The peaceful situation lasted for an hour. They had set up all the tents so that they could return here once they finished their jobs. And there would be a few people protecting this camp, considering the enemies might use this chance to destroy their camp.
But to everyone's surprise, the enemy actually did it right off the bat. There wasn't even a need to wait for the group to divide into two.
When Noel was recovering his Spiritual Energy, he noticed that the atmosphere had changed. The demons rarely roared unless they met an enemy, so the moment he heard a roar, followed by a series of them. He realized that the enemies had begun making their move.
Roar!
Roar!
Roar!
Everyone was startled as all of them hurriedly picked up their weapons.
Judging from the source of the noises, it was clear that they had been surrounded from all sides. And it wasn't like they could cross the river easily.
Noel gradually opened his eyes as though he had expected them to come.
"My lord." Grandell hurried to Noel's side, wanting to know his order.
"It seems that they have come. We're lucky to have them come at us instead of making us look for them." Noel nodded.
"They might be scared of the appearance of a paladin. The one who should be coming to us is Aurelia. While she is not the best fighter the moon temple has, the one who has the highest firepower among the grandmasters is her. She is also smart enough and possesses an intellect like that of a general." Layla smirked. "Still, should we begin?"
"Yeah. How is the barrier?"
"You have made an anchor point, so I will just form a barrier that connects those anchor points. This way, we could create an artificial wall. I will take care of our left."
"In that case, I will take the front. The soldiers will take the right side and your knights will become our reserve while watching our rear. As for your barrier… It can withstand the attack of a Peak Level Demon, right?"
"While the barrier doesn't have an offensive ability, it has the strongest defense among the spirits. I can easily block their attacks with minimal energy."
"That's good."
"You should be worried because you are going to be targeted."
"That's what I want. The sooner I wipe them out, the better." Noel nodded and turned around, ready to stand by in his position.
But before he left, Layla called him. "Noel."
"Hmm?"
"May the Moon Goddess bless you with fortune. Happy hunting."
Noel nodded with a smile.
The Saintess then began to pray. There were four anchor points Noel had set up, creating a rectangle like that of a city wall. However, he didn't stretch it across the river since there was a chance that they would use some amphibian demons to ambush them from behind.
Layla formed a thick barrier that allowed one to stand on top of it.
Noel stood on top of the wall on the opposite side of the river. Layla formed a weird shaped barrier that was most likely trying to stop and redirect the demons to the other side. On the other hand, Grandell and the others were used to fighting in a defensive battle like this as they had been trained as the soldiers of the Ardagan Family by Howard.
Now that everything had been set up, Noel turned his focus to the horizon. It was quite hard to see everything with all the trees around them, but he could see a lot of demons coming toward them.
"A few thousands at once, huh…" Noel muttered. It wasn't enough to kill Noel since he could easily escape, but Grandell and the others wouldn't be fine. The only way to do it was to kill the ones who controlled all these demons.
It was at that time that he found a flower on the demons' heads.
Noel sighed. "This is going to be a bit difficult."
Layla had reminded him of the terror of a Plant Type Demon. He didn't know what kind of flower was on top of their heads, but it was pretty clear that they were in the same group and could act in an organized manner.
Noel had thought about it in the past. What if the enemies had an army of demons? Thousands of demons might only be called a swarm instead of an army. After all, they were just charging ahead with their instincts.
However, when they had someone commanding them and that someone had the knowledge of warfare, the demons would become far more terrifying.
After all, human warfare had evolved for so long that they had a lot of effective formation whether it was melee combat or ranged combat.
This was also the reason why Noel planned to employ normal people as soldiers in his territory. He needed the number to deal with the demons after all.
"Fortunately, we fight in the woods… And since this is going to be where the port is, I think it's fine to clean up this area, right?" Noel smirked.
In the past, he had never used his power to the fullest in case it would burn the entire forest. Now that he was a lord and could do anything in his territory, there was no law that prevented him from burning the forest as he could write it off as an expansion.
"Ardagan. You can burn the entire thing off, right?"
[My fire can burn the entire forest and it will use normal wood as fuel. However, you still have to maintain it with your Spiritual Energy. It's minuscule, but when the fire is wide enough, you will feel the consumption.]
"You know that you're claiming that your fire is unable to spread without my energy… which is not like the real fire, you know."
[But what you want is firepower, right? Supply the fire with your energy, and the forest will be razed to the ground in no time. Besides, isn't it easier to put out all the fire this way? You're the one who identifies my fire like this.]
"Haha. The ground is slightly wet, but I guess it's not a problem for us, right?"
[Of course.]
"Time to work, Partner." Noel smiled while pulling out Ardagan.
The closer the demons got, the more horrifying they became. All their eyes became bloodshot as if they were going to kill these people even if it cost them their lives.
Roar!
Roar!
Roar!
Noel waited for them to become close enough before releasing his Spiritual Energy. If it were any other fire spirit, the wet environment might weaken their fire, but this was the Undying Fire.
Undying Phoenix.
A black-colored phoenix flew out of Noel's fingertip and headed straight toward the demons. However, the target wasn't actually a single demon. Instead, it was a tree.
Boom!
The moment the phoenix hit the tree, it exploded and shot splinters in all directions. The blaze erupted and engulfed the entire tree. The leaves that touched other trees ended up connecting the blaze to other trees. The splinters set ablaze a lot of trees, creating a chain of fire.
Some of the leaves fell down and were set alight before touching the ground or the demons.
Just like what happened in the Greenwood Kingdom, the wet soil was burned and became dry as though every droplet of water had evaporated.
The demon was also burned by the fire. Since most of them were Low Level Demons, they didn't have the Spiritual Energy to withstand the fire.
In the end, they were burned alive. Their hot ashes started igniting the nearby trees as well, spreading the blaze wide.
With just a single skill, Noel actually killed more than ten demons. And with all the fire spreading around, the number of demons dying would be numerous.
And the blaze carried so much heat surpassing that of a normal fire. Even if the demons didn't die from the fire, the heat would severely impact them.
The knights and the soldiers were dumbstruck. The intense heat could be felt from their position and the horrifying scene before their eyes completely showed them the other side of Noel.
In spite of his caring and gentle nature like that of a lord, his power was so tyrannical that it could easily destroy a city.
"So, this is Noel Ardagan." The Saintess muttered. She obviously felt the power of Noel, especially with the fact that the pollen that covered Noel's area was burned by Noel's fire, blocking her entire vision.
Though, she could pretty much guess what happened to those demons.
Even though they were controlled, they were still letting out a shrill as the burn was unbearable.
But as one would expect from the demons, they continued marching forward without caring for their bodies. As long as they hadn't died, they continued rushing to the wall and hitting it.
Layla felt the brunt of the demons, but this also meant that the demons carried Noel's fire near her barrier.
It actually influenced her barrier. While it would take more than that to melt her barrier, it was the first time she saw a power so strong that it affected her barrier to this degree.
Noel could see the number of kills in his repeatable mission was increasing. He had to thank the Supreme Devil Organization for giving him a lot of demons for the Honor Points.
Unfortunately, there was one big flaw when using this technique. The fire was so strong that it burned the demon's body and everything in it. Yes, it meant that Noel couldn't utilize the demon's blood for painting the rune body, the demon's hide to inscribe runes, or even the demon crystals.
He had to sacrifice all that if he wanted to kill a large number of demons. This was another reason why Noel rarely wanted to use this tactic.
However, the enemy had brought so many demons that he had to decrease their number with this method until it reached the level they could take on.
Noel could feel that his Spiritual Energy was draining. The rate wasn't high, so he could let it burn for an hour easily. But if the fire continued to spread, he would begin to feel it.
In addition, there was one more problem. He still hadn't made his second move since the demons were still dying to his flame, but he soon felt spiritual energy brushing his skin. It was as if someone was trying to inform him.
He followed the direction of the gaze, which turned out to be Layla. The latter couldn't talk while deploying this complicated barrier, so she must want to tell him something.
At first, he thought it would be about the hidden danger lurking in the woods, but the breeze suddenly changed and pushed him down as though it wanted him to look down.
When he lowered his head, he saw the flame the demon carried hitting the barrier. He instantly realized her concern.
"Ah." Noel couldn't help but rethink his decision. On the one hand, his fire was effective against them. On the other hand, if he was standing on a real stone wall or even a temporary wooden wall, the flame would set it ablaze as well.
While the fire had extraordinary power, the tactic itself was flawed. It didn't seem like he could use this tactic in a defensive battle.
Before Noel began extinguishing his fire in a controlled manner, he saw a torrent of water bursting from the ground.
The water was directly raining down on the entire area to extinguish the fire. In addition, a few huge rocks formed along with the appearance of a few flying demons.
Noel couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows as he first experienced the true raid of a demon army instead of a demon swarm.
"I see. The Supreme Devil Organization seems to have another objective in luring me here. They not only want to probe my strength, but they also want to try a siege with the demons. And it's all for the preparation of the incoming attack… They must be building their army somewhere."
Noel couldn't help but clench his fist. Since the Supreme Devil Organization was using him to test their army, he also planned to get experience that would be useful in the future siege.
"Come then. I'll entertain you."
