A Core Ship From The Start - Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Chapter 65 Curse City_1

After this, Duanmu Huai arrived at the main camp located outside the City of Modheim —— Judging by the ambience of this camp, it used to house many people. Now, however, it’s bleak and desolate. Although there are still some soldiers, it is clear from one glance that their morale isn’t high.

As a mercenary group, Duanmu Huai was given a campsite as a supply point. Strictly speaking, it’s not much use to them. Duanmu Huai could always open a door back to Holy City and enjoy delicious food and soft beds there, rather than freezing and starving here.

However, before everyone had a chance to rest properly in the camp, the messenger soldier summoned Duanmu Huai into the camp to begin planning the next stage of the attack.

“Alright, I know you all have a lot to complain about, so do I.”

General Pasttee Roland, stroking his beard, looked rather grim on his gaunt face, whether due to the weather or his mood, it was unclear.

“But a command from above has been issued. His Majesty The Emperor is very, very, very dissatisfied with our progress. So he has allocated another army to me. Next, we will learn from the mistakes of the last operation and rearrange the plan!!”

Amidst the grumbling and complaints of others, Duanmu Huai finally figured out the ins and outs of the situation.

Apparently, one reason for the complete failure of the first recapture operation against Modheim City was that they were unprepared. Another part of it was a problem with the general in command. The person leading the army at the time was a nobleman closely allied with the Great Crown Prince. His arrogant nature clearly didn’t make this man take the recapture of such a rundown city seriously. Thus, the simple-minded man issued a simple command.

Direct the army to march in and completely occupy the entire city.

Then, it all went wrong.

Because they stretched their troops too thin all at once, they were quickly attacked. As mentioned earlier, Modheim City was filled with Ratmen, various kinds of heretics, as well as alien races, including vampires and necromancers. These beings took advantage of the army’s instability and launched a surprise raid, splitting the entire army.

Under these circumstances, the Imperial Army couldn’t do anything. Especially since the Great Crown Prince had only sent a reserve army here, they had never seen such horrific and evil bombing. As a result, the Imperial Army, everyone for himself, collapsed, most of them were wiped out on the spot, with only a few escaping the disaster with the help of mercenaries.

Luckily, the nobleman with the short circuit brain was also among the dead. As for who gave the strike —— well, let’s just say he unfortunately died in battle.

This would be better for everyone.

Now, besides mercenary groups like Duanmu Huai’s here, there are members of several organizations from within the Imperial. For instance, combat priests and temple knights from the Sigma Church, witch hunters, as well as wolf spirit priests from Ulrick Church. The rest are the men of the Imperial Army. General Pasttee ranted and raved a great deal. The crux of the matter was to learn from the reckless mistake of the last time, move steadily this time. Therefore, these mercenary groups must be on the front lines, mixing with enemies as much as possible. They will divide each area into separate battlefields and hand them over to different mercenary groups to handle. The army will march in only after the front lines have been stabilized by the mercenary groups and start “steady” nibbling and construction from the rear.

In a city like Modheim, where street fighting is the norm, the number advantage of the army cannot be put into play, it’s easier to achieve the goal with a few elites.

Everyone agreed with this point, after all, those who came here were mercenaries paid to do a job and they knew what they had to do.

However, trouble followed.

When General Pastte claimed that he had made contact with the Nun Association in the city and would receive their assistance, the representative of the Sigma Church immediately jumped up, loudly expressing disapproval.

The reason of the Sigma Church was quite speechless – The Nun Association was still considered a part of the Sigma Church of Modheim City, perhaps because of the protection of Sigma God himself, the Nun Association suffered the least damage in the Two-tailed Comet disaster. This however led the Sigma Church to consider the Nun Association as heretical and demanded its complete annihilation……..

Well, to put it straightforwardly, they considered the Nun Association heretical just because they didn’t suffer …… Duanmu Huai also didn’t understand where the Sigma Church’s moronic logic came from.

Luckily, General Pastte stood very firm on this matter. They have no extra troops to recapture Modheim at the moment, hence they need a large number of reinforcements. The Nun Association, as followers of Sigma, are residents of the locale, familiar with Modheim, and politically acceptable in loyalty. As for the internal affairs of your church, it’s your internal matter. The facts are that we don’t have the luxury to pick and choose. Therefore, cooperation with the Nun Association is a must.

In the end, the Sigma Church’s representative stormed off in a huff. Although others in the room didn’t comment, their expressions suggested their lack of enthusiasm.

However, the war council continued. In the subsequent meeting, General Pasttee assigned each mercenary group their respective tasks.

From the map, Modheim City is an ellipse, surrounded by city walls, divided into east and west sections by a river —— Well, it also looks like a pair of buttocks.

Within, the northeastern part is the market area, the southeastern part is the slums. The northwestern part is the aristocratic district, and the southwestern part is the military district.

The two regions of the east and west are connected by bridges, all in all, it’s a closed city.

The place where the two-tailed comet fell is in the slums, which is the most dangerous area in all of Modheim City. It’s filled with various warped creatures and is impossible to approach. But that doesn’t mean that other places are safe….

“Your task is very straightforward.”

Pointing at the map in front of him, Pasttee began to yell loudly.

“You are to enter from the breach in the eastern wall, recapture the Sigma Temple and City Hall, then the marketplace! Clear a path for the subsequent troops! Remember, clear all threats, including the monsters, Evil God Cultists, vampires and such riffraff hiding in the ruins! The Nun Association will assign a team of combat nuns to join you, to dispel the evil curses in the Sigma Temple! So, the following mercenary groups whose names will be read out will participate in this battle!”

As he was speaking, Pasttee picked up the list.

“Imperial Eagle, Black Claw, and …”

As he said this, Pastte glanced at the list and suddenly halted. He stared carefully at the parchment in his hands as if there were flowers on it.

“……Pink Bunny?? Who’s Pink Bunny??”

“That’s me.”

Duanmu Huai stepped forward, and upon seeing Duanmu Huai, Pastte opened his mouth, looked at the list again, and then at the hulking armored warrior before him……”

“You guys get on with it! Good luck!!”

In the end, Pastte said nothing, perhaps he didn’t know what to say.

After the meeting adjourned, the three named squads immediately gathered.

The Imperial Eagle is a squad composed of Imperial mercenaries, the majority of whom are warriors. Black Claw, on the other hand, is a small team led by witch hunters, including clergy from both the Church of Ulrick and the Sigma Church.

Regardless, it was clear they were battle-hardened veterans, and combined with their demeanor and attire, looked like a highly capable squad.

On the other hand, the four beautiful girls dressed in light clothes behind Duanmu Huai — well, to be honest, they didn’t look like they were ready for battle at all.

“Hey, brother, we’ll be counting on each other from here on out, let’s get to know each other well.”

The captain of the Imperial Eagle was a very cheerful and outgoing mercenary, who greeted Duanmu Huai with a smile and Duanmu Huai replied with a wave. The Witch Hunter on the side was silent, standing there like a shadow.

“Let’s get going.”

Everyone was professional, there was no need for pleasantries, nor were there any satirical exchanges before embarking — everyone knew this was a dangerous mission, either accomplished, or ended in death. So, pointless talk was meaningless in such times. They carried their weapons, silently slipping through the cracks in the city wall, entering Modheim.

This cursed city.

Just stepping into it, a gray oppressive feeling swept over them. Duanmu Huai raised his head and looked ahead. Everything around him looked dilapidated at this moment. The entire city was shattered, almost all the houses were in ruins, and there were no intact houses to be seen.

Not only that, but on the ground and walls, there were what appeared to be rotten chunks of meat covering them, and even within those chunks of meat, there were eyes moving left and right.

“Some of you may be here for the first time, so I should warn you.”

The captain of the Imperial Eagle turned his head, looked at the others, and spoke in a serious whisper.

“Don’t underestimate this city, everything here can take your life…”

As he spoke, he pointed to the things on the ground that looked like rotten chunks of meat.

“Like these things, don’t step on them, don’t get too close to them, they can spray disgusting and ugly poisonous mist at you, making you become a mentally abnormal idiot. And those planks……”

As he spoke, he once again lifted his longsword and pointed at the dilapidated planks placed next to a carriage just ahead. On the surface, it just seemed like a tilted, somewhat shabby plank… if there weren’t any weird texts on it, it wouldn’t seem to attract attention.

“That’s a Ratman trap, if you’re not careful and trigger it, you can only pray that you’re lucky enough — after all, Ratmen are not nice creatures.”

“……Excuse me, what exactly are these?”

Looking at those entities covered on the walls, hanging under the eaves, like some sort of ugly creature, Lorena asked quietly, and the Imperial Captain shook his head.

“I don’t know either. In any case, they seemed to have originally been corpses of residents in this city. They turned into such a ghostly state under the influence of the Chaos Force. As for what they are now…… probably even they themselves do not know.”

“………”

This time, no one spoke, and looking at the crowd, the Imperial Captain smiled faintly and opened his arms.

“Well, everyone, welcome… to Hell.”