The next day, most of Fort Ixlay’s fourth tier combatants disguised themselves and blended in with the regular soldiers. A few showed themselves openly, as it would have been suspicious if none of them could be sighted amongst the soldiers. A few others were visible atop the fort’s walls. All of them had mobility skills that would have allowed them to catch up to the others once the battle was joined.

Tension amongst the soldiers was so thick it was probably sliceable with a knife. In fact, when the typical horde of undead rushed through the valley, followed by another large-type abomination behind them, many of the soldiers heaved a sigh of relief. Everybody had worried that the situation – which has been rather stable over the past week – would change again.

Almost as if the defenders had nothing planned, the fight repeated almost the same way as the previous day. Everybody had agreed to keep things normal until after they had taken down the abomination, and only made their move then and there in the hopes that it would lull the demons to complacency. After all, with a skilled [Necromancer] on their side, they could afford to take their time grinding down the defenders bit by bit.

They did just that, and at first, the battle that unfolded between the two sides were nearly the same as the battles they had fought over the past week and a half. It was only when the abomination reached their lines that the defenders put their plan into action and gave the attacking demons a big surprise they had not expected.

Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond were amongst the group that hid themselves amongst the soldiers, and they took action the moment the abomination came within their range. The old Magus acted first, as he created a small sandstorm that clung to the abomination’s face. The creature clearly still needed its eyes to see, so the simple spell had practically blinded it.

Which meant that the abomination failed to notice how Sir Inolet charged his blade with mana and launched a flaming strike at it. The flaming blow was a direct hit, and the force of the blow directly vaporized most of the abomination’s body, leaving only its lower half and the attached leg to fall over once the dust cleared up.

The moment the blow was struck, the fourth tiers still in the fort used various mobility skills and moved out, while the other fourth tiers hidden amongst the soldiers stopped hiding their presence. Everyone rushed together towards the valley, which still teemed with demon soldiers and undead, and started carving their way through the enemies.

It was brutal fighting in the narrow confines of the valley, but with the fourth tiers in the lead, the demons were unable to make use of either their numerical superiority nor the ability of many of their soldiers to fight from the cliff sides. Several fourth tiers had split to each side to clean up the demons from the cliffs as the rest cut through the demon hordes like a hot knife through butter.

Most of the fighting was handled by the weaker fourth tiers, so as to allow the stronger ones to conserve their power. Everyone knew that the advantage of surprise wouldn’t last that long, and that once the demons rallied themselves, they would face a hard battle once more. As such, they acted in a way to make the most out of the opportunity they had.

It only took a few minutes for the fourth tiers to decimate the demons that had filled the valley and leave only broken bodies behind, and as they exited the valley’s mouth on the demon side, they saw that a defense line – if a rather haphazard one that was clearly made in a hurry – and many of the demon fourth tiers had been waiting for their arrival.

Immediately, many of the human fourth tiers – excluding the [Heroes]’ party and the few strongest amongst them – charged forward, each one with their weapons aimed at their demon equivalent, with a few powerful – or daring – ones taking on multiple demons at a time. The soldiers that surged out behind them similarly engaged the demons that formed the defense line.

The battle was engaged once more, this time with increased ferocity as the humans did their best to occupy the attention of their demon counterparts. There were fewer of them than the demons, so they did not try too hard to aim for a kill, as such an opportunity was rather unrealistic to expect under the circumstances. They were there to buy time and keep the demons busy.

Meanwhile, a strike force composed of the strongest fourth tier humans and the [Heroes]’ party broke through the defense lines and took a direct course towards the demon’s encampment. They struck with overwhelming force, to the point that the three demon fourth tiers that were in their way – along with all the demon soldiers behind them – were annihilated before they could do anything in response.

A mighty skill-reinforced blow from Sir Marsten’s warhammer shattered the wooden gate of the demon encampment into myriad pieces of shrapnel that peppered the surprised demons behind the gate and injured many of them. Before those demons could react, Magus Drummond followed up with a barrage of wind blades that carved through the first few lines of the demons, before another flaming strike from Sir Inolet cleared a path through their formation.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Since their enemy was likely to include undead abominations, Sir Inolet had chosen to imbue his blade with the fire element, which typically performed better against the undead.

It was at that point that the strongest demons – four of them at the mid levels of the fourth tier with higher rarity classes – reacted and attempted to intercept the strike team. Sir Inolet, Sir Marsten, and Magus Drummond immediately rushed to face them. Both Sir Marsten and Magus Drummond took on one of the demons, while Sir Inolet lived up to his name as one of the strongest humans as he directly took on two of the demons at once and even kept the upper hand.

Meanwhile, from deeper within the encampment, eight abominations of various size and shape emerged and charged at the strike team. Immediately, Nadine led the [Companions] and [Associates] to engage them. None of them hid their strength and skills any longer, and with their abilities, the nine of them even held a slight advantage against the abominations.

The reason why only the [Companions] and [Associates] engaged the abominations was because Alissa, together with Ethan and Joshua, had already entered the shadow realm the moment they breached the gate, all of them hidden by [Walk in the Shadows]. They moved slowly, but unhindered in the shadow realm, while Alissa kept an eye on the real world to look for their target.

Shortly after the battle was fully engaged within the demon’s encampment, Alissa found a figure which was likely their target. Said figure had the looks similar to a Tesh’ka, albeit with unusual white skin and black hair. What made Alissa certain that it was their target was how the figure sat on the shoulder of a large abomination as they watched the battle, and another two abominations stood guard to their sides.

The result of her [Analysis] further confirmed it. Alissa’s eyes widened a bit as she read the results. When a demon tried to use [Analysis] or [Identify] on a human [Hero], or a human tried to do the same on a demon [Champion], the results were always given in the other side’s respective languages. As such, they were unable to read the results, but could at least use that fact to identify their foe.

On the other hand, when a [Hero] or [Champion] did that to one another, they would be able to read the results as per normal. It was how the Kingdom gathered information on the past demon [Champions] and [Great Champions]. They relied on information related to them by their [Heroes].

The result Alissa saw for this demon [Champion] was [Champion of Lanisheey: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Lvl20/Mother of Monsters Lvl20/Grand Cadaver Sculptor Lvl7]. The level was something they expected, just three levels higher than Alissa herself, and pretty much a confirmation that the Tesh’ka woman was a [Champion], but it was the name that gave her pause.

Alissa knew of that name, and since [Great Champions] called for people from history who had certain accomplishments… that meant they were facing one, and where there was one, the rest would also be [Great Champions] as well. That greatly complicated the war they were fighting. It was hard enough to have to fight others from their world, but to fight people who most likely trumped them in experience just made it much harder.

Those were not her only concerns however. Of greater concern were the abominations she saw around the woman. The two on the sides returned [Advanced Patchwork Colossus Lvl 47], but the one the woman was riding on was a [Masterwork Chimeric Undead Titan Lvl 47]. Despite their low levels, Alissa doubted that the abominations would be weak.

Even so, if things went well, they might not have to fight the abominations at all. Alissa, Ethan, and Joshua were still hidden as they made their way slowly towards the woman, maneuvering towards her undefended back. If Alissa could disable the woman with a surprise attack, they might succeed in their mission right then and there, and make all the sacrifices so far worth it.

Before she committed to the strike, Alissa took care to scout the surroundings to make sure that there were no powerful figures hiding nearby. The woman oddly had no [Companions] or [Associates] or whatever the demons called their equivalent with her. Then again, given her clear penchant for undead monsters that she likely made herself, Alissa could see why she opted to go without.

She already had her group of trustworthy subordinates, after all.

Alissa quietly signaled Ethan and Joshua, pointing out the direction of their targets. All three of them would make the first strike straight at the [Great Champion], but they also prepared a second plan in case their surprise attack was met with failure. They closed towards the woman as far as they could, even pausing for a moment when the woman seemed to have noticed something and scoured her surroundings.

Less than a minute later, Alissa made her decision to attack. She knew that they couldn’t afford to overstay their welcome, and that the distraction the others created for them wouldn’t last that long. The demons still had a great numerical superiority over them, so if they stayed too long, they would be overwhelmed and picked apart one by one.

The three of them – still in the shadow dimension – made their resolve. They waited a moment longer just to allow Alissa’s [One Small Step] to reach the maximum value it could offer. It was only an extra percent which might seem minimal since they were under so many buffs – many of which were from the human fourth tiers that participated in the plan – but every little bit counted.

With their preparations set, they made one final check, ensured that everything was ready, that all was where they were supposed to be. They pre-loaded their active skills – at least the ones that displayed its effect upon impact – so that they could use them immediately upon their reappearance, and Joshua also prepared to launch a spell as well.

Then the three [Heroes] emerged from within the shadow realm all at once, just behind the [Masterwork Chimeric Undead Titan Lvl 47]. Their target was only a few meters away, above them as she stood on the shoulder of the undead abomination. She was unaware of the sudden appearance of the [Heroes] behind her, but must have felt something as she began to turn towards them.

Before she could turn far enough to notice them, Alissa, Ethan, and Joshua launched their attacks.