John set up the trap on the mountaintop by using the Illusionist's Illusion Copy and Invisibility Shroud.
He knew Linda would attack his command base at one point, so he constantly had illusionists make a copy of himself, the war table, and the guild players with their platforms above the mountaintop. The Illusion Copy lasted two hours. Every two hours, the defenders lined up and covered these copies from the enemy's sight while the illusionists produced another copy. After the copies were in place, the defenders spread and let the enemy see John and the others again, keeping the illusion that they were always there on the mountaintop.
The only time John and the guild players were on the mountaintop was on the first day when they arrived. He had two purposes for using that mountaintop as the command base. The first was to get a better view so he understood the landscape. However, with his photographic memory, he only needed to see the terrain once. He could just rely on the war table's projection screen afterward.
The second purpose was to lure the enemy to attack. He purposefully chose such an eye-catching spot as a command base, all to entice Linda to sneak an attack.
He didn't know when Linda would spring the attack. Hence, he had the illusionists continue maintaining his copies on the mountaintop all the time.
He himself hid inside a secluded cave in a nearby hill which his scouts found after he sent them looking on the first day they arrived.
As for the hidden army. He kept them on standby at the back of the small mountain, away from the enemy's sight. Once he detected the incoming enemy dots. He sent a signal to the illusionists to cast the Invisibility Shroud on the hidden army. This invisible army then made their way to the mountaintop as the enemies approached.
He prepared 50,000 soldiers for this hidden army, which were made invisible by the same number of illusionists. This was half the number of illusionists they had. The other half was with the main army which was currently attacking the Liguritudum army.
With 50,000 soldiers, this army easily beat the 10,000 werebats and their 10,000 riders. These enemy shock troops returned with less than half of what they departed with.
These shock troops were only a tiny fraction of the Liguritudum army. Their loss didn't affect the army's strength, but it did cause their strategist a considerable mental blow.
Due to getting bested by her son for the second time in sneak attacks, Linda's control over the army faltered. John saw an opening and seized the advantage. He had the cavalry units charged into a gap that had opened up within the Liguritudum army's ranks. These cavalries penetrated their way to the back where the ranged and magic units were. They then created havoc there.
This snapped Linda back to attention. She knew she couldn't let her guard down when going up against her son. She quickly rearranged the formation and even tried to box in the cavalries to slay them, but John was one step faster. He didn't let the cavalries stay for long. After killing a few enemies, they quickly rode away again. The damage was done, the enemy's formation was a mess. This allowed the other units to push in.
In the battle between strategists, John might be winning, but he was not exactly having a good time. He had to focus all his thoughts on moving the troops. After all, the Liguritudum had much more soldiers than them. The Liguritudum not only didn't reduce any number since yesterday's battles, but they even increased a bit due to Master's Necronomicon.
This disadvantage in number was hard to bridge when the enemy still had their strategist giving them effective commands. John hoped Jack could act soon and ease this burden he was having.
*
The demons from the underworld gate were very fast. They were much faster than the undead from the first disaster item Jack faced. Thus, these demons reached the edge of the capital faster than expected. In less than two hours since the gate was summoned, the demonic horde had come near the palace gate.
Boron and Sizhad heard the sounds of the demons approaching. Sizhad had received the info from Linda, so he knew what was coming.
The siege weapons that were bombarding the palace gate were owned by Liguritudum. The zombie army Master left behind formed a wall to stop this demonic horde from approaching.
The levels of the imps and lesser demons that arrived were higher than the average levels of the zombie soldiers, but this demonic horde was only of basic grades. Thus, the zombie army could still deal with them. But as time passed, higher-grade demons started appearing, like the abominations with grotesque bodies. The zombie army started to have trouble maintaining their defensive lines.
"We need to give a hand," Sizhad said to Boron.
"Use your guild army," Boron ordered. He also commanded the other Palgrost guilds who had supported him to summon their guild armies. It was time to put them to use.
"Hmph," Sizhad harrumphed. He was not happy with Boron's taking light of the situation.
Boron was unwilling to send his army because he wanted to march into the palace the second the gate fell. The gate only had around 2% HP left. It would fall in less than one hour. But if they lost those siege weapons, the gate might be able to regenerate its HP back. They didn't have enough firepower to counteract the gate's recovery without the siege weapons.
Even so, Boron was the commander-in-charge. Sizhad had no choice but to follow the commands. He called for the other Palgrost guilds and they summoned their guild army control platforms near the siege weapons. Their guild armies then aided the zombie army in battling the demonic horde.
More minutes passed, and demon knights who wore thick crimson plate armor started approaching. These demon knights were level 76 special elite grades. Following behind them was a demon commander, who was a level 81 special elite.
As the battle continued, the furthest side of the defensive line formed by the zombie army crumbled. A group of demons rushed in and managed to destroy one siege weapon.
Seeing this, Boron finally told his army to move a little back to where the siege weapons were. He had the ranged units of his army provide support for the zombie army.
As they moved back, the near-destroyed palace gate suddenly opened. This took Boron aback, but he was also happy at the same time.
However, before he could command his army to charge forward, a thundering roar echoed through the hall. At the same time, droves of dwarven warriors rushed out of the opened gate. Leading this army were two figures, the dwarven president and an outworlder woman.
Boron watched the expressions of the dwarven soldiers charging toward him. Those were not the expressions of a defeated army he had expected.
