Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

The wizards of the overseer team noticed them, but no one took action.

Too far away, magic couldn’t reach.

Once they flew closer, the ranged units of the Slave Legion would automatically shoot.

A few crossbow bolts shot out from the defensive line, the flying unit suddenly soared, the bolts brushed past its underside, and it continued to hover, as if mocking the ineptitude of the defense line.

Rex spoke up: "Those are the scouts of the Molten Spirits, fast and agile, with a considerable force of Molten Spirits ahead."

"But you don’t need to worry much," he said, "Across the Ashfire Continent, the forces of the Six-Ring Tower are deployed in dozens of areas. Our 235th Legion is responsible for just this small spot, the southeastern corner of the Ashfire Continent. Within a 500-kilometer range, not too big or too small. But the force of Molten Spirits opposite us is also limited; they’ve spread their troops across multiple places, and the force they can muster at each place won’t be much."

He raised his right hand, pointing toward the northeast direction.

"Over there, the 227th Legion and 241st Legion are responsible, advancing faster than us, having crossed the Red Spine Mountains and established several outposts on the Black Stone Plain."

"Then there’s the northwest side, where the 209th Legion and 218th Legion are fighting, progress has been sluggish, advance too slow, last month’s reports showed their Slave Creature Legion suffered massive losses, trying to replenish forces, temporarily unable to support us."

"Then to the west, the area managed by the 253rd Legion, the terrain is difficult, volcanic activity is frequent, progressing the slowest, practically stuck at the foot of the mountains, struggling daily against lava eruptions."

"The distribution of Molten Spirit forces is similar to ours." Rex’s tone carried a note of certainty, "We have intelligence indicating that a Level 5 Lord of Flame is the high-command leader of the Molten Spirits, stationed behind the Red Spine Mountains on the Black Stone Plain, responsible for commanding all defenses in the southeastern corner. Their forces are very dispersed, some are stuck with us at the front, some are dispatched towards the battlefield of the 227th and 241st Legions, some toward the battlefield of the 209th and 218th Legions in the northwest, and some are dispatched westward to support the forces facing the 253rd Legion. Opposite us, the force of Molten Spirits won’t be too much or too little."

"Strategically speaking, we don’t need to worry about how many enemies are opposite us. What we need to worry about is how fast we can fight. Fighting too fast puts us in the danger of isolated advance; fighting slow exposes the flanks of other legions. So the orders from above have always been steady advancement, the pressure won’t be too much."

...

Duke listened to Rex’s words, his gaze sweeping over the distant ridgeline contours. War is not decided by a single battle, but by the accumulation of battles one after another.

The Molten Spirits are surrounded on all sides; they won’t invest much force here because this is just one of the battlefields, not the only one, not even the most important. The most critical is on the Black Stone Plain, where those large furnace clusters are the strategic targets of the Six-Ring Tower.

The southeastern corner is just a breakthrough point, a door knocker, and a consumable.

Rex’s explanation did not last long. Lastly, he glanced at a few of them and said, "That’s all for today," then turned and walked towards the camp.

Duke and the others followed him and returned to the camp.

The main purpose of today’s excursion was to understand the general situation here.

After Duke returned to his tent, he sat down at his desk, took out the map of the Ashfire Continent from his Space Ring, and began to mark on it the information he heard today.

He’s not concerned with the entire theater of war, but he needs to know where he stands, to understand when to act and when to wait.

Seven days later.

Duke noticed the anomaly on the morning of the third day, as the intangible atmosphere in the camp began to change.

The transport teams multiplied several times, with wooden crates piled up like small mountains in front of the warehouse, and the Magic Crystal Stones, Magic Potions, Casting Materials inside creaked under compression during transit.

The wizards were no longer clustered casually chatting in front of the bulletin board but walked hastily, each step urgent.

Even the Slave Creatures, although their will was suppressed by contracts, Duke could sense a kind of instinctual unrest from their movements: eating faster, sleeping less, forming ranks more neatly during assembly, as if waiting for a moment destined to arrive.

On the fourth day, those few giant Teleportation Arrays at the back of the camp started operating day and night.

Pale blue light shone from morning till night, batch after batch of Slave Creatures emerged from the Light Gate, assigned to their respective battle positions.

These Slave Creatures came from different planes, different races, some towering like three-story buildings, covered in heavy armor; some as short as human children, agile; some flying in the air, wings spanning the sky.

Under the dual command of wizards and contracts, they formed into neat lines like streams of steel, flowing out from the Teleportation Array, through the camp, towards the front lines.

On the fifth day, Ares called all sub-unit commanders for a meeting.

Duke had no qualification to attend that meeting, but he saw Rex’s expression as he walked out from the command post, no extraneous emotions, just the calm of a veteran honed over decades on the battlefield.

On the sixth day, the camp’s outer Energy Barrier began to be reinforced.

The frontline Slave Creature Legion started to advance, pushing the battle line forward by nearly a mile, bringing more open ground under control.

On the seventh day before dawn, action began.

Duke walked out of the tent and saw in the camp’s central aisle the Slave Creature Legions were moving to the front lines.

Millions of various shapes, sizes, and races of Slave Creatures converged into an endless steel flood, their footsteps reverberating the Earth loudly.

Occasionally a deep roar echoed from within the ranks, the last exchange between certain Slave Creatures with their kin, quickly drowned by even larger footsteps.

Leon, already clad in armor, longsword hanging at his waist, walked up to Duke at an unknown time.

His gaze also fell on the steel flood, silent for a long time, then spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse: "So many... how many is this?"

"Millions." answered Edmond, standing behind Leon, clutching a notebook, the numbers quickly calculated in his mind, "From now until noon, over three million Slave Creatures will reach the front. Not all for direct offense, some will be reserved in the backups, some flanking maneuvers, some will be deployed for pursuit."

Shortly after, Vera and Morris also joined, fully prepared.

Their squad was assigned to one of the lines, responsible for monitoring battlefield dynamics, commanding a temporarily assigned Slave Creature combat force, and reporting situations in time.

If necessary, they must also act to resolve some unexpected issues, perhaps elite units breaking through the defenses that the Slave Creatures couldn’t stop, requiring intervention by wizards.

The five of them passed through the camp’s outer Energy Barrier, following the path Rex led them on yesterday, heading toward the defensive lines.

The city ruins remained silent, broken walls cast twisted shadows under the dim red twilight.

Occasionally, a few Slave Creatures could be seen traversing the ruins, transporting supplies, clearing roads, repairing defensive structures, not raising their heads even upon seeing them.

They stopped under a stone tower after reaching the defensive line, which served as the highest observation point nearby on this battle line, offering a wide field of view, overlooking battlefield movements within miles.

The tower’s summit had basic protective runes and a communication Magic Array, designed specifically for frontline observation by wizards.

Standing atop the tower, the view suddenly widened.

A few miles ahead, the Slave Creature Legion’s formation stretched like a gray-black levee across the pale volcanic ash earth.

The front-row heavy units had raised shields, with magical glows emanating from farther away casting a flickering light across the battlefield.

Farther still, the faint seeable defensive works of the Molten Spirits, lined with rows of dark red shadows atop the fortifications.

Those shadows slowly moved, resembling flowing lava.

Duke’s gaze crossed the lines, looking into the distance.

The silhouette of the Red Spine Mountains undulated at the horizon, the foot of it swarmed with assembling Molten Spirit forces.

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