“These craven cur! Cowards! Stand and fight properly!”

Alissa heard some of the soldiers she was stationed with cursing at the demons. Clearly, some of the defenders were frustrated at how the battle went so far, since the demons kept withdrawing everytime the humans sallied forth to meet them, all while continuously raining arrows at them. With their mounts, the demons were much swifter, and while some individuals could catch up to them on foot, most couldn’t, which would have placed great risk on those who were fast enough if they were to chase after the demons on their own.

Clearly the old knights deemed it an unacceptable risk to take since they had not given any such orders, and instead commanded the defenders to tighten their defenses after two failed sallies. Once the defensive formation tightened up, with the separate smaller formations gathered to form a larger one, their shields overlapped with one another and even covered them from above, the number of casualties they took further decreased, and soon the demons stopped shooting as well.

Apparently they considered it no longer worth spending their – likely limited – arrows against such a turtling opponent, and decided to save them for when they would have more impact instead. At least, that was what the old knights and Alissa rationalized. If the demons had plenty of arrows they might not cause much in terms of casualties by keeping up the rain of arrows, but it would definitely damage the morale of the defenders.

When the demons actually drew back their cavalry and reformed their formation roughly two thirds of a mile away, the defenders breathed a sigh of relief. The withdrawal showed that the demons had no confidence in overcoming the defenders with their limited forces, which meant that they would be able to buy more time for the city behind them.

Both sides stared at each other from the distance while they started to set up camp as the evening started to descend upon them, the defenders even building up a simple wooden fence to further guard themselves against any potential attacks while they rested. On the contrary, the demons had their steeds mostly let loose while they gathered up in the open, resting directly on the ground in most cases without showing any discomfort.

It was a rather surreal experience, to watch the enemy you were trying to kill just a few hours ago sitting down and relaxing within your eyesight, but the distance between the camps and the open ground in between meant that it would be impractical for either side to attempt an attack at the other, as it would be noticed from far away.

The demons made no attempts at a night assault either, other than a couple occasions where a small contingent of riders would ride towards the defenders’ camp and loosed a couple volley of arrows before running back. That angered many of the soldiers, but the old knights advocated patience and caution, so nobody ran off in pursuit despite the provocation.

Instead, Sirs DelVillar and Inolet called the fourth tiers present in the group to hash out a plan for the next day. While the enemy cavalry force showed greater coordination and unusual tactics compared to other demons they fought, they were still mostly third tiers in levels, so the old knights considered hiding their fourth tiers right at the frontlines the next day to make a sudden assault when the demons came again.

Naturally, the invited Alissa’s group – whose members were themselves equal or greater in power to many of the fourth tiers present – to be part of the attack, which the group accepted after some discussion. Other than the fourth tiers, around a hundred or so late third tiers with great mobility would join them in the endeavor.

It was an attempt to pit quality against quantity, and had its risks, but was one of the better suggestions amongst those Alissa had heard thus far.

The next morning, the defenders filed out of their camps after a quick breakfast and lined up in formation once more. From the scouts they deployed in the forest and further away on the other bank of the river, the demons seemed to have made no attempt to circle around the defenders, probably having realized the futility of such an attempt.

After all, even on their mounts, it would still have taken the demons at least several hours to detour around either the forest or the river, while going through the forest would nullify their greatest advantage as cavalry and amounted to little more than asking for the defenders to ambush them. Whoever was commanding the demons were clearly smart enough to not make such simple mistakes.

Magus Drummond suggested that the presence of the demons might have been a diversion, or a display of their capability to project their forces from afar. It was difficult to confirm or disprove the idea, as reports from other parts of the frontlines took time to arrive, but if it was a diversion, it was indeed a good one, as it was one the humans could not ignore.

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As it was, reinforcements were supposedly already on their way to Arh-Getlam from deeper within the Kingdom, and assuming that the demons similarly awaited such reinforcements, it might well turn into a race of whose reinforcements would be the first to arrive. Then they had to consider whether the demons actually wanted them to focus more on Arh-Getlam to divert their attention from a potential assault elsewhere on the frontlines.

It was rather complicated for Alissa and Ethan to digest, nothing like what they had “experienced” in the games they used to play for entertainment. Real, actual war turned out to be far more complex, with far more factors to put into one’s considerations and where each decision affected the life and death of many thousands. Every mistake in a real war cost lives, rather than just some numbers displayed on a screen.

Which in part made them glad that they were not the ones who made the decisions. The strategic command of the army still rests in the hands of Sir DelVillar, though he seemed to take counsel from Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond, as well as his other subordinates, on a routine basis.

Alissa’s party was not entirely participating in the attempt to strike at the enemies. Some who were better suited for the back lines like Joshua, Leda, and Ormont were left behind, partly as an insurance in case their assault failed and they needed help with the retreat. Similarly, a few other long-range oriented fourth tiers remained behind, though Magus Drummond joined the assault group as his use of magic was versatile enough to fight up close as well.

When the demons galloped in for another attack – once again splitting up to the sides to shower the defending humans with arrows from a hundred paces away – the prepared strike force moved out at the same time. They charged forward with great speed and momentum, and the demons that were caught off-guard by the sudden attack reacted too late, those further in the back unaware of the assault happening.

Magus Drummond actually used his magic to literally catapult those fourth tiers that lacked a skill or technique for rapid mobility like Sir DelVillar, causing a pillar of rock that included the ground where they stood to suddenly push out from the earth with great force, enough to propel them over the hundred paces distance to the demons.

Sir DelVillar crashed down upon the center of the demon formation’s front like a meteor, his form already fully encased in his characteristic stone armor. He swung his polemace with great force, directly crushing those he struck, both demon and steed, and often hurling them bodily into the path of more demons, turning them into impromptu obstacles.

On the right flank, Sir Inolet imbued his blade with the element of lightning and moved out in a blinding streak that left charred demon corpses in his wake. Unlike when he used the element back at Fort Silvia, this time he had not condensed the lightning to a small, focused area and instead allowed it to run wild, the tendrils of rampant electricity striking and electrocuting any demon or steed it came across, causing havoc in the old knight’s general vicinity.

Meanwhile, Alissa brought the close combatants from her party through [Living in a Dream] and appeared directly in the path taken by the demons on the left flank. Ethan stepped out in front, his sturdy body already reinforced by a multitude of buff skills, an invisible barrier from [None Shall Pass] radiating out towards his sides, with Bronwen and Glenn at the corners of the skill’s reach, their shields similarly held before them.

While clearly surprised by their sudden appearance, the demons at the front of the group whipped out maces, axes, cleaver-like blades, as well as short spears, showing that they were not only good at archery, and continued their charge unabated. The cavalry ran into the barrier headlong, the clash causing a cacophonous noise audible throughout the battlefield.

Ethan was forced several steps back from the impact, but he and his barrier held. The demons that directly crashed into said barrier were in far worse shape, reduced to a mess of broken bones and crushed flesh that was then trampled by their own comrades that couldn’t stop in time. At least a dozen demons were killed or crippled in such a way before those behind them chose to veer off to the sides of Alissa’s party.

They only discovered that Alissa, Moira, Nadine, and Maribel were waiting for them to do exactly that as the four women struck out as the demons passed by the sides of the blockade, felling several of the demons as they passed with precise strikes to either the rider or the steed. Their impromptu blockade also forced the demons to slow down to detour around them, which caused a congestion as those from further behind couldn’t slow down in time.

Meanwhile the rest of the strike force, both third and fourth tiers, charged out and struck the areas between the three points Alissa’s party, Sir DelVillar, and Sir Inolet laid out. The surprise attack allowed them to drop at least several hundred of the demons before the demon commander who was likely further behind in the formation gave the signal to the other demons to abort their run preemptively.

The remaining demons turned around a good two hundred paces early, and when the strike force attempted to pursue them, they were greeted by a vicious rain of arrows tha likely finished off some of the injured demons taken down by the assault. Sir DelVillar signaled the strike force not to pursue the matter, and to instead withdraw after taking care to finish off every demon they took down that was still alive.

All considered, the surprise attack had been a great success, with them having taken down at least three to four hundred of the demons. The assault team themselves took around twenty-five casualties, which was a far lower loss compared to what they had inflicted to the demons, and even those who returned with injuries from the foray did so in high spirits.

For the rest of that day and the week that followed, the demons only made half-hearted attempts to poke and provoke at the defenders during the night, and refused to commit to a confrontation during the day. Every time the defenders attempted a sally, the demons would retreat at speeds the infantrymen couldn’t match, and the situation devolved into a frustrating stalemate soon enough.

Yet it was at the end of the following week that everybody learned the actual intention of the demons’ presence and half-hearted attacks, as Sir DelVillar received an urgent report about the fall of Fort Gurzil further west. Under normal circumstances, the forces stationed at Fort Abernal – which now shifted to Arh-Getlam – would have sent reinforcements to Fort Gurzil, but their enemies managed to take down the fort in a lightning attack while the nearby forces were occupied like they had been.