Once the last soldier had been rendered a cripple, it was time to move on.

The whole layout of this part of the camp was rather confusing, judging by the rather open space around me it felt like I should be in the centre of the west side but I wasn’t. I was still on the outskirts.

The centre was still a good few hundred feet away.

And heavily populated by fighting and screeching judging from the sounds and what I can see.

I had tried to strategize but there’s not really a lot I can do, the roofs can’t support my weight and there's not enough space for any hit and run tactics.

This is also a good thing since there's not enough space for me to be fully surrounded. Well I can still be surrounded right now but not once I get to the more clustered areas in this quadrant of the camp.

So overall, I’m in a pretty good spot.

Leaving behind the crippled soldiers I made my way forwards, slinking from building to building like a shadow.

I should have done it from the start but oh well, better to learn now than later I guess.

Yet my stealth seems to be for nothing. As even after a minute passes me by, I have yet to find any live soldiers.

Finally though, when I’m around a hundred feet away from the main battle, I spot a trio of Rovers.

I wonder if this was their normal battle tactic or if they only split up into groups of three in this particular battle.

Oh well, their tactics were going to cost them dearly.

Sneaking up behind them, I inch my way closer and closer towards their vulnerable rear.

They seemed to be guarding against the centre. Probably to pick off any Arthian soldiers that flee this way.

Looking left right, up and down, I fail to spot any other Rover groups though. So either they were being foolhardy and had no one watching their flanks or they did have another group behind them but I had just missed them.

Oh well, three, six, nine. It didn’t matter how many of them there were.

Carefully, I extend one of my tentacles, aiming to take them by surprise and sweep them off their feet.

Then I would decide whether to kill them efficiently or to draw out their suffering so as to send a message.

One of them looks back though, either luck or some sixth sense having guided them.

Just as they let out a screech, I surge my tentacle forward the last two feet, swiping at their legs.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

I catch the one who had sounded the alarm and one other one by the ankle, making them crash into the ground.

But the last one manages to just narrowly avoid my tentacle by leaping up in the air.

By now though, I’ve already moved forward a few feet and sent the rest of my tentacles racing after them.

In a feat of impressive acrobatics, they twist around midair, dodging three of my tentacles.

Then they gracefully land and withdraw their sword, just in time to cleave through the one of my tentacles that was just about to slam into their gut.

I try pulling my tentacles back so I can slam them in the back of their head and catch them.

But they just throw themselves onto the ground, avoiding my attack completely.

As they spring up to try and slice through a few more of my tentacles though I at last hit them.

The impact of a single tendril slamming into their ribs wouldn’t have done to much damage but it was enough to upset their balance and let me get ahold of them with my tentacles.

I twist their flesh so harshly that all across their body skin is being torn from the tension, blood splattering everywhere.

The soldiers' friends don’t even have time to properly get up to help before I knock them down once more.

I don’t focus on them though, they’re not the threat. I just make sure to keep them down and not let them unsheath their weapons.

Why did they even have them sheathed? Fools.

Then, after being crushed into a droopy sack of meat, I let the skilled soldier fall to the ground.

I don’t take my time with the other two, I just cave in their heads and then move on.

I could perhaps go around the outskirts of the battle at the centre, picking off more groups like this.

But by the time I was done with that, I doubted any Arthian soldiers would be left, with all of them dead I would just get swarmed and killed.

Especially if soldiers like this weren’t an exception but rather a norm.

As a matter of fact, all of the Rover soldiers had been rather intimidating and skilled.

If I was faced with these soldiers in either my first or third summoning then I would have simply died.

I’m in actual danger. I can’t look down on these humans anymore. Just how powerful were those knights?

Where were the knights?

We had four of them so why was I the only one, ohhhh, that's right they must be fighting that Rover’s Eclipsian.

That's why I was the only one dealing with these Rovers.

I mean surely they can’t all be dead, they are knights after all.

I didn’t have time to really muse about this anymore though, I had reached the centre battle.

And my oh my was it quite the battle.

It was a level of bloody carnage surpassing even my own from when I invaded the bandit base.

Pikemen groups were scattered everywhere, each one forming a bulwark of sharp steel to keep Rover soldiers at bay.

Denying them an area to move in.

The spearmen on the other hand were engaged in more individualistic battles. They mainly seemed to be distracting the Rover soldiers and trying to manoeuvre them into the range of the pikemen formations.

It was a rather smart battle tactic but it had one cruel flaw. The Rovers were simply better combatants.

From what I could tell it cost around five Arthian lives just to kill one Rover.

Perhaps I could balance the odds.