55 HUMANS AND TRICKERY

"You cocky woman! So you are the leader huh? Do you think you'll get away with this?"

The elf commander's horrid voice echoed, everyone who saw this was stopped in their tracks, however, the queen didn't falter.

Driven to the corner the elf-commander who saw his underlings eliminated, manifested a large unholy sword spell, and it looked more corrupt and bloody, showing how many lives has it taken so far, as it manifested a blood-colored thunder roared around it, showing the great strength it possessed.

"You'll pay for this! But don't worry hihi! For this humiliation I will make sure to keep you alive and torture you every day!" He made a hysterical laugh, his chants were complete and he only needed to launch his spell on his target, instead of the green men who can only do little damage to his mutated body, he aimed it towards Michaela who dared to walk casually to him.

"True to your colors to the end huh?" Michaella drew her blade, and swung it to her right, it was a golden longsword, flames enveloped it swirling around the sword, with this Michaela started her chant.

[By the authority I was given, the seat of the righteous, I, the queen of my homeland, vanquish thy wicked enemies that dares to harm my people, manifest yourself]

"Hellfire Wave!" the flame that engulfed the sword became larger and flames moved as if it was alive, she let go of it and it and it floated at her right side, it became as big as the corrupted sword the elf-commander has, but she wasn't done yet.

[ And with this righteousness, Oh, spirits of cold, the time has come to show us your wrath! I command thee to freeze my enemies!]

"Ice Wrath!" from her left hand, manifested ice in the shape of a sword which became larger and larger, it broke into pieces and the pieces themselves became large.

Michaela was often being called as the witch queen, being blessed with such talents in magic. This power made her able to quell skirmishes between nobles within her kingdom, or any attempt for a coup especially those who did not approve of a queen reigning over the kingdom.

Her immense power that could control both ice and fire elements which was already very rare in the continent, the two elements didn't go along with each other but it still gave her blessing to use them together, but this power was still limited and comes with a cost, the more power she releases the faster her mana gets depleted, which puts her at risk, this was the limits of being a human, the more she uses it, the more she's risking herself to perish. However, with Andrei's inventions wiping out most of the enemies, she didn't hesitate to use it this time.

With the manifestation of two elements, the elf commander started to become confused. "Two elements? Really? Do these puny humans have the ability to do something like that? It shouldn't be possible! If someone has the ability to do it it would be-" his train of thought was stopped as another set of projectiles shot him at the back, which had little effect, but still, it riddled his body with small holes that blood came oozing from it.

"This is not the time to think! This human body is fragile, even if it's mutating to my body it's still incomplete. I should finish this and heal these wounds!" It was obvious to him which target he should aim at, he had his black curtain that absorbs magic, and in front of him was the leader of the humans that dared to attack him, "Even if she has two elements, with my magic nullification, she is an easy target HAHA! The leaders' head is mine!" He thought to himself proudly as he licked his own lips.

"HAHA no matter how much you struggle, your magic is just simply-" before he could finish talking, Michaela already launched a barrage of ice to him, as he saw this he immediately wrapped himself with the black curtain which broke the ice into small bits of dust, then Michaela followed it with her fire sword which roared like a phoenix, as if it gained wings it dived into him, with the fire clashing with the ice pieces it created a large steam explosion and produced fog.

"Do you think I didn't know about your magic before charging? What a clown," her voice echoed behind the fog.

But the bloody sword at the top of the elf commander didn't disappear. He was behind the dark curtain, the elf commander was still alive, angry that he wasn't able to finish his sentence he launched his spell.

"You should learn to listen if someone's talking! Take the head of my enemy! Corrupted Sword!"

The sword pierced through the fog, but it didn't find anyone, so it continued floating.

"Damnit! Where did you go! Weren't you gonna punish me huh? You filthy human beings!" he looked around still covered in fog.

"Tch.. " he swung around his greatsword which cleared the fog, but Michaela wasn't there anymore. However the green soldiers still kept shooting at him with projectiles that it was starting to weaken him.

"These bugs, huh? Maybe I should take them out first" realizing that the range wasn't enough for him to hit them with the sword floating above his head, he moved his foot forward which stepped into a brown cloth.

[Click]

"Huh?" After he removed his foot, a sudden explosion happened and splinters riddled his body with more holes than he can ever imagine, the force knocked out his balance and he fell to the ground. "What the…" he heard his ears ringing, he tried to touch his ears but when he lifted his hand up, he hears another similar sound, [Click], realizing what this is, he tried to scream, "STO-" [Boom!] but BC's are tools that exploded when triggered, this time his body was starting to fall apart, his arm was severed and dropped into the side, the sword that he controlled above his head had disappeared because of his shock.

During the fog, while the elf-commander was focused on the queen, the demolitions squads placed as many BC's around him as possible, with their careful hands they were able to place them successfully without being found, and luckily they just go out in time before the fog have been fanned out by the large sword the elf-commander was holding.

"FUCCCCCCCK!!!! STOP THIS!!!" He tried to get the severed arm but when he lifted it, [Click] [Boom!] his body wasn't able to take it, parts of him came flying everywhere, and his head rolled over to one of the green men shooting projectiles at him.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," his severed head still spoke, the green man crawled back in fear, "AHHHH THE HEAD SPOKE!" The elf commander could barely hear it with the ringing on his ears, but he heard another voice, it was the voice of a girl calming panicking soldier.

"Stop it panicking, it's still alive," it was a girl that wore silver, under a green robe. "So the green men are her underlings huh?" he thought, looking at the color of her robe, "I will look at your face and send this image to the high priest!"

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"So this is your trick huh?" The head spoke again angry, "Our magic is much more advanced! This is impossible! Didn't you have an alliance with Muselphiem? Even still our kind is able to block their magic! What did you do! TELL ME!"

Claire looked at it plainly, remembering the atrocities they did the children, her eyes instantly turned like dead fish, she looked like she was staring at something lower than an insect.

"Huh? What the hell are you saying? You monster! We are humans, and you picked a fight with us, you are just reaping what you sowed," she took two pieces of projectiles in Andrei's pocket who was panicking because of the talking head.

"Hey Claire, are you really going to do that? It's gonna leave a bad taste you know," Andrei asked, as he passed on some gunpowder and his flintlock.

"It's fine, at least let me do this, you didn't let me borrow this earlier," she retorted flatly, Claire knew how to use the flintlocks by just watching Andrei from the side, in the first place she was the one who helped Andrei make the prototype.

When she finished loading she aimed it at the talking head.

"Here's a parting gift, take it with your soul," she said calmly, and pulled the trigger.

[Boom!]

The last gunshot echoed, and it was the gunshot that signaled their victory.

Or it was supposed to be.

"Claire… you didn't hit it"

"Ahh, maybe if I shot you it would hit" Claire became irritated, loaded the gun and pointed it on Andrei.

"Stop! Stop! Stop taking out your anger on me, just because you missed after that cool line" Andrei spoke while his hands were on the air to try and stop Claire from shooting him.

"Then let me do it!" Michaela appeared behind Andrei, when Claire saw her she immediately stood up and gave it to her.

Michaela accepted it with one hand and went closer to the severed head who was still looking at her with rage.

"You coward! Running away from that duel! You tricked me!" It was so angry that its eyes were bulging out of the helmet.

"Ohhh? Did I accept a duel? I think I didn't?" Then she placed the gun at the head and pulled the cock, making a clicking sound.

"You… underestimated humans too much, don't you know? Trickery, lies, or emotions we all use them to fight battles, otherwise how would we defeat abnormalities like you and your kin?"

"HAHHGGG??? WHAT ARE YOU-"

[Boom!]

Again, Michaela didn't let him continue speaking, coldly she placed the muzzle at point-blank range and pulled the trigger.

This time the head was hit and its soul crumbled unseen to the human eye, but with this, the coalition forces celebrated after the queen delivered the final blow.

...

The green men who crawled stood up and stretched, the demolition battalion got out of the trees they were hiding from, and the warriors who were finished off those who scattered or were able to escape the minefield were guided by demolition members so that they wouldn't trigger any leftover BC's as they moved forward.

When they were done, it was already night time when they marched inside Mizar. Still, they were cautious, but as they scanned the area they didn't see a single enemy.

Inside Mizar they saw the atrocities that happened, there were almost no humans left except the children inside the cages and the women who were raped on some rooms, seeing this scene all their expressions turned dark.

"There's no way we can forgive this"

"I'm glad I joined this war, this is just unforgivable"

"How dare they do this to my wife!"

But the most affected by this were the Kydus knights, some of them saw their wives again but the shine in their eyes were lost, with the **** and torture that happened to them, and all they could do was cry as they carried them in their arms. But there were also some who found their children among the cages, they gave them a hug and reunited with them.

Seeing this, Michaela felt a throbbing in her heart, however, she knew that they have to act fast.

"We're still not done! Everyone! Get your rations and go back to your posts!" Michaela shouted, the men who were filled with different emotions started working immediately, as they built fortifications on the houses and on strategic points.

Even after miraculously beating fifty thousand with a force of only a third of it, without any deaths, but just minor injuries. All of them knew that another force eastward is already approaching them, the force of sixty-thousand with elf commanders on it, they were nervous, but still, they knew they had to make a stand, after seeing the atrocities with their two eyes.

For Andrei, he knew the true value of occupying the settlement and it was the best are for setting multiple ambush points, especially when they have the advantage of having flintlocks, so he positioned them on roofs, while Geraldine and her battalion placed BC's on ideal locations.

After the long night of defensive preparations, the commanders went inside a rundown house that serves as their forward base, to have a strategic meeting on the next actions, and this time Rara, Mr. and Ms. Savoy and Erneis have recently arrived, catching their breaths with leaves and scratches all over their body.

With everyone was still on their battle gears, they all circled around a table illuminated by a lamp, on it was the map of Kydus. Rara was the one who spoke first.

"We found the escape tunnel. If we go through there we should be able to go inside the palace"

Everyone had a bright expression when they heard the good news, Rara, Erneis and the Savoy's since the start of the battle were tasked to find the escape route that was being used by the Kydus royal family which will take them inside the palace in a short amount of time.

To everyone's ears, this meant that everything was going according to plan.