It was later that afternoon when the alarm sounded off. The ground trembled as soldiers could be seen moving like a swarm of ants, moving out of their barracks. Arming themselves to the teeth as they rushed to their positions to meet their incoming enemies.
Some of the engineering staff who volunteered to join the battle went to take control over the Ballista weapons for Air support, the Magicians took their places on towers enchanted with shield and barrier magic to protect them from attacks.
The walls were surrounded by a single line of Heavy knights holding their shields and archers stood behind them, on the ground, the vanguard soldiers stood in formation blocks near the entrance while even more Archers were placed where they will be shooting arrows as well.
Falbium and most of the Elite warriors of the Military took their place on top of the Fort's roof overseeing their entire terrain, they were the last line of defence so the moments they would move is only if an absolutely strong enemy arrives. Diana was naturally part of this team.
Masaru, Akeno, Ingvild and Ichika wore vanguard soldiers outfit while covering their faces and joined the vanguard squad that is selected to pursue the enemy should they retreat while if the enemies breached the gate they will meet them first, this was the most dangerous position for them but also the most appropriate position should a creature Masaru would be able to push it back while the Elite Forces will then be able to respond.
Falbium looked up into the skies towards the two mountains that were blotted by black shadow balls approaching the fort when it came close enough the people could recognize the heads of the scouts that were sent into the mountains were launched towards the fort.
Soon trembling sounds of thousands upon thousands stomping could be felt through the reverberating sound that was approaching, soon over the barren lands, signs of a demonic beast stampede was approaching, from the mountains flying figures of devils and fallen angels were spotted flying towards the fort.
The entire fort's atmosphere felt tense, some soldiers were scared, some were excited all kinds of emotions were gathered inside. They never expected the enemies to control Demonic Beasts to attack the front while they themselves attack the flanks, Falbium's voice reverberated throughout the fort.
"DO NOT FEAR! The enemies are cowards who used beasts to fight on their behalf but we will not falter!
"HARDEN YOUR HEART! For we are the soldiers of the Devil Country! We will make them regret attacking us!
"GRIP YOUR WEAPONS TIGHTLY! For the time to protect your homeland! Your Family! Your Friends! Your Lovers! Your children and everyone dear to you!!!
"WE SHALL NOT LET THEM PASS!!!"
""""""""""OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!""""""""""""""""
The eruption of cheers was enough to even attract the attention the demonic beasts from afar who felt an instinct within their bodies said that these were not prey but enemies,
"Nero take control of a platoon and lead them to face the enemies from the North Eastern Mountain! You take a platoon and move to meet the enemies on the Northwestern mountain!"
Soon platoons began to divide from the main army who stayed at the main gate, one of the captains leading the Archer squad on the ground yelled
"ARCHERS nock your arrows!!!"
All of the archer group on the ground moved like one body and nocked their arrows onto their bows waiting for the next order, similar the archers on the wall nocked their arrows as well. From afar the Demonic Beasts were approaching fast.
"Prepare the mortars!"
Falbium called out, soon soldiers used domesticated demonic beasts to pull forward several massive mortars.
"Load the barrels!"
Two of the engineers began moving to load the weapon.
The reason why the defensive weapons of the seventh fort were still more outdated compared to the Sixth till first was to prevent the enemies from discovering their trump cards hidden within each fort, this fort has two trump cards hidden within it as well.
"Archers Draw!!"
Upon this command, all the Archers began to pull the string of their bow while holding their position taking aim at the sky while predicting the position the arrows will land, meanwhile the Mortar team were already aiming ahead of time.
"Mortar team fire!"
a Loud explosion erupted from the barrels of the cylinders as explosive bombs were sent flying towards the approaching horde of beasts, the beasts did not understand what the black small things were that was approaching but their bestial instincts made them want to change directions but because they were too densely packed several hundreds of beasts fell after the first round of explosive bombs sent from the Mortar teams.
While the Mortar teams were cleaning the barrel and loading the next bullet,
"RELEASE!!!"
a Volley of poison smeared arrows was the next weapon to blot the skies flying towards the beasts. Poor beasts did not even have time to relax after the first assault of explosions were now killed off by poisoned arrows, the beasts who did not fall immediately still died after a few seconds the poison invaded its nerve system.
Just as the attacks of the first round of Arrows was complete another round of explosive bombs came free falling at them after they heard a loud explosion sound coming from the fort, somehow the beasts began to recognize that each time the explosion goes off bombs will fall on them although they did not understand what bombs were they at least began to recognize the pattern.
"Lord Falbium it appears the movement of the demonic beasts has become unorganized, we will be wasting ammunition if we continue the pattern of attacks"
One of the advisors spoke to Falbium,
"Hold the mortar fire, have the archers focus on the far back range of the beasts and send in the vanguards to meet up with the beasts. We can't have the demonic beast get close to our walls"
The advisor saluted
"Yes sir"
Masaru who was getting impatient noticed the gates were opening while one of the leaders shouted
"Our time to shine has come ladies! Stick in a formation, don't move ahead of your comrade next to you. This is a war not a fairy tale for heroes! Move out!"
Following the squad, Masaru took off his face cover since he did not want to be hindered if he needs to move ahead, Akeno, Ichika and Ingvild did the same shocking the surrounding soldiers but strangely it ignited their fighting spirits to a realm Masaru was unable to comprehend since these fools are part of the fan clubs of these three girls after all.
'Fans sure are fearsome in their own ways...' He thought
>\/<
While on the eastern side of the mountains Nero was leading his platoon to face off against the invaders,
"FOR THE DEVILS!"
He yelled while initiating his dragonification ability, the enemies they were facing off against was low-class levels so they did not survive easily under the assault of this Devil dragon and his squad but the sheer number of enemies was nothing to laugh at.
Soon several kinds of elemental magics were sent flying towards the enemies, it was the timely support from the Magicians on the Eastern Tower supporting them.
"Kill them all!"
Hearing Nero's orders the soldiers could not help but feel their blood pumping
"OOOOHHHH!!!!"
"Die you monsters! die!"
"You lowly scums who betrayed the original Demon lords!"
One of the enemy devils yelled out as he attacked Nero who caught his sword, Nero glared at him fiercely
"It was the original demon lords who did not want to stop until the last of our Devil race will become extinct that we chose to fight for the sake of survival!!"
Nero killed the devil with a single punch while throwing its body towards the back of the enemies rear-guards,
"Spear formation! Let's divide the enemies formation and kill them"
The soldiers formed a spear pattern with Nero as the front point killing the devils while pushing through to the back.
The battle grows fiercer and the first death casualty arrived for Nero's platoon but it did not stop them from piercing right through the formation, what Nero found strange was the fact this size army they were facing did not have a commander leading them.
It was like these were only the fodders to wear them down, it was only now he realized the enemy was going to attack in waves to wear them down before the main attack.
"Change to ripple formation, Start the Massacre!"
Nero called out his command, the spear formation transformed into a dual-line formation splitting up as they began to kill the enemies with Nero in the centre to take command if any enemy appears during this massacre.
>\/<
"Hmm... The attacks are a bit too soft, this is not what I was expecting at all"
Falbium spoke as he looked at the three battle situation, they did have casualties but the fierceness of the attacks from the enemy was too passive. Like they were discarding leftovers to get eaten up before the main dish arrives.
"What is the report on the monster movements?"
One of the scouts that went along with the vanguards to meet up with the beasts just arrived,
"It appears the enemy only took control of the Territory Lord beast to make the rest of the beasts move according to their wishes"
Falbium was about to order someone to kill it but
"Lord Falbium, Masaru Belial the Demonic Wonder Child of Belial has already moved ahead of the Vanguard team and is currently heading straight in the direction of the Territory Lord"
Falbium stopped but a smile still formed on his face
"I see, then let's leave it to them. Take a squad of the Elites here and flank the enemies, find out their base camp location at all cost!"
"By your orders, Lord Falbium!"
Falbium sighed
"If I was not under the pressure of the thought that an enemy might attack the fort when I leave I would have gone ahead and killed all these fools"
"Leave it to Masaru, after all. This is his ideal training ground"
Diana who kept her eyes on Masaru the whole time could see her son was smiling
>\/<
[I feel like I'm having an orgasm because of excitement!]
"Damn! It started again... Just shut up you perverted crazy dragon!"
Masaru cursed the dragon but he himself was currently feeling the pressure several times more compared to the beast stampede tide he faced at the Belial Family because what the devils did not notice was the enemies moved between the demonic beasts the moment the bombing stopped.
Clang!
Masaru blocked an enemy sword while kicking the approaching demonic beast with his ki enhanced legs crushing its head,
"Earth Needle"
Numerous sharp needles made of earth erupted from the enemy devil's feet emerging all the way back like a rolling wave that was piercing both beasts and humanoid enemies in a 100-metre direction to death.
"Fufufu, scream for me"
Akeno was flying in the air while releasing her holy lightning magic upon the devils and fallen angels who tried to hide between the demonic beasts a bit further away from Masaru,
"GYAAA"
Akeno licked her lips as she muttered
"Not enough. You can still go on right?"
This was the first time the enemies came across a sadistic woman who will be torturing them to death, despite the fact they felt they might have awakened a strange sort of fetish on the battlefield!
"Akeno, we need to move faster otherwise Masaru is going to face that beast alone!"
Ingvild who is normally pure and kind but when she enters combat mode under the training of Diana she kills swiftly and efficiently because of her kind nature Diana taught her techniques that kill fast and won't let the enemy be tortured like Akeno is doing it.
When a beast rushed towards her she immediately cast water magic to turn the surrounding grounds into mud which made it difficult for the surrounding beasts and enemies to keep their balance properly but what they did not expect was the next move.
Similar to Masaru's Earth needle, with her as the centre water needles emerged from the muddy waters penetrating the enemies in a hundred-meter radius to death instantly.
"But you finish them off too fast! You need to learn the choice of punishing the fools who think we are easy targets"
Excitement flashed in Akeno's eyes as it was her first time she could go all out having her fun without the need for restraint, Ichika was near the two of them since she was more of a defensive support type using her Space power to create barriers or teleportation she was the one responsible to support Akeno and Ingvild should something dangerous approach them.
'I will ask Circe-sama to teach me some attacking magic using the space element once we head home' Ichika thought while moving together with Akeno and Ingvild.
"ROAARRRRR!!!!"
The Territory lord that Masaru and Drago felt was the reason the enemies could control the Demonic Beasts finally came out, but it was weaker than a true territory lord beast.
Its appearance was that of a panther with yellow streaks from which lightning erupts whenever it begins to rush towards its prey.
[I believe you can leave the girls to handle this beast, you best focus on the one controlling it]
Masaru looked at the Fallen Angel that was currently controlling the territory beast forcibly, from the looks of it the method to control the beast is what caused it to be weaker compared to other territory lord beasts.
"Akeno, Ingvild, Ichika... I am leaving the mobs and the Territory lord to you girls, I don't want to see a single injury on either of you understand?"
Akeno, Ingvild and Ichika smiled before giving a determined yet strong answer
"YES!"
Masaru exposed his devil wings for the first time, to his surprise four pairs appeared instead of a single pair.
'huh? I thought it will be less?'
[Well let's just say you are blessed and move on?]
Masaru knew Drago was keeping him focused on the fallen Angel, but he was still curious about why the number of his wings increased.
"To think we will have such a high ranking descendant grace us with his presence!"
The fallen Angel did not feel a threat at all, according to the information they collected of Masaru was his recorded details of when he was in the hospital before he left with his father. The reports of everything else was tightly under the command of the four devil kings.
There were the rumours that they also collected but who would believe a brat at such a young age would reach high-rank high-class power in such a short amount of time. Not to mention how ridiculous the rumours of his spellbook sounded, they did not take it seriously thinking the devil house was only exaggerating to get support.
Masaru flapped his wings flying off fast towards the Fallen Angel, he put in his strength and gave it strong swing downwards towards the Fallen Angel who pulled out his sword to block. But the poor fool underestimated Masaru's strength was caught off guard by the absurd amount of strength this boy in front of him was displaying, while the fallen angel was blasted into the ground he yelled out
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?"
BOOM!
Masaru did not wait for the dust to clear but instead penetrated through the cloud of dust reaching the fallen Angel who just stood up, but this time the Fallen Angel ignited his fighting spirit to the max in order to fight with everything he got. The exchange of blades gave a strong enough force to blast the dust away, this was a high-class battle after all.
Meanwhile, Akeno manipulated her lighting magic to materialize a rope which she used despite it being difficult for quite a while to capture the Territory Lord Beast which was a puppet that followed the commands of the Fallen Angel who was being kept company by Masaru.
"Fufu, don't break too soon"
From the distance where Masaru was fighting, he could soon hear the sound of whips along with a mournful yet excited roar. However, Akeno kept whipping the territory lord with her electric whip shocking its nerves at just the right amount of strength to make it feel pleasure and pain, slowly stimulating its instincts to snap and release itself from control.
Ingvild this time did not kill the devils but only passively kept them under control while Ichika prevented them from leaving till Akeno was done with her task to awaken the territory lord from its state and then escape using Ichika's space magic back to the Vanguard side and have them retreat.
The territory Lord did not betray Akeno's expectation as the pleasure of pain thoroughly stimulated it far enough for it to forcibly break the control link it had with the Fallen Angel. Seeing this Akeno flew at a fast speed towards Ingvild and Ichika, the three of them disappeared all of the sudden shocking the surrounding devils and fallen angels. But the biggest shock to them was the territory lord that was no longer under their control.
"RUN!"
"I don't want to die!"
The beast pounce on its first victim while he was crying
"Help me!!!"
But the rest of his once allies all thought
'Just become its food and let us run for it!'
When the fallen angel felt the connection he shared with the beast was severed, he realized the first wave of attacks has failed their purpose. He knew if he goes back what would await him will be torture at the best or execution at worst which both of things he did not want, his eyes became bloodshot as his attacks became wild and erratic his rage was slowly starting to corrode his judgement and techniques.
Masaru realized his girls were gone which meant they already completed their task in breaking the control over the demonic territory lord beast, with this the stampede will recede back since there are nothing pushing the demonic beasts forward anymore.
"It's because of you!!"
The fallen angel screamed as his attacks that once held technique turned into slashes with nothing but brute force.
"If only you did not exist!"
Masaru was quite calmer now compared when they first exchanging sword blows as he was quite an expert in redirecting attacks that has nothing but the force behind it thanks to his week-long fight against that Dragon Girl.
But while they were fighting the panther who already made its subordinates retreat back to their home came moving slowly towards the two men who were fighting one another, it lowered its body with its eyes locked on Masaru even the Fallen Angel.
It immediately realised that it was spotted and that it could not entirely conceal its excitement to kill these two strong preys, just as the Panther was about to pounce a streak of light ripped a hole in Masaru's sleeve penetrating the panther through its throat. It did not have the chance to even yelp, it could only collapse lifelessly while Masaru increased the frequency of his attacks.
"Damn!"
Just as the fallen angel was about to make a move to escape Masaru moved swiftly to his back and impaled his heart with his sword from the back,
"Guah!"
The Fallen angel spit out a small amount of blood coughing,
"To think I would meet my end here."
Masaru who heard this felt this man was an idiot
"You were doomed from the moment you decided to face against me, nothing more nothing less"
"You're quite arrogant for a brat, but I acknowledge your strength"
The body of the fallen angel went limp and Akiva who killed the panther just returned curling around Masaru's arm,
"You little rascal tore a hole in my favourite shirt!"
Masaru wanted to scold his familiar but he noticed she already went into another hibernation, there were signs of her reaching low High-class power strength once again.
"Haaa...."
Masaru removed his sword from the corpse wiping the blood off its surface.
[What a lovely day this is... Is this how people feel when they smoke weed? I honestly feel like I can fly in the clouds]
"If you want I can throw you and we can see just how far you will fly"
[...]
>\/<
"Lord Falbium the enemies at the back who was controlling the Territory Lord beast has been defeated, the Territory Lord beast was also slain."
The scout responsible for monitoring the main battlefield came back just as Masaru rejoined the Vanguard, then the scouts from the eastern and Western returned
"Enemies are retreating"
"Good Work, take care of the Injured, Let the men rest and those who were not active will take guard duty"
Falbium began to give out his orders, he looked at the horizon waiting for the scouts who are searching for the enemy base camp had yet to return.