Chapter 334 - Counter

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"Derenus, it seemed that they found some of our secret passages," Fyran said around noon of that same day.

"Any weird movements in there or in their army?" Derenus asked.

"None," Fyran said.

"They will attack at night… again," Zaos said. "This time, they will use all of their forces to keep us occupied in all fronts in order to force us to make a mistake somewhere."

Zaos' predictions more or less had hit the mark with just a few exceptions. Thanks to that, Derenus also agreed with him. It was really useful to have someone who could understand soldiers' way of thinking on his side.

"How many people are stationed in each of those places?" Zaos asked.

"Around three hundred," Derenus replied.

"Hmm… they will try really hard, so I can't imagine the soldiers attacking each of those points with less than five hundred soldiers," Zaos replied. "You should alert your friends because things might get messy. Unlike here, they won't have too much advantage thanks to the terrain."

Zaos was worried that the bloody knights would probably attack one of those places, and the battle would get quite messy. In order to fulfill his end of the bargain, he told Derenus' people that they could attack to kill if things got messy. Still, he didn't have room to worry about those secret passages because he was certain that Vitalar would try to secure the main route with all his might. Most likely, the battle of that night will determine the fate of both sides.

Although he was worried, Zaos decided to sleep a little since it was obvious that the few soldiers that were attacking during the day weren't even trying. When Zaos woke up, he saw a troubled Derenus looking at the camp behind them. The tents were empty, but a lot of people were moving around and preparing for the night.

"What is wrong?" Zaos asked.

"… I feel like something is amiss," Derenus replied. "Like their movements are weird, or at least feel weird for some reason."

"How so?" Zaos asked.

"I can't pinpoint how… it is just a feeling," Derenus said. "Maybe because I have been away from the battles for far too long."

Zaos looked toward the camp behind him, but he didn't notice anything weird. On the other hand, he could tell that everyone on the soldiers' side was preparing for a big battle. That feeling they shared was probably because they lived among both groups for several years. Zaos couldn't see any weird movements behind him, but he decided to raise his guard just in case.

Much to Zaos' annoyance, the sky got a bit cloudier before sunset. The clouds in the distance were also thick, so it looked like their visibility would be pretty bad for a while. If things were like that at the top of the path, the secret passages would be even darker. The defenders' side will have more chances to attack. Still, considering that Vitalar was the one who prepared the expedition, it wasn't hard to imagine that each soldier had some crossbows armed with those bolts coated in poison. A single hit would be enough to take down a target…

As if things weren't looking grim enough, Zaos noticed a familiar face showing up again. It was Cailu, he seemed angry as usual, and it seemed that he had come to stay.

"What are you doing here, Cailu?" Derenus asked.

"This fight will be different from others," Cailu replied. "I will be here and make sure that your friend won't do anything suspicious."

"Speaking of suspicious, why don't you explain to Derenus why he was feeling that something was amiss while looking toward the camp?" Zaos asked.

"… Did you feel something amiss?" Cailu frowned while looking toward Derenus and frowning. "You must be getting old, Derenus."

"I don't know how someone can get older more than once, I am already old," Derenus laughed.

Derenus seemed more relaxed after that, but Zaos didn't. Now he had more than one reason to stay on guard. When the night fell, Zaos only got more impatient. The visibility of the soldier's camp was worse than he had imagined. He only noticed their movements when they were already at the bottom of the mountain and ready to climb the path.

Without wasting time, he looked toward Derenus, and the old man gave the order to his first group to move to the position and use Cold Whisper. The cold wind reached the soldiers as soon as they began to climb, but they didn't stop despite that.

"It seems now Vitalar is willing to sacrifice some of his soldiers to secure this foothold," Zaos said.

Zaos knew how for how long each soldier could withstand that without dealing with some severe case of frostbite, but even though they surpassed dangerous levels, they kept climbing. Once the first soldiers could not proceed, they fell back and gave place to a new group of twenty soldiers.

Even without Zaos looking at him, Derenus got used to commanding several groups like that over the last week. Then he gave the order to his second group to move in as well. They bombarded the soldiers and their shields with many Earth Spears. The sound of the impact echoed throughout the area, and that showed that Derenus' men weren't holding back. Each attack was powerful enough to make the limbs of the soldier's crack… but despite that, they kept marching forward until their bodies gave in. once that happened, a new front line showed up and resumed the advance.

Derenus looked toward Zaos, if they keep fighting like that, the soldiers will reach the summit in no time, and that would be dangerous. Zaos only shrugged since attacking to kill wouldn't change anything now.

In any case, Derenus gave the sign for them to attack with their best attacks. Some Fire Spears were so powerful that they melted all the snow around them while they flew toward the soldiers. Even though the shields blocked the attacks, the soldiers screamed in pain as the metal melted and then burned their arms. Burn marks of that level certainly will make them lose their limbs… unfortunately, Zaos couldn't back down now.

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