638 Intervention (1/2)

After a night of bitter battle, the elves finally made it to dawn of the next morning. However, the demons were different from the undead. Demons weren't afraid of the sunlight. In fact, since the sunlight in the mortal plane was much gentler and soothing compared to sunlight in the Chaos Abyss, the demons instinctively felt delighted and excited.

Additionally, since both demons and elves had night vision natural talents, it was the same for both sides whether it was dark or light outside.

The sky was now bright. Yet, the battle at the Moonwheel Capital became even fiercer. The defending elven army which had battled through the entire night needed to rest, eat, and sleep, meaning that elven troops needed exchanging. High fatigue would also mean high combat losses. But the demons… since they were one-time sacrificial cannon fodder to begin with, these demon war slaves' lives were each on countdown right from the time that they were conscripted. The demons were also almost limitless, so the Chaos Abyss didn't value their lives at all.

The elves needed logistical backup support for food and supplies. However, the demons' low-level cannon fodder no longer had any sense of logic or reason. They didn't even feel the concept of hunger anymore. Even if they were starving, they could simply rely on their instincts and eat some dirt or tree bark. If a high-level demon became hungry or thirsty, that demon would just casually eat a companion or competitor demon.

”Nice, chicken-flavored.”

Fight a war of attrition with the Chaos Abyss demon army? Those muscleheads would have to first understand what attrition even was. Unless the demons were completely annihilated, no objective condition would ever possibly obstruct them.

The long first night had ended. All the forests outside the Moonwheel Capital had been trampled into corroded wasteland. The beautiful and solid outermost city wall was filled with dents and holes all over. There was a disgusting stench of blood and sulfur in the air that made elves want to vomit. The ground closest to the city wall was stained bright red with blood, and the stench of blood there was thick to the point of suffocating. Countless demon war slaves had ended their lives there.

The elves had also suffered serious losses. Their treants had suffered majorly. One of the elves' aces, the silver elf knight squadron, had suffered 10% losses. Also, after the demon war slaves reached the city wall, the ordinary defending elf army had fought an even more vicious battle. The elves were either eaten alive or killed off by the demons' self-destruction.

If the elves couldn't win in melee, what about picking the demons off with ranged attacks? The elves indeed wanted to do this, and employed such a strategy, but it proved to be greatly ineffective.

The elves' melee fighters were all focused on the Dexterity stat rather than Strength or Constitution. This meant the elven warriors were nothing more than third-rate at best for being tanks. However, the elves had always been proud of their ranger squadrons. Very few species had such well-organized ranger squadrons.

The elves naturally had high Dexterity stats and agility. Combined with their simple Nature Divine Arts, not only could they buff themselves and summon animal companions, their sharp arrows could suddenly ambush any enemy. This was the worst nightmare for anyone who invaded the rangers' territory. The elven rangers were basically undefeatable in any forest or guerilla battle.

However, the elven rangers' archery that they were so proud of met with the worst possible enemy of all.

Sharp arrows were indeed quite fatal to humans and other similarly sized creatures. Penetrating a single vital spot could cause death. However, just as how humans' greatswords could only be considered toothpicks to the giants, unless the elves could discover a demon's weak spot, the elven arrows would be nothing more than slightly painful porcupine pricks to the incredibly thick-skinned demons.

Where was a demon's weak spot? That would be the greatest secret of any demon. Every demon had taken a different path of evolution. Every demon would have a different body structure. This naturally meant that the weak spot's location would be different on every body. For instance, maybe a demon would have three hearts and two brains, but only one of these organs was the most important. The other ones were all capable of regenerating. Attacking any part other than the main part would be meaningless. Some demons would perhaps grow their most important organs in their feet, with the entire head and body being nothing more than a distraction, with the bottom of the feet being the only weak spot.

Dexterity-type elven warriors whose typical tactic relied on attacking the critical weak spot were almost perfectly countered by such an enemy with almost no weak spots to speak of. However, it just happened to be that elemental creatures, demons, undead, and other such creatures without completely physical bodies would all be similar. In this sort of situation, an elven warrior couldn't even compare in physical effectiveness to an ordinary muscular bull.

Not only that, these demons and demonic beasts had all lost their sense of pain. They were also too large, big to the point where ordinary penetrative injuries would be ineffective against them. They were basically completely brainless and berserk. Even if their heads were pierced, they wouldn't feel any fear. With all these factors, even if a demon was pierced with arrows all over, that would be unable to stop him.

Typically in such a situation, the elves would use their enchanted moonlight arrows and explosive arrows which would be greatly effective. However, the enchanted moonlight arrows and alchemical explosive arrows were incredibly precious combat resources. It would be such a waste to use them against ordinary demons.

In the end, the ranger squadrons that the elves were so proud of were forced to become nothing more than spectators in the battle. In fact, in order to avoid wasting precious ordinary arrows, another limited resource, the ranger commander even forbade the rangers from casually shooting arrows as they pleased.

The elves suffered far too serious losses in melee, and their archers were greatly ineffective. In the end, the moon elves could only helplessly use their mages to support them.

On the first night, in only a single night, the elves were forced to use their mages and mana batteries. Numerous fireballs exploded on the city walls. Countless blizzards AOE'd the demons into oblivion. In just a single night's bitter battle, elves used up more than 20% of the elven mage towers' mana storage!

This wasn't because the elves were forced to the brink already. This only meant that their typical fighting forces were far too ineffective against the demons' cannon fodder. The endless amount of demons in the first demon wave forced the elves into a battle of attrition, the worst situation possible.

Right now, the area between the first and second city wall was filled with wailing and pitiful scenes.

Injured elven soldiers were constantly being carried down on stretchers from the first outermost city wall. Those who had lost a hand or foot were already lucky to have survived. Elven healers were doing their very best to prevent the seriously injured from dying. Blood, sweat, and sulfur mixed their stenches together everywhere. The smell was disgusting to the point of elves wanting to vomit. However, at this time, even the formerly most clean freak Superior Elves no longer had the time to be disgusted by this.

Elven Empress Afina watched all of this with eyes filled with pity and sadness. Her main retainers around her also remained silent.

None of them had thought that the first city wall would almost have been lost in only a single night. Back when the moon elves designed the Moonwheel Capital, they had thought of some human mega empire as the hypothetical enemy, and designed their first city wall to be one of the sturdiest in order to buy enough time to wait for other elves' reinforcements. Yet, the first city wall seemed so flimsy in front of the demon wave.

The thunder defense magic formations on the city wall… The energy for these defense spells had been entirely used up already.

The several hundred year old magical vines that were supposed to strangle all invaders to death… The demons had finished devouring all the vines.

The powerful elven mage towers and ranger squadron that could provide ranged attack support… They had used up too much mana and arrows, and needed to stop to rest and resupply.

The war treants planted next to the city wall… The demons indicated that they were quite open to having the occasional vegetarian meal.

The elven earth mages' continuous repairing of the city wall… Their repairing speed couldn't keep up with the demons' destructive speed. Quite a few earth mages had already been forced to retreat after using up all their mana.

Aerial support from the horned eagles, giant eagles, and pegasus knights… In front of all the countless demon cannon fodder, they were no different from ground forces. Some demon war slave would even occasionally jump high up into the air and kill two aerial troops by self-destructing.

Even the best-designed defense spell or mechanism would have its limits. The demons didn't even need to think of ideas on how to break past any defenses. A vast amount of cannon fodder was more than sufficient for autoattacking past everything. The elves of this generation finally understood why their own ancestors had always stated that the first demon wave was undefeatable.