The Crown's Entrapment

Chapter 800 Monsters

Amon did his best to keep Bella out of his mind as he made his way to the meeting spot he agreed upon with the mages of Ebodia. They should be there already, assuming that they were still on schedule with everything.

Still, with nothing else left to do at the moment, he stared out at the vast nothingness that was once the green plains of Helion's south. He read from a few books that the area was once fertile ground, but Devon's actions had all but made that the exact opposite. Even the forest that the monsters were currently using as a hideout looked dead and dried out as the lack of leaves made the dust sweep through the dead trees.

'Is there even a way to revive this area?'

It was a valid answer for both the land's relative state along the towns that once thrived upon it. In fact, Burla wasn't the only town they passed before they arrived here. Some were almost abandoned when they arrived, while others were practically begging for them to take them back to the capital with them. Sure, the capital could keep subsidizing the poorer areas like this with food and resources, but that couldn't last forever, especially since the capital itself wasn't doing too great either.

'We're running low on everything,' he couldn't help but think to himself. 'We need to start somewhere, but food is something that we cannot keep importing.'

It was simply impossible for their reserves to keep paying for imports. Sure, the neighboring kingdoms were currently giving them food and aid for free, but that wouldn't last forever. Years down the line, the kings helping them now would have no choice but to start charging them for food. It was cruel, but economies couldn't run on kindness alone. They had their own kingdoms to take care of, and it wasn't fair for Helion to keep taking advantage of their kindness like this, especially since he was sure that they could stand on their own feet if given enough time.

"Ah, Your Majesty."

Amon quickly nodded as he came face to face with the mages that Ebodia had lent him for this expedition. They weren't much, but they were more than enough for the job.

"Greetings," Amon greeted them from his horse. "I assume you all know what's about to happen here?"

"King Ezekiel has told us that we're here to kill monsters," one of them, probably their caption, stiffly nodded. "We are to answer to your command, but only until after our job is complete. Then, we are to return to Ebodia."

"That's fair," Amon hummed in affirmation. "I hope you're all ready. We'll be charging the forest as soon as we're all ready."

"Of course!"

With that conversation over, Amon got down from his horse as he readied himself for the battle ahead. In truth, he really didn't think that he had to think too hard for this battle. The monsters here looked uncoordinated, which meant that they simply had to cut off their escape for them to start panicking and be ripe for the slaughter.

"Have the men surround the forest," Amon commanded some of the men that came with him. "Make sure to have some distance away from the nearest tree."

"Right away, Your Majesty!"

He simply watched as his men quickly scattered to surround the forest, all of them taking up positions just shy of entering the forest itself. He had a feeling he wouldn't even need them to enter the forest anyway, but having them ready to cut down all who would try to escape was still much safer than just relying that the mages would hit everyone.

"What would you have us do, Your Majesty?"

Amon turned his attention to the captain of the Ebodian mages. With a nonchalant blink, he spoke, "Once I give the signal, you will have your mages utterly destroy the forest in front of us. Use the widest and most damaging spells that you have. Obliterate the place."

"I see," the captain nodded, quickly understanding what he wanted to be done. "It shall be done on your order."

Amon nodded in approval before he turned his attention back to what would soon be a crater in the middle of the field. It might sound like overkill, but it was the safest and fastest way to get rid of all the monsters still terrorizing this area. Nothing of much value would be lost anyway. The trees were all dried husks incapable of being turned into lumber, and the land itself was all but incapable of supporting life unless something new happened.

"On my command," Amon warned his men, the mages behind him already charging up their spells. "Aim!"

His gaze went solely to what laid within the forest. He was sure that there would be a slaughter. Only, it was only monsters that had to die for the kingdom to progress.

"Fire!"

A beat passed as his command echoed through the dry air. Before long, however, the sound of explosions quickly reverberated throughout the area as the mages began their bombardment of the monster-filled forest. For a full minute, the mages unloaded their most powerful spells on the monster army, and they were promptly rewarded with inhuman screams of pain and agony as the charred and burning monsters began trying to escape the besieged forest.

"Don't let any one of them escape!" Amon bellowed, his own fists at the ready as he prepared to defend the mages behind him. "If even one of them slips past, immediately warn us so that the reserves can give chase!"

With his order given, Amon focused his attention on the few monsters that were now making their way to him. Clearly, some of them were smart enough to know where the explosions were coming from. Unfortunately, they weren't smart enough to know that he was practically the most dangerous thing on the battlefield at that moment.

Amon raised his fists as he began punching one burning monster after the other, their flames doing nothing to him as he tore apart all that even dared to hurt Ebodia's mages. On top of them being too important, he couldn't afford to have any one of them killed, thus growing Helion's debt to Ebodia even bigger than it already was.

Ripping and tearing through the monsters, Amon almost felt like nothing was happening at how easily things were going. True to his calculations, the monsters were not coordinated enough to mount an actual counterattack. All they could do was flail against them in hopes that they could kill at least one of them. Unfortunately, they were all prepared, and a few burning monsters were far from capable of piercing through their perimeter.

Minutes passed, and Amon started getting bored as the number of monsters that escaped slowly dwindled down to the single digits. His men hadn't informed him of any monster that managed to slip past their defenses, so he could only assume that they had had most of them already. At this point, it would be a waste of manpower to have the mages bombard the forest down to ashes, if it wasn't already at that point anyway.

"Alright, you all can stop now," he told the mages. "Standby and look for stragglers until said otherwise."

"It shall be done, Your Majesty."

With the captain saluting him, the magical bombardment that once filled the air with explosions finally settled as Amon went up to the forest to survey the damage. Sure enough, what was once a wall of trees was practically nothing more than ash now as the entire area was leveled into oblivion. The charred remains that filled the ground were a sight to behold as he watched the wind all but disintegrate them into dust. If anything, the crater that was once the forest would make for a good lake, one that could possibly bring some life back to this place assuming that the weather would be able to sustain one in the first place.

"It's over," he called out. "Good work everyone!"

With those words, all of the soldiers with him began to relax as they all slowly made their way back to their positions with the caravan. Likewise, the Ebodian mages all fell in line with their captain once more, the man himself giving Amon an approving nod.

"That went far smoother than expected," the captain complimented him. "Excellent work, Your Majesty."

"And excellent work to you and your men as well," Amon nodded back. "Tell King Ezekiel that I appreciate the support given to me for this battle. I shall try to repay my debts to him once I'm able to."

"Acknowledged," the captain firmly saluted. "If there is nothing else, we shall be off then."

Amon opened his mouth to speak, only for him to stop himself before letting the mages go. Seeing the gigantic crater that was once the forest really gave him the idea of making it a lake, and perhaps mages would be able to fill it up with enough water to support life in the area again. However, asking of such things to mages that just all but expended their energy bombarding the area was just insensitive.

No, if he wanted help with this, he would need to make another request with Ebodia, and he was pretty sure that Bella would help him with this one as well.