Chapter 40 Cleaning Up

Time flew by, and before Leon knew it, two weeks had gone by. He had slowly but surely leveled up his army, while also gaining a few levels for himself.

"Nero, come here." Leon waved over to his second most powerful summon. Nero was just behind Kaladin in terms of strength, having gone from an Obsidian Skeleton Knight to an Obsidian Skeleton Berserker.

At first, Leon had been puzzled at how he had gone from a Knight to a Berserker, but he guessed that Nero was just aligning himself with what would best fit him in the long run. After all, he had no control over his race.

The armored Obsidian warrior stood at just a bit over two meters in height. He no longer wielded a simple shield and sword, but instead now used a large kite shield, with a longsword. Each swing of his sword was powerful enough to rip through multiple Ghost Centipede Soldiers at a time!

Today was the day that they were finally wiping out the Ghost Centipede nest. Leon did not want to waste any more time as his army had gotten much stronger over the two weeks that he had made them grind out their levels with the centipedes being their whetstone.

Leon watched as hundreds of millipedes, both white and black, made their way down the hole that led into the centipede nest. He actually did not need to be present there, but there was no way he would miss out on killing the centipede queen to get some easy levels. And if there were those guard variants, just like how there were for the millipede queen, then he wanted in on them. He would be able to gain multiple levels at a time by killing them.

Leon looked at Nedra, Kaladin, and Nero, who had gathered before him before addressing them.

"I want you guys to watch over the army. Make sure they don't kill the queen or any of her guards. They can injure them, but I don't want any of them dead. Those are my tickets to maxing out my level." He told the three most powerful figures under him.

"Okay." All three responded before Leon allowed them to enter the nest.

Only when all the millipedes had entered the nest did he finally enter. He did not plan on spearheading the wipeout operation on his own this time. He had an army now so he could finally afford to be a lazy tyrant!

Leon walked behind everything, and soon enough, he was able to hear the sounds of battle up ahead as the millipedes under him split up to explore every nook and cranny of the underground tunnel network.

Before long, he came upon a centipede corpse that had been ripped apart and had several chunks taken out of it. The living Undead Millipedes were not like his undead summons, in that they actively ate the flesh of the creatures they killed. Leon had found out that eating the flesh of the creatures they killed allowed them to gain energy, regenerate, and grow faster than if they did not, so he allowed them to do as they pleased.

[Master, we have found the breeding chamber!] Nero reached out to Leon over the mental network that he maintained with the summon.

[Alright, I will make my way over now.] Leon responded and began to follow the link he shared with Nero to make his way to the nest.

The tunnels grew crowded the closer he got, and when he finally reached the main breeding chamber, he found that his underlings were already tied in a bitter battle.

For some reason, the centipedes had a lot more higher ranking variants than the millipedes did.

'Oh, that's right. I was the one who ordered for them not to be killed...' Leon realized and chuckled lowly.

He walked forward at a steady pace and his millipede army gave way for him to walk forward. As he walked, he sparked up one of his skills, and multiple fireballs came to life around his back, flickering in the darkness of the cavern.

While there were a few mana crystals present, it was mostly due to the proximity of the millipede nest to the centipede nest that allowed mana crystals to form so closely. But they were far sparser in the centipede nest.

Leon stared ahead and could see that Nero was engaged in a bitter exchange with a massive centipede that reminded Leon of the guards of the millipede queen. The centipedes were shorter than their kin, but much more massive, and powerful. Nero's sword sliced across the hardened chitin of the one he was fighting, and sparks flew around. His eye sockets glowed bright red, showcasing his desire to dominate the battle, and he had long discarded his shield, instead, his left hand, which always held onto the shield now wielded another longsword that was identical to the one in his right hand. With the two weapons, and his impressive strength, he was able to keep up with the giant brood protector, despite his level being far lower than its own.

As for Kaladin, he was bombarding the entire battlefield with purpose, aiming at the backlines of the centipedes to avoid casualties on his side. Bolts of lightning flashed from his left hand and accurately zapped the two brood protectors that were trying to circle him, but Kaladin was much smarter than them, using the numbing properties of his lightning to debilitate the centipedes, before distancing himself from them. His eyes glowed with blue lightning, and his robes fluttered with the large flux of mana in the air.

Further away from the two Obsidian Skeletons, Nedra was waging her own battle. Her form had expanded into a size that rivaled that of the now dead millipede queen. This was her so called 'battle form'. She had gained this form after her last race advancement, and it allowed her to possess two forms. One was her normal, standby form that allowed her to shrink her size to become very small. She was able to become as small as a basketball. The second form was her battle form which turned her into the many-legged monstrosity that she currently was.