The phoenix army also clashed with Verremor's second army the day they arrived. The phoenix army's number was less than the second army's, but the difference was only from the numbers of outworlders. Both armies also only possessed one high-level mythical-grade combatant.
Even when the second army appeared in advantage, it was not by much. The phoenix army was galvanized by the desire to protect their homeland. They were supported by the belief in a righteous cause. Hence, they fought fiercely even if they were slightly losing in both numbers and average levels.
Their situation was similar to the dragon army, their battles repeated daily. Scrapping each other's numbers with each passing day.
Only the battle between the turtle army and the third army at the two passes was different from those two battlefields. There were fewer casualties here because the turtle army was playing defensive while the third army took a protracted approach to the battle. They knew the defenses of the two passes were not something that they could take on with their current number. Unless the first and second armies routed the enemies and came to their aid, it was unlikely that they took down these forts.
But if their two other armies won, they would just go over to those sides and entered Themisphere's deeper regions via there rather than going through these two passes.
Abasi did ask his father, Abdu, why they didn't just leave these passes if so? They could join up with the first army and help defeat the enemies faster.
Abdu said that if they did so, the army inside the two forts would come out and take over the Thesewal border town, before harassing their rear as they journeyed. They would then have to fight the enemy without a foothold. It would be harder then.
Abdu believed that the army that was guarding the two passes was equal or not that far in terms of soldier count compared to them. He was not aware that a large portion had left and was now traveling behind them inside the Fulgur region to sabotage their supply line.
If he knew, perhaps he would have gone with Abasi's proposal.
And so, the situation at those two passes was rather peaceful. So much that the outworlders positioned there grumbled about the low chance of them scoring contribution points.
*
As the three armies fought in separate locations, the shock army led by Jack was now charging at full speed along the desert landscape of the Fulgur region.
They no longer cared if they were spotted. It was all about speed now. Their movement brought up large dust clouds. Jack had been using his runestone of marching non-stop. His Runecraft skill had now increased to Advanced Expert, further increasing their speed when Jack focused his willpower on the runestone.
Every soldier and player incorporated into this shock army rode a rare-grade steed. So, their speed was the best possible at the moment. Everyone ran at full speed except for Jack and Paytowin who had to slow down to match the others.
Jack also didn't stop conversing with the natives during the march. There were many here whom he was closed with. Duke Alfredo, Commander Quintus, High Priest Laurent, and Lieutenant Bailey. He also made friends with several other new natives along the march. All these conversations helped push his Diplomacy skill to Advanced Expert.
He was eager to get to the Basic Master grade for his Diplomacy skill. Partly because of what Peniel had told him when he was still stuck inside Greed's sanctum. Jack mentioned at the time that since the Diplomacy skill affected how natives respond to an outworlder, and since his diplomacy grade was rather high, he should be able to talk and influence Greed somewhat.
Peniel's laughed at his comment. She said that only a Basic Master Diplomacy had the slightest chance of having any effect on a divine being like Greed. And that was also only very slight. If the being already disliked you from the start, then it won't make any difference. At grandmaster grade, the effect might be a bit better, but she said not to expect this diplomacy skill to be something that could magically turn an enemy native into a friend. It didn't work like that.
Jack understood her meaning. This should be something that worked much like the charisma stat in other games. It just helped to improve the chance of persuasion, not changed the natives' opinions or frames of thought.
He remembered Grace was the only one he knew with the Basic Master diplomacy skill. He again wondered where that girl was at. He still couldn't contact her with a message until now.
*
"We should come up on the supply line route by now," John said.
They had been running at full speed for days. It had been seven days since Jack left the Slaughterer Plains and five days since the dragon and phoenix armies started clashing with Verremor's first and second armies.
The two armies kept on suffering casualties on daily basis. The dragon army was evenly-matched while the phoenix army was slightly losing. They would need to get to this supply line fast before the battle on those two fronts was over. If that happened, it won't matter if they cut the supply line. The enemy could send half the army back to re-establish and guard the supply line while the other half proceeded to invade deeper into Themisphere.
"Spread out! Cover more grounds!" John commanded.
Many small teams started to spread out as instructed. They covered more ground as they continued to march in the same direction. Each team had a player in it. This was so that they could send a fast message if they discovered something.
After a few hours, Bowler sent a message in the group chat. "We found something!"
Everyone headed over. Bowler and his team were standing beside a bunch of tracks. There were footprints, hoofprints, and a linear track that should have been made by wheels.
"This should be the route!" John declared.
So, they followed the tracks. John chose to head in the direction that was facing Themisphere. Not long after, they saw a structure ahead. An orcish force the size of a legion was in a defensive position.
No one was surprised to see the orcs were ready for them, with how many dust clouds they stirred up in their march, it would be weird not to. But it was of no concern, the legion was less than one-tenth their force.
"That must be their supply depot. Decimate it!" John uttered.
"Shouldn't we follow their custom and formally declare our intention before we attack?" Jack asked.
"Screw that! Only fools will not realize our intention after seeing us charging like this," John replied. "Destroy them…!!!"
One of the orcs came out of their defensive line, seemingly wanting to say something. But when he saw the human army kept on charging without any decrease in speed, he lost all the words that he had planned to say. He hurriedly ran back.
John used line formation on the front line. He arranged the usual combination of Paladin and Sentinel. Paladin used Heaven Shield while Sentinel used Impenetrable Wall while still charging. A row of shield walls followed after the front line as they charged.
The orcs fired their ranged attacks but they were negated by this shield wall. When the human army was almost upon the enemies, they unsummoned their steed and clashed directly with the orc legion.
With how they heavily outnumbered the enemy, John had the entire force encircled the enemy. The melee units kept the enemy trapped while ranged units fired into the enemy ranks from all sides.
Since the ranged attacks came from all sides, the enemies couldn't defend effectively. When they placed their shields facing the east, the attack hit their backs from the west. When they faced the west, the attacks from the east hit them.
The orc legion soon fell without any meaningful resistance.
Still, they admired the orcs' determination. None of the orcs surrendered. They fought ferociously even when there was only one remaining soldier.
After this last soldier was down, John tried opening the large door to the supply depot. It was locked. He then ordered people to attack the door. The supply depot was a defensive structure that had a decent high HP bar and defense stat. But it had no offensive capability, so it was just a matter of time before it was destroyed.
"Shouldn't we just look for the key among the fallen orcs here?" Giant Steve asked.
"Sure. How about you go look for it and we see which will happen first? You find the key first or we destroy this door first?" John replied.
Steve looked at the supply depot's HP bar, it was less than half already. He didn't go look for the key.
Before long, the door was destroyed. John instructed the soldier to continue hitting the building while he went inside with a few others. Inside, they found carts on wheels filled with rations, weapons, blacksmith materials, and restorative potions. Military Rations were not something that could be put into a player's inventory bag. They were special consumables. They were foods compacted into a small space. After processing, the generated food was enough for a very large number of soldiers.
If relying on players' inventory bags to carry common food ingredients, they won't have enough to feed so many soldiers. A player's standard inventory bag was limited to 5 cubic volumes. Verremor's players couldn't carry too many items with them. They might be able to bring a number during the initial march but after that, they couldn't teleport back and brought another batch by abusing the teleportation feature. Because during a war situation, town return scrolls that traveled between countries were blocked. The portal zone inside a conquered town was also destroyed when the town was conquered. A repair could only be done once the war was over. So, the invading army had to go back and come again on foot.
Thus, supplies had to be physically brought in. Another point was, military rations degraded over time. A supply depot was constructed and had the enchantment to refresh the rations. Hence, during an invasion, supply depots like these were usually built as the army moved. John had learned about this from the royal advisor when they were planning the war strategy.
This was why the supply line bore such great importance. These were features that put limitations on the invading force. Any invasion had to be carefully thought through before being carried out.
