"Men! Activate the defense array!" Gabriel shouted as he raised his spear.
His eyes did not even waver as he saw the dark skies turning brightly because of the countless attacks coming in their direction.
Viu viu Vwong!
Layer by layer the arrays immediately appeared, and in the dark night, the holy island was instantly covered by multicolored light in a dome shape.
As the elemental mana attacks touched the surface of the array dome, they dissolved like water and only caused the outer layer to ripple like the ocean.
"Mages, attack at the trajectory where the enemies were!" Mishael raised his sword and pointed in the direction where Rachana and the army were coming from.
"Rear army, take care of those who sneaked back!" Abaddon raised his broad sword and directed the rear troops.
Rachana pointed her staff forward and pointed in the direction of the Holy Island. As the dome array lit up the island, she already saw how many people were there and smiled triumphantly.
Of course, the soldiers coming with her also saw the same and they rejoiced in their hearts.
"There's no way they will survive our large-scale attack. So press forward and attack relentlessly!" Rachana shouted.
Seeing that the other side of the battlefield was already starting their move, the other side remained calm and composed.
They continued to deflect and attack the troops from a long distance, slowly defeating enemies from afar.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Clashes and explosions filled the skies, rendering the nearby coast in a state of terror and alarm as they were shocked to see such a huge fight happening right under their noses.
In the end, the huge army overwhelmed the casters who kept on throwing the mana in their direction. At this point, they could no longer keep up with the unending flow of knights coming at them at full speed.
Abaddon stood from the highest point of the island and raised his hand shooting a signal flare in the sky.
Viu!!!
Bright red light temporarily made the skies glow as Mishael shouted with all his might.
"Summoners!"
"Merfolk!"
"Dragons!"
"Flying Beastmen!"
"Charge!!!!"
"Roaaar!!!" The people stationed in their positions suddenly revealed themselves.
They were actually submerged in the water and watching underneath as the skies lit up in a mana battle. They were waiting for the signal flare to light up before finally moving to step into the battlefield.
Now that the army reached their position, they moved fast and jumped out of the water.
However, their figures did not charge toward the enemy to fight them directly. Instead, they flew past them, hovering overhead.
The soldiers from the enemy side were flushed but soon they were confused that the other party suddenly flew past them instead of fighting them right away.
The Lieutenant supervising the first charge suddenly shouted, "Watch out!"
However, it was too late.
The soldiers were now trapped in a net and they could no longer come out. The net was very sturdy and was made in a material that sucks the mana out of the trapped being inside to make the net even more sturdy.
The ends of the net were taken by the flying beastmen and the contracted beasts of the summoner.
"Roar!" Then the soldiers trapped inside were mercilessly burned by the dragons emerging with their half-humanoid form.
"D*mn!" Rachana cursed as she saw that a quarter of her army was gone just like that.
She was already expecting that the enemy would have allied with the Green Wave continent, for they were the only ones near the holy island aside from the Vanderford.
But she did not expect that the dragons, who are an extremely seclusive race, would also be participating in this battle!
"Mages, continue to support the hunters!" Mishael directed as they shifted from the defensive stance to attacking.
The enemy knights who were targeting the dragons to prevent them from burning the hunted knights were now facing the relentless long-distance attack of the mages coming from the island.
Instantly, the surprise attack caused great chaos and panic in Rachana's army.
"This is not good! The Pope should know about this right away!" Rachana's expression showed a trace of panic as she witnessed that the troops could not do anything at all as the people underwater continued to launch sneak attacks on the soldiers trying to approach the island.
What's more, because it was night and the other party had the help of the merfolk, the 'underwater hunters' were actually too hard to spot as they could go as deep as they liked.
They tried attacking the water with electricity in an attempt to injure them but it seems like the troops were also prepared and were equipped with lightning protection items and arrays.
"Tsk! The rest of the soldiers, retreat!" Rachana gritted her teeth and had no choice but to force her army to temporarily retreat and regroup.
The knights heard her orders and immediately moved back to the shore. But the ones in the front had a hard time because they were still in a position too distant from the shore.
In the end, only a few managed to go back and the rest were defeated by the hunters on the way.
"What now…" The soldiers asked as they saw how the waters dividing the mainland and the holy island instantly calmed down the moment they fled to the shore.
"We can't go around the rear as well knowing that there were troops hiding under the waters, it would be difficult to direct the troops on the other side of the island." Another one said.
"Let's wait for the Paladin's decision." The Lieutenants knew best to organize their own troops as they waited for Rachana to think of something to remediate the situation
From the holy island, they clearly witnessed how the army retreated after being helpless in the situation. However, they did not let their guard down at all.
Prince Nalu, who was leading the troops in the underground, sent the other platoon leaders a call, "Should we charge to the shore now that they retreated?"
But Abaddon quickly replied, "No, stay clear of the coast for a little bit, the other party had already figured out what our moves were. There is a high chance that they would start attacking the waters."
True enough, just as Abaddon said, the same strategy was already being discussed on the other side of the sea.
"Gather all the water and wind mages… come with me." Rachana looked at the army and immediately ordered.
In a short while a platoon of water and wind mages was formed and they walked to the end of the shoreline.
"Troops get ready to charge once more as this mage team paves a way for us to the holy island!" She said as she led the mages into casting their strongest attack to hit the sea.
Rachana used her curse power with a subtle trace of asani power to create an enormous wind elemental attack as well.
Boom! Woosh!!!
Suddenly the sea in front of them acted violently as the water and the winds caused extreme chaos. Gigantic waves caused the water underneath to be turbulent.
Fortunately, all the troops inside were with merfolk.
With Abaddon and Nalu's early warning, they had already steered clear of the original trajectory of the attack and were able to avoid getting caught by the raging waves.
The shock wave from the combined attack of the mages forced them all to get out of the water and rush to the island in haste.
Seeing the 'hunter' troops finally retreating, Rachana immediately raised her sword once more and said, "Charge at full speed, there is no need to worry about those hunters anymore!"
This time, there were no other obstacles but the array defense dome!