abcnovels
Chapter 155: Charge as silent as it it loud
Chapter 155: Charge as silent as it it loud
'This is the least I can do, huh?' I thought, recalling Fay's soft voice when her soft and warm embrace was replaced by the cold and rugged hold of the wet ground at the edge of the forest.
Once again, although from a different point, I was preparing to set off into the human camp. Yet, contrary to the last time, I wasn't going to do it with just a few helpers.
This time, I was standing in front of nearly half a thousand of the strongest celestials and divines, all of whom mastered the skill of holding back their aura.
And while all the remaining hints of bodily heat continued to seep into the cold, wet ground, the show deeper in the forest continued.
Explosions went off in the very middle of the forest, a considerable distance away from its edge. Someone continued to weave a myriad of small spells on the other edge of the forest's front, dangerously close to where the starlight plain took over as the barrier that kept the forbidden lands from human greed.
The place where my force gathered wasn't any different.
After Leinei with the support of a huge group of divines cast a massive and powerful blessing of disguise over my entire unit, we had to sit through the next part of the absolute and complete bullshit that I forced everyone to come up with.
War was a conflict of not only forces but also information. And the more the humans tried to guess what we were preparing for from all those meaningless tricks the weakest of the celestials and divines ended up performing, the less they would be worried about the last night's raid repeating.
'Draw their attention to where we will start our crawl and make it so obvious they will take it for a distraction,' I thought. And when a series of successive explosions started to go off behind my back, I took a deep breath and pushed my arm forth before pulling the rest of my body after it.
Soon, my immediate surroundings first turned silent when all the noise of the show from the forest died down. Then, once my hearing tuned in to lesser notes, it filled with the noise of hundreds of human bodies making their way through the cold and thick mud.
Everyone's breathing, the sounds of their bare bodies brushing against the ground, the occasional noise of some wig snapping or a slight curse flowing out when someone stabbed themselves on a rock during their crawl…
All of those noises were way too tiny to ever reach anywhere near the camp… especially with how most of the camp defenders were rallying up and running all over the place, not sure where exactly they were supposed to mount a defense.
Once again, bit by bit, I crawled forth, keeping a cherished memory of Fay's warmth in my heart as the sole reminder of heat in my flesh.
Even now, after an entire day of baking under the scorching sun, the plain remained wet. It was no longer a total and complete swamp… but any attempts at charging through it were bound to end up in a disaster.
And that's why, a short charge from the forest and against the camp was exactly what those who couldn't hold their aura back were tasked with doing.
Pushing the thought of all those who would lay their heads on the altar of my plan out of my head, I continued to crawl, once again immersing myself in the slow phase of the plan.
After what had to be an hour, we finally reached the point agreed upon before I put my plans into motion. A point still far away from the camp not to risk detection, but a point from where a charge would take us a few moments over an extended while.
A mere moment after our unit ground to a halt, the noises from the forest started to pick up by a lot. In fact, it grew so loud, that I had to fight off the desire to look back!
'So it's starting,' I thought, keeping my face kissing the ground while my hips drilled as close to the soft mud as I could. And while ignoring the everpresent cold… I waited.
Behind me, the entire front of the forest suddenly swarmed with activity.
After performing all the tricks and shows that they had in store, the remaining force of weaker celestials and divines stepped out. They seemingly appeared from behind every last tree.
And to top it all off… they were actually holding torches, minding not their light and how it revealed both the position and the intent to attack.
'Wait…' I thought to myself.
My breath grew slower.
"Gone are the days when we allowed humans to do as they please!" Loraz's powerful voice swept through the entire area as if the forest itself decided to raise its voice and speak up. "Today, we end their brutal tyranny so that no one shall ever dare to desecrate our woods!"
'Wait…'
The show had to go on. The human defenders of the camp had to see what they expected to see. They had to believe they figured out the trick to fall for it.
The ground trembled when all sorts of celestial beasts walked out from behind the protection of the trees, followed by the shiny figures of divines. The lines of the forest forces continued to swell as more and more protectors joined the ranks.
"LET'S CLEANSE THOSE DIRTY HUMANS FROM OUR HOLY LAND!" Loraz's call for the charge filled the entire plain, right as the ground trembled when all sorts of celestials and divines leaped forth and jumped into a charge.
A desperate charge across a huge stretch of wet and soft land that no being heavier than a crane could hope to run on.
And yet, the entire army of celestials and divines left the relative safety of the woods, set to erase the presence of humans in the vincity of their sacred land.
I closed my eyes and prickled my ears, trying my very best to hear something, anything from the camp.
"Their left wing is only three men deep," an owl celestial to my side reported in a hushed voice before flashing me a smile.
I only shook my head in response.
"Wait. It's not our turn yet."
The charge entered its full swing. The ground now visibly continued to shake as thousands of feet struck against it in their mad dash.
And honestly, it didn't take long for the humans to respond.
The air filled with arrows, balls of fire, arcs of electricity, and all sorts of other projectiles the defenders could produce. After a moment of suspense, the human attacks found their target, falling all over the front of the charge.
"Stay still!" I hissed as loud as I could without worrying I would alert the people roughly a hundred and fifty meters away.
Even without looking, from the fluctuations of the aura in the air… I could tell.
The celestials and divines were supposed to be much stronger than humans. Resistant to something as silly as just the first volley.
But while a set of few arrows could do them little to no harm within the forest, here, out in the open, with terrain that was extremely hard to traverse… Only an amateur archer or mage could miss their attack. Without a doubt, at least several tens of corpses fell into the mud to litter and mark the path Loraz led the bulk of his forces to a charge through.
"The left wing is a fake attack. Concentrate on the right wing and center," the owl celestial spoke, his expression no longer as triumphant as the screams and cries of the fallen and wounded brethren of his forced him to realize the weight of the situation.
'Just a little bit more,' I thought, gritting my teeth in silent frustration.
A few seconds ticked by. And after a moment to recover, the humans prepared to launch the second volley.
"Raise," I whispered, moving up from the crawl… only to start walking forth on all fours.
The defenders released the second volley.
The fake attack against the left wing of the camp has long since collapsed, performed by literal elders and the children of the forest that offered close to no combat value to begin with.
But they were a perfect fit for making a fake crowd. And so, as soon as the first volley launched, they were to all hurriedly turn away and skip back to the safety of the trees.
And what could a human leader of the defense think when on the right wing the charge continued regardless of the losses while his own area of defense ended up free of any danger?
'Brace for the charge,' the owl celestial whispered, slightly too loud for my own liking, while struggling to keep up with my pace on all fours.
"Raise," I now spoke in a normal tone, moving from all fours to position low on my hips, as if I was trying to sneak into the camp all on my own.
And if not for roughly five hundred other hunched figures all around me, I might even have the chance to do so.
"BRACE!" We snuck close enough to the camp for me to hear the shouted orders myself. And so, I took a deep breath.
Now, there was no need to stay silent. We were close enough. All that was left, was for me to give the command, even though I wasn't even the one officially leading this unit.
But this plan was all my doing. And just like I would have to take moral responsibility for all those who died under the falling barrage of spells and projectiles, I had the privilege to give everyone the one call to action their rage-fueled bloodlust required.
"ARISE!"