Very early in the morning, before the sky could even brighten, sounds of footsteps could be heard from the stairs leading towards the top of the wall.
Since we were all pretty high level and our senses were more developed than an average human, we all heard them and slowly stood up. A couple of second later, a well built, clad in iron armor with an iron helmet under his arm man climbed up the stairs and came towards us. There were still traces of dried blood that was not completely wiped noticeable on his armor. As he reached us, he didn't say anything at first, but silently looked at each and every one of us. Once he was done, I think inspecting us, he let out a sigh and remarked:
"Four twenty something adventurers, two of which are even girls.. Are you sure that you want to join this war? I know that you might be strong, maybe even stronger than me or the other trained knights, but war is different."
Velor was the one who replied, punching his chest as he said: "Don't worry, sir. We're ready."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Said the knight as he let out another sigh before continuing: "Follow me. We'll pick up some supplies and return straight to the K camp."
We agreed and followed the man towards the supply building. After picking up some food, water, weapons and armor, we loaded them into a cart and walked out.
After getting checked by the guards at the gate, we were each given a black armlet. Apparently all adventurers had to wear one. Once that was done, we wore our armlets and continued past the wall, towards the battlefield.
As we were pushing the cart slowly through a small path, about five minutes later, we started hearing faint yells from the distance. We were getting close to the main fighting field.
"The war is spread all throughout the shore of the sea. Reinforcements from the demon army arrive constantly, either by boat or teleportation, so a line was formed, a line made out of mercenaries, knight and adventurers and it's role is to prevent them from heading further south. The fighting never stops and we had to set up shifts so our troops don't tire completely. We're going to the K section of the line and we're going to replace another squad that just finished it's shift.
The knight kept explaining about what was expected of us and the situation in section K. It took us an entire hour to reach section K, and we were a little surprised that we didn't encounter any enemies on the road. When I asked the knight about it, he said that the sections are all spread in a line and we're walking parallel to that line, that's why we can hear fighting almost continuously, but never actually stumbled upon any enemy.
When we reached section K, we found a big camp, made out of hundreds of tents place closely together: "You must first report to our leader and he will give you your shift. Follow me."
We dropped the supplies at a nearby supply tent and followed the knight towards the center of the camp where we were lead inside the leader's tent. As we walked in, and old man wearing a familiar type of robe was stroking his white beard while looking over a map.
The man lifted his eyes from the map and observed each of us for a moment before his gaze stopped on Anise.
"Anise? Does the headmistress know you came here?" asked the old man, looking towards Anise with a somewhat incredulous look. Now I finally realized why his robes were familiar. They were the robes that the teachers at Cloven Academy wore.
Anise bowed towards the old man and said : "Esteemed teacher, she does indeed know of me heading towards the battlefield."
The man looked even more confused as he said: "And she let you come here? There's no way that should be the case." The man came to a realization mid sentence and asked: "You ran away when she didn't want to let you leave?"
Anise nodded and replied: "Something like that. I had help from father as well."
The man continued stroking his beard as he said: "It's weird that she didn't say anything to us about it. Well, that doesn't matter. Since you are here as an adventurer, I'll treat you accordingly."
The look on his face changed from that of a kind teacher to that of a hardened army commander as he continued in a strict tone: "Listen here adventurers. My name is Aaron. I'm a level 49 fire wizard and I'm also the leader of this squad. As long as you are in here, you must listen to my commands without question. Any disregard for my orders and you'll be sent back to the city, or even worse, depending of the gravity of your act, executed. Did I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir." We all replied in unison.
Aaron nodded before continuing: "Good, now report your names, level and specialization from the left to the right."
"Velor, level 19, magic swordsman, light affinity."
"Lysa, level 36, light wizard specializing in long range attacks and healing magic."
"Anise, level 25, master magician specialized in long range attacks. Can silent cast fire magic."
A small smile appeared on Aaron's face as he remarked: "Good. Good." And nodded approvingly towards Anise before he turned towards me.
An awkward expression appeared on my face, not knowing exactly if I should tell him the truth or not.
[*You might as well tell him the truth. Everyone around you already knows and this Aaron in front of you is sure to pick up on any clues on their faces if you lie.*]
Sighing, I replied: "Ethan, level 28, master magician. Can silent cast any fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness and space magic."
As my words ended, the other three didn't have any change in expression, but Aaron frowned and said: "Are you telling me that you can silent cast spells of any affinity?"
"Yes, sir."
"Show me."
With no other choice, I performed my small circus act and started creating balls of mana of different affinities before making them float slowly around me.
Once I was done, Aaron walked back towards his desk in silence and sat down. He looked me in the eye, not saying anything for a good while. As the awkward atmosphere became unbearable, he finally said: "You three are all free for today. You're going to start your shifts tomorrow morning and you'll all be forming a team with Ivan, the knight that picked you guys up. Use this day to get used to the camp. You are dismissed. Ethan, you stay back for a while."
Velor and Lysa walked out, but Anise seemed reluctant to. Aaron, seeing this said: "Don't worry little girl, I'm not going to do anything to him."
Anise still seemed a bit reluctant, but with no other choice she also left the tent. As there were only me and old man Aaron left, he said to me:
"You know how old am I, Ethan?"
"No, sir."
"Two hundred sixty-eight years old. I've spent most of these years studying magic and barely became a fire wizard. You? How long did you study magic for?"
"Around one year." I replied awkwardly.
Aaron nodded and I could feel the mana all around us coming into his control. He looked me in the eyes as he asked: "If you're not a spy for the demons, tell me boy, what are you?"
As strong as I was, I got the feeling that if he didn't like my answer or I started channeling my mana, I'd be dead in an instant.
[The level difference is too big and he already flooded the place with his mana. You can't win a fight in this situation. Be careful.]
I stayed silent for a moment, weighing in my options before I said: "Anise can confirm that I'm not on the demon's side. I was summoned here by her from another world, a world where the knowledge about magic is a lot more advanced. This helped me get used to the magic used in this world a lot faster, hence my ability to silent cast magic of any affinity."
"Are you also the reason she can silent cast before she even reached the level requirement for a wizard? She was quite a gifted student, but nowhere near fire wizard level." Said Aaron, a small trace of envy in his voice.
"Yes, I've been teaching her magic ever since she left the academy."
Aaron released the control over mana and said: "I'll choose to take your words for now, but I'll also ask Anise about it and pay closer attention to you. If I find out that you lied about anything or do anything suspicious, I will be the first one to take action against you and trust me, you will die for sure. Also, tomorrow on the battlefield, don't use any area of effect spells that are too large."
"I understand, thank you, but why shouldn't I use any large area of effect spells?"
"Because the last time wizards used large scale magic to wipe out the enemy's foot soldiers, a demon appeared and did the same to our troops. Ever since then, the use of large scale magic was prohibited.."
I nodded and he dismissed me as well to join the others. Once outside, I wiped the sweat that formed on my forehead and walked towards Anise that was waiting nearby.
"What happened?" She asked, seeing the not-so-good expression on my face.
"He threatened me into telling him the fact that you summoned me. How come everyone from your academy keeps trying to kill me?" I replied a little exasperated as we walked further inside the camp.
"I'm sorry. Teacher Aaron is usually very kind and understanding, so I never thought he would do anything to you."
"Whatever, what's done is done. Where are the others?"
"They went on ahead towards our tent. Apparently we'll all be staying together, including Ivan. He already explained to me where we could find the tent."
I nodded and followed after her. Once we reached the tent, we had to make another round of introductions and found out Ivan was level 25 and fought using a sword and shield, the same as Velor, except that he didn't know any magic. After the introductions were done, Ivan said:
"We're going to be responsible for holding the line and preventing any of the enemies moving further south for an entire day. At the end of the day, a new squad will take over our shift. Be careful since there are other squads fighting by our side tomorrow. If any of them falls or have a problem, there is a possibility of enemies passing through and attacking our back line. We need to settle on a formation."
He kept giving us advice and we settled on a fighting formation. After we were done, I spent the rest of the day teaching Anise before going to sleep.
On the morning of the next day, as the sun started rising on the horizon, we got up and walked towards our station.
As we got closer, the sounds of fighting grew louder, as did the smell of blood. Once we reached the squad that we were supposed to replace, I noticed that there were only three people and the one in the back line was even carrying a dead body. They looked sad, exhausted and miserable.
I looked all over the battlefield and noticed that similar situations were happening all around. All of the sudden, I heard Ivan screaming: "No time for you to regret now. Let's go and take over the front line."
Wondering what he meant, I looked at the other members of our squad and noticed that Lysa's face was completely white and Velor wasn't looking much better. From the new recruits, only Anise and I were fine. It was not the first time we've seen so many dead bodies.
Ivan didn't give them any time to dwell on their feelings as he slapped Velor, the sound of his slap resounding even with all the screaming going on around, before saying: "Snap out of it. We're responsible for holding the front."
The slap woke up even Lysa, not to mention Velor and we started heading forward. When I looked at the enemy army that was charging right at us, my soul suddenly went cold. They were all humans, some were undead, but most of them were still alive. What was horrifying was the blank look in their eyes as they charged blindly into our side, like they were trying to use their bodies to open up a way.
Velor cast his divine armament and together with Ivan started cutting down the people running at us left and right. The plan we settled on was for Ivan and Velor to take the front, I'll stay in the middle and support the front and back as necessary while Anise and Lysa stayed in the back and mostly took care of healing or using attack spells whenever enemies ever showed any sign of overwhelming the front line.
I turned towards Anise and said: "I'll also join the front. Don't worry, if there's any enemy that reaches you or Lysa I'll just teleport here and help you. Anise nodded as she threw a fireball at a small group and I also joined Ivan and Velor on the front lines.
As I brandished my spear and started attacking the enemy left and right, Ivan looked like he wanted to say something but gave up in the end.
'Ai, Senna, keep an eye on the enemy and notify me as soon as one manages to squeeze through. I might get distracted and not notice.'
[Understood.]
[*Hmph.*]
With that settled, I started using magic in tandem with my spear. After a while, the rate at which the enemies fell actually became so fast that we started slowly advancing forward. After half an hour of constant slaughtering, Ai's voice sounded in my mind:
[You're only receiving around ten experience per kill, most of the enemies being around level 1.]
Her words startled me, but I didn't stop killing as I asked: 'Are you telling me most of them aren't even adventurers or soldiers?'
[Exactly. They seem to be civilians.]
'They are just sacrifices for the demons. Senna, did you notice any clue about the location of those magic circles?'
[*Their presence is still very faint and you need to proceed further into the enemy camp if you want to have any hope of finding them.*]
I took a look and noticed that there were enemies in front for as far as the eyes could see.
'God damn. Killing my way forward without using large scale magic will take an eternity...'
As I was about to cut down a demon-puppet, Ai's voice sounded inside my head:
[There are quite a few enemies approaching the girls in the back.].
Without giving it a second thought, I teleported near Anise and started looking around. I saw a handful of people coming to attack from a nearby squad. When I looked more closely, I noticed that said squad lost over half of it's members and the enemies started seeping through, moving towards the back lines of the squads around.
Seeing that Ivan and Velor were managing our part, I took care of the ones that slipped past using a handful of well placed water blades before I went to assist the breached front line. After blocking the opening for a while, a new squad came from the back, replacing the one that lost half of it's members and I returned to fighting together with my squad again.
The slaughter continued until the sun finally started setting. At that moment, we all heard Ivan scream from the side.
"We're slowly starting our retreat. Our shift is over and our replacements are coming."
We started retreating slowly making way for the front line of the new squad to replace us. As we were returning towards the camp, all drenched in blood from head to toe and completely exhausted, I checked my status.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 19;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 36 253/80 000;
Health Points: 285/310;
Mana Points 213/550;
Level: 28;
Vitality: 31;
Strength: 34;
Dexterity : 32;
Intelligence: 55;
Resistance: 30;
0 free stat point
———
System Points: 13 315;
Spirit: 1000 (650);
]
'Ai, does this mean I killed over 2000 of them?'
[Affirmative.]
'Sigh.. It's incredible that I still didn't level up after that…'
[The enemies were too weak. You only made a little over 20 000 experience from all of them. To increase your level, you need to fight enemies closer to your own level.]
Once we reached the camp, me and Anise cleaned ourselves up using water magic and laid down inside the tent. As we were alone, I rested my head on her thighs and said to her:
"Those people we fought today, did you notice?"
She nodded as she started playing with my hair and said: "I did. They had no training. They were just ordinary people, brainwashed by the demons to charge mindlessly at our troops."
"Yeah, they are probably used as a sacrifice, together with the people on our side that die as their victims on the battlefield. We need to find those magic circles and stop this from going on any longer."
"Did you find any clues about their location?"
I shook my head and said: "Not really. I need to head deeper into their lines. I could probably manage to do it, but Aaron isn't going to like that."
"Did he say anything about that to you?"
"He said that he'll keep a close eye on me. If he finds out I've gone deep inside the enemy lines, he'll probably attack before asking any questions and he's too strong for me to handle."
"Can we maybe explain the situation to him?"
"No, I don't trust him. Something is fishy and I don't trust any of the wizards on our side. How you said before, it's impossible none of them noticed the existence of those circles. This means there is something else going on and before I can be sure they can be trusted, I would prefer to do everything on my own, without letting them know."
"Then, what do we do?"
"Nothing for now. I plan to sneak out of the city using spacial magic after we complete this quest. It should be easier this way."
"But, then I won't be able to come with you."
"I know. Don't worry, I'll just going to check things out so I should be relatively fine. Once I plan on destroying the circles I'll let you know."
She seemed reluctant, but had no choice than to agree in the end.
Soon, the others returned as well, but they went straight to sleep without saying another word.
"Seems like the war hit them hard." I exclaimed as I was left alone with Anise and Ivan who walked in together with the two.
"It's always like this the first time. They took it rather well, all things considered." Replied Ivan
I nodded and proceeded to also go to sleep together with Anise. Tomorrow was the last day we had to spend on the battlefield before returning to the city. Once I was back there, I could finally put in application my plan of sneaking inside the enemy camp.