14 Lieutenant Belvath

It was obvious that Belvath wanted me to attack first.

Thanks to central, I learned that Trirron's lieutenants tend to be smarter and stronger than most demons. Staff Sergeants are usually the ones to do the grunt work while lieutenants strategize the assaults. It would be wrong to say that the demons were a savage, belligerent, and unintelligent race. Contrary to popular perception, demons in Yggdrasil were intelligent enough to know what is right and wrong. However, demons that joined Trirron's army were the typical low-lives that any developed society would have. We also have to consider the fact that Trirron has the creator ability so not all of the demons in his army are Yggdrasil residents. Technically speaking, as long as Trirron is alive, his army will keep expanding until he reaches his goal of world domination. This would put a hinder on my relaxed lifestyle in this world since I can't make money if everyone is dead. Thus, if I can take out this subjugation army, I can buy myself more time to relax before his next assault.

Before we arrived at Ringdrex's camp, I bought a basic Telepathy skill from the OP store for around 5 points. My balance was now 2 points but it seemed like a good purchase. Unfortunately, since it is a basic skill, I can only communicate with one person at a time. At higher levels, I could talk to as many as 7 people at once! Since I was a sucker for strategy games, I knew that it was needed in order to direct troops effectively. Wars are won based on how many intelligent decisions you make. Thus, the one who is smarter with their troops will usually win.

Using Telepathy, I gave the following orders to each of my companions:

Shobe and Daera will take the army to the left of us, which seemed to be around half of the subjugation troops. With Daera's Bow and Shobe's magic, they should be able to handle themselves. This is what Shobe wanted anyway since the elves worship her daily. He'll probably do everything he can to protect her so I shouldn't have to worry.

Arcana and Titan will take the army to the right of us, which was the other half of the army. Arcana and Titan are exceptionally strong so the faster they can take out half of their army, the better. If we can cut their troops in half before they are able to regroup, we can get a sizeable advantage.

I would take on the two demons in front of us and join either group once I was finished. The quicker I can take out their leader, the easier it will be for everyone. This also made sense since I had the highest survivability amongst all of us.

With these battle plans formed, I was now 10 meters in front of the lieutenant and Seargent. I switched to my regular Paladin armor by quick selection and took out the custom dragon sword that I received from the mercenary. I decided that a monologue wasn't needed so I made the first move.

As soon as I had cast protection magic over my allies, the battle had started!

Arcana and Titan were the first to split from the group, proceeding to attack the troops to our right. Arcana began to use her Draconic blades to slice through enemies while Titan used a mix of void magic and physical attacks to reduce the army. Daera and Shobe were ranged attackers so they casually took out the enemies as they tried to attack them. Daera was a hunting Goddess so she was also skilled at using a custom dagger made by the Gods. This became important when ranged attacks were not doing enough damage to the thick-skinned troops. They reduced the enemy numbers with moderate ease compared to the massacre that Titan and Arcana were creating. The protection magic I had cast on them wasn't unbreakable but it was good enough for the strong companions that I had. They didn't need a beefy protection spell if they are strong already!

Belvath and "Q" had yet to attack for some reason, as they watched me closely. I decided to attack first, albeit reluctantly. I summoned holy swords and shot them at the two demons. They dodged the attack and began lunging towards me!

"What's going on Paladin? Not fast enough?!" he said, as he dashed towards me.

According to Central, Belvath was a dual-sword wielder who was known for his ruthless efficiency. No matter the enemy he faces, he always aims for the head. I was sure to protect that first.

As his first sword met my shield, his other sword came from above. I used the draconic blade to parry the blade, attempting to freeze it with ice magic. The magic seemed to be nullified.

"You like that paladin? My blades can nullify any magic you throw at me!" he said, as we had an additional 10 parries before jumping back.

My defense was good but his offense was great. I decided that it was time to use autopilot to help me out. I wanted to see if I could take on Belvath with the skills I learned from Central but I was still inexperienced in the way of combat. As Central executes autopilot more, I'm sure I can pick up habits from his guidance. As I turned on autopilot, I noticed that "Q" was not attacking. As I looked for him, I saw that he was summoning something with an orange and red magic circle.

"Belvath. Enlighten me. What are you summoning?" I said, taking a defensive stance.

"You want to know that bad? You won't have to Paladin. It has already arrived!" he said, as he smiled sadistically.

Coming out of the summoning circle was something I wasn't expecting.

Belvath had summoned 2 juggernaut level demons, who were basically heavily armored tanks with high resistance and brutal combat tendencies.

One was level 250.

The other was level 1000.

"Enjoy my friends here. I have to take my leave earlier than expected so we will finish this later Paladin Brice. I'm afraid we did not factor in your additional companions..." he said, as he looked at Arcana, Titan, and Shobe.

He sheathed his dual-blades and instantly teleported with...void magic? How was that possible? I pondered this as "Q" grew his wings and hovered in the air. He said some type of monologue but didn't seem important enough to listen to. I did overhear his muttering when he began to fly.

"Shit! I didn't bring enough troops! Those dame scouts! How do you forget about the bloody Dragon Queen!" Q began muttering to himself, as he flew away.

As he flew away, the other four members of my party began walking towards me. I wasn't surprised that they finished so quickly. It only took around 10 minutes for them to defeat all the hostiles thanks to my strategy. I mean, it's a Dragon Queen, a Calamity Lion, and a Goddess Of The Hunt that are fighting. However, they could still recognize the juggernauts in front of us were an issue to deal with.

"What a pain. This is gonna take a while" Arcana said, sighing.

"Yeah. We still didn't eat breakfast yet so I was hoping we would be done earlier. I could eat a fire snake right now" Daera said, rubbing her stomach.

As our party began to regroup, the juggernauts began walking over to us. Their movement was as slow as you would expect but their strength was something I've never seen before. The killing intent that Central sensed was also 7x higher than average. It was clear that I could actually die if I made the wrong choice while fighting these two. Thus, I made an important choice that any true leader would make in this situation.

I decided it was time to use Dominator.

Despite the consequences that Central told me in secret...