Boom!
Damian fell heavily to the ground, his body sinking into the mud. He wanted to get up to create a shield of lightning, but immediately a group of squires formed around him.
"Sir, how are you feeling?"
Damian was about to respond, but immediately a priest approached. He placed a bandage over the open wound on Damian's right shoulder and began treating it.
The wound was deep, but Damian had numbed the pain in that part of his body, so there weren't many reactions. Also, although he wasn't skilled in healing magic, he had started to heal part of his wound but stopped when he saw it being treated.
"Was the demon killed?"
The priest looked at Damian and said, "The demon fell to the ground. Since it absorbed all its attacks, the troops are advancing, so we will find out later."
Damian sat in the mud, looking at the dismembered corpses strewn around him, and his eyes widened in shock. It's not that he felt anything at the moment; what really shocked him was that five years later, he was here fighting a war that he never thought would be so extreme.
He knew that if he didn't fight for humans, they would be crushed by the demons. There was no alternative but to fight. But now that he had expended a great deal of mana, he thought it wouldn't be necessary to clean up this battlefield, leaving the job to others.
"Your magic has decreased significantly. You should rest a bit." The priest finished treating Damian's wound and advised him as he stood up from the ground.
Damian stood up, watching as the war cries continued further ahead.
"Get me a horse. I can still kill a few demons."
After losing troops and generals continuously, the orcs reacted quickly and gathered their main force at the rear, where everyone was fleeing. At this moment, only a quarter of the soldiers who had come to attack remained, totaling over 3,000 orcs and no more than a thousand demons.
The Seventh Brigade, directly under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Erwin, suffered very few losses: it participated in two consecutive battles and annihilated more than 15,000 orcs, with only about 40 casualties.
Including the mounted infantry commanded by Marvin, along with the soldiers and mages under Damian's command, there were over 5,000 soldiers under his command. Additionally, more than 60 auxiliary soldiers were sent to escort the resources.
Seeing that the orc soldiers were hiding in the fortresses they had taken, Lieutenant Colonel Marvin could only station himself to divert and eliminate more orcs and see what was happening in other unexplored areas.
The orcs avoided fighting, and Lieutenant Colonel Marvin chose not to attack the fortresses.
They had rations for ten days and were relatively close to the rear grain storage area, so there was no shortage of food at the moment.
Furthermore, about five kilometers away were the troops of the Seventh Brigade currently in combat, while other legions of demon hunters were moving through the forests trying to clear the paths.
Although the combat power of the human Legions was not like that of the main army, they were a considerable force because they had good weapons and considerable magical equipment.
The addition of the Seventh Brigade, led by Erwin, as a new force was enough to change the situation on the battlefield and repel the orc attack.
If the other demons concentrated on attacking other places and did not come here, it would be impossible for them to enter directly from the north because there were hundreds of thousands of warriors and tens of thousands of mages.
Like in previous wars, this only consumed part of the national power of the northern kingdoms. If all the national power is mobilized for the invasion, other human forces on the continent would not remain idle, seeing how the demons mobilize to attack humans, and they would definitely send troops to support the north in the war.
Even though there has been a battle between demons and humans right now, it is known that as long as the Demon King is not killed, there will be no peace.
There were powerful beings capable of killing the Demon King, but they were not interested in going to kill someone who practically posed no problem to them.
Even if there were thousands of orcs wanting to enter between human cities, they would first have to kill the humans, who were tough men and women due to their battles.
There are many intelligent people in the human kingdoms; the demons were now adapting to humans because they knew they were the ones who could cause them the most trouble, even though the elves were natural magic beings and could easily live for thousands of years.
The high officials of the northern kingdoms are also aware of this situation. This kind of tacit understanding among high-level officials was unknown to low-ranking officers like Damian.
What everyone could see was that this war would last at least a thousand years, a war where each race would have to improve its magic, weaponry, and combat tactics.
But it was also well known that humans were not equal to demons; demon magic evolved by leaps and bounds, something that humans would hardly surpass.
After returning to the camp, Damian took off his upper garment, which was burned by the impact he had received. He tossed it aside, and quickly a teenager arrived with new garments.
Considering Damian's rank, he already has four guards with him; these matters can be left to the guards.
It's just that Damian is a modern-day boy in a magical medieval era; he didn't like being the center of attention, but with what he had done in battle, it would be impossible to go unnoticed.
Unlike Damian, perhaps due to the clear hierarchy in this world, officers like Luke and Luther almost completely delegated trivial matters to the guards. The guards need help not only to maintain their armor but also to be well fed; this alone gives an idea of the resources an army continuously spends.
...
A week had passed without the demons making any significant moves, giving the human army the opportunity to move the wounded and keep new fortresses united to prevent them from being invaded.
The fortresses that had been taken by orcs and demons remained untouched; with everything that had happened, they were not of interest to the human army.
Lieutenant Colonel Marvin's men were all cavalry and were not familiar with how to attack a city.
Damian commanded half a squadron of soldiers considered mounted infantry and mastered siege tactics, but the number was too small, and there was no siege equipment to use.
Manufacturing siege equipment takes a long time and requires skilled craftsmen. The conditions for a siege in a short time are not ripe.
After careful consideration, Lieutenant Colonel Marvin decided to lead his troops to depart, cross the mountains, cooperate with Baron Harden in the fight, and attack the enemy from behind.