Thousands of soldiers were left trembling in their position awaiting the orders of their commander.
After several hours of advancing through the iron forest, hundreds of screams echoed in the sky, freezing the thoughts of all the soldiers. Without wasting any moment, Lian raised his sword and using a magic spell widening the sound of his voice to command the soldiers from him.
— Squires, advance and raise your defense. Sorcerers prepare a spell of swift march in case we need to retreat. Archers, we are in your hands, keep the enemy at bay.
Looking up at the sky, hundreds of giant creatures of different colors circled over the army.
— Sir, I do not recognize most of those creatures, but the creature in the center that appears to be the leader of them belongs to an ancient race.
Following the words of one of his captains, Lian looked at the creature that appeared to be the leader. The creature had two long, scaly legs, its robust body covered in brown fur hiding the firmness of its muscles along with four-meter wingspan bat wings.
— The winged race ...
With a sinister glint in its eyes upon hearing Lian's words, the hawk-headed creature spoke in an ancient language causing all the creatures around it to start screaming with euphoria.
— Prepare for battle, do not allow these dirty creatures to stain the name of the army of the kingdom of Asturias.
One of the captains, seeing the creatures in the sky swoop down, applied a phyphorite crystal to his sword creating a wind barrier around him awaiting the arrival of attacks.
— Now, attack!
With an order, thousands of magic-reinforced arrows flew covering every corner in the sky, greatly damaging the creatures.
— Don't stop, reload your bows.
Lian did not allow fear to invade the hearts of his soldiers, and with a swift movement he launched a beam of fire that split the pressure exerted by the creatures in the sky in two.
A creature in the sky covered in bones spread its wings and in a moment hurled ten giant bone spears among hundreds of soldiers generating a large crater in the ground. Those who were lucky kept their bodies with small wounds, but the shock wave shook the spirits of the weakest leaving them unable to fight for the moment.
One big difference between the soldiers under Princess Eleine's orders and those of Commander Lian, was that everyone under Lian's orders had regained their name and had a staff in the army.
Eleine was never able to support those soldiers who went through various missions to recover her name because the soldiers were called to the capital and she never saw them again.
— Galvez, react man.
A soldier hit the shoulder of his partner to get him out of his daze avoiding being crushed by huge claws.
The pressure exerted by each of the winged creatures caused the soldiers to feel that they were short of breath and could not react normally, being easy prey for the faster creatures.
Among the creatures in the sky, four golden eagles plunged into the sea of people causing the group of soldiers to lose order for a moment. The eagles took advantage of the situation and opening their claws they took four unfortunate souls that were devoured in the sky.
— Sorcerers, form a group to treat those eagles with those who master ice and slow magic.
Following the orders of the superiors, a group of sorcerers slowed down the four eagles by chanting hundreds of spells over them. Every time an eagle held a soldier in its talons, hundreds of arrows pierced its defenses forcing it to retreat into the sky.
— Filthy creatures will not escape.
Five of the best archers in the army waited for the moment when the eagles were most vulnerable and releasing all their energy five special arrows pierced the sky.
Sensing the force that was directed at them, the eagles tried to avoid the arrows, but the speed was superior to them and with a pitiful cry they were severely injured.
— Don't waste time, reload your bows.
When the group of archers launched the second round of arrows, a giant shadow crossed the sky and opening its mouth swallowed all the arrows surprising the archers.
Seizing the moment, the eagles used what little energy they had left and escaped from the battlefield along with a flying stingray that protected them.
At the other end of the battlefield, Lion had one of his arms covered with the blood of a large winged lizard, having cut off its head.
— Zargo, what is the situation of Miss Charlotte?
Cleaning her sword, Lian awaited the response of a young swordsman that she had kept in her care since he recruited him from the slums of Aleha.
— My lord, Miss Charlotte was escorted by a team of cavalry to the town of Sixteenth Outpost."
— Good, return to your position.
Feeling calmer, Lian summoned two elderly wizards and asked them to perform strengthening spells on his body.
In the sky, the winged race member sensed a source of higher danger in Lian's direction. Thinking of the plan he had prepared, the creature shook its head and called out an unintelligible name.
— "It seems that the information they gave you was wrong, this is worth more than what you promised me ..."
Gowther, the winged race member, waited for an answer in the sky, as he watched as the amount of energy in Lian's body grew exponentially.
— "It doesn't seem like you're suffering ..."
The voice that reached Gowther's ears had an omnipotent tone and in a moment a vortex appeared beside him.
— "Oh, it seems that you have not told me the whole truth, the pets that you have brought to your side are the weakest you have, or am I wrong?
Although the voice within the vortex was right, Gowther was not happy with the way he referred to his pets, but thinking of the power behind the voice he decided not to provoke it.
— "Even so, I will only keep this army occupied for another hour, the strength that this army possesses surpasses my creatures."
The voice inside the vortex felt pleased and did not bother the young man, he only left a few words before disappearing.
— "Don't forget to convey my warning to the leader of your race, you know they don't want me as an enemy"
When the vortex disappeared, Gowther couldn't help but feel aggrieved and looking down at the ground he decided to attack Lian before he completed his transformation.
— What an idiot, I really hope to attack me when I have strengthened my body to its maximum capacity.
With a great river of energy running through every part of his being, Lian felt confident and with the last chant of the wizards, two transparent wings appeared on his back.
Flapping his new wings, Lian pitted his sword against Gowther's attack. In the sky the two attacks created a huge blast of energy that knocked them both back.
— "It seems that you are not as weak as you seem."
Although Lian knew that the creature in front of him was speaking to him, he could not understand the language of the winged race. Covering his sword with energy, he decided to respond to Gowther the way he knew how and sent a swift slash at the creature's head.
As the leaders of each side clashed in the sky, some of Gowther's pets fell lifelessly to the ground and the soldiers, who had no ranged attacks, divided the corpse to carry it to their wagons.
Although the flying creatures could handle hundreds of soldiers at a time, under the constant siege of an army of ten thousand soldiers their bodies could not keep up with the fight and most of them withdrew with wounds all over their bodies.
— "Retreat to the meeting point, we have already completed our mission."
One of the creatures that heard the order of his master, was distracted for a moment, and in an instant hundreds of arrows destroyed his wings causing him to fall to the ground.
The soldiers wasted no time and buried their spears in the robust body of the creature, slowly killing it.
Although Gowther wanted to come down and protect the pets from him, Lian was strong enough to block his movements leaving him with little options for action.
— There is no point in continuing to fight with you, the next time we meet you will not be able to keep your life.
Hearing Gowther's distorted voice, Lian was shocked to understand the words of the creature in front of him. Although he felt upset for a moment, he calmed his mind and asked.
— Who taught you our damn creature language?
— You do not need to know, his name is something that disappeared from the history of this continent a long time ago. Also, the things that will happen in Aios are inevitable, even if you discover them it won't change anything.
When all of Gowther's pets flew north of the iron forest, Gowther summoned a chaotic portal to escape from the place, but not before looking cautiously towards Eleine's village feeling that a greater danger lurked in that direction.