"Little bastard." The king looked back at the wall that had suddenly appeared behind his troops before turning his head and staring at Raigon who had a cheeky smile on his face. The smile was enough to piss off the king who wished to do nothing less than rip him apart right now.
"Everybody, charge!" The king ordered as he stood and watched the fortification, since they were now already trapped then there was no reason why they would stay idle and take it slow. He knew that the area they were in right now was filled with many traps, not to mention the thousands of soldiers that were going to be barraging his army with constant attacks.
Even though he was a first evolution combatant and his task was important, he wasn't given a defensive array as Yufan was. The reason for that was simple, there was not enough time to waste, they had gotten the news of Lios disappearing and immediately attacked the kingdom, the attack would be more effective the sooner it began and they simply didn't want to waste any time.
Plus, with the king being a powerful fighter, there was less of a reason for him to wait and get the array, even though it would help out with keeping the casualties low, it would also give more time for the kingdom to perhaps preparing more surprises for them.
Suddenly, the wall of the fortification opened as the mana cannons were deployed. Eight blasts of concentrated mana were sent toward the army, with one going straight at the king who simply scoffed after seeing it. The king turned his waist a bit before punching the mana blast with incredible force, the exhaust pipes on his battle gloves suddenly started glowing a bit before blue flames spewed out of it.
The flames were actually mana, well, to be more exact, it was mana that the gloves burned in order to give a boost to the king's attacks. Thanks to that, the king's attack would be propelled forward and the result would be a faster and more powerful punch.
Bang!
The king's fist and the cannon's mana blast met, the two connected for a brief period of time before the king managed to deflect the attack that continued on and hit the wall of the gorge. The cannon blasts weren't the kind that exploded, the mana blast simply traveled through and penetrated any obstacle in its way, as it hit the wall of the gorge it continued for about 10 meters before stopping.
The other three top combatants also did their best to stop the attack, even though they weren't as powerful as the king, they were still strong enough to block such an attack. Blocking it however wasn't as easy as they thought, the two that used a hammer and staff respectively were pushed back by about 6 meters by the blast before managing to stop it completely, their arms already felt a tad numb from the attack while the sword-wielding guy was pushed back by 10 meters before he managed to neutralize the blast.
The other four mana blasts hit the army, the captains and lieutenants of the army did their best to stop the attacks, but even with that, there were some casualties. Of course, compared to the size of the army, the casualties were barely in the double digits and did little to the overall situation.
The army charged forward as the king and the three top combatants stayed at the back, they first wanted to see what kind of defenses and fighters the fortification had before they jumped into the battle. They had already gotten the info that Raigon had a counter-measure for the king, not to mention the fact that there were two top-tier combatants staying in the fortification as well.
The Judge was a character that the whole coalition was well aware of, even though his power was below that of a first evolution combatant, his unique way of fighting was devastating to an army. The worst thing about him was that he could fight large groups of enemies and a single powerful enemy with the same effectiveness. Even the king of Older had to admit that when it came to fighting groups of enemies, he was a bit less effective compared to him.
The other character was Reign who had just made his appearance in this world. The coalition knew that the kingdom had summoned him and his strength spoke for itself after he managed to kill Yufan and Sios without suffering from any serious injuries. Those two together could even fight against the king to a standstill, maybe even suppress him for a bit.
Even though the king was amongst the weakest first evolution fighters, he was still one of them, usually, even if 5 top combatants joined hands they would be unable to stop him, but the difference in power between them and the 3 top tier combatants the kingdom had was simply too large. That was also the reason why the coalition hadn't been able to win against the kingdom even after having a larger amount of top combatants.
The army charged fearlessly and fiercely, the 6 000 soldiers all ran full speed as over a thousand arrows were sent their way. Right before the arrows could hit them, and right before they entered the field that was filled with traps, one of the men at the very front who seemed to be the leader shouted out.
"Formation!"
As his words were heard, all of the soldiers suddenly released their mana, instead of being released and blasted in the surroundings, the mana actually fused, and in a matter of seconds, the whole army was covered by a giant turtle formed entirely out of mana.
Clang! Clang!
The arrows arrived but the result was that they were easily blocked by the hard shell of the turtle. Only some explosive arrows and those that were launched by the more powerful soldiers could even make a small dent in the shell.
The traps were next, explosions could be heard beneath the turtle as some exploded, others launched many spears that were blocked by the shell, some had concentrated mana blasts that were similar to those of the cannon and more. Unfortunately, none of the traps managed to pierce through the turtle, even though each of the soldiers was beneath top combatants by many times, the mana they all had together was incredible.
Of course, it wasn't as if everything was going perfect for the army, even though the turtle gave them incredible defense and they could even attack with it, it ate up the mana from all of them and as such, they knew they had to act quickly as they won't be able to continue like this for long. If they used too much mana then they wouldn't be able to fight against the enemy and would lose.
Suddenly the earth rumbled as the pillars emerged, the mana curtain was once against released and thanks to that the turtle's movement was stopped. The problem however was the fact that this wasn't a defensive array, the giant turtle was great for defense, but it could also attack. The turtle quickly moved its head and tried to bite one of the pillars before being stopped by the ballistae and Dain's arrow.
Dain had once against taken up the giant bow and arrows and was launching them at the turtle, even though he wasn't able to completely pierce through its defense, together with the ballistae he could at least stop its head from destroying the pillars.
Suddenly the three top combatants moved, they jumped on top of the turtle before trying to go their separate ways and destroy the pillars.
Bzzzzzz
They at least tried to, but the second their feet touched the turtle's shell, three lightning spears arrived in front of them, they quickly jumped back in order to dodge the attack before the staff-wielding man positioned his staff in front of him in order to block another attack.
Bang!
The power behind the attack was however too great and he was pushed back before his opponent could continue attacking him however he was forced to block a sword from another enemy before dodging the giant hammer that was crashing down on top of him.
"Not bad, not bad at all you three." Reign smiled as he praised the three that were staring at him with cautiousness. They knew that there was a great possibility that either he was going to be fighting them, even though they were powerful, they knew that the person in front of them was someone who could defeat any of them with ease if it was one on one.
The staff-wielding man twirled his staff around as he looked at Reign, the other two both got ready for a fight as well as they knew that the person in front of them could attack at any moment, his speed was above all of them and they needed to fight together if they hoped to win against him.
"Idrel." The staff-wielding man said before the other two spoke as well.
"Gardo." ( Hammer guy )
"Luin." ( sword guy )
"Reign, nice to meet ya." Reign flashed a smile before lightning erupted from his body and he disappeared.