Five days have passed since the siege on the Fortress LaPolca began.
The defensive battle against the Demon King's army lasted for 5 days straight without break.
Over 2000 [Blessing of Heaven]s were used per, but the elven soldiers managed to hold on.
I regularly sent B-rank Bird with [Blessing of Heaven]s so that the Fortress LaPolca wouldn't run out of them.
Of the 300,000 Elven soldiers, about 10% died in the past 5 days, and the defenses were slowly weakening.
Thanks to the abundance of mana available, and my summons fighting outside the wall, only these sacrifices had to be made.
The 5-day siege had some significant results.
The number of magical beasts on the east and west walls, where B-rank Dragons and B-rank Insects fought, each of which had 500,000 magical beasts, was reduced by half.
The battle seemed to be easy with enough Recovery Magic available, and my tireless summons hunted down about 500,000 magical beasts in the east and west.
The number of Child Alipons has increased in the past 5 days. This increased the west wall side's offensive power.
In addition, the Demon King's army had not changed their strategy and continued to attack from all four directions, east, west, north, and south. They did try to adjust the number of magical beasts by distributing 200,000 magical beasts from the north and south to the east and west wall side.
The walls were becoming covered with the corpses of magical beasts, but I was glad that it was still February and the weather was cold.
If the same battle had been fought in the summer, a plague might have broken out from the decomposing corpses of the magical beasts.
"It's already time. Do you think he'll be back soon?"
"It's about time. He said last night that he'd be back today."
Kiel replied to Cecile, who was sitting behind her.
4 B-rank Birds were being ridden by my 6 friends.
Formar and Sophie, and Kiel and Cecile were riding as pairs whereas Dogora and Kurena were each riding a single B-rank Bird.
Since both Kurena and Dogora were complete melee fighters, they were fighting to protect the wall by riding on B-rank Bird, slashing at the backs of magical beasts that were trying to crawl up the wall, and prioritizing A-rank magical beasts that were too much for the elven soldiers to handle.
I had told my friends to help elven soldiers.
While riding the 4 B-rank Bird summons, the party worked together to fight.
I had always told them that it was important to fight as best we could in an ever-changing war situation.
"Three Dragons are coming from up ahead! Dogora, please!"
"Oh!"
Kurena noticed that 3 A-rank magical beasts, Dragons, were running into the wall.
An A-rank Dragon could deal a lot of damage to the elven soldiers, so they started to act immediately.
While Kurena was holding one Dragon back on her own, Dogora and Formar were working together to hold another one back. The third Dragon was approaching the wall and the elven Archers were shooting at it, but it still forced its way closer.
In the midst of all that, a voice came from behind Formar.
"I'll go! Miss Kurena, Mister Dogora, please stand back!"
Sophie shouted loud enough for everyone to hear as she said she was going to handle the Dragons.
She immediately changed the Ring she was wearing that increased her [Endurance] to ine that increased her [Mana]. Both of her Rings were focused to increase [Mand].
In addition, she grabbed a [Blessing of Heaven] and filled up her mana reserves.
Then, she grasped her staff with both hands and focused her attention.
Sophie's figure began to glow like a shimmer.
Kurena and Dogora moved away from the Dragon they were dealing with.
"Great Spirit, please answer my call."
A mass of flames formed in front of Sophie's eyes.
It got bigger and bigger, and then turns into a giant humanoid.
Something large as a Dragon, almost humanoid in shape with broad shoulders, floated in the air.
"... I am Ifrit, the Great Spirit of Fire. I will lend you my power in exchange for your mana through the contract we formed with the Spirit King."
Sophie used her Extra Skill [Great Spirit Manifestation] to manifest the Great Spirit of Fire, Ifrit.
There was no mouth on that mass of fire, but a voice echoed from nowhere.
"Please. Master Ifrit."
As if Sophie's request made him understand everything, the fire that covered his whole body became even more intense.
Then, he went straight towards the Dragons at once.
He plunged with great force into the belly of the Dragon that was running towards the wall, causing it to explode and turn into charred pieces of flesh.
"He is as powerful as ever."
Cecile, who could use Fire Magic, was the most surprised person.
Cecile would never be able to turn a fire-resistant Dragon into a charred piece of meat with her Fire Magic.
As it was, the remaining two Dragons also turned into charred pieces of flesh and Ifrit went on to attack the other magical beasts.
"Oh, it's Ifrit today, huh."
(Last time it was Undine. I guess the odds are still the same.)
I was watching the manifestation of Ifrit.
Sophie's [Great Spirit Manifestation] manifested one of the Four Great Spirits of Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.
The manifested Great Spirit would attack, heal, and assist you. Cool down time was 1 day.
Ifrit had no trouble taking down multiple A-rank magical beasts.
Sophie seemed to be able to manifest them more freely due to the war that had been going on for the past month or so.
Since the manifestation time was proportional to the amount of mana she paid, Sophie equipped a mana increasing Ring and raised her maximum [Mana] so that [Great Spirit Manifestation] could last longer.
"Master Allen!"
Sophie noticed that I had returned.
I came in riding on the back of Commander Griff.
"Oh, you're back. What took you so long?"
With that, Cecile sat behind me on Commander Griff.
"There are still magical beasts left to be defeated on the ocean. I just left my summons to handle them and rushed over."
I returned to Fortress LaPolca just as planned after 5 days.
There were still nearly 100,000 magical beasts left, but there was no need for me to be there until the end.
I hurried back on Commander Griff, assuming that my summons that I had left behind could wipe them out.
The sooner I returned, the less casualties Fortress LaPolca would suffer.
(I've checked all the walls, and the northern wall is sustaining the highest pressure. There are still about 3 million magical beasts left overall. It's going to take 10 days or even more to eradicate them. Hmmm...)
After going to the east, west and south walls, I finally came to the north wall.
On the south wall, there were only 4 B-rank Stones, so I added 5 B-rank Dragons.
"Dora-Doras, come out."
""Oh!""
I summoned 7 B-rank Dragons.
They skillfully burned away the magical beasts on the wall without hurting the elven soldiers.
The number of summons guarding Fortress LaPolca was quickly increasing.
(After all, the fastest way to eliminate small fries is with Dora-Doras their ranged attack.)
"So, um, I'm pretty sure the Demon King's army has been replaced by now."
"What? It's already done?"
(I see, I see.)
The Demon King's army rotated their soldiers every 12 hours to exhaust the elven soldiers. The magical beasts, with the exception of a few species, didn't have infinite stamina.
The new magical beasts were fighting on the wall, and the magical beasts that were fighting earlier were resting a little further down the mountain.
"Okay, guys, let's go defeat some exhausted magical beasts. Can you still make it?"
"What? Of course."
"Oh! That sounds like what you would do."
Cecile said it was what I would do, and Kurena agreed. The others all agreed that attacking a tired magical beast was a very me-like strategy.
(Okay, after two hours, the effects of sustained combat will wear off and the full amount of experience will come to us.)
Experience was allocated to everyone who participated in the battle.
The extent of participation in the battle was quite vague, but I knew one thing.
If too much time had passed after you started to rest, you wouldn't get any experience even if others defeated the magical beasts you were fighting against before your rest.
For example, if an adventurer attacks a magical beast, wounding it but lets it escape.
If another adventurer defeats it the next day, the adventurer from the previous day would not receive any experience.
Once a certain amount of time had passed since the last battle, the person who fought the previous battle wouldn't receive any experience, even if that magical beast were defeated by another person.
Since two hours had already passed since the last switch of magical beasts of Demon King's army occurred, no experience would be assigned to the elven soldiers even if they were defeated.
"Let's go."
""Oh!""
Allen joined the siege of Fortress LaPolca, and the battle against the Demon King's army continued.
