Chapter 323: An Assault on the Senses

Chapter 323: An Assault on the Senses

Beatrice and I soared above the clouds, the wind whipping about us as we flew. My sensors were trained on the ground far below as I searched for the strike force. My projections said we should be relatively close to it now.

It had taken them some time, and we had delayed making sure that everything was taken care of before we left. As my sensors picked up the crows, I led Beatrice down through the clouds.

I'd timed my arrival almost perfectly as we met up with the army below, just out of sight of Barleona's capital.

Archibald and Daedalus flew not that far behind, but they didn't dive with us. They would circle above and out of sight for now. Then, at a critical moment, we could have them dive in from the clouds and turn the tide of battle.

They wanted to be involved the entire time, citing the fact that with me around, there would be no "critical moment" that required such a trump card. But I wasn't so sure. With the number of unknowns we were dealing with, my models were a lot less certain than I would've liked.

And I didn't mean to leave them up there unless they were needed to win. It was also nice to have a backup in case a lot of people on our side were about to get hurt. Who knows, maybe I could get distracted or indisposed? That would be simply unacceptable, but still. for new novels

The Barleonans and their demon masters likely knew we were coming already, and they probably had seen us coming for several hours at this point. But that wouldn't give them too much warning. They didn't have the days it would take to build extra walls or anything like that, nor could they call in reinforcements from further away. At least, I didn't think they could. So, all they could really do was ready the forces they already had and put everyone on alert.

No, from everything I knew, it would be pretty straightforward to get into the city, like cleaning an empty rectangular room. Once we got through the gate, though, things would be more complicated. In the city, numbers wouldn't mean as much as we would have nearly unlimited choke points to work with, and so would our enemies. Still, it was going to be a hassle.

During our planning, Arthur had grumbled about how fighting in cities was always messy. Given how the attack on the capital had gone all those years ago, I had to agree. However, that was mostly due to the mess makers themselves. I had tried to think of some way to avoid fighting in the city, but it didn't seem like there was going to be an option. So, I just had to be around to clean up things afterward.

It made my circuits spasm, thinking about being party to a mess in the making. But, well, I have learned a lot of important lessons over the years. Besides, I liked making omelets. They were apparently tasty.

We emerged from the bottom layer of the clouds with a small poof. From this angle, we could easily see the city gates closed, a rather unusual thing for this time of day. That confirmed that they'd seen us coming. We could also see the Nighty Knights and Arthur's elite troops still in the forest.

We zipped down, alighting in a clearing and heading toward the commanders at the top of the hill. Arthur greeted us, as did the other officers and Felix, representing the Nighty Knights.

"It's good to see you, Lord Void. Your timing is perfect," Arthur said.

I beeped my acknowledgment. To the side, I saw Beatrice roll up her flying carpet as narrowly as she could before cramming it down her throat. The sight filled me with pride. Truly, she was my best student. Storing equipment and other things inside one's own dustbin was the proper way of doing so. It was much more efficient than carrying a pack or something like that. I was just glad that skill of hers had helped her to see reason.

I simply hovered above the column, drawing fire, blocking shots with pinpoint precision, firing off blasts of my Sanitation Lamp at demons, and overall picking them off one by one. But the tide never seemed to slow.

The first frantic 30 seconds turned into a minute, and then two as the pace never seemed to slow. Soldiers on both sides were tossed down, and demons poured in after us like an endless tide. After five minutes, I was worried that we'd only made a few feet of progress despite everything.

All of our individual and group power meant little against this wave. Though we were obviously doing a lot of damage, the demons were also a lot stronger than I'd expected. They didn't go down easily. If they'd been doing any more damage, I might have considered stepping in myself. After ten minutes, I couldn't help but wonder where all these demons were coming from.

I scanned the city for summoning circles but did not find any on a cursory search. At least, nothing that would cause enemies to appear at this rate and pace. Each one of our soldiers was extremely high-leveled, and rarely did they need to retreat and cycle through, but that did not mean they had endless stamina. We'd get tired eventually.

A deep thrumming vibration sent my bristles tingling. I located the source, only to find one of the Nighty Knights lifting a section of the city up into the air. The massive chunk of earth hurtled through the sky, slamming into waves of winged enemies as it crashed down in the distance. A line of white-hot fire streaked through the air as Bradley lashed out with his sword, slicing an entire crowd of imps in half at once.

Well, not all of their number had come. Beatrice and Arthur had put extremely restrictive measures on them. Every single one of the Knight here was above level 40, and from what I understood, that was pretty impressive. Arthur claimed that each one would've been a one man army in most cases. But the sheer number of strong demons meant even they were hard-pressed to completely stem the flow.

The enemy soldiers had stopped attacking for the most part, either scared off by their ineffectiveness or unwilling to side with the blatant demonic activity. The city's ruler had been still attempting to hide it from the people, based on our last reports.

After 20 minutes of nonstop action, I drifted back to speak with Arthur as we had only taken the first intersection. Something had to change.

I beeped at him, concerned. I watched as soldiers spread out on the wall, forcing back the city's defenders as we secured our beachhead. The burden of my protecting many of the projectiles lessened greatly, and the barrier mages had mostly recovered.

I finished beeping at Arthur, and he grimaced. "I agree, Lord Void, this is not going well. The demons are here in far greater numbers than we could have anticipated. But still, we are making progress. But if we do not figure out where the reinforcements are coming from, I worry that the cost of taking the city will become quite steep."

Well, that certainly wouldn't do. It didn't seem like the man would mind my help in this particular situation. With a brief shift of processing power, I blasted out my sensors as far as they could go and quickly found the answer. There, at the far side of the city, were clusters of tunnels. I spotted hordes of enemies coming up out of them, nearly at the same rate at which we destroyed them. Different shapes, sizes, and colors of mess makers scurried together in a positively unsightly heap that really got me upset.

I reported what I found, earning a grimace from Arthur. "They're not even coming from the city, then. Which direction?"

I indicated where the tunnel seemed to be leading, and he pulled out a map. "That's the direction that Harold warned us about. Of course? Arthur clenched a fist. "We need to stop them."

Beeping in agreement, I knew just the right people for the job. I soared up into the sky and let out a loud, musical chime. It was time for our own reinforcements.