Some time had passed and the chaotic battlefield had been reorganized. The forces of the council reformed and tried to retreat, but the Trilance’s Cavalry and the Warlock Centaurs cut their path of retreat easily.
Tiara was still focused on protecting her allies, whereas Zeroa aided her with great precision. But there was more to it.
At some point, Zeroa began to use power that didn’t belong to her. She tapped into the power of Michael’s Soultraits and used them to strengthen Tiara.
Zeroa used Enhancement onto Tiara while also unleashing Extraction to absorb the surrounding energy at once. The Elemental Empress’ used-up energy was rapidly replenished, allowing her to use her mythical flames more often and experiment a little with them by conjuring larger attacks.
However, Tiara and Zeroa didn’t have the biggest impact on the battlefield. It was just that their actions fit well into the others’ plays. The Immortal Knight had an easier time controlling the Holy Knights, Mages, and other Summons from the Savannah Expedition, whereas Stinger and the Savannah Expedition’s Awakened teleported wildly throughout the battlefield to wreak havoc where their prowess was required the most.
The Council’s forces were far from weak, but the course of events didn’t play in their favor. The Awakened played against the Council in the worst possible ways and disrupted their rhythm entirely. This allowed the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs to deal considerable damage.
Mekhaz led the Warlock Centaurs with his Soultrait, Living Armor fully unleashed. Living Armor coated his entire body, leaving not a single inch of his body unprotected. Charging into the masses of enemies with his naturally high physical strength shook his foes to the core. It felt like a train at max speed crashed into them.
Mekhaz wielded a long spear with great precision. He never paid much attention to evading attacks. Instead, he prioritized rapid attacks and swift movements. As long as he moved around fast enough while putting pressure on his enemy, it would be impossible for his opponent to retaliate and hit him.
This worked out decently against most Summons. They had already a hard time weaving around the razor-sharp spear blade and sustained several injuries in no time. Blocking Mekhaz’s attacks was not feasible either. The spear’s force was too much for most Summons, and even Awakened at the lower range of physical strength, to handle.
Only the combined effort of several Summons, or a Summon with a high star-rating – or decades of experience – would know the ways to block Mekhaz’s rapid and mighty spear attacks.
His unique spear technique didn’t make it easier for his foes to handle Mekhaz. If anything, it turned Mekhaz into a far more dangerous opponent since the technique focused on executing unpredictable killing blows.
Thaor and Lokai’s tactics were vastly different from Mekhaz’s. The Berserkers relied on their physical strength to execute the most terrifying attacks in quick succession. They didn’t focus on defense too much just like Mekhaz. However, their offense was far more brutal. They charged ahead, relying on their massive physique to smash their enemies left and right.
The Forest Elves’ addition completed the perfect combination of disciplined combat, fight to protect, wild combat, and calculus.
The Immortal Knight and his students represented disciplined combat, Tiara and the Elemental Empress fought to protect, the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs wreaked havoc with their wild combat, and the Forest Elves focused on calculated combat, taking out the enemies that were the most likely to turn the tides on the battlefield before they could do something.
The Council of Xylon’s army tried to turn the tides several times but they were stopped before they could do something.
Three hours passed in the blink of an eye and it was no sooner that the prophesied surprise attack ended with a miserable defeat of the Council’s forces. A few Awakened managed to escape, but none of them was unscathed. Some lost a limb, while others were burned severely.
The Super Elite Unit of the Valyr pursued the remaining forces of the council whereas thunderous cheers reverberated all over the battlefield.
The counterattack was a great success. They repelled the Council and landed a feisty blow, repaying some of the pain the Council of Xylon had inflicted on the Trilance.
**
“General Ratan’s army was annihilated. The surprise attack failed.”
Only a few hours had passed since the surprise attack on the Laprix Lord’s main settlement started, but the conclusion of the battle had already reached the Council of Xylon.
Good news traveled fast, but bad news spread even faster, like a wildfire of death and destruction.
Right after the news reached the Council of Xylon, the Lords, more than a hundred, gathered around a massive blood oak table.
They were seated in a large hall, staring at each other with a mix of fury, killing intent, and disbelief.
“How could this happen? Only our people knew about the surprise attack. We didn’t even tell our Soldiers the location of our attack to prevent the Trilance’s Seer from unraveling our plan!!” One of the Lords smashed his fists onto the massive table, jumping up in fury.
“Calm down, Lord Xyrz. Everyone is displeased about the turn of events. Everyone here lost precious Monsters and Awakened that had been painstakingly nourished,” A second Lord said calmingly, his voice accompanied by a soothing aura.
Lord Xyrz grit his teeth, his nails scratching over the blood oak table’s surface, but he sat down without uttering another word.
“We lost too many good men,” A woman covered in purple scales pointed out.
“Just tell your Clan to send more backup then. Your territory sent the least Awakened to support the attack. You should keep your mouth shut, fishface!” A man on the other side of the table grunted, smoothly pointing his middle finger in her direction.
The woman leaped up, her large eyes expanding even further in fury.
“What did you ju–…”
“Shut up. Both!” A thunderous voice boomed through the large hall. .
“There is no use going against each other. We can deal with our internal issues once the Trilance has been removed. Let’s focus on our main problem first!”
The source of the thunderous voice was a four-meter-tall man covered in black hide. Large bat-like wings sprouted from his back.
“Our main problem is to remove the Trilance, or am I wrong?” One of the silent Lords asked, not quite understanding what the temporary leader of the Council was trying to get at.
“The Trilance would have been destroyed if we worked together a little bit earlier. It won’t be a problem to crush them with our combined forces. Even the Super Elite Awakened sent to reinforce their defenses are not of any help,” the Leader uttered casually before pointing out what the others seemed to miss, “The main problem is the backup that arrived a few weeks ago. They were the first to arrive, but they don’t belong to the three Lords.”
“At first, I was certain that the reinforcements were mercenaries who’d been hired from the Zentika Empire, but I was mistaken. The Zentika Empire wouldn’t do something like that.”
The Leader retrieved a crystal that projected a few pictures overhead once energy was channeled into it. The picture showed the Immortal Knight, his students, Tiara, the Berserkers, the Warlock Centaurs, and the Forest Elves with great precision.
“Hyumans?!?” A Lord exclaimed in shock right before falling from his chair.
He was not the only one in shock. Many Lords exclaimed, the terror in their voice clear.
“They’re not Hyumans. Not exactly, at least,” The Leader shook his head, “If they were Hyumans, we would have been crushed already. I’m pretty sure that they’re a weaker race that’s closely tied to Hyumans.”
“Either way, the backup sent out from them is the main problem. They obstructed our surprise attack and have been killing far more enemies than the Trilance’s armies.”
“It took a while to research this, but our Truthmaster was able to verify that there is a fourth Lord, a Lord supporting the Trilance, who’s joined the game. This Lord has a territory in the Untamed Jungle. The exact whereabouts are unknown though. However, it is presumed that the Lord isn’t located too far, or too close to the border settlement of the Trilance. The invading Adventurers didn’t report that anything was amiss….before they were killed on the spot.”
“They were killed?!” A woman exclaimed, seemingly unaware of what had happened.
“Yes. We lost the 297 Adventurers who had been sent out to take a detour through the Untamed Jungle to conquer the border settlement of the Zynur Lord. We lost them and didn’t even realize it, at first. The Adventurers didn’t even have enough time to retrieve their communication crystals and warn us. Not even their emergency crystals were triggered in time!”
Everyone had known about the secret attack, but only the Lords who’d sent out their Adventurers knew that it failed miserably. The Links of Loyalty of the Adventurers had been severed at some point, informing the Lords that their subordinates had been killed.
However, to prevent everyone from panicking their mission’s failure was maintained hidden until the surprise attack on the Laprix Lord’s main settlement succeeded.
The attack did not succeed. It was another failure.
“I think that our portal attack was discovered out due to the interference of a capable Interrogator. Somehow, the Interrogator must have bypassed the restrictions put on the Adventurers’ Soul Contracts, otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to find out that we were about to attack the Laprix Lord’s main settlement. They would have never managed to execute a perfect counterattack like this otherwise!”
The Lords around the table swallowed hard.
“What now?” One asked, visibly confused.
Was the Lord from the Untamed Jungle a Higher Lifeform already? How strong was he exactly?
“We have to eliminate the backup from the Untamed Jungle and bulldoze the Trilance before preparing the final attack against the biggest threat; The Lord of the Untamed Jungle!”
**
𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮