Transmigrated as a Ghost

Chapter 1176: Chapter 1176 War of Blood and Shadows

After their first scuffle with a squad of the Umbrashnuls, Marcus and his companions did not run into any more trouble along the route to their destination.

It seemed that that first group was the only one that had managed to slip behind the Draayer Empire’s defensive lines.

Within about half a day of travel, they reached the main encampment where the vampires had setup to sight against their hated foes.

’Wars really are different from personal or small-scale battles.’ Marcus thought as he scanned the Draayer Army.

There were massive walls being erected by magic and defensive enchantments being inscribed all over the place.

Thousands of war machines were lined up, and Marcus looked up and saw that there were several dark floating objects in their air that were patrolling the area.

What really drew his attention though, was the massive fortress in the center of the huge chamber.

With only a glance, he could tell that there were hundreds of mana cannons lining the walls. All of them powered by powerful magic furnaces that burned magic cores for fuel.

"This all looks impressive, but its mostly just for show. They won’t be able to kill the Umbrashnuls with their weapons, and almost all battles are decided by the strongest fighters on each side." Quillon commented.

Relia seemed a bit offended by his dismissive attitude for her people’s efforts.

Still, she did not say anything, because deep down, she knew he was right.

Everything being set up here was just a stalling tactic.

Vampires and Umbrashnuls could fight each other to exhaustion, but neither side would really win. That was why a true war had not broken out until now, when both of them had brought outsiders capable of striking down their foes.

"I suppose that we just need to wait now. Until the strongest enemies reveal themselves."

Nodding her head, Relia led Marcus, Roxene, Lyra, and Quillon into the nearby fortress.

There they had rooms prepared for them. Though these were much smaller and utilitarian compared to the fancy suites they had received in the castle.

A couple days went by without any signs of the enemy, but the peace did not last for long.

Soon the bulk of the Umbrashnul army arrived, and the fighting began.

Marcus watched from a viewing platform near the top of the fortress, keeping his eyes peeled for his targets.

There were seventeen Umbrashnuls that he and his companions had been assigned to deal with.

They were the strongest enemies by far, and the ones that gave the Draayer Vampires the most trouble.

As for the others, while they still lacked the means to kill any of the evolved Umbrashnuls, restraining them was possible once the powerful leaders were dealt with.

The empress had spoken about slowly trying to integrate them into her empire, but Marcus saw through her fanciful words.

She would turn the Umbrashnuls into war slaves. Perhaps after enough time had passed and loyalty had been instilled into most of their population, they would start becoming true citizens of the Draayer Empire. Though, that would likely take many years.

It was not something Marcus found to be particularly tasteful.

Regrettably, he was just here to do a job. So that’s what he focused on.

He kept his eyes peeled and his other senses sharp.

In doing so, he saw how absolutely brutal the battle was.

With neither side being able to kill their enemies, they went for the next best thing in viciously tearing each other apart.

Weapons clanged together in a ceaseless cacophony, and explosions rang out from the firing of war machines.

The once pristine chamber was now riddled with giant craters all over and rubble strewn about.

In the center of the battle, Marcus watched as two massive spells suddenly erupted and battled it out.

One was a tidal wave of blood, while the other was a cyclone of shadows.

Both had been conjured by dozens of level forty to fifty mages working together.

It was truly impressive, and each of the spells was around as strong as one of Marcus’ tier eight spells.

Still the fact remained that despite the efforts of so many, they could only produce one attack on a similar level to someone truly powerful.

’And I’ve still got twenty-one levels to go before I make it to the level cap. The peak of power in this world truly is astounding.’ Marcus thought, remembering the clash between the Administrator and the foreign invader.

Both of them had been at the pinnacle of what Mirrion allowed, and even now, he knew he would not be able to stand up against either of them for more than a few seconds if they fought him seriously.

With most of his mind elsewhere, Marcus watched the two spells fight for dominance, until the tidal wave of blood won out.

The vampires had the advantage of several enchanted structures to augment their magic, which proved to be enough advantage to come out on top.

Nevertheless, while all of their preparations did help, things were going as Quillon had said.

Umbrashnuls were washed away and torn apart by the wave of blood, but none of them had died.

They were already pulling themselves together, and more rushed in to take the places of their temporarily fallen allies.

Draayer Vampires were also falling almost every second, and Marcus witnessed many of them pulling themselves back together with strands of blood connecting their separated body parts or bursting into mist and flying back to the fortress to recover.

Watching this really hammered home the futility of the two forces fighting against each other.

Yet, neither side was coming into this war just for it to end in a stalemate.

Eventually, something had to change, and it was the Umbrashnuls that made the first move.

Marcus noticed the signs before it happened.

In one section of the chamber, the Umbrashnuls suddenly started pulling back and giving a wide berth to a section of the Draayer’s defensive line that was currently weakened after relentless attacks.

Normally, it would not make any sense for them to move away when they were winning and could continue to press their advantage.

However, what was about to come would be just as deadly for them as the vampires.

A sudden burst of light erupted in the area, lighting up the mostly dark chamber as if the noon day sun had suddenly arrived.

All at once, hundreds of Draayer Vampires were burned to ash, and thousands more picked up searing wounds that their regeneration could not heal.

It took Marcus only a second to track the attack to a blond-haired woman wearing elaborate silver robes floating towards the top of the chamber near the backlines of the Umbrashnuls.

After enhancing his eyesight a bit and focusing in on her, he saw that she had slightly pointed ears.

Once he used his creature appraisal skill, he found that she was a race called Luminous Half-Elf.

She was level sixty-six, which was decently powerful.

’I’d almost forgotten how useful creature appraisal can be since I’m normally up against higher level opponents it barely works on, or people with items or skills meant to block it.’

To Marcus’s surprise, he had nearly all of the woman’s information laid out before his eyes. The only thing not listed were her Supreme skills or unique skills. If she had any.

From her stats and skills, she was assuredly a pure mage, with a focus on light and lighting magic.

She had both at level seven, which was pretty impressive, and she had some powerful racial abilities that enhanced the potency of both elements.

Marcus almost wanted to try and recruit her.

Her abilities were in line with a lot of his own, and if he gave her a blessing, her already powerful light affinity would become even stronger.

He had not really explored this aspect of his powers much, but after recently giving a blessing to Aerial to power her up, he had become interested in doing so. It would not hurt to have a bunch of powerful subordinates he could call on when necessary.

’This isn’t really the time of place though. She’s on the enemy’s side, and I can’t risk revealing myself prematurely.’ Marcus thought as he slumped back in his chair and continued to watch.

Despite the appearance of a powerful adversary, neither he nor any of his companions still made a move.

Relia had told them that the Empress had already prepared the best non-vampire soldiers in the empire to deal with the mercenaries that the Umbrashnuls had hired.

It was not long before Marcus spotted a team of fourteen individuals flying out of the fortress.

Those with long-range capabilities were already firing at the woman, with the others throwing up defenses as they charged forward.

A new stage of the battle began, and both sides threw themselves at each other even more furiously than before.

Marcus glanced over to his left when he started hearing the rhythmic thumbing of someone’s foot.

Quickly, his eyes landed on Quillon, who had an impatient expression on his face.

It had been nearly a day and a half since the fighting started, and they had still just been forced to watch.

"I feel wrong just sitting here watching." He said once he noticed Marcus’ gaze. "We could be out there making a difference and getting this over with already."

"I agree, but this is the role that we’ve been given. Our debt holder told us to remain hidden until the time is right. She wants the Umbrashnuls to have to expose their cards first."

Waiting around really was not any of their styles, but they could not act on their own here. That would throw everything into chaos.

Fortunately, it was only a couple more hours before their first target arrived.

The presence of a truly powerful Umbrashnul was unmistakable.

All of the shadows seemed to grow in size and depth, and pervasive feeling of fear spread throughout the chamber.

"Finally. I’ll be ta-"

Quillon started to stand up, but before he could, Lyra pulled him back into his seat.

"No, I’ve got this one."

While Lyra might have been better at hiding it, she was just as raring to go as Quillon.