Valentina
'They are in the place,' I informed, Remus and Stone.
It was an immense struggle, but I managed to do it. I had brought them to the place.
The places weren't decided. It was up to me; I had to do it based on the position of the horde.
Now, all I need is the command to blast those things. Creating such destruction, that no mage or weapon on this battlefield is capable of creating or stopping.
'Ten seconds.' came the voice a moment later.
…
Stone
'Form sealed circle formation!' I commanded.
Immediately, the change appeared in the army. The soldiers and powerhouses begin to move from the circle thorn formation to the sealed circle formation.
"What are you doing?" asked Methum immediately, noticing the change.
He isn't the only one who has the question. Even Carr, Garzong, and others have them, seeing the sudden change.
In the entire city, only five people are aware of it. Lord Silver, Madam Caena, Miss Valentina, Cardin, and me.
We had intentionally, kept the information to limited people. If it had been leaked to the enemy, it would have all gone down to waste.
"You will know soon enough," I replied to Necromancer.
He looked at me for a moment, before his staff lit up.
I could see him casting spell after spell; I could also feel the investigative and danger-sensing skills activating throughout the battlefield.
I used this moment to move toward him, but the bastard reacted fast.
Attacking me with Bone Lances and Zorrin's Lightning.
Unlike my forces, I am not retreating. It is just a precaution; those things aren't stable. One can't be completely sure, they will work as it had been intended.
Hun!
Five seconds passed, when I noticed the change in the undead. They moved to swarm us.
The Necromancer is smart.
He isn't trusting only his skills and spells but also seems to trust his instinct as well.
Unfortunately, he took the wrong decision.
Sealed circle formation is good at holding the swarm. They would be easily able to hold it for more than a minute, rather than the five seconds we need.
It will work in our favor, given the position those things are in.
Most importantly, he had just made his undead denser. They were sparse before, but now they are jammed-packed to swarm toward us.
Necromancer looked at my expressions, and a hesitant frown appeared on his face.
"Whatever you had planned would not work, Elder-Blood." He said, and I said nothing.
"I have half a million undead, without any powerhouse. I will be able to defeat your army and conquer the city," he added a moment later, but once again, I said nothing.
There is no need for me to say anything. He will know about it soon.
Two seconds.
…
Pachak Khat Pachak!
A huge tight circle formed. I am one of the people in the first line, fighting against the assault of a massive number of undead, which are trying to swarm us.
This is the best outcome we hope to have.
Tighter undead will cause greater destruction while providing us with protection.
'One second,'
I heard in my mind and prepared myself.
I am scared. It is wise to be scared, seeing how those things go wrong.
I wouldn't have used them. If I wasn't desperate.
The condition of the city had improved massively since the last battle, but not enough to make the undead hesitate to attack.
If I didn't do something drastic, then even if we had defeated them, they would come again and again with bigger forces.
Eventually, they will defeat us.
What I am planning won't stop them, but it will make them question. It will make them hesitate, and most importantly, it will send a message.
Not only to the undead but also to others, bring the name of the city to the lips of others.
This will only first part of a two-part plan. If it works, then I will execute the second one, which will have an even greater risk.
I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the undead in front of me.
I will think about the second part, after dealing with the undead.
Till then, I have to focus on the battle.
'Blast!' said Stone, and I expected blasted to occur, but it didn't.
Second passed, and there was nothing.
My heart skipped the beat. It wouldn't be the first time they wouldn't be working.
Sometimes, they don't produce a reaction as one is expecting and simply turn to water or get vaporized.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
I was about to ask Valentina for clarification when I heard a sound like heaven breaking, and everything turned green.
…
Methum
I heard the massive explosions and saw the green fire covering us from all directions.
I felt the undead vaporizing under the might of alchemical fire and also my powerhouses, that I had been hiding, behind.
A few were able to summon the shields on time and even fewer were able to bear the might of the alchemical fire.
It had covered the horde behind me. Hundreds of thousands of them, burning them into the ashes.
I had expected many things, but not this.
We should have sensed it. There were tens of people with investigative skills, Dangersense, and my own scrying spells, but I had got nothing.
Everything was black, without even the smallest hint.
I had been in two battles, where these things had been used, and I felt my Dangersense blaring madly as these things entered my range.
Here, there was nothing.
I was looking at the fire burning everything in its path, when I felt my Dangersense blaring, with all the hair on my body standing up.
I looked ahead and saw the elder blood covered densely in bronze energy, coming at me.
The bronze energy covering is much denser than, I had seen in the battle.
It is not for the show, the blaring of Dangersense is enough for me to understand, that this elder blood could really kill me.
He would kill me if I didn't kill him first. I will kill him.
My heart was raging madly at what they had done.
Now, there will be no mercy, only death. I will not stop, till I have killed every person belonging to the enemy and I will start with this elder blood.
…
Cardin
"Emperor, save me!" cursed Hewett, seeing the green fire, covering the horde from all sides.
Burning the horde, turning them into the ashes.
Valentina did an amazing job; she had blasted it, near the middle of the horde from all four directions.
This way, the fire burned the undead from both left and right. Along with the hiding powerhouses, which were in the middle.
I have sensed many of them dying. Burning to death, very few were able to survive, mostly mages, and even they were in terrible shape.
"Isss this?" asked Major, stutteringly.
"Alchfire Orbs," answered High Mage Ravill, looking at destructions.
"I had seen them only once when I was young and use of them was so flawed, that we had suffered in it as much as the enemy did,"
"Here, the execution is textbook perfect," added the old man in a barely audible voice.
"It is perfect," I replied.
I had never seen them work. They were rarely used in the empire. They are expensive and unstable; empire rarely use such things.
Those who use it are the private armies of the rich nobles.
A few seconds passed, and the fire began to disappear rapidly. It didn't even last for ten seconds. It had lasted for six seconds, half a second, more than what the alchemist had told us.
"My god!"
Gasped the soldiers around me as they looked at the destruction, it had brought. It is massive.
I looked at it before activating Casualty Estimator.
A moment later, the numbers appeared in front of me. They started from the thousand and began to climb rapidly, reaching ten thousand a second later.
Hundred thousand a few seconds after that and soon reached two hundred thousand.
Our most optimistic estimation was two hundred thousand, but we wanted to kill at least one hundred and fifty thousand people.
The numbers have reached two hundred thousand, and they are still climbing up.
It was only after reaching two hundred, and thirty thousand, did it slowed down a little, but still kept climbing till finally slowing down at two hundred, thirty-four thousand.
It is still climbing, but by tens, not by hundreds or thousands, like before.
I immediately informed Commander Stone of the numbers.
'Begin,' replied Commander Stone, and I turned to Hewitt.
"Major, begin," I said, and the man recovered his shocked expression and grinned.
He had been waiting for this since the battle began.
"Only cannons, Major," I added.
"As you command, Colonel," he replied, and the commands began to come out of his mouth as well as the skills began to get activated.
Ammunition Accuracy.
I added my skill; the others did the same as the real powerful cannonballs began to enter the cannon.
Boom Boom Boom
"Shoot!" He commanded, and the cannons spewed out the fire, before releasing the cannonballs.
Tens of cannonballs shoot toward the energy, reaching them within a second.
The shields appeared above the undead, but their numbers were less than earlier. Many mages had died; the alchfire had burned them to ashes.
Bang Bang Bang
They begin to land on the shields and the undead, before exploding in a powerful blast.
Seeing the destruction, a relief appeared on my face.
"It seemed like, the Lord hadn't spared any money in the city's defense," said High Mage Ravill as he too started to release the spells.
I nodded at that.
He really didn't spare any expenses. Buying the weapons and ammunition without caring for the cost.
We haven't even paid 20% of the cost of these things we are using.
"Shoot!" commanded Major Hewitt, and another volley of cannonballs flew toward the undead, who had begun to swarm our forces.
Though unlike before, I feel no fear for our forces.
The alchfire had wiped out half of their numbers, along with many of their powerhouses.
Now it is up to the army and us to wipe the other half.
If the enemy had any brain, they should have sounded the retreat. It is good for us, because now we can wipe them out.
We will wipe them out. We need to wipe them out to send the message.