Debuff Master - Chapter 1223

Chapter 1223

Siegfried scanned the streets and rooftops from high above the city, but he found no signs of any disturbance.

‘Did it run away? No, that can’t be possible…’

That thought crossed his mind, but he decided to keep searching regardless.

If he left now, the ancient monster could go on a rampage the very moment he left.

After all, a smoldering ember left unattended was usually the culprit behind the biggest of infernos.

Thus, Siegfried couldn’t afford to overlook even the smallest signs of danger. However, he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary despite scouring the city for quite a while now.

“Kyuuu! Let’s just go back, owner punk! You will collapse from exhaustion at this rate!”

“…”

“Snap out of it, owner punk! Kyuuu!”

“H-Huh?!”

Siegfried jerked upright the moment Hamchi shouted at him.

Unsurprisingly, he had dozed off mid-flight while scouring the city for any signs of the boss monster.

“Do you have a death wish?! Do you wanna crash and die?!” Hamchi’s scream jolted him awake just in time. They were about to crash headfirst into the cliffs of a small mountain, and he barely managed to swerve at the last second to avoid a crash.

He finally understood why people always warned that sleeping on the wheel and drunk driving were extremely dangerous. Of course, such accidents were nearly unheard of in an age where self-driving cars were the norm.

“Ughhh…” Siegfried groaned after he realized just how close he had been to getting splat on the wall.

His fatigue had caught up to him; his eyes kept closing on their own, no matter how hard he tried to keep them open. He was so worn out that he just couldn’t stay sharp anymore.

‘Maybe I should just log out…’

He considered calling it a day and going to sleep, as he would probably just pass out in the VR capsule if he kept pushing like this.

“Kyuuu! Stop pushing yourself and just go to sleep already! You might really die from exhaustion at this rate!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Siegfried was about to consider logging out when—

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

The croaking of the frogs suddenly grew louder.

It was nearly summer, so the croaking of frogs wasn’t exactly unusual to hear.

In fact, it was the most common sound one would hear at night.

However, their croaking was so loud that it was almost deafening.

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

The croaking swelled until it was loud enough to make people go mad, and it sounded as if millions of frogs were croaking in unison.

It reached a point where it was so loud that the city began to stir awake.

One by one, lights flicked on in homes across Vanquish.

The sheer volume of the frogs croaking had roused the people from sleep.

Siegfried wondered and turned toward the direction of the sound. ‘What the hell? Frogs aren’t usually this loud—’

It was then.

“Eh?” he muttered and froze.

From the farmlands in the distance where the rice paddies stretched across the horizon, a tide of frogs was hopping straight toward the city.

The frogs easily numbered in the hundreds of millions, and their sheer numbers were enough to cover the fields entirely.

Just like the locust swarms that threatened the Espadrille Province, hundreds of millions of frogs were surging toward Vanquish.

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

The legion of frogs hopped toward Vanquish while croaking in unison.

‘This is definitely the doing of a Calamity,’ Siegfried thought, instantly realizing that this was the handiwork of the third boss monster that had escaped from the Ancient Dungeon and was one of the Ten Calamities.

He immediately banked and flew toward the tidal wave of frogs, but—

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

The sound of the frogs croaking was so loud that it pierced through his eardrums. It felt like the croaking was drilling into his skull and pounding his brain, even though he was high up in the air.

‘Ughh… They’re so damn loud,’ Siegfried grumbled inwardly, gritting his teeth in frustration.

It was then.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

A notification suddenly popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: Your character has been paralyzed!]

[Alert: You have lost control of your character!]

“A-Arghh!”

Siegfried’s muscles seized, and his whole body stiffened. He could no longer maintain flight and was forced to retreat, awkwardly lurching through the air.

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

He was paralyzed and could barely glide through the air.

Meanwhile, the endless croaking further amplified the paralysis effect.

***

It turned out that the croaking of the frogs was a form of sonic attack. The croaking, when performed en masse, carried an effect that paralyzed the muscles of those listening to it.

In addition, it inflicted immense psychological stress as well.

The problem was that it applied to everyone who could hear it, not just to Siegfried.

“G-Grrggh!”

“Ack!”

“M-My body… My body won’t… move…!”

The citizens of Vanquish, roused from sleep by the croaking of the frogs in the dead of night, began collapsing one by one.

Not a single one of them moved again.

Some of them died outright instead of being merely paralyzed.

Why? It was all because the paralysis effect caused by the croaks extended to the heart as well, causing cardiac arrest. Thus, the citizens living on the outskirts and were exposed directly to the croaking died in droves from mass heart failure.

It was truly a terrifying calamity.

Sound, after all, ignored obstacles. It went past terrain and walls as long as there was no soundproofing, which meant that even those inside the city’s buildings were not safe at all.

‘Damn it!’

Siegfried twisted and glided his way toward the city’s outer defenses.

He knew he had to do something to stop the frogs from advancing any closer to Vanquish, so his plan was to order the garrison to unleash a barrage of artillery fire at them.

He glided with perfect accuracy and entered through the window of the garrison.

Unfortunately, his plan crumbled before he could even put it into motion.

“N-No way…!”

The moment he reached the garrison that defended Vanquish, Siegfried froze in shock and nearly collapsed on the spot..

Corpses, corpses, and more corpses.

The garrison was littered with corpses everywhere.

Not a single soldier was alive, as all of them had suffered cardiac arrest. The croaking had paralyzed them and eventually their hearts.

An entire garrison of elite soldiers was annihilated, proving the lethality of the seemingly harmless croaking.

“Son of a—!”

Gnashing his teeth, Siegfried forced his paralyzed figure to move. He was still paralyzed, but it was starting to wear off. He dragged his stiff body across the hall, grabbed the communications device, and activated it.

The magical crystal orb flickered to life and—

— Comms secure. This is the Command Communication Officer of the—ah! Y-Your Imperial Majesty! Loyalty!

“Deploy the Iron Fleet! Immediately!”

— P-Pardon me…?

“Vanquish is in a state of emergency! Deploy the Iron Fleet right now! And order every last soldier to wear earplugs!”

— A-As you command, sire!”

The officer found the order to be bizarre and had no idea why such strange orders were given, but it didn’t matter one bit. The emperor, Siegfried von Proa, had declared that it was a state of emergency, so it was his duty as a soldier to carry out the emperor’s orders.

“Tell Gringore to mobilize at once! Make sure he comes here as quickly as possible!”

— Yes, sire!

Siegfried had also called for Gringore, who was likely resting back in the capital.

Recently, Gringore had not been accompanying him. Siegfried had been moving across the empire without rest, and the poor scribe found it difficult to keep up with him at all.

Besides, Siegfried had been venturing to extremely dangerous places these days, so it was far too risky for someone like Gringore to tag along.

While Gringore was the Phantom Singer, he grew stronger by singing rather than hunting monsters. The more he sang, the more levels he gained, so traveling on tour and performing was actually the most efficient way for him to grow stronger.

But right now, he was the one person Siegfried needed the most.

An eye for an eye! A sound for a sound!

The frogs attacked using sound waves, so Gringore, whose specialty was singing, was the perfect opponent against them.

‘But how do I hold out until Gringore arrives?’

Siegfried was far from relieved, even after requesting reinforcements.

The frogs were still croaking their chorus of death and were leaping ever closer to Vanquish. The closer they got to the city, the higher the death toll would become as more and more people would be exposed to their croaking.

The frogs had to be stopped at all costs.

Unfortunately, Siegfried alone couldn’t possibly hold back such a horde.

While each frog was nothing but an insect against him, there was no way he could eliminate such a massive horde before they could reach the city walls.

His best option was to kill the boss monster commanding them, but even that was nearly impossible.

The sonic attack was so powerful that it had paralyzed even him, so getting past the frogs and reaching the boss monster would be nearly impossible.

‘Maybe I should use earplugs? But… will that even work?’

The thought briefly crossed his mind, but he decided that plugging his ears would not completely block the sound.

While it could block out some of it and allow him to get near the horde of frogs, the croaking would only get louder the closer he got to the frogs. In other words, he would eventually be paralyzed again.

‘What do I do? I have to stop this before it gets worse, but how…?’ Siegfried racked his brains anxiously.

It was then.

“Kyuuu! What if we circle around the frogs, owner punk?!” Hamchi exclaimed.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“We can go around to the other side and hit the boss monster from behind! Kyuuu!”

“…!”

“That’s the only way to take down the boss monster! Kyuuu!”

“Well, maybe but…” Siegfried hesitated. Then, he said, “I don’t think we will have time. By the time we circle around them, the frogs would have already slaughtered everyone in Vanquish!”

“Kyuuu! You called for reinforcements, haven’t you? Trust them! Leave the city to them and go hit the boss monster!”

“S-Should I?”

“Believe in your comrades, owner punk! Kyuuu!”

“Okay.”

Siegfried accepted Hamchi’s suggestion.

Just like Hamchi said, since the croaking was aimed toward the city, it should be possible for him to strike down the boss monster if he circled to the opposite side and hit them from behind.

***

Meanwhile, the Proatine Empire’s imperial army responded to Siegfried’s orders with flawless coordination.

Even though the command had come in the middle of the night, the imperial army mobilized at staggering speed.

Siegfried and Michele had commanded the imperial army to be ready for combat at all times, just in case the Marchioni Empire launched a surprise attack on them. Thus, the imperial army had been split into five, each rotating for night duty.

They had implemented a system where the ones on night duty would be ready for rapid deployment at any given moment.

Thanks to that, the imperial army was able to immediately dispatch the three Immortal Battleships hovering over Preussen to Vanquish.

But that was not all…

Two more battleships, stationed at an airfield roughly ten kilometers away from the city, scrambled at once.

A total of five Immortal Battleships now hovered above Vanquish.

Just as Siegfried had commanded, the crews of all five battleships wore earplugs to avoid succumbing to cardiac arrest.

Even with the earplugs, their movements were sluggish and awkward.

Why?

It was all because sound was not only transmitted through the ears.

Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit! Ribit!

The croaking vibrated through them, hitting their eardrums from within and paralyzing them mildly. Fortunately, the battleships were high above in the air, so the crews were safe from the lethal effects of the croaking.

“All fleet—”

The commander of the Iron Fleet transmitted to the entire fleet.

“—Commence bombardment.”

At his order, the artillery cannons mounted on all five battleships swiveled and locked onto the frog horde.

A few seconds later, the cannons roared to life, unleashing a rain of artillery shells upon the frogs surging toward Vanquish.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Kaboom!

Rumble!

The first explosion signaled the beginning of a battle never-before-seen in the history of the continent—a war between mankind and frogs.