Inside Dragon’s Roar Valley, on the steep cliffs flanking the pass, numerous winding and twisting mountain paths had been carved out.
The endless howling gale poured through the narrow valley mouth, producing a continuous shrill “dragon roar.”
This natural turbulent airflow was enough to block flight units of insufficient strength, while the guards stationed high on the mountain paths could form lethal fire suppression on the only passage below. It was a simple yet practical defensive design.
In a relatively wide section of the mountain path, Lorenzo was carefully inserting a slender silver needle into Alama’s exposed arm.
When the needle tip was withdrawn, it brought out a trace of blood.
He proficiently cast several detection spells. A faint magical glow flickered on the blood sample for a moment before extinguishing.
“Fortunately, the blood poison’s erosion isn’t too deep. It’s completely cleared now.” Lorenzo packed away his tools, though his tone wasn’t relaxed. “But… your current physical condition…”
“I know my own body best.” Alama said as he rose from the chair.
His complexion was an unnatural pallor. At first glance, it even had a strange resemblance to those vampires. This was one of the lingering effects of the blood poison.
Lorenzo hesitated for a moment, but still asked the words he had been holding back for a long time: “Really… not considering my suggestion to withdraw to Oath City first?”
Alama walked slowly to the edge of the mountain path and placed his hand on the rough wooden railing, looking down at the soldiers below who were still busy with fortification work. “Abandon these subordinates who have followed me through countless battles and flee over the mountains like a coward? That kind of behavior is generally called desertion in the face of the enemy.”
Being called a deserter didn’t anger Lorenzo. He continued: “But with your current state, plus the army’s current state, we simply can’t hold. The demon troll troops have already arrived. At latest in two days, the pass will be breached. If both of us die here, the United Kingdom… will truly have no hope left.”
“Running commanders, even if they survive, can’t rally hearts again. Next time they’ll lose even more miserably. Dragging one more day here might give Airaven a sliver of chance over there…”
Lorenzo’s proposal was to take all warriors at gold tier or above and climb over the mountains to escape.
But if Alama wanted to flee, he wouldn’t have retreated into Dragon’s Roar Valley in the first place. He wanted to use his life to slow Sigmund’s pace and buy a few more days for the Sword Saint’s recovery in Three Mountains City—even if those extra days might ultimately be meaningless.
Seeing this, Lorenzo let out a heavy sigh, like a deflated ball, and sat down on a nearby flat stone, no longer persuading.
Alama glanced at him. “You’re not leaving?”
This sentence directly made Lorenzo laugh in anger. “Leave? You said it’s over either way. Why should I leave?! Alama, you old bastard! Usually looking so reckless and impulsive, but at death’s door you get clever. Planning to step on my back to build your posthumous reputation? Dream on!”
Alama looked at this old partner who had spent decades finding ways to procure supplies for him, never letting Highfort Citadel fall into shortage. On that habitually stern and rigid face, a rare genuine smile actually tugged at the corners of his mouth.
He then turned his gaze back to the direction where the demon army was assembling outside the valley, somewhat puzzled as he muttered to himself: “Shouting all that and still not attacking… what trick is Sigmund playing this time?”
…
Outside Dragon’s Roar Valley.
At this moment, scarlet light glowed in Sigmund’s eyes as he shared vision with a bat familiar high in the sky, personally observing the strange army from the report.
It was indeed too strange.
A large number of storm elemental spirits had left the elemental chaos zone and were heading this way.
Behind them were thousands of human soldiers and a vast sea of unknown numbers of Puchi.
The Puchi were one thing. Although Sigmund’s front hadn’t encountered them, shared intelligence mentioned the human new profession “Puchi Handler.”
These Puchi looked numerous, but in fact, they were not to be feared. With roughly equal numbers, his army could crush them.
The real problem was…
“When did humans have the means to control storm elemental spirits?”
If it was just controlling a single elemental spirit, that wasn’t difficult. The demon side also had mages who could do it.
But thousands of storm elemental spirits… was this bringing all the elemental spirits from that area over?
For now, it wasn’t clear who was controlling them.
Moreover, although this army didn’t have high human numbers, at a time like this, humans being able to assemble such a relief force was indeed somewhat beyond Sigmund’s expectations.
Who would the commander be?
“Hey,” a voice untimely popped up in his mind, “how about it? Confident in winning?”
Facing his roommate’s daily “concern,” Sigmund casually brushed it off. “Mere rabble.”
“Oh… mere rabble, huh…”
As usual, the roommate fell silent after asking.
After personally confirming the composition of the incoming army, Sigmund immediately began deploying.
He first ordered Velariss to lead her forces to firmly hold the valley mouth, preventing Alama from breaking out to cause trouble. Then he swiftly issued a series of commands, skillfully unfolding the main army’s formation lines, preparing to meet this overconfident force.
The key to guard against was naturally those storm elemental spirits.
Enemies with extremely strong resistance to physical attacks, once they formed a scale, would be extremely tricky.
Fortunately, he commanded a fully equipped army and was not short of spellcaster units.
Moreover, those elemental spirits had clearly weakened after leaving the chaos zone. Their winds sluggish, lightning subdued. How much combat power they retained was hard to say.
Therefore, although it felt troublesome, it was merely troublesome.
When that allied army finally appeared on the horizon, regardless of combat strength, the visual impact of the storm elementals with flashing lightning and the vast white sea of Puchi was truly not weak. Quite a few demon soldiers subconsciously swallowed saliva and gripped their weapons tighter.
The two armies faced off. Sigmund was about to send vanguard to probe when the seemingly weaker side took the initiative!
From the center of the army encircled layer upon layer by storm elementals, an orange-yellow light ball suddenly shot out, slicing through the night sky. It crossed the empty space between the two armies and only lost momentum when it reached above the demon array, swaying and falling downward.
“Illumination spell?” Sigmund stared suspiciously at the light ball, puzzled.
Even for battlefield lighting, at least a fourth-tier Daybreak spell was needed. What visibility could one illumination spell provide?
Just as he was puzzled, the rumbling of wind and thunder from the opposite side suddenly intensified!
The gale surged, lightning overflowed. The storm elemental spirits on the opposite side suddenly shed their lethargy, like they had activated berserk, swarming toward them in a hive!
No time for surprise. Sigmund issued the order almost immediately: “Pass the command! Third and Fourth Brigades advance! All mage formations prepare support!”
(End of Chapter)
