Chapter 71: the decapitation strike

Velvet’s group and Valeria’s group, who were actively engaged in intense combat, disengaged simultaneously from the snakemen they were facing and rapidly executed a coordinated retreat. Upon reaching the center of the remaining space, they immediately deactivated their titles to conserve energy and converged into a tight defensive posture. Meanwhile, Astra—who had been continuously shooting suppressing arrows from the rear—did not react in the slightest, maintaining her ruthless, rhythmic volley to cover their withdrawal.

​This sudden and abrupt retreat left the Black Snakeman thoroughly puzzled. He couldn’t comprehend why a group that had been holding its ground so fiercely would suddenly break engagement and cluster together at the center. However, it did not disrupt his overall strategic vision. Although Astra’s rain of arrows continued to disrupt his advancing lines,but his ensured that his unit remained structurally intact, although advancing at a slightly slower pace than before.

​Because the space was already constricted and limited, Velvet and Valeria’s groups quickly met at the precise center. The girls stood with their pawn and their chests heaving from their intence combat. Suddenly, each of the girls retrieved a small, milky-white pill.

​By this point, they had been fighting continuously without a moment of respite and were truly pushed to the absolute brink of physical collapse. If this war of attrition dragged on any further, they would literally be worked to death under the relentless pressure of the enemy numbers. They regrouped and took a few valuable seconds to regulate their breathing and steady their trembling hands. To the Black Snakeman, who watched their heavy breathing from afar, it appeared as though the girls had hit their limit and were preparing to surrender.

​Suddenly, an inexplicable, spine-chilling feeling washed over the Black Snakeman. Scanning the battlefield with keen instinct, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact source of his sudden unease, yet he felt deeply disturbed—especially after noticing that Astra had abruptly halted her rapid firing, lowering her bow as silence fell over the corridor.

​ when what happened next was completely beyond his expectations.

​Without hesitation, the girls swallowed the pills they had retrieved from their armor pouches.

​Item Name: Berserk Pill

Description: Upon consumption, it instantly removes all bodily fatigue and physical damage accumulated during the current combat state. It boosts total Aura Points by 50% for a limited duration. Once the effect wears off, the user enters a severely weakened state and suffers severe backlash.

​These pills had been provided to them by Jacob before they embarked into the Slaughterhouse. Jacob had warned Smith that this was a rare, game-changing commodity. If a user was completely exhausted—like a dying dog on its last legs—taking this pill would instantly rejuvenate their physical body and grant a massive 50% aura bonus, effectively restoring them to 150% of their maximum capacity. It was a prized asset specifically designed to turn the tide in otherwise unwinnable situations. ℯℯ𝑙.

​Normally, if an ordinary lower-titled Queen consumed the pill, she could fight at peak performance for up to half an hour, after which she would need to recuperate in complete isolation for six to eight hours. The pill operated by forcefully drawing upon the user’s latent potential and burning through vital reserves. Furthermore, its physiological effects extended to both the Queen and her connected Pawns, with the Pawns usually suffering an even harsher physical backlash due to their lower threshold for energy surges.

​Smith’s system elders had cautioned him multiple times about the unknown risks: they did not know the exact extent to which the pill would affect Legendary Titled Queens, as they had only ever verified its parameters on Golden Titled Queens. Back then, a Golden Titled Queen of an Elder took the pill during a dire emergency; she fought heroically for nearly twenty minutes, but after the duration expired, her Queen entered a near-comatose weakened state for three consecutive days and was completely unable to summon her Pawns due to total energy depletion.

​Because the side effects on Legendary Queens were entirely unpredictable, Smith had been advised to handle the consumable with extreme caution. Seeing his Queens decide to consume the pill now made him realize just how desperate their tactical situation had become. Although it was the most cost-effective and mildest emergency item in their inventory, the operational risk was astronomical.

​Earlier before entering the zone, the group had established that the signal to consume the pill would be when they were utterly cornered and out of conventional options. Given the tight space and severely restricted room to maneuver, they decided that taking it now to execute a swift, decisive strike which was their only viable path to survival.

​From the Black Snakeman’s perspective, when he first saw Velvet and the others gathering into a tight knot, he assumed they were driven into a corner and preparing for a final, futile stand. But as he watched them swallow the strange pills, he witnessed a horrifying spectacle he would never forget.

​The six girls, who had clearly been on the verge of total physical collapse just seconds prior, suddenly looked as if they had activated an absolute cheat code. Their visual exhaustion vanished instantaneously, replaced by an explosive, violent surge of raw energy. Veins bulged faintly beneath their skin as an intimidating pressure radiated outward. The Black Snakeman felt their aura levels surge drastically, rapidly surpassing his own capabilities.

​Velvet, who originally held the highest base stat among them, had an aura level of 48 points after activating her title. After consuming the pill, her aura skyrocketed to a staggering 72 points—completely surpassing the peak threshold of an Intermediate-rank combatant. Even the girl with the lowest base stats among them reached an astonishing aura level of 67 points.

​When the Black Snakeman saw them gain such overwhelming power out of nowhere, he initially tried to rationalize the threat. In his vast combat experience, relying on external consumables to boost personal strength was a temporary illusion; such artificial power could never be sustained in a prolonged battle. Since his overarching strategy was to wear them down through attrition, this didn’t fundamentally alter his end goal. In fact, he felt a cruel satisfaction, assuming they had played their final card and would soon suffer a devastating biological backlash.

​However, as he studied their new formation closer, a wave of sheer dread washed over him.

​Having consumed the Berserk Pills, the girls did not defend—they charged directly toward the center of the enemy formation, heading straight for him. Their momentum was far more fierce, focused, and devastating than any previous attack.

​The Black Snakeman’s scales stood on end. In his earlier deployment strategy, he had concentrated the vast majority of his heavy forces on the flanks to pin the two groups down, planning to execute a clean surprise strike at the center once the girls were completely separated. Because he had committed his troops to the sides, the center of his formation had become dangerously thin and exposed.

​He realized with sudden clarity that he was in mortal danger. Due to the naturally slow, slithering movement speed of his men, he couldn’t redeploy his flank forces fast enough to build a defensive wall in front of himself. Forced into a corner by his own arrogant deployment, he made a desperate, reckless decision to make a sacrifice that he knew he might bitterly regret.

​For Velvet’s side, this central push was their core strategy from the very beginning. Having fought through countless battles, they recognized this classic encirclement formation immediately. Such a formation was typically deployed by massive armies to crush smaller forces, but since the enemy had limited total numbers, the Black Snakeman had overextended his forces to the flanks to fake an overwhelming presence.

​If they were fighting fast, highly mobile two-legged creatures like Ratmen, this high-risk counter-strategy would have been nearly impossible to execute. But the snakemen were naturally slow and burdened by massive iron shields. What made their plan work even better was that the Black Snakeman had foolishly tried to launch a sneak attack against Smith earlier, diverting an extra detachment from the center. The girls had initially worried the enemy commander wouldn’t fall for their bait, but that aggressive mistake was like sending a pillow to a sleepy person—it made their tactical job infinitely easier.

​Astra concentrated the terrifying barrage of arrows directly down the central path, carving out a blood-soaked corridor for her squad. Velvet and her group charged ahead.

​but before they made direct contact with the first line of defense, the snakemen directly in front of them suddenly threw down their heavy shields and primary weapons. Abandoning all defense, they lunged forward like striking cobras, sacrificing their lives purely to slow the girls’ momentum and plug the gap.

​Velvet and her group were briefly startled by the enemy’s fanatical willingness to throw away lives just to buy time. However, they couldn’t afford to slow down for a single second.

​Judging by the burning sensation coursing through their circulatory systems, they knew they had a strict, unforgiving time limit: a little over 10 minutes to execute this decapitation strike. If they were delayed and failed to kill the Black Snakeman before the pill’s duration expired, the overwhelming biological backlash would leave them completely paralyzed and at the mercy of the remaining horde.

​With the metaphorical clock ticking down to their potential demise. The Black Snakeman frantically threw wave after wave of his snakemen into the meatgrinder to buy precious seconds, while Velvet and her group fought like relentless valkyries, determined to cut off the enemy leader’s head before their 10 minutes ran out.