Chương 184: Chapter 184: Massive Horde Arrives!

"Ugh, I'm bored; how long has it been?" Asked Marley dryly as she lay on the ground while looking at the sky through the canopy of trees.

"Have some patience, Marley; It's only been twenty-six hours. Expect to wait a minimum of a few days before their Highnesses arrive." Replied Idonea calmly while sitting in front of a tree; she glanced at Marley before closing her eyes to meditate as her sword lay atop her lap.

"Tch, loser." Muttered Marley softly as she ignored Idonea before looking at Sarah, who was intently training with her sword, though she was really just wantonly swinging her sword.

"Sarah, want to play Realm Animus against me?" Asked Marley as she sat up and summoned a relatively sizeable wooden board along with hundreds of black and white pieces.

"Hmm? What did you say, Marley?" Replied Sarah, whose body glistened with sweat under the sunlight as she stopped swinging her sword and glanced at Marley.

"I was bored, and I wondered if you wanted to play Realm Animus against me to pass the time, though it's fine if you wish to continue training." Asked Marley with a smile as she set the wooden board on the ground while placing the hundreds of black pieces on her side of the board; the white pieces were on the opposite side.

"Sure, I don't mind; I was just about to finish anyways; I was mainly training just to pass the time." Said Sarah with an eager nod as she stored her sword inside her dimension ring while approaching Marley before sitting down in front of the white pieces.

"You know how to play this game, right, Sarah?" Asked Marley while arranging her black pieces into the configuration she preferred.

"Yep, Birger taught me how to play a few years ago; I've even managed to beat him a few times, so I'm quite confident in my abilities." Remarked Sarah with a prideful smirk while also rearranging her white pieces into a specific configuration, though her mention of Birger caused Marley to frown.

"Since you're so confident in yourself, I'll graciously allow you to make the first move, Sarah." Said Marley with a slightly arrogant expression as she gave a slight bow, causing Sarah to chuckle.

"Hehe, well then, I'll gladly accept your offer, Marley; it would be rude of me to refuse your generosity." Stated Sarah with a faint grin as she injected her Qi into the wooden board, causing one of her smaller groups, consisting of twenty-four pieces, to move forward quite a distance.

"You're sending the cavalry out that far ahead? That's bold of you, Sarah; you should know they're rather weak to archer fire." Remarked Marley with a smirk as she eyed the twenty white pieces that resembled an Elf riding a Unicorn, though she didn't underestimate Sarah.

Pondering what to do to counteract Sarah's pieces, as I said, I could bring forward my archers, but if the archers allow even one cavalry unit to slip through and enter their ranks, there will be many casualties.

'Hmm, let's play it safe for the first few moves; I'd like to see more of Sarah's play style.' Thought Marley as she looked at her white pieces before focusing on a group of Elven warriors with massive shields and long spears.

Injecting Qi into the fifty shield pieces, they seemingly came to life as they started marching forward before stopping a decent distance away from the rest of my pieces and getting into a defensive formation in preparation for the cavalry's advancement.

"You know, if I continue advancing my cavalry pieces, while I'm sure they'll get defeated, most of your shieldmen will also get killed." Mentioned Sarah while overlooking the board as the cavalry and shieldmen pieces started down each other.

"True, but the cavalry is a powerful unit; sacrificing fifty shieldmen to get rid of them is worth it, in my opinion." Replied Marley while nodding her head as she waited for Sarah to make a move.

Watching Sarah, I saw her move forward one of her five trebuchet pieces, causing me to raise an eyebrow since while that unit would be able to destroy my shield men easily, they are one of the slowest units in Realm Animus, which slightly confused me as it would take several turns before they managed to cover the same distance the cavalry unit moved in one turn. Though I didn't question it, Sarah was a big girl; besides, I doubted she would make such a mistake; she wasn't new to this game, after all.

Now that it was my turn, seeing how she didn't touch her cavalry unit, I opted to add more defense by using two of my ten available Hwacha pieces; they were slightly slower than the shield units, so they didn't manage to unite with them; however, that didn't matter as they were capable of attacking over very long distance's. Just one more move, and I'd be able to fire upon the cavalry unit, killing most, if not all, of them with one attack.

"Hmm; those are rather dangerous." Muttered Sarah as she furrowed her brows before injecting Qi into a group of four Elves holding a large bird with their outstretched hand.

Seeing the four birds fly into the air as they quickly passed by her cavalry unit and my shieldmen before suddenly dive-bombing toward my two Hwacha's; when they collided with my two pieces, they exploded, causing me to click my tongue, but I wasn't too bothered by it, I only lost two pieces.

"You're a crafty one, Sarah, I'll-" Said Marley with a smile, though she suddenly stopped talking when she noticed one of her pieces fall over, followed by several other pieces, causing her to frown.

"Idonea, you feel that as well, don't you?" Asked Marley as she looked at the frowning Idonea.

"Yeah, but what is able to cause this?" Remarked Idonea as she nodded and stood up from her meditating position, followed by Marley and Sarah standing up as well.

"Umm, is something the matter, Marley, Idonea?" Asked Sarah in confusion as she approached the two.

"The ground is trembling, and with each passing second, it's increasing in intensity." Replied Marley seriously as she summoned her spear while Idonea gripped her sword.

"W-What's wrong with that? Couldn't it just be a realm quake? They do happen from time to time, after all." Questioned Sarah as she followed suit and also summoned her sword, though she was still confused.

"True, but if you could see what we see, you'd know what's causing this. It isn't because it's a realm quake." Stated Marley with an ugly expression as she looked south while her divine sense viewed a horde consisting of hundreds of thousands of beasts heading right toward their location.

Clicking my tongue, I stored the realm animus into my dimension ring and followed Idonea as we flew into the air while gazing south into the endless expanse of forest.

"At their speed, we've got about ten minutes until we see them and another minute until they arrive at our location." Commented Idonea with a solemn expression while Marley nodded her head.

"Should we leave? The beasts may only consist of Saint Kings and below, but their sheer number is immense; I already sense more than two million of them." Said Marley as she tightened her grip on her spear.

"No, we can't leave; if we do, we'll lose the chance to meet up with Their Highnesses. We've only got one other way to contact them, so unless the situation has become absolutely dire, let's refrain from retreating." Declared Idonea in a dignified tone as she stayed floating in the air beside Marley while the two gazed south, waiting for the moment the horde of beasts would show themselves.

Nodding at Idonea's words, as much as I didn't wish to fight against such a massive horde with Sarah's presence, with her cultivation base, being near us is the third safest place she could be, the second would be beside Her Highness, and the first would obviously be His Highness. After a few minutes of waiting, it seemed the horde of beasts finally entered Sarah's divine sense as I saw her eyes widen in dread while she attempted to fly away, but I stopped her before she could.

"M-Marley, what are you doing!? If you had known this was approaching us, why didn't we escape?" Exclaimed Sarah as she eyed Marley, who was grabbing her by her ankle.

Sighing, I yanked Sarah close to me before lightly hitting her head, causing her to clutch her head in pain, but I succeeded in calming her down.

"Calm down, Marley; escaping isn't the best decision right now; after all, we still need to meet up with Their Highnesses. Besides, the horde of monsters may seem dreadful to you, but to Idonea and I, they're just a bunch of annoying ants, so it would be best for you to stay with us; we'll be able to protect you." Stated Marley softly as she looked at the teary-eyed Sarah before gently rubbing her head, soothing her.

"If you so say, Marley, I trust you." Said Sarah as she wiped her tears and nodded her head, causing Marley to smile, well, before Sarah kicked her in the shin.

"Next time, don't hit me so hard; it hurts." Added Sarah with slight anger as she retracted her foot, though her kick did nothing to Marley but annoy her.

Shaking my head, I ignored Sarah and shifted my attention toward the south, and although we weren't on the ground anymore, I could see the trees shaking about, indicating they were about to arrive. A few more minutes passed, and suddenly, a massive silhouette suddenly appeared from behind the horizon; as the seconds passed, it continued to get larger and larger until the silhouette completely engulfed us in its shadow.

"Well, there goes the idea of simply flying over them." Remarked Marley as she looked at the massive wall of monsters climbing atop each other.

"I-It's like a wave of monsters." Muttered Sarah as she neared Marley, practically hugging her.

"Conserve your Qi as much as possible; if we run out of Qi amid this horde, it'll be only a matter of time until you're eaten alive." Advised Idonea as she looked at Marley and Sarah, though she spoke mainly to Marley, who smirked in response.

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