Chapter 387: The new Recruits Show their Might Part 1

Ivan was standing at the front of the formation as he slowly lead everyone towards the spot in the plains they planned to take up at the start of the territory war. There were only a few minutes before the challenge for the territory could begin so Ivan was getting everyone in position to defend the town. He made sure to bring them towards the edge of the range of the turrets along the wall surrounding the town. This would put the Scavenger's Guild members under fire the moment they charged in. If Ivan's group started getting overwhelmed by the larger enemy group then they could slowly back up forcing more of the enemies into turret range.

They didn't have to worry about their enemies fighting from the edge of the forest since the moment that the territory war would start they would be forced inside of the range of the territory. It would be an all-out fight in an open grasslands so Ivan knew that they would have to be prepared to block several spells that would end up coming from above like a rain of arrows. Ivan and the other tanks out front could block against frontal attacks, but all of their shield walls would be useless against spells that could arch over them like arrows. Luckily Ivan didn't have to think about such things since Henry had already planned for that scenario.

All Ivan needed to focus on was taking on the guild leader of the Scavenger's Guild one on one. He was sure there would be a lot of chaos around them, but he needed to take care of him and it was just the challenge he wanted. Situations like this wouldn't have been possible if he continued to work on his own, but after only a month's worth of time with Joshua and the rest of the members of the Fenrir Guild Ivan was able to grow so much. He was able to get stronger and fight alongside people that had his back in all sorts of situations. It was something he was looking for ever since he became an explorer and now he had finally found it.

These thoughts flooded Ivan's mind for the last few moments before the territory war would be declared, but the moment things got started he focused on the upcoming battle. The challenge to the territory had already been declared beforehand so all Ivan had to wait for was when the Scavenger's Guild would start the war and he could see the timer ticking from the system screen he had pulled up towards the edge of his sight. The seconds were counting down as the enemy guild started filing their way out of the tree line and forming up into their own attack force that began marching towards Ivan's group.

By the time the Scavenger's Guild had reached the edge of the territory the timer had already finished counting down and they were able to march right on into the area. Their guild leader was at the head of the formation walking forward at a fast pace, but not too fast to break up the formation they were coming in with. From what Ivan could tell they were taking up a rather basic formation which Henry had been expecting. They had the tanks out front, close ranged fighter right behind with spear users making the most of the group of people just behind the tanks. The mages and healers were at the back alongside any other long ranged fighters. It was a simple formation, but well-guarded with tanks in proper positions to block any turret fire from a distance.

As the Scavenger's Guild rushed forward and got within range of the turrets Ivan was the first member of the Fenrir Guild to let out a roar as they moved forward to meet the incoming opponents. Now that they were within range to shoot spells at one another large fireballs, spears of ice, and several other types of spells were seen flying through the air towards each group. There were more spells coming towards the Fenrir Guild since their enemies had the larger number, but Ivan ignored all of that and focused on his part in the territory war. The approaching enemy guild leader seemed to focus in on him as well since they were both at the heads of the charging groups and they met in the middle of the battle fields before anyone else.

The initial clash told Ivan right away that he was up against someone with a higher strength stat than his own. He expected this since the guild leader was a berserker and they got the highest strength boost when it came to first tier jobs outside of unique jobs. Ivan expected him to have a soul beast that focused on strength as well with the maddening grin he could see under the helmet that covered the top half of his face like a Viking helmet. Even with the strength difference Ivan wasn't pushed back in the initial clash and it was because of the positioning of his blade as he blocked the guild leaders initial attack. The look of surprise on his opponents face brought a smile to Ivan's face as they broke apart and went right back to fighting with all of the chaos around them.

While Ivan was busy with the guild leader Victor was focused on his part of the territory war and immediately singled out the right hand man of the guild leader of the Scavenger's Guild. The guy wasn't too hard to find since he was leading all of the spear users behind the tanks of the approaching group. Victor saw the tanks put up the shield walls to block off the incoming spells, so he waited for the first wave of spells to land before he charged in ahead of the tanks on his side and held his blade aloft while preparing an energy slash to land on one of the more brittle looking shield walls the moment he got close.

With one heavy swing Victor was able to tear down the closest shield wall and knock aside the shield of the surprised tank that tried to get back in position quickly. Victor didn't give him the chance to do that as he swiftly slashed upward with his blade directly for the gap in the knight's armor cutting off his head and sending him off in a flash of light. With that one swift movement Victor was the first one to take out an enemy in the territory war, but he didn't focus on that and rushed through the now open space in the line of tanks.

Some of the other tanks moved to fill in the space, but Victor was already through the line and rushing towards the spear user that were trying to move up and attack from behind the tanks. Of course with Victor in their way some of them went after him, but he knocked aside any spears that were aimed at any vital part of his body. The ones that would leave a wound that wasn't too severe he didn't mind taking as he charged for his target. Along the way he killed a few of the slow moving enemies that weren't able to get out of his way in time with a well-timed strike.

Victor wasn't surprised that his target had taken notice of him quickly with all of the mayhem he was causing, so he lunged towards him clashing his sword with his enemy's spear. They both glared at each other before separating and circling one another. Victor was surrounded on all sides, but the weaker spear users that were nearby were afraid to charge forward after seeing how easily Victor cut down their companions during his mad dash towards their vice leader. In the end they decided to surround him so that he couldn't escape. Of course Victor didn't mind since this would keep attention on him while he took on the second strongest member of their guild.

As he clashed with the spear user he noticed that the man had rather good technique and focused on trying to keep Victor at bay while the other spear users would shoot out an attack from time to time trying to injure him and wear him down. The only issue with this strategy was the fact that with every injury Victor grew stronger and stronger. The clashes between himself and the vice leader started getting more and more one sided as Victor began knocking him around because of his rising strength. He hadn't used the skill that Joshua had gotten for him yet, but his soul beast alone was giving him an edge in the fight as he continued to push himself as he coldly stared down his opponent.

Since Ivan and Victor were going after the two high priority targets in the enemy group that the close range fighters could get to, that left Natsumi the task of helping out their own closed ranged fighters against the enemy guild's army in any way that she could. They were outnumbered so for the most part their side was focused on defense while the main group members that were involved in the territory war evened things out with their overwhelming strength. This was a task that Natsumi had no trouble doing as she started out the battle using four talismans that would allow her to wreak havoc on the enemies side.

The first talisman was the strength enhancer that would allow her to tear through the tanks as she moved around the battle. She couldn't control the strength to much with the boost on its own, but with the talisman she had made from Tank to give herself an all-around boost as well she had better control of the new power. This allowed her to single out the knights and take them down swiftly disrupting the large shield walls that the enemy formation had up at the start of the battle. This allowed turret bullets to get through hitting some of the close ranged fighters on the opponents side of things along with some of the spells from their back line to get through and do heavy damage to the enemies that were taking by surprise from being left open to attack.

The other two talismans that Natsumi used for this fight were the lightning talisman that allowed her to leave steaks of electricity behind with each swing of her blade. This would paralyze some of the enemies leaving them open to attacks or outright send some out of the territory war if they didn't block the attack in time. Lastly she used the talisman that allowed her to sink into her enemies shadows to avoid having all of the enemies group up on her before reappearing somewhere else and causing more havoc. She made sure to target the enemies that seemed to be the leaders of different squads of the enemy forces more than anyone else and this started causing some of the enemy formations to fall apart.

The pure power that these three fighter showcased as they stalled out the advance of the enemy forces pretty much on their own showed how much individual strength meant even in large scale battles such as this. Ivan had stalled out their guild leader keeping him from jumping in and taking down several of the lower level members of the Fenrir Guild that would have been at his mercy if he broke through the front line. Victor had actually broken through the front line of the enemy team and killed several of their close ranged fighters while taking on their vice leader at the same time. Lastly Natsumi had completely turned the tide of the battle leaving several openings around the enemy formation for the rest of the Fenrir Guild to go on the attack.

The difference in strength was obvious for all to see. The entire time Joshua had his drones recording everything.