章 33: Start of Battle - War of Blueleaf - 3

The morning of the 8th day since entering Everain, the huge Imperial army came from the horizon.

The soldiers glistening white armors, the ranks upon ranks of legionnaires, the cavalry and magicians. They were an army capable of laying waste to regions and kingdom. They were at least 3 millions strong, maybe more. After coming through between the mountain range, they reorganized their ranks.

A lone soldier which was wearing a golden cape attached to his white and silver armor separated from the rest. He was minuscule individual, riding atop a white horse. The clip clop of the horse's steps was drowned by the noise of the falling rain. It seemed that time was frozen, two forces capable of killing people and destroying landscapes were standing in front of each others. A side was on the ground and still partly on the mountains. The other side was atop humongous walls, in a very big fortress.

The lone soldier had a shield and a lance strapped to his back. He dismounted his horse and walked slowly on the central bridge and stopped just meters before the magic shield.

"I AM GILAIN DAVOS, KNIGHT IN THE SERVICE OF HIS MAJESTY IVAN GOODHEART! WE HAVE COME TO EXERCE OUR RIGHT IN SEEKING FOR RIGHTFUL COMPENSATIONS THAT YOU DENIED US. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING BEFORE WE START A WAR AND REDUCE YOUR KINGDOM TO ASHES!"

His strong voice, amplified with mana, could be heard in every single corner of Everain.Argia Blueleaf looked at Oturn, a female dark elf archer. Oturn knocked an arrow on her bow and released it.

Twack!

It crashed perfectly between Gilain's feet. Who mumbled "very well" before going back to his troops. He mounted his horse again, before returning to his camp.

After a few minutes, 250 000 imperial legionnaires departed. Each soldier had a tower shield, a spear and a glaive. They were all rank 2 to 4. They formed ranks, creating shield walls and shield roots, protecting them effectively from various attacks. 50 or so groups approached the 3 bridges and slowly crept towards the fortress.

Archers released a shower of arrow. While they advanced, many legionnaires fell on the ground, dead. The legions didn't break formation and advanced, sometimes even trampling on the dead. By the time they reached half the bridge, 170 000 or so troops remained.

From there, earth mages sent bolts and boulders to crash on these enemies. The legionnaires never stopped their advance, even if they were killed one after the other. Only 50 000 or so of them managed to be 3000 meters from the walls. Water trolls sent spears and having. These creatures have blue skin and tusks coming out of their lower mouth. They are quite leaned and yet hunched, standing north of 2 meters. While they are skinny, they are adorned with muscles. They wear light blue leather armors and are logical beings, that do not get carried away easily. The remaining legionnaires were killed.

From there, the trumpets of war sounded in the whole valley. Around 1 million imperial forces advanced towards the fortress. They were units of various occupations and they had rams and other weapons capable of breaching the wall. If they manage to reach the wall, they would be destroyed.

For Ezyze, it was madness. A. Million. People. 1 million people advancing to kill them. They were rank 2s and 3s. He saw from atop the wall, a force that any army on earth would lose against.

The gate opened and various forces of the Blueleaf kingdom excited the fortress. River ogres, giant deer cavalry, iron dwarves warriors, nymphs and dog beastmen warriors excited the castle. They were around 500 000 and amounted to half of the kingdom's forces in Everain. Dizio Blueleaf was leading an army of 5000 or so warriors riding atop royal blue crostrich. These beings were birds, that a build a bit similar to ostriches. They had long black and royal blue feathers covering their bodies. Their crow like face was big and their crow like tail large. Even their powerful legs had long feathers that were almost covering their deadly talons. They could flap their big wings and glide or hover briefly over the ground.

The 2 sides stopped and then charged against each others. The various watchtower and cannons were lit and blaster magic projectiles after magic projectiles, killing thousands of thousands of imperial troops.

Despite this huge advantage, the two armies were killing each others in a ferocious battle for death. While the Blueleaf army was assisted by archers from the top of the wall, the Empire have a strong army.

Another trumpet sounded and another 1.5 millions of imperial troops advanced towards the fortress. Meanwhile, imperial troops started to construct weapons in their backline. Ezyze now understood that they were constructing siege weapons.

The gates opened once again and Nefrus and Death Awoken exited the fortress. Riding a wyvern that was throwing out flames, Nebrus attacked the middle of the enemy formation, of the middle bridge, casting one deadly magic after the other. His troops were 250 000 strong of undead. Among his undead were a troop of 30 rank 5 deathkinghts. These warriors were wielding various type of different weapons and were former living knights of renown. These monsters mastered also the former classes that they were wielding, corrupted by dead mana. They had classes like the legendaries paladin of the dark church, knight of doom, warrior of darkness, steel knight, battleaxe master. These 30 rank 5 monsters had for some of them rank 5 classes, or otherwise rank 3 or 4. They were surrounding an archlich - rank 5 and 2 former mercenary leaders that were particularly strong.

One was a skeleton king, a legendary monster at rank 5, that had a rank 5 class - dark crusader. He was wearing a long black mace and crushed many enemies. The other one was a legendary assassin that used to roam the battlefield, killing his enemies using tonfas like swords. His movements necessitated one to continuously make bursts, while being agile enough to dodge the enemy attacks, he was strong enough to block, or pierce through enemy defenses. His body was resurrected and, fights after fights, he became a zombie of carnage, he was a rank 5 monster that now was brimming with power. Zombies, that usually are slow, can slowly reinforce themselves. They also usually have muscles. The corpses of the assassin being particularly agile, made for a warrior with quite some speed initially. He however was not affected by slashes and had to be hacked and slashed and reduces to paste again and again to kill him, for how strong his resistance was. His race is the legendary zombie of carnage, a monster that evolved to maximize the already strong physique of zombies and reinforce itself to be tougher and faster. He was a rank 2 assassin of the battlefield - legendary.

This unite was the most deadly in dead awoken. 33 rank 5s. The skeleton king has a strong body, and most his strenght was to provide various buffs to other dead ones, especially to the skeleton subrace. The Archlich is a monster that masters magic knowledge and is a powerful rank 5 monster. The body of a class 5 ice elementalist was used as the basis for the boy of the archlich. It possessed deep knowledge of ice magic, could wield ice magic that were especially harmful to warm, living chair, as neither the skeletons nor himself feared the cold. His nature as a lich made him pursuing the nature of death magic and he now wields death magic to awoken the dead and provide them magic buffs. His army growing with each death was something not to underestimate, and he was heavily protected. The combination of a buffed army, that grows with each death and have a powerful unit protecting its core worked well against the legions. They crumbled from the inside. The legionaties still reacted quite quickly and are now also wary of the corpses.

The 15 000 living mercenaries are the original troop that support Nefrus. Among them are barbarians. Humans that live in tribes and this group lived in the cold Eternal Mountain range, that have enormous bodies that are around 3 meters tall. They are used to hunting strong preys and is the first clan that joined under Nefrus. They are around 1800 in total and are strong shock troops. Various different human clans also joined him, some were riding wolves and had long lances, others battle mages and magic swordmen, archers atop 7 or 8 large ice mammoth, big rank 4 creature, gladiator and even some magicians made the ranks of death awoken. These mercenaries were usually acting more or less independently from one another, and used the large number of skeletons and zombies to win battles. While the barbarians were very actives in the frontlines, sand swords were acting more as assassins, killing powerful individuals and the magicians either worker independently, or as a unit. The dead offered to the living a buffer zone, where they coukd quickly dispose of their enemies, they would then be less numerrous and fighting units that were reinforced by their dead comrades.

A huge mana wave escaped Neftus, and the dead imperial troops stood up, once again, and attacked their former colleagues. The middle bridge was reinforced by 350 000 or so dead imperial legionaries that attacked their former colleagues. The imperial soldiers, while confused at first, adapted themselves once again.

Seeing this change, elite imperial units were sent forwards. Many of these units had members that had classes that allowed them to wield light magic.

A fight continued and these forces stabilized the frontlines and stopped the advance of death awoken. Dizio and his unit were picking up the pace, and piercing through enemy ranks. Those that were attacked by their spears and swords , those that were cut, became poisoned and many died from either the poison, or the injury itself. The Empire sent a 10 000 strong unit, manned with phantom riders, people wearing lances and that were riding battle horses. Some were riding phantom battlehorses, from the time where their battle horse died and became a phantom horse, to keep roaming the batefielf. This elite unite quickly fought Dizio's riders and attained a balance.

Imperial soldiers and everain doldiers lost their lives. In the central bridge, Nefrus' forces couldn't grow so much. He decided to periodically awaken dead imperial soldiers in other battlefield to raise more chaos and divert further the attention of these special imperial troops. Atop his wyvern was Nefrus, and behind him was a 3.5 meters being, that was wearing heavy armor. He was a barbarian and a rank 5 knight of the death, that had a bonus in mastering various weapons and when fighting in mana filed environments. His sole role was to protect Nefrus from harm. He had a greatsword on his Bach and was firing arrows after arrows of magic reinforced with his aura of death, to have some form of occupation while flying. The wyvern was a rank 3 monster that did not yet develop its mana heart. It was looking like a dragon, but its front limbs had its wings attached to them, its body was smaller and his many yet developed. It was covered with a black enchanted armor, that negated many spells and physical attacks. His breath was quite something and Nefrus was otherwise a strong mage .

Like this, for the next 10 days, the Bluraf army of 500 000 became 380 000 strong, and the 4 million imperial troops were now 3.4 millions strong. They fought from morning to evening. The bulk of the blueleaf forces were fighting from day one and the imperial army had more or less figured out which forces to send and which strategy they would follow.

Sauruüne told Ezyze that he will have at least a week to figure out how to use his troop and implement Garrek unit to his forces. He trained them for various formations and they were using the Arena to battle lower and middle ranked behemoth units that had 1000 or 2000 members and only up to 3 rank 5s. They ended up challenging stronger units and figuring out to use their lower numbers against enemies that had classes of higher rank and more enemies. After a week, Hulann told him that the noise of artillery would start a change in the battlefield.

After 10 days, huge catapults and siege weapons were finally installed on the battlefield. Their range was fantastic and they were all loaded with various projectiles.

BOOM!

The troops that were fighting under the mana shield saw it being attacked by waves after waves of projectiles. While the shield stood strong, it would eventually run out of power.

Those of Everain suddenly had the incentive to go out of the fortress and breach the enemy lines. The Imperial troops were used to defend these weapons against these Blueleaf soldiers.

They had to destroy those siege weapons before the shield runs out of power.

It was time for the different mercenary troops to start be more active and influence positively the battlefield. The huge bridges were not yet filled to the brim with people and numbers because of how large they are. Still, they were filled with hundreds of thousands of people fighting there.

The gates opened. A gigantic 20 meters tall creature went out of it and tens of thousands of mercenaries followed. Ezyze was among them. While they didn't have time to create armors fore everyone, the 70 rank 4 orc warriors had armored plastrons. It was time for war.

On the right side, Kleops and the pharaoh legion exited the gate, followed by various smaller mercenary troops. They had strong shields and swords warriors manning the frontline, while various mages: sand mages, earth mages, mages of arcane arts, fire mages... the list was unending. While he, himself had a rank 5 legendary class called mirror battle archmage, the 29 other rank 5s were very talented. Many koplesh wielders were about to attain rank 5s and the higher number of rank 5s took disciples, that were also battling in the frontlines. Klepos himself was a master in wielding his curved a longsword and had destructive arts that allowed him first to make a name as a fierce mercenary. His mirror magic could create various mirrors that could reflect magic attacks, spawn the mirror image of someone. When broken, mirrors have shards that can be manipulated to deal damages and make someone bleed. Kleops himself was jumping from mirror to mirror and influence the battle around him. Various rank 5 leaders of smaller clans fought together with other clans or with blueleaf soldiers, thus positively impacting the battlefield on the right.

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The 113 000 mercenaries that joined the left battlefield cooperated with the 120 000 or so Blueleaf soldiers. Sauruüne was leading his own mercenary troop, while Vormverr, a rank 5 Frost battle ogre led the various Blueleaf troops.

They have strong frontliners and decent ranged fighters. 14 000 various dryads support the frontliners with potent nature magic, healing them. The ranged fighters are for the most archers and few of them are mages.

The behemoths are mercenary filled with different warriors. Trap, Hulnel and Jarral were leading the frontlines, while the various units that they commanded fought around them.

Varna and Trop had long ranged units with them. Varna had various mages that dealt spells with a large surface of impact, while she was mainly proficient in debuffing enemies and using their strenght to strengthen front liners. She used to cooperate with Hulnel's army and still is, fighting on right side of the Western bridge, behind his army. Trop and Trap are actually brothers and sisters and cooperate really well together to kill the enemies. They are on the left side of the bridge.

The central area is led by Jarral acting as the vanguard commander and is directly before Sauruüne's personal army.

The vampires led by Ariel and Nebrus act as shock troops.

The Unshakables are at the rear of the vanguard army. While the orcs are very dynamic fighters that count for most of those present in Jarrel's army, healers, bards and shaman can also be found among orcs, as well as archers and elementalists that were supporting the front.

The Jarral's army that always take the front of fights where Behemoth is active is a very strong army. The orc are individually strong warriors and when buffed, they are killing a great number of imperial forces.

Wanting to change the flow of the battle once again, the Empire sent various forces. Another million troops advances and separated to go in the Western and Eastern bridge.

Jatral committed the bulk of his army to the fight. Ezyze and his unit were about to clash with the Empire's troops.

The Unshakable during these 9 days, learnt how to work together and with the orcs. The orcs were separated into groups of 50s. 3 took the front. Those in the middle had a line of hoplites fighting with them. These 70 warriors were all rank 4 and Garrek was fighting among them. The 12 goblin samurais were fiercely attacking with them.

With the group of 50 warriors on the left were the 30 spearmen, Ezyze, Zephyr and Rea.

Aries warriors, Baal and Arthur were leading the 50 orc warriors on the right.

They were aided by the rank 1 goblin warriors and the 4 rank 2 hydra warriors, as well as the trolls and were led by Vandal. The Tree trolls were all wearing heavy armors and battle axes. Their armor was top notch

Behind them, the archgoblins, hunters and all ranged asses raised hell on the enemy troops and buffed allies. 100 orcs were acting as bodyguards.

Ezyze was slashing and cutting in wild abandon, and cooperating mainly with Zephyr and Rea. Lampor sent pure mana arcane arts one after the other and buffed the Orc presents. The orc warriors were the main force of the group and the Goblin spearmen were killing tired warriors.

The group led by Garrek was killing enemies after enemies. Garek himself was a unstoppable.

When the Empire sent their forces, various swordmen, spearmen and knights were deployed one after the other.

An elite imperial force was dispatched to kill Jarral's vanguard. They were human swordmasters, of rank 4s and 5h, knights and spearmen of the same rank. Clerics mages that wielded holy magic, born for the Human's belief in the Empire of Luxos, the God of light, were healing and buffing these troops. Paladins, crusaders and some holy and light warriors joined the fray.

Jarral himself and 20 orc blademasters, rank 5 orcs, fought against these newcomers. They were very effective and killed many, until they reached a unit of 40 rank 5s imperial swordmasters. Many were wielding a saber and they were fiercely opposing Jarrul.

Of these newcomers, the Unshakables fought against 3 rank 5s imperial swordmasters and 300 rank 3 legionnaires, 500 rank 4 swordmen aided by 250 crossbow archers and 50 or so mages. They were fighting 500 vs 1000. To their immediate right were other of such units fighting against each others.

Arthur and the Aries Spearman were fighting against one imperial legend. The 2 Aries Spearman had tremendous talent in wielding spears and are unique rank 4 classes called Aries' left horn and Aries' right horn. Together, they could fight rank 5s on their own. Arthur was himself very strong and versed in various forms of swordmanship. Going against saber wielders was natural for him.

Ezyze and Zephyr, as well as Baal went against another swordmaster.

Garrek went against the last one.

Rea was leading the unit on the left, Broblin the one in the middle and Medea the one on the right.

Garrek did manage to kill many imperial troops during the start of the war. When the imperial swordmaster attacked him, he was already stronger thanks to the special trait that he received at rank 5. The swordmaster was very strong, having reached rank 5, however his basic stats and damages were far from Garrek having killed hundreds of enemies. The sword master was on the defensive and was overpowered by the orc legend.

Ezyze was delivering powerful blows after powerful blows. His technique impeccable. Yet, he was far from being equal in power to the swordmaster. Baal had his horns alight with hellfire. His skin cracked and eyes burnt. Black with fire that almost looked like it was leaking, his skin could burn people. He has a devil like tail, ending with an arrowhead like shape and the whole thing was bright orange. Like the lave in a forge. His longsword under a huge amount of flames, Baal showed literary incredible firepower. Zephyr was so fast that he could avoid slashes made by a rank 5 swordmaster and he boosted the fire with wind magic. Like that, they were barely holding on.

The Aries trio was stronger than a single rank 5. The Aries' horns, when they fought together, show firepower of a rank above them. They could fight equally against a rank 5. Arthur was a master of Aries blade arts and knew Aries spearmanship. He showed excellent timing and cooperation and they managed to defeat the rank 5.

Garrek, having disposed of a rank 5, ambushed the rank 5 that was slashing at Exyze, to kill him. Rejoining their troops, the Unshakables were slowly getting the best of the Imperial forces and helped Jarral's neighboring troops to overwhelm the swordmasters. By the end of the day, Garrek, and those that fought rank 5 swordmasters were joined by 5 other rank 5 orc axemasters. By the end of the day, this group killed 12 imperial rank 5s.

The Unshakables managed to end the day without any death. Their superior teamwork early on boosted their confidence and early synergy. They ranked in many experience points and killed many troops.

The horned samurai gained experience points and a great insight on swordmanship by swordmasters. They were using their monstrous energy to reinforce each of their steps and each of their strikes. They were flowing in the wind, yet sharp and precise. This combination made them strong and able to fight against various other legends. It took Garrek 1 hour 42 to kill the first rank 5 and he was boosted by his legendary trait. This sparked something in them and they wanted to direct their monstrous mana to follow each and every of their movements. The very nature of their poisonous mana was hard to incorporate in fights.

The following 10 or so days were happening in the same manner. The shield was holding on despite the unending barrage of artillery.

The Unshakables lost 8 rank 1 goblins. They now all had at least rank 2 classes. Still, the survivors grew stronger. Medea is becoming a force to reckon. She is leading troops fiercely. And Rea and Broblin show great qualities in leadership. Rimuru lead the mages that fight fairly safely, protected by orc warriors and scoots. These orc warriors became stronger. In 10 days, the Unshakables managed to kill 12 rank 5s on their own, without the help of additional rank 5s. It was excellent.

All of a sudden, Everain's central gate opened. Thousands of Shurissi golems excited. Spearmen, swordmen and archers. Andros Shurissi is a very dear lieutenant of Shakur Shuris and the son of a former Duke of the Shurissi kingdom. He was leading 15 000 thousand of Shurissi Sphinx. Various humans were among these ranks: curved shortsword dancers, mages of various elements, duelist, swordmasters, knights, warriors, sand crossbow men. While the sphinx and golems were fighting in an ordonned manner, the humans were making for the chaotic link between the two forces. They collaborated closely with Death Awoken and changed the dynamics in the central bridge.

Andros and his lieutenants killed many imperial soldiers, that were eventually awoken by Nefrus. Andros was one that enjoyed fighting in the Frontline, his Thunder spear was an ego weapon that an election eye of pure energy pulsating between 3 blades. Each of his attacks sent vast lighting strikes. He felt the flesh ripping under his claws and bones breaking by his thrusts. The Empire sent elite troops in the middle of the central bridge. These holy warriors were wearing white plate armor. They were wielding holy magic and different weapons. Their leader, Renault was facing Andros.