Dan was going to wait until the army entered into his territory. It would take a couple of hours before they did so, allowing him to rally his troops. Additionally, it ensured he got as much mana from the army as possible while still allowing his monsters to regenerate mana.
As far as strategies went, he planned to use the bats and squirrel combo to thin out the army before the actual battle took place. He knew that the ordinary members of the army wouldn’t be much, but they still outnumbered him and considering that his monsters would have 30 Mid-D-Ranks to deal with on top of the boss. The more minions he had available, the better.
To that extent, he had calculated the army's marching route, which placed them in a few large clearings as they approached the village. He would have preferred to explode them back in their territory since it was more open, but once again, the mana called to him. Not that it would even do him any good, as he was barred from sending any new or old monsters outside of the already designated groups to join the fight.
Two hours later, Dan’s minions, who had already been near the village or wandering around the kobold area, were all finally gathered up. He immediately ordered the bats to grab the squirrels and fly towards the incoming army, which was minutes away from crossing into his territory. There weren’t many of his bats and squirrels, only 60 of each matching the porcupines in numbers.
Watching the bombing squadron leave, Dan was glad he had waited so he could witness the whole thing through his own senses. It would take the bats some time to get to the army; meanwhile, he ordered his troops to move away from the village. Dan knew that the final battle would be a mess and would rather avoid damaging the village. Following his order, his monsters moved about three or so miles from the village and waited in the direct path of the army.
During this time, the army crossed into his territory, and Dan watched with anticipation as his bombing squadrons approached from high in the air. The swarm of bats inched ever closer to the army, and the squirrels were barely grasped by their tiny claws as the bats struggled to stay in flight.
They were finally beginning to fly over the army when he gave the squirrels their commands. They were to spend all their mana summoning their explosive acorns in order to give them that extra boom factor. It took a second or two for the squirrels to summon their acorns, and Dan waited until they were all above the army before giving the command to release. Following that command, Dan had the bats fly away as the acorns fell downwards to an oblivious enemy.
As he watched, Dan realized he had a bit of a problem. He had forgotten about the wind, and from such high up, the Precise ability couldn’t do much to calculate for it. Thus, Dan spent all 763 points of his currently available mana to halt the wind for a few seconds in that very specific zone and immediately saw the acorns begin to fall straight down without shifting so much. The issue was that the damage had already been done, and the wind had pushed much of the acorns forward, targeting the first and second lines of the army with a few going for the third and even less for the rankers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions sounded through the army's ranks as acorns made contact with the heads of green skins, though a few only impacted the ground. Still, it was important to remember these were D-rank attacks against non-ranked individuals, making them very effective. So it was without surprise that Dan saw flying body parts and large amounts of splashing blood scattering about and painting the ground red. The green skins had no chance. One minute, they were there, and the next, nothing.
Dan had lived through the war; at least, his current memories said he did. However, nothing prepared him for the gore he saw. He wasn’t sure why, but he expected less stuff and disgustingness. He had seen his monster's battle, but that had been different. They bled, and stuff came out, but not to this extent. It was incredibly disturbing, at least his humanity said it was.
Of course, if Dan was surprised and he knew the attack was coming, the rest of the army was even more surprised causing panic to quickly spread as they registered the massacre. The panic lasted for a few minutes before big green and the rest of the rankers established order. And soon enough, the army was moving again, except with a few new changes. First, they were moving with more speed. Second, they purposely avoided clearings. Thirdly, they finally deployed some of their magic.
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Though the explosions had taken out around 50 of their casters, the rest were still in tip-top shape and had been put to work.
The casters had spread around the army as they worked on three large areas of effect spells. As watched them work it was clear that it wasn’t their first time doing whatever it was they were doing because their coordination was immaculate.
The first spell gave a weak body enhancement to the remaining green skins, increasing their speed and stamina. The second one made the army travel through the forest much more easily as Dan saw a large green dome of energy appear in a radius around the army. This spell made plants and branches move slightly out of the way to let the army pass without too much issue. Finally, the last one was the most important and probably the most demanding. The casters had summoned a large dome shield that glowed with faint light blue and pink energy. This shield floated a couple of feet above the army and it was obviously meant to intersect any incoming projectiles triggering them before they could hit the army’s ranks.
Dan saw one major flaw in their shield strategy. It only covered the area above the army, which left every other direction exposed. So, if Dan couldn’t attack from above, he would switch strategies.
The army was getting ever closer to his small army of monsters who were waiting in an area of the forest Dan had clear of shrubbery. Dan wanted the trees around for the hidden squirrel strategy, but he could do without the annoying shrubs making the fight that much more annoying for his monsters.
It didn’t take long for the goblins to enter the large shrub-free area of the forest, causing them to dismiss their nature spell; then, soon after, they saw his small group of monsters with Drax standing behind them. Seeing an actual enemy, the army got excited but didn’t rush forward straight away, more than likely being held back by their superiors. Seeing this caution Dam wondered if the enemy rankers were now wary of a trap after all they had lost so many of their kind to his previous explosives.
Observing them, Dan saw that their shield was still up, but their enhancement wasn’t. Additionally, the enemy rankers were looking around as they recalled the casters that were no longer working a spell. Watching them, Dan realized the green skins were conversing about strategy, and he knew he couldn’t just keep waiting.
In unison, squirrels emerged from the branches of trees nearby and began summoning their acorns. The green skins noticed, and the rankers quickly interfered as energy flooded the shield, and it extended downwards, covering the sides of the army while gaining a much more pinkish hue. A second later, acorns flew and struck the shield causing cracks to appear but were not able to break the damn thing.
With that strategy done, Dan ordered the squirrels to retreat as they had used all their mana. Seeing the squirrels retreat, the enemy decided it was time to stop messing around, and the call went out.
Dan saw the archers and casters preparing to launch a barrage at his army and finally commanded the centibulkers to roll forward while telling the porcupines to unleash quill hell.
A moment later, the sky was flooded with quills as the porcupines turned their quills into metal, activated their Piercing Quills ability, and hurriedly discharged their load at the same time the enemy unleashed theirs. The best part was that the enemy had to bring up their shield for their projectiles to go through, and Dan thanked his lucky stars for the enemy's shitty magic skills.
The two projectile rains met, and Dan won by a large margin since each porcupine could shoot about 100+ quills in one go. Yes, Dan knew they had a lot more, but there was only so much magic could do. Either way, the problem wasn’t numbers but explosions. The enemy casters had unleashed a fair amount of explosive projectiles, which caused many of the quills to lose their trajectories. Many still hit the enemy, taking out quite a good number of them, but many more landed on the ground, in trees, or even struck the receded shield above their heads.
Thankfully, Dan had a backup plan to the hidden squirrel tactic and was glad he hadn’t used both together. This plan would work even better than the hidden squirrel plan because the monsters were already out and about.
Giving the command, Dan saw blasts of webs leave the trees, striking and then expanding, catching many green skins in sticky webs. Some webs even struck the rankers but were quickly shredded apart. Not that it mattered because it stopped a lot of the green skins from shooting stuff again. Plus the rolling centibulkers approaching, ready to squish them and mark the moment that hell truly yet figuratively broke loose.
Green skins rushed forward to meet the centibulkers while many more struggled to break free. Things were already going great for Dan, and half of his army had yet to do anything. Now, Dan wasn’t sure if Mother Eternity planned this, but she probably did because whenever he thought things were going great, the universe decided to make sure he regretted his thoughts.