One week ago, Tova.
"Why…" Hector repeated for the umpteenth time.
His fellow soldiers got punched so hard that not much remained of them. General Truewater saved him in the nick of time but he didn't feel grateful about it. Mentally insistent that the general did not 'just' arrive when he did. The water mage caught Hector, Captain Cain and the man carrying Cain into a river of water.
While Hector had been protected, Captain Cain managed to protect the man carrying him. A couple of others that were left behind got saved as well but most died before General Truewater came. Out of the 26, only 6 of them were still alive. Everyone was in a state near death when help arrived but there were healers around. Hector hated that he couldn't even react to help his squad mate who used his body to protect him while in that dire moment, Captain Cain saved another life.
The fiasco where he punched General Truewater in the face when he got a tiny bit of healing had passed, the general wasn't so kind and just punched the injured prince out of the patient's tent. His childish cries and complaints had washed away. Only denial was left at the moment.
Captain Cain walked up to Hector and slapped him.
"Enough! We're soldiers. They were soldiers who volunteered to come onto enemy territories. They had it coming."
"They had it coming you say? They had it elling. coming!?" Hector pushed himself onto his wobbling feet.
He received a headbutt from Cain that put him back onto the bed of compiled leaves.
"I'm the captain! Their deaths are on my shoulders, so shut up and recuperate soldier! We need fighters, not a man who gets swallowed up by despair or denial or their allies' deaths."
Cain left without looking back. Hector knew that denial wasn't going to bring his buddies back to life. Blaming General Truewater was truly foolish. He laid back down with a sting on his forehead, generating water mana from his eyes as he fell asleep.
He rested with all his strength. When he could move around without any issues, he left his uncomfortable but clean bed to get information.
Under General Truewater's command, the base had the necessary facilities and soldiers looked ready to fight a war. It was busy but the tension in the air was high. His healer had the free time to explain some things so he was roughly aware of the situation. The bases here were the first to know that the entire continent of Tova was freaking out. The healer didn't know the reason but Trolls was hit by something that was beginning to wipe their population fast. All throughout the continent.
The Trolls panicked. It took months before they realised it was a continent-wide problem since they didn't communicate much with other tribes or large settlements. At least a billion Trolls died before they cooperated with each other. Each tribe and settlement destroyed assumed that they were the only ones hit by the disaster. Since Trolls don't run or ask for help from other tribes, they are usually wiped out.
Until a powerhouse Troll Shaman King appeared and took over control of the largest tribes. Tova fell under this particular King within 2 weeks and they fought back against their killers. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. The Shaman was titled 'Old Hag' by General Truewater. She gathered the entire race, spread that it was the Empire's attack and declared war. One that called for every single Troll to move.
Within a month, the Old Hag gathered giant sea creatures and set them off towards Elcra with billions of Trolls. Their colossal ships could carry plenty too but were much slower. There were plenty of tamer tribes amongst the Trolls. The Old Hag herself remained with the last group that hadn't set off for Elcra. She continued to make transport for the population and Truewater did nothing. They couldn't contact Elcra either.
Tova was emptied out of Trolls.
There were whispers about Truewater being a coward and a traitor but only from younger people. Hector personally knew this 'great granduncle' as the most hardcore general the Empire had to offer. As the lowest ranking and weakest person around, he wasn't granted an audience with the general. He returned to where patients rested and received a visit from the stiff general himself.
Hector was the one who called for the man. The general had a stiff personality, he wouldn't ignore the summons of a prince. The man had an average build, he knelt before Hector but kept his back straight.
"Stand, what is your plan?"
"The opportunity to take Old Hag's head is getting closer. Put the Trolls into disarray when the other Shamans no longer get commands from the Old Hag. The current Imperial Army will not lose to an undivided population of Trolls."
Both of them forgot about the whole face-punching incident.
"How close?"
"Close."
Hector was reminded that this man was a little similar to Ebony in terms of speech.
"...Can I leave my safety to you if I undergo my evolution?"
"Naturally. I have prepared a fortified room for you. I believe you carry around mana ores of your elements."
"Prepared? That was fast."
"It will be fast. I have the time elemental mana ore his majesty left me with. Once I activate the room's enchantment, even if you take a week to evolve only a few hours would have passed for those of us outside."
"What? Since when did we have time mana ores?" Hector was shocked, there was no such mine or dungeon throughout Elcra to his knowledge.
"Please ask his majesty."
"Then, should I go in there to heal?"
"There's not much left in the time mana ore. Prioritise the period when you are defenceless."
Hector imagined that it was the same but there were healers out here and the older man probably knew better.
He apologised for the childishness but got ticked off by the general's offhand comment. "It barely tickled."
Hector visited the urnhouse. If soldiers had a body left, they were cremated. If the army had the leeway, they would bring their allies' ashes back to Elcra. There were always a couple of people in the urnhouse, chatting with their friends in an urn.
"Guys…I'll punch them back harder. I promise."
Hector's body healed up much faster with the Grandmaster healer present. Two days later, he went to set up the elemental mana ores in the fortified room.
He forgot to ask why or what was killing the population of Trolls here but Truewater didn't seem to be worried about it.
'Whatever, I need to hurry. The Trolls have gathered and are apparently setting off for Elcra soon. Uncle's going to attack Old Hag regardless if I'm asleep or not.'
Hector tried to meditate before starting the evolution process.
❅❅❅
Ebony kept his forge at breakneck speed before flashing towards Ning Xin. He was lucky she had been in the middle of handling ingredients. That meant he was able to get to her before she flew off into battle. Darkness took over but he was used to being blind and it made no difference to him. Ayla was leading the retreat and the Imperial base lit up like the sun. This happened before and they had some countermeasures in place.
Heat burst from Ning Xin.
"There's no light." He sent the string of mana directly into her ears.
"This must be what they meant by the shaman's magic being fundamentally different from mages' elemental magic." She replied.
The Imperial mages couldn't remove the corrosive clouds. Neither could they make a permanent hole in the ground to fish for food. The Trolls' only sustenance at the moment was their rear-line fishing. Neither earth mages nor strong warriors could keep a hole open in the ground for long enough to fish. They were reflecting light magic all the way from Fifth Tide, up the cliff. Light magic had immense range.
The violent shakes from the ground could only be from Commander Wil. The militia was already briefed on what to do. Run.
There was absolutely nothing they could do but die. Allegedly.
Mr kidnapper grabbed Ebony and Ning Xin's collar before dragging them away. Cap Dwarf had his snakehead eat the two of them and swam away.
"Don't give us trouble." Was the order they received.
They gauged that this attack was about to come and the militia already had a planned and protected route back towards the forward base. A side gate was prepared for them.
"Ambient mana is being drained above us." He warned with sound magic.
Ebony weakened gravity for everyone within range, they were getting used to moving under such conditions since he fluctuated gravity around his forge. He knew how much to weaken it such that they wouldn't just float away with a little movement.
The darkness withdrew and the retreat was a success. A spell large enough to cover the sky wasn't going to be mana friendly. It was known that Midnight Shepherd was mana stingy and gave up on attack plans relatively quickly just so that it could drag out battles and tire out the Imperial Army with dozens of different ultra-wide range spells.
The current time was late evening, Midnight Shepherd's favourite time to launch an attack. Hence his title of bringing about the night. Why evening?
According to stories shared in the militia, in the previous wars, the Midnight Shepherd noticed the army's coordinated meal time and destroyed multiple rear bases in the past. The shaman wasn't particularly strong in the night and neither was it any weaker in the day. It was good at playing tricks and making use of darkness but Benumbed and Vigiot tribes weren't able to make full use of darkness.
Despite the militia's efforts, the counter detachment from their enemy had stalled their offence. Out of seven hundred thousand strong only a little more than 14 thousand were taken down. The majority had been from Commander Wil's single attack. Ebony's level surpassed Ning Xin just from that one operation where he learned mana overdraft.
They were not that bothered about a few stat points from a couple of levels. She had the time to experiment with blood magic and was in the midst of creating a relatively scary spell. She imbued her Blood Halo with wind mana. Instead of helping it slice, the spell focuses on drawing blood and entering wounds before the wind mana is released. Tearing the target from within. She also made progress in manipulating her conjured lightning mana properties. She took the explosive burn direction.
Ebony recently attempted to manipulate lightning mana as well. It was the perfect chance to get new skills and even a new elemental magic. He had a tiny hope that he could include lightning in one of his classes. It was only going to get harder to pull Generic Skills up to Class, Sub-Class or Profession. Even gathering lightning mana wasn't easy. His natural affinity for it mustn't be very high.
They were spat out once the snakehead got within the walls. Cap Dwarf rode his earthen snake, "Don't cause trouble!"
Only Commander Wil, mr kidnapper, Cap Dwarf and Athena had permission to fight alongside the army. Those in charge of the academies present could also fight. The militia would get in the way of how the army fought. Minor General Impes, head of this particular forward base didn't want volatile variables and militias didn't have a very good reputation for listening to orders.
General Impes and her soldiers reacted extremely fast, the opposite happened when the Trolls got attacked. Thousands of soldiers already formed up in neat rows and more were dashing in as they adjusted their armour.
Perhaps Midnight Shepherd simply wanted to catch the militia off guard and take its chance to hit them hard. It gave up fast since it didn't want to commit the moment they retreated. With the release of pure darkness, the magic towers got to work.
'That's a cheap tower.'
Gigantic blasts of mana shot out from clear large crystals atop their wooden towers. There were 12 of these towers and crystal balls alternating their firing times as they took more than 10 seconds to charge for the next shot. Ebony gave it a plus point for destructive capability though. The current distance allowed the Trolls to defend with blocks of metal but they were completely blown apart.
Ebony sat on his throne right below the corrosive cloud with Ning Xin. He was certain the spell making people disappear in the sky was gone since the Trolls were affected by it too. The Trolls only suffered till they reached the ten-kilometre mark. The explosive mana shots were pretty boring but they did the job until translucent black films appeared to block them. There was no explosion, the mana shots seemed to dissipate after landing on those magic barriers.
The mages saw that but continued operating the crystal balls. The next few kilometres were covered within seconds but they were obviously moving slowly to coordinate their steps. Then the rows of archers started firing. The magic barriers didn't do anything to the arrows but the arrow rain was not very effective as every giant had the ability to cut down those projectiles.
The enemy continued to close the distance and the two armies finally met in battle. They were finally within the range of mages and spells were flying towards their opponent's rear.
The Imperial Army only had a hundred or so gunmen. Despite it being a skill every soldier picked up there was an apparent lack of materials for ammunition. Guns didn't work well against Trolls unless the burstbowmen was very specialised. Specialised guns and bullets were very limited and there wasn't a good mass production method for them so First and Second Tides had larger units of these soldiers. The market and technology for these guns were still developing. He didn't see any turrets which seemed like a waste.
The burstbowman unit started attacking as well. They had cool bullets that burns and prevents their regenerative enemies from healing. Other than Hoarfrost Glade, no environment around the continent had naturally high ice mana density and ice elemental materials were all sourced from the glades. There were definitely other sources but the glades were the biggest suppliers.
'Oh, that's the ice mage.' Ebony spotted the fox lady that visited Arcta.
She led a team of mages that weren't situated as spell-firing machines and blended in with knights and warriors.
Coordination on both sides was a sight to behold. The Imperials worked together to steadily tear squads apart so that they couldn't save each other or rotate with squads behind them while the Trolls were just as good at countering the overused methods. The difference between the way they fought and the militia fought was immense. No reckless moves were made under the leadership of higher-ranked soldiers.
General Impes stood atop the walls to observe the battlefield but the stretch of battle was too large for a single person to manage. Commander Wil and many other armoured knights stood around her. Midnight Shepherd was all the way behind with her King Classed guards.
They watched for an hour before the woman sitting beside him fell asleep on his shoulders. It was getting boring since there was a stalemate.
Overall, the Imperial Army was slightly stronger despite having fewer people. High-level individuals simply watched and didn't take part in the battle. A mind mage stood by the leader's group and sent out her commands. Even short ranged communication was cut due to the torrent of auras and essence all over the battlefield. The melee was just a show of force on the Trolls side but the Imperial Army were used to it. He was pretty sure many of the soldiers that were about to rotate in were young men and women. They were lower level than he was.
'So the first wave purposely weakened the Trolls for the younger members' General Impes was taking the chance to increase the average strength of her units.
Some Trolls realised and screamed out to inform others but they didn't listen to each other. Their yells were also washed away by the Imperial Army's well-timed warcry.
Although the lower-level soldiers weren't capable of taking every single opportunity they received, the general objective was met. They received a bit of support from their seniors and were forced to hold the line until they got further orders. The Trolls took more than an hour to copy the move and by the time their younger members were out front, the Imperial Army managed to pull back their young members. It set up the weak Trolls for slaughter but that was when the Midnight Shepherd made a move. No, it was when the army got tricked.
Their 'young' members suddenly grew metres taller and wider. Hundreds of squads of Grandmasters had been hidden with magic.
The vanguard's reaction was to glow like a lightbulb. They used the enchantment in their armour. It might not be the best but every soldier had the same set of enchanted armour as far as Ebony could tell. The armour sets got noticeably better for higher-ranked soldiers. He didn't know much about enchantments but he knew materials and equipment quality almost as well as the average specialised smith. The support mages took a few minutes before one could see the effect they had on the vanguards from a distance. A couple of casualties were sustained during this time.
Ebony felt a little sick simply watching as it happened. It was easy to simply see the Trolls as enemies out to kill but he felt that the Trolls weren't any different from the people of Elva. It was true that they had a kill-on-sight policy but of course they did and so did the Imperial Army.
'Am I seeking slaughter of a race, not all that different from us just for experience and levels?'
It was unusual but Ebony hadn't been in a state of Meditation every second of the day. Muse's words rang in his mind from time to time. A few excuses such as the brutal consumption of humans, beastmen and dwarfs alike didn't really come to mind. It didn't really make a difference to Ebony, people eat when they are hungry. It just so happened that they were on the menu.
He knew the history of Trolls terrorising the population and the same thing was happening in the present with an unknown number of them strolling the mainland as they observed the battlefield.
Ebony got a headache after contemplating for half an hour. His mind was cleansed out and returned to pristine white. He would die if he stayed distracted. That much was enough of a reason for him. The mark on his upper arm was another reminder that he was on their hit list. He couldn't exactly let them pass knowing that they were bent on going for the Frost Elves either.
What could he do? Invite the Trolls to go home? If there was something Ebony noticed it was that their neighbour continent's inhabitants were desperate. Days ago, Ning Xin also shared the strong emotions she received from their opponents. Hunger, anger, fear and resentment. Extremely strong resentment.
"Hunger is an emotion?" Ebony asked cheekily when she told him.
"Don't be silly, we feel hunger don't we?"
"Excellent point."
Now that Ebony cleared his mind again, he did his best not to fall into a trance and attempted to find something to do. He juggled a ball of ice mana when he couldn't come up with any better ideas.
Accidentally tossing the ball too high, it went into the corrosive cloud and never dropped back into his hands. It was then, his mind went off tangent with his silly ideas again.