There were surprisingly few changes to the layout of Arh-Getlam compared to when the demons took it over decades ago. Other than when they made repairs to the damages on the southern walls, the city’s structures were mostly left as it was, as the demons apparently viewed it as a waste of time and resources to rebuild the city any further.

They were not inclined to the use of fortifications in the first place, to begin with, though they would use ones they took from the humans since it was already there and convenient to use.

Arh-Getlam was the same case, and as such, a lot of its architecture was still the same as when it was still a walled city. That included how the warehouses and granaries were mostly built on the north side of the place, where they would be safer from demon attacks. Naturally after the demons took over the city, that design ended up putting them at risk to attacks from the humans who came from the north instead, but instead of moving and rebuilding them, the demons simply used them to store consumables they would use for battle.

It was in a narrow alley between one such warehouse and the northern wall that Alissa and the rest of her party hid themselves. If they positioned themselves flush against the wall of the warehouse, they were practically impossible to see from most angles, other than a specific few, mostly from above the north wall which was still under the strike team’s control.

From their position they also had a decent vantage point to the gatehouse, which allowed them to monitor the happenings of the battle so that they could make an informed decision to strike out. Said gatehouse was a small fort in itself, set into the northern wall as part of it. The structure completely encompassed the city’s northern gates underneath it and was three stories tall, with steps leading up to the northern wall from its roof.

Such places were always well-defended, so the plan was to launch a twofold assault. Sir DelVillar and Sir Inolet would lead the majority of their group in a massive distraction in front of the gatehouse’s doors, whereas Magus Drummond would lead a smaller contingent – which included their stealth fourth tier – and enter from the top of the gatehouse.

Their hope was to prevent the enemy from realizing that the gatehouse itself as well as the northern wall was compromised for as long as they could, because if they enemy found out that the gatehouse was in their hands and they caught wind of the incoming troops, it was likely that they would deploy their soldiers out through the other gates and entrap the strike team within Arh-Getlam.

Instead, the way Sir DelVillar did it would hopefully make it look like a smaller team managed to infiltrate within the base and was trying to fight their way into the gatehouse. If they managed to keep the best combatants on the demon side focused on them, it would provide their incoming army with a great advantage, even if it was at a risk to the infiltration team.

Sir DelVillar made quite an entrance as he landed before the gatehouse clad in his conjured stone armor. The ground beneath his foot crashed from the impact of his landing, which naturally alarmed the demons guarding the gatehouse. They immediately sounded the alarm, but that was part of the plan. The gatehouse was far too large and well-defended for there to be any chance of the group taking the whole thing over without being noticed, so it was better to draw the enemy’s attention on purpose instead.

Other members of the chosen squad landed one after another next to Sir Delvillar, until all fifteen of them stood openly before the gatehouse. The ones who had sharper hearing amongst them could hear how the demons scrambled towards the gatehouse’s doors from inside the structure, just as they planned. After all, Sir DelVillar’s team was the bait and the distraction.

That said, just because his team was the bait, it did not mean that they would leisurely wait while their enemies deployed their forces.

Instead, Sir DelVillar led the charge as the entire team overwhelmed the third tier demon guards by the gatehouse’s doors and directly crashed through the entrance towards the first floor of the structure. The mechanism to open the gates would be located at the highest floor, which was where Magus Drummond would strike once enough of the enemies had been drawn away.

Until then, Sir DelVillar and his team would wreak havoc and make it look as if they were trying to rush towards the gate mechanism from below. The gates of larger cities like Arh-Getlam were heavily reinforced and enchanted, to the point that even if a fourth tier powerhouse specialized in offense like Sir Inolet stuck it with the intent to destroy, it would still take them a long while – and a great expenditure of energy – to break through the structure.

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As such, claiming the mechanism that opened and closed the gates was a more viable and effective alternative to pursue.

Since the demons were caught unprepared, the team easily broke through the entrance of the gatehouse. As befitted such a defensive structure, however, the first floor in its entirety was designed as an extension of the gate itself, a region which was meant for the defenders to use against any enemies that broke through the first, outer gate of the city.

As such, it was quite a vast space, a good four meters or so to the ceiling, and mostly wide open other than the small fortifications people could hide behind on the side that faced the city. Those small fortifications were meant for the defenders to use against invaders from outside the city, so they were of little use against attackers from inside.

Instead, Sir DelVillar and his team took full advantage of their existence and had their three ranged attackers hide themselves behind the small fortifications while another small team held the personnel entrance they came in from. The rest of the strike team fanned out and prepared themselves to face the large number of demons that were even then still descending from the upper floors of the gatehouse.

There were the powerful auras of at least five fourth tiers amongst the demons that arrived, while most of the rest were in their third tiers. Clearly the demon army realized that the gatehouse was important enough to warrant the deployment of their stronger people to defend it, but while the demons had a numerical advantage, it was of little use.

After all, Sir DelVillar’s entire team was composed of the best fourth tier combatants from Fort Abernal.

Fourth tier combatants would easily demolish hundreds of weaker opponents, but even so, with only forty fourth tiers against up to twenty thousand demon combatants, they were bound to run out of mana or stamina and fall before the tide eventually. It was why Sir DelVillar only planned for them to hold on for a few hours at the most.

Fortunately the intelligence they received seemed to be correct and the demons didn’t have all that many fourth tiers in the city. In the past, when there were only twenty or so fourth tier demons compared to the nearly thirty in fort Abernal, the demons could achieve parity as long as they stayed on the defensive. The addition of Alissa’s party completely tilted that scale to the human side’s advantage, however.

The demons in the gatehouse were clearly aware of the disadvantage they suddenly found themselves in. Sir DelVillar’s team had not hidden their auras, which made it obvious that all of them were fourth tiers, and as such the demons formed themselves into a tight formation to fight against such overwhelming power, attempting to compensate for the lack of individual power through numbers.

Too bad that Sir Leonhart DelVillar wasn’t the type to just stand there and let them do that.

While the demons were still working on their formation, the old knight rushed ahead of the rest, confident in the protection bestowed to him by his nigh-impenetrable stone armor. He swung the polemace in his hand viciously and sent several of the frontmost demons flying with broken bones and shattered organs as he waded into their ranks without a care in the world.

Despite the best efforts of the demons, all their counterattacks did nothing to the stone armor that covered the old knight, with the strongest ones only leaving vague marks at best. More often than not, it was the demons’ own weapons that bent, broke, or shattered upon striking the unyielding stone armor. It left them stymied and confused, which the experienced veteran knight naturally used to his advantage.

Sir Henri Inolet followed behind Sir DelVillar’s charge with another two fourth tiers from the group that were suitable to such frontal offense. Due to the enclosed nature of the gatehouse’s interior, Sir Inolet did not imbue his blade with the fire element. Nor did he use the ice element since he would be fighting in close proximity with his allies. Instead, he imbued his blade with the wind itself, and his old form moved with a swiftness that belied the fact that he only had one good foot to stand on.

The wind element imbue allowed Sir Inolet to move with extreme speed and grace, and while it did not help his offensive prowess much, it was quite useful for dealing with a large amount of weaker enemies in a relatively open space like where they were at the moment. He gracefully danced between the demons’ strikes and retaliated with fatal blows, reaping lives where he passed.

It only took a short while before some of the demon fourth tiers came before them in an effort to stop the two old knights. It was only those two that could be spared, as the others were kept busy trying to protect their soldiers from the ranged bombardment of the human fourth tiers further back. They knew that if they lost their supporting soldiers then they would not even stand the slightest chance against the greater number of human fourth tiers.

Unfortunately, the fourth tier demons were no match for the veteran knights, and they were put on the backfoot almost immediately, even though other nearby demons did their damndest to help out. The difference in skill and power were just overwhelming, and it was only thanks to their allies' support that the demons managed to hold on against Sirs DelVillar and Inolet.

Since the alarm was sounded, demons from other parts of the base were made aware of the attack. They too rushed to put on their equipment and ran towards the gatehouse as fast as they could. The first few who reached the gatehouse found their entry blocked by the fourth tiers that Sir DelVillar’s group had stationed to guard the entrance they used, but other demons headed towards the other personnel entrance at the other side of the gatehouse.

The teams that were left outside to lie in ambush allowed the weaker demons entry to the gate, but when a force led by a fourth tier demon attempted to do so, they found themselves under attack from one of the ambush teams. The strike practically stopped the demons on the spot and prevented them from reinforcing the gatehouse as they had to deal with the attackers that were upon them.

When another group of demons rushed to aid those under attack, more ambush groups revealed themselves and struck from their hiding spots. Only Alissa and her party had yet to make a move, as they had been given orders to wait for an opportune moment where they could catch several enemy fourth tiers off guard, if possible.

It was only some time later when a group of demons led by six fourth tiers came towards the gatehouse that Alissa decided that a fat enough prey had arrived and struck out.