Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Chapter 127 - Defending Grenton

The undead army was finally upon them, which unnerved most of those that were there to defend Grenton. As the humans readied themselves for what's to come without any signal, the undead army charged at them.

The footmen responded to this act by charging at the undead as well. "No don't charge yet!" Someone shouted but none of the footmen could hear it. The fear and their resolve to protect their families had clouded their judgment which pushed them forward.

When the two sides clashed, it was obvious that the more well equipped skeletal warriors had the upper hand. Not only were they better equipped but they also had superior numbers. The enemy forces used one of humanity's greatest tactics in the age of chaos the human wave attack.

If that wasn't bad enough every time one of the footmen dies, the elder lich that was leisurely watching at the back would turn the dead footmen into his minions. So every time one footman dies they were turned into enemy forces.

"All of you retreat! RETREAT! RETREAT I SAY!" The footmen finally noticing what was happening needed to retreat, but even there retreat lacked any structure making them easy targets for the undead. Valdel who was watching at the gates could no longer hold it in and wanted to charge forward to help. But before he could do so, Iselv and Hilda blocked his path.

"What are you two doing?! Get out of my way!"

"Calm down kid!" Iselv shouted at Valdel.

"Calm down?! People are dying out there, I need to go and save them!"

"You can't do that. If you go and help now, how many do you think you can actually save? A hundred? A few dozen? A single person?" Hilda spoke in an ice-cold tone as she glared at Valdel.

"Does it matter? I'll save as many as I can!"

"You really are different from that friend of yours. Unlike him, you are an utter fool." Hearing Hilda calling him a fool made Valdel look at her with a maddening glare.

"If you really want to save as many as possible, I need you to stay here and prepare yourself. Sir Galius is too old and can no longer exert as much strength as before, and without Ren or Nezzard around no one aside from you and Lara could handle those things over there." Hilda pointed at the two huge undead dragons that were resting on a hill.

"If you go in now and waste your strength when the crucial moment comes and you fail not just us everyone in this town will die. Do you want that to happen?!"

Valdel finally quieted down as he bit his lower lip until it bled. His hands shaking in frustration, as his mind kept on repeating if only I was stronger. If only he was stronger then he would've been able to do something. This just pushed the idea that in this world to be able to do anything you need strength.

Unlike Valdel, Lara, on the other hand, remained ever calm as she was watching the whole situation unfold, waiting for her chance to strike.

Seeing Valdel quite down Hilda sighed, as she turned to look at the situation. The majority of the footmen had died in that initial charge, but there were still a few dozen that manage to survive. Sir Galius who was watching from another side of the wall felt that things were going worse than he expected.

As Hilda and Galius were thinking of what to do next, Rachel suddenly shouted. "I can't take it anymore! I need to release this feeling that's burning within me!" After shouting this Rachel jumped down from the wall and charged at the skeletal warriors that were nearing the wall. She with her summoned halberd clashed head-on with the skeletal wave.

As she smashed her way through the enemy ranks she shouted at the undead. "I Rachel Hvanttar the holy maiden of the God of war Hieus, shall grant you a glorious battle!"

Galius seeing Rachel make a path in the middle of enemy forces, which gained the attention of the charging undead knew what needed to be done. He sent his knights to attack the left-wing of the enemy forces as their backs were facing them.

Hilda also noticed this and sent the adventurers to attack the right-wing of the enemy forces. Though they didn't plan it, their coordination was perfect making them able to mow down the skeletal warriors with little to no casualties. Rachel who was now too deep into the enemy lines couldn't retreat but instead of fear, she felt elated. That was when a chain wrapped around her and pulled her back.

Natasha was able to save the foolish war maiden and bring her back to the walls of Grenton. The knights and adventurers retreated back into the fortress after that successful attack.

The Elder Lich Alfred who saw his vanguard being decimated wasn't angry, but instead, he was amused, to him this was nothing more than a game. 'These humans are doing better than expected, how about we make it a bit more difficult.'

Now not only did the skeletal warriors charged forward, but the undead mages also started backing them up by bombarding the walls of Grenton with low-level spells. If that wasn't enough at the distance Hilda and Galius saw numerous Ogre kings pulling what looks to be fortified scaling ladders.

"Mages focus fire on the Ogre kings, destroy those scaling ladders!" The mages started chanting getting ready to unleash a barrage of spells.

"Archers get ready to make it rain on those charging undead!" The archers took their arrows that had replaced the arrowheads with something large and blunt. Though this made it harder for the arrows to gain distance, they had no choice since using normal arrows against skeletal monsters was ineffective.

"Fire!" Upon hearing the order a rain of arrows showered the charging skeletal warriors. On the other hand, the ogre kings were being bombarded by low to mid-tier level spells. But this proved to be ineffective, since even as one skeletal warrior fell another replaced it at the charge, and the ogre kings were wearing armor that helps them with their weakness from spells which made them difficult to kill. The mages were only able to kill two to four of them. Seeing that killing the Ogre kings was ineffective, the mages tried attacking the scaling ladders instead, but that proved ineffective as well since the scaling ladders were fortified by an unknown spell, which made it sturdier than normal.

Hilda clicked her tongue and looked at the two holy maidens. "My ladies I hate to ask this of you, but can you aid us?"

"How can we help?" Natasha asked.

"If you can, please destroy those fortified scaling ladders."

The two nodded at Hilda and jumped down the walls and headed to the ogre kings pulling the fortified scaling ladders.

"Now then, every one it's time to earn your pay! We'll head out and destroy those undead mages! If you do this well, you will not only gain riches that could last you your lifetime, but you will also gain fame and glory! The bards will sing of your exploits in all of the human kingdoms! Open the gates!"

Hearing Hilda's command the gates were being opened, seeing this and hearing what Hilda said made the adventurers feel both scared and excited.

"Valdel, Lara if those things move, I'll leave them to you." The two nodded in response. "Be careful out there Hilda," Lara spoke actually sounding a bit worried. Though her face remained stoic the tone of her voice actually changed for a bit. Hearing Lara speak like that made Hilda smile.

"You as well Lara." The gates were now fully opened and Hilda wore her helmet and with her group of adventurers charged out of the gates.