258 Adapted strategies
A month passed in the blink of an eye, time passing almost unnoticed by everyone who was busy recovering from Doravon’s attempted invasion and preparing for the next.
Many lives were lost and the order and church could not easily replace them. Even if they did, it was clear that just sending hundreds of mages to the different strongholds wasn’t enough to resist even the simplest of enemies, so they would need a new plan to face them.
Some suggested simple ideas, like just increasing the number of barriers or increasing the number of mages, as demihumans were incapable of attacking from a distance and their only way to attack was physically.
Others would suggest giving out even more magic items or sending out mages and priests with magic items that would allow flight to cast magic beyond the reach of demihumans.
One of the ideas that the order decided to implement was to face the demihumans before they reached the mainland, when they were in the middle of the sea and unable to fight back.
If the mages attacked the demihuman ships from the air while the ships were halfway between the nearest island and the mainland, the evolved demihumans would have nowhere to swim and would be at the mercy of the mages.
Even if the evolved demihumans tried to defend themselves using aura abilities, the mages would just need to keep raining magic down on them until they destroyed them.
There was a limit to the range of aura abilities and even if the small evolved goblins tried to teleport to reach it, the mages would only have to be aware and dodge the initial blow and the goblins would fall helplessly.
Various ideas and plans emerged in both organizations and the realms realized the danger that the evolved demihumans represented and the fact that they would be powerless if they had to fend for themselves.
.....
The armies that participated in the battle were slaughtered and even the court mages were unable to display a destructive power equal to the order mages or church priests.
Court mages were unable to use large-scale spells of different elements like order mages and lacked light spells developed like church, so their spells paled in comparison.
Furthermore, the difference in power between their magic items and wands was also like heaven and earth. Not only was the technique used by the order and church far superior to the three realms, they also had much more diverse resources, so their magic items had more diverse enchantments.
The magic items created by the order were made specifically for mages of certain elements or for specific situations, while the kingdoms only had generic items for the most part, only the leaders of their respective armies had custom-made items and even those would not be as good.
It also didn’t help that most of his army was made up of ordinary people, most of them incapable of fighting ordinary monsters, let alone evolved demi-humans capable of knocking down a great wall with a single blow.
All kingdoms accepted that they would be unable to fend for themselves and decided to fully cooperate with the order and the church. Until the invasion battle, they still tried to impose themselves so as not to leave all authority to the order and church.
After the battles, however, they completely gave up any attempt at resistance and actively cooperated.
On the Adula continent, the war was intensifying, forcing both empires to concentrate most of their resources on their borders. Despite this, the Fae alliance was managing to recover its lost territory little by little in extremely violent battles.
Their mixed armies of beastmen and elves possessed physical and magical power, as well as being equipped with weapons and magical items created by the dwarves, their technology on par with the Makima empire.
Beastmen were physically superior while elves were magically superior to humans of the same level. The Makima empire had several powerful champions and mages, some Canan’s direct subordinates reaching even the power of a demigod, but the elders of the Fae alliance also had their own demigod champions.
There was no God on the Setlan continent, but there were more than four demigods from different races in the Fae alliance. The fights between demigods were enough to cause destruction capable of changing the surrounding environment and forcing the empires and the alliance to redraw their maps, but most of the battles ended in favor of the alliance.
Normally, both empires would fight together or invade the south and north at the same time, forcing the Fae alliance to split their efforts or sacrifice a battle to successfully defend themselves, but all of the Caria empire’s war efforts were focused on undead invade.
The undead attacked with unprecedented violence and numbers, forcing the legions of angels to camp in coastal cities and different frontiers of the Carian empire.
Tens of thousands of different species of undead attacked almost daily, engaging in bloody battles with the angels and holy warriors of the empire.
The angels had the aerial advantage over the undead and could use holy magic which were the weakness of the undead, but the battle was still extremely close.
Several of the undead had racial abilities of their original species and those obtained after becoming undead, their multiple abilities balancing the game.
Unlike angels who had an attack pattern using their racial abilities and holy magic, the undead had unique abilities, making their movements difficult to predict in large-scale battles.
There were thousands killed in both armies every battle, but the battles continued everyday as if both armies were endless.
The Caria empire had selected priests and warriors for millennia and raised them to angels, making them immortal over time and adding them to its legion.
Kalesi had done the same, offering mages and warriors the opportunity to become undead, but unlike Eishin, she had done so across an entire continent millennia ago, so her legion had already numbered into the millions of undead.
The entire world was going to war, making every God or ancient being remember the time after the era of chaos when all species went to war.
**************
On the continent Caprio, on the border between the desert and the savannas at the same time.
As the whole world went to war and prepared in case of a new all-out world war, the black skeletons were also preparing in their own way, albeit on a much smaller scale.
The dwarf skeletons had finished building all three walls, the skeletons’ number one priority and the best defensive measure the undead would have after most of the undead army left.
The foundations of the fortress were also ready and the skeletons were building the first floor and pillars of the fortress. Even if the fortress was only made of stone bricks created by the earth mages themselves and strengthened by the dwarves, they would still take time to finish.
Thanks to the effects of earth magic and stone being strengthened and partially fused by the dwarves’ skills, the fortress would withstand even if it was mediocrely done, but the goal was not just to maintain the fortress, but to make it as sturdy as possible in case of attacks.
Furthermore, the dwarves and human runesmiths also began to enchant the walls, starting with the innermost wall.
The skeletons that were monsters or not fit for work didn’t stop during that time and split into several groups to hunt, making the region around the fortress completely empty for tens of kilometers and expanding further
Their numbers increased by a few thousand, but they were mostly weak monsters or monsters that relied on numbers to survive, so the army’s overall power didn’t increase that much.
All monsters that were even slightly intelligent or had instincts had already left their territories behind and fled as far away as they could.
The hive hawks were also busy creating the storm cloud with the help of the water and wind mages, the size of the cloud reaching almost 5 kilometers in length.
It was possible to increase their size even more, but the limited number of hive hawks made it impossible to control the clouds if they grew even more than that.
Skeleton mages with an affinity for water also had to control the weather and make sure it didn’t rain on the fortress under construction while the wind mages electrically charged the clouds.
Athos was also busy in the meantime, not only with his training, but also doing some experiments that he intended to do since when they were in the platinum fist fortress.
Neither his personal laboratory nor the general laboratory that would be built for the other mages was ready, so he spent his time on experiments that he could do outdoors and would not require magical resources.
His experiments mainly revolved around the bone abominations, which have been neglected until now. Athos was training them and trying to teach them skills and magic, discovering that the abominations had an affinity for darkness and had a talent for magic just like human skeletons.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com