Chapter 81: 81

It became night. Clouds blocked the moonlight.

The siege entered a temporary lull period. Despite this, we didn’t leave the monsters alone.

⎯Kruuuuu, gruuu.

⎯Grarara.

Orcs and goblins got into a rhythm as they sang a war song. It was different from the song that was sung by the goblin tribes I had utilized when I annihilated the E-rank adventurer party. Instruments like bugles were used here. The sound of bugles echoed drearily throughout the night sky. Thump, thump, thump, the monsters slowly moved their feet.

We didn’t light any torches around us. Our surroundings were completely dark. From the perspective of the humans on top of the fortress walls, it must feel like the singing of monsters was crawling towards them under the shadow of the night. The enemy commander must think that we’re aiming to lower their morale.

“Your Excellency, the rear unit led by Balam has arrived.”

“Did the humans notice?”

Zepar asked in an amused tone. Despite his tone, the fact that he still sounded dignified made it hard to make light of his years of experience.

“They most likely think we are doing something pointless.”

The humans protecting the blue fortress are elite soldiers. They’ve subjugated monsters before. Even if we were to sing all night, the humans would simply snort at us. They might even treat this as a lullaby and fall asleep while feeling happy that we’re exhausting ourselves. That’s how much grit they have.

They’re able to act leisurely. They have a good enough reason to be so confident. The reinforcements from the red and gold fortresses will most likely get through the monsters positioned behind them by tomorrow. Thanks to this, the humans have been able to maintain high morale.

How long will this belief of theirs last, I wonder? Will the humans still be able to fight once they lose this hope? It doesn’t matter. Either way, their chances of victory are incredibly slim. Not only their victory, but their chances of survival as well.

Shortly later.

The Demon Lord leading the rear unit arrived. Rank 51 Balam. He was one of the rookie Demon Lords. He had done his task well. He steadily followed behind us while leaving more than a day’s worth of distance between us. 

The humans had gathered all of their scouts at the fortress in order to defend against a siege. This was a fatal mistake. They failed to notice our additional troops in the rear.

If they knew that we were the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance, then they would have maintained their scouting parties as much as possible. However, they didn’t know. They think this is simply another small-scale invasion like usual. It’s been more than 200 years since the last Crescent Alliance. 200 years was enough to make the humans lower their guards…….

Balam saluted.

“I have arrived after carrying out my task. General, the army is already lined up and are awaiting your command.”

“Good work. Stop the chanting.”

Zepar raised his right arm. Balam and I did the same. At that moment, it became silent all around us. Our thoughts had been conveyed to the monsters. The monsters went completely silent as if they had never been chanting and stomping to begin with.

I wonder if it was because of the abrupt silence as the human soldiers on top of the ramparts began to stir. I couldn’t hear them since they were far away, but they were probably confused by the sudden silence. Or perhaps, they realized instinctively that the current silence wasn’t normal and was actually something to be extremely unnerved about.

“O Artemis, we take sanctuary within your glorious twilight.”

Zepar spoke in a low tone. It was a song-like prayer. After he recited that line first, Balam and I repeated it.

“O Artemis, we take sanctuary within your glorious twilight.”

The volume of our voices was weak. If we were humans, then this would seem excessively pathetic to be the signal to notify the start of the war. However, we are Demon Lords and our subordinates are monsters. The monsters all felt our thoughts as we whispered them.

“Friendship when met with hardship, equality before our foes, and freedom will be bestowed as death approaches. We shall vow on the battlefield. A vow of friendship, a vow of equality, and a vow of death.”

Zepar and our voices covered the ground like a layer of darkness.

“O Artemis, we shall vow before you with our scarlet blood that the humans will be our eternal foes, that demonkind shall be loyal like hounds for the sake of an honorable future, and although we may win or lose, please allow for this occasion to not be a time of loss.”

Zepar handed each of us a glass cup before pouring wine into our cups. He poured wine into his own glass as well. The commander in chief personally pouring a glass of wine for their subordinates is a tradition that has been passed down for many generations. I will take all responsibility. I heard that this is what this action means.

“For the glory of conquest.”

“For the glory of conquest. For the glory of Zepar!”

“For the glory of Barbatos!”

I finished the wine in a single gulp and threw the glass cup on the ground. 3 glass cups shattered noisily. In stark contrast to how he had been whispering until now, Zepar suddenly shouted in a booming voice.

“Tonight, the Black Mountains will become ours! Soldiers, attack!”

“Attack!”

“All forces, attack⎯⎯!”

The monsters cried out. Ogres, orcs, goblins, and golems roared. It tore through the night air with almost the intent to pierce the clouds. We didn’t need a prudent advance. We intended to break through the gate with a single assault. An army of 1,500 monsters charged as a single mass. Controlling monsters as if it were another arm was an ability that only Demon Lords have.

Balam spoke up.

“General! Please allow the ogres to take the lead!”

“No. It is highly unlikely that those human bastards did not set up defenses in the case of a sudden assault. Send the orcs with shields first.”

Zepar has a clear understanding of how wars are carried out. The sound of gongs being struck echoed loudly and it didn’t take even a minute for dozens of archers to appear between the torches. It was almost as if they had been waiting for us.

If I were to guess the number of archers, then it most likely exceeded 300. An overwhelming number. In truth, every soldier defending the fortress knows how to shoot a bow. In this day and age, archers are practically treated as elite soldiers, although not to the same degree as cavalry. It’s because a painful amount of time is required in order to raise archers. You can imagine what sort of rigorous training the humans protecting the fortresses of the Black Fortress must’ve gone through.

Once the orcs holding shields got close to the ramparts, the archers pulled back the strings of their bows. They all fired their arrows at once.

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“Close formation!”

“Shields, together!”

Zepar shouted and Balam repeated his command. The orcs at the front got into a tight turtle formation with their shields like the gladiators from Rome. A rain of arrows fell on their shields. Orcs are able to use shields that are twice the size as the ones meant for humans. It would be difficult for an arrow to get through those large barriers. Despite the arrows from hundreds of archers, our forces barely received any harm.

This is why the Demon Lord armies are powerful.

Humans have to utilize things like flags and signals to command their armies. The demons under the command of Demon Lords are different. The monsters are linked with the Demon Lords mentally, so the middleman is removed. Theoretically, absolutely perfect command is possible as long as Demon Lords don’t quarrel with other Demon Lords. You couldn’t compare a normal mob of monsters and a mob of monsters led by a Demon Lord.

Balam got excited as he spoke.

“It will take them some time to fire again. Let us use this opportunity to advance the rest of our troops.”

“No. They fired on purpose.”

Zepar refused firmly.

“They fired even though we did not fully enter their shooting range. This is a stratagem to lure us in.”

“Your Excellency, it is currently night.”

I spoke carefully.

“Demons may be able to perceive objects even during the night, but humans cannot. Are you not certain that they had done this simply because their vision is limited?”

“They are not fools. They must have several soldiers who are able to see well in the dark in the case of night battles. And yet, they fired their bows even though we were outside their range. This is a ploy. Soldiers, lift the turtle formation and spread out as much as possible.”

Balam seemed dissatisfied, but he followed Zepar’s orders without any complaints. It didn’t take long for Zepar’s decision to be proven right. Catapults appeared. 10 boulders flew through the air and collided against the monsters. The boulders were much larger than the ones normally flung by catapults. The orcs were crushed helplessly under the boulders. As expected, a large shield wasn’t nearly enough to block a boulder.

Zepar groaned.

“They gave up on acquiring a shooting distance and chose to raise their offensive power instead. Impressive.”

“……Your Excellency’s insight is amazing. If we kept our men close together, then we would have suffered more losses.”

“This is our opportunity. All troops, keep your shields up and advance.”

Zepar’s expression didn’t change at all as he continued to give commands. It was as Balam said. I was genuinely awed as well.

Naturally, the battle didn’t go completely as planned. No matter how well you strategize, it takes no more than 10 minutes for the flow of battle to go beyond your predictions. The catapults prepared by the humans were the things in this battle that went beyond our predictions. Who would’ve thought that they would prepare siege weaponry that has a shorter range than bows? They utilize the catapults first and then the archers after, this is a common tactic.

Zepar managed to see through the enemy’s mistake. Why did they fire their arrows when we were outside their range? The reason was simple. To make us charge in before they could fire again. In other words, they were luring us. They wanted us to approach while grouped together……. For what reason? Even Zepar didn’t know that far.

Nonetheless, he simply judged that we should do the exact opposite of what the humans want. If our enemies want us to stick close together, then we simply have to spread out. As a result, our monsters received only a slight amount of harm despite the concentrated assault from the catapults. This is surprising.

Is this the ability of a Demon Lord that has participated in the Crescent Alliance 3 times? ……If I were the commanding officer, then would I have been able to grasp things as fast as Zepar? This was doubtful. I probably wouldn’t. For starters, it was doubtful whether I would have noticed that the enemy didn’t actually make a mistake and was trying to trick us instead, and even if I did notice, I would probably end up wasting time trying to grasp their intentions. In terms of being a general, Zepar and I were on different levels…….

“The humans will shoot a rain of arrows again. Make the ogres advance as soon as the shower has ended.”

Even as I continued to seriously reflect upon myself, the battlefield was still fiercely going on.

“The enemy forces are firing again.”

“Now! Make our ogres charge!”

Like before, arrows poured down on our shield-bearing orcs. Massive entities began to rush forward before this downpour even ended. It was the 5 ogres that had been waiting at a fair distance away from the ramparts. The 4 meter-tall ogres were quite literally like moving boulders.

⎯ Krrrhaaaaaaaa!

The ogres didn’t care about their allies as they ran forward. A goblin was killed instantly as it was crushed under an ogre’s foot. The ogres picked up their pace.

There were 500 meters between them and the ramparts. The ogres were like cannonballs as they ran that 500 meters in an instant. They were standing in a line and each of them had a stake-like log in their arms. The tips of their logs were covered in steel. They were battering rams.

The humans had no preparations for the ogres. This is because they thought we only had 5 ogres and that they had all gone around the blue fortress. We have had 10 ogres since the beginning. They were completely fooled and this was the price they were paying for being tricked!

⎯ Baaang!

The ram of the first ogre that ran forward collided against the gate. The gate trembled. The ogre immediately got out of the way. Once it did, the second ogre’s ram slammed into the gate. And then the third, fourth, and finally, the fifth ram. Each strike contained the entire strength of the ogres and the speed they had picked up as they ran 500 meters.

⎯ Baaaaang!

An opening was made. The gate was destroyed! As soon as the humans panicked at the appearance of the ogres, their defenses had been destroyed. They might think of this as a natural disaster, but, in the end, they were simply fooled!

Zepar shouted as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“All units, charge! Let out a battle cry! Slaughter our enemies!”

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I’m going to be very busy today and tomorrow because I have a family reunion to attend since it’s a big holiday. I just wanted to make sure I released this chapter before I left. Also, I’ve been getting very distracted by Genshin Impact, so uh. If my releases seem slow, you know why :^). Although, the family reunion will be the main reason for now.

I’ll see you guys on the next release.

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