“Tsk.” King Baal got slightly irritated at the events on the Sky Bridge. The demons next to him, on the other hand, were mortified when they witnessed the combined powers of their Royal Mages fail to hold the fort against Moloch’s assault.
While sand was supposed to be a fire retardant, the mix of oil and water within it had made the ongoing napalm fire grow fierce. The sand covered the area delicately so that the fire could not spread out. It had been a slightly complicated process that needed finesse, but Sandy had been able to further improve her control ever since she started to work with the Orcs and Goblins to create concrete.
To the onlookers, they thought that Moloch/Jin had another monster use some sort of wide-area magic like the Judgement Storm by Keyrin. The field of molten sand had burnt the army in the thousands, leaving nothing but debris from all the metal armour they had been wearing.
Yet, King Baal had seen it all from a distance. He had sensed zero magical energy until the end of the attack when the tidal sands had come in. This meant that Moloch had reached out to races with great technological advances for their weapons and destructive powers.
“Usually, those races all require a pricey sacrifice, and he must have paid dearly to obtain such technology.” King Baal thought to himself as he ignored what was happening on the Sky Bridge. “Kiva, get the other mages to cool down the Sky Bridge so we can use the temporary teleportation checkpoint again. Continue with the simultaneous assault as per plan. We won’t let one attack pull us down.”
“As decisive as ever!” Kiva replied with glee and went to over to his cronies to pass the message down.
Meanwhile, Prince Stolas had been fully reduced to just a wallflower with the arrival of his father. Still, to be honest, he was quite relieved at the shift in responsibility, despite there being mixed feelings of dread and anger towards Kiva.
“Guards, keep a note of Kiva’s whereabouts at all times,” Stolas whispered, and the guards roughly knew what he wanted to do. “Before this battle is over, I expect his head to come down his shoulders. About time that he learns he is not as almighty as he pretends.”
“Do not act too harshly, my Prince. He might act like a sissy, but he is still a formidable opponent to fight against.” His guards panicked and whispered back, advising their Prince to stay his blade.
“Worry not. We are at war against one of the smartest tacticians in our Dungeon World, right? He surely has a way to defeat him, if not through brute force. We will just have to be there to be the ones to deal him the final blow.”
“Will that not affect your status as Prince?” The captain of his guards asked, and Stolas shook his head.
“If banishment can release me from this chained up suffering, I will gladly accept it. But at least, I will do it with some dignity intact. I know what that weasel has been doing behind our backs, and it should be satisfying if I can leave knowing I at least cut him down once.”
“While I do not think it’s a wise idea and recommend you to cool your head, we will still follow as per your orders.” The guard captain bowed slightly with his clenched hand placed it on his chest, as a sign of deep respect.
“…I will take your words into consideration. Just monitor him for now.” Stolas was taken aback by the sudden pledge of loyalty and started thinking things through logically… but even that did not stop his feelings of rage within him.
———
Despite all the court drama behind the frontlines, King Baal’s orders were implemented just as ordered. Hundreds of soldiers that were at the safe zone who has seen their comrades get burnt into nothingness were all ready to take revenge. They howled a series of warcries and banged their weapons on the ground to increase their morale.
The teleportation spells were cast, and there was little to no interference because of the additional shields brought up in advance before the spell was cast. The Stalingrad was also being occupied with the Demon Fleet Leviathan while the Wyvern Goblin Knights had a bout of renewed dogfights against the Dragon Devils and their reinforcements.
And as the soldiers teleported into each and every island platform the Dragonlites had been able to scout, they were faced with the very same situation that had plagued the start of invasion.
Bombardments.
The Royal Snakes who had been waiting for the longest time ever were finally put into action. Being one of the decisive strike forces in China that had a reputation of being able to respond to any threat, they relished the fight against overwhelming numbers.
Because to be honest, they had been trained mostly for tactical insertions and lacked sufficient experience in defending against a horde. And that was precisely what Hou Fei wanted them to learn before holding the actual fort in the real world. While most of the commanders initially had doubts about this particular exercise, they had quickly changed their mind upon seeing the sheer size King Baal brought with him.
This was definitely what they needed, and a ‘simulation’ in this quantity allowed the commanders to learn first hand about any problems their soldiers might encounter in their standard formations so they could improve it before the actual defence in Dongguan-Huizhou.
“Continue the barrage! Shell shock as many as possible!” Sarge Rocher, who was handling a squad in the Industry Sector, instructed his team handling the mortars. Despite the bombardment, the soldiers were still fearless enough to move through as a group, and he could see the difference between them and the first sortie.
He came to the conclusion that they had been magically buffed before teleporting, allowing them to be enraged, which would explain the frenzy charges. However, he knew that enrage spells would make them more vulnerable to damage since they had no care for their lives. As long as his side was relentless too, the ultimate winner would definitely be the defenders.
But even with the barrage, the soldiers were moving at a fast pace which the mortar adjustments could not accommodate, and that was where the Fortress Golems from afar had decided to step in and pick up the pace.
“Oh man, I love those golems and their grenade launchers.” CPL Wei Yi said as he hid behind the trench and reloaded his rifle. He recalled the sheer details on the Fortress Golem he saw and the mechanical movement brought chills to his body.
“Haha! You have yet to see the best of them.” CPL Zhang Min replied as he recalled seeing a few special weapons being stowed to the guard posts in the industry sector. “The Goblins were all snickering at how it could fry an entire roadblock in front of them with a push of the trigger.”
“Shut your traps, reload your damn guns and concentrate!” Sarge Rocher shouted, and the two corporals acknowledged as they remained vigilant to stop the demon’s advance.
