I watched as an army of a few thousand entered my forest.
The frontliners made up more than half of the force. Most were men with shields, though some carried axes, spears, and swords. Even at a glance, I could tell this was not a well-organized army. Their weapons were of low quality, different in shape, size, and purpose, while their armor was mostly leather, with fur coats worn over it to shield them from the bite of winter, which felt especially sharp beneath the towering trees where sunlight rarely managed to reach.
Behind them walked the archers, a few hundred in number, each holding a wooden bow, with shortswords strapped to their sides. They carried about ten arrows each, which was not a large amount unless they planned to wipe out my forces with only a few volleys.
Lastly came a few dozen mages and even fewer priests.
Is this all?
I was worried I had missed something. There was no chance Noah truly believed this much force would be enough to defeat me. Admittedly, the army that had entered my forest was larger than I had expected based on the information Dick gave me, but it was still much smaller than anything that could threaten Eriavel. Even if the priests in charge of this attack had no idea how strong my forces were, the Night God did.
Was Noah truly sending all these people to slaughter? Or was he underestimating me that much?
My attempts to communicate with Athena had failed. I wanted to learn if this attack had been initiated by her to weaken Noah, but my attempts to establish a connection through the coin she had left me had failed, and summoning her now would take too much time. I needed to remain fully focused on the battle.
Not only because I had to make sure the losses on my side were minimal, but because this was my chance to learn what the velmoryns lacked. What their weaknesses were.
As the army advanced deeper into the forest, twelve scouts spread out in a loose circle a few dozen steps away from the main force, searching the path ahead. That was when I noticed Lucas’s small group approaching them.
Despite the Crimson Root being created for assassination, the velmoryns in it were not exactly the best at stealth.
Other than Lucas, of course.
He whistled sharply, three short ones that almost sounded like a bird chirping.
The group immediately stopped advancing and hid themselves behind the dense foliage of an evergreen tree.
Lucas kept moving.
Since Dick’s rescue mission, this was the first time he would be testing his strength against humans. And after that humiliating defeat, I knew just how hard he had worked to improve himself.
He leapt from branch to branch, using the height of the trees and his own speed to his advantage.
I don’t want to take any risks…
In the past, I would have kept observing him and let him handle everything himself. But because of the importance of this fight, and perhaps because of my decision to use my powers better, I chose to help him.
I pressed on my connection with him and sent an image.
A view from the Window, with Lucas at the center and the locations of all the human scouts marked around him.
Even if I could not analyze spells as easily as Amon, after improving my control over divinity, I had realized that I could easily sense traces of mana. As long as a creature had even a minuscule amount of magical energy, I could sense it.
Lucas flinched, almost slipping from a branch as he made another leap. But as the vision settled in his mind, a small smile appeared on his face.
“Thank You, High Father,” he murmured, two blades already in his hands as he pivoted to the right and jumped down, landing behind a man moving slowly through the bushes.
Despite the scout being on high alert, he never even sensed Lucas until his throat was cut cleanly and his body slumped into the growing pool of blood.
Lucas repeated the same thing with five more, creating a blind spot on the left side of the circle that was supposed to act as a sensor barrier for the human army.
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Now they are fully exposed from the left.
I knew Lucas’s goal was not to wipe them out. Tekla had sent him to sow fear and terror among the humans, to slow the advancing army before Eriavel could properly prepare for battle.
And Gundir had also given him a few prototypes of the bombs he had created based on Amon’s suggestion.
Lucas whistled. Five short notes, followed by one long one. Then he went still, listening, until he heard a creaking sound as the four velmoryns, who had been waiting patiently until now, began moving toward his location.
He had chosen a tall tree, perhaps one of the tallest in the vicinity. One the human army would most likely pass by, unless they changed direction, of course.
And they did.
Only a moment after Lucas slaughtered the scouts, the army stopped advancing. The priests and a few mages had noticed the bursts of mana he used to move so quickly and silently, but they had failed to pinpoint his location.
It made me uneasy once more.
It was becoming more and more clear that this army was simply far too weak. Let alone Eriavel, just my Crimson Tribe alone would have slaughtered them. Perhaps even Ninali and Karla would have been enough.
So why?
What was Noah’s plan when he ordered this group to enter my forest?
He is definitely plotting something.
I scanned the army once again, searching for powerful mana sources or even traces of divinity. Maybe I had missed someone. Maybe one of the Night God’s inquisitors was hiding among them.
As I did, I spotted Lucas and his group approaching the army.
A horn sounded, but not because the humans had noticed them. They were calling the scouts back.
That was when the chaos started.
Several dark spheres flew from above and struck the soft earth with dull thuds, landing only a few steps away from where the priests stood.
Runes shimmered across their surface.
Then, less than a second later, they flared.
And exploded.
Fire bloomed in the center of the human army, surging upward in a rapidly expanding column. The blaze claimed dozens of lives in an instant, the unprepared humans unable to retreat in time as they stood far too close to the source.
Even when the mages cast barriers around those still untouched by the fire, they completely ignored the doomed screams of their comrades left outside the barrier to burn alive.
Then, with another explosion, a thick metal thorn whistled past a mage, leaving a thin red line across her cheek. A man fell behind her a moment later, the same piece of metal sticking out of his chest.
Dozens more followed as several more bombs exploded, sending a barrage of thorns flying in every direction. Some even shot toward Lucas and his group, who were now hiding behind the thick trunks of trees.
It’s far less effective than I thought it would be.
The initial effect of the thorns was impressive, but as shields rose and the priests’ shouts finally pulled the formation back into order, snapping the humans out of their fear-struck chaos, I realized most of the projectiles had flown in the wrong direction. Some even lacked the power to pierce leather armor.
Still, that was not all.
Just as the army began settling into formation, two giant red diagrams formed above them, betraying Lucas’s group’s location as the mages flared their mana.
“There!”“Shoot them!”“Mages! They are mages!”
Cries erupted throughout the army, some urging for protection while others demanded that the humans attack my velmoryns.
But just as the diagrams flared and a whirling torrent of fire descended on the humans, a crimson line cut through the chaos.
Lucas’s afterimage.
He surged toward the priest who seemed the most collected, the man’s posture showing both authority and calm. Closing the distance took him only a moment, his twin blades already raised to strike.
By the time the priest realized Lucas was there, the blade was already an inch away from his neck, its crimson edge closing in with blinding speed.
But it never reached the man’s flesh.
A soft green energy erupted from the medallion the priest had been hiding beneath his robe. It created a barrier that stopped Lucas’s attack.
“Curses…” Lucas muttered, feeling a jolt run up his hands.
He kicked against the ground and retreated in the opposite direction from where he had come, disappearing into the forest before the humans could even make out his appearance.
The four Velmoryns had also retreated, and the blazing torrents vanished harmlessly behind them.
Those spells would never have harmed the humans. The mages had only recently learned them from Ninali, and since none of them were fire mages, they could only recreate the appearance, never managing to exert even a tiny fraction of the spell’s true power.
But it was a great spell for distracting the enemy. A flashy, enormous torrent of fire descending from above would scare anyone.
Yet the opening the mages had created gave no result.
Lucas’s plan to kill the man he thought was the leader of this army had failed. Perhaps if he had enough time to attack again, the barrier would have given in, but Lucas knew better.
Hesitation might have cost him his life. And besides, after experiencing my power on himself quite a few times, he already knew what kind of energy had stopped him.
It was another god’s divine power.
One I had never encountered before.