"Perfect, we can go now," the Bandit King said to himself. He flew to the top and shouted his orders.
"Heart Alliance Army! Make your way into the ravine!"
As they started marching forward, he flew back to the center where Dmitri was. They were previously occupying a carriage that was on the back of two Aura Beasts. Now that they were leaving, he decided to get back in.
The reason was that he didn't want to let Dmitri off his sight. He was still slightly suspicious that something could happen but didn't know exactly what it would be. Once he was in, they set off along with the rest of the army.
Almost fifteen miles away, Leo was standing on the top of the mountain, looking down. He seemed to be very nervous and there was a good reason why.
It wasn't the plan - he had confidence in that. It was his ability to execute it once it was his turn to perform. Till now, he was just using his head and assigning roles to everyone, but he hadn't yet battled a person.
Even if he was an 8th Circle Aura Knight, he didn't know how to use the aura at all. The best he could do was circulate the aura and release it as an inefficient shield.
The one thing he was counting on was his ability to adapt. Ever since noticing the body automatically disguise itself, he was able to do that himself very quickly. He was just accessing the body's muscle memory once he started using the aura technique.
But it was far more difficult to experiment like that once he was in a real battle. He could only hope that he would come out victorious now that he had the upper hand in battle.
They stationed the soldiers in their respective positions several hours ago. Outside the ravine, the entire army was waiting for the enemies. With the narrow exit bottlenecking the Bandit King's, army, it would make them chickens for slaughter by the Blood God's army.
As for him and the other elites, they were at different locations within the path to the exit. Leo was with two of the 7th Circle Aura Knights ready to face the army as soon as it appeared while the others were a mile toward the exit.
The plan was to let the army completely cross Leo. Once that happened, he would ambush them along with the 7th Circle Aura Knights. Since he was still a lot stronger than the typical soldier, and he had the support of his generals, he would be able to wreak enough havoc to force out the stronger generals toward him.
The army would also move away from him while the stronger people would come toward him. If the army crossed the second group, they would keep pushing the army out of the ravine while attacking from the top.
This would work as long as Leo could deal with the stronger generals. He was hoping Dmitri was safe since the plan needed that as well.
After another few hours, Leo finally saw some movement. The Bandit King's army had finally moved which meant that he had to get ready. They were a lot slower than he expected but that was probably because they weren't in a hurry.
They only had to get to where he was before the day ended. It had only been 12 hours since the day started and their current speed would let them do that.
As the enormous army passed along and Leo realized exactly how huge the scale was. The army stretched to almost 2 miles and all of them were marching with very good coordination. Every step they took made the ground shake which woke him up.
He held his breath in suspense while waiting for them to pass. He felt that even he as an 8th Circle Aura Knight wouldn't be able to get out safely if he was dropped in the center of such a big army.
In the center of the army, there were two Aura Beasts carrying a carriage. Within the carriage were two people who had huge auras that he couldn't ignore. The power emanating from them was significantly stronger than the rest of the entire army.
However, this only made him smile. He knew immediately that one of them was Dmitri. After spending so much time with him, he got a good sense of what felt like his aura and what didn't. And now that he knew his strongest supporter was still alive, the tension he had was relieved a little.
Since one of them was Dmitri, so he assumed the other one was a higher-up in the alliance. Other than them both, there were two other strong people. But both of those were not as strong as Dmitri and could easily be taken care of by his generals.
As the army passed, he waited patiently. Eventually, the entire army passed him, leaving their back exposed to him and the two people with him.
Once that happened, he stood up. He hadn't deactivated the array yet since it would alert the strong people in the army, but it was only a matter of time before he needed to. It helped that he was very far from the strong ones and that they would need some time to get to where he was.
This was barring one 7th Circle Aura Knight that was in the back. He saw her and immediately decided to target her first. It would be a good idea to pick off the stronger people first.
Once he explained his plan to the other two, they all jumped. The minute they exited the array that was hiding them, every person who was in the 7th Circle or above was alerted.
In the carriage, both Dmitri and the Bandit King stood up at once. Both of them felt the aura from the rear of the army that alarmed them.
"It is the Blood God. He is here," Dmitri said first. Inside, he felt a little tensed that a fight would break out immediately. This was bound to happen - the Bandit King finding out that his betrayal wasn't real. However, his idea was to deny it till he couldn't anymore.
He could try to remain next to the Bandit King to join the fight whenever required. But to remain next to him, Dmitri would need to maintain that he hated the Blood God. But now that he was there with them when Dmitri said that he would be at the camp, his loyalty would definitely be questioned.
"Why is he here? You said that he would be at the camp still," the Bandit King was furious that things were not as planned.
"Are you asking why the Blood God isn't doing exactly what I told you? If he knows I betrayed him, then he was bound to change his plans. Anyway, we can both take him on. Why are you so afraid?" Dmitri said without showing any care that the Blood God was there. He changed his previously alerted expression to show that he was still a psychotic killer.
As he said that, the Bandit King realized something.
"The Spade Queen! She is near him!" He shouted and burst out of the carriage. Dmitri followed behind him with a smile on his face.
As for Leo and his generals, they dropped down very quickly. All of them knew that they were running a dangerous race. They had very less time before they would get company which would make the fight more difficult.
As Leo dropped down, his hand moved by itself and summoned a spear from the ring on his finger. He had found out about the ring once Dmitri used it and had put away the spear before leaving the tent.
With his spear, he floated to the ground and landed without making a ton of noise. However, it didn't matter that he made no noise since most of the people who mattered knew he was there.
Just as he landed, his head blanked for a quarter of a second. The aura in his body quickly gathered in his right arm which had the spear. It left his hand and entered the spear.
He quickly regained control and saw the spear brimming with aura. Without knowing what to do, he looked at his subordinates. The minute they landed, they both pulled out their weapons and started charging a gigantic attack.
Both of them created a huge dragon each with the aura from their body. The dragon was blood red in color and loomed over the Heart Alliance. They looked back to realize that they weren't alone.
In front of them were three men who were definitely from the Blood God's army. They were only a few feet away from them, but for some reason, none of them could move. Their bodies no longer listened to them once the dragons started forming.
While the two were still charging their attack, someone shot up from the army. It was the 7th Circle Aura Knight there. She sensed the massive auras and immediately got there to prevent any damage to her soldiers.
"How dare you attack us!" She shouted and landed in front of the soldiers to guard them. However, her expression changed when she saw who it was in front of her.
It was two 7th Circle Aura Knights and an 8th Circle Aura Knight. It wasn't just some regular general either; rather, it was the Blood God himself. As she realized this, Leo lost control of his body again.
