Fairy Tail: I Don't Want to Be the Guild Master-Chapter 276: Bite Back

Rhodes cheerfully used his Requip Magic to summon some cookware, followed by a box of neatly packed ingredients.

He was about to cast Solid Script magic to conjure water and fire, but Mira stopped him. "Don't waste extra magic power," she said with a small smile. "I'll just fetch some water."

Requip didn't consume much magic on its own, so she was fine with that. But Solid Script required more, and in a situation like this, conserving energy was wise.

Fetching water wasn't a big deal for Mira. While she might act dainty at times, when she was serious, she preferred to handle things on her own.

Rhodes tried to help more than once but was driven off each time.

"Focus on your job and wait for the food," she'd said firmly.

Still, Rhodes couldn't help feeling a little down. He sat there, watching the Voidgrubs spawn their ever-growing brood, monitoring their neat formation, and observing the restless swarm of rats beyond the fence.

But none of it could compare to cooking alongside Mira.

Since it was her request, he reluctantly sat down and used the Crab's vision to scout the area. After confirming everything was secure, he crossed his legs and focused on recovering magic power.

In front of him stood the stoic Blue Sentinel. Behind him came the rhythmic, soothing sound of Mira slicing vegetables. The setting was oddly peaceful, and oddly domestic.

Mira chopped ingredients methodically, occasionally glancing over at Rhodes's focused back.

There was something oddly romantic about it, her preparing dinner while he handled a heavy-duty "job." It almost felt like... married life?

Mira flushed slightly. Could this be what life might look like for them someday?

Two and a half hours slipped by quickly.

Now, outside the village fence, waves of purple-blue Voidmites surrounded the perimeter in thick, wriggling lines. The mass of twitching creatures would be enough to send anyone with trypophobia running.

All around the village, guards and villagers stood on watch. Seeing the numbers firsthand, their eyes widened.

"Incredible..."

"With this many, we might really pull this off."

"We're saved! The village is saved!"

The rats, on the other hand, were growing restless.

At first, they had viewed the incoming creatures as nothing more than a buffet of juicy new prey.

These were rats that had dared to attack chickens, goats, even horses. To them, a few squirmy worm-like things didn't seem like a threat.

But as the flood of Voidmites continued—tens of them, then hundreds, then thousands, the rats began to hesitate. They shuffled nervously at the edge of the firelight, drawn forward by hunger yet held back by instinct.

A few bold ones moved closer and were scorched by the flames, squealing in pain. Whatever the villagers had mixed into the firewood tonight gave off a pungent, bitter scent that rats instinctively hated. freёweɓnovel.com

Still, the tempting sight of so much "food" made some of the swarm press forward anyway.

Yet, as the Voidmites continued to multiply, too many to count now, the balance shifted.

The predators began to look like prey.

And now, the prey were starting to look like predators.

Before the clock even hit the full two and a half hours, a few villagers ran up breathlessly.

"The rats are retreating! They're running away!"

Rhodes stood and dusted himself off.

"We're out of time. No more waiting. It's time to strike!"

He stepped out from behind his "personal bodyguard" and raised his hand high.

"Voidgrubs, attack!"

The three monstrous Voidgrubs reared back and let out an eerie screech.

Instantly, the countless Voidmites surged forward, springing toward the rat swarm like living cannonballs.

The innermost layer of Voidmites couldn't burst out right away, so in their excitement, they started gnawing on the wooden fence.

Almost every single Voidmite took a bite.

The already fragile and makeshift fence collapsed in pieces with a collective crack, and Rhodes broke into a cold sweat watching it crumble.

Thankfully, they didn't do more damage than that.

Rhodes had already noticed that these Voidmites weren't nearly as intelligent as his usual summoned creatures. Their ability to follow complex instructions was minimal at best.

With his standard summons, like Raptors, Murk Wolves, or Crabs, Rhodes could give layered commands, even conditional behavior based on what they encountered. But the Voidmites? He was lucky if even one of them could process more than a single directive at a time.

They relied entirely on the three Voidgrubs to coordinate them. And even then, it was chaos.

But Rhodes wasn't too concerned. In his experience, especially from playing games, when you were running a zerg rush... the strategy was simple:

Flood the field with numbers and charge forward. Victory by sheer overwhelming volume.

And so, they charged.

The rat horde was caught completely off guard by the sudden, full-frontal assault.

They had barely settled at the perimeter of the village, eyeing the Voidmites as potential food, when the entire swarm surged forward like a tide of teeth and slime.

With no choice, the rats fought back on instinct.

The clash began the moment the frontlines met. The air erupted with screeches and squeals as fangs collided with fangs.

The Voidmites, mindless and aggressive, lunged at the nearest targets. Their thin double rows of needle-like teeth latched onto whatever they could grab, legs, tails, fur, ears, no strategy, just relentless biting.

Smaller rats were swarmed by multiple Voidmites at once. One might get its tail gnawed, another its ears, and a few unlucky ones ended up with two or three Voidmites latched onto their backs like living grappling hooks.

Some larger rats turned the tables, swarming a Voidmite in return. The elastic, squishy bodies of the Voidmites were pulled and stretched like rubber bands as the rats tugged them in every direction.

The area surrounding the village devolved into chaos.

The once-quiet fields were now a battlefield of tangled limbs, twitching tails, and shrill screams. Rats darted in and out of the fray, while Voidmites jumped and twisted, attacking and being attacked.

It looked less like a traditional battle and more like a massive, frenzied brawl, like two anthills going to war.

And in this writhing storm of claws and fangs, it was impossible to tell which side was winning.

At Rhode's suggestion, Village Chief Jasper had mobilized all able-bodied villagers to surround the village and form a defensive perimeter.

The weaker villagers, like the elderly and children, were assigned to hold lanterns and torches, while the stronger men and women took up farming tools and makeshift weapons, standing by in case any rats broke through the outer lines.

Originally, all Rhodes meant was to remind them to stay alert in case a few rats slipped through.

But to the villagers, this wasn't just a precaution. It was a battle for their home. For their survival.

Rhode sighed as he summoned Raptors, Murk Wolves, and other summoned beasts to help with inner perimeter defense, just in case.

He wouldn't allow even a single villager to be bitten. Not tonight.

Mira stood beside him silently, giving him a playful yet exasperated pout.

"You're showing off again," she said, a little annoyed.

Rhodes grinned. "This fight's a bit shorter than I expected. I've saved some magic power, might as well put it to good use."

Mira huffed. With her free hand, she morphed her arm into a demonic claw. Fist-sized orbs of crackling black magic appeared in her palm. She lobbed them into the rat horde like grenades.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The explosions lit up the night as the demonic blasts cleared swaths of enemies, one after another.

Rhodes winced slightly at the damage to the road, but he tapped the Blue Sentinel and added the Blue buff to Mira. If she needed to vent, he wouldn't stop her.

After all, it wasn't people being blown up, it was rats and dirt.

And if the road was ruined? Well, they could just repair it tomorrow.

Strangely, the villagers didn't seem bothered by the exploding roadside. On the contrary, they cheered louder. The sight of so many rats being obliterated was exhilarating.

Rhodes gave the golem another pat. "Your turn. Bring out the floating cannons."

The Blue Sentinel stomped forward, each step echoing like thunder. As it moved, two smaller drones detached from its body and hovered over the battlefield, unleashing blue energy blasts down onto the rats below.

Screeches and squeals filled the air as waves of rats were cut down. Back inside the village, the people erupted in applause and cheers.

The rat corpses quickly piled up. Though some Voidmites were lost in the chaos, their numbers never stopped growing, dozens more spawned every minute.

And unlike the rats, the Voidmites didn't feel pain.

A rat would scream, retreat, or hesitate.

But a Voidmite? Even with limbs gnawed off, it would keep flailing, keep biting. They didn't think. They didn't fear. They just followed orders and fought.

Their mindless determination made the villagers feel an odd sympathy toward them, these "adorable little bugs," as some now called them.

The tide of battle had turned.

What began as a desperate defense was slowly turning into a decisive victory. The rats, once so dominant in number, were now being pushed back.

...

Bonus @1200 PS

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