The Emperor Class

“We are winning decisively,” replied Eupoos. "The humans were far weaker than all our expectations."

“What?” Colet turned to the Magus with his eyes widened. “I thought they greatly outnumbered us?”

“They may have numbers,” said Konstite, “but they cannot fight at night to save their own skin. Feels like we're fighting a bunch of worthless beastmen!”

“For some reason,” said Eupoos, “they also didn’t bring any spellcasters with them.”

The centaur chieftain turned his attention to the battle and confirmed what Eupoos said. The Torpin Stronghold was filled with veteran officers who weren’t known for making costly mistakes like not sending spellcasters to support their frontline soldiers. Unlike the centaurs who were adept at night battles, human soldiers needed spells like Illuminate to help even the playing field. While the moon in the sky offered limited illumination, the situation greatly decreased the combat capabilities of the humans, at times to the point where they were at the mercy of their opponents. To make matters worse, Uxlut and the goblins were also adept at fighting in the dark. Essentially, the humans found themselves facing the worst possible scenario where they had little chance for victory unless they lasted until the sunrise.

“I wonder why they marched out in the first place,” remarked Eupoos.

Colet was pondering the same matter. The humans had all the advantages when it came to the siege. They had a highly defensible location that would cost the attacking side a lot of lives. With the stronghold situated in a mountain pass, the coalition couldn’t hope to fully encircle it allowing the defenders to get reinforcements and supplies regularly. The centaur chieftain knew the humans likely lacked the intel about the coalition also lacking siege weapons. Only the dwarves possessed any form of siege weapons and those kept the dwarven fortresses safe. It was simply not feasible to transport those siege weapons with them over long distances, especially when they were on a timer to stop the Purificator from firing. With everything taken into account, the coalition was in a very poor position to take the Torpin Stronghold regardless of what Skostaer thought. To march any human soldiers out of the stronghold only weakened the defenses.

“The battle is almost won,” commented Konstite. “Those flanks are collapsing. We didn't even need our allies for this.”

When he arrived with the goblins, Colet was already certain one of the flanks would collapse. The goblins and their wolves made easy work of the human soldiers allowing them to rout enemy forces. From where he stood, he watched as Ides’ bow wielders fired into the human ranks with immunity on the other flank. With neither spellcasters nor archers in the enemy formation, the humans lacked any answer to ranged attackers. Their knights were in tight formation that limited their maneuverability. To break formation would expose weaknesses so the humans were essentially sitting ducks while arrows rained down on them. At a range of about 100 meters from the humans, the centaur bow wielders made short work of the humans regardless if they had heavy armor or shields.

“What a disappointment,” said Konstite. “I wanted a good battle and instead got a one-sided slaughter. I’m heading back to camp! Let me know when there's actually a challenge.”

As Konstite led the shieldbreakers back to camp, Colet walked over to Kallosa.

“How do our casualties look?” asked the centaur chieftain.

“My healers have been idle the last hour or so.” Kallosa gestured to the temporary beds on the ground. “A few of these were filled with those suffering from arrow wounds. Due to how minor the injuries were and how few injured we received, all centaurs are back in action right now.”

“Arrow wounds? The humans did have archers?”

“Very few,” said the centaur leader. “Once those archers were picked off, we no longer had further casualties. The humans couldn't close the distance with our bow wielders without making themselves easier targets.”

“While I appreciate the fact that we lost no centaurs, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something is up. The humans aren’t stupid and yet they threw away all of these soldiers better used in the defense of their stronghold.”

“This still puzzles me and I have a bad feeling about this too,” said Eupoos with a hint of worry.

“Maybe we give them too much credit,” interrupted Actolio. “The dwarves might be right about the humans being soft and weak. And stupid for that matter. I can see us marching up to the stronghold and they'll find a way to lose that stronghold.”

“Don’t underestimate the humans,” Colet said firmly to the ax wielder leader.

Actolio lowered his head after being lectured but Colet ignored the centaur. He turned to Eupoos.

“When Notelis relayed the message from you regarding the reinforcements, he mentioned you sensing unholy powers in that human. What did you mean by unholy powers?”

“Unholy may have been the wrong word here because it suggests the power is related to something sacred or involves some god or gods.” The Magus paused to pick his word carefully. “The correct term would be dark. I sensed dark powers from that human. It was brief when the human first arrived but, to sense it from where I stood, I knew immediately he was a problem.”

“Dark powers?” said the other centaurs in unison.

“Dark powers, as the name suggests, originate from the darkness of all beings. Don’t ever be tempted by it because, behind its great power, one pays a horrible price. Old stories suggested how addictive the power was for mortals.”

“What sort of spells belong to dark powers?” inquired Colet who wanted to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“I didn’t delve deep because that’s how one gets corrupted by it. From what little I learned, dark powers involve curses, mind manipulation and summoning monsters.”

“Basically the spells of our demon allies?” asked Actolio.

The Magus broke character when he burst out laughing. It took him several seconds to regain his composure.

“What the demons use pale against dark power spells. I assure you that the real deal is much worse. If the demons wielded actual dark powers, they would be the ones we’re fighting, not the humans.”