Chapter 410 - 284: The Battle Begins

Far as the eye could see, countless figures swarmed across the plain, draping the earth in a flowing red carpet.

They were hordes of demons, a mix of Little Demons, Babu Demons, Timid Demons, and various other Low Tier Demons from the Abyss. They roared and cackled, greedily surging toward the soldiers lined up in a distant mountain pass.

In their eyes, the soldiers were nothing but walking, delectable cuts of fresh meat.

In the rear, Six-armed Snake Demon Warriors wielded long whips, urging the demons onward while they watched everything with cold detachment.

Suddenly, their gazes shifted, spotting an army approaching from afar. A whip cracked with a loud SNAP, lashing out viciously at a nearby demon that resembled a toad, its body covered in disgusting pustules.

The demon, as massive as a small fortress, cried out in pain. Its abdomen swelled instantly, and a moment later, it unleashed a deafening blast from its massive maw—a horn call that echoed across the entire battlefield.

BWAAAAAA!

Countless demons immediately split off from the main army and surged toward the enemy attacking from the flank.

"Lord, what do we do?" Fujero asked instinctively.

’For some reason, having the Lord around made him strangely reluctant to think.’

"What else can we do?" Levi took a deep breath and snapped his faceplate down with a CLICK. He drew a brand-new Fine Steel Giant Sword from his inventory and held it at the ready. "Everyone, grab your weapons! Defend this hillside to the death!"

Their goal had been to relieve some of the pressure on the main army. Now, a desperate battle was their only option.

The other Warriors quickly assembled and formed ranks. The men of High Cliff Castle had long been ready; everyone was mentally prepared for this inevitable battle.

The Barbarians formed a circle, then took the heavy Steel Shields from their backs and slammed them into the ground. These silent Samurai were like the Iron Men of the Holy Sith Kingdom.

A Sanren Gao steel wall was established in an instant. Inside were the poised Feder Archers and the Lord’s Casting Corps.

It didn’t actually matter whether Heather and her group came to this battle, but thinking it was a rare opportunity to farm some experience, the Lord had simply brought along pretty much everyone from High Cliff Castle.

Even Mier and Leiden were protected inside, able to look for opportunities to pick up a couple of kills.

Levi and Zat voluntarily stepped out from behind the protection of the Steel Shields and stood firm before a gap, six blades wide, that had been left intentionally.

Even as countless demons surged toward them from the distance, to them it was like a Gentle Breeze on the Face; their expressions didn’t change in the slightest.

The soldiers of the Thorn Corps and Terror Castle, in contrast, had all formed defensive formations, but their faces were tense, and they swallowed nervously.

This proved they had not yet earned the right to be called an elite force.

"By a rough estimate, there are at least several hundred thousand demons surging toward us." Levi planted his sword in the ground before his men, his eyes beneath his faceplate as calm as stagnant water.

"Hundreds of times more than our little Guard Team from the countryside!"

"Maybe some of you are bad with numbers and don’t get just how big that difference is."

"The gap is so big that if they just stood there and let us cut them, we couldn’t kill them all before our blades went dull! If every one of them spat on us, we’d drown!" Levi simply yelled at the top of his lungs, "Now tell me the truth, are you scared?!"

"We’re scared!" everyone from High Cliff Castle responded in unison, but a moment later they burst into roaring laughter. "Scared there won’t be enough for us to kill!"

The Lord’s laughter was the most carefree of all. "That’s my men! You didn’t let me down!"

"Boss, when have we ever been scared?" Zat, clad in Three-Layered Heavy Armor and a ridiculously oversized Horned Helmet, shouldered his Double-Bladed War Axe and grinned. "We just ask where they are and when we get to fight!"

Levi knew this wasn’t just empty talk from the Beastman Barbarians.

He remembered back when he had nothing, when they were all just Low Tier Soldier Types. A bunch of country bumpkins dragging a dozen or so homemade Bed Crossbows, yet they had dared to follow him to slay a dragon.

It was just like in his past life during the era of Kang Mazi, where a single man with nothing but a Bird Cannon would have dared to follow him in a rebellion to overthrow an empire.

That wasn’t something born of a simple rush of blood to the head.

"My Lord, there was no need for that." The Giant Goblin Leiden, now clad in Leather Armor and wielding a Fine Steel Longsword Levi had personally gifted him, had a placid expression. "We are your followers. We will fight whomever you tell us to fight. Be they Demons, the Undead, or other Demons—what difference does it make?"

The words of their leaders immediately drew a round of cheers from the people of High Cliff Castle.

They were uncultured brutes and didn’t understand the flowery rhetoric of Minstrels, but what their leaders said spoke directly to their hearts. It was exactly what they were all thinking.

"The same goes for me." Sam, who had mostly faded into the background until now, also raised his hand to declare his loyalty.

As a Shaman over fifty years old, he had always felt his talents were being wasted at High Cliff Castle. He’d seen the Lord of High Cliff Castle as nothing more than a country bumpkin, unable to recognize a diamond in the rough, and had wanted to run away a thousand times a day.

But having experienced so much, when he looked back on the past, he was astonished to realize that his brief year at High Cliff Castle had actually been far more exciting than the entire first half of his life.

His dream of becoming a Grand Shaman renowned throughout Debei could easily be achieved at High Cliff Castle, yet he had been like a frog at the bottom of a well.

Only today did he finally see the light and realize how foolish he had been.

"Excellent. High Cliff Castle never overlooks anyone who puts in the effort." Levi walked up to the little old man and clapped him solemnly on the shoulder.