Chapter 197: Lifeless Body (1/2)
The Blood army got a second wind after their commanders joined them. What felt like fighting a single soldier, switched to fighting a single giant organism connected by its head, the commander. The commanders of the coalition army needed to work even harder than before. They needed to worry about the commanders and about their soldiers' morale.
Hayato stopped charging in, and instead, switched into strategy. He split the army this time into five 20.000 or so men battalions under the lead of him, Bard, Audun, Eric, and Griffin. After Ed got locked into combat with the strongest commander, they retreated back to study the change in the enemy lines. Both sides did the same thing. After splitting his army, Hayato led the charge with his central army charging first. Then the right and left wings followed. As the enemy focused first on him, they didn't react in time to the other four armies' synced charge.
At least it seemed that way. It was, in fact, a bait, to get the commanders locked in combat at the front. The enemy commanders started killing them from behind. They could have succeeded, if not for the existence of Gobuta and Raikou who instantly killed two weak enemy commanders. The others noticed this and killed as many people as they could before retreating.
Ed and the enemy commander were locked in aerial combat. Neither one of them holding the advantage over the other. Each time they crossed weapons, they caused shockwaves similar to thunder sending both of them dozens of meters farther each time. After a couple of minutes of combat, they ended up on the right battlefield.
”Edward” Emilia noticed him and frowned. She was worried about him and his behavior lately, but she couldn't spare him much thought as she was locked into combat. The right and left armies had it worse compared to the central one. In the first two days, they needed to fight monsters mostly, so they could manage. But on the third day, the soldiers of Blood sect switched, and now it was a mix of Beastmen and Oni.
Emilia was worried about Ellie at first, seeing as how she needed to fight her own kin. However, she didn't need to worry as Ellie could see the big picture. A certain Oni female blocked Emilia's path while saying, ”Remember me?”
Emilia didn't care about this, but she did remember the face. It was the Oni that fought against her in the tournament back in the academy. She also remembered how troublesome her barrier was.
”I don't have the time for you.” Emilia unsheathed her white rapier that reflected the light of the sun. In one gentle thrust, a glacier emerged out of nowhere, trapping the Oni girl, her barrier, and dozens of soldiers behind her. Emilia didn't want to use this a lot, as there was a risk of hurting her own allies.
”Oooooh!” The soldiers cheered as they saw how Leonard managed to best one of the enemy commanders. He was hurt in the process, as the enemy had a higher cultivation, but Alicia supported him by using Healing magic. The left army was going through a similar process where they managed to kill many of the stronger foes. But still, everyone had an uneasy feeling in their hearts.
Ed told them that the enemies would have many Immortal Establishment fighters. But, they only encountered a handful of them. They were all worried about when the true assault by their enemies will start.
They also worried about Ed himself, as they could no longer see him due to how far he and his enemy traveled.
”Kuh!” Emilia noticed how Ellie got blown away by someone. She had dismounted, as she needed to since she fought barehanded. She looked towards the one who sent her flying, and it was a Beastman as well.
”You traitor. Look at you, the only beastmen in this army of humans. You bring shame to the nobles of our kingdom.” The beastman had two pointy, grey wolf ears and seemed to be in his late twenties.
”I'm not a traitor, your royal family is. The fact that you would side with these murderers brings shame to our whole race, not just our kingdom.” Ellie didn't take his words lying down. Instead, she retaliated as she looked at Emilia.