Chapter 763 763 Simply Unreasonable
Millie and Chloe, the twin demonic bodyguards, had woven black strings into the braids of their white hair today, creating a contrast against the alabaster of their skin, but they had created their armour spells to give them long black robes with hoods that covered their heads. Hiding from the enemy wasn’t likely to be an option, but the black robes and stark white of their wings made for an interesting contrast, and it would help distinguish them from anyone else on the battlefield.
The Fae opened small portals all around the edge of the forest so that there would be no travel time issues interfering with their timing, and every team leader, as well as most of the others, was carrying a radio.
As soon as things got spicy, everyone would know and be able to react instantly.
“Alright, the Prince gets the first chance as negotiation leader. If those talks break down, then you ten lovely gentlemen of team one will do the next round of negotiation.” Wolfe instructed with a gesture toward ten Rank Six Wrathbringers with heavy machine guns.
“But wait for my order. There are far too many of these soldiers to casually take them on, so I would rather convince them to go home instead.”
The Wrathbringers nodded in agreement, and Wolfe increased the sensitivity of [Detect Hidden] until he could see the army encamped in front of them.
It looked like they had only broken their force into about two dozen pieces, as a rough count gave him a total of about twenty thousand soldiers accompanying the man on the throne, again held aloft by servants as the last one had been.
“You’re up.” Wolfe whispered, and then led the army to follow the Elven Prince out of the woods to meet the enemy.
The Elf spread his empty hands wide, showing that he was unarmed, the Elven gesture for parlay, while he approached and the army’s archers drew their bows and activated a wave of spells.
“Good afternoon. I am Prince Nathaniel of Faerie, here as the Envoy on behalf of the village of Forest Grove. They are wondering what are your intentions, coming here with such an army.” The Elf announced.
The lead soldiers in the force burst into cruel laughter, but their leaders silenced them quickly, and a gaudily dressed, overweight human man stepped forward to meet the Elven Prince.
“The Emperor, Claudius the Second, King of all that he sees, Lord of two worlds, has decreed that this is now his territory. Kneel and swear fealty if you wish to live.” The man declared.
“Perhaps the Emperor has not been made aware by his servants. This is not a place that he should see, for it is not a place that he can rule. I am willing to offer one hundred kilograms of high-quality mana stone for him to return home from this folly with his life intact.” The Prince suggested with a smile.
[I like his negotiation style.] Risa whispered to Wolfe, making the twins smirk and glance at their weapons to ensure they were ready to go.
“Your land produces high-quality mana stone? Thank you for that lovely bit of information, but I can assure you that this is a place we wish to see, and we will not be returning until fealty has been sworn by every one of the inhuman denizens of this land.” The fat man declared.
“Well, I will give you partial credit on that one. If you continue with this folly, you are correct, you will not be returning home. You are also correct that we are not human, but we will not be swearing fealty to any human either.” Prince Nathaniel replied, shaking his head in resignation.
The Emperor raised his hand and clenched his fist.
[Archers, FIRE!]
Arrows whistled through the air as bow strings twanged, and Wolfe gave the Forest Grove forces a status update.
[Negotiations have failed. I repeat, negotiations have failed.]
The Wrathbringers giggled like small children as the heavy machine guns blasted the shield wall around the command group, shattering it in under a second before tearing the leadership of the human army apart.
Over Wolfe’s head, a barrier glowed as countless arrows headed for him and his bodyguards. How they had determined that he was supposed to be the leader, when he was not the strongest one here, was a mystery to him, but they were certainly targeting him.
He added his own array to the shield, stopping the spells with a gravity layer, so the effects on the arrows didn’t trigger, then he hurtled them back toward their owners.
Others were more focused on attacking, and a number of the Fae and Demons were wounded when the arrows hit and penetrated their armour, but the spells were for sharpness and penetration, and a simple arrow wound was easy enough to deal with when they had Saint Rank Fae with them.
Explosions shook the ground, and smoke filled the air as the remnants of the human army began to retreat, fleeing to the sides where Wolfe could see reinforcements coming toward them at a run.
“Move forward and split directions. We will face off with both groups at once.” Wolfe shouted to his group.
They moved quickly, splitting into a circle that put him in the middle as their honorary protected target, along with Prince Nathaniel and the ancient Demon.
“I had expected more of them.” The old Demon noted.
They outnumbered the defenders five hundred to one, but the shock of the counterattack had taken them by surprise, and they hadn’t even had time to reinforce their defences before the leadership was eliminated.
“I doubt that this fight will be so easy. They’re already layering their defensive spells, but I don’t see a single array in the mix. It is all individual defensive spells, spread over an area in layers.” Wolfe noted.
“Maybe they don’t know how? Should we capture some to interrogate? I have found that the cute ones tend to be fairly malleable if you treat them right after capture.” The Elven Prince suggested.
“Might as well. If they ruled the entire planet, there has to be more than just this one legion of soldiers ready to invade. Losing two Emperors in a day might change their minds on returning, though.”