970 Begin!
*Roar!*
*Roar!*
A series of roars resounded across the land. The demons were making their way toward Lounstein as they bulldozed everything on their path.
Laufey, Qiel, and two other Devil Saints sat on top of a giant bull.
"I can see the river. It won't be long before we reach that city." Qiel looked at the distance while frowning. This was the clash she had been waiting for. Just like them, Noel should have prepared a lot of things to intercept them.
She believed that the winner of this battle would be the one who had made more preparation.
"His brain… Well, is better than mine. And we can't underestimate his prowess."
"Since there are four of us, should we take one side each?" Laufey asked.
"No. According to the information, it didn't seem that his wall was the usual rectangle. I'm sure that he is going to use that wall to kill as many demons as possible. And that's the place we're going to concentrate our strength. All of us will remain on the north side and have two Superior Demons commanding the army on the other sides."
"Ro—" Laufey suddenly stopped and noticed a cloud of dust coming from the north. "Huh?"
Qiel couldn't help but glance to the side. She shouted, "Enemy attack. As discussed, a Superior Demon and ten thousand lower level demons will be stopping them!"
When she ordered it, there was a roar coming from one of the Superior Demon as it began to curve to the left to stop the incoming attacks.
On the other side, Damian couldn't help but smile when he noticed the movement.
"Supreme Commander. Approaching enemy. According to the size of the dust cloud, the number should be about ten thousand."
"Begin our plan!" Damian nodded. He was currently leading a total of two thousand men, planning to engage in melee combat with the demons.
With his order, his subordinate blew a horn, signaling all infantry.
"GO!" All the Spirit Masters and Spirit Wielders in the infantry began to spread and struck down all the trees. All the soldiers stopped and carefully avoided all the trees.
Damian actually wanted to create a small battlefield in this wood by cutting down all the trees. The demons were also crushing everything on their path, which would create a bigger plain.
Damian raised his hand, signaling to his assistant.
"Move out! Assume position!" All the commanders under his command immediately moved out of their army. In just an instant, they created two lines of soldiers, consisting of one thousand soldiers each.
"Huh?!" Qiel couldn't help but widen her eyes. "Is he…"
Although there was no big war between the four kingdoms due to the demon's threat, it didn't change the fact that war knowledge had been passed down. And Damian actually took advantage of all his experts to create a battlefield where he could apply military formations. With these formations, he would become a bigger threat.
"Not good!" Qiel gritted her teeth, recognizing what he wanted to do. "Send another—"
Unfortunately for her, Damian was one step ahead. He shouted, "From the right, charge in succession!"
Qiel's face was pale. The soldiers were actually charging in an echelon formation. What he was trying to achieve was not to conserve energy or anything. Instead, he wanted to make the battlefield even bigger.
When the first wave arrived, they hit the demons from the right, causing the shock wave to travel through the demon's rank toward the opposite direction.
In other words, the demons got pushed back toward the left, which ended up crushing more trees and flattening the area. With this, Damian managed to create a field at least fifty meters wide and a hundred meters long, opening a path straight to Qiel's position.
"Second wave!" Damian signaled the soldiers.
The second wave moved forward and hit the demons, consolidating the battlefield.
"Flatten them!" Damian ordered.
Because the demons were still affected by the shock wave, they had a hard time regaining their balance and started attacking the humans. Damian took advantage of this to release all their firepower.
All of a sudden, numerous attacks from arrows to spirit abilities flew into the sky, raining the demons down. The Greenwood Kingdom was known as the land of Spirit Magicians, so they brought around one thousand of them to provide cover fire.
Some of the demons tried to shoot them down, but it was futile. There were simply too many of them.
"Kh!" Qiel gritted her teeth. "Send another ten thousand demons to him! If this continues, those demons will die."
*Roar!*
The Superior Demon informed the demons, causing more and more demons to change their direction.
However, Qiel still severely underestimated the power of the vice captain of the royal army. Qiel might be smarter than him in a mind battle, but a battlefield was where Damian shone.
"Jean!" Damian called.
Jean immediately blew a different type of horn. All of a sudden, two more clouds of dust appeared on the battlefield. They were flanking the demons from both sides.
"!!!" Qiel widened her eyes. It turned out that each cloud of dust consisted of one thousand cavalries. They moved swiftly from both sides and cut off the demons in the middle.
Those were the demons that got affected the most by the shock wave of Damian's echelon formation.
Seeing the progress, Damian ordered, "Tell the first wave to get back and the second line will become the vanguard. Have the reserve standby. If there is a chance, we'll strike deep into their
—"
Damian abruptly stopped and jumped into the air. A giant turtle moved toward them and let out a purple beam from its mouth.
Damian waved his sword, deflecting the beam to the side. At the same time, he noticed another strong demon coming from the army. "Two Superior Demons, huh… There are at least ten Superior Demons as well. And an additional five thousand demons. So, in total, we stop twenty five thousand demons with only six thousand soldiers. I guess this is enough. More than this and our army might collapse."
As soon as Damian landed on the ground, he said, "Jean. Inform all the commanders to push our infantry and bail out the cavalry. After that, we'll reinforce our defense and stop these demons here. Remember, our goal is not to crush all these demons. It's to stall them here. We don't want high casualties."
"Understood." Jean nodded and began sending signals to the army commanders.
"We have done our job. The rest is up to you, Noel Ardagan. I hope that you can withstand all these demons." Damian sighed. "Still, an army, huh? In a sense, they're extremely dangerous. In another sense, you can beat them with tactics."
Damian kept watching the two Superior Demons as he didn't want them to destroy his army.
Meanwhile, Laufey looked frustrated. "What? They took a fourth of our army immediately? We managed to retain most of our Superior Demons, but…"
He had a hard time gathering a hundred thousand demons, so he got angry when a fourth of his work ended up disappearing in one go.
"…" Qiel's expression darkened. "I have severely underestimated Damian. It's no wonder he was chosen as the Supreme Commander. Laufey. Use your anger to decimate the Ardagan Family, not here."
Laufey clenched his fists before sighing. "I know."
Although their number had been reduced, they still had seventy-five thousand demons and a lot of Superior Demons. It wasn't that bad when they thought about it.
"Should we send some demons along the river? He might be placing some weird traps there."
"No need. The Fish Demon should be leading its fellow water demons through the water." Qiel shook her head.
Eventually, they could see Noel's towering wall in the distance.
Just like them, Noel could see the incoming demons and hurriedly ask Layla to erect the barrier.
A star-shaped wall barrier emerged from the ground. All of them could see the enormous spiritual energy behind that barrier.
"So, that's the Saintess's barrier. Can't you destroy it, Qiel?" Laufey asked.
"Impossible. It was said that even after getting attacked by all bishops and paladins, the Saintess still maintained her barrier easily. Even with all the Superior Demons we have here, we can't destroy that barrier easily. And using too much energy will allow Noel and the others to come out of the castle to openly hunt our Superior Demons."
"I see. So, we'll use the low level demons to wear them off first?"
"Yes." Inform the demons to take their position!"
…
On top of the castle wall, Noel looked at the incoming demons.
"So many demons? I can't even see the end of the cloud dust… How many are they?" Howard frowned.
"I'm not sure. But…" Dimitri frowned. The demon army began to spread their force like a normal army and gradually surrounded the city.
"This is…"
"All of these are demons?"
"They're not attacking us?"
"They can be controlled?"
The normal soldiers felt a bit scared because this was the first time they had seen a demon outbreak of this scale. At most, they only saw two to three thousand demons at once, but this time, there were so many demons that they looked like ants.
Qiel seemed to adjust their positions to match the shape of the wall. Noel asked, "Are all the grandmasters in their positions?"
"Yes. We are ready to intercept them, Master." Dimitri reported.
It took them a moment to move all the demons, but the scale was gradually clear. Howard said, "From what I can see, they have around seventy to eighty thousand demons. About fifty thousand of them are in our wall while the rest are spread quite thin to reduce the barrier's strength."
Dimitri added, "Still, each side has two Superior Demons. At the very least, eight Superior Demons are contained on the other side for now. And in our front, I can see about eleven Superior Demons as well as four Grandmasters, including Laufey and Qiel. There might be other demons that are ready elsewhere, either as reserve or ambush."
"Eleven Superior Demons, huh…" Noel's expression turned grim.
The soldiers clenched their weapons tightly, wondering if they could do it.
All of a sudden, a giant bull moved forward, bringing Qiel to the front. Qiel shouted, "O' people of the Ardagan Family. I can't help but praise your bravery in protecting your territory. However, we have seventy thousand demons and a lot of Superior Demons. No matter what you do, you won't be able to protect this city. If you drop your weapons now and go inside the Moon Temple, then I can promise you that you won't be harmed!"
The people widened their eyes.
"We won't be harmed?"
"The Moon Temple…"
There was a doubt in people's hearts. If they could easily solve the war through that method, wouldn't that be better?
"That Qiel is manipulating people's minds…" Anna gritted her teeth.
"Don't worry, lady Anna. The current master is far stronger than Qiel could imagine."
A pair of black wings appeared on Noel's back as he floated not far from the city. He opened his mouth, transmitting his voice to everyone. "You should come up with a better excuse, Qiel.
"Despite having all those demons, you don't even dare attack the Moon Temple? Don't tell me, you're actually afraid."
"Huh?!" Qiel widened her eyes. There was no way she was afraid. She was merely ordered not to hit the Moon Temple.
However, the people in the city thought differently. That was right. If they were so mighty, why would they not harm the Moon Temple, who clearly fought together with them?
Noel said earlier that they were afraid, so it might really be true. The Supreme Devil Organization and the demons might not be as scary as they originally thought.
"I have defeated your Supreme Devil Organization multiple times, including yourself. Back then, I was alone. But look!" Noel spread his arms as if he wanted to show his pride and joy. "I have all these people standing with me today. Do you think a mere demon army can scare me?"
"My lord…"
"Lord…"
The soldiers looked at Noel in awe. That was right. They were currently standing with him to create a new era.
Noel looked at them with a smile. He pointed at his back. "If you don't know what to do, just look at my back and follow me. I shall lead you to victory!"
All of them gritted their teeth in excitement. They couldn't help but raise their hands and roar. "Ooooohhhhh! Long live the Ardagan Family!"
Qiel clenched her fists, her face was distorted. She didn't know how civilians could even have that kind of morale. She thought she could incite a rebellion inside the city, but her action ended up raising the enemy's morale.
"You… again… and again…" Qiel raised her hand. It carried all the frustration of not being able to outsmart Noel the whole time.
Noel also raised his hand, giving a signal to his soldiers.
Both Qiel and Noel waved their hands down while shouting, marking the beginning of the battle.
"Attack!"
