Chapter 1851. The Defensive Fronts of Each Country
Another large flyer flew around the air, slaying the demon bats wherever it went. If Jack was there, he would think this flyer looked very much like the infernal stormbird he encountered during his trip to the underworld. This stormbird was Everlasting Heavenly Legend's fourth guild guardian.
They were captured by Bowler and The Man, assisted by Serpent Boss and Speedrun, using the miniature cage given by Chris. After they delivered the portal-closing stones, they returned to the underworld and headed to the coordinates Chris gave. There, they found this stormbird.
The stormbird was not the same as the infernal stormbird that Jack had seen before. The infernal stormbird was blue. This one was dark purple. It was a variant of the same monster, Lord Stormbird. It looked almost the same but was much stronger.
Bowler and the others spent a week studying its habits before making their move. The miniature cage might have a 100% success chance, and they didn't need to reduce its HP, but they still need to get close. If they were killed before getting close enough or the stormbird flew away before they had the chance, everything would be a waste. There was no guarantee the stormbird would return after it escaped.
Luckily, they had Serpent Boss and Speedrun, who used to plan missions where they had to succeed with only one attempt. After making sure of the stormbird's routines, Serpent Boss and Speedrun moved in for the kill. Bowler and The Man stayed behind since they couldn't afford any mistake.
For this reason, Speedrun was accepted into Everlasting Heavenly Legends. The miniature cage needed to be activated by a guild member to register the captured monster as the guild's pet.
Their mission was a success. The captured Lord Stormbird was delivered to the guild. This happened shortly before the underworld forces arrived at the border.
Bowler and the others again returned to the underworld. They still had one more mission to carry out.
The Lord Stormbird was given the name, Ladohn, after officially becoming a guild guardian. His lightning attacks were more powerful than the infernal stormbird. He emitted constant electricity that electrocuted everything that came close, making him a troublesome opponent for melee combatants.
His flight speed was also very fast. The flap of his wings generated electrical blades that hit targets from range. These electrical blades were considered standard attacks since they had no cooldown. He also possessed some skills that dealt chaos damage.
Ladohn was a level 85 mythical-grade avian. This made him the guild's highest-level guardian.
With the reinforcement from the guild armies, the mobile fortress pushed the demonic tide back to the defensive walls. Spellcasters from Everlasting Heavenly Legends used their combination-casting mega spells from the safety inside the mobile fortress. This helped keep the demons from pushing back the mobile fortress.
Unfortunately, the walls were long. They tried to choose the most ideal terrains for battle, but ideal terrains were not many. They had prepared multiple defensive lines. This was the first of the lines.
Since the walls were long, the mobile fortress and guild units couldn't be everywhere. Some parts of the wall on the other side couldn't stand for too long. They started crumbling bits by bits, and the demon hordes poured in from the gaps.
Linda was with Tip inside the mobile fortress. She was using the war table to move the Themisphere army. Before Jack left, he replaced John's position for Linda. Players didn't receive any benefit from being a country's officer, so John didn't mind this temporary replacement. This was so Linda could operate the war table and the Monarch system while Jack and John were away. She, of course, did it under the supervision of either Thaergood or Saint Jonathan.
Linda tried her best to control the army using the war table, but there was a limit when they were fighting overwhelming forces. She could see their defensive lines were slowly getting pushed.
*
Since leaving Liguritudum, the underworld forces separated into six armies and advanced from six different fronts. Each was led by one of the six devils. Two armies headed to Hydrurond, another two headed to Palgrost, and the last two headed to Aurebor.
Since their march was slow following the advance of the corrupted mana, the defenders were aware of this. The underworld forces didn't care, though. In their opinions, it didn't matter even if the enemies knew their movements. The result would be the same.
The defensive force in Hydrurond was divided into two fronts, the Northern and the Southern defenses. The Southern defense was guarded by the mobile fortress and the Themisphere army returning from Liguritudum. The Northern defense was guarded by the Hydrurond army, which Aldryth had tried to rebuild since the Allied forces retook Messephyria.
Because she was a native sovereign, the army rebuilding was slow even with the boost from the world enchantment, State of Emergency. There were not enough Hydrurond troops to man the Northern defense.
Thankfully, the league factions came through. Most of the league factions with combat focus sent their members here. Thus, solving the problem of manpower.
As for players, most of Themisphere players guarded the Southern defense while Aurebor players took care of the Northern one.
In Palgrost, the defensive lines were also drawn to match the locations where the two underworld forces were entering the country from. They were similarly divided into the Northern and Southern defenses.
The Northern defense was guarded by the Sangrod army. After the underworld portal in their country was sealed, they no longer had to worry about internal problems. Thus, they sent their army to help with the defense.
The Southern defense was the responsibility of the Palgrost army. The same as Hydrurond, Palgrost had suffered massive troop casualties in past wars. Hence, they didn't have enough troops. Fortunately, Jack sent the 648,000 Themisphere troops originally stationed in Themisphere, including one of the newly built mobile fortresses. With this force, Palgrost had a fighting chance.
The players that helped defend Palgrost came from Palgrost and Sangrod. The players helped the respective countries they were from.
The underworld forces coming into Palgrost were a little later than in the other two countries. This was due to the navies guarding the inner sea between Liguritudum and the Daflue region.
The delay was slight, though.
The navies put up a fierce fight when the underworld forces arrived. The cannon fires from their organized formations created a massive volley that took out many of the first batch of demons. However, when one of the devils arrived, everything pretty much went to hell.
The devil that wrecked the navies was none other than Leviathan. Water was his natural environment. When he was in the water, he was even more dangerous than when he fought the Allied Forces during their first meeting. He could manipulate water at will, causing tidal waves and tsunamis. Many of the ships were even sucked into his massive mouth and were slowly digested in his stomach.
In the short span of two days, the Palgrost navy base in Daflue became a pile of wreckage. The underworld forces marched on.
In Aurebor, the two fronts were separately guarded by the Aurebor army and Verremor army. Both countries had outworlder sovereigns. Hence, they had sufficient manpower. Verremor had a larger army because it lost fewer troops than Aurebor during past wars.
Jack sent the second of his newly built mobile fortresses to aid the Northern defense guarded by the Aurebor army.
As for the remnant of the Liguritudum army, they headed to the Northern defense in Hydrurond after escorting the refugees past the border. They joined the small Hydurond army and the league factions in defending the place.
Liguritudum players spread among the six defensive fronts. They had no one to organize them since their country was no more. They simply went independently and tried to help as best they could.
*
At the Southern Hydrurond front where Themisphere army and its main mobile fortress were fighting, the players spread out along the defensive line. Most of Themisphere guilds fought here under the leadership of Everlasting Heavenly Legends.
The guild members mostly fought in large teams with their guild members, but some preferred to fight in a small team, going wherever they pleased. One such small team was a group of veteran martial artists led by Domon. Domon was never much of a team player. He could listen to orders. But when he saw people needed help, he went that way. This made his movement pretty much chaotic. Both Tip and Linda were already aware of this, so they just left him to his own devices.
At one part of the walls which had crumbled, Muilan was fighting the enemies with her two swords.
"Muilan, watch out!" Murong yelled as she rushed to Muilan's side and used her spinning crane kick on a demon about to backstab Muilan.
The two women were members of Cipher Flights. Most of that guild's members were fighting in Aurebor. They were here simply because Murong wished to fight with Domon.
"Thank you, master," Muilan said. Her two swords created a net of sword lights that kept the demons in front of her at bay.
"Watch out, Murong!" Another voice sounded. Numerous melee weapons with tiger decorations flew by Murong's side and hit the swarm of demons that were about to surround her.
Domon came to her side while performing Death Carrying Cyclone to beat back the demons that had been stunned by his Tiger Armament Storm.
"There are too many of them," Murong yelled at Domon.
"Heads up!" A shadow jumped past them with a flying kick. The kick struck a demon bat swooping down at Domon and Murong.
Wong landed with the demon bat still stuck in his foot. His body then spun, creating a huge hurricane. This was Spinning Twister Kick, a skill he had just learned from a technique book.
The hurricane threw the demon bat and every other demon in the vicinity into the air while causing them continuous damage. When the hurricane subsided, Domon jumped up. He changed his weapon to dual swords. He used the burst attack of the Formless Flowing Sword Style, striking all the demons still disoriented in the air.
After landing, Domon said to them, "We need to defend this side! If more demons come through, it will be difficult to stop the tide."
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