83 The White Rabbits Were Actually Strong!?

Hey, Shun here!

It's not fun to prepare for war. I mean, it was never fun to prepare for war, racking your brain juices to think up of viable defense and attacking options.

My enhanced brain could not help me from this…

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(Haku's POV)

"Understood… Lizardmen, attack!"

Both armies charged towards the gate. Haku, determining that the golems would simply crush her goblins, prioritized attacking them with her lizardmen.

The goblins would mainly work as scouts to help with conquering the dungeon itself. Losing them early on the battlefield would be a tactical failure.

The lizardmen leaped through the gate and swung their blades at the golems. Many of them were hit directly and collapsed onto the ground, bodies broken, but the majority of them won with speed and damaged the golems effectively…

Nonetheless, many golems slipped past them and invaded the [Ivory Proving Grounds]. Not only that, but the rabbits that they chose to ignore at first started butchering the Goblins on the back lines.

They were extremely fast and nimble. While their attacks dealt little to no damage to Minotaurs and some scratches to the Lizardmen, these rabbits' attacks are nothing but lethal to the unarmored Goblins.

"The enemy has invaded our dungeon!"

A lamia was looking at the map and reporting the movements of the enemy army. She was one of Haku's most trusted retainers.

Haku had brought her five retainers, including Chloe, into her Master Room to assist with the Dungeon Battle. The one who had just ordered the lizardmen to charge was a living armor who was in charge of offensively maneuvering her armies.

Meanwhile, an illusory figure of a woman is now screaming her lungs out, if she has any, to report the disaster that's happening in the front lines.

"The Goblins are being assassinated by those unknown rabbits! We've lost 20 of them now! More than 15 are heavily wounded!"

It's a bit late to be doing this now, but the [Ivory Proving Grounds'] military leadership was as follows: Amelia, a lamia in charge of defense. Dolce, a wraith in charge of managing intelligence such as troop casualty statistics. Sally, a living armor in charge of combat and battles. Misha, a werecat in charge of offensive reconnaissance. And finally, Chloe the succubus, who supported Haku in any way necessary.

Haku herself served as a unified leader that gave orders to each retainer and took care of the general decision-making.

"Also, what's with this!? There are over three hundred invaders?!" The retainers all shook in fear after hearing Dolce's report.

"No way! We didn't let that many get through! I can't even see that many monsters…!"

"No, look closer! The invaders aren't golems… They're gray rats, rabbits, and some horned… rabbits!?"

"What?! Gray rats and rabbits!? Those aren't even monsters! Also, what do you mean by horned rabbits!?" Even Haku's voice rose in confusion and fear.

It seemed that the golems had all been carrying large boxes on their backs filled to the brim with ordinary rats while some is carrying boxes full of rabbits and its horned variants. Of course, since each of these rodents was being displayed on the map as an enemy, they had all been summoned and placed under the Dungeon Core's control.

Rodents or not, they were the enemy, and if even a single one touched the [Ivory Proving Grounds'] Dummy Core… Haku would lose. Even the golems who hadn't passed through the gate had boxes, and soon their tops burst open as a throng of rodents raced out.

They charged like a pulsating wave of gray water, weaving through the lizardmen's legs and into the [Ivory Proving Grounds]. Along with them are some normal rabbits and some horned variants.

"Exterminate them at once!"

"I can't! They're too small, the minotaurs can't handle them! The rabbits are also too nimble, our monsters are having a hard time hitting them!"

"Order half of the goblins to focus on exterminating the rats! We're in danger here!"

"They've conquered the first floor! The enemy is now invading the second floor! I-I count… around seven hundred invaders!"

"What about the traps?!"

"They are working but only on a few rabbits! As for the rats, they are just too small! Even if an arrow lands, it's like throwing a fireball into a lake!"

"Contact all lizardmen in the dungeon! Tell them to exterminate those rats and rabbits! EXTERMINATE THOSE RODENTS!" The retainers had immediately fallen into a loud panic.

Haku, on the other hand, soon regained her calm.

"He certainly has a good head on his shoulders, doesn't he? I had no idea gray rats were so suitable for an advance force…"

"Indeed… It may only be a matter of time until our dungeon is completely conquered. Forgive me, the first floor of our dungeon was conquered in a matter of moments."

"I don't blame you, Chloe. None of us expected a strategy like this. I might have to take some notes and use rats in another battle myself. When caught off guard like this, they are exceptionally difficult to counter… But I have an idea. Amelia, place several flamethrower traps along the hallways of the third floor. That should buy us some time."

"Th-Thank you very much!" Traps could still be placed on any floors without invaders on them.

Flamethrowers were fairly expensive, but they were the best thing for those killing rats and rabbits. Either way, though, Haku wasn't worried.

The rats certainly were effective as scouts for conquering the dungeon, but they couldn't succeed on their own. Reason being, she had placed a Boss Room before the Core Room.

These weak rats and rabbits needed to beat the bosses of her dungeon, a Red Minotaur and Blue Minotaur, in order to reach the Core, and that wasn't likely to happen.

"Mistress! The unknown rabbits on the enemy's front lines are still dealing massive damage to our scouting troupes! What should we do!?"

"We've lost a total of 57 Goblins from their attacks. A third of our initial scout forces are now wounded and unable to continue attacking…"

"Let the lizardmen deal with them. Tell the Goblins to position near the Lizardmen in order for the latter to anticipate the rabbit's movements better."

After giving out orders, Haku looked at the [Ordinary Cave] which is now ahead by leaps and bounds compared to its previous state.

Just what did you do to make it progress this fast, Shun? Haku thought.

"Execute our attacks perfectly. We need to reach Dungeon Core Number 695's core before they reach ours…"

"Yes, mistress!"

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(Shun's POV)

"Man, look at our rodents go. Also, the young Assassin Bunnies you managed to summon en masse is really helping us a lot in exterminating the scouts of our enemy, Rokuko."

"Ehehe, really? I was just lucky that I was able to summon them after committing their appearances to memory! Also, aren't you the one who taught me the chants to summon them, Shun?" Rokuko fidgeted as she hears my compliments.

Yep, well, I did help her in that front. It was really easy for me to teach her the chants since I have the language already inside my head. However, she was the one who did all the work in terms of memorizing the pronunciation and such for the chant to really succeed.

"Um, master… The map's filling out like, super fast…" Zenko reported.

Yeah, well, I could see that as well, Zenko.

"Does this mean that our armies are conquering the dungeon like crazy? We're beating Haku?"

"Uh-huh. However, we're just on the winning side for now. This doesn't mean that the battle is already over though."

"It's not over until it's over, right, Shun?"

"Yep. That's the word."

By the way, our line up is like this: I assigned Zenko as our intelligence unit, giving us detailed reports about casualties on the attacking and defending side and the ongoing situation on the battlefield. She's got a good head on her shoulders so I made her do this duty as she said she wanted to be of help.

As for Ikumei, I assigned her as my assistant in attacking. However, she's mainly helping Rokuko in defending the dungeon, eliminating the invading monsters.

She and Rokuko kept on controlling existing Golems in order to gain some battle experience. It's good that we have this method to let them gather battle experience without risking their well-being.

By the way, speaking of our map filling up fast. We don't just get a map of the enemy's dungeon at the start of a Dungeon Battle.

Getting it would defeat the purpose of having dungeons battle each other. You'll be a total idiot if you still got lost on a labyrinth if you already have a comprehensive map of it.

Not only that but the Dungeon Core would be on that map, too. A finished map would make for a ridiculously boring Dungeon Battle.

"Master, the Golem vanguard, has been completely destroyed. All one hundred of them are gone."

"Master… some goblins… are already approaching our dungeon's entrance."

I patted Zenko and Ikumei's heads as thank you for their reports. As for Tsuka? Well, she is currently napping on my lap, waiting for her time to shine.

"Alright. Don't worry. It's just as we planned."

By the way, that golem vanguard had been composed almost entirely of Clay Golems I made with [Create Golem]. We have so many stock of clay, stones, and other materials that we didn't need to summon any of them.

Talk about being efficient and recycling. Aren't I eco-friendly? Will I get an award from this?

But the most important thing was how much DP it saved, for sure. I put low-cost magic stones into them just in case Haku got suspicious, but even so, those only cost a tenth of what golems did.

I could even reuse the destroyed golems' bodies by absorbing them back into the dungeon, assuming they died within it. Same went for the magic stones.

"Our rodent squad surprise attack, a ton of traps including the pitfalls me and the girls dug out, and finally, the complex labyrinthine floors, trap doors, pressure plate traps and etc that Rokuko built according to our floor plans… I wonder how Haku's gonna hold up?" I observed the battlefield while rubbing the heads of our beastkin girls.

I haven't placed any treasures in our dungeon yet since it's just a Dungeon Battle but the entire seven floors of our dungeon will have many treasures placed on them. I'm talking about our Golem Blades, swords and daggers alike.

However for the adventurer's to get them, they'll have to pass through some traps we placed inside our dungeon.

Right, I should focus on the battle at hand. Can't have myself be complacent.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ This is where the differences between the original and this fanfic is showing up. I plan on making Tsuka go on either defense or attack but let's see. I could have Shun himself defend the cores in case Haku finds the hidden Dummy Cores, after all.