Alissa found herself rather uncomfortable as she waited in ambush alongside the rest of her party.

The fort’s defenders had discovered a buildup of troops on the demon side, likely as a prelude to another large-scale assault. In response, they arranged for the [Heroes]’ party to be part of the defenders. Unlike what Alissa had expected though, they were positioned amongst the reserves, in the back of the defense line, and wouldn’t be mobilized until the situation called for it.

She understood the plan laid out by the commanders of the fort – Sir Inolet amongst the decision makers – well enough, just that she still had some difficulties accepting it. The plan that the commanders had agreed upon was to use the bulk of the deployed second and third tier soldiers on the defense line – a good twenty thousand of them – as bait.

They would lose the fight and retreat in order to lure the demons deeper in, where the fourth tier combatants – the lower leveled ones – from the human side would engage them, in turn luring out the demon’s fourth tiers. The crux of the play lay with the [Heroes]’ party who would then in turn strike at those fourth tier demons when they least expected it.

While a close look with [Analysis] or [Identify] would have disclosed their identity to the demons, nobody had time for that in a chaotic, ongoing battle with tens of thousands of people on each side. There were skills that could detect wide areas at once, but those were typically far less detailed. At best those skills would return the levels of the people in the area to the user, which was useful for finding hidden fourth tiers and little else.

That sort of skill would do little to the [Heroes]’ party since they were all still in their third tier, anyway.

As such, their ambush would be an unexpected one, at least this one time. Once they pulled it off, the demons would likely take note of their appearances and other identifying features. A vigilant foe was unlikely to fall for the same trick twice, so the hope was to deliver the most damage possible in this one chance they had.

Alissa, Ethan, and Joshua were expected to take down a fourth-tier demon each before they could react, while the rest of their party split into groups of two which were each responsible for another fourth-tier demon. Leda was excluded from the ambush because she was a healer who had next to no offensive skills, though she would still accompany them.

The expectation was for them to take down their primary targets as well as other targets of opportunity – as in other fourth tier demons – should the situation permit. Worst case, the ambush was expected to take out at least four or five fourth tier demons, which given the prowess of the [Heroes] and their party was a low estimate.

Naturally, such a plan would likely result in gruesome casualties for those playing bait, namely the second and third tier soldiers fighting on the frontlines. It was likely that hundreds, if not thousands of them would perish as a result of playing bait according to the plan. To make it worse, the soldiers wouldn’t have any idea that such a plan was even in place. Only their commanders would have an inkling of it.

That said, to sacrifice thousands of second and low third tier soldiers in order to take the life of some fourth tier demons was considered a beneficial trade by the planners. Second and third tier soldiers were plentiful, and given that the distance between the Kingdom’s heartlands to the frontlines was shorter than the demons’, they could replenish their numbers more easily.

It was that mentality of trading a thousand lives for one that Alissa couldn’t quite get into.

While she understood the difference between a thousand weak soldiers and a single fourth-tier warrior who could have taken on that thousand soldiers on their own logically, emotionally she still found it hard to stomach. These were real, living people, not some numbers on a TV screen or the likes. She knew that war was a cruel thing, but it still didn’t quite prepare her for the real thing.

That both Ethan and Joshua didn’t seem to have any objections to the plan somewhat bothered her, but she also understood that not everybody would feel disturbed like her over some people she doesn’t even know. [Weather the Storm] allowed her to calm her feelings and think logically over most issues. It prevented her from panicking, but it didn’t stop her from feeling bad about things.

It was harder to repress that feeling while standing in line with thousands of other soldiers – as well as several fourth tiers who were standing between the reserves and the main force, not bothering to hide their identity – and listening to the sounds of battle further ahead, however. The clashing of weapons and the screams of anger and pain echoed through her ears, the sounds clear despite the distance.

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If it wasn’t for her skill preventing it, her feelings might have overwhelmed her, she might have panicked or vomited on the spot, but thanks to the skill, none of that happened. Some of the younger soldiers near her looked nervous, some even looking sick. She would have likely been amongst their number if it wasn’t for [Weather the Storm].

Yet the older soldiers looked far more detached, especially the officers and the fourth tier warriors who looked over the situation at the battlefield with a discerning eye. Then again, injuries and deaths were a frequent occurrence for them, especially for those who had been assigned to Fort Ixlay for longer periods of time.

While before the war there were no real major conflicts between the humans and the demons, they still had skirmishes on a regular basis. As one of the most strategic spots on the frontline, naturally a good portion of those skirmishes took place near Fort Ixlay, so the people stationed at the fort never really knew peace for long.

The fighting at the frontlines had gone on for over an hour and showed no signs of abating so far. Typically, in a battle that involved such a large number of people from both sides, the fighting would remain relatively stable until one side failed to maintain cohesion. Those who managed to keep their discipline tended to be the last ones standing.

Naturally, the presence of skills changed the equation somewhat, but most of the time, their effects were too small in scale to affect the overall situation of the battle. Skills that affect a large enough scale were extremely rare, and outside of a few specialized fourth tiers, were typically the domain of [Heroes] and [Champions].

It was why everyone suspected the unknown character who displayed large-scale buffs on the battlefield as a likely [Champion].

Fortunately, intelligence indicated that none of the [Champions] or those suspected to be one were present in the assault that day. The warrior-like [Champion] Sübügätäi was spotted just two days ago at a battle roughly two weeks to the north-west from Fort Ixlay, while the other two suspected [Champions] were similarly spotted in battles that were too far away for them to participate in the offense that Alissa and the rest currently faced.

To make sure that the demons sent sufficient fourth tiers to the ambush, the defenders deployed twenty-four fourth tiers of their own. Only ten or so – including Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond – were left at Fort Ixlay, since their presence might lead the demons into thinking it was a trap. As it was, twenty-four fourth tiers were a bit more than usual to face this sort of assault, but not completely outside expectations.

It could be attributed to the humans being careful, or fearing that the demons intended to attack harder than usual on that day. There were many reasons that could have accounted for the larger than usual presence of fourth tier combatants on the battlefield that day. What it also ensured was that the demons would also have to deploy as many – or more – fourth tier combatants to counter them.

Over the hour of fighting, hundreds of people died, both on the human side and the demon side. The injured were easily an order of magnitude greater in number, and were swiftly rotated to the backlines as soon as feasible, in order to reduce the number of casualties either side would take. Both sides fought with their full force, but the situation remained mostly stable for a good while.

Where the humans used their local numerical superiority at the valley’s mouth to encircle and overwhelm the demons, the demons used the ability of some of their people to directly move on the cliff sides to deliver strikes from above. Those strikes were intermittent and damaging, but rarely sustained for more than a few throws as the return fire from the human side’s archers would follow.

Despite the local numerical advantage the humans had, the demons fought more ferociously, as if they did not fear death. Apparently they had fought that way since the [Champion] Sübügätäi personally led them on a rampage that one time, which gave great pressure to the defense lines. In most other circumstances that would have caused major issues, but the planned ambush was aimed to abuse that very habit of the demons.

After three hours of fighting, the human defense line started to waver. Here and there, groups of soldiers fell back as the demons broke into their formation and messed up their cohesion. The demons naturally took advantage of that weakness as they redoubled their push through the valley. For the first time, they also launched a full assault from the cliffsides, which involved not only volleys of javelins from above, but also a more direct assault as some courageous demons leapt straight down towards the human army below with weapons in hand.

Some of the falling demons met their end on the spearheads of the human defenders, but more made it through and caused havoc where they landed. Like a dam breaking up, the frontline unraveled as one commander after another gave panicked orders to retreat. Some parts of the defense line retreated in good order, while other parts only barely avoided a disastrous rout.

As the frontline retreated the injured behind them also retreated. The reserve forces further back allowed them to withdraw through gaps between their formation, but at least several thousand more soldiers were killed in the process as the demons caught up to them and viciously struck at the retreating troops. No mercy was shown by either side, as the hatred between them was far too deep by that point.

It was only when the last few thousand soldiers were left that the commanders of the reserve detachment ordered the advance. As one, the groups of soldiers waiting in reserve marched forward, parting the crowd of retreating soldiers like a blade. They clashed against the demons that closely followed their retreating compatriots and launched a counterattack to delay their advance.

At the same time, the twenty four fourth tier combatants launched into action as each of them decimated whole groups of demon soldiers. Their sudden entrance into the fight pretty much halted the demon advance, as the fourth tier combatants swept through the advancing demons with great power and force. They worked together in groups of eight to avoid overextending themselves, as even ants might eventually bite an elephant to death with great enough numbers.

Before long, the demons retaliated as thirty one fourth tier combatants rushed out from the valley’s mouth and engaged their human counterparts. Like the human defenders, the demon fourth tiers also split into three groups, two groups of ten that fought against the human fourth tiers on the flanks, with the remaining eleven attacking those in the center of the human formation.

Alissa and the rest of her party was stationed near the center. With subtle signals and glances, they worked out amongst themselves which of the demon fourth tiers they would aim for. Quietly, they moved closer towards the unsuspecting fourth tiers, with Alissa herself already in the shadows from [Walk in the Shadows] and every relevant buff skill already cast on the whole group.

Once Alissa confirmed that the rest of the party was within range, she left the shadows and struck at one of the demon fourth tiers from behind.