The Experiment

"Do we have any Pseudo-Adjuchas with explosion-related abilities?" After considering the strength of the enemies they would face in the future, Wien turned to Jekain and asked.

"Yes." Jekain nodded. "We have two Initial Pseudo-Adjuchas with explosion-type abilities. One creates explosive parasites, and the other has an explosive Spiritual Power Skill that can be applied to Bala, but not to Cero."

"What about one who can make high-grade spikes or other sharp objects?"

"Hmm... There's a Hollow Beast whose back is covered in spikes. His ability lets him fight with those spikes, and he can also fire them." Jekain seemed to be catching on to Wien's purpose.

"Send for the Pseudo-Adjuchas who can make living bombs and the spiked Hollow Beast."

"Yes, my king."

"My lord, are we going to make traps?" Having followed Wien for so long, Nel naturally knew how important traps were to them.

"Yes, we need to buy some time." Wien nodded.

"Buy time?"

"Right. We need to buy ourselves some time, delay things for Gatemont as well, and create some chaos while we're at it."

"Hmm..." Nel looked puzzled and tapped the lips of her mask, seemingly lost in thought.

"Gatemont led his forces in a breakout to the south and has now almost routed the enemies of one alliance. But no matter how valiant Gatemont is, some of the Pseudo-Adjuchas under him are bound to fall. Under those circumstances, even Gatemont can't possibly take on the reinforcements coming after him from nearly two intact alliances—close to a hundred Pseudo-Adjuchas.

"Although our attack on the northern alliance is progressing slowly, we're trying to minimize losses and plunder resources. So all we need to do is give Gatemont some support and slow down the enemy reinforcements.

"As long as the remaining two and a half alliances can't link up, we can ensure that the fighting on Gatemont's side goes smoothly. At the same time, to reduce the number of attacks we face, I'm going to create a buffer zone of offensive traps.

"I'll also venture deep into the bordering territories of our enemies to ambush isolated Pseudo-Adjuchas. After we wiped out Pairomon, the other lords still don't know that I'm the Pseudo-Adjuchas with the assassination ability. So I can absolutely make use of that here and pull the same trick again, wearing down their strength and stirring up conflict.

"But this will be the last time. Once they catch on, they'll launch an all-out attack. By then, Gatemont and we must both be in the process of absorbing an alliance's forces, or it'll be hard for us to win."

"Um... My lord, I don't quite understand." Nel scratched her antelope horn, looking utterly confused.

"Haha, it's all right. It's just a simple combination of tactics. Too bad technology isn't very advanced, or we could come up with even more tricks." Wien smiled and reached out to ruffle the hair that spilled out from Nel's mask.

"For a while after this, I'll have to leave things here to you and Jekain. Don't mess it up."

"Hehe, don't worry, Lord Wien. Nel promises to complete the mission!" Having had her head patted by Wien again, Nel swished her tail back and forth in excitement.

Wien didn't have to wait long before Jekain brought them to the meeting hall.

"Greetings, my king."

"Greetings, my king."

The two Initial Pseudo-Adjuchas bowed.

"Mm, rise." Wien nodded lightly. "Tell me your names and exactly what your abilities do."

"My king, I am Hengdeen. My ability is to fire the spikes on my back. I can also use Spiritual Power to restore them, so there's no need to retrieve them." The Pseudo-Adjuchas with spikes covering his back looked very much like a giant hedgehog, though his limbs were neither short nor small, but powerful and sturdy.

"Can you produce an unlimited number?"

"Yes, my king, as long as I have enough Spiritual Power. They will only disappear when I die."

"Give me one to look at."

"Yes." Hengdeen bent down and pulled a spike from his back, then respectfully offered it to Wien with the point facing himself.

Wien took the spike and squeezed it lightly, testing its texture and toughness. He gripped both ends and bent it, discovering that it wasn't particularly resilient. He snapped it with little effort, but its sharpness was quite good. Wien slashed the spike sharply across his forearm, leaving a sizable wound.

The act made the Hollows present tremble inwardly. Their king... really knew how to play.

Wien held his injured forearm out to Nel. She understood and licked the wound a few times, and it immediately healed.

Having seen the spike's quality, Wien realized that with enough kinetic energy, it could easily pierce a Mid Rank Pseudo-Adjuchas's skin. But using it to kill an enemy still seemed difficult. After all, a puncture wound was a minor injury to most Hollow Beasts, hardly worth mentioning.

"Mm, that's a good ability." Wien nodded and looked at the other Hollow Beast.

"My king, my name is Gesibolude. My ability is to split off tissue and form larva bombs. They're probably only powerful enough to injure an Initial Pseudo-Adjuchas. But as my Spiritual Power increases, later on... later on, the damage should increase too."

"Mm, show me."

"Yes, my king." Gesibolude rose. He was a potbellied Hollow Beast with a head like a dung beetle's, and he walked on six slender feelers.

He leaned forward, and a small lump of flesh split off from beneath his enormous abdomen and fell to the ground. Within a few seconds, it had transformed into something resembling a grub.

Under Gesibolude's control, the little grub slowly turned around a few times, then suddenly jumped up. A yellowish-white glow spread over its body, and it exploded in an instant. At point-blank range, the blast was powerful enough to blow the head of a Gillian Level Hollow to pieces.

"Do you need to control bombs like that?"

"My king, these bombs are synchronized with my Spiritual Pressure. I can control them completely."

"What about the range?"

"Within my detection range. It's only about... seven hundred meters in diameter." Gesibolude's voice was somewhat low. His detection ability wasn't very strong, so he felt a little ashamed.

"It's all right. That's enough." Wien nodded. "Then what happens to a bomb outside your detection range?"

"My king, the bombs I split off can be considered small living organisms. Without my control, they enter a dormant state. They only activate again when they sense a certain level of Spiritual Pressure fluctuations nearby. If one is outside my control range when it activates, it will explode immediately."

"Not a bad ability." Wien nodded. "Can Hengdeen's spikes be stabbed into one of your bombs without it exploding, and can it remain that way until it goes dormant?"

"Well..." Bolute looked troubled. His bombs certainly wouldn't explode while under his control, but he wasn't sure what would happen outside his range. "My king, I've never tried."

"Then let's try it and find out."

A short while later, the Hollows arrived at a clearing in the forest. Bolute split off one of his larva bombs, and Hengdeen pulled a spike from his back and stabbed it into the larva.

"Squeak..."

The larva's body shuddered, but under Bolute's control, it neither struggled too much nor exploded.

"Keep going. Let's see how many it can take." Wien nodded calmly.

"Yes." Hengdeen obeyed and continued stabbing his spikes into the larva.

Squeak...

Squeak!!

The larva soon looked like a little hedgehog, with around thirty spikes sticking out of it, but it still hadn't exploded.

"My king, I can feel that this is weakening my larva's vitality. I think if any more spikes go in, it will die." Bolute looked troubled. After all, he could only obey orders when it came to doing this to his own larva.

"Mm, stop there, then." Wien raised a hand.

"Jekain, Nel, go bring me two Gillians."

"Yes."

"Yes, my lord."

Though Nel and Jekain didn't know what Wien was planning, they did as instructed. Before long, each of them returned with a Gillian.

"Bolute, withdraw your control first and let the bomb go dormant."

"Yes, my king." Bolute stepped forward cautiously. Normally, he could control his bombs with ease, but this one had become extremely unstable because of the spikes in its body, so even he had to be very careful.

After about a minute, Bolute let out an involuntary breath, finally having put the bomb into a stable dormant state.

"That was a little slow." Wien's gaze beneath his mask showed some disappointment.

"I was incompetent, my king. The spikes made my bomb unstable, and this was my first time handling an unstable bomb. So I didn't dare act carelessly."

"Ah, that's not what I meant." Wien smiled and shook his head. "I was referring to a different time when I said it was slow. In any case, let's see how it works first."

"Yes."

With that, Bolute jumped down from the raised ground where everyone stood and buried the bomb in the sand below, where it could best be observed. Once he was done, he completely severed his connection to the bomb and pushed the two Gillians over to it.

Sensing the Spiritual Pressure of the two approaching Gillians, the larva in the sand gradually awoke and sprang out of the ground the next moment.

"Squeak!"

Boom!!

The instant the larva sprang from the sand, its entire body became a flash of white light as it detonated. The blast wave sent both Gillians tumbling, but afterward they staggered back to their feet, apparently not badly hurt.

"Hm?" Bolute suddenly spoke up.

"What is it?"

"The explosion seems to have been much weaker." Bolute scratched his head. "Based on its usual power, those two Gillians should definitely have been seriously injured, if not killed outright. I'm certain of that. And the height the larva jumped to this time didn't seem right either."

"Could the spikes have injured the larva bomb and made it less powerful?" Nel asked, tilting her head.

"Well... I'm not sure either." Bolute thought it over and ultimately shook his head.

"Let's go down and take a look first." Looking calm, Wien was the first to descend using Sonído. The other Hollows exchanged glances. None of them knew what Wien was doing, so they could only jump down after him.