CHAPTER 21 -RESTLESS

The army after an hour finally had finished setting up their tents and bags.

The darkness of the cavern was just perfect for some decent sleep. The soldiers felt comfortable readying to get some shut eye.

"MOVE!!!"

In the darkness of the cavern a furious commander Donald jumped from his tent glowing in a white hue lighting up the entire cavern.

The commander wasn't wearing his usual armor but instead was dressed down in only his leather pants with only his sword in hand.

The entire camp jumped up from their slumbers when they heard the noise.

In a split second the entire cavern was covered in a bright red light. The light was powerful enough to even change the glowing Commander Donald from white to a light shade of pink.

From the darkness a voice was heard.

"Oni Beam!"

In a split second the red glow disappeared and a bright beam burst out from the darkness.

Commander Donald, who was already directly in front of the origin of the red beam swung his sword down and split the beam into two halves.

The beam was powerful enough that it forced Sir Donald back a few paces. The soldiers who had just escaped from their tents looked horrified as the beam blasted behind them.

The beam only managed to kill a few guards that were at the extreme ends of the campsite but watching as their comrades had been instantly vaporized was more than enough to shake the army to its core.

"You've finally come out."

Sir Donald smirked as he made eye contact with the beast.

Donald lifted his sword and dashed at the creature through the darkness swinging his sword.

To his surprise the moment he reached where the creature was it was like he disappeared.

"Too slow"

Donald looked behind him and saw the creature. But he was in disbelief when he realized that the creature despite its demonic looking appearance spoke his language fluently.

"You have other things to worry about."

Hearing these words Commander Donald who was already dashing towards the creature felt an earthquake in the cavern.

The oni bean that the commander had split, had hit the walls of the cavern and shook the cave with the violent nature of a magnitude six earthquake. Almost reactively the stalagmites in the cavern start to fall one by one.

The commander, realizing that the ceiling of the cavern was about to crumble, clicked his tongue in annoyance.

It was down to either fighting the dungeon boss or saving his men. The commander who would never lower himself to the nobles level decided in an instant.

Commander Donald dashed towards Bliss and swung his sword. Bliss instantly disappeared but the commander paid no mind to the fleeing monster.

Instead he covered his sword in a white electrical energy and shot it out at the crumbling ceiling and falling stalagmites.

The electrical energy formed like a net that covered the entire ceiling and held the rocks in place.

"Everyone get out of here!"

The commander who was single handedly holding up the entire ceiling commanded his forces to leave the cavern space. He was sweating bullets and forced to use all his concentration to keep the electric net in place. '

He was buying as much time as possible for the soldiers to evacuate the cavern. While his men hastily gathered what they could he shook his head realizing he had fallen straight into the dungeon boss' hands.

Every time the army set up a rest site the creature attacked. Worse was he didn't stay to fight but continued to chip away at the army one man at a time. Now that Donald had heard the creature speak he was sure.

The creature was beyond human level intelligence. He demonstrated a very good knowledge of guerrilla warfare. This was all just another form of 'continuous harassment'.

This type of warfare was well known to be mentally and physically exhausting for any targeted army. It denies them the opportunity to rest and recuperate. This in turn weakens the morale and physical capacity of the army.

Regardless, the commander smiled since using these tactics meant two things.

Firstly, the creature was already sure that it didn't stand a chance in a head on assault.

And Secondly, that a brutal final wave of attacks were somewhere in the future.

Just knowing this alone left the commander in a better position. Knowing an attack was coming was always better than being caught off guard.

If the commander had to guess, the dungeon boss needed to kill a specific amount of them before he could improve the final set of monsters enough to launch his assault and that was why he was buying time in each wave of attack so far.

"But what if he didn't get the time he needed?"

The commander's grin grew even more sadistic as he imagined catching the creature off guard.

"Everyone has been evacuated Sir."

Cassandra reported to the struggling commander who only had a sadistic smile as he focused on holding up the ceiling.

The moment Cassandra finished her report the electric net dispersed and the rocks, debris and stalagmites fell shaking the cave once more.

When all the rocks fell the area where the army had not long ago set up its campsite looked like a dark rock strewn plain.

The soldiers gulped realizing that the commander had saved them from a rocky grave.

The commander had a dark look on his face. It was obvious that he overexerted himself. Once again the cunning of the creature was beyond a common monster.

It was clear the creature didn't want to fight the commander while he nor his army was at full capacity.

"Captain Cassandra!"

The commander called the captain and she immediately arrived in front of him.

[Slap]

"How dare you rest while your men are exhausted!"

"But… Sir… I had the guards on duty.."

Cassandra tried to explain as she recovered from the stupor that the slap had put her in.

The commander scoffed at her.

"Do you not learn anything?!

You already learnt that the guards can't stop the dungeon boss and yet you leave them to fend for themselves in the darkness?!

You nobles are all the same!

Bark a few orders and then forget about the common people!"

Cassandra wanted to argue but between the difference in rank on the battlefield and the truthfulness of his words she didn't push the matter.

Not to mention as a noble despite the military ranking she was still higher in social ranking and could fix this when she got home. For now she bit her tongue and accepted the humiliation in front of the men.

The soldiers gave her a disgusted look, after all if it was up to her they would have all died in their sleep.

"I order you to stand guard while your men rest for the next two hours!"

Commander Donald ordered before storming off.

It had to be noted that guard duty was normally the responsibility of a footsoldier and the lowest of ranks within the army, for an officer to be reduced to this duty was the same as spitting on her rank and service.