154. Development - 49

154. Development - 49

The battle against the cultist army was as close to perfect as possible. Quick, effortless, impressive.nove(l)bi(n.)com

Unfortunately, also, to an outside observer, it looked like Zolast and his incredible spell was responsible for that.

It was unfortunate because it made the main army finally pull the trigger. From a distance, I could see the whole army preparing to begin their assault. Apparently, I had underestimated just how intimidating such an attack would be.

I signaled Zolast to lead his forces as fast as possible while I started moving forward, wanting to get a better sense of the situation. At the same time, I signaled to Limenta, asking him to tell Mahruss to trigger the retreat into the inner town rather than trying to defend the outer town unnecessarily.

With all the population already evacuated and the critical resources moved, losing the outer town temporarily wasn't exactly a great sacrifice.

However, I didn't immediately go back to town, trusting all the plans we had made with Takis to hold the defensive for fifteen minutes. I used that opportunity to move toward the location Zolast had arranged with Jertann about the delivery of the magic ballista bolts.

We didn't have the necessary siege weapon with us but amusingly, I didn't need it. Not after my latest Strength boost. My Strength was more than enough to replicate the power of a ballista while I used those bolts as harpoons.

And, as an added benefit, it would add even more confusion than I had prepared.

With that, I moved to the meeting location and grabbed the large crates, some filled with bolts, others filled with mana stones. I grabbed them and rushed back to Zolast without being concerned about being seen, it was much easier to bring several crates at once while balancing them.

I left the mana stones with Zolast, along with half of the bolts. This time, the army noticed my presence concealment had its limits, and a small tower of crates was outside those limits but it barely earned a comment.

After all, from what they could see, I was just some kind of delivery person with Speed. Not even worthy of gossiping about when they were about to charge against a veritable army of evil.

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Zolast asked.

"Since they are already starting to panic, why not scare them with the prospect of even more reinforcements, right?" I said as I looked at the sky.

Zolast chuckled despite the tense situation. "I would have hated to be your enemy. It's like fighting in a house of mirrors."

"Well, I do my best," I said as I left the camp once more, this time holding only a small crate that could be affected by my Concealment. Even then, I moved away from both armies before I jumped up, a platform appearing under my feet just as I started slowing down.

[-2 Mana]

I stayed away from both armies, as the glow of mana was not as easy to hide as my presence. Luckily, there were many other distractions around us.

I climbed up rapidly, and a minute later, I had climbed almost three miles up, and found myself surrounded by the mist of the clouds. However, before pulling my plan, I decided to climb a bit higher, to see what was above the clouds.

Once I climbed above the clouds, I noticed two important details. One, at a great distance barely visible even with my perception I could see flashes of blue against several red spots across the sky, suggesting an intense battle across the line, explaining why no reinforcements had arrived despite the great delay.

No reinforcement had arrived to the battlefield, but one was on the way. One of the military fortresses was floating away from the line, its path directly toward us, but it was clearly floating slowly, the signs of battle damage visible despite the distance.

That raised a question: Why would the cultists play along with their siege despite the approaching military fortress? Even a flying castle was no joke. A military fortress, even a damaged one, represented a much greater threat.

And, with the number of spies they had in the military, it was impossible for them not to know about the approach.

Unless, of course, it was a part of their plan all along. After all, they were using a town as bait. Only a worthy prey would require such an important reward.

Mahruss left that room followed by the Holy Crusader. "Stay here and protect the dungeon," I said as I charged forward, once again clad in my armor and carrying that large sword.

The morale of the army was already high suddenly finding themselves winning against the army that was threatening to devour them would do that when I joined as my knight identity, but it rose even faster as my glowing sword took down a raging monster after its controller had died.

[Invader Slain]

[+3,471,220 Experience]

[+31 Authority]

"For the sun god!" the army shouted around me. I didn't wait for a second before moving toward the next creature. They were even more dangerous without a controller restricting their movements, but luckily, they were equally motivated to kill cultists.

I focused on killing the monsters closest to our forces, making sure the risk was kept to a minimum. And, the anti-monster teams Takis organized worked just well enough, keeping the dangerous monsters occupied until I could arrive and deal with them.

Then, just as I was starting to hope that the torturous saga was about to come to an end ...

A dark flare exploded in the sky, a suffocating feeling of destruction mana, its glow enough to paint the skies red for a moment. And that was with it being far away.

Right in the direction where the Flying Fortress was coming from.

"Continue with the clean-up," I shouted as an order, one that was accompanied by a strong wave of Charisma to dispel the fear even as I created a platform under my feet, and once again achieved my poor-man's flight.

A flying creature dived toward me, but it took only two slashes to get rid of it before I reached the sky.

[Invader Slain]

[+2,962,488 Experience]

[+25 Authority]

And, I saw a dark portal in the sky, crackling with red energy, a corrupted red castle pushing through it, to attack a much stronger but damaged flying fortress, the creatures already jumping down. I could already see a few smaller red explosions across said fortress.

A boarding action. Finally, I could understand why the cultist army extended the siege for so long. They wanted the fortress to arrive right as they were about to take the town, and the flying fortress would react by sending most of their soldiers to support the town, making it very vulnerable to a boarding action.

I moved closer by jumping through platforms, ready to intervene in case things went badly, which turned out to be unnecessary, as the spots of red glow across the flying fortress extinguished just as quickly, their magical attacks forcing the flying castle to retreat back to that dark portal.

Still, I was glad that I had approached, as I noticed several familiar landmarks on the castle, making me suspect that I might have been more familiar with it than I had expected.

Then, I noticed a figure watching from a balcony as the castle disappeared. A familiar figure despite all that corruption.

Toross.

"Small world," I chuckled as I moved back.

The battle was over. Now, we had to handle the aftermath.