As the second round of explosions was beginning, fire balls and ice spikes started to come from the fortress against the positions where the platoons surrounding the fortification were, and at the same time the creatures started to pour out of the broken walls the gates that were now right open.

‘Get down, stay in cover.’ Egor shouted.

The fireballs passed above their position, hitting trees behind them but the ice spikes were different; their shape and force got chunks out of the trees that some of Egor’s squadmates were hiding behind. Ethan saw that Samal wasn’t in a good position and shoulted for him to move; clearly, the tree he was hiding behind wasn’t going to last, as he was only concerned with returning fire.

‘Move damn it.’ Ethan jumped on Samal.

The tree he was using as cover was cut in half by ice fragments. Ethan got up quickly and gave Samal a light punch so that he followed him to a better position behind a small, dirty elevation caused by a previous fallen tree.

‘3-6 to all squads; the trees are not a reliable cover; dig small holes or use the terrain, 3-6 out.’ Bartel’s voice was heard from Egor’s radio.

As the battle raged, all soldiers were moving, trying to change positions, and that was the chance for some of them to get wounded by the flying projectiles in the middle of the battle; one even got part of an ice spike on his shoulder from the larger one that exploded on his chest due to the magic shield on his combat vest.

The creatures were approaching the trees where the soldiers were hiding little by little because of the intense volleys coming from the walls of magic. Seeing this, Bartel took again his radio.

‘3-6 to all squads, use the cannons to destroy those walls, now!!!’ Bartel shouted.

After those words came through the radios, all of his platoon moved in a way to make it happen, and one by one the shots were fired against the walls, making them crumble. At the same time, more explosions were happening inside of the walls, making more creatures pour out of the broken walls, this time not because it was a planned attack but more out of panic.

The other two platoons to the sides of Batel’s saw what was happening and mimicked their action firing against the walls, causing the mages to make more holes in the massive structure, and from there, because of the bombardment coming from the mortar, creatures were trying to flee from inside of it.

The problem now was the amount of monsters coming their way. Now the cannons were even having to use their explosive ammunition against the mob of creatures. On top of that, arrows and magic were still flying towards the soldiers on every side of the fortress.

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Distant from the chaos, the soldiers were starting to arrive at the makeshift hospital field and Eliza was healing those that needed it the most first. Alon even needed to send more than half of his soldiers to supplement the fourth platoon because of the amount of wounded that came.

‘I thought that they had large numbers but this is insane; we didn’t even get out of the forest yet.’ Alon talked to himself, frustrated with the situation.

‘Angel-6, this is Angel-4; thanks for the reinforcements; they just don’t top coming out of that thing over.’ The platoon leader got his blond hair out of his eye.

‘Undestood Angel-4, your man is going to return to you soon; these are just some burn marks northing major, over.’ Alon looked behind him at the burn marks of the soldiers screaming in pain.

‘If you say so Angel-6, i’m be waiting, Angel-4 out.’ The blond-haired A-Dam took a deep breath as one ice spike landed right to his side.

Edmund was looking in the direction of the fortress, moving his head like he was trying to hear something; nobody noticed because of how busy everyone around was running back and forward from the front lines.

‘Alon, something just passed us.’ Edmund looked at Alon with wide eyes.

‘How is that possible?’ Alon looked around confused.

‘Underground, and is going for the mortar squad.’ Edmund looked behind him.

‘Mortar squad, there is an unknown creature going your way and is underground, over.’ Alon talked on his radio.

Edmund pulled his sword out of the ground, looked at Alon, and jumped over the wounded on the ground. The moment he landed and the people looked at him, his eyes were directed at Alon, full of determination, and he suddenly started to run towards the mortar team and soon vanished between the trees and small hills. Because of the uneven terrain, it was difficult to see far in the distance.

‘Undestood Angel-6, over.’ The squad leader looked to the ground around him.

‘Edmund is going your way, Angel-6 out.’ Alon looked around and to the ground.

His thoughts were filled with multiple scenarios that could happen; he was hearing the shots and explosions coming from the assalt, taking everything in trying to think about his next move.

‘Angel-6 to all platoons; enemies may be coming from behind you or below you. Angel-6 out.’ He looked at the distance, concerned.

As the mortar squad was packing things up because they only had ten rounds left, the squad leader decided to move, but at the same time, loud noises of trees crackling and breaking got closer and closer to their position until one of the soldiers saw a large creature charging at them coming from the left as it punched a tree to the side.

‘By the Goddess, he is coming for us.’ The soldier shouted as he aimed his rifle at the creature and started to fire.

All of them turned to where he was firing and did the same but nothing was stopping the creature; the shots just bounced on the creature's armor and skin like it was nothing as he was still coming in their direction. Now closer, they noticed what looked like swords on its hands, cutting trees on its way.

‘Run to the sides, scatter!!!’ The squad leader shouted

In the panic, everyone was in one direction and the creature aimed at a soldier that ran from the beast in a line. Because of the panic, he just didn’t think right. The creature swung its sword but he jumped forward in the right moment and was able to dodge the devastating blow.

His squadmates continued to fire against the creature with no veil. The shots just continued to bounce off his skin and armor. The creature looked at the soldier on the ground and swung its sword again, this time trying to crush him.

A loud noise like one of the rounds had exploded came from the direction of the creature; the soldiers seeing from behind thought it was the sound of the impact of the creature strike but instead of the ground, the sword of the creature now was up high and Edmund was to the side of the fallen soldier, holding his sword to the side.

‘Run.’ Edmund spoke in a calm tone.