As the Demon King's army moved southward across the ocean, they had taken countermeasures based on their previous defeats.
They had prepared for an attack by my friends and me.
The magical beasts fought day and night, and had adopted a strategy of not letting me rest.
Of the 1 million troops of the Demon King's army, only 100,000 to 200,000 troops in the front were fighting, while the rest seemed to be resting.
They fought as hard as they, but only those in my vicinity. The rest didn't participate in the battle at all.
"Is that, uh, true?"
"Yes, Master Allen said that."
The Ellie I had left in Fortress LaPolca for communication answered General Lucidral's question as if she were stating a fact.
The conversation was taking inside a building in the center of Fortress LaPolca.
She shared the situation of the battle against the Demon King's army from the day before to several generals led by General Lucidral and my friends.
My fight began a day before, but I expected the battle for the defense of LaPolca to begin the next day, based on the movements of the Demon King's army moving southward overland.
"Allen won't be able to come back until the Demon King's army is destroyed. But that's as per the original strategy, but if this is the case..."
Originally, I went to destroy a million magical beasts of the Demon King's army that were moving southward across the ocean.
However, there were concerns that it might not go as planned.
"Yes, Cecile. Allen is not being given time to rest."
Kurena was worried that the Demon King's army had a strategy to make me fight sleeplessly.
There were many magical beasts that could fly, and many that could use long range attacks, and I was always going to be within their attack range.
"No, Master Allen is resting during nights. There is no problem with the battle, the problem is their goal..."
Ellie explained about the nighttime battle.
I left my summons to fight against the magical beasts, and used B-rank Bird's awakening skill [Soar] to temporarily leave the battlefield and take a nap on the back of Commander Griff.
However, once the Demon King's army realized that I had retreated from the battlefield, they became reluctant to fight against the remaining summons and began to march south.
Apparently, the Demon King's army, which had been resting without participating in the battle, was planning to move south and attack Nest City once I was gone.
Ellie told my friends that there was no problem as I would continue to fight, as my strategy to destroy the Demon King's army advancing southward remained unchanged.
"Oh? If that's the case, aren't we being too harsh with so many summons in Fortress LaPolca? Why don't you just take them back now?"
Dogora said there was no problem over here, and my friends nodded their heads in agreement.
I had left 30 summons, nearly half of the 70 slots, at Fortress LaPolca.
<Command> was quite useful and my summons had been strengthened considerably. Also, the ocean battle was the result after judging that B-rank Spirits were most suited to fight in that environment.
"No, there is a more serious situation in Fortress LaPolca. The Demon King's army heading for the Fortress LaPolca has begun to divide its forces after arriving."
"What? Are you saying that they are leaving Fortress LaPolca behind and going to attack elsewhere? Ignoring the Fortress LaPolca and advancing south..."
General Lucidral was surprised and couldn't help but speak up.
If they were ignore Fortress LaPolca and move south, we would have had to change our strategy again.
The other elven military officials there also seemed to think that there was no way they could advance south while ignoring the geographically important Fortress LaPolca.
"No, it seems that they are planning to completely surround the Fortress LaPolca."
Ellie told them the movements of the Demon King's army that were happening after learning it from me.
The Demon King's army had been marching southward overland in a mass of 4 million, but the army was divided into three groups: 2 million, 1 million, and 1 million the very same day.
2 million troops were coming at the fortress straight ahead, while the other 1 million troops groups began to climb the mountain range bordering the Fortress LaPolca. One group from eas another from west.
"That's ridiculous. How can they climb such a steep mountain? That mountain has always protected our fortress from magical beasts."
General Lucidral said.
Fortress LaPolca was a natural fortress surrounded by steep mountain slopes.
There were many steep mountains that formed a mountain range that was not easy to get around.
That's why, even though the climbers were magical beasts, they wouldn't be able to climb it quickly, so I decided to make it the first fortress we would attack, thinking that it would be easy to defend.
"It's true. However, it seems that there are a lot of Insect-type magical beasts this time."
The army of reserve troops had a different composition of magical beasts than the 3 million troops that had come at the beginning.
I had seen centipedes and spider-like magical beasts with many legs forming an army and beginning to climb up the mountain.
"So you're saying we have to defend from three sides?"
Fortress LaPolca was designed to be defended only from the north and south. It was difficult to attack from the east and west, but it was equally difficult to defend as well.
"Perhaps 1 million magical beasts in the east and west are too many. It is expected that many magical beasts will pass through the east and west and gather in the south."
(We avoided a pincer attack and spent three days cleaning up the magical beasts in the land south of Fortress LaPolca. The Demon King's army seems to be trying to fix it.)
I predicted that the Demon King's army would attack from four directions based on that movement.
They seemed to be learning from their past defeats. Their strategy seemed to be based on the reflection of both the 1st Tiamo siege, which was flawed because they were trying to take down multiple cities at the same time, and the 2nd Tiamo siege with 1 million troops, which was flawed as they focued to attack from only one direction.
"Tomorrow the Fortress LaPolca will be a battlefield. We must hastily review the composition of the army..."
I expected the Demon King's army to reach the Fortress LaPolca the next day. The Demon King's army had changed their strategy to deceive us at the last minute.
We were forced to divide the 300,000 elven soldiers into four directions.
"I haven't finished yet. Master Allen says he has a strategy."
"Whoa! A strategy, reall?"
I didn't call the meeting just to talk about the situation.
"...Hey! You're probably still fighting right now, aren't you? How can you even think of a strategy?"
Cecile, dumbfounded, spoke up about my behavior, which was easy for her to imagine.
I was on my second day of the battle against the Demon King's army moving southward across the ocean.
I had been using my summons to fight against the Demon King's army, who were trying to kill me at full force for hours.
"Nothing is impossible for Master Allen."
(No, that's not the case.)
Ellie spoke again without permission, but without blame, she conveyed the strategy I made.
"No, it's impossible."
"It is possible to just defend. Master Allen says that no matter how fast he hurries, it will take him 5 days to reach Fortress LaPolca."
I told them to persevere with the troops they had in order to avoid being defeated.
"Yes, 5 days..."
(Five days at the earliest.)
It would take me 5 days to destroy the aquatic force, and at least one day to travel to Fortress LaPolca.
My prediction of the number of magical beasts in the Demon King's army in the east, west, south, and north.
North: 2 million
East: 500,000
West: 500,000
South: 1 million
And, our defense on each side
North: All of my friends, Spirit Mage Gatoruga, 90,000 elven soldiers
East: Commander Dora-Dora and soldier Dragons, 60,000 elven soldiers
West: Commander Alipon and soldier Insects, 60,000 elven soldiers
South: Commander Mirror and soldier Stones, 90,000 elven soldiers
"I see. It maximizes the effect of <Command>."
[Militarization] was only effective if the Commander was within a 100 meter radius of the soldier summons.
"That's right."
"I see, how do we place the Spirit Wielders and Archers then?"
General Lucidral confirmed with Ellie. There were more than 7,000 Spirit Wielders and Archers, 2-star Talents, present in Fortress LaPolca. We needed to have many of them placed near the disadvantaged magical beasts in the battle, but the Generals didn't understand the power of summons as well as I did.
"A little more in the south, and evenly distributed in the rest."
Since the south was the least offensive, I wanted them to place more of them there.
"I see, I see. Is there anything else?"
"Of course. This is just the beginning of my strategy."
"Beginning? Wasn't that the entire strategy?"
I thought General Lucidral had been listening to me all along.
"No. Tomorrow there will be a Griff who will bring along 2000 Elven Elixirs for this battle."
While fighting, I had not neglected to produce 2,000 [Blessing of Heaven]s per day. I had taken countermeasures based on the actions of the Demon King's army, and had put them into action.
I had a B-rank Bird carry what was needed for my strategy.
"""Bring what?"""
Ellie informed them of further operations.
A look of doubt spread over the elves, even more so than when I said that I would capture Fortress LaPolca with just 50,000 soldiers.
Allen had won the battle against the Demon King's army by thinking outside the box. So, the elven generals decided to keep quiet and listen to the strategy.
