As soon as Dreu stepped onto the wall, he froze to take in the sight. In addition to the griffins in the sky, he could see pegasi and even three dragons circling above the castle. Their attention were on the wyverns circling over the incoming demon forces. When he turned his attention to the wall, the young man made out sorcerers, Silver Knights, Holy Knights and other professions he only heard of in tales. If it weren’t for the war, he would have loved to have an opportunity to interact with the strongest of the kingdom.

We should join the others.

Hearing Bayard comment and noticing the stares, Dreu jogged to join his group. They were stationed at a small section of the wall with a ballista on the one side and spellcasters on the other.

“Fire!”

A projectile was let loose from the ballista and disappeared into the swarm of demons below the wall. Dreu watched as the crew expertly reloaded a second projectile into the ballstia before repeating the action. The projectiles were two meters long and, given their velocity when released, should in theory penetrate through multiple demon soldiers.

“Gaseous ghouls!” shouted someone.

At the mention of the name, Dreu turned away from the ballista and searched for the creatures. Following the gazes of some soldiers, he saw the volatile creatures carried by wyverns. After seeing how effective the creatures were at demolishing walls, the sight of them carried by wyverns terrified him. Meanwhile, he could see Rohese notch an arrow with his peripheral vision. He turned to see the arrow hit one of the gaseous ghouls resulting in a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, nothing remained of the wyvern. Following Rohese’s lead, the spellcasters on the walls focused their attacks at the ghouls until they eliminated every single one of those threats.

“Portals,” shouted a spellcaster near Dreu.

To the young man’s horror, dozens of portals appeared at various points along the wall. The portals were a few meters above the wall and, without warning, gaseous ghouls came out of them falling onto the unsuspecting victims below. Dreu futilely tried to put his blade between him and a ghoul falling onto his position. When the smoke cleared, he touched his limbs and noticed he was uninjured. By looking carefully, he could make out a barrier with the spellcasters at its center. When he observed other sections of the walls, the wall remained unscathed by the explosion but empty sections in the shape of a circle dotted throughout the wall. The demons had dealt a huge blow to their numbers in a matter of minutes.

Before the humans could recover from the devastating attack, the demonic portals dropped down and demons exited them en masse. The demons quickly filled the empty spaces left by the humans disintegrated by the blasts and a major skirmish took place above the walls. Bayard and Guiot quickly rushed to Dreu’s side to cover his flanks. Rohese let loose a couple of arrows before she drew her new sword. The four of them formed a line as they faced the demons.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Suddenly, elemental fire and ice flew at the incoming demon killing them instantly. Dreu noted their direction to be from the spellcasters.

“Keep them at bay and we’ll finish them off,” said one of the spellcasters.

While Dreu, his summons and Sadon held the line, the spellcasters launched spells a meter above their head down on the demons emerging from the portals. Despite cutting through several demons, Dreu felt more took the place of the fallen. Despite the spellcaster’s best efforts, their mana was finite and he wasn’t sure how long they could keep up their attacks. When he heard several screams behind him, Dreu cursed under his breath. While the demons from the portals struck them on the wall, others demons scaled the walls and now had them completely sandwiched in the middle.

The spellcasters, exposed to hand to hand combat, fared extremely poorly. Their defensive spells could buy them some time but, at close proximity, their spells were a lot less effective. All the front liners near them were preoccupied and couldn’t disengage to fight the demons scaling the walls. With those spellcasters turning their attention to the new threat, the group dealing with the portal demons found themselves steadily pushed back. Just then, a notification came up.

< Congratulations! You have unlocked Summon Footman (Lvl 2). >

< Footmen limit increased by 1. You may now summon up to 3 footmen. >

It’s about time for me to come out once more!

Dreu heard the familiar voice and checked his recall list.

< Unit Recall List:

Footman (Lvl 5) [Zhao] - Available >

Zhao, it’s good to hear from you again!

Grow stronger then, emperor! Once summoned units eclipse your powers, you cannot communicate with them. You have no idea how much I yearned to return to the outside world.

I’ll keep that in mind. Ready to fight the demons?

I was born ready!

Dreu recalled Zhao and the footman went to work. He dashed towards the battlement and, with ease, sent several demons flying. While Dreu and his party dealt with the portal demons, Zhao fended off the demons behind them and gave the spellcasters room to regroup. Due to their rear being protected, Dreu and the others fought with more vigor than earlier. Then, a dragon glided down a few meters above the demons on the walls. Its fire breath not only incinerated the demons but also destroyed the portals. The destruction of the portals allowed all the humans to reform their battle lines to focus on the demons from below.

While the battle line was reformed, Dreu took a few seconds to observe the carnage around him. Many spellcasters were slain while they were forced to fight the demons in hand to hand combat. None of the ballistas were manned as the crew members were slaughtered. Even the skies felt more empty as only a dozen or so griffins and a dragon took to the air. There would be more corpses scattered everywhere if the dragon hadn’t burned most of it earlier.

Roughly how much time just passed? Dreu asked Bayard.

I’d say thirty minutes or so. In the heat of the battle, it feels longer. Sadly, we aren’t at the finish line yet.