A little reminder: Before Erina, Armant and Wilhelm left for their adventures in the Re-estize kingdom, they fought their way out of an outpost that was taken back by monsters. The next chapter(s) will be about what happened and why.

Back in Rida kingdom, three months after Erina Electra, Armant Electra and Wilhelm Capirossi went away on their adventure, leaving the king and the queen to manage the country. Currently, the king was in his palace, up the mountain Riyal was built on.

« Sir, there's a goblin ambassador. »

Merick Electra, the king of the Rida kingdom was surprised. He was having a reunion with his counselors and a few nobles to decide of a new policy regarding the Night's sons, the most powerful criminal organization when a page came to interrupt. The meeting room was luxurious, fitted to be able to welcome prestigious guests, with a big round stone table and chairs, beautiful paintings hanging on the walls and a big window letting the sun in. They were seven people around the table including the king.

"If it's a goblin ambassador, he must come from the Brolur monarchy, right?"

The one who spoke was Kelsig Valra and he was an important noble of the Rida kingdom. The Brolur monarchy he was speaking of was a kingdom founded fifty years ago by a powerful goblin, Brolur. Since that time, each king took the name of Brolur in his honor. Usually goblins tended to stay in a tribe system, but Brolur was an exception, and thanks to him they became a rival to the Rida kingdom, trying to invade the country. But the Ridan defences and troops were powerful, and the neighbouring monster countries didn't dare to help the goblins in their goal.

Despite being goblins, the inhabitants of the Brolur were quite educated in comparison to their kinsmen and the ruling caste maintained a strict but efficient dictature.

"Let him in."

The king Merick made a regal gesture with his hand, showing his ruling experience. Despite his age, his still present muscles and the sharp gaze showed a man in his full capacities. But that was only for the show. In reality, Merick was becoming old and tired, and it was only thanks to his wife the queen, Arlette Electra and her potions that he could walk with his head held high.

The door was opened, and the same page announced the guest.

"Sir Danqito Scrattlepot, ambassador of the goblin king Brolur the 12th of the Brolur kingdom."

From the opened door came a small figure. It was a goblin with an olive-green skin, half the height of a human. He was wearing dark leather pants and boots, a belt with a gold buckle and a black tail-coat over a white shirt. On his nose was hanging a monocle and his head was bald.

He entered and bowed deeply before the assembly.

"Hello, king of the humans, Merick Electra. I come, bearing a message from my king, Brolur the 12th."

The goblin had a crackling voice, and had trouble saying some words. The goblin language was much simpler after all.

It was a curious thing, to see a goblin having such manners, and even more for a goblin country to use such diplomatic ways. But they had no choice. The Brolurian territory was boarded on one side by the Rida kingdom, by an elven forest on the opposite side and a centaur oligarchy on another side. The Brolur goblin kingdom was allowed to be recognized as an official country by these three for various reasons. The first was that the goblins evicted the once violent orc tribes that lived in these wastelands. The second was that the Brolur king "played by the rules" of diplomacy. The third was that the goblins were able to extract a lot of raw resources from their land cheaply, making a good trading partner. The king took a severe face and spoke.

"Speak, messenger. I appreciate a diplomatic mission, but it doesn't change the fact that your kinsmen have tried to invade mine several times by now. Is it another declaration of war?"

In fact, the Ridans were expecting a declaration of war for quite some time for now. Traditionally, the goblins tried to invade roughly every five years, and it had been six years since the last invasion.

"You are wise, king Electra. Indeed, my king Brolur the 7th has declared war on the Ridans. He firmly believes the Ridan territory is his by birth right, and considers the presence of humans a threat to his people. He will accept your surrender if you hand him all the gold your country can produce for the next five years, as well as your technological and magical resources."

The king sighed mentally. The goblins had a true talent to find dumb reasons to declare a war. The nobles and counselors weren't surprised either. It didn't take long for the king to answer.

"So be it. Tell your king we accept the declaration, and will fight back. Now scram, before I order my people to behead you."

The goblin smiled mysteriously.

"Of course, king Merick. But I wouldn't be so sure of myself if I were you."

Still smiling, the goblin went out of the room, leaving the humans to talk about the preparations to do.

Merick Electra raised from his chair, and looked by the window the goblin carriage pulled by wolves going away. The room was silent, the four nobles and the two counselors were waiting for his orders.

"In my name, Merick Electra, and as the king of the Ridans, I order. Summon the army! The time has come to defend our land!"

The six humans raised from their chairs, bowed before the king and said at the same time.

"Yes, my king!"

The goblins were attacking, the nation was in danger, and once more the Ridans would prove their tenacity to the other countries.

"The king is recruiting! There's a lot of money to make, and you could possibly gain a noble title! If you wish to protect your land and gain honour, go to the nearest barracks to get recruited!"

The king had ordered it, so the nation reacted. In the cities of Riyal, Jodal, Greylo, Drakks and much more, royal spokesmen were shouting at every corner, trying to recruit people in the army. In fact, there was already a Ridan professional army, which usually patrolled the country, but a war was always a good occasion to recruit a lot of people quickly. These people would not be sent to the front, they would be only given guard duties or easy fights, while the more experienced part of the army went into the heat of the battle.

With this system, the veterans would absolutely wreck the enemy army, helped by the divisions of battle mages, war wizards, archers, crossbowmen and cavalry.

Once part of the veterans, the core of the army, a soldier could try to get into a special unit. Special units were divisions of fighters which received a title from the king when they accomplished an impressive feat in battle, and were usually stronger than the regular army.

Just to name a few, the Sun Spirian cavalry, from Sun Spire was known to wreck havoc in the enemy infantry divisions, using lances to skewer them, swords to finish the remaining ones and harvested the light of the sun to cast buffs on themselves, leaving nothing but a trail of dead bodies behind them.

The Sword players of Catal wielded huge enchanted two-handed swords and were equipped with armors only covering the vital parts of the body. That made them the perfect shock troops, dealing huge damage and then moving away before the enemy could retaliate.

The brothers of the phoenix were a mage unit, specialized in fire magic. In a single salvo of fire spells, they could burn hundreds of enemies, turning them to ashes.

The black knights, they had nothing special apart from their all-black armor and their extensive training, but their loyalty to the king was absolute, they would even accept a suicide order without flinching.

The magius engineers. They came from the school of magic engineering of Duralis, and were capable of building the fearsome magic cannons which gave painful headaches to enemy strategists. They were also capable of building defenses very quickly, using golems and magic machines to move stones and build barricades. Occasionally, they would also try out their new inventions on the battlefield.

And a lot more, but the most prestigious one, the most looked up to was the knighthood of the stargazers. One couldn't enter like that in that unit, one had to be selected by the various stargazer inspectors. The stargazers had the knights with the most vitality, the most precise rangers, the most powerful mages, and they always were right at the core of the combat, unleashing their spells and martial arts to crush every bit of enemy resistance without hesitation. It was said that a Stargazer knight could take hundreds of hits before even starting to feel pain. It was said a stargazer wizard could freeze, burn, or melt ten men in a single spell. There were a lot of said things on Stargazers, and a lot of them were true.

From the deepest parts of the countries, the army was summoned near the border, at the fortress city Jodal. Only the minimal amount of guards was left in villages and cities to protect, while the training grounds bustled with clanking metal, shouts, and the magic schools lit by light of various colors and strange sounds magic could produce.

Jodal's walls were built to cover the entire mountain pass leading to the Ridan territory. In addition to the five layers of massive enchanted wall, magic mine fields were covering the plain leading to the city, bunkers where sharpshooters and mages could kill from were carved directly into the mountain. A lot of magic cannons were waiting at the walls, ready to shoot fearsome cannonballs enchanted to explode at contact directly into the enemy army. Behind the walls, trebuchets were ready to launch their ammunition. They could launch conventional stones, but also huge glass balls filled with poisonous gases, explosive jars or worse things. In addition to all those fearsome defenses, there were a lot of hidden mechanisms. The fortress city had so much defenses before coming to the first residential districts that even the all-powerful Uthuestein dark elf empire only reached the third wall before backing away from all the losses and ask for a peace treaty. Jodal was a true nightmare to siege, and the goblins knew this too well. Nevertheless, they always tried. Was it because they were bored? Desperate? No one knew, but one thing was sure, the chances of success were close to none.

Two days after the declaration of war, the first goblin scouts were spotted outside Jodal's walls. There were only goblins mounted on wolves, and the Ridan rangers hidden in the grass, on a tree or even half-submerged into a pond started taking them out with crossbows. It was important to disrupt the flow of information the enemy army could receive. That way, the Ridan forces could eventually prepare ambushes to damage them even before the fight began.

A war was not only physical, but also a psychological war. All the fields outside of the city were burnt without losses, it was winter after all and no major crops were growing. But the impact on the goblins when they would come and see that the food they wanted to pillage was burning would be huge.

"Finally, the day has come…"

The king, Merick Electra was standing on the walls. In front of him, a green horde was camping down the walls, out of reach. He was wearing his battle attire, even if he probably wouldn't even need his sword today. He wore a beautiful armor made of light green metal carved with dragons, covering his whole body. On his back, a huge two-handed curved sword was lying, ready to chop to pieces everything smaller than a ogre. On his head was the crown, made of white gold and numerous gems of all the colors. By his side was a banner bearer, holding the banner with the Ridan crest, a white sword and shield, beneath a crown, all on a dark purple background

Of course, he wouldn't fight with his crown if needed, but he was commanding the army today. Normally, the strategists were taking care of that, but today he needed to give a morale boost to his troops. And it wasn't like the strategists couldn't help him devising a strategy.

The weather was a clear, but it was the morning, making people feel chilly despite the sun warming them up. The land in front of Jodal was a huge plain, all the trees were cut and all the hills razed precisely to make it easier for the Ridans to defend themselves.

The goblins had already formed in square battle formations, and were shouting obscenities in their strange language at the humans. But humans couldn't even hear them properly, so they didn't mind. All the soldiers currently at the wall were used to fighting monsters, and on top of the walls they felt like nothing would ever damage them.

"The numbers?"

The king asked, and one of the strategists by his side answered.

"We expect about ten millions on their side, and 20 000 on ours. 170 000 more is expected to come to us as reinforcements within four days."

Merick was quite surprised, it was the first time the goblins had gathered so much of them for an invasion. But he wasn't afraid. Their numbers meant nothing if the Ridans could keep them from getting on the walls. One of the strategists looking with a spyglass shouted.

"Siege weapons incoming!"

From within the Brolurian army came various strange war machines. Goblins were bad at magic. REALLY bad. A regular goblin shaman could barely win a fight with a Ridan magic senior student. But if there was one thing goblins had to be praised for, it was their engineering. They compensated their lack in magic by building strange machines. Most of those machines were usually badly built and fell apart, but if only one of them worked properly the potential damage was big.

A swarm of trebuchets, catapults, machines with axes at one end, and a drill at the other end, ballistas, and even strange flying machines with big round parts at the top came, from the ground and the sky. They would be later known as hot air balloons.

"Engineers, activate the wall defences! Sharpshooters, aim in priority at those flying things!"

The orders were echoed on the wall, as the bannermen repeated the orders so everyone could hear them. Slowly, a buzzing sound was heard, it gained in volume until a clear crystalline sound was heard and no more. The non-mage troops couldn't see it, but the enchanted walls had just been activated.

Along the wall, things started moving as archers knocked their arrows, crossbowmen loaded their bolts, engineers loaded the magic cannons with cannonballs, mages prepared to launch spells from their staves or wands, stones were loaded on the trebuchets and catapults and the engineers prepared themselves to activate the various traps laid in front of the walls.

On the other side, the goblins were already aiming their siege engines, but something else was happening. A clamor was heard by the Ridans, and a huge horde ran forward. Except they weren't goblins. Orcs, humans, dwarves, demi-humans and even trolls and ogres ran with all their might. Some had weapons, but the majority had nothing more than a piece of cloth on them and a stick. Thinking about it, the clamor sounded more like a shout of desperation.

"Slaves…"

Merick Electra was furious. He valued life, and didn't like the concept of slavery. Yet, the goblins sent slaves forward, as nothing more than cannon fodder. The feeling was generally the same for all the Ridans. This slave wave had no other goal than activating the traps so the goblins could walk forward without fearing them.

One of the strategists spoke to the king.

"Sir, I'm sorry but deactivating the traps and reactivating them would be too long. The goblins would walk past them before they could be used again."

The king grinded his teeth, before answering.

"Damn it, keep these traps activated."

The slaves kept running, and suddenly explosions started happening. They had reached the magic mine fields, and they had no choice but to rely on luck to avoid death. Some tried to run back to the goblin lines, but arrows came to welcome them. Between the volley of arrows from the goblins and the Ridan traps, their chances of surviving were close to none.

While the slaves were getting slaughtered, the goblins fired their siege weapons. The rocks and various projectiles were launched at a fearsome speed and were so much they darkened the sky. They were about to hit the wall or the defenders on it, and bounced back before hitting anything. A transparent bluish wall was activated, and defended the wall from all attacks. A report came to Merick from a strategist.

"My king, a report from the wall engineers. If the goblins have that much firepower, the enchantment should last for ten hours before all the mana is consumed."

The walls had a powerful enchantment, but it was very mana-consuming. Adding to the fact that the numerous enchantments had to cover the whole wall, it couldn't last for very long, despite the gigantic mana reserves gathered over the years.

"Cannons, aim to their siege weapons! The rest, aim for their flying machines! For our people! For our land! For Rida!"

A shout was heard from the wall giving courage to the humans intimated by the number of goblins, and the Ridan power was unleashed. It was a fearsome sight to see. All the cannons fired at once, making the cannoneer's ears go numb. The goblins siege weapons hit directly were blasted to pieces, while the ones who miraculously avoided the deadly enchanted cannonballs were damaged from the effects of the magic unleashed.

The mages released their spells, lighting up the battlefield in a myriad of colors. The hot-air ballons, lightly defended, couldn't resist the onslaught of magic, and more than a quarter of them got shot down in a single volley.

The sharpshooters fired their bows and crossbows, darkening the sky from all the shots fired. The thousands of bolts and arrows, helped by gravity, fell onto the goblin forces with enough strength to go right through the shields the they were trying to protect themselves with.

The catapults, trebuchets and ballistas made as much damage as the rest, flattening and breaking bones in the green-skin lines.

The Ridans shouted out of excitement. Seeing so much goblins dying in a single volley of ranged weapons was indeed quite impressive. The king Merick was happy as well, but not for long. The counter-attack was devastating and thousands of goblins died in the span of a few seconds, but that wasn't enough.

There were around ten million goblins attacking Jodal, and that wasn't counting the potential reinforcements they could receive. The Ridan defences were hard as adamantium, but they had a limited amount of ammunition. And Merick knew the common goblin strategy.

They sent first the prisoners, slaves and weak fighters, to make their enemies use up their resources and appear weak, and then their elite troops came in, slaughtering the tired warriors who didn't expect to meet such powerful goblins.

And like that, the struggle of the goblins to take the impregnable fortress began.

During all the day, the thunder of the magic cannons rang. The occasional darkening of the sky from all the arrows shot. The constant and various light from all the magic cast. When the mana needed to maintain the huge enchantment on the wall ran out, the occasional human scream could be heard when someone was unlucky enough to get hit.

Behind the five defensive walls, the forges of Jodal kept working, producing cannonballs and passing them to the enchanters. The chimneys of the alchemy district kept spewing smoke with different colors, to produce enough mana potions to the mages and wizards fighting on the walls. Even the students of the schools of alchemy, magic and magic engineering throughout the realm participated in the war effort by producing inferior but cheaper consumables immediately bought by the army and sent to Jodal.

The queen Arlette Electra was taking care of the country, while Merick was at war. Currently, he was eating a frugal dinner in the dim light of the sunset coming through a window of the Jodal palace, reading a report when a page interrupted him.

"My king, sir Hugo Delvo wishes to talk to you."

"Let him in."

Sir Delvo was the baron in charge of Jodal. As the lord of the most important military fortress of the country, he had the second most powerful influence in the country after the king. He was a strong man in his forties, with muscles bulging, a light leather armor, short hair and a square face. If someone wanted the picture of a warrior, he was the perfect example.

"Baron Delvo, what is the matter?"

Hugo Delvo was a practical man, and he went straight to the point.

"Sir, we have been infiltrated. Goblins successfully went in our defenses, and collapsed half of our caves containing cannonballs. If we salvage what we can from the rubble we can keep bombarding and suppressing the goblins continuously for four days with the magic cannons, but after that we will have to rely on the goods crafted directly in Jodal, and there won't be enough to sustain a suppressing fire powerful enough to stop the goblins from reaching the walls. The mages, sharpshooters and other siege machines will slow them down but that's all. And as the enchantment on the walls is long depleted, we will have to go in close-combat with them I'm afraid."

The king put back the report he was reading on the table, crossed his hands and rested his head on them. That was quite the troubling news.

The reason the Ridan martial abilities were so feared in the other countries were due mainly to the magic cannons. The elves were good at magic, seeing the cannons as something inferior to their mana handling, and the dwarves didn't like tainting their crafts with magic, preferring runes. The truth was that the former was not good enough at producing the complex craft of a cannon, and the latter was not good enough with magic to use the cannons to their full potential. Only the humans of the Rida kingdom were capable of using magic cannons and drawing out their maximum power. And they kept the secret jealously, not selling the technology even for enough gold to buy a country.

But if the magic cannons didn't have ammunition and couldn't keep suppressing the goblins, they were useless. And in conventional warfare, the troops number played a big role. And the goblins had much, MUCH more troops than the Ridans.

"How much goblins did we take out today?"

"It is estimated we annihilated about 500 000 of them. And tonight's ritual should take out around 50 000 of them."

The ritual was something done by the most powerful Ridan wizard. He was one of the few people that the King's genius mage daughter, Erina Electra still couldn't beat in a mage duel. The ritual in itself was a complicated use of wild magic. With all the dead goblins today, using as much as 500 000 souls to power a spell could be akin to a cataclysm.

"So, in theory we should hold on for twenty days. I will issue a royal decree for the citizens of the kingdom to help in the cannonball production. They won't like it, but it's that or death. We will also retreat to the second wall, so we can kill them in the murderzone. Begin the resource moving for tonight."

"Yes, my king!"

There were three reasons to retreating to the second wall. The first one was that by moving all the weapons on the first wall to the second which was as much armed as the first basically doubled the Ridan firepower. The second reason was that between each wall, there was the "murderzone". The murderzone was a place specifically designed to kill invaders easily. Traps, flat ground, poisoned ponds, adding to the fact that the humans could shoot from the wall, but also from the mountains on each side made it so an army stepping into was making a deathwish. And the final reason was that Merick knew that eventually they would have to retreat to the second wall, and it was better to do it while having the time to move all the weapon, equipment and resources so they didn't fall into goblin hands.

The baron Delvo left the room already telling his orders to the page following him, while the king went back to reading a report.

During all the night, the walls were bustling with activity. In addition to the thunder of the cannons and the goblin shouts, people ran with crates in their hands, moving everything valuable to the second wall. Insults, orders and the sound of every weapon being moved made such a ruckus they couldn't hear the goblins anymore. Gradually, the cannons on the wall were moved, silencing the battlefield. It was kind of weird, after being used all the day to the sound of the cannonade.

The bunkers were abandoned, and finally the first wall was left with no defenders. Thinking the Ridans were fleeing, the goblins shouted a victory cry and started using battering rams to bring the gate down. But they were no simple gates. Entirely of orichalcum, reinforced with adamantium and enchanted, it took also the whole night the goblins to finally break through, giving enough time for the humans to arm the second wall.

The Ridans immediately started shooting at them, except the cannons. It was weird for them not to, but the cannoneers didn't question the orders and just loaded them as it was ordered.

But without the cannons to suppress the goblins, they quickly broke through the weakened barrage and ran to the second wall, ignoring their kinsmen caught in traps or blasted apart by magic or else.

Merick was watching the battlefield, nervous. If the strategy he imagined didn't work, they would be in great difficulty. He waited, crossed arms, for something only he and the strategists knew about. This was a very risky bet. If it didn't work, they could lose the battle, but if it did, the goblins would suffer tremendous damage.

Despite the murderzone between each wall being one kilometer wide, it took only a few minutes for it to become a green swarm covering the whole ground. But it seemed the goblin troops were gaining in quality. What were before goblins with simple cloth and spears, were now armored troops, wearing simple armors and more advanced weaponry, walking in coordinated formations to minimize the damage dealt by the cannons. Finally, from the broken gate of the first wall came the thing the king was waiting for. Goblins, clad in dark heavy armor covering their whole body, holding metal shields and long ladders.

"Yes! Finally! Cannons, prepare to fire on the armored troops!"

The king's orders were echoed along the wall. The cannons were aimed at the heavily armed goblin troops incoming and waited.

"Not yet…"

More and more of them came.

"Not. Yet…"

The Ridans looked nervously at the swarm approaching. The cannons couldn't fire at the base of the wall, so if they got too close it would be problematic.

"Not yet…"

The mages unleashed their powers, trying to somehow slow down the green skins. Finally, the last armored goblin came out of the gate, letting other normally armed goblins pass behind them.

"Wait a bit more…"

The goblin vanguard finally crashed into the wall. Even the mighty building trembled a bit from the weight of thousands of goblins combined hitting it at once.

"Just a little bit…"

Improvised battering rams started damaging the gate. The numerous other who didn't have enough place to hit the gate started hitting the wall itself. The armored goblins were now half way through the murderzone, and they started to raise the ladders they were holding.

"Now!"

More than 300 magic cannons shot at once, shredding and tearing apart the armored goblins. Explosions blasted them apart, fire burnt the remains and acid liquid melted the ashes. The magical effects lasted for at least ten seconds, while cries and screeches of pain were heard. The shock of the attack was so great, both humans and goblins stopped their actions and looked in awe at the area filled with smoke. The impact was so great that even the nearby goblins who didn't get hit died on the spot, their internal organs exploding from the blastwave generated.

The battlefield was in complete silence, even the siege weapons had had been silenced to look at the commotion. A Ridan mage used a wind spell to dissipate the smoke, but there was nothing to see. Just a huge crater, five meters deep, with the rocks at the bottom red-hot from the heat generated.

Both sides were shocked. The Ridans, because they didn't know they could unleash such fearsome power, and the goblins because they took the full strength of said power.

The humans shouted, excited by the massacre, while the goblins ran back to the first wall, screaming in fear. The green-skin's morale had been completely and utterly smashed apart.

"Now's the time, Ridans! pursue them and push them back to the first gate!"

The Ridan regular army had been prepared behind the gates of the second wall prior to the battle. They couldn't see what was happening behind the wall, but from what they heard, it was their victory and they were excited to charge outside. Finally, the gate opened, and they went out with a war cry, pursuing the panicked goblins.

The Sun Spirian cavalry went out first, using their lances to skewer the slower hobgoblins. Then, the Baral salamander riders, then the regular Ridan cavalry.

From behind the cavalry came running infantry units, while the sharpshooters and spell casters wrecked havoc from the walls or bunkers.

Among the goblin lines, it was absolute chaos. A little goblin named Knod ran with all his might to the gates of the first wall. He was pretty weak, even for a goblin, but he got drafted anyway.

He knew the unit specially trained for three years, armed with the best armors, blessed by the shamans, protected by spells. Like a lot of goblins in Brolur, he looked up to them, for they were the strongest warriors of the army. And just like that, they died. Nothing was left of them. Not even a tiny piece.

He was running while trying to avoid falling, if he did he would be trampled on by the other goblins running.

The sound of the cannons shooting finally stopped. The spells cast by the humans were powerful, but the most terrifying was definitely these cannons. Thinking he finally had a chance to get out of here alive, he looked back, only to get even more terrified.

The human cavalry was charging the goblins back, slaughtering them like pigs. They were even war salamanders charging, breathing flames and chomping in addition to the human on top of it fighting. And behind them, thousands and thousands of humans on feet, charging and shouting war cries.

Knod was a little more intelligent than his kinsmen. Every goblin knew how to count, read and write, but Knod spent more time, reading books written by famous goblins or stolen from caravans. He could see and understand that the humans were trying to break apart the army, but he knew also that they were a LOT more goblins.

Thinking about his thirteen children and his wife back at home, he feared. He knew that traditionally the Ridans only defended themselves, but at some point, they would reach their breaking point and would attack the Brolurians to get revenge. And he feared for his family. He slowed down, picked a spear abandoned on the ground, and raised it.

"Come on, goblins! They are strong, but there are two, no, three million more of us! Fight back! We can d-"

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He looked down, and saw that there was a lance skewering him. He was pushed against three more goblins in the same situation before him, he felt another one on his back, before the knight dropped his lance that looked like it belonged on a grill now.

The few goblins who tried to fight back were killed as easily as that, and the others just tried to get to the gates as fast as possible. The commanders and strategists tried to get the goblins back to fighting, but the situation was beyond saving.

This day, the goblin army lost 1 500 000 of its members at the hands of the Ridan army.

Merick Electra was finally relaxing a bit. The bet he made was very dangerous. He knew beforehand that the goblins had a unit specifically trained and equipped to make a foothold on the walls, while the other goblins would go up the ladders they would have prepared. That way, they could overrun the Ridans with the numbers.

He specifically gave orders to the cannons not to shoot to trick the goblins in believing they had no cannonballs anymore, and it worked. If it didn't work, the goblins would be currently destroying the gate and it would have been very complicated to drive them back.

But the bet succeeded, and thanks to that the most dangerous goblin unit had been annihilated. It would take them at least a few hours to calm down and reform the battle formations, giving the Ridans a well-deserved rest.

Despite the goblins losing their most powerful unit, they still had 7 500 000 more waiting behind the first wall. But the Ridans destroyed the most dangerous threat in a single cannon volley. That was quite satisfying, for Merick felt like he got vengeance for the caves filled with ammunition collapsed.

One hour after that, the report came. The king invited the baron Delvo to discuss of it, when he was interrupted.

"But, my king, we can't attack their supply chain, we need all the army here, we sh…"

A page opened the door violently, panting and trying to catch his breath. He was quickly caught by the royal guards on each side of the door. He was quite young, and got easily controlled while he was trying to break free. Merick raised from his chair, and walked in front of him.

"Release him. What is happening? You wouldn't ignore the security if it wasn't important."

From behind, a group of guard came running. It seemed they were pursuing the page that just ran past them. Seeing the king, they immediately stopped. The sergeant walked a step in his direction and bowed.

"Sorry my king! We couldn't catch him and-"

Merick signalled him to shut up.

"Speak. What is happening, page?"

The young boy tried to talk, but he was short of breath.

"Baron Delvo, bring him something to drink!"

"Yes!"

The baron brought the glass filled with alcohol he was drinking from and gave it to the boy. He drank, but immediately coughed when he felt the liquid burning his throat.

"The… The undead! They came from the transfer gates! In Riyal, Sidal, Kazgray and Barakzul ! Un… Undead! And D…Demons! And… The guards! The…Ci...Citizens! Death! Th…The…"

The boy was panicking, so the king put his hand on his shoulder.

"The undead…And Demons…"

He closed his eyes, and formed a fist with his other hand.

"HOW DARE THEY!"

He suddenly got up. His eyes were burning with fury, and he was trembling with rage.

"They will PAY! I SWEAR, BROLUR, IF THAT'S YOUR FAULT I'LL COME PERSONALLY TO LAY WASTE TO YOUR KINGDOM!"

Even Hugo Delvo was surprised. Despite being a friend of the king for a long time, it was the first time he had seen him so angry.

"SERGEANT!"

The man in charge of the squad stood at attention, a little bit scared.

"I'll go deal with that. Tell the Weeping maidens, the Archers of the Storm, 250 Stargazer mages and 250 clerics to be prepared to go out in under an hour. Use my seal!"

He took out the ring on his finger, and threw it at the sergeant.

"Hugo, you will be in charge of the operations here."

"Yes, my king!"

He looked around, and saw a maid waiting. She got scared when he looked at her with a furious gaze.

"And you! Why are you not preparing my battle attire already! Go!"

"Y…Yes!"

She ran out of the room as fast as she could, holding her maid dress up to avoid tripping.

"I swear on my name, if this isn't a coincidence you'll pay dearly, Brolur."

Half an hour later, the king got out of Jodal on horse, followed by an army. There were 5000 people following him.

2500 members of the Weeping Maidens. They were a unit composed entirely of women, wielding swords and large wooden and leather shields. They all wore the same armor, leather boots and pants, a chainmail over a light blue cloth tunic going up to the knees, fur bracers on their arms and a metal helmet covering the upper part of the face and the neck. Some of them had throwing axes hanging at their belts. They also had a tattoo of a teardrop under their right eye, showing their origins. The weeping maidens was a unit created when Tarmeg, the city deep into the mountains got sieged. The defenders gradually died from the monsters attack, and the women, grieving their husbands and lovers took the arms to replace them.

1500 members of the Archers of the Storm. Their name was actually a trick to deceive the enemy. They had the name of archers. They had the equipment of archers. They acted as archers. But their main activity was recon and assassination from distance.

The stargazer mages lived up to the reputation of the order, as only the best mages were accepted into the unit. Dark blue robes with silver decorations, staves with a mana stone the color of the magic they specialized in and various jewellery, buffing up their already powerful destructive ability was their equipment.

The clerics were not actually priests. They were trained in light and water magic, to be able to heal any wound and purify any negative effect. But they did not need to actually worship a god. They havested the power necessary to cast their spells from faith, but it could be faith in anything. Even in the village of Hayle, there were famous alcoholomancers who believed in the god of alcohol. They were not very useful though, as they were drunk most of the times. That way, the clerics from the Ridan army could believe in whatever they wanted as long as their spells worked.

The king himself wore his usual light green full plate armor and a huge two-handed sword on his back. The armor was engraved with dragons and dragon-related pictures all over, and the sword was curved with a hilt made of dragon scale. In place of the pommel, there was an emerald the size of an egg.

It took them two days of walking to reach Sidal, one of the cities mentioned by the boy. The city was eerily quiet, so a recon team formed by archers of the storm was sent, and they came back in an hour.

It turned out the inhabitants were hiding, and the undead were roaming the streets. Not much though, as most of them were banging on the gate of the castle of the lord. The citizens who reached it in time barricaded themselves in it, hoping for help. Some demons were also attacking, but the castle was made to withstand a long and tiresome siege. An undead horde and a few spells would not make the gate falter. The king was in front of the open gate, talking with the commanders of each corp.

"Falea Svidar, you will lead your troops, and I will lead the charge with you through the main street up to the castle."

Faela Svidar was the commander of the Weeping Maidens. She answered with a strong Nordic accent.

"Yes, my king! We will live, or we will see each other in Valhalla!"

"Flin Ferdo, follow the Maidens, protect them with wards and cast your spells."

The commander of the Stargazer battle mages answered in a soft, almost mysterious voice under his long, grey beard.

"It's been a long time since I made the undead taste my magic…"

"Lamar Ectaris, I want half of your archers on the roofs following the main corp, and I want the other half to scout the rest of the city to wipe the small groups of undead while we take care of the ones at the castle."

The man raised his eyes from the shadows of his dark green hood for a moment.

"It shall be done."

"Renly Ford, mix your clerics with the Maidens to be protected. You know what to do."

The man was actually a young man who had barely twenty years old, but his prowess in healing magic was so great he received an important military position as soon as he left the magic school. Today was a test of his skills, and his first battle.

"The god of knowledge, T'kara, shall give me and my companions power."

The king looked at his subordinates, all kneeling in front of him.

"Good. In one hour, I want this filth exterminated from my kingdom. To battle!"

"To battle!"

The battle to retake the city began easily. The archers had already infiltrated and opened the main gate, and they set forth.

Walking beside Falea, Merick looked at the damages done to the city, and things were better than he expected. Most of the doors were closed, the windows were barricaded from the inside. It seemed the inhabitant swiftly reacted and only a few houses were destroyed.

The few undead roaming the streets in front of them were either shot down by arrows, or by a spell even before the Maidens and the king came to contact. As they walked, more and more corpses started littering the streets. Some were unidentified monsters, some were humans, and some of them wore the usual Ridan city guard armor.

Suddenly, a girlish voice echoed in the silent streets.

"Mama, mama! Look! It's like in the book you showed me! It's the King! Mama!"

On the first floor of a building, a little girl was looking by the barely low enough window for her, pointing her finger at the king. Another voice was heard, probably from an older woman.

"Annie, come back! You must be quiet or they will- By the gods!"

She recognized as well the face of the king, and covered her wide open mouth with one hand, before running back inside.

"George! It's the King Merick!"

"What?!"

"Quickly, go outside!"

"But-"

"Go!"

The sound of people running inside was heard, and Merick raised his hand to order the army to stop. Multiple locks were opened, and a man was practically thrown outside. He wore a city guard armor, but the helmet was lacking, stains were on the cloth parts, a badly damaged shortsword was hanging at his belt, on his face an unkept beard and a half-filled bottle in one hand.

He immediately dropped the bottle, and ran in uncertain steps to the king before kneeling. A woman in her fourties came as well and kneeled, while the little girl was hiding behind the door and peeked.

"My… My king! Are you here to...*hic*… to save us?"

Merick nodded, acknowledging the guard's loyalty despite his drunken state.

"Of course. I wouldn't let my citizen be killed by undead and demons without reacting. Tell me what happened."

The man changed his position, begging in front of the king.

"I'm sorry your m…Majesty, but there was nothing we c…*hic*…Could do. They appeared through the…The…The transfer gate without warning, and caused chaos, a week ago? M..*hic*…Maybe?. We contained them for some time, but all the mages working at the t…Transfer gate had been already killed, and we didn't know how to turn it off. More and more of them came through the gate, and we couldn't contain them anymore. My squad was there, and it was a bl…Bloody massacre. Only half of the citizen had been put to safety inside the castle, but they panicked and closed the gates, leaving us outs…*hic*…Outside. The captain just screamed to everyone to run away and barricade themselves while we tried to contain them a little bit more, but it was too late. A big demon appeared, and… He grabbed the captain and crushed his head with his bare hands. We… I ran away. I just wanted to protect my family, and we barricaded ourselves. Some of us tried to run away from the city, but another demon was at each gate, and they had already closed ever…Every…Everu…Everything."

The sergeant waited for his punishment. He deserted after all, and desertion during a battle was a serious crime. Despite his state, he was very conscious of his acts and sobered up quickly in front of the ruler of the country.

"How are the survivors doing?"

A little surprised by the question, the guardsman answered.

"I'm not sure. The orphans of the local orphanage are acting as messengers by running and jumping on the roofs, and they told us there's a demon commanding at least 100 skeletons wiping out the survivors. From what they know, they killed everyone in the market district already, and are doing the same in the noble district right now. And the ones hiding in the castle are s…Safe, the gate is beare…Barely scratched."

The King watched the family, thinking about what to do.

"I can't punish a man who just wanted to protect his family, but I can't leave you out of the military rules either. Sergeant, give me your accreditation!"

"Yes!"

The man raised from his begging position, ripped off the bronze-colored sword decoration woven on his shoulder and gave it to the king. Merick threw away the symbol without a second thought.

"You're not a sergeant anymore, you're back to being a simple guard. I have a task for you. Pass the news: The King is here, you are safe. The places behind us should be safe of any threat, but tell every person still able to fight to patrol the streets, just to be sure. And, not on any circumstance, do not come to the center of the city until I haven't dealt with them. Am I clear?"

"Yes, my King!"

The guard saluted, and ran to a house to bang on the door with his fist. Meanwhile, the wife did the same, running in the other direction, followed by the little girl.

"Falea, change the formation of your unit as you see fit. Lamar, tell your archers to destroy that horde in the noble district in priority. We go."

"Yes!"

Just as the reports said, there weren't much enemies on the streets. It seemed the demons were the commanders and the undead simple soldiers.

The city was built in a circular manner, with the castle in the center. Surrounding the castle was a big empty space, in which was usually a big market. But now, all the stalls had been burned, destroyed or trampled by the thousands of undead who tried to get inside the castle. Their moans weren't very intimidating, but it was a powerful psychological weapon. With no chance of escape, hearing the most hated thing by the living constantly, imagining what could happen if they caught you led more than one onto the path of madness.

More than hearing, seeing an undead was a dreadful experience. The white bones of the skeletons, their rusted weapons, the firesouls in their eye sockets, the rotted flesh hanging from the zombie's members, the bloated undead filled with negative energy, and even worse the demons among them. They weren't many compared to the unliving, but they were as much if not more fear-inspiring. Unnatural red, sick milky white, yellow, even multiple colors of skin, their faces, smiling and their eyes hating everything and everyone… Everything from the undead and demon army oozed malice and darkness.

As soon as the Ridans appeared from the streets, the demons shouted orders and the undead redirected their hunger for flesh on the humans.

Merick, Faela, Flin, Renly and Lamar shouted their orders too.

[Magic ward]!

[Lugh's blessing]!

[Wall of protection from arrows]!

[Jericho's blessing]!

[Stone skin]!

[Holy fire]!

[Expanded magic: Holy ground]!

[Turn undead]!

All the spells cast by the Ridan clerics literally made the human army brimming with fire and holy light, the most threatening elements against demons and undead.

The humans charged at the army of darkness, some weak undead couldn't take so much holy power and dissipated into ashes, disintegrated on the spot. But they had magic casters too. In contrast of the clear human voices, the undead mages cast their magic with an eerily spectral voice, while the demons had various voices. Some had a rough tone, like gravel being crushed, while others had a very appealing feminine voice and body, trying to lure the weak-minded humans into their grasp. That was one of the reasons Merick chose one of the rare all-women unit to fight the demons. He knew how they fought traditionally. The succubae's natural attraction was nearly useless in this situation.

[Dark rule]!

[Appeal of the demonic realm]!

[Unholy temptation]!

[Fallen's whip]!

[Fly swarm]!

[Fireball]!

[Mutate flesh]!

[Bone curse]!

[Soul rift]!

While the infantry clashed, it became a duel between the mages of each army. The goal was to damage the enemy infantry as much as possible, while finding the right spell to counter the enemy doing the same.

At the front, Merick was doing great damage to the enemy army by himself. He used his curved two-handed sword to cut his enemies in halves, with no chance of surviving. Even the skeletons who should be reviving because of the [Dark rule] spell stayed on the ground thanks to the [Holy ground].

The king was currently fighting a big bloated undead. When decapitated, it exploded, sending negative energy to its surrounding and healing the undead. The Maidens and the king, on the contrary, were injured but it only took a few seconds before healing spells washed away the pain. An armored skeleton tried to flank him, but a Maiden bashed him away with her shield. Merick thanked her with a head nod, and used the moment of respite to look at the battlefield.

Overall, the battle was going strongly in the human's favor. There was a lot of undead, but by killing the necromancer who summoned them they forgot everything about orders and former training and attacked wildly the humans, making them easy preys.

And the demons who summoned the undead were easily noticeable in the unliving horde. Half of them had been already shot down by the archers, helped by the magic casters using the [Fly] spell.

Finally, the leader appeared of the army of darkness appeared. It was really the image of the stereotypes about the demons.

First of all, it was big. At least double the height of a regular human. He had red skin, a body ripped with muscles, and a light armor made of dark metal, covering his arms, body and upper legs. At his waist hanged human heads, hooked on butcher hooks. Instead of feets, he had hoofs. His face displayed a smile of contempt, two light-green eyes with slit pupils and two black curved horns on top of it.

It looked at the battlefield, assessing the situation. Seeing that things didn't go in his favor, he quickly shouted his orders.

"THE KING IS MINE!"

The undead and demons around stopped attacking Merick, and backed away. The king ordered the same. A circle formed, where the demon and the king stepped. While the duel began, the fighting around went on, but didn't interfere with the leaders.

"You are brave, king of the humans. But you are foolish. I am Axatril, greater demon of the sixth circle. You are nothing but a puny ant for me."

Merick snickered. Boasting about their strength was something that all demons did. And he believed in his clerics and mages to buff him with spells, and in his trump card.

"Axatril, I do not know what the sixth circle is, but I am the king of the Ridans. I am not some mere weakling. Come at me, because I have the power of a whole nation behind me!"

"Aaahhh… Lezalus was right, all mortals are stupid after all… Looks like I lost the bet."

Smoke formed around his right arm. It congregated on a sword shape, and solidified. It was now a black serrated bastard sword with a red gem on the hilt.

"DIE!"

With a surprising speed compared to his size, he jumped right at the king, trying to cut him in halves with his sword. Normally, Merick would have been swiped away because of the simple difference in raw strength, but he had been buffed with tens of spells before the battle, allowing him to overcome the difference.

Raising his sword, he made the blade slide above him and counterattacked, trying to slash at the demon's legs. It looked like Axatril didn't expect Merick to counterattack, because the wound inflicted was deep and bleeding.

Stepping back, he looked at the wound, and then at the black blood dripping from the king's blade.

"I LOVE unexpected surprises!"

He looked even more excited than before. He now took the blade with his two hands and jumped once more, slashing quickly, not leaving enough space for the king to counterattack. Merick was on the defensive, but the demon was really strong. Each parry made his arms go numb. Finally, a hit went past the king's defence on his right flank, and strongly pushed him back. His armor was sturdy and blocked the hit, but it was painful nevertheless.

Merick raised the visor of his helmet, spit some blood and put the visor back.

"Your majesty!"

"HE'S MINE!"

Falea Svidar was worried about Merick getting injured, but if she came in, the demon would start attacking the Ridan infantry, and they weren't powerful enough to resist him. Here, only Merick was equipped enough to push him back.

This time, Merick went on the offensive first, and swung his sword in a large arc, aiming at the demon's left arm. Of course, Axatril blocked such a predictable swing, but that was not all. At the last moment, Merick whispered [Flow acceleration], raising his speed. The curved sword avoided the serrated bastard sword, and hit the arm guard.

The king immediately pulled back, as the demon was preparing to counterattack, but he stopped and looked dumbfounded at his arm guard. Despite the damage only being a scratch on the piece of armor, he felt like something was burning him beneath.

That was the effect of the king's set of items, the set of the [Corruption dragon]. This set, when completed, added corrosive damage to each physical attack of the wearer and allowed to use three skills related to the mighty being a limited amount of times each day.

"Not so sure of your victory, demon, right? Like I said, I have the power of a whole nation behind me."

"Even if trained, a mouse cannot fight back a lion. This is nothing."

Axatril prepared to jump again, decided to finish it quickly before more surprises made too much damage, but the difference in equipment was really something. Despite its claims, Axatril was only a regular demon in the demonic society. He didn't have access to the equipment granted to the most powerful demons.

On the other side, Merick was the king of a nation. He was at the very top, and was equipped with the best gear that could be found and produced.

Merick raised his sword and shouted.

[Draconic presence]!

A roar was heard in the place, and the pressure of a dragon locked the demon in place. Of course, there wasn't actually a dragon, but the feeling was very real. Axatril was only paralyzed for a few seconds, but it was enough for the king to deal some serious damage. He ran up to the demon, raised his sword high in the sky and cut the hand of the dark being holding the sword, aiming at the gap between the arm guard and the armored gauntlet.

The demon regained control of his body and roared out of pain. In addition of the pain of the ghost member, he felt the corrosive power burning his flesh. Merick used the moment to activate the second skill, [Draconic power].

He ducked under the demon trying to punch him with his remaining hand, and shoved his sword deep into the demon's guts. It was only thanks to the Draconic power skill that he went right through the dark armor. Finally, he activated the last skill.

[Draconic corruption]!

A sick yellow-green liquid started sprouting from the blade, going inside the demon's blood system, burning his organs and oxidizing everything in it's path. Numerous internal haemorrhages happened at the same time.

The king pulled back his blade and retreated a few steps, ready for a last struggle. But the damages were too great. The demon had black blood oozing out of his wounds, but also from his mouth, eyes, and ears.

"I…Was…Beaten?..."

With those three words, he fell to the ground, making it shake under his weight. The Ridans stayed silent for a second, and then cheered, fighting with a renewed fighting spirit. The demons on the other side, were selfish beings. If something didn't go in their favor, they were likely to run away. And they did. The ones casting magic opened portals leading to the demonic realm, and the others ran to the transfer gate of the city. The undead were left alone, without commands. It took barely thirty minutes to finish them off.

At the end, Merick walked up to a stall relatively intact, climbed it and faced his army.

"THE VICTORY IS OURS!"

The crowd exploded in war cries, shouts of excitement and weapons being clanked. Some spells were even shot in the air, making an improvised firework. The new spread, and the civilians joined them. At the end, the whole city was shouting, relieving its stress.

Merick was excited as well, but he wasn't as much as the others. He still had two cities and a castle to free, and the goblins were still fighting at Jodal. The Ridans still had a long way before everything was resolved.

Hello there, author here.

I'm quite satisfied with what I wrote this time (I hope you are too).

The story of Erina looking for her set of items will be written later. The next chapter(s) will be about the King Merick Electra, and his struggle to save his nation.

I think i'm quite good at writing in english, but it's not my mother language, sorry if there are some errors (I re-read chapters multiple times to spot them, but some may escape me).

I hope you liked what you read, and any question in the comments will be answered by PM.

See you next publication!