Chapter 65: A Proper Army
Usually, the soldiers of the first brigade would remain steady and unwavering, their courage never shaking till the end of the battle, but then in the end even these battle-hardened warriors were but mortal beings with emotions and intelligence.
When they had been filled with dissatisfaction at how suddenly they had been deployed, their frustration had been placated with words of how all they were going to face was a scouting army and when they saw themselves triumphing over stupid unthinking creatures, thoughts of a not too difficult victory could not help but already settle in their minds but now, when every soldier felt the aura coming out of the rift, they knew the battle was far from over and victory out of their grasp.
Another round of fear was just about to sweep through her army when with bitterness in her heart, Hannah tapped the side of her horse, making it neigh thunderously in the silence that had ensued and then with its loud steps she rode to the front of her army, standing at the edge of the hill and looking down at the rift where a huge figure was heading through the red hue that filled the sides of the rift.
Hannah's heart was pounding at the moment, but with her experience, she kept her face calm and, her eyes zooming in on the approaching figure, and when the figure's image finally came into the light, her heart shook for some second before settling and try as she might she could not stop a thought from going through her head, when she saw a second figure following behind.
"We might all just die today."
The first figure had a towering form of about 10 feet, the skin on its exposed upper body seemingly made of molten rock which glowed a dull red shine and released so much heat that it wrapped the air around it but surprisingly didn't do anything to its pants which had scorched ends or it's metal like boots that looked like they could crush boulders.
The figure had eyes that burned like embers and on both sides of it's head rested horns that curled backwards from its forehead.
After taking a few steps forward, this creature stopped moving and crossed its arms, letting the other figure behind it go past.
"Demons" Hannah whispered to herself feeling the need to speak the words out and tell herself that what she was seeing was real.
Glancing behind her, Hannah took note of several knowing and horror-filled looks that appeared on the faces of many and she knew immediately that nearly all her soldiers knew they were about to fight demons, the ruling race of the underworld.
The second figure had a height of around 8-9 feet, possessing an athletic build that combined strength and aesthetics and its head was adorned with curved horns that moved away from its forehead
The figure was dressed in black regal armour adorned with intricate elemental markings and in its right hand, it wielded a black staff which it rested on its shoulders
"An infernal demon and a sovereign demon, a fourth and third order being." Hannah thought with a sigh her mind already beginning to play out tactics she could use to end up slicing the head of the sovereign demon while also keeping the infernal demon at bay, tactics she deep in her mind knew didn't exist.
The sovereign demon took several steps up the hill uncaring for the corpses of the monsters which were being burned to flames around it, the purgatory flames in his paths snuffing out when he got within 5 meters of them.
"That's far enough" Hannha called out when the demon moved halfway and listening to her words, the sovereign demon stopped.
"Speak" Hannah commanded.
"You are outmatched, Surrender."
The sovereign demons' words were short and to the point and they made Hannah blink and snort internally at his arrogance.
Sure, the combination of the two of them was an actual and deadly threat to her army, but that didn't mean that the demons were going to clinch a victory.
Though it might be a pyrrhic victory, Hannah was sure her army could defeat the two demons and, in that light, she saw no reason to show weakness to the arrogant demon before her.
"Don't be silly, do you expect to just invade our..."
In order to portray strength and control Hannah would have dearly loved to finish her sentence, but unfortunately, a terrifying aura burst out of the demon before her, black purely evil mana radiating off his being and with a voice that thundered and even caused some people's knees to weaken, it spoke.
"Kill them all"
The sudden aggression stunned Hannah as she had expected an attempt of negotiation from the demon considering it had calmly walked up to her, but feeling the numerous auras of first and second-order beings that appeared from within the rift and began running out of it, Hannah knew she had thought wrong, these demons were for business.
"Prepare to engage, all….."
For the second time that day, Hannah found her words being cut off and unlike last time when it was cut off by another word, this time it was cut off by a staff which was at the moment just crushing Winstrel's neck with a thunderous impact and on a route that would take it to her head.
Unable to even grieve the death of her precious horse, Hannah pushed herself off it with speed, rising into the air while unsheathing her sword and in the next instance swinging it down on the staff which had followed her into the air, its owner having jumped after her.
"Clang" the sharp sound of staff and sword colliding rang out, and while Hannah who was in the air focused on her smirking opponent, the arrogance and confidence on his face more than evident, from the corner of her eyes she glanced down at her soldiers, her eyes narrowing when she saw that it had already been engaged by the figures that had come out of the rift.
Hell wolves, fiends, magma golems, these were the few enemies that Hannah could spot, her eyes trembling when she saw the ease with which the huge and much faster wolves broke through the shields that had been raised.
"This is a demonic army, a proper army of the underworld."
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