Starting the decisive battle

[North of the human empire]

Watching the human army start closing the multiple kilometers of distance between the two front lines after having taken up formation, Darganth nodded content. After four days of various raids on their vanguard units, the core of the human army was now finally within striking distance while almost half its fighting power remained scattered tens of kilometers into all directions, with the furthest being over a hundred kilometers and thus requiring a march over multiple days for the manaless soldiers to return even with the assistance of their accompanying mages.

Opposite of them, a small force of a few thousand undead led by the skeleton dragon regularly serving as Melidra's mount was presently rolling over yet another such vanguard unit. Acting oblivious to the main forces approach, they kept piling against the dense formation of the human army, the expendable zombies and skeletons falling rapidly but being almost instantly replaced by a new body.

Meanwhile, the humans they were facing barely held their formation together in the face of this onslaught. The few stronger-than-average undead among the attackers regularly tore gaps into the otherwise solid shield wall, allowing tens of enemies to breach the formation and cause havoc before they were driven back.

Furthermore, though the skeleton dragon didn't directly participate in the battle, Melidra would occasionally command him to send a burst of necrotic energy into his horde. With it, many of the seemingly slain zombies and skeletons rose back up to join the fight anew, though with a limb or two less.

As such, the smaller human army was slowly being exhausted by the unending wave of enemies, forcing the reinforcing main force to march at a brisk pace. Together with their confidence in their spotting capabilities this deep into the net of vanguard units that was centered around the main force even after the losses they suffered, this resulted in a lack of situational awareness.

In part thanks to this, the force comprised of Darganth's allies went completely unnoticed even to the mana users' senses. Standing on the slope facing away from the two human armies, the soldiers in the massive formation that stretched out behind Darganth and the other leaders prepared for the upcoming battle under the cover of the large hill that obscured them. Beasts of a large variety and ranging from as small as house cats to two or three dozen meters high, elves, and members of other allied groups all waited for the signal.

Darganth himself meanwhile was peering over the crest of the hill, watching the human armies closely and waiting for over an hour for an opening. Ultimately, this came in the form of a soft white glow that appeared around the members of one of the units on the flank. Recognizing the traits of a light attribute enhancement spell even if he didn't know the spell itself, Darganth could already guess what was happening and smiled.

A moment later his thoughts were proven correct as the unit in question abruptly picked up speed, with even the manaless soldiers among them reaching speeds beyond the fastest sprint humans were capable of while only lightly jogging and being weighted down by heavy armor. Furthermore, they showed no signs of slowing down even a minute later, despite approaching the first kilometer crossed by then.

Another two minutes later they had built up a massive gap toward the rest of the army, already having crossed over half the distance to the undead that were their target. Seeing this, Darganth turned to Neandra. Understanding each other's thoughts without a word, both briefly nodded in confirmation before springing into action.

Immediately, Neandra's magic sprang forth in the form of an advanced spell. Unlike multilayered ones like the one used by Arkuns's right-hand man during the emperor meeting, these still consist of only a basic spell, meaning it has one row of runes at its edge and no multiple spell circles layers in front of each other. But instead of having this one row be repeated in the additional rings surrounding the central circle that are added with each order the caster has advanced to, the inscriptions on some of them belong to a different basic spell or auxiliary circle, creating a specialized effect.

Though most such spells weren't as commonly known and they tended to be more difficult to cast than basic spells, almost everyone recognized the effect Neandra's action placed on the unit of their army standing closest to them. Eagle's wing was one of the few exceptions to the rarity of advanced spells after all, with there likely being more mages knowing it than some of the less renowned basic spells.

And while it was only barely more efficient than basic spells and a far cry from the power the multilayered spells accessible to mythic ranks can demonstrate, when cast by Neandra it allowed even the heaviest of beasts to rise into the air. Surrounded by an updraft of wind that existed for only a meter of space around them, they and the other troops near them started hovering a few meters off the ground.

At the same time, Melidra briefly closed her eyes and focused. Breathing slowly, her eyes snapped back open a few seconds later with an intense gaze.

"I'm ready." She said.

Hearing her confirmation, Neandra turned to Odrei and spoke, "Announce our presence."

"I will."

Performing a small bow as he spoke, the transformed drake vanished from where he stood a second later. Turning into a streak of light as he moved, he shot into the air and over the hill, disappearing into the direction of the approaching army.

For a brief moment, silence hung in the air as tens of thousands of gazes watched the streak of light fly into the air before slowly curving to descend back down in an arc. Rapidly approaching the ground under the nervous eyes of the human army, Odrei's form erupted in a flash of light just before landing.

Following the blinding light that preceded his landing, he then impacted the ground with a thundering boom. The accompanying shock-wave simultaneously exploded outward into all directions, washing over the humans that were staring at his form while standing frozen in place.

No longer transformed into a humanoid form, Odrei's massive true form towered in between both armies. Stretching across nearly half of the over ten-kilometer gap between the hill and the human army, he was already well within range to strike at the latter with a single lunge. But instead, he pushed off the ground with his front legs, briefly lifting his torso before slamming his feet back onto the ground with a roar.

Along with it, mana gathered in his opened maw, barely giving the mana users present a fraction of a second of forewarning before a beam of light burst forth and shot at the human army. Slamming into the massive shield bubble that was projected over the army from one of the mage units near the center of its formation, the beam ever so briefly clashed with the shimmering film blocking it.

But even the might of multiple mythic ranks aided by almost a hundred third and fourth ranks didn't hold out long against Odrei, at least not when stretched across such a large area. As such, within a second of the two energies clashing, the shield started to flicker before shattering around the impact area.

Bursting through the gap, the beam clashed with the shield covering only the unit it was targeting for an even shorter, barely noticeable amount of time before tearing into the ranks of its soldiers. Slowly moving further up into the formation as Odrei moved his head, it remained unopposed for a few seconds as it tore a trail of devastation through the army.

Only after a few moments of shock did their commanders react. Channeling their mana, over a dozen mythic rank mages rose into the air with power crackling around their forms, their bodies turned into masses of their respective strongest element as they shot attacks of their own at the beam.

Under their combined effort this slowly showed an effect, with the beam of light being pushed back as more and more of them focused their spells onto the same spot. Within a handful of seconds, it was already pushed back past where the shield had been, with the two clashing forces finding an equilibrium about two-thirds of the way from Odrei to the army.

As this clash was happening, the troops affected by Neandra's spell used the cover Odrei's massive form and the blinding lights of the attacks provided to rapidly close in on the unit that had rushed ahead. Carried by the updraft that surrounded them, they shot through the air, with especially those among them that had wings reaching extreme speeds.

Crossing over the hills while the rest of the army set in motion beneath them, the roughly two-hundred-strong unit of mostly beasts and elves set upon it and the vanguard unit fighting the undead with deadly efficiency. Striking from the skies, their assault was led by a handful of massive beasts each that broke through the protective shield and sent the humans tumbling by crashing down in the middle of their formations.

Behind them, the fastest among them struck with blinding speed. Acting in small teams of two or three, they blitzed the mana users and any officers they could make out. Claws, daggers, spikes, and arrows all found their targets amid the chaos, neutralizing the enemy leadership in one swift strike before retreating back to the skies.

Watching from his spot on the hill, Darganth saw the remaining fighters they had sent crash into the formation a moment later. Though disorientated by the abrupt loss of leadership, some of their opponents still held their ground. Especially those toward the edge of the formation had remained largely unaffected by the beast's initial drop and were thus still positioned in a dense shield wall with spears poking out in between as they met the mainly of elves consisting force that came barreling down on them.

But just as they were about to step into the reach of the human spears, the first row of the attackers suddenly rose into the air. Previously having used the effect of Eagle's wing only to lighten their body for a faster spring, they now sailed over the first three rows of enemy soldiers. Remaining outside of their reach as they did, they circumvented the dense wall of spears pointed their way and dropped onto the sword-wielding troops behind them.

With it, they also drew some of the spears upwards as soldiers tried to prevent them from dropping onto them. Thanks to this, gaps opened up in the formation, allowing the other half of their comrades to slip through the sea of speartips.

The moment they did, the two formations both crumbled completely within short order. Aura enhanced weapons cut through the shields of manaless and first rank soldiers despite the enhancements they benefited from. With it, the men and women wielding those weapons opened gaps into the formation that allowed them to rush in before spreading out to the sides and breaking apart what remained of the formation.

Seeing enough gaps open up amid the spears that the entire force they had sent out could join the fight soon after, Darganth no longer saw the need to keep an eye on the progress there. Though there were the occasional equal fights amid the chaos when some of their first and second ranks didn't manage to exploit the surprise well enough and got stuck against a roughly equally strong opponent, with a handful of third rank beasts on their side against the one third rank in each enemy unit it was only a matter of time before they won there.

As such, he turned his focus onto the rest of their army which was simultaneously moving over and around the hill as they closed in on the main portion of the human army. This advance was covered by Odrei, with the drake moving far faster than expected for his massive form to block the hundreds of spells and other projectiles that were by then flying out from amid the enemy army.

Shortly after their forces fully crossed around the hill and started charging toward the humans, this was joined by heavy siege weapons being directed toward him. Slamming into his side, the massive bolts and multiple meters tall, sometimes flaming, boulders made him stumble backward with their impacts.

Catching himself, Odrei quickly charged up another breath attack in retaliation. Firing it only for a brief burst and moving head far faster than before, he tore a gash horizontally across the shield, breaching it again mere moments after the traces of his first attack had finally closed back up.

Immediately following this by moving forward in a burst of speed, he thrust his claws through the opening before straining against its slowly regenerating edges. Breaking apart more and more of the transparent simmer that was the shield protecting the army, he simultaneously conjured up spears of light around himself.

But just as he was about to unleash them through the gap he had created, one of the army's more powerful siege weapons fired. Mounted on a small wood and metal chassis barely over two meters long and wide, the weapons consisted of a crystalline structure that was mounted at the end of a handle-like pole that allowed it to pivot around the mounting point at the center of its length. This created a picture akin to an oversized hammer, with the crystal structure that formed the hammer's head standing at around two men tall as it rested with its backside on the ground.

Rotating around the axis connecting it to the chassis as its operators unlocked the mechanism holding it tensed, the glowing hammer head swung upward into Odrei's direction before striking the ground directly in front of the chassis.

With it, a rumbling ran through the earth as the weapon's entire charge of mana was unloaded. Shooting deep into the soil faster than even Odrei's senses could track, it slowly curved back upward before erupting right below the drake and sending a massive pillar of rock crashing into his underside.

Caught off guard by the strike, Odrei had the air knocked out of his lungs. But at the same time, one of the spells he had infused into his body through his status as a mythic ranks mage activated, causing a beam of light to shoot out from the point of impact, shattering the pillar when it struck a moment later.

Thanks to this, Odrei wasn't pushed as far up as he would've been otherwise, leaving his feet to touch the ground a mere second later. As such, he regained solid ground under his feet just in time before the next magical siege engine opened fire.

Flying with perfect accuracy, the ball of clashing fire and water that was its projectile struck him at the base of his neck. Exploding with the force of two fused elements behind it, it tore apart the area surrounding it in a flash of blue and red strong enough to not just pierce Odrei's scales as many attacks before had done, but to also deal more than small, surface-level wounds to his flesh.

But instead of having his neck half shredded by the strike, Odrei's affected flesh simply exploded into motes of light. With it, the rest of his body almost stealthy faded from view as the manifested illusion he had created just in time sustained more damage than it could handle.

His true body meanwhile reappeared in human form back with Darganth's group, standing next to Neandra with his hands calmly resting behind his back as if he hadn't just barely avoided an almost even deadly strike.

"Was that enough?" He asked with his head turned toward Melidra.

"Absolutely." Pointing her arm toward the enemy army as she answered, Melidra's hand briefly flashed with dark necrotic energy.

The moment it did, Darganth already spotted the ground bursting open beneath one of the human soldiers. From it, a skeletal hand emerged, grabbing the enemy combatant by the shin. An instant after, a second arm burst out of the ground, holding a sword in its hand and stabbing at the man standing above without hesitation.

All across the human army variations of this scene played out as the undead they had buried in small groups throughout the field ahead of them reacted to Melidra's order. Rising out of the earth uncaring of whether they would be met with a manaless or mythic rank soldier, they wildly slashed at the enemy above them.

Within seconds, this caused panic to erupt among easily a third of the enemy forces. Men and women either turned to flee or ran to help their allies, creating conflicting flows of movement even in the spaces between the scattered areas where the undead emerged.

Not even the mythic ranks were entirely exempt from this, with three mages being unfortunate enough to be slow with their reaction and also having one of the more powerful undead waiting beneath them. And unlike the aura users who had found themselves in similar situations, the power equivalent of a fourth rank the skeleton knights attacking demonstrated was enough for their weapons to sink into flesh.

But even with two dead and one heavily wounded mage in the wake of the surprise attack, the central command unit of mythic ranks remained the sole bastion of calmness amid the chaos. Occasionally flinging spells or masses of aura at any nearby undead, the roughly a hundred soldiers strong unit stayed at their position near the center of the army.

Already watching on with some suspicion as he watched this, Darganth's eyes widened a moment later when he saw hundreds of magic circles manifest beneath the feet of the army. Stretching anywhere from ten to a hundred meters in diameter each, with some being visible to everyone present while other casters managed to control the powerful spell well enough that only Darganth's dragon eyes saw them, the spells spread out to encompass nearly all the human army a mere dozen second before the leading beats slammed into their lines.

Each of these spells then activated as soon as they formed, enveloping one enemy unit after the other with their effects as the different casters finished their spells slightly out of sync. In an instant, these units vanished from the battlefield in a surge of spatial energy, with the sheer number making it impossible for Darganth to get a read on more than a handful of destinations.

Unfortunately for their enemies, the delay that came from some of the caster's lacking skill or power meant that only around three-fourths of the army had vanished by the time the forces of Darganth and his allies reached them. Though stopped by those enemy units still present to resist, the gaps in between meant that parts of their front line instantly breached into the enemy formation.

The moment they did, all but one enemy mage stopped their attempts rather quickly, with the already activated spells failing the moment a new person stepped into their range. The lone still active spell meanwhile stretched out below the commanding mythic ranks who were by then the only unit still remaining in the center, thus moving them away from the battlefield mere moments later.

With it, the source of a majority of the spells also vanished, leaving only a few dozen mages to try and save the units they were accompanying as the army was quickly overrun. And while some managed to still activate their spell, even if Darganth now managed to read most of their destinations before they vanished, others had it disrupted, with many of these remaining units surrendering shortly after.

As such, before the battle even truly began, Darganth and his allies were left standing in a field filled with only them and their prisoners, much to his confusion and shock.