The Author's POV

The sun started to set, and darkness slowly enveloped the land. A cold breeze brushed through the forest; the paper-like sound of the leaves fluttering sounded across the area.

The scene was rather tranquil, but everyone standing on top of the northern tower, knew that this was the calm before the storm.

Rustle—!

Soon, the silence was broken by the rustling sounds of the vegetation in the distance.

Stationed at the middle levels of the tower, I gazed into the distance. There were many black creatures in the distant forest, approaching our direction. Some were flying, whilst others weren't.

The atmosphere was heavy, and everyone on the middle level of the tower started to take out their weapons, as they quickly got back to their post, readying themselves for the upcoming battle.

"It's time we also get ready."

With the aid of my sword, I slowly stood up. Facing Ava, Leopold and Hein, I looked back towards the forest before muttering.

"This is going to be a long battle."

***

"You two follow me an' dinna touch anything."

Following the dwarf from before deep into the tower, Ryan and Smallsnake soon found themselves inside of what seemed to be the control room of the tower.

The layout of the place was quite simplistic, as the room was about the size of a normal living room. Around ten dwarves or so hurriedly paced around the room, looking through different holographic images, depicting different angles of the tower where the demons could be seen.

In the middle of the room was a large map filled with numerous dots; presumingly depicting the demons that were approaching.

Their number was quite large. Large enough to make Smallsnake gasp in shock.

On the other hand, staring at the room starstruck, Ryan couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Wow."

Running towards the map in the room, Ryan waved his hand over the map. His small hand passed through the holographic image.

"This looks so cool, how does it work?"

"Ryan, calm down."

Smallsnake hurriedly went to stop him.

However, their disturbance did not go unnoticed as an older looking dwarf pointed in their direction and shouted.

"Oy, who let tha two o' them in? An' what be a child doing here?"

"It's me."

The dwarf that led Ryan and Smallsnake in, raised his hand.

"Sir Bamus, I did this under the orders of Sir Orimdus."

"Orimdus? Tsk."

The older looking dwarf, Bamus, clicked his tongue.

"What be that guy thinking? Has he lost his mind?"

"He said ta let them help out with tha miscellaneous stuff. Their combat power be fairly low, an' they may end up being more useful than ye can imagine.

Bamus rolled his eyes.

Although he was the person in charge of the logistics in the northern tower, at the end of the day, Orimdus was the one in charge of the whole northern area.

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He had to follow his orders.

"Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you, sir."

The dwarf gratefully looked at Bamus.

Although Bamus was ill-tempered, he was not someone who would refuse a helping hand. Furthermore, he really needed someone to help him out.

Though he wasn't really sure about the ability of the two humans before him, the tasks he was about to give them wasn't too hard.

"You two follow me."

Following Bamus, Smallsnake and Ryan stopped in front of a large wooden desk. Atop the wooden desk was a similar map to that in the middle of the room; the only difference was that it was much smaller.

"I won't give ye guys a hard task, ye see over here?"

Bamus pointed at the map. More specifically the red dots around the map.

"This device over be a simplified version o' tha map in tha middle o' tha room, an' it gives us an overall outlook o' tha battlefield."

Tapping on a specific area of the map, a small square appeared on the map displaying the current situation of the area.

"Wooow!"

This startled both Ryan and Smallsnake who looked at it with amazement.

Staring at the two, Bamus's voice filled with pride.

"Your task be simple. What ye guys need ta do be report ta me every couple o' minutes how many demons be approaching from tha different sides o' tha tower. Ye guys can do that, right?"

Tilting his head, Smallsnake asked.

"We can, but why cant the device count it?"

Since their devices showed the dots on the screen, couldn't they have a system that directly counted them?

Fully expecting the answer, Bamus answered.

"The main device can, but we do this just in case tha artifacts miscalculates some o' tha data. After all, some o' tha demons cou' be using some special techniques that avoid tha detection o' tha device. Sometimes, a discerning eye be better than a machine."

"...So that's why."

Ryan turned his attention back towards the maps.

He then tilted his head and mumbled something to himself.

Crossing his arms, Bamus stroked his beard before turning around.

"Good, then I'll leave you two to—"

"134 left, 56 right, and 329 from the front."

However, before Bamus could leave, Ryan spoke up.

His eyes darting all over the map.

"H..huh?"

Bamus who was just about to leave almost tripped over. Turning around, he glared.

"What are ye talking about? Are ye joking around?"

Innocently looking at Bamus, Ryan pointed at the map.

"You wanted to know how many demons are coming? Those are the numbers..."

Ryan suddenly stopped. Blinkin a couple of times, he corrected himself.

"Oh wait, it's not 132 left, still 56 on the right, and 324 from the front."

"That's wrong Ryan."

"Huh?"

Smallsnake interjected from the side, startling Ryan.

Leaning forward, Smallsnake tapped on the tower. Soon an image of the place appeared and Smallsnake explained.

"Ryan, you forgot to count the ones that have infiltrated, there's about twenty-two missing from your count."

Lightly smacking Ryan in the head, Smallsnake's head shook in disappointment.

"This is what happens when you're trying to show off. "

"Sorry."

Holding onto the back of his head, Ryan dejectedly lowered his head.

Staring at the due from behind, Bamus was speechless.

"What the."

Turning around and walking towards the main map in the middle of the room, Bamus checked if what they said was correct.

Before long, his mouth opened wide.

"...Ah."

Turning his head and looking towards Ryan who was still being scolded by Smallsnake, Bamus's eyes opened in shock.

What they said perfectly matched what the artifact said.

***

From the looks of it, the enemy did not have any battle strategy prepared—Like a swarm of locusts, the demons charged from above. Demons riding onto huge beasts followed from below.

—Rumble! —Rumble!

The ground shook, and a cloud of dust appeared in the distance.

SHIIIIII—!

The next moment, the elves raised their hands and magic circles soon appeared on the palm of their hands. Before long, spells started raining down from above. Towards the demons in the distance.

Gazing at the scene from behind, I was impressed by the elves firepower.

Unlike typical novels that had elves specializing in archery, I instead designed them to be good at magic rather than archery.

Probably the only different thing that I did in my novel.

Even then, that didn't mean elves were bad at archery, it's just that they were far better magicians due to their affinity with mana.

On a different note, it was quite easy to tell how strong an elf was.

This was measured by the hair color of an elf, with green hair signifying lower affinity with mana, and with silver, which was the hair color that royalty had, signifying the highest amount of affinity with mana.

WHIIIM—!

Suddenly, a tremendous spell appeared in the sky. Lingering in the air for a couple of seconds, it soon fell towards the demons in the distance like a meteor.

BOOOM—!

The ground shook and hundreds of demons died instantly.

Turning my head towards the elf responsible for the attack, I found out that it belonged to the elf that had greeted me before; his hair was a color mix between gold and green.

"Damn."

Even though green haired elves had a low affinity with mana, that didn't mean that they were weak. The low affinity was only with respect to other elves.

Compared to us humans, they were still a notch above.

Xiu—! Xiu—! Xiu—!

On a different note, the elves weren't the only long-distance damage dealers, as the dwarves shot the demons from above with an object that resembled a gun.

Although the things they were holding did somewhat resemble guns, they operated differently as they shot projectiles made out of mana.

They were devastating as each shot equalled the life of a demon.

Turning my attention away from the elf and the dwarves, and gazing below the tower, I found that despite the strong spells and attacks from the dwarves and elves, demons were still managing to infiltrate the place.

They were simply too numerous.

"Uuuaargh!"

Unfortunately for them, to those that infiltrated, the orcs were already waiting for them at the entrance as they quickly pummeled them down.

With their huge bodies, the orcs prevented most of the demons from infiltrating the tower where the weaker dwarves and elves resided.

Because they were so focused on the demons attacking, if a demon infiltrated, they would be left helpless.

BANG—! BANG—!

Explosions rang everywhere signalling that the war was in full swing; with both sides slowly starting to accumulate losses.

"Ren, what are you thinking? Should we help out?"

"...Right."

At Leopold's reminder, I realized that we had still not moved yet.

To be honest, the reason why I did not move yet wasn't because I didn't want to fight, but because I found this situation a bit odd.

Although demons were indeed a species that loved to fight, they weren't stupid either. For them to attack without any strategy was quite odd in itself.

"Ren?"

"Coming, coming."

Well, whatever, the dwarves were probably aware of this already. My job right now was to get rid of as many demons as possible.

I'll leave the thinking to the dwarves for now.

"Step aside."

Walking down towards the lower level, the demons continue to flood in from all areas of the castle.

Their incredible numbers made it hard for the orcs below to full stop them.

Before long, three demons managed to pass through the first line of defense and started rampaging through the inner sides of the castle where the elves and dwarves were left helpless.

Raising one of his sharp claws, one of the demons approached a dwarf near me and screamed.

"Die you vermin"

"Hiiik!"

"Shut up."

—Click!

However, before the demons could do any significant damage, a subtle clicking sound rang out and the head of the demon rolled on the ground.

Apathetically glancing at the dead demon beneath my feet, and ignoring the stares coming from the dwarf that I had just saved, I calmly walked towards where the orcs were.

"Stop."

Just as I was about to pass through the orc defensive line, the orc that screamed at me before, stopped me.

He had evidently not seen me stop the demons that had infiltrated the place.

"What are you doing, human?"

He asked.

A strong scent of blood exuded from his body.

"I'm helping out."

I coldly replied.

Putting his hand on my shoulder, the orc pushed me back.

"Get back human, you'll only be a hindrance, wait what are you..uuek!."

Smiling, I grabbed the orcs hand that was on my shoulder. Squeezing tightly, the orc let out a groan.

"Ukkk!"

"Know your place."

I coldly muttered.

To think that an orc who was not even <C-> rank like me was had the audacity to try and stop me.

He wasn't even one of the strongest people present, yet, because he thought I was weaker than him, he tried to walk over me.

What a delusional orc he was.

Coldly looking at him, I forcefully withheld my impulse to kill him right on the spot and let go of his hand.

"Next time you lay your hand on me, I'll cripple it."

Then, turning my attention towards the demons in the distance, I tied my hair up and unsheathed my sword.

SHIIIIING!

"Hein, Ava, Leopold, cover me."

Glancing at the other's behind me, I shoved some of the orcs to the side and directly entered the battlefield, much to the shock of the orcs and others.

I really wanted to see how long I could last without using the Keiki style.