I Was a Loner, but My Class Got Summoned to Another World…

Roland neither agreed with nor denied the demon's words. The girl, Morrag, had been left within the safety of the castle, personally examined by Elios, and now waiting for Prince Lucien to return. She had no intention of fighting.

"Who is this princess?" Roland finally asked. He already knew the answer, of course, but every extra moment helped his troops prepare.

"…You're either not being told what's happening in this world, playing dumb, or you really had nothing to do with our problem. But you're a problem in itself... The next fight is about to start. Hurry back and help your troops. We'll be coming shortly."

Arnak left with a few long-distance leaps. His towering frame and brute strength exceeded what any normal human could hope to match. Just one bound carried him dozens of meters forward.

Roland watched him vanish into the distance, then whistled for his mount. His bird responded swiftly, and he rode back to the human camp.

He didn't have to wait long after returning. The enemy had already begun to move. It seemed they wanted to flush out any traps, starting with the weakest of their forces. These might have been the rejects of their ranks, but they were the most numerous.

A few waves of such cannon fodder could easily overwhelm the four thousand troops Roland currently had.

Yet no one flinched.

Roland stood at the front of the formation, unmoved by the approaching horde. His calm presence radiated across the line, and because of it, none of his soldiers dared break formation.

As they crept closer, fueled by rage and fury, the charging demons were suddenly brought to a halt. The first few collided with a massive barrier Roland had conjured, draining mana stones to keep it active.

It quickly turned into a disastrous situation. They came at such speed and in such numbers that they couldn't stop in time, piling up against the ward. Many were crushed under the weight of their own allies, trampled before even reaching the front line.

Roland held the barrier steady, though it was Elios doing most of the heavy lifting.

They were buying time waiting for the stronger demons to reveal themselves before unleashing the full power of their prepared volley.

"Come on, is that all?" one of Roland's soldiers shouted.

The taunt rang out, and soon others joined in. Seeing the moment as ideal, the mages amplified their voices with magic, making it clear that the humans would not back down.

That was when one of the demon generals stepped forward, stomping onto the ground. It was the one clad in heavy armor.

The demon drew a sword from his back and slammed it into the earth. A burst of black flames erupted around him.

"Is that magic?" Roland heard Renar say, just as surprised as he was. The question hung in the air until realization struck.

"They're using artificial mana cores," Roland said grimly. "That's how they're casting spells. We need to destroy the crystals and their users."

Roland had already killed many of the experimental, weak demons who housed some of these cores in the pitfall traps set for him. He also recalled Norelli's warning that the demons had perfected the process.

Soon, the demon stomped on the ground, and a black steed rose from the shadows. The beast looked menacing, with glowing red eyes, two curved demonic horns, and long black hair flowing wildly in the wind.

The armored demon mounted it with ease, then raised his sword, pointing directly at the barrier as if challenging Roland to prepare himself.

He slapped the steed's flank, prompting it to charge forward at full speed toward the ward.

It looked suicidal, or so everyone thought. The barrier was like a wall facing a car going seventy miles an hour.

And yet, the fearless rider didn't slow down. Nor did the army behind him.

Roland wanted to smirk, but he couldn't. They were finally getting what they wanted, and with luck, they might even seriously wound one of the generals.

All he needed was for a good portion of the demon forces to cross into the hidden radius of the mana stones he'd buried. Once they were in range, he would tear the ground apart beneath them, ripping through both earth and enemy alike.

And that was exactly what happened.

Only the general, somehow capable of using darkness magic, managed to escape, even after breaking through the barrier in the process. Behind him, however, thousands of his troops were caught in the blast. A massive explosion tore through the battlefield, flinging bodies several meters into the air.

Roland could have ordered a volley from the catapults and ballistae to finish the job, but he held back. He wanted to save more of his tricks for the next wave.

The rider glanced back, dark flames igniting around him in a display of seething rage.

"Arvok, attack! You too, useless vampires!" he roared.

Roland was surprised. They had killed thousands in that explosion, but it still wasn't even half of the enemy's total force.

He gave the signal to pull back slightly. The enemy needed to be drawn in closer before the bombardments began.

As for the three enemy leaders, Roland had made his decision; he needed to eliminate one of them now. So he charged forward to face the lone rider directly. There would be no more stalling.

He didn't give the general time to prepare. His bird surged forward at full speed, and with a loud cry, Roland kicked off the saddle, launching himself overhead.

"Hiyaaah!"

His blade came down in a heavy arc, fueled by all the strength he could muster.

Steel met steel. A sword of black miasma clashed with a glowing white blade that seared through parts of the darkness. Both were long-swords of equal length, but it quickly became clear that the demons had superior craftsmanship. Either their own forges had advanced beyond expectation, or they were forcing captured human smiths to forge weapons for them.

The simply crafted white sword Roland had been proud of was beginning to crumble.

But he didn't plan to discard it.

He had only milliseconds to decide, and he chose to go all out.

Activating Halo Ascendance, Roland received the full buff, enhancing his speed and reflexes. At the same time, he concentrated his mana into Solar Edge.

The two spells combined, and the sword responded. It pulsed with renewed power as each embedded mana stone resonated in unison, channeling their energy into one final, explosive surge, the strongest effect Roland could summon at that moment.

It was the strongest light he had produced so far, blinding his enemy.

He pulled the blade back, spinning it like a wheel in his grip, and let it fly forward in a devastating arc aimed to cleave the demon general in half.

"Got you! I'm getting tired of you all thinking you're so great! I was summoned as a hero for a reason!"

Roland didn't stop there. He picked up the blade laced with darkness, struggling for a moment as it resisted his touch.

He couldn't wield it yet, not properly at least.

It likely required the Blessing of Darkness before it would fully obey him.

The demons, enraged by the death of one of their generals, howled with fury. The vampires, however, still did not attack. They remained wary, unwilling to risk themselves against the bursts of holy light the hero had already unleashed.

The human army, seeing the fall of one of the demons' mightiest and the vampires' hesitance, began to stir. With a renewed battle cry, they surged forward, charging to finish off the demons who had survived the barrier's collapse and the earlier explosion.

Roland didn't know the exact number, but by his own estimation, he had dealt with at least ten thousand of the hundred thousand-strong demon force.

Anark, stunned by the death of General Vezul, clenched his fists. He was not as calculating as Vezul, but he was faster, more reckless, and now furious.

"Azumorak! The field is yours! Send your fledglings forward so I can attack!" Anark barked. "We still have thousands of troops left. All the dead so far were demons! Do your part, you bastard!"

Azumorak, the vampire general, only smirked in response.

He had no intention of fighting a battle already lost. The demon princess meant little to the vampires, just another blue-skin royal whose bloodline had failed to return them to the demon realm.

A wasted effort.

The vampire commanded nearly half of his forces to retreat. Most transformed into bats, soaring into the sky in sweeping waves of brown and black.

The rest turned and ran after their master, expending no effort to conserve stamina; after all, they didn't need it.

But Anark, leader of thousands of demons, did not retreat. He was set on killing the hero.

He would not become a laughingstock. And when he returned, he would kill Azumorak, the traitorous vampire.

His fury burned too hot to contain.

"I still have more than fifty thousand, hero! You will fall today. There's no way your mana is bottomless!"