The echoing sound of the signal horn caused every villager to cease their actions and take their positions.
The seven dragon hosts with the exception of Aegis, who was warned by Lancelot to stay hidden for her own protection took their stances at the front as planned. Those with long hair tied it into a ponytail so it wouldn't hinder their fighting.
Every soldier had taken their position and was ready to strike, "This fight will put us one step closer to our goal," Lancelot instilled a fighting spirit with his words, "Everyone, do your best!"
***
Urusla was still leading her charge and she had almost reached the village when she held up her hand and stopped the army, "let's see their forces," she taunted, "Send out ten low level demons! that'll give me some insight,"
As commanded, ten demons from the front line were chosen, Urusla was leading the army as the general but passed her orders through a demon close to her side. Finally, the demons were deployed, along with a demon crow for surveillance.
***
The area surrounding the village was stripped almost bare of trees to ensure a higher chance of victory. The clouds had erupted in a sudden downpour and the decoy fighters from Urusla's army were nearing the village's location.
"I can see them!!" Takumi spotted the demons from a far off distance and Lancelot initiated the charge.
The fight had begun, as each soldier ran, it became noticeable that every dragon host had been equipped with an armor gemstone prior to the fight and now was as good a time as any to test them out.
Lancelot was equipped with a full suit of heavy shogun armor after activating a green pendant necklace. Ichika, Luna and Aiko were equipped with valkyrie armor with the variants of their specific elements. Misao and Takumi also equipped their suits.
The two sides were mere meters away from each other when every solider on the side of good readied their attacks. Luna drew out a massive waraxe with flaming patterns, Lancelot, a warhammer which looked like a carved out boulder while finally Aiko took out a spear designed with sharp water ripples.
The elves surrounded themselves with magic circles while the dryads and aquadettes began manipulating the surrounding nature.
"I can take these guys out in one slice," Takumi drew his sword as both teams reached within striking range of each other. 「Sunpō ha!」(dimension blade) the ōdachi was surrounded by a warping purple aura before he moved out closer and slashed horizontally, slicing the ten demons along with the space itself in the same aura.
The demons died in the jade mist and the charge stopped, "That's it?!" Misao questioned the seemingly easy defeat of the demons.
"I agree, this isn't like Urusla…she's up to something," Lancelot's face bore a worried expression as he scratched his head.
***
Just then, the surveyor crow had returned to Ursula, as usual it conveyed it's findings in a series of squawks, "wow! I at least expected them to have more manpower…oh well," she exclaimed disappointedly, "This won't be a battle, it's a plunder…all troops, Charge!!"
All demons except Ursula, her head advisor and the female dragon host turned demon moved ahead in a stampede, the village soldiers heard the ruckus and immediately got into a panic.
"The first wave was just a trick!" Luna pointed out as she saw the army of demons moving ever so closely.
"Then there's no time for chit chat," Misao already moved from her position and had a running start, "Fight!"
The real battle had started, Lancelot jumped at a great height for someone of his size and came crashing down with his hammer, blasting a crater where he landed.
"Use attacks that will take out more than one!" Ichika shouted as she grabbed a single demon and impaled it with a freezing stab.
The elves were holding their own as well, using their mana to create sparkling attacks that would kill the demons in a few hits. The dryads and nereids were using their elemental attacks to render the demons helpless until someone else would land the finishing blow.
While the village army was doing well with taking out a good number of demons, the sheer difference in manpower could be clearly seen. Each time someone managed to stay at most ten, another hoard of ten would rush in and at this rate they would be exhausted before they reached victory.
***
"They're actually good, don't you think?" Urusla asked her head advisor as she dismounted her bird.
"Ah…y-Yes my queen…" he stuttered replying.
Urusla had a lock of her hair in her mouth as she attentively watched the battle. Lancelot had reached the back of the army and with a swing of his hammer he shot three demons straight to Urusla's feet right before they vanished.
He and Urusla were now a few yards away from each other and Lancelot shot her a dark look. Urusla just smiled and blew him a kiss as his attention was diverted by more demons attacking him.
"I think it's time…" She stated as she released her hair.
***
"How are there so much?!" Aiko yelled as she created a water blade around her spear and killed a female demon.
"I have no idea," Luna chopped a demon clean in half, "But we have to fight!" then burned another to a crisp.
"It's not like we can't take them," Takumi still found a place for arrogance even in this desperate time as he shot a demon across the field with a earth encased fist right after decapitating another.
"Dammitall!!" Lancelot's cry of agony was heard and he sounded to be injured. Ichika reacted quickly and used her top notch speed to get to him where she saw a demon had latched onto his arm and he couldn't counter due to the size of his weapon.
"Sensei, are you okay?!" she exclaimed as she split the demon's head in half.
"I'm fine dear, just keep fighting"
She froze over the wound and went back to fighting. When suddenly a screeching horn was heard and all demons stopped in their place.
"What's going on?" Misao questioned as splatters of blood vanished from her face.
The others shrugged at her for they too did not know what had transpired.
The screeching stopped and their questions were finally answered. All the demons around them seemed to have the white of their eyes filled with a black colour tarnished with cracks.
"Oh no…" seeing this sent a chill down Lancelot's spine, he knew that this could only mean one thing: the dragon force draining ability of demons was finally activated and was in full force.
Before he could even warn the combatants of this, the demons went in to attack again.
This time they had the upper hand, when a dragon host would push forward an attack, it would dissipate into nothing, leaving them wide open for attack.
"This is bad," Kage voiced.
Luna tried to smash down with her axe but her powers were drained soon after, making it feel immensely heavy. She received a punch to the stomach and was flung backwards off her axe and collided with a nearby tree, kocking her out after vomiting a pool of blood.
"Luna!!!!" Aiko felt rage for her friend and went in for a stab, but same as before, her dragon force was drained which caused her armor to disappear and soon after she was given a sharp blow to the head, knocking her out as well.
The demons seemed to have had a serious boost in power as soon as they began draining dragon force, and the tables of the battle were soon turned. The dryads and aquadettes were totally down for the count, the elves were struggling and the dragon hosts, even more so.
Misao, however was still able to fight to the best of her ability, she was jumping through the air decapitating demon after demon and her dragon force didn't seem to be siphoned at all, she was fighting at tip top shape.
"How can she still fight like that?" Ichika asked as she barely dodged a strike from a muscular demon after which she sliced him in half.
Lancelot was trying his best to keep the demons at bay but he soon lost the fight when a sneak attack to the neck left him immobilized.
"Come on! Pick up the pace!" Misao was still going, Ichika couldn't understand why she didn't have her powers drained but Takumi could. The sole reason was that she was infusing her dragon force with ki, which acted as a shield to stop the dragon force from being sucked away.
"Follow my lead!" Takumi finally caught up and decided to end the fight. Ichika nodded and gripped her sword, "let's go!"
But as they were about to go in for the strike, Ichika felt something pierce her stomach. "Ichika!!!" Takumi's emotions went into a frenzy as she saw the claw of a demon sticking out from her abdomen.
"No…not again…not again," Takumi fell to his knees as he held Ichika's falling body, thankfully she was still breathing.
"*koff* I'll be…fine…look," she tried to utter some words but they were hindered by the blood filling her mouth.
Takumi watched as she slowly moved her hand over the large wound and froze it over, passing out soon after.
Laying her gently on the floor, Takumi got up. The images of Ichika's impaled stomach were still flashing through his mind.
He was slowly walking to the single demon who gave the injury and stared him dead in the face. Takumi's expression were emotionless, his sword dragged the ground as he walked towards the demon. "I'm going to do the the same thing to you…"
He had already learnt how to infuse ki and dragon force and he quickly released the newfound energy. His dragon ki made his entire presence vanish, even though he was standing right there, it felt as if he wasn't.
He immediately unlocked the ice variant of water and created a claw of ice around his hand after sending his blade to the dragon realm.
But as soon as he was about to penetrate the demon, a loud familiar scream was heard.
"Stop!!" Aegis screamed and all the demons and fighters of good halted. She was standing on a small mound of dirt, crying profusely.
"Please stop…*sniff* I'll go with you…"