Dragon Gods Reign

[Ilnori]

Looking toward the small fortress and the army attacking it, Darganth watched from a few kilometers away as flashes of light illuminated the outpost. Having used the cover of the approaching night to surround it unnoticed, the humans had initially made good progress toward the outpost's central tower.

The spearhead of this progress were small elite units of mostly first and seconds ranks. Having scaled the trees at a safe distance and moved across them from there, they soon arrived at the first few of the fortress's outer positions.

Built into artificial trees at heights of at least a hundred and fifty meters, these firing platforms formed a network of lightly fortified positions from which approaching enemies can be taken under a crossfire. To facilitate this, they were connected by massive hollow branches the mages created when they grew the trees, thus allowing easy movement between them.

Furthermore, these pathways were reinforced and enchanted, making it nearly impossible for anyone below the mythic rank to cut through them. Thus, the only sensible point of entry these vanguard units had were the platforms themselves.

Mostly built in sets of two or three above each other, these consisted of a basket-like structure made from a metal whose coloration was white with bronze tinges. At the sides, this battlement had a chest-high wall that connected with its floor in a smooth curve, as well as a barrier that extended further up past the other platforms before curving back to meet the trunk above the topmost platform.

While this barrier was mostly to shield the soldiers inside from projectiles and allow them to exchange arrows and spell fire with superior enemies, it also prevented undetected entry onto the platform.

To deal with this, the human vanguard units had stuck closely to their timetable and opened the battle with a coordinated assault on three dozen different positions.

Within seconds, most of the barriers they targeted had fallen, allowing those units to roll over the disorganized defenders. With their entry point cleared, they then continued into the network connecting the platforms with one another and the central tower.

But while most units had succeeded in their mission, those that didn’t manage to break through the barrier in time quickly became caught in an unfavorable fight. Still blocked by the barrier or only just having broken it but not yet having jumped into the battlement when the defenders finished regrouping, they were caught out in the open when the elves started retaliating.

In the onslaught that followed, the attacking units immediately started to suffer casualties. With the flashes of spells tearing their cohesion apart and making coordination impossible, the individual soldiers were left to fend for themselves and became easy picking for the defenders.

First clearing out the few attackers that had made it into their battlements and survived the point-blank eruption of spell-fire, they then rushed to fill the gap left in the wake of the barrier's disappearance. And with even the largest of the positions only being twenty meters across, just a handful of aura users could cover them completely.

From behind their protective ring, the mages and other ranged fighters then started utilizing the battlements for their intended purpose and bombarded what remained of their attackers. Decimating the already damaged units even more and even wiping a few out in their entirety, the elves at those positions managed to stop parts of the human assault and bought themselves a valuable moment for orders from the central tower to come in.

Within moments of receiving them, positions deemed hopeless or useless were then abandoned by their defenders. Using the cover of their relentless attacks to retreat into the network of branch pathways, they activated the sealing mechanism to prevent further access and disappeared before their enemies realized what was going on.

This happened across the entire ring of defensive positions that surrounded the fortress's tower, shifting the entire elven defense around within a minute.

Sending a part of the forces that were freed up by this to reinforce the areas where enemy units had already breached or were still trying to breach into their network of battlements, the central command tried to at least stall the enemies with the forces they could spare.

The majority of redistributed units were meanwhile called back to the tower itself. There, a part of the enemy army’s main force was engaging the defenders after having managed to sneak past the elevated fortifications.

Outnumbered by a factor of at least two just by the enemy mana users, the soldiers there had thus been forced into a disadvantageous fight. Firing spells and arrows from balconies and out of firing holes in the tower, they constantly had to duck behind the battlement or wall as the concentrated attacks of the invaders tore open a hole into the barrier that covered the entire tower.

Under the cover the mana users provided with their attacks, thousands of manaless soldiers slowly advanced toward the fortified barracks that formed the base of the tower.

Built from the same material the tower and the outer platforms were made of, the barracks consisted of directly connected buildings that formed a single unified structure where each single element was connected to another with at least one wall. This left only a few gaps through which one could see the sky, consequently also leaving only a few narrow paths to enter the structure besides the entry gates.

These gates were built into the wall surrounding this entire structure, a wall that was being manned by the melee fighters stationed inside the fortress.

As such, when the reinforcing troops arrived on the previously empty outlying firing platforms, they found even the furthest enemy soldiers still stuck at the wall. Scaling the metal-plated wood and stone wall, they were constantly cut by sharp thorns of up to half a meter in length that protruded out from it.

Furthermore, the aura users on the wall were then waiting on those few who managed to overcome this obstacle. As soon as a hand or weapon became visible in the half a meter high slit that was left between the lower portion of the battlement and the ceiling that completely covered them from above, at least one soldier stepped forward and thrust his weapon at the intruder.

A larger portion of the approaching human army was meanwhile still stuck at varying distances away from the wall. With the ranged fighters assigned to them having had less success in suppressing the elven mages and archers than some of their colleagues, they were forced to move quickly whenever they left their cover. And as trees became less and less numerous the closer one came to the fortress, this quickly slowed their progress to a crawl.

When then the reinforcements started to join the fight, their situation only worsened even more. Raining fire from above and behind, the ever-increasing number of soldiers that rushed into the inner ring of outlying firing platforms trapped the enemy assault units in a crossfire.

Under this multi-directional assault, the mages and archers accompanying the units could also no longer suppress their counterparts. As such, they had to switch to barriers to protect the nearby troops, reducing their offensive power.

And with most units only having one or maybe two mages aiding them, whatever barriers they erected couldn’t fully stop the bombardment. This forced them to rely on the cover provided by the terrain to protect themselves from the otherwise unattended directions, the soldiers had practically no openings to advance further.

Thus trapped between two lines of enemy forces, the humans stuck there could only hope that the vanguard units were more successful. And while it took nearly a full hour, this hope started proving itself true.

Slowly but surely pushing back the defenders on the outlying firing platforms, the vanguard units finally started reaching the innermost ones among them. With it, the attacks from more and more positions started to cease as the soldiers atop them joined in the defense against the enemy vanguard. However, in doing so, they also managed to slow the latter’s advance, creating a situation where the human army managed to very slowly advance on both fronts.

As such, when the parts of the emerald guard that had gathered over an hour later spread out on Venrie’s order, Darganth found the nearly exact same situation when he surveyed the battlefield while waiting for everyone to get into position.

After a few minutes, Venrie joined him in this, with the entourage of guards that followed her spreading around around them. Behind them, Neandra and the rest of their group followed, also coming to a stop around him.

“So every unit is in position?” Darganth asked.

“Yes. Sadly we still don’t know where the human mythic ranks and the rest of their army are, but with every extra minute valuable lives are lost so we’ll nonetheless act now.” Venrie said.

“Alright.”

Along with this confirmation, Darganth activated the spell he had been preparing. Immediately, he, everybody around him, and even a one-meter-thick piece of the ground beneath them vanished from where they stood as he teleported them high into the air.

Anchoring the mass of earth in its position in space before also stopping it in time as a redundancy, he made sure that it stayed floating where it was.

At the same time, Venrie spoke to the elves accompanying them.

“Last chance, are there still any uncertainties?” She asked.

“No.” “Nothing.”

Hearing most of them reply negatively, Venrie narrowed her eyes as she glanced at the one council member present who had hesitated.

Remembering him from their earlier discussion, she didn’t need long to decide not to reopen it. As such, she only gave him a silent warning before again addressing everyone.

“Then get ready and wait for the signal.” She said.

Following her dismissal, the group before her saluted before turning to leave. Rising into the air one by one, the gathered elven mythic ranks swarmed out into the surrounding skies where they would hover and wait.

As such left with only her personal guard as well as Darganth, Neandra, Yldra, and the rest, she let out a frustrated sigh.

“I’m surprised, he didn’t try again to convince you to stay back as reinforcements with of us.” Neandra said once the councilman was enough away.

“I know he wanted to. The council simply doesn’t trust you or Yldra enough to want to rely on you.” Venrie said.

“Well, both of us have some less than stellar reputations following us. Neandra thanks to the concept of history books and I just by being a dragon.” Yldra said with a light chuckle.

“Just don’t do anything that adds to that reputation among elves. And even with the invaders you might want to hold back a bit, the message I myself plan to send should be clear enough.” Venrie said.

“Will do. Now then, go show them who they messed with.” Yldra said teasingly.

Nodding with a light smile, Venrie called upon her mana and rose into the air. Hovering over the edge of the floating disc of earth, she let her gaze wander across the battlefield for a moment before she unleashed her power.

“Stay safe out there.” She said to the others, looking over her shoulder at them as she spoke

Immediately after those words, her presence exploded outward as she let her mana run wild. Using it to announce her arrival as she slowly floated downward to join the fight, she didn’t directly start actively intervening and instead waited for the others.

A moment after her Darganth, Serania, Jennia, and Allaire followed and then quickly overtook her, with Venrie’s bodyguards and Sarkia doing the same another second later.