Broly watched a swarm of black figures crawling, running and flying towards Elpis. The villagers were long evacuated to the shelter inside the walls. Still kilometers away, the CE were already bombarded with artillery. Although some races didn't have the muscles to go into the fight themselves, but their weapons could. They armed the weaker ones and mounted huge laser cannons on the top of the walls.
Constantly firing towards the black swarm, it lit up the night sky with bright lights flashing on and out. Of course, technology only brought them this far, it only thinned out the herd, but it wouldn't be able to hurt the stronger ones.
In the first line of defense were the top-warriors and leaders of the races, taking head on the strongest of the crowd. Their power level reached into the upper 20 million, considering they all had trump cards to boost their strength, they were a force to be reckoned with. They were the currently strongest fighters at the frontline. Following them were the veterans. Experienced warriors through hundreds of battles.
There was a total of 5 defense lines slaying every CE the previous line let slip through. At the end, the last line of defense were the disciples of the city lord protecting the wall and its barrier. Although many of these disciples were statistically stronger than many of the veterans, they lacked experience. Obviously, they knew that the disciples could hold their own in battle, but this was not a fight, it was war. Most of these younglings haven't experienced war, so they were chosen as the last line of defense. The CE would be considerable thinned out by the time they reached the wall, making them perfect targets for the younglings. They could focus on battling only one opponent at the time.
Broly watched as the CE battled against Elpis army. Their enemies were completely obliterated, they couldn't even make it past the first line of defense. Gine and Daz told Broly that the first day would be them testing the waters, trying to see if there was a hole in the defense. This time it appeared that they would only attack from the north, out of the forest, since they gathered their and there were no other places they were sighted.
Still, they got scouts scanning the area around the city if some CEs tried to sneak up on them. From experience the attack would only last an hour before they would retreat again, just to come out at another day with stronger individuals in their ranks.
Almost an hour later the CE still poured towards Elpis.
'Something is wrong.'
"Weren't the numbers supposed to decrease by now." Alea approached him with similar thoughts.
"Yes, they should… Prepare for battle! Stay alert, this will be tougher than we thought!" Broly shouted, bringing Taro out of his relaxed state. Aize was as serious as ever and Cana was furrowing her brows.
The CEs strength was easily determined. As they were absorbing lifeforce from other creatures, it bloated their bodies, making them bigger. They were classified from rank F to A, with A being the highest. The cannon fodders were class F and E, they were usually around three meters of height. They usually had power levels below a million. Those were only feeding on weaker people like villagers or non-combatant.
Class D and C were ranging from one to 5 million, which was represented by their height, going up to 10 meters of height. Class B CEs were only handled by the strongest warriors and race leaders. They were towering tall with 50 meters of height and their power were hovering around an estimated 30-40 million.
But the strongest of them, the A class were different. They had different bodies than the other ones. They could be easily identified. Unlike the glue-like body type the other CEs had, their bodies were more solid. It looked like they were wearing full body armor of solid metal. It seemed that they evolved from the massive amount of lifeforce they absorbed.
They compressed all their energies into a 2-meter-tall body. They exuded tremendous amount of strength just with their bodies. Their speed and strength were immense. They became increasingly powerful after reaching this class and until now only one has been sighted, but it was not doubted that there are more of these. The only one sighted was the one who injured the city lord and if it weren't for the fact that it, as all the other CEs, was unable to fire ki attacks or any other energy-based attacks, the city lord would have died at its hands by now.
Broly watched as the war unfold. Almost all the lower classes were eradicated but instead of retreating, more class C's were appearing. There were even some who managed to break through to the fourth defense line before they were killed.
After they came closer to Broly, he saw the lifeforce in them. It was just radiating out of them, much more prominent than in every other person on the same level. After they died, the energy didn't fade or disperse like he previous thought. They didn't leave any corpses behind because the bodies would be converted into lifeforce before flying uniformly away.
It appeared that the energy they stored was flying towards somewhere but Broly couldn't tell where as his senses weren't able to reach out far. Broly had a bad feeling about this, as he thought of a possibility. What if all the energy gathered in one place forming a CE? If that was the case, it would mean that he tremendously underestimated this enemy.
Broly steeled his heart as he watched them slaughter their enemies. After another 3 hours the attacks ceased. They suffered minor losses and the troops were exhausted.
Another batch was heading out, scouting the area as a preemptive warning system, as the others went inside the city to rest.
Broly and his group were not nearly as tired as the others, since they only gave a helping hand by shooting some ki attacks from behind. Broly wanted to head in, transform into an Oozaru and slaughter the enemies as well, but he restrained himself. His sudden presences would disrupt the flow of the veterans and he alone wasn't enough to cover the whole battlefield. He couldn't just step out of line just because he felt like he wanted to do more, he would do more harm than good. Besides he had a group to lead, he couldn't just go solo and leave them alone.