“Sir, I know that some demons could walk on the cliffs and render the wall somewhat pointless, but still, wouldn’t building another defensive fortification by the valley’s mouth be worthwhile to block their less mobile contingent still?” asked Ethan a day after they arrived at the fort. On that day there was a minor skirmish at the valley’s mouth, nothing serious, just a probing attack from the demons.

Something where the [Heroes] would have been overkill.

“You are not the first one to ask that question, Mister Greene,” replied Sir Inolet with a nod of his head. “Of course, since we could think that way, so could they,” added the old knight as he pointed towards the relatively small demon force fighting against the defenders at the valley’s mouth. “Every time we try to build something there, they would intensify their aggression until we give up on it.”

“One time, around thirty years ago, one general convinced the King and his ministers that we could force the issue and tough it out. He led a large contingent of troops, [Engineers], and [Builders] to the pass, determined to succeed or die trying,” continued Sir Inolet with a wistful sigh. “Less than half of those who were involved in the project managed to retreat to Fort Ixlay when the demons caught wind of it and brought overwhelming force that nearly overran the defenders at the time.”

“It sounds like you’re… personally affected by that incident by the way you said it, Sir,” noted Alissa with a questioning look from beside Ethan. Since the two of them reached third tier and could give the old knight a good fight – two against one, though, one on one neither of them were quite his match yet – he had allowed them to be far more informal around him.

“The idiot responsible for that debacle was my son-in-law,” admitted the old knight somewhat melancholically. “I brought reinforcements and helped the survivors retreat to the fort at the time, but we still lost over ten thousand soldiers and a good portion of the [Engineers] and [Builders], so there was no other way to paint the picture. It was the greatest loss of life between the previous war and this one.”

“And your… son-in-law, Sir?” queried Ethan.

“That fool always had more ambition than he had skill, but he at least had a sense of responsibility. He led a volunteer rearguard to buy time for the rest of the survivors to get away back then, which was perhaps the only thing that somewhat exonerated his name despite the failure,” said the old knight with another wistful sigh. “Not a single one of those in the rearguard survived that day.”

“Our condolences, Sir,” said Alissa with a slightly bowed head.

“Let it be. It’s been decades, everyone has moved on by now,” said Sir Henri Inolet with another sigh and a shake of his head. “While I wasn’t pleased that he let his ambition get into his head and got himself killed with many others, I’m at least glad that he didn’t turn craven and further humiliated himself. At least he could die with his honor intact this way.”

“But enough about the past. Tell me, you two, what do you think about the battle there?” asked the old knight as he pointed towards the valley’s mouth, where a large group of second and third tier soldiers were fighting against demons. Both the humans and the demons had similar compositions, with a few low-level fourth tiers of lower grades leading them.

The large number of casualties from the battles might have suggested gruesome battles that would greatly deplete the power of the Kingdom, but in reality, the vast majority of those casualties were lower tier soldiers. Those of the fourth tier rarely fought to the death and would withdraw with injuries most of the time. Even then, it was mostly the lower-end fourth tiers who fought.

As for those who represent the true pinnacle of fighting power on either side, they rarely showed themselves unless it was something considered an emergency, or to face their counterpart from the other side. The only time those higher-end fourth tiers had shown themselves so far in this war was during the [Champion]’s last rampage, where some of the Kingdom’s fourth tiers attempted to capture him.

They had failed and retreated with wounds due to the intervention of the demons’ side, while the [Champion] had fought to the death to [Respawn] back in safety, laughing all the while.

Both Ethan and Alissa squinted their eyes to look at the distant fighting. With their higher stats they had no need for tools to see the situation clearly, especially in Alissa’s case since she had particularly high Perception. The fighting was rather timid, the demons clearly aiming more to keep the human side on their toes rather than making a forceful attempt to break through.

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Even under those conditions where the fighting was less intense, people died from time to time. Given the presence of healers, those who were injured were likely to recover to fight again after a while, so both sides aimed to kill rather than injure. Similarly, those who were injured were withdrawn to the rear as fast as possible in an attempt to preserve manpower.

Generally those who died during a battle were the unlucky ones, as more often than not there were more deaths in the aftermath of a battle rather than during the battle itself. With the situation at the valley’s mouth, however, there were no incidents where the losers were chased and killed by the winners during the retreat.

Since the humans held their ground right at the valley’s mouth, they had a local numerical superiority over the demons, and made use of it. In times of danger, the fort was not far away and could easily dispatch reinforcements as needed, and even if the demons managed to push their way out of the valley, the fort’s defenders would likely push them back before long.

On the other hand, the terrain of the valley – and the ability of some demons to move on the cliffs – meant that the demons were the ones with an overwhelming advantage within the valley itself. For that reason, the human side never truly chased them and was content with pushing them back. They knew that the losses would be horrific should they force their way through without proper preparation.

As Alissa and Ethan watched, two small squads of demons – maybe around ten strong each – rushed out from the cliffs on both sides of the valley mouth and hurled javelins towards the human army below them. They only got a couple throws out before the defenders reacted and chased them away with a barrage of arrows, however.

The back-and-forth continued until late in the evening, where the demons finally retreated. The majority of the defenders also retreated back to Fort Ixlay, with their replacements marching to stand guard at the valley's mouth in their place. It was done in an orderly manner, and from the way the people looked, Alissa guessed that it was likely a routine thing for the soldiers there.

“Can’t we just strike them hard with everything we have and drive them away?” she asked after some thought. “The valley is too narrow for numbers to matter much, so an elite team of fourth tiers would be far more effective there compared to the open. Could we push all the way through the valley that way? Or do the demons have a similar defense on the other side? Actually, for that matter, why doesn’t the demons do that to us? It would be more effective than fighting at a chokepoint like this.”

“A good suggestion, but one that had been thought about by both sides of this conflict, Miss O’Connor,” replied Sir Inolet without missing a beat, though he did give Alissa a satisfied nod of his head. “The issue of that suggestion is that both sides closely monitor the movements of the more powerful fourth tiers on each other’s side. For me and Murdock to move around with your group is doable enough, but if more of us were to suddenly disappear from our usual posts, it would not be something that could be hidden.”

“I thought Demons and Humans could not understand each other? How would they have spies in the Kingdom? Are there insiders cooperating and selling information to them?” Alissa questioned with some incredulity. “No, wait, even if there were some, those wouldn’t be able to pass on the information if they couldn’t communicate with the other side, no?”

“Some classes specialize in espionage, and they typically include some form of disguise or shapeshifting skill that would allow them to blend in,” said the old knight, which caused Alissa’s heart to beat a touch faster for a brief moment, even with [Weather the Storm]’s influence. “Those people are usually low on combat power, but it is very difficult to flush them out if they laid low and blended with the crowd. While they might not be able to communicate with others, they could observe and watch things with their own eyes and report it back.”

“Similarly, we also have our own [Spies] and [Agents] on the demon’s side. These people risk their lives to provide us with information, and even then, practically none of them ever returned. Although it is difficult to ferret out these classes, they would slip up eventually,” added Sir Inolet. “While we can restrict access to important places and people to those who are trusted, we have to make public appearances to reassure the populace as well, so we could not completely avoid such tracking.”

“So if the other side discovered the movement, they’d reciprocate the same way…” muttered Ethan as he thought about the scenario.

“Or more likely, gather even more high-tier combatants than what we have and attempt to make us stay there forever,” replied Sir Inolet as he finished Ethan’s sentence. “Of course, that assumes that they could move their fourth tiers without our knowledge. This is also the main reason why you three had been kept sequestered in the royal palace for the most part. To prevent the demons from noticing your existence.”

“Their [Champions] seem a lot less concerned about keeping their existence a secret, though,” Alissa pointed out. “Do they just think differently in this matter?”

“It’s because we are likely dealing with [Great Champions] instead of regular ones. Regular [Champions] are a lot like you three, usually young people who had little idea about this world, and this quite amenable to follow our arrangements. On the other hand, [Great Champions] are older, far more experienced people who usually already have their own way of doing things.”

“Sir, you mentioned that the demons likely do not know that we are here now, right?” asked Ethan all of a sudden. “Do you perhaps plan to spring an ambush on them? Each of us [Heroes] can handle a lower end fourth-tier on our own without issue now, and even our [Companions] and [Associates] aren’t that far behind. If we could lure several of their fourth tiers to the frontline and kill them…”

“That is indeed what we had in mind, Mister Greene. At the moment it has been over a week since the last larger battle. The demons often made a larger offensive every three to six weeks or so, so at the moment we are mostly waiting for the opportunity,” explained Sir Inolet with an approving nod. “We’ll have to ask you three to stay in the fort until the time is right, so we can make the most out of the ambush we planned.”

“So that’s why you and Magus Drummond hid yourself throughout the journey here, huh, Sir?” noted Alissa as she nodded with understanding. “Keeping the spies in the dark.”

“Exactly, Miss O’Connor, and when we show ourselves, we will make them pay the price.”