As the arrows fell, the pieces came together in Thagi Ghul's head. The dodecahedral artifact was not just some experiment of Cithlars, as he had expected. It was even possible that the idea for the tournament was planted by a foreign agent, whispered into the King's ear. Serving the dual purpose of making the wave even more dangerous, as well as drawing out the prince. It fit too well to be mere coincidence.
Such considerations were pointless now, however. Hindsight made everything clear, but the fact remained that he had failed to spot the warning signs until it was too late. Longlasting peace within the kingdom of Pancal had reduced his wariness of human threats. Perhaps he had been further blinded by recent disturbances, such as the disappearance of Bark Goldtooth and the appearance of the construct. Still, that was no excuse for this failure of vigilance.
"Pull back! Retreat to the fortifications!" Soldiers and delvers alike reacted immediately to his roared order, slowly falling back from the front lines. As Ghul considered the fastest method to disengage, the question was answered for him by Magnus.
The Great Magician swung his arms in complex patterns, his left arm a perfect mirror of the right, all the time muttering under his breath. With a forward surge of his arms, a great horde of green forms appeared behind the front lines; a mirror reflection of the dungeon wave. While the reproduction was not perfect, and the creatures were smoothed out and simplified in places, their physicality was very much retained.
An instant later, the doppelgangers drove forward, weaving around the human soldiers to engage in tumbling melee with their original selves. Magnus himself leaned forward and clutched his knees, breathing heavily.
"Full retreat! To the east!" Free for the moment, the soldiers turned and sprinted east, away from the hail of arrows. As for Ghul himself, he remained in the field. Beside him stood those few who had the clout to disregard a direct order from the Association leader.
The guard captain, the high priest, the prince, and the prince's three followers were all that remained on the wide grass field after the hasty retreat.
"Cain, you should leave. You're too valuable to fall here. Go home and call for reinforcements." Ghul spoke to the side, not taking his gaze from the west.
Prince Cain shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that. If I'm to lead this country one day, how can I simply abandon my own people to save myself?" The prince chuckled lightly. "You know, as horrible as it sounds, I'm almost relieved. To think this was all the doing of a foreign nation... I had actually begun to believe my father had set this town up for disaster just to give me a chance to save it."
"That's- huff- still a possibility." Magnus tottered up to the group. "Maybe your father knew about the invasion plan, hmmm?"
The beautiful female guard captain Lgur replied cynically. "You only hope that's the case, since he wouldn't send his son to a fight he had no chance of winning. That would mean we're not all about to die."
"All? I was just about to leave. I can get a message to the capital faster than anyone else. As much as I hate to leave, it seems I used up too much of my mana with that last spell... I even had to eat up most of the external mana here."
"You didn't do that on purpose so you had an excuse to run away?" Lgur squinted towards the old man.
The Great Magician laughed. "Well, maybe I did and maybe I didn't. Anyway, my duties to the crown do not include participating in war. And I should think the same should be true of you, Mr. Ghul." The old man poked the Leader in his ribs with a boney finger. It hurt, despite the heavy black armor the Leader was wearing.
"I admit I don't care much about the kingdom of Pancal, but I am loyal to Geltheas. This is my home. I will not let it be despoiled by anyone."
"That's fair..." Magnus turned towards prince Cain. "Last chance to come with me. Keep in mind, even if enemy forces take the city, they likely won't kill the civilians. They need them to work the land and to pay taxes. Keep in mind the value of your own life, Prince. You are worth more than a city that can be retaken."
"But..." Cain's protest was interrupted by a sharp strike to the back of his neck. Sunned for a moment, he was struck again by an unseen force, falling to the floor. A vial appeared out of the air, and the purplish contents quickly poured down his throat before he could recover. None present moved to assist him.
As the prince's bodyguard Sibilia slowly faded into a visible distortion in the air, she spoke with her indistinct voice. "Take us back to the capital, Magnus."
Shin stood stoically facing west. "I will not leave. My things to do are not over."
"Right, have it your way Shin boy. Anyway, we've been talking long enough, the troops should be around any moment. Time for us to be the opposite of here. Hehe, just a little Ideal joke." The old man bent down unsteadily to grasp the unconscious form of Cain and the hazy form of Sibilia. With a light pop, the trio vanished as though they were never there.
The Great Magicians vanishing act was perfectly timed, as the moment he disappeared the enemy troops came into view rounding the buildings. Only a few seconds later, the spell holding back the Wave finally failed, the clones shattering into triangular fragments and fading.
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Ghul smiled. A parting gift from Magnus. He likely knew exactly where the enemy troops were and when they would arrive. He was a master of knowing more than he let on. Magnus loved to pretend to be tricked or not know something, only to turn the tables on the enemy when they thought they had an advantage.
As the horde of worms rushed forward, their tangled bodies flowed outward in every direction. To the elites of Geltheas, they were of little concern; they might as well have not existed at all. The same could not be said of the invading troops.
The troops, now clearly visible as soldiers of the Phagia Republic, witnessed the state of the field, their lines came to a halt. It seems they had been expecting to catch more of the city's defenders in a pincer, and were not expecting such a rapid and successful retreat.
Ghul had to admit, if it weren't for the grand spell from Magnus, a majority of the city's fighting force would still be in the middle of disengaging. The only result would have been a crushing defeat. With that one play, however, the situation had reversed. As expected of a user of such Ideals as "the Opposite" and "the Mirror". For all his claims of not caring about the city, Magnus had saved it.
The enemy commander too saw the situation for what it was. After taking only a moment to scan the field, he yelled out his orders.
"All troops, halt! Defensive line!"
As expected of the militaristic Phagia Republic, the soldiers quickly and flawlessly followed the order. Within moments they had formed into a neat phalanx across the road, each end against a building. Simultaneously, magic users in the back formed a barrier in front of the phalanx, preventing all but the most powerful of monsters from advancing. Those few that pushed through were destroyed by a coordinated attack, while the majority of beasts simply wandered off in different directions to lay waste to the town.
The commander shouted over the noise of battle, this time towards the elite of Geltheas, who now stood within a ring of monster corpses.
"The city of Geltheas has the honor of being integrated into the Phagia Republic. If you surrender now, you will be given full citizenship and released after the transition is complete. What say you?"
Ghul chewed over the officer's offer. He was telling the truth. That was how the Republic operated. It wasn't unheard of for entire cities to surrender to an invading force from Phagia due to this reputation for fair treatment. By contrast, nations like Ossang, which would kill all life in newly conquered territory, would inspire towns to fight desperately to the last man.
The question, then, was what choice would best serve the people of Geltheas. Should he fight these soldiers while the dungeon wave monsters destroy the town? Or should he simply allow Geltheas to transition to new leadership, and work together with their army to quickly clear the wave? If they surrendered to the Republic then a counter-attack by Pancal was all but inevitable, and they were much less lenient. The death toll was certain to be high with that choice. Complicating matters was the deaths of those delvers and guardsmen already killed in the attack, which weighed heavily on the Leader's soul.
"The church will follow the Association's lead on this matter, Leader Ghul." The high priest elegantly deflected responsibility for the decision.
"...I can't do this without you two. I'll follow your choice as well." Lgur too laid the burden of choice on his shoulders.
With resignation in his voice, Leader Ghul shouted over the combat. "We surrend-" Before he could finish, the enemy commanders head left his shoulders. Looking to his side, mouth agape, he saw the samurai Shin with his sword to the side, having just completed a cut.
Cries of rage spread through the Republic soldiers. Commanders were known to be very popular among their troops in Phagia. It was extremely unlikely now that they would accept a surrender. The soldiers soon confirmed that suspicion as arrows and bolts of magic began to fly in arcs towards the Geltheas elites.
"Shin, what the abyss!?" Lgur shouted towards the black armored youth as she weaved between attacks and shooting arcs of lightning in return.
"Cut the head from the snake. Killing the enemy commander is good tactics. I could not miss my chance." Through the slit in his visor, a look of joy could be seen in his eye. "Besides, there has been so much death here today. I can't be defeated."
"That accursed Ultimate of his has finally driven him insane." Somehow the high priest managed to maintain his perfect tall posture among the chaos.
"Fool", muttered Ghul.
Although they reprimanded him, relief was clear on their faces. In their hearts, none of them could forgive Phagia for what they had done. Surrendering was the wise thing to do, but fighting is what they desired.
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"General, the first prince has escaped the city. Our countermeasures were unsuccessful."
"I suspected as much. It was worth a try, at least. If his father hadn't picked such competent guards we might have got him. Oh well."
The demon rose his eyebrows in surprise as Shin used a ranged martial technique to kill the elected commander.
"Oh, they decided to fight? Interesting." Valefar could hardly hide the joy from his face. He would be able to slaughter freely this time. It was always so disappointing when they surrendered. He had even made sure to do multiple sneak attacks before making the offer to surrender so they would be less inclined to agree, and it seems to have paid off. "Send the signal for the troops to ambush the retreating defenders. They are now enemy combatants." As if as an afterthought, he added to his message. "Send scouts to check on Cithlar's mansion. If he fled like Magnus, we might be able to loot some valuables."
In truth, Valefar simply wanted to antagonize Cithlar in the hopes that he would retaliate against Phagia. It was a delicate balancing act, accomplishing enough achievements to remain powerful and beloved in Phagia Republic while also setting them up for disaster at every opportunity.
His fellow demon, Jabrax, had also requested specifically that he send a small amount of troops to harass the location. While the two demons had not shared the majority of their plans with each other, due to the demands of demonic etiquette, she had implied the attacks would assist with some convoluted plot she had devised. Since the mansion seemed to be the base of operations for her contractor, the demon could only speculate that the act would assist in driving the golem towards some desired action.
As interested as Valefar was in his own endeavors, he couldn't wait to see what Jabrax had in store for the world. The demon rule of not sharing unnecessary information about plots allowed for the surprise and joy when a plot you never even imagined comes to fruition. What would that little golem of hers do, Valefar wondered, when he was driven into a corner?