Chapter 66

Meanwhile, back in the campground Thomas and the other two students had finished making quite a nice meal while Timothy continued working on their equipment. Only one minute later, Timothy had finally finished both Alicia and Mark's pieces of armor that needed work while Thomas did not need any armor fixed which left only Greg's armor. However, Timothy had decided to take a break since the food was smelling spectacular.

During this time in the mountain range, Timothy and the squad mostly stuck to eating dry food in order to not create any smells to set off the noses of nearby demonic beasts but after clearing out every rank one and rank two demonic beast in the still outer area that they were in, it was finally acceptable to cook a few things. Plus, one of the barriers had an additional ability in soaking in any scents from leaking out as well.

The squad had begun eating and chatting among themselves. Timothy was the first to tell a story about a hero who had once gone to battle against an army of demons. Sure, the story was literally about him and his old allies who made a squad with him, but his current squad members were captivated by the story.

"The legendary hero in a single night as the demons were retreating after experiencing such a crushing defeat, was able to slip into the demon's camp and secretly slay four commander level figures from within before barely escaping with his life intact. The next morning during the great battle, since by then the remainder of the original human army that had pushed them back had caught up, even without the hero's assistance, the human army was able to completely wipe the demon army out!"

"This was the hero's plan all along which is why he chose to do this because he was indeed a pillar in the army and served as its general, but he was not considered to be the strategist of the army, just their strongest individual. But by sacrificing his own safety and slaying four demon commanders, the demons lacked proper leaders and only one commander to be in charge of over one hundred thousand demons was just not good enough. The demons tried to use their overwhelming numbers since the human army only numbered forty thousand compared to their one hundred thousand but it was no use."

"Knowing since the day before when the hero had made the order that he alone would go into enemy territory in order to take as many commander class heads as he could, the strategist had decided to make the soldiers focus on long-range weaponry because if the hero's plan went well enough, the strategist understood that the only advantage the demon army would have, was numbers and the best way to utilize the advantage was an all-out attack. But because they had done this, the long-range weapons that the humans made in bulk during the night for the upcoming battle, was enough to wipe them out to the point where the demons were almost unable to make it to the front lines of the human army."

"After witnessing such a crushing defeat, demons from all over the world who were situated in different human cities that used their sheer numbers to take over the area, started sending tens of thousands of their own soldiers to support one single massive force in order to stop the hero's own army advance towards their capital where their ruler was. Because of their advantage in numbers, the demons clearly spread themselves too thin and were not expecting such a strong human army to form seemingly out of nowhere and overnight."

"This however, was exactly what the hero and his team realized would occur which was why the hero had made sure to plant portions of the army that he had thrown together originally in different areas. Now that the demons had sent the majority of their armies to intercept the hero's army which was little did they know only three hundred soldiers strong, the other thirty seven thousand human soldiers were able to retake countless areas around the world and because of it, the human army immediately became over five hundred thousand soldiers in the span of a single week."

It was then, that the final battle would begin, the demons unable to advance, chose to hide in their headquarters near the demon gate which they used to invade the world in the beginning of the war. As long as they could hold out long enough, the Demon King would be able to refill the lost soldiers of its army and in one fell swoop, would be able to retake not only the land and areas it was forced to lose due to the clever planning of the hero! But it was too late, because the hero was able to recruit a group of blacksmiths that created many powerful weapons that were never seen even by the Demon King."

"The battle lasted an entire two weeks before the hero's special unit was able to break into the Demon King's throne room and slaughter all of its advisors while the Demon King itself had no choice but to recall the remaining demon soldiers back into the portal before closing it behind it. It took many decades, but it was finally over and the humans decided to hold a week-long celebration before rebuilding the world almost from scratch."

After Timothy had finished telling his story that took an entire ten minutes, Thomas thought about something before cutting in before Mark and Alicia could react to the ending. "Do not make any sudden movements, Greg has not come back and I fear that he may have been killed by a demonic beast. Even without proper armor, he still had his staff with him when he went to the bathroom. Wait for my signal before getting into combat formation c."

"Now!" Hearing their leader's orders, the squad quickly went into their defensive formation with Thomas in the back, Mark and Alicia in the middle and Timothy in the front. If Greg was killed by a demonic beast, he obviously was unable to detect it which meant that the demonic beast if such a scene happened, would be a rank three or possibly even a rank four demonic beast. "Greg, if you are still there, let your presence be known!" Thomas shouted out using a portion of his mana to increase the distance of his voice.