I, who was eager to retire, became an Imperial General.

Chapter 217 Shifting the Blame, Pheromones
At 10:10 p.m., in the central part of the Cocobia rainforest, the Allied forces were on the move.

Due to the annihilation of the Fifth Legion's reconnaissance units while scouting smoke in the north, and the complete wipeout of the goblin artillery units due to a barrel explosion, the Allied forward reconnaissance duties have now been handed over to the Darkmoon Clan goblin infantry units, who are familiar with the terrain of the Cocobia rainforest.

With the goblin troops leading the way, the Allied forces quickly and safely passed through the central area of ​​ancient trees with lush roots, and arrived at a woodland area that was relatively short but covered with a large number of green and purple vines covered with thorns.

These vines, teeming with highly concentrated toxins, can cause blindness for one to two hours if their sap gets into the eyes, and numbness in the limbs and difficulty breathing if ingested (10 milligrams).

To ensure a safe journey and to guard against enemy attacks.

After careful consideration, Zalga ordered the front-line goblin infantry to cut down the tear vines and ropes to widen the road and allow the main army to advance simultaneously.

Therefore, under this order, the Allied forces' marching speed was uncontrollably reduced.

"Major General Demis, has this area always had this many vines?"

As he watched the infantrymen ahead wielding melee weapons and cutting down a large number of vines, Zalga frowned and looked at Demis beside him with a gloomy gaze.

"Uh, reporting to the commander, as far as I know, in the past, tear vines usually gathered in the area west of this jungle belt, and it is very rare for them to be in such a state of exceeding their growth zone as they are now."

Demis scratched his hood with an embarrassed expression, then added, meeting the other person's cold gaze:

"It is likely that the recent continuous heavy rainfall caused the tear vine to grow excessively, resulting in it exceeding the area previously demarcated by us, which we failed to detect in time. I am deeply sorry."

"Major General Demis, you should apologize to all the soldiers of the Allied Forces, not me!"

"Do you know that because you failed to detect the changes in this area in advance, our army, which should have arrived at Stargazing City quickly, is now forced to waste a lot of precious travel time clearing the way because of these damned vines?"

"And the most important factor in the success or failure of a war is time!"

Zalga, completely disregarding Demis's unpleasant expression, rebuked him mercilessly:
"If the Darkmoon Clan's intelligence failure leads to the enemy's advance detection and causes our surprise attack plan to fail, then Major General Demis, as the current commander of the Darkmoon Clan's forces, will bear full responsibility for this failure. Do you think you can shoulder that responsibility?!"

"I……"

Upon hearing this, Demis's face immediately turned bright red. He wanted to explain that the other party had insisted on not listening to his suggestion to take a detour during the march and had chosen the shortest route.

Now that things have changed, the other party is directly blaming him.

This made him feel extremely wronged.

But feeling Zhalga's increasingly cold gaze, and realizing that even if he tried to explain, he would only be scolded and there would be no other possibility for him.

Despite feeling utterly helpless, Demis had no choice but to silently lower his head and grit his teeth as he offered a humiliating apology to the domineering commander:

"I apologize, General. It is my responsibility that I failed to detect the unexpected changes in this area beforehand. Please punish me!"

"..."

Seeing that Demis had taken the initiative to admit defeat, Zalga only glanced at the other generals around him out of the corner of his eye, but did not immediately punish the unfortunate Demis.

After all, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the problem with this marching mistake was the fault of the commander-in-chief.

He was in the wrong to begin with. If he were to be punished, although he could use his power to force everyone to obey, he would inevitably be impeached by the resentful Demis after he led his troops to defeat the enemy general and achieve final victory.

This is not a good thing for him.

Furthermore, his reason for shifting the blame to Demis was not to absolve himself, but rather to make an example of the goblin commander, who, having lost his artillery and was of little use to his own army except for scouting, had lost his artillery.

The effectiveness of this approach can be seen from the fact that everyone was either terrified or remained silent at this moment.

Realizing his scheme had worked, Zalga immediately flashed a fake smile, then, to everyone's astonishment, patted Demis on the shoulder and said with a sigh:
“Very good, I am pleased that you have this awareness. However, considering that I personally issued the order for this march, I also bear a considerable share of responsibility for this incident.”

"Moreover, our army is about to engage the enemy in battle, and punishing generals before the battle is not a wise move."

"Instead of dwelling on your mistakes, I personally believe that Major General Demis should turn this shame into motivation and strive to kill the enemy in subsequent battles, so as to atone for your crimes and completely clear your name of the error you made. What do you think?"

Damn it, I did nothing wrong. If it weren't for your stubbornness, my army wouldn't be in this state.

If it weren't for the fact that my artillery units were completely wiped out in the northern magnetic forest area, my troops would be less powerful than even that stray dog ​​Gary, and would only be able to play a minor role.

While you were shifting the blame, I had already blasted you through the head with a musket, you dead lizard. You wouldn't have had a chance to keep spouting nonsense.
Demis inwardly cursed the other party as a scaly beast, but outwardly still appeared flattered and saluted him:

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief Zalga. Demis Darkmoon will live up to your expectations!"

"Very well, Major General Demis, you..."

Seeing that the other party was so sensible, Zhalga felt a surge of secret pleasure. He was just about to throw some big promises at the other party to fool them into wholeheartedly leading their troops to the front lines in the subsequent battles and serving as cannon fodder for him when...

The next second, a strange buzzing sound interrupted his thoughts.

"Buzz!"

Is this... an enemy attack?
"!"

Almost simultaneously, all the generals, whether orcs or high-ranking officers of the Fifth Legion, looked warily toward the direction from which the sound came, and subconsciously prepared to withstand the impact and engage in battle.

But what puzzled everyone was that, under the illumination of the magical lights and torches, when they looked behind the source of the sound, they found nothing unusual except for the dense jungle and the endless darkness in the distance.

So, is it a hallucination?
Gal frowned, but the next second his gaze sharpened and he rejected the idea:

"No, the frequency of the sound is still increasing, and the range of the sound waves is also expanding rapidly!"

This is evidenced by the uncontrollable trembling of the leaves hanging from the surrounding rainforest!
"Wait, this sound seems familiar... This is a signal released by male dominant magical beasts, giant alligator snapping turtles, during courtship, and there are many of them!"

As a member of the orc clan inhabiting the Cocobia Rainforest, Demis quickly identified the source of the sound after a brief analysis. However, upon learning its origin, he couldn't help but show a look of astonishment. This was because, in his mind, these ferocious, top-tier carnivorous beasts—five meters tall, at least ten meters wide, and covered in sharp spikes—were typically solitary creatures, considered among the most powerful hunters in the Cocobia Rainforest.

Under normal circumstances, these extremely destructive large monsters would never be able to gather together.

Especially in the height of summer now.

At this time, the male giant alligator snapping turtle is in its mating season.

At this time, the alligator snapping turtle's temperament and appetite reach an unprecedented peak.

If two males attempting to mate with a female meet at the same time, they will fight to the death for mating rights.

It is simply impossible for them to simultaneously emit courtship signals.

There is absolutely no way that their courtship voices could be so in sync!

There is probably only one explanation for this anomaly.

That is, this group of huge and extremely dangerous male superior monsters discovered a group of giant female alligator snapping turtles that far outnumbered themselves and were also in estrus!

Only in this way can these ferocious monsters, who used to fight to the death in the struggle for mating rights, present such a harmonious state.

But here's the problem: besides the Allied forces, those troublesome tear vines, and vast rainforests, there's nothing else in this area.

They didn't see a single female giant alligator snapping turtle here.

Judging from the amplitude of the ground tremors and the increasingly loud and approaching mating calls, it was clear that these damned rutting monsters were heading towards their location!

So, what the hell is going on here?!
Demis looked incredulous, her mind filled with confusion.

However, just as he was pondering what was going on, Yu Guangzhong suddenly caught sight of a tear vine that had been casually discarded after being cut down by goblin soldiers.

After noticing that the broken tear vine, which should have been oozing green sap, was now oozing not only a large amount of green toxic liquid, but also streams of clear and exceptionally viscous sap.

At that moment, as if realizing something, large beads of sweat began to involuntarily pour from Demis's forehead.

Ignoring the astonished expressions of the crowd, he immediately pushed the control lever in his hand and jumped out of the cockpit of the goblin war machine. He then ran quickly towards the broken vine.

After touching the sticky, transparent liquid on the ground and smelling it a few times, his face turned deathly pale upon catching the foul odor emanating from it.

Because this isn't some kind of vine juice at all, but rather pheromones from a female alligator snapping turtle that have been deliberately extracted through some means!

Furthermore, the opponent's methods were extremely sophisticated and insidious.

The other party did not simply inject the female alligator snapping turtle's pheromones into the tear vines. Instead, they collected 'White Star Flower' from the female alligator snapping turtle's habitat, which has the ability to enhance pheromone concentration and has aphrodisiac effects, squeezed the juice into it, mixed it with the pheromones, and then fed it to the tear vines in this area with a large amount of nutrients.

This allowed the tear vines, which shouldn't have covered this area, to grow to such a terrifying size.

Furthermore, the dense network of tear-like vine roots is filled with a sticky substance that can release pheromones from female alligator snapping turtles at any time!

In other words, once someone cuts the roots of these tear vines, the pheromones of the female alligator snapping turtles hidden within will spread, and the tear vines, after being injured, will spontaneously expel a large amount of liquid from the broken point to attack the attacker, thus protecting themselves from the venom.

The toxins accumulated in the body and the pheromones, concentrated to the point of almost covering a third of the Cocobia rainforest, spread and surged outwards at an unimaginable speed.

And quickly transmit the information about the presence of a 'female alligator snapping turtle' to the minds of all male alligator snapping turtle monsters within the coverage area!
In other words, the location they are currently in is no longer a simple, troublesome terrain that hinders their march.

Instead, it is a mating ground for nearly a hundred thick-skinned monsters that, stimulated by pheromones, have entered an unprecedented state of estrus and become so ferocious that they will crush and tear apart everything except the female alligator snapping turtle monsters!

And, most importantly, if these rutting monsters arrive at this location and do not see the expected scene of a large number of female monsters waiting to mate, what will happen?

Instead, there was a group of beastmen or humans covered in female alligator snapping turtle pheromones.

The scene at that time...

hiss!
In an instant, they realized what a terrifying hell awaited them.

Demis's face turned deathly pale instantly, and he shouted at the still bewildered crowd with almost a hoarse voice:
"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Notify the army to evacuate immediately! Hurry!!!"

"!"

Seeing Demis shouting and yelling as if he had lost his mind, a hint of doubt flashed in Zalga's eyes.

After exchanging a glance with Gal, who was equally surprised and uncertain beside him, Demis was puzzled as to what extraordinary thing he had discovered.

However, his previous experience of being ambushed by the enemy made him decide to listen to the other party's opinion.

"All troops, listen up! Immediately change positions and retreat..."

However, before Zalga could finish issuing the order to change the route, a terrifying magical aura that sent chills down his spine suddenly appeared from the end of the tear vines directly in front of the troops.

In the pitch-black night, a dazzling red light, as bright as blood, was lit from the far end.

Then, with a flick of its finger, a figure covered in countless red magma transformed into a streak of fiery red meteor, carrying with it an unprecedentedly violent shockwave and flames.

And so, before the eyes of all the Allied forces, it approached the army with lightning speed:

"Whoosh!"

……

(End of this chapter)