The Rat-man corpses were quickly dragged away by the laborers tasked with disposing of the bodies—Malin had them dressed in full-cover rubber suits. The members of the Benevolent Church, who were digging the mass graves, surely never expected guests to come at a rate exceeding their grave-digging speed.
Malin once again moved to the front of the team, this time followed by a squad of Half-humans armed with lighting flares and shotguns, responsible for illuminating the path ahead.
The Rat-men’s hissing roar came from far away.
Their comrades could no longer respond, while the orderly footsteps echoed in response towards the distance.
"The contamination isn’t too severe, it seems they haven’t been here for long," reported the inspector from the Half-human squad, tasked with checking the level of contamination in the underground aqueduct, which partly relieved Malin—the Rat-men must have treated this aqueduct as part of their underground realm, they most likely had yet to start digging their underground metropolis—of course, not because they were lazy, but because when Malin constructed the aqueduct, all the ground stone was hardened and unified by Spell Formation, turning it into tons of rock that the Rat-men couldn’t possibly hope to dig through in short order. Even using Spiritual Energy or some other means would make enough noise to alert the entire city.
But judging by the actions of these Rat-men, they seemed to prefer working quietly, without alerting the whole town.
As for why that group of children suddenly discovered something was wrong in the underground aqueduct, Malin pondered for a while and could only attribute it to good fortune.
These days, when you’re on a lucky streak, nothing can stop you.
Of course, if later on your luck takes a nosedive and you lose your life, then you can only blame the Goddess of Fortune for being a fickle lover.
...Well, Malin couldn’t exactly say it was the work of some parrot, could he?
As the team went deeper, the passageway began to broaden—this was the corridor before reaching the node, and Malin stopped in his tracks when he heard a multitude of soft footsteps.
The Half-humans used a crossbow to shoot sticky lighting flares at the ceiling ahead, then swiftly dove into the tunnel made by the Dwarves.
Malin stood at the front of the team, shaking his head at the approaching Rat-men: "Slaves rats."
"What does that mean?" asked the Dwarf Great Craftsman.
"Cannon fodder," Malin swapped to a more common phrase.
This time the Great Craftsman understood, nodding his head: "Alright, old timers! Hold steady."
The soldiers from the factory guard were still the ones pulling the triggers, and against the full-power bullets of 10mm, these scrawny Rat-men fell like wheat before the scythe.
The morale of these slave rats dissipated quickly. They did not fight to the last like the Plague Monks previously, but instead turned and fled rapidly.
"Are there many of these creatures?" the Great Craftsman asked.
"Many, very many, so many you’ll grieve at having shot all your bullets without being able to kill them all," Malin replied with a smile.
Upon hearing this, the Great Craftsman’s face changed—he really began to worry about the bullets he hadn’t yet fired.
"Don’t worry, as you’ve seen, our rifle bullets can penetrate multiple Rat-men. Sufficient firepower and a well-matched battlefront are the keys to victory. Look, in this kind of terrain, we are invincible."
As they were talking, the sound of a massive object charging could be heard in the distance, and then a giant rat appeared in everyone’s sight.
"My god, it’s so tall," screamed a member of the Half-human squad.
"What is this?! A Rat-man?!" The Great Craftsman, looking at the enormous Rat-man whose head was almost reaching the ceiling, asked Malin, not noticing the armored and strong Rat-men following it any longer.
"Rat Ogres, Matilda! I’ll leave it to you!"
"Leave it to me!" The girl had just finished speaking when she fired, and with the sound of the cannon, Malin thought of a problem—had they fitted a casing collector when firing this thing? If not, Malin could only pray that the unlucky soul who caught the casing had a neck sturdy enough to take it.
Luckily, the Half-humans had installed a collector, so no casings fell on anyone’s head.
The cannonball burrowed into the Rat Ogre’s chest and then came out from its back, and then deflected, sweeping the Storm Vermin in its flight path.
The Rat Ogre had not died completely, and then the second cannon fired, this time turning its head into something of the past.
The cannonball passed through the head, then bounced off the ground, stirring up a bloody mess once more amongst the ranks of the Storm Vermin.
The factory guard’s shooting started, and there were scattered arrows flying from the opposite side, most of which went who knows where, but still, some fell into the ranks. Malin used the Chainsaw Sword in his hand to deflect two arrows, the Dwarves blocked most, but there were few unlucky ones who ended up catching arrows with their bodies.
But the gunfire did not cease, the soldiers who finished their bullets exchanged with their teammates behind them, maintaining dense gunfire while also spreading the danger to everyone.
Because of their armor, there were still Storm Vermin that got close to the troop, and then the Dwarves finally fired, their Shotguns loaded with steel-cored Hollow Point Bullets penetrated and breached the Storm Vermin’s armor with absolute certainty. A large Storm Vermin appeared in Malin’s sight, it and its underlings fruitlessly tried to approach this squad formed by humans, Dwarves, and Elves, but ultimately, they failed.
In the end, Malin raised his big gun and gave it a swift end—the lead Hollow Point Bullet, designed to cut through in one go, drilled into the Storm Vermin’s chest, punctured its armor, and sent the creature flying.
It ultimately landed atop a pile of corpses.
"What a pity, we can’t chop off these guys’ heads as trophies, although I doubt anyone would want a rat’s head anyway," said the Great Craftsman as he followed Malin towards the bodies, with the Dwarves starting to finish off the corpses.
"Keep your little thoughts to yourself. I feel the times really have changed. If it were two centuries ago, fighting these creatures, we would have suffered great casualties," said the Elven Ambassador, walking over at this time, ignoring the Great Craftsman’s deadly glare and looking towards Malin: "Your Excellency, is this what you meant when you said the times have changed?"
"Yes, the Industrial Revolution has brought us not just the 20-round semi-automatic rifles but the ability to eliminate our enemies faster, better, and in greater numbers than before," said Malin, while lifting his foot and breaking the neck of a Rat-man who was still breathing.
"I think that, if not for everything Mr. Malin has brought us, many of us would have died here today," said a Half-human standing out and speaking a fair word.
"You’re stating the obvious, kid. Without Mr. Malin’s blueprints, we’d still be using muzzle-loading Firearms, axes, Hammers, and polearms to desperately fight these stinking rats," the Great Craftsman said dismissively, while using the Bayonette in his hand to stab a crawling Rat-man to death.
The Half-human captain snorted, then ran to Malin’s side, "Your Excellency, please also tailor some equipment for us. We swear, our Hallux clan will follow you and offer you our loyalty."
"Very well, I understand," Malin said, indifferent to the Half-human’s pledge of loyalty, but since he had said so, Malin decided to make full use of it.
In the wars to come, every life will be a chess piece.