As much as I wanted to charge straight into battle, I wasn't that reckless. Without the plot armor of fictional protagonists, it would be suicide. Reality was harsh, and it wouldn't be as easy as me relying on cheats to win the war by myself and then being worshipped and envied by everyone.
This wasn't a wish fulfilment story, after all.
Instead, I took the time to rest alongside my friends. There was nothing we could do but wait as the other parties trickled in, guided by the elven guides. Not only elves from the outside world, including the dark-skinned and yellow eyed elves I believed were from the same tribe as Raquel, but also humans from all over the world. Cultivators from Hua Xia and exorcists (onmyouji) from the Rising Sun Nation. Soldiers from the Beautiful Nation, equipped with advanced weaponry as well as accompanied by supporting spellcasters. Knights and mages and priests from all over Europe. Shamans and tribal warriors from the African continent, their dark sunburned skin a stark contrast against sand-colored clothing. Hooded guerilla raiders with turbans from the Middle East, wielding exquisitely curved daggers, escorting combat clergies holding grimoires and shouting praise to their God. Even jungle fighters from the Land Down Under. Even druids had emerged from their self-imposed exiles and joined us, leading packs of spirit beasts not dissimilar to mine.
Within twenty-four hours, we had hundreds of combatants mustering into what looked like an army of disparate parties. No matter the race, nationality, type of magic or fighting techniques used, everyone had the same goal. We were all here to save Yggdrasil, having answered the calls of the elves to save the enclaves under attack by their demonic brethren. Each party had been guided here by an elf, and all the numerous guides had united once more to form a company of their own. I could spot Eliza among them, having broken off from my party to form up.
The logistics of having so many different parties cooperate was taken over by a military colonel from the Beautiful Nation. He was among the earliest to have arrived, setting up a command post and organizing everyone into squadrons and companies. He did his best to have similar parties grouped together, so as not to suffer conflict in the middle of the battle, but it appeared that he had also kept in mind the need to cover each party's weakness and maximize their strengths. Since I wasn't an authority figure and I didn't like responsibility, I simply obeyed orders from above. My party was split off from Wesley Snyder's, and the three of them joined what looked like an army of…uh, costumed soldiers. There was one guy in blue armor wielding a round shield that was red, white and blue. Beside him was a person completely encased in a mechanical suit, the golden and red plates whirring as he infused the components with mana to charge up the weapons mounted on his palms and shoulders. I was half-expecting a colossal jade giant, but no such luck. On the other hand, there was an archer just like me, and a lady with red hair in a tight, black leather suit who wielded electrifying blades.
"It looks like they're going to avenge somebody," I muttered under my breath.
"More like they are doing a cosplay convention," Morten said with a shrug. When I gave him a look, he waved his hand. "It's the only way to avoid copyright violations. Just make sure you don't call them by their superhero names, and they will be different people even though they look identical to those people you think they are."
Given that Luffy, Naruto, Goku and Saitama lookalikes often popped up in manhuas as peanut gallery, I supposed we shouldn't be in too much copyright trouble. I hoped.
"Seems like we're in the frontlines, which is where I want to be." I rubbed my hands gleefully, reveling in the role. Being in the vanguard was fine to me, even though it might seem counterintuitive to most people at first glance because I was more of a ranged fighter. I was tempted to call myself a Quincy, but once again, copyright. Anyway, the goal was for me to summon my army of spirit beasts and take the heat off most of the other parties as they clashed against the enemy. Then I glanced at the person who wasn't supposed to be part of our party, yet for some reason, was. "I'm glad to have you with us."
"Same." Sigmund nodded. For some reason, he had opted to stay with us, having informed the military colonel from the Beautiful Nation that he preferred the current arrangement. Since he was an Earth ranked warrior and currently the most powerful person in the allied army of humans and elves, the colonel had acquiesced.
"Seems like you have been fighting alongside them for a while now, so it might be better that way," he had said reluctantly. "I'll give you kids the role of escorting Sigmund Krieg to the Kobold King then. Don't let us down."
"We won't, sir," I had promised, and here we were, in the frontlines.
Even though it was generally a bad idea to fight at night, we didn't have a choice. The elves of Noctwood had brought back reports from their scouting parties that the enemy had noticed our gathering of strength, and had moved in response. The army of Kobolds, Bats, Ravens and Banshees were marching toward us, and the colonel had to swiftly organize a formation to counter their approach. The first of the foe were already emerging from the depths of the forest and toward the village.
"Don't give them the initiative! Charge!"
The colonel issued a single order, and we complied. Even though he had officially taken command, the truth of the matter was that he could exercise very little authority over the disparate groups who had formed a loose alliance. He had also guaranteed that he would allow us autonomy to fight the war however we thought was best, according to our individual strengths. The only thing he offered in return was organizing us into formations and assigning us into roles we exceled in, so that there wouldn't be any overlap and that we wouldn't get into each other's way when the battle began.
And so the war began.
"We push through their central force and smash all the way into their backlines," Sigmund said as he surged forward. Myria, Morten, Sylvie, Silvia and I stared at him in astonishment even as we struggled to keep up. It was rare to see him take charge. Fortunately, the black swordsman already had a justification for his instructions. "Our role is to take on the Kobold King, so we shouldn't waste too much time on the small fries. We will punch through their vanguard and force a route toward his position, and if I can slay him, then we can hopefully end this battle quickly."
There was sense in his words, but the sight of so many Kobolds charging toward us was still intimidating. I could also see the gaunt dark elves riding Dire Wolves interspersed between the loping packs, all of them howling or bellowing in glee as they swung their weapons in violent anticipation. Swooping from above were flocks of Ravenous Ravens and bloodthirsty Vampire Bats and Goliath Bats, and I even caught sight of the gigantic figure of the Crow Bat leading the dive.
The Kobolds crashed into the tremendous forms of my Guardian Golems, and my Little Anglers, Lantern Fishes and Lantern Sharks weaved through their magma walls to launch united barrages of lightning bolts from their armada formations. Colossal Crabs emerged from the clearing to hammer their oversized pincers into Dire Wolves, smashing their riders off their pulverized mounts, or crushing unwary Kobolds who saw the colossal crustaceans too late. The Ravens and Bats veered off, but a good number of them were caught in the electrical storm that my aquatic armada generated, plummeting to the ground in convulsing deaths.
Electricity was super effective against flying spirit beasts, apparently.
The Dire Wolves and Kobolds were also ambushed underfoot by Twig Turtles, who had been hiding in the grass and then entangling their feet with leaves and sprouting seeds, causing them to trip and rendering them vulnerable to stomps from the Guardian Golems and crab hammers from my Crabs. The night sky was completely blanketed by the sheer volume of Ravenous Ravens, Vampire Bats and Goliath Bats that descended upon our position, but they were kept at bay by the lightning generated by my Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes. A few of them fell when I shot them down with azure arrows. There were so many of them that it was impossible for me to miss. I felt like I was throwing pebbles into the sea.
"We have to push on!" Sigmund shouted, cleaving large swathes of destruction through the Kobolds' ranks and eviscerating a screaming dark elf. He was forging way ahead, but found his path mired by the winged spirit beasts who desperately threw themselves at him. Even though he was massacring dozens of them with his swings, hundreds more took the place of the deceased to bombard him and keep him back through numbers alone. Blue mana crackled around his blade and he decimated the horde with a draconic blast, but the emptiness was almost immediately filled up by the survivors. He gritted his teeth. "The Kobold King…! We have to reach him! We can't afford to be bogged down by these small fries!"
"We're trying our best!" I called out to him, directing Xiao Huo and Xiao Huo Long's fireballs and flamethrowers at the aerial army. Da Hai used his shell to batter aside a swarm of Vampire Bats and Goliath Bats that swooped upon Sigmund's flank, but he was a single rock in an ocean. Thankfully, Xiao Ke's freezing beam allowed him to safely retreat back into the safety net of my aquatic armada's lightning storm.
Sylvie and Silvia were also setting up spirit arrays that hurled lightning bolts and forks of lethal electricity into the fluttering swarms, but despite the charred bodies that crashed back to the earth, there were still so many of them. And we had the ground army to contend with. Myria and Morten stood side by side, leading my other spirit beasts in fighting off the dark elves, Dire Wolves and Kobolds, but their progress was hampered when Lycanthrope Lords emerged. About six meters tall, and also standing on two legs, these humanoid wolves were larger than their Kobold brethren and were far swifter and deadlier. Morten grunted when he parried a slash from one of them, and whirled around to kick it, but it blocked his spiked boots with an arm.
Fortunately, Sigmund withdrew to where we were and beheaded the Lycanthrope Lord who was threatening Morten. Beside them, Myria's water whip forced a second Lycanthrope Lord to keep its distance, the monster snarling with slavering jaws in defiance at her lashing flexible blade and bleeding profusely from cuts it sustained when it underestimated her technique.
"Excellent." Sigmund smiled despite the new crisis. "If the Lycanthrope Lords are here, then perhaps the Kobold King is nearby."
"Other parties are reporting they have also encountered Lycanthrope Lords," Morten cautioned as he kicked the head off a Kobold before spinning around and kicking a dark elf off her Dire Wolf. He stomped on the howling steed before finishing off the dazed, dismounted dark elf with a kick that snapped her neck. "The Kobold King could be anywhere in several dozen locations."
"They are getting desperate, though," Sigmund noted and jerked his head toward the Ravens and Bats. "Nowhere else has a strong air presence as here. It feels like they're throwing the majority of their aerial force to stop us."
"And it's working," Myria said bitterly, her water whip lashing out and just missing serving Ravens and Bats who flew just out of range of her flexible blade. A few of them were cut down by water droplets that left the snaking blade and lanced out like bullets, but she didn't seem pleased with her lack of progress. "We need reinforcements, or we won't be breaking out of this."
"What else do I have…?" I murmured, wishing I had a flying spirit beast that could contest the skies above Noctwood. At the moment, I only had Xiao Huo Long, but he was the sole spirit beast capable of flight in my army, and he would instantly get mobbed and slaughtered if I sent him up into the skies alone. I wasn't going to order him to commit suicide in such a stupid and comical fashion. Surely, there had to be some other way…
And then I caught sight of something emerging from the Noctwood. A flash of brown and white, the flutter of hundreds of wings, and vengeful squawks of forest residents who were determined to take their homes back from the foul usurpers. A smile came to my lips when I recognized the newcomers that had just joined the fight. "What do you know, reinforcements really have arrived."