We Must Fight!
On the other side, inside the Darkmoon clan's camp, everyone had already made their battle preparations and stared unblinkingly at the jungle in the distance.
The first zombie appeared...
"Ah!"
With a roar, it rushed toward the camp's walls, followed by a second, a third...
An unbroken wave of zombies launched a fearless assault on the camp. Atop the walls, blood elves, dwarves, lizardmen, trolls, blood slaves, humans, werewolves, undead, and others braced themselves for battle. Facing the first wave of attacks, Serea shouted,
"Loose!"
At her command, skeleton Archers, elven archers, and any fighters capable of wielding bows loosed their drawn arrows. In an instant, a deluge of arrows rained down, and masses of zombies fell along their charge.
However, because this was covering fire and not aimed shots, those zombies who weren't shot in the head got back up and continued their staggering assault. While the archers managed to impede their charge, they could not stop it — soon, many zombies reached the base of the walls.
"Arghhh!"
They howled, scrambling to climb the walls, when suddenly a strange cloud of pollen was released.
It was the Blood Thorn Vine!
The paralyzing pollen slowed the zombies' movements. Meanwhile, the Blood Tree Guardians hurled giant boulders with their vines, smashing scores of zombies into pulp.
"Squawk!"
Shadow Drakehawks took to the sky, bombarding with elemental magic. Working in tandem, direwolves atop the city walls also unleashed spells, clearing wave after wave of zombies.
After just one assault, over a hundred zombie corpses lay strewn in front of the walls. Seeing this, the zombies that followed unexpectedly turned and retreated.
"They're falling back?"
Watching the zombies vanish into the jungle, Serea's brows furrowed.
Clearly these undead had intelligence — or at least, their commander realized that a mindless assault would only sacrifice the entire force against such a well-defended camp. After all, Serea hadn't even sent out her trump card troops yet.
"Scout!"
The Ravens took to the air. Flying under the cover of the Drakehawks, they swept over the jungle, and Serea soon discovered in surprise that the undead had split into several groups to encircle the camp, with yet more zombies and skeletons continuously joining their ranks.
"If they can't break through, they're just going to surround us. What are these guys up to?"
Serea wondered aloud. Just then, the messenger Ravens returned.
She retrieved the letter—it was correspondence from the Eriwin dwarf tribe.
She opened it...
"Queen Serea, I regret not having chosen to trust you earlier. Now, maregof has bared his fangs. All our search team members were brutally slain in his tribe. For this, we are willing to unite to fight Maregof. However, right now, the chiefs of all major tribes are trapped in my camp, with over a thousand undead gathering outside and still increasing, so our alliance will have to wait for some time."
After reading the letter, Serea's expression turned grim.
The chiefs of all the major tribes were trapped inside the Eriwin dwarf camp. Other than the Whirlpool Tide naga, who could move swiftly, it seemed that she could not count on support from the other big tribes for now.
Meanwhile, Dogsius had also finished analyzing the magical signature.
"Master, the results are in. Based on this sudden eruption of magic and combining it with the Curse Gemstone Captain Little Black brought back, I suspect Maregof is conducting some kind of summoning ritual. Judging by the density of magic, whatever they're summoning is at least a demon lord–level entity."
"Demon lord!"
Hearing this, Serea turned to ask the System.
"What level does a demon lord start at?"
System: In their prime, demon lords start at level 60; individual cases may differ.
"Damn!"
Honestly, her current highest combatant was only at level 37. And now, a level 60 just appeared out of nowhere? She'd be crushed, unless she used advanced troops in a battle of attrition — otherwise, sending low-level troops would only be throwing lives away.
Seeing the concern on Serea's face, Dogsius quickly added,
"Master, you don't need to worry too much. Demon lord–level creatures are extremely difficult to summon. Even if summoned, at this level of ritual, the result is only a defective product."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, in the short term, the summoned entity's power will not reach its peak. For instance, like Addis — she was once a powerful lich at the demon lord level, but when she appeared, she only had intermediate mage power."
"Is that so..."
Upon hearing this, Serea secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Thinking it over, she realized she'd already taken out one demon lord (Addis) and crippled another (Morzada) — there was no longer any reason to fear a new one.
But there was one thing...
"You say the demon lord–level entity won't reach its peak in the short term, but what if given enough time?"
"He will rapidly grow to full strength."
"I see. Looks like I have no choice but to kill him."
As for why she made this decision...
First, this summoning ritual was intimately connected to Addis, morzada, and Adolf — of which Addis and Morzada had both been confirmed as demon lords. Serea had killed Addis and crippled Morzada—she was already an enemy fated to the death with them.
If she gave the enemy a chance to grow, it would be chronic suicide. Therefore...
She had to fight. She had to strike while the enemy was weak, just as she'd done with Addis before.
Now, with the opportunity fleeting, rather than considering how to deal with a summoned demon lord, it was better to think about how to directly sabotage the ritual.
With this realization, Serea immediately wrote a letter informing Vandock and the others of this intelligence. However, she omitted that the enemy was a demon lord, as that might demoralize the jungle's tribes; instead, she wrote only that Maregof was conducting a Sacrifice ritual to try to destroy the jungle.
After sending the letter, Serea turned to look at the undead lingering outside the walls.
Now Serea understood entirely why the undead were not attacking — all they wanted was to buy time, to delay until the Sacrifice summoning was completed.
This only proved even more that the enemy feared her, feared the big jungle tribes uniting to sabotage the ritual.
Since the enemy was afraid, that made things much simpler...
"Prepare to open the gates!"
At this command, Lola and the others looked utterly confused, but as it was the Queen's order, they had to obey.
Making their preparations, Serea was ready to clear out the troublesome undead at once, then launch an all-out assault on Maregof's camp. The tactic for the attack was simple:
Undead tide!
But Serea only had a few hundred undead under her command—could she really pull off an undead tide assault?
Combat strength was only a façade. Serea's confidence in facing Maregof was not simply based on the forces at hand. Once war broke out, Serea would be able to erupt with limitless potential — just as she had when crushing the White Blade Mercenary Group.
"Take all the equipment from the armory and place it at the Plague Graveyard. Move quickly."
"Yes!"
Maro received the order and left.
"Have the temporary supporting platforms been completed?"
"Time was tight; only six could be rushed out."
"That's enough. Set up the first one."
"Yes!"
Vina got to work. Staring out at the main army of undead, Serea's eyes brimmed with fighting spirit.
"Now let's see—who is the true undead!"
(To be continued...)
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