Varbu ran up to Akira and his escort with several other hardy orc warriors and werewolf soldier reinforcements.
Upon seeing demigods so close to Akira he immediately took a few steps back and grabbed his large war hammer ready to fight.
“Hold up!” said Akira, raising a hand to stop Varbu while he bent over and tried to catch his breath.
“Where’s the real Akira? Why are you hanging out with demigods?” asked Varbu as he squinted at heavily breathing Akira.
A light drizzle started to fall from the dark sky.
“We’ll set up a temporary camp here,” said Varbu looking at the soldiers behind him.
Several makeshift tarps were set up as temporary cover instead of pitching tents.
Klyn and the other shamen with him began to inspect and mend the wounds of those who had been wounded in the attacks. Of course, the demigods were inspected last as the shamen were still wary of them. This was also their first chance to do a thorough inspection of a demigod’s body while they were still living and not under a hostile situation.
Akira led Varbu and Teresa along with the officers of each group to one of the larger tarps to explain their current situation while the muffled sound of rain fell upon the tarp above them.
“…” everyone was silent for several seconds when he was finished. They were all thinking through all that had happened, trying to figure out what to do next.
“I know that the relationship between the Demon races and demigods is not that great right now, but that does not mean it always has to be that way. I propose that you allow those of us who survived the ambush to fight along with you and free those civilians from the clutches of the BenDover guild,” said Teresa.
“What makes you so sure those people want to be saved? From what Akira has said they seemed to be thirsting for blood,” said a werewolf officer.
“How can you fight alongside us when you have such a frail body?” asked Varbu as he looked at Teresa with great suspicion.
“It is true that I am too weak to fight in a melee battle. But that is not my specialty. I have devoted myself to learning as many healing and cleansing skills as I could find. With my help, more people can stay alive.”
They spent a few more minutes sparing with words and hashing out the details of what they would be doing next.
“… so is everyone in agreement with this temporary non-aggression pact? If you have any more concerns let’s get them dealt with before we head out. We need to hit them hard before they have any more time to prepare,” said Akira.
There were only grunts and nodding heads as they reluctantly accepted the help of sister Teresa and her surviving demigod followers. They could not ignore the help that she could offer. But that did not mean they trusted her.
“My followers will show our sincerity and join the vanguard to help screen and block the skills from the BenDover guild and their allies,” said Teresa.
“And I will be leading the vanguard’s charge to make sure that they don’t try anything funny…” said Zundar as he rubbed the tip of his well-polished horns and stared at Sister Teresa.
***
Inside the new settlement, there was frantic activity as they continued to prepare for the coming battle.
Inside one of the small thatched houses.
“Damn it! Why do all our plans keep crumbling!” shouted Ben angrily as he slammed his fist onto a table in his small office.
“Those chasing the demon lovers and the Duke of Kodria returned a while ago. They confirmed your suspicion. A large hostile force will be here soon,” said Dover.
“…and what about the nomads?”
“In all the commotion we were only able to capture a dozen of them. The rest escaped.”
“How are we supposed to use them as a shield if we only have a few of them!?”
“…”
“Whatever, continue with the plan as before.”
***
Only after a short rest and patching up the wounded did Akira and the coalition army of demon race soldiers and demigods marched back to the settlement using the darkness of the late night to quietly move to their destination.
Those who were too wounded to fight in the main battle were left to guard the supplies and baggage of the temporary camp from any pillagers or sneaky opportunists.
When they arrived at the outskirts Akira did not announce their presence or demand the surrender of those inside the settlement. He knew they would not willingly surrender and that was fine with Akira, it just meant he had to bash a few heads to knock some sense into them.
As they marched forward Akira looked at the area surrounding the settlement town and found it to be abandoned, no longer housing the refugee nomads that had been camped there during the day.
Behind the empty tents and shacks, the settlement’s walls were now covered with a layer of thick ice that was letting off a cool misty fog in the warm night breeze that was softly blowing it away.
The light drizzle had stopped some time ago and now the soggy ground beneath the marching army’s feet quietly squelched and splashed with each light footstep.
Sister Teresa was true to her word and had the surviving demigod followers standing alongside the heavily armored orcs and werewolves that made up the vanguard.
They along with the soldiers would be drawing the enemies’ attention and taking on the attacks that would be coming from the town so that the other warriors behind them could reach the town safely. The demigods were supporting them by casting several dozen odd buffs that both Akira and Klyn had never seen before.
Akira was still hesitant and not sure if this was a deep plot to trap him but he could get cold feet here and still had to go ahead with the attack just as they had planned it.
Everyone agreed that prolonging the fight by sending out several prob attacks would do nothing for them. They would just use their full force to overwhelm the enemy and wipe them out in one go!
“Those demigods are too despicable!” said Bo, who was near Akira. He had just come out of his trance-like connection with his familiar that was monitoring the area high in the sky.
“What did they do now?” asked Akira. There was little time left for chit-chat as they would soon be entering the range of the demigods’ long-range attacks.
“They have at least a dozen of the nomads cuffed and hanging on wooden posts embedded into the top of the walls. They are trying to use them as human shields to stop us from returning range attacks.”
Akira was speechless but not surprised at this. Before he could think any deeper on this Zundar let out a roar.
“Forward! Let’s show those wimps what true strength is!”
Several howls from the werewolves that had all transformed and howls of the brutish orcs answered Zundar’s roar as they charged forward.
Just as planned they were drawing the majority of the attacks from the demigods inside the town who were trying their best to stop them.
Behind them was the second portion of the army in which Akira was sitting atop Grarr at the front along with his royal guards. Just behind him was the flying battle standard of Kodria.
They continued to march forward with only a few attacks aimed at them as the vanguard and low-level demigods took the brunt of the attack farther ahead. A black mist enveloped the front portion of the second wave of the army making them nearly impossible to see them in the dark night.
The only light outside the settlement came from the several flashing skills that flew from atop the settlement’s wall. Soon the empty tents and shacks started to burn, allowing the demigods to see pockets of the dark battlefield.
As they marched forward Klyn and his subordinates along with sister Teresa quickly treated any of the wounded soldiers from the vanguard they came upon who had fallen to the ground with grievous wounds.
“Awoooo!” howled Akira.
“Roar!” “GRRRR!”
Fluffball and Grarr both answered his howl along with the rest of the cavalry and army as they charged forward at full speed using the cleared path that Zundar and the vanguard had cleared.
The Garg cavalry rushed forward right towards the ice wall where Zundar and the heavily armored vanguard were trying to set up ladders and throw grappling hooks to get to the top. The skills and attacks from the demigods were not stopping and still rained down on them.
Every other second light fragments disappeared into the sky as the low-level demigods died.
There were no gates to bombard or enter as everything was covered in a thick layer of ice. The casualties were increasing with each minute that passed.
When Akira reached the wall he, along with the other cavalrymen, used the forward momentum to launch themselves off of their mounts into the air. Several of them managed to land on top of the wall along with Akira, while the others slammed into the top of the icy wall and had to climb the rest of the way up.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Seconds after landing on the wall the large bodies of the Garg’s slammed into the ice wall creating large cracks in the ice.
Akira felt the wall shake under his feet and heard large chunks of ice fall to the ground.
Without pausing, Akira activated the skill [Call of the wolf pack].
Nox 1 and 2 jumped out of his shadow and joined Fluffball who had also jumped up onto the wall. The three of them immediately started to cause havoc.
Before the demigods could send out many attacks toward Akira he held his sword high in the air and activated the skill [Dark Shockwave].
His sword pierced into the top of the frozen wall causing a large crack to appear as the skill activated and large tremors spread out in waves.
The cracking wall and rumbling sent several of the nearby demigods falling off the wall. The lucky ones fell inside the city walls while those who fell outside were immediately killed.
The royal guards and cavalrymen had already been told what to expect so they were not surprised and were able to use this as an opportunity to take care of the demigods that had fallen near them.
Several of the demigods on top of the wall were still using the chained nomads as shields as they hid behind them and launched attacks at the werewolves and Akira.
“YOU %^&*! Fight like a man! Don’t use scummy tactics!” roared Akira as he used the skill [Potty mouth] to draw the nearby attention of those that had not been affected by the tremors.
Anger flared up in all of their hearts at being called a [%^&*], whatever that was. This momentary change in their attention was deadly for them as the other werewolves pounced on them and tore them apart.
The wall continued to shake and crumble as the Gargs rammed it with their bodies and clawed at the portion with large cracks caused by Akira.
It was at this moment that both Ben and Dover appeared in front of Akira to try and take him down!
“You will not win! Even if you kill us we will still come back and fight you again!” roared Ben as he charged forward fearlessly. Death meant nothing to these demigods.
“Awoooooo!” Akira activated his Skill [Howl].
Both Ben and Dover along with the other minion demigods near them all flinched and stopped their attacks for several seconds.
Ding!
-
The skill ‘Howl’ has successfully Intimidated the targets!
Akira and the others did not let this chance go to waste. They were like reapers as they swept through the demigods sending thousands of light fragments up into the sky. With so many deaths the light fragments were lighting up the area as if it was the middle of the day.
The already damaged wall finally crumbled revealing a large hole.
The coalition army swarmed inside and began cutting down all who opposed them.
Several of the enemy demigods seeing Teresa and her followers fighting alongside the Demon race army cursed them.
“@#$%,” shouted Ben angrily as he regained control over his body just in time to block an attack from Akira… only to be cut down by several attacks launched by the low-level demigods that were being led by Rondie who was still protecting Sister Teresa as they entered the town and began working on healing the wounded allies even while the battle was still raging all around her.
With a pained voice full of anger Ben shouted, “Rondie why are you and your friends doing this? With all of your strength, you could easily be officers in any of the main guilds. But instead, you are following a demon lover like Teresa! Why?”
Unfortunately, he was unable to get his answer before he disappeared into hundreds of lights.
With the fall of the core members of the [BenDover] guild, the rest of the allied demigods that had joined them were wiped out.
