Hell Mode: Volume 4, page 22
The clincher was that the monsters were using a new strategy they had never utilized in the war with Rohzenheim so far: fighting in turns. Many monsters not currently engaged in battle with Allen were resting far off in the back, as if to catch their breath so they could continue throughout the night. The Demon Lord Army had wisened up and was no longer mindlessly throwing bodies at their target.
“Looks like Demonic Deity Rehzel changed up his tactics after you got done in,” Allen commented. “He never mentioned doing this while you were still there.”
“What do you wish to do, Master?” General Ellie asked. “Would you like to get some distance and rest? We can buy you time.”
“Nah, I can keep going. They’re being nice enough to come to me, so I’ve gotta take advantage of it. Grinding through the night isn’t so bad every once in a while.”
If Allen was to be honest, the Demon Lord Army’s tactic of fighting through the night had taken him completely by surprise. However, his original intention of wiping out this force remained unchanged, and equally unchanged was the fact that Nest would be eradicated if he were to retreat here.
A grin came over Allen’s face as he savored the rare promise of being able to completely throw himself into a fight and forget everything else. His fight in this pitch-black world lit solely by magic and torches had only just begun.
＊ ＊ ＊
“I-Is that true?” Field Marshall Lukdraal asked, his voice wavering with concern.
“Yes. That is indeed what Master said,” Ellie replied.
The Spirit B who had been assigned to Castle Lapolka was now in the room located deep within the fortress that had been occupied by Glaster mere days ago, briefing the elven generals on Allen’s situation. Although Allen had begun fighting yesterday, the Demon Lord Army host heading for Lapolka would be arriving tomorrow, so the elves still had a bit more time to prepare.
Cecil mumbled, “But that means Allen...”
“Can’t rest,” Krena finished.
Worry weighed heavily on both girls’ faces upon hearing that Allen was still fighting against an enemy that was not allowing him to rest or sleep. Intel about Bird B seemed to have leaked, as many of the monsters sent his way could either fly or use magic or archery. Allen’s circumstances were demanding, to put it mildly.
“Master says there’s no need to worry,” Ellie said reassuringly. “At least, the fighting itself isn’t giving him too much grief. However...”
The Spirit B continued to describe how the battle at sea was going. Allen had no issues fighting around the clock, but even he needed to take breaks every once in a while. Whenever he tried withdrawing, however, the Demon Lord Army resumed making its way south—in other words, they must have been ordered to attack Nest if Allen was not present. He still had every intention of killing all one million monsters, but he had sent word to Nest just in case.
“Sounds like he’s having a pretty rough time of it,” Dogora noted. “Shouldn’t he recall some of the Summons he left here in Lapolka to use those slots for himself?”
The rest of the No-life Gamers nodded in agreement. At the moment, thirty of Allen’s seventy holder slots were taken up by Summons stationed at Castle Lapolka.
“Master says your situation is more grave. In all likelihood, the Demon Lord Army will be attacking Castle Lapolka from all four sides.”
Allen conveyed through Spirit B how the host of four million had split into three forces of one million, one million, and two million this morning. The two million group was still marching straight ahead, but the other groups of one million had begun scaling the mountains to the east and west of Castle Lapolka.
“Wh— That’s impossible!” Lukdraal cried in disbelief. “Those mountains are far too steep to climb! They’ve protected us from monsters for centuries now.”
Castle Lapolka was situated in a highly defensible position sandwiched between extremely precipitous cliffs. The summits towered higher than anything Allen had seen even in his previous life. The only reason the elves had a fortress in this place was because a Grand Spirit User had erected it using the power of a grand earthen spirit in the past.
Of course, without the help of a spirit, this was a massive range of jagged peaks that were extremely difficult to circle around. The elves had purposely chosen to take back this fortress precisely because they thought that even the monsters would not be able to attack it so easily.
“Normally that would be true,” Ellie said on Allen’s behalf, “but a large percentage of the monsters in the force heading your way are insect-types.”
The composition of the reserves was significantly different from that of the original three million sent to attack Rohzenheim. This time, there were large numbers of creatures with many legs, such as centipedes and spiders, that enabled them to scale mountains with ease. In fact, the mountains to the left and right of Lapolka were swarming with their wriggling and crawling forms at the moment.
“Does that mean we’ll be fighting on three sides?” Lukdraal asked.
Castle Lapolka had been designed to see fighting only to the north and south. There were very few protections in place at the eastern and western walls, making them difficult to hold.
“In all likelihood, there won’t be enough space on the east and west side for all one million to attack at the same time,” Ellie continued. “That means portions of both forces will be circling all the way around to attack from the south.”
So much for those three days we spent wiping out all the monsters south of Lapolka. The Demon Lord Army is definitely learning from its past mistakes and adapting.
The Demon Lord Army had first tried to attack several cities simultaneously and had been foiled. It then brought all its forces together into a host of one million to strike a single city, only to be foiled again. Its tactic now seemed to have been developed based on the lessons learned from both those experiences.
“The battle is tomorrow!” one of the generals wailed. “We’ll have to reform all our formations again!”
The Demon Lord Army had changed its tactics so suddenly that the elves had been completely taken by surprise. Now, they needed to split their total force of 300,000 soldiers into four groups. Lukdraal was about to call for all the commanders, but Spirit B stopped him.
“Master has more to say, Field Marshal. He says he has an idea.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Put simply, Allen’s “idea” was for those at Castle Lapolka to hold out for five days. It was so simple that it could hardly be called an idea—it was practically a command.
“But that... Is it even possible?” Lukdraal sounded doubtful.
“It should be possible so long as you focus only on holding the walls. Master says he needs five days to reach Castle Lapolka, so please do whatever you can to survive until then.”
“Five whole days...”
At least five days, Allen added silently. Though I’ll do my best to be quick.
At the rate things were going, he needed four more days to annihilate the seabound force, plus one day for travel. He then proceeded to tell the elven generals how he expected the Demon Lord Army to distribute its numbers for each wall and what he thought was the best composition for the elves to deploy their troops in response.
Numbers of Monsters on Each Side North: 2,000,000
East: 500,000
West: 500,000
South: 1,000,000
Ideal Deployment North: All of the No-life Gamers + Spirit User Gatoluuga + 90,000 elves
East: Dragon Bs (General + Soldiers) + 60,000 elves
West: Insect Bs (General + Soldiers) + 60,000 elves
South: Stone Bs (General + Soldiers) + 90,000 elves
Cecil nodded with understanding. “I see, so you’re maximizing the effects of Deputize. Soldiers have to stay within a hundred meters from their Generals, right?”
“Dead right,” Ellie replied, sounding satisfied.
“Where should we send those with two-star Talents like the Spirit Wizards and Bow Lords, then?” Lukdraal asked. “We have more than 7,000 here in the fortress at the moment.”
“Stone Bs are not very good at dealing damage, so you should leave more in the south, then distribute the remaining between the three other sides equally.”
“Very well, we’ll do that. Anything else that Allen wants to say?”
“Master says that tomorrow, a griffin will arrive, bringing two thousand elven elixirs along with something else.”
“Something else?”
“It’s crucial to the strategy, so please listen carefully. I will now go into details.”
When the generals heard what Ellie said next, they all exchanged doubtful looks. However, upon recalling all the times Allen’s unconventional strategies had worked thus far, they decided to put their trust in him once again.
Chapter 14: Defense of Castle Lapolka
The next day, the Demon Lord Army finally reached Castle Lapolka. As expected, the monsters opted to surround the fortress from all four sides. The No-life Gamers had spent three whole days wiping out the monsters to the south of the fortress, but all that effort had counted for nothing thanks to the monsters seizing the advantage of the terrain through brute force.
When the sun rose, the Demon Lord Army launched its attack. The elves awaited their orders as they looked out over all four walls at the approaching tide. The eastern and western walls were not as thick as the northern and southern ones as they had not been designed to be manned; however, there was still some space along the top. Soldiers now filled that space in neat, orderly lines.
Insect monsters with grotesque appearances gradually drew closer. One younger elven soldier could not help but to turn anxiously away from the sight of them. Just as he did, however, a sonorous voice rang out from a point high above the tallest building in the fortress.
“Focus on the fight. This is your country and your fight, is it not?”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The young soldier looked up at the voice and found hovering in the sky a dragon so massive that its head alone measured several meters long. This was, of course, General Dora. The sight of the Soldier Doras under his command, all of them as tall as the wall that protected the fortress, bracing themselves for battle seemed almost funny. Their bodies were so gigantic that, compared to them, the insect monsters were like normal ants to the elves.
Right before the monsters reached the walls, Allen gave out a command remotely from his location over the ocean. General Dora, these monsters are the type to climb up the walls to directly attack the elves. Be thorough in incinerating them to death.
“Yes, Master!” General Dora replied before addressing his subordinates. “You lot! Make sure to burn them all!”
“ROOOOAAARR!”
The Dragon B Soldiers began spamming their Ability, covering the entire length of the wall in flames. Billows of smoke carrying the pungent stench of burning chitin and acid rose into the sky as the elven soldiers joined in and began firing their bows.
“Use your skills! Use them nonstop!” General Dora shouted. Even though the elven generals and officers were present, he was proactively giving out orders to the troops.
Interesting. Looks like the Summons given General and Soldier positions just naturally assume their respective roles.
As Allen continued analyzing the feed from the Summons he was Sharing with, thousands of monsters that looked like scorpions spread the wings they kept hidden under the exoskeleton on their backs then took to the sky all at once.
“Shoot them down! Don’t let a single one inside!” an elven general howled, alarm thick in his voice.
Every time a fortress had fallen in the past, it had been due to a single point of failure, one lone wall that first got breached before turning into a funnel which the monsters then poured through en masse. The officers knew that the moment they allowed the monsters through, their loss was guaranteed; even the northernmost fortress, with its impressive walls double the height of Lapolka’s, had fallen the same way. To make matters worse, they were currently facing flying monsters, against which the elves no longer had aerial superiority. The decision to prioritize killing these flying scorpions was therefore based on past experiences steeped in fear and hindsight.
General Dora, use Hellfire of Fury.
“Puny insects that dare to rise to our height ought to know their place!”
Light flashed with such intensity it almost seemed like a physical blow, after which a stream—or rather, a beam of flames burst from General Dora’s mouth. The thousands of airborne monsters were all caught up in the incandescent fire and erased without a trace. Other monsters wriggling and crawling their way down the mountain surface got caught up as well and were summarily reduced to dust, dashed against the rocks that immediately began melting like lava.
One of the elven soldiers was left breathless by the sight. “Th-This is crazy. I’m not dreaming, am I?”
“What’re you doing?! Protect this wall with your life!” General Dora roared.
“S-S-Sir, yes, sir!”
Okay, things are going well. Looks like the east side can handle itself just fine. I had to have General Dora use his Awakened Ability pretty much right off the bat, but I can still Deputize the other Doras and have them do the same when needed.
The cooldown time for the Summons’ Awakened Abilities was a full day. As such, managing when to use them was extremely crucial.
Next, Allen turned his attention to the western wall. There, he found a truly bizarre battle going on.
“Clack clack clack!”
“CLACK CLACK CLACK!”
The ten-meter tall General Antsy was giving commands to its Soldier Antsys that were in turn making an army of Lil Antsys fight at the front in an elliptical formation.
“Keep up the Healing Magic! Give it all you got!”
“Sir, yes, sir!”
The wall on this side was manned by as many archers as healing mages. The latter were desperately backing up the ten Insect Bs fighting on the ground level.
Good, good. The monsters are targeting the Insect Bs for being outside of the walls, whereas the elven healers are positioned behind them and keeping their HP topped up. Looks like this side will be able to go on for a long time.
In contrast with the east side, where Dragon Bs were breathing fire and tearing through the ranks of attacking monsters, the west side was seeing Insect Bs shoulder the bulk of the fighting as elven healers in the rear spammed AoE healing spells. Of course, when many of the healers got low on MP, a Blessing of Heaven would be used to top them back up. By carefully timing the use of those items, these healers would be able to continue to provide support to the Insect Bs for an extended period of time.
The Insect Bs had each had the opportunity to use their Awakened Ability, Spawn, twice. This meant there were 2,000 Lil Antsys currently fighting on the elves’ behalf. All of them had inherited stats from their parents in the General or Soldier positions, which gave them a minimum Defense of 2,750. They had also been buffed by both Fish-type Summons and the elves, all of which stacked together to make them impervious to most attacks from the monsters. Those that did take damage were then promptly healed back up by elven healers. It was only very rarely that one of them ever died.
A certain number of Lil Antsys and Antsys were standing some distance back to focus on showering the enemy forces with their Ability, Formic Acid. The acid they generated was so caustic that it melted the exoskeletons of the insect-type monsters, leaving them so vulnerable they could be easily finished off even by Lil Antsys, who had nowhere near the Attack that Beast Bs and Dragon Bs had. Again and again, the giant ants’ mandibles clamped down on their enemies’ exposed weak points, snuffing out their lives.
The elven archers prioritized killing the monsters crowding around the Insect Bs. Their arrows fell like rain on the vermin, reducing entire swathes to mere corpses with each volley.
Looks like it’ll be easy harvesting magic stones from this side when the fighting’s over. All right, let’s have them slowly move along the wall.
Although a slight tweak was called for, the western front also seemed to be holding up well. Each Insect B could create a hundred more Lil Antsys each day, which meant that so long as fewer than a thousand died twenty-four hours in, their numbers would actually be going up. And at the rate things were going, this seemed like the guaranteed outcome.
All right, so the eastern and western walls are set.
Satisfied with how things were going, Allen checked the position of the sun through his Summons’ eyes. The battle had begun with the sunrise, and it was now around noon. Both sides had been fighting for eight hours straight.
“It’s about time. Get moving, but keep up the cover fire!”
“SIR, YES, SIR!” The elven troops headed for the stairs and started descending the walls, continuing to unleash their attacks the whole time.
A different group then promptly climbed the stairs and assumed the previous troops’ positions, taking over the fighting. At the same time, a third group gathered at the foot of the stairs, on standby. Those who were exhausted from eight straight hours of fighting now made a beeline for the various resting areas set up near the center of the fortress grounds.
I’m glad this is working out. The Demon Lord Army thought it was being smart with their strategy of not giving the elves a break, but we’ve taken countermeasures!
This time, the Demon Lord Army was clearly taking a new approach. No longer was it just charging en masse in one big force like it had done at Tiamo. The force heading south over the sea was assaulting Allen with a constant barrage, preventing him from getting any rest. This was, in theory, a good strategy to use against both humans and elves, as they generally had much lower stamina than monsters. And so the demons were doing the same in their fight against Lapolka. They had more than enough numbers to attack in turn and keep the elves fighting the whole day long. The Demon Lord Army was very quick to adopt new strategies, indicating that it had a very effective command structure.
