"What's wrong!?" The fire swordswoman tried to catch his attention. She moved too fast for the callstone's link to catch up and they were kilometres apart. He could transmit messages faster than he received them.
'Her Intuition is quite scary, she can sense me even from such a distance. Anyway, I felt odd since Muse went unconscious. Did she mess with my head?' He had been staring at the reckless attacker and observing if there was any difference in her fighting style. The more he watched, the more certain he was that she was trying her best to end their lives as efficiently as she could. It strengthened the idea that she was actually putting them out of their 'misery'. Her initial yell must have been a warning and challenge.
He didn't have her Intuition or sense for emotions and the history he learnt was all from the Empire's perspective.
Ebony wasn't casting his domain but he was left with half his mana. He might have 5 times the natural mana regeneration speed but it doesn't recover if he wasn't meditating. That was not a big problem with the current size of his mana pool but he started to pant due to his low Endurance stat. That must have been more obvious than the state of his mind. The vanguard heading the march wasn't all that large or powerful but the yell and slight lag in Ning Xin's assault gave the Trolls a chance to react. In terms of levels, the two attackers were an even match with their average. The Troll's average level was higher than the Imperial Army's average by 30 to 40. If they weren't as defenceless against magic, they would've broken through Fifth Tide's forward base weeks ago.
Ning Xin's Core Skill pumped out in annoyance. "Don't ignore me!"
"That wasn't my intention." He quickly settled his mind again.
"Then?!"
"Calm down."
He ticked her off further, feeding her Incensed Meditation. It seems the skill wasn't able to keep up with the blood rush to her head.
Ebony followed his own advice, his domain reached out while he took the chance to take a deep breath. They never sparred to their very limits recently. The increase in his domain skill level definitely covered the gap between them. They wouldn't reach the point where they both ran out of mana, he can beat her. However, he didn't and continues to act as if his domain cannot be sustained anymore.
'Why?' Was his last question before his mind cleared out again.
Two hours later.
"HEY! Who asked you to pick a fight!"
"Couldn't you wait for us!"
"No!" Ning Xin screamed back in response.
"Boy! Teach your girl manners!" Ebony wasn't listening but the slightly less lazy first assault squad continued to yell at them since they were the only ones who jogged at a reasonable pace. They also had less personal luggage compared to the others.
"You know she's the chef right?" After a couple of minutes of complaints from older men and women, he picked up their voices and replied knowing that they were praising the increase in quality when it came to taste.
"Good going girl!"
Delicious food directly impacted morale to a certain extent. Especially when compared to the previous state of their meals, cooked by men who had no choice but to pick it up as a generic skill because they needed someone to make food. A lot of them gave up and ate their own dry rations but those were usually the last resort. 'Fresh' produce, if they were lucky, were the first to be consumed.
First assault squad came at a good time as the Trolls managed to get the right personnel to contain the two of them while creating a relay to rotate their members. They were too good at swapping members out and they were at a standstill. They didn't even reduce numbers by two hundred, a testament to the Troll's high Vitality and survivability. Although, the Trolls did round the two of them up so their buddies were screaming from behind a mass of muscle. They were attacked with a few rocks but without a height advantage, the rock tosser in the centre and rear didn't even know there was an attack. They were simply confused why the march slowed down to a stop for the past 2 hours.
They seriously needed an eye up there and that was for both the Trolls and the militia. Their support squad hasn't arrived and their enemy's reinforcement didn't consist of shamans.
"Fall back!"
Cap Dwarf ordered after they cut down the opponents that surrounded the two reckless youths. It took almost an hour and Ning Xin was beginning to tire. She was battling on fumes since she didn't rely on his blood and her food intake was reduced by four times. She snacked on biscuits but that was about it for sustenance outside the militia's supply.
Ebony hasn't been able to mould a successful space expansion rune on a box so he couldn't help with the logistics. Wooden boxes would explode and metal planks collapse inwards on themselves. Wooden crates with preservation runes were the standard and the Imperial preservation runes were messy, basically taking up all the space there is to engrave runes. It was unrealistic for him to solve this problem with thousands of crates being transported every few days and that was for the smallest forward base.
It took Mr kidnapper to pull him away since he wasn't listening and he had his domain up. Ning Xin retreated knowing her energy limits so Ebony was the only one causing trouble. The last thing an army wanted in battle were soldiers who didn't follow orders.
He wasn't in a trance so he had the chance to notice that the intruder had a piece of equipment to deflect his domain's gravity. Mr kidnapper copied Cap Dwarf's mana pulse technique to flush away the mana vibrations but it was applied throughout his body instead. Ebony removed the effect on allies but it required him to recognise an individual as an ally and it took time for his domain to react to the change.
He was a little surprised that a halberd could pierce into his ice scales just enough to stick on before he was whipped into the sky. With just that move, Mr kidnapper moved up on his list of powerful people right above Cap Dwarf and only below people like the King, Commander Wil or Korben. It was hard to catch him when he was on guard and his domain was still half-alert.
Once again, he scanned the first assault squad members to observe their conditions. Few were as tired as Ning Xin but a lot had injuries here and there. There were quite a few people at Master level 300, even amongst other squads in the militia. The strength difference between 2 equally levelled fighters was between a very wide range. Masters in the first assault squad could probably win a fight against any Grandmaster placed in other squads or those academy folks.
'He probably has multiple tier 3 skills above 600.' Ebony didn't know what special skill the leaders of the militia had but he didn't doubt the chance that they had tier 4 Core Skills or even Class and Sub-Class skills at that tier. A skill like that would crush stat gaps with ease though it really depends on the nature of the skill. Imperishable Frost Scales easily got over 300 a while back but it was a joke despite the condensed mana if these older men polished their skills to a good degree.
Commander Wil was similarly Grandmaster but there was a high chance he maxed out at 500 with skill levels far beyond that. The theoretical limit according to sister Jing and Ning Xin was 2 tiers above their own with some exceptions like resistances, only backed up with one piece of evidence, the fire swordswoman herself. The higher up they go, the further skills hold them back. It was far harder to raise the tier of skill from 4 to 5 than from 1 to 4.
They were pretty awesome to keep up with the others. Ebony with his ridiculously compressed tier 2 Augmentation and Ning Xin with her tier 3 enhancement with another blood and fire-based tier 2 enhancement together with the wind to reduce the strain on her body.
'Compression for the win but who's to say the others don't have multiple enhancements.' Ebony kept his domain up until they reconvened with the militia.
"You're not making a big dent in their numbers." He asked Cap Dwarf.
"We don't really get much experience from these guys." The short man shrugged.
'So they hold back to give other squads experience?' The 'war' was looking out to be more and more of a farce to him. The disorder in their enemy's reinforcement forced them to stop moving as a whole and they achieved their objective. The Trolls didn't need scouts for them to sense the militia's presence.
"Make camp! Earth mages, walls and watch towers. Archers take a break and get on once the walls are up. Warriors tally our supplies and guard them well. Water mages hydrate yourself or something."
Ebony didn't waste any time and pulled his forge out.
❅❅❅
08.08.5537
The second month of fall.
It had been almost a month since they first arrived here with Koawe. Fifth Tide's forward base was demolished and the Trolls already laid a siege attempt on Fifth Tide the city. The city could see the waves of giant muscle freaks from their walls. The Troll's reinforcements from their rear were far greater than 3 times and their numbers already exceed 3 million after all the deaths during their constant clashes.
Commander Wil's Bludgeon Academy reinforcements were nowhere to be seen and neither was Koawe contactable. Ebony ran back to check on the village, it was unharmed but Koawe wasn't anywhere. The militia was doing fantastic at stopping any reinforcements from Fourth Tide's forward base but that was it. The ranged fighters from academies were called back to support Fifth Tide but it didn't change their situation much. They never did impact the battle that much at first but the increase in their skill levels was beginning to show.
'Demolished' was inaccurate since the army abandoned the structures, taking only the important resources away. The middle and rear bases didn't last long even after bulking their magic towers up.
Ebony didn't know the details but it was all on Midnight Sherperd. The Shaman retreated since she ran out of mana together with the reinforcement of their womenfolk. There were female Troll warriors and they were usually fiercer but the females tend to be their cooks and non-combatants. They were the weapon crafters for the men of their race.
Most of the combatant females were Shamans but there were male Shamans too. It was a shame that he didn't get a chance to meet them in battle so he hasn't faced their shamanic magic yet. He knew that most Shamans had strong healing magic that links a squad's Vitality. It made the warrior Trolls nearly impossible to kill when they share Vitality with each other.
They didn't have many Shamans, 1 of them might be tasked to support 10 or more squads and there were many without support. First Tide's great battle had the Hive Supreme, a level 500 Shaman that was easily capable of linking the Vitality of tens of thousands of soldiers. The strongest of the biggest Shaman tribe.
Those that simulate elemental spells make use of spirits according to Commander Wil. If they had a mage with greater control over the element they could remove or reduce the strength of the corrosive cloud. The Empire didn't even know what element of mana the cloud above them was, so they didn't have a mage of the same element and power.
Ebony's plan to expend all his magic into the cloud was carried out every single day if they weren't forced into a days-long battle with the militia's force being threatened of getting wiped out. His efforts were completely ignored. No Troll stopped his idiocy and if the corrosive cloud reacted in any way, it was too subtly for him to tell. That was his greatest benefit yet.
The enemy was so confident of the cloud that they don't give a damn about his actions even when he flaunted his skills near them. He tried Potent Mana Overdraft twice more, to a weaker extent. His mana chassis heals terribly slowly in his opinion and the duration that he had significantly reduced mana regeneration made the skill hard to train in the current environment.
If he sustained a physical injury at the same location as the damaged chassis, it wouldn't heal the way it usually does either. He was glad he found out another one of his weaknesses as a partial mana being before he was put in a poor position. He wasn't sure if the healing speed of his chassis would increase or if he would permanently hurt himself hence, the relatively careful tests he had done so far. It would take more than a few attempts for him to tell if the mana chassis had any similarities with a muscle that wears and repairs. The chassis sustains damage equally throughout his body and he hasn't figured out how to overdraft from only a certain part of his body.
He was called upon to rain down petals a few times and he was glad to meet their demands. The reinforcements their enemies had gotten were looking more muscular and not as starved. He imagined the giants wouldn't be as desperate but he was wrong. The savage race appeared even hungrier for Humans, Dwarf and Beastmen flesh alike. He recalled a conversation with his personal chef a few days ago.
"I understand…they are going after essence."
"Like monsters?"
"Yes, demonising or turning fiendish."
"In the midst of doing so? Or are they considered demons already?"
"I think they have always been trying but they don't know how to utilise foreign essence. They will never turn into demons if they don't know how to use essence as monsters do."
"Isn't it as simple as consuming us? Like you drinking blood."
"That's my physique being imperfect."
"I see."
Eating people must have turned into a deep-rooted habit for the Trolls. Coexistence appeared impossible, not that he was trying to get to that point.
The militia was pretty much stuck where they were. Going back to Fifth Tide with an army in the way didn't appear smart and breaking through the ever-increasing number of reinforcements. At least no enemy came from further north where Tova was. Yet.
They were in a bad situation since Midnight Sherperd's group realised that no one came from the east and they sent a small scout group that managed to bring word back.
"What do we do?" Ayla bit her nails.
"Who let those freaks escape!" Channah roared. Her merry band roared along with her and blame was pushed from Banly to Hayec and even to Athena who held their rear.
The top three namely Commander Wil, cap Dwarf and Mr Kidnapper were battling out with Kings from Fourth Tide and weren't back yet. Athena was the next highest in command but she didn't have leadership experience and was too busy saving some necks to care about giving commands.
"They have healing Shamans with them, it's not surprising they managed to run away. The entire first assault squad was up against Fourth's reinforcement." Banly replied. He had gotten noticeably stronger over the past 2 weeks, as with many of those from their assault squad. The advantage of having a smaller number was that Trolls haven't got any stronger even if a particular one survived every battle so far.
"Shut up! That stupid Shaman is gonna wipe us out regardless of our excuses. Your weak ass academy got themselves annihilated and couldn't even stop a few squads." Channah bellowed at the few survivors of the small earth magic academy. They were resting in the 'rear' because they were mostly out of mana.
The survivors were all low-level students, they stammered out an explanation of what happened. Their professors thought it was a small number of Trolls and didn't bother the others, desiring the extra experience for their own school. They didn't have anyone with good sight and ran out to fight the Trolls with some eager students. The Trolls were encouraged to attack because of the free meal and weak resistance but the Arcane Warrior Academy's injured members fought back.
Most of the earth mages were dead by then as the Trolls simply swooped in and massacred the almost mana-less mages before the warriors could react. The Arcane Warriors had some competence but they were injured and the practically undying Troll squads were forced to retreat with a single shama followed. The arcane warriors weren't capable of chasing them. They relied heavily on mana and weren't in the best physical states.
A couple of insults were thrown around for putting them all in danger because they didn't want to risk their lives.
"Come on, you think a few injured warriors can kill squads supported by a healing shaman?"
Arguments aside, people began to look over at Athena and one of the Arcane Warrior teachers called Walt. Simply because they were the strongest and they were respected for it. Ebony and Ning Xin were busy keeping enemies at bay but he was listening in with a long thread of mana and transmitting important information around. The others also knew better than to look for them in making decisions that concerned safety.
Athena got pissed off because she didn't know how to take command of people or what the right course of action was. Walt proposed ideas that got shut down by different groups of people. The militia ultimately consisted of freelancers and academies here for their own objectives. No one accepted a plan that required a group or two to remain or perform some other risky act.
To begin with, they had no directions. In every direction was a bigger group of enemies.
"Can I suggest something?" Ebony asked through his threads of mana.
He got a resounding no from almost everyone.
"Let the man speak." Walt had been one of the few who called him 'man' instead of 'boy'.
"In my opinion, the safest way is to break through this army from Fourth Tide and get to the Imperials' forward base for the battle further east. It shouldn't take more than half a day…I mean 4 days if we travel with the majority's speed." Ebony cut to the chase. He had been one of the few that could fly and the only one that flaunted that.
"So we're letting these guys through to Fifth Tide?! The battle has already gotten all the way to the mainland!"
"We're trying to run away here dumbass!"
"You think we could stop them in our state?!"
'These people love screaming…' Ebony forgot that most of them were fighting and they could hardly hear each other. He heard clearly due to his threads of mana.
The person who said they were letting the reinforcements through must have been sleeping. They were trying to escape with their lives at the moment. The overall response was positive since it was blatantly obvious that going back towards Elva was a good idea. Going back towards Fifth Tide was suicidal regardless of the presence of Shamans. Their numbers ballooned so much that the militia, one brigade of Imperial soldiers and a couple of academies could be drowned with the Trolls' spit.
The reinforcements from Fourth Tide were mostly tribeless compared to the clear effort that their enemy put into Fifth Tide's invasion. With the Benumbed, Vigiot and now a small number of Shamans.
The only problem with his plan was that the fire mages from the unnamed small academy and the similar strength warrior schools would probably not make it through alive. The Imperial soldiers of the rear brigade might survive with their superior equipment and good coordination. As for the militia, most of them including the support squads had good survival skills. Only the first assault squad members had a reasonably good chance of breaking through this horde coming out relatively unharmed.
"Why aren't you people moving!? What if the oldies come back with their butts kicked!?" Ning Xin the resident chef blasted her surrounding Trolls into a crisp.
That woke everyone up, if King Classed Trolls were on the hunt they were all goners. Fortunately, there were very few of them since most of their forces were busy fighting Fourth Tide's Imperial Army. 3 of them came over because the militia had forcefully stopped their march towards Fifth Tide.
It was impressive that less than 10,000 of them could stop their army of 150,000. It was thanks to the strong individuals that could single-handedly take on hundreds of them in rotation that messed up the way Troll soldiers fought in large numbers. Those that tried to slip through usually died horrifically from a huge barrage of spells and arrows.
"Walt, Scarlet and Ebony. Work with me, we'll open up a path. Walt, can your men hold the path open?" Athena ordered for the first time.
The Arcane Warriors were the only large group of melee fighters that could carry themselves well enough to hold these giants back.
"ARCANA! We'll do the weak a favour, protect the path we open!" Walt smirked.
It raised the loose militia's morale because they had silly pride.
It wasn't hard for Ebony to slip away from his fight but Ning Xin didn't have a domain keeping these freaks of nature away from her. Constant blasts of fire only ate up her energy. Then again, she didn't need it. She pierced the heads and large bodies looming over her, leaping and staying afloat. Their enemies finally got smart enough that hitting her out of the air only invited her to take their heads off. For those strong enough to succeed and survive getting her down, it invited another monster to them that would freeze them rock solid.
"Drink." He advised the blood-drinking swordswoman.