-on-one, then."

"The one who wins gets to go on a late-night snack run with Senior Ash, right?"

"Confirmed."

"Alright, let's get moving!"

The two knights, after warming up with a battle cry, charged towards the three Fallen Bloods who were still ascending the castle walls.

"..."

Wait a minute. Hold up. We didn't agree to this, did we...?

That's when Damien, standing next to me, muttered softly.

"...If we're grading, I'd give myself a 5..."

"..."

Don't worry, I'll provide you with free midnight snacks every day. I'll feed you till you turn into plump baby pigs.

'Just let us get through this defense battle safely.'

I wished fervently as I watched the remaining three Fallen Bloods get slaughtered.

Bloodline Legion Wave 2. Cleared.