The clangour of the swords had died away, the shouting of the slaughter was hushed; silence lay on the blood-stained sand. The battlefield lay quiet, for it was now a graveyard of the unburied. Their corpses lay among the barren wastelands. The clouds were still pouring down rain and the wind still blew as harshly as before. Among the victors, a single man stood out, covered in the blood of his enemies with dual guns tightly gripped in his hands. He looked up to let the rain cleanse his bloodied face, it was Arnold.

After fighting for hours, he finally had some peace. Although he had won the battle, he had to pay a price, most of his summons were destroyed and Alice was among them. Since the healer was gone he had to put extra effort to end the battle, because of which he ended up drying his mana almost completely, but regardless of that, it was finally over.

"Look for survivors and kill them also try to retrieve the broken automatons if you manage to find some." He instructed his undead summons, "Duke and Cerberus extract the beast crystals-"

KA-BOOM!!!

...there was an enormous explosion. It was as though a fist of orange flame had decided to punch its way out of the main complex. Windows of various buildings were shattered. Smoke and fire rushed out. Thousands of pieces of glass and steel mixed with a deadly rainfall showered down. Alarms - shrill and deafening- erupted. A huge bite had been taken out of the side and the roof of the base. Suddenly series cannon-shot resounded, desperately firing at something to kill it.

"Don't tell me there are more of these GODDAMM MONSTERS!" Arnold cursed the monsters and rushed towards the direction where the explosion happened, with his elite summons at his toes.

*****

"Keep firing the cannons! Mages prepare to unleash your strongest magic! We have to end it. Tanks, brawlers and swordsmen, establish a secure parameter without getting closer to the trolls!" Amanda commanded a group of C rank warriors but even so, she knew it was just a matter of time when they get overwhelmed by the strength of the trolls.

The bombardiers (people who operate cannons) and a handful of mages obeyed her command and did what they could to delay the inevitable.

'Dammit! How did we never picked them up on radar?' Amanda thought. The fact that she wasn't much help in the battle simply made her feel worse.

Despite being a psychic mage, it wasn't possible for her to use psychic attacks and get rid of the trolls as she wasn't that strong enough. Right now the best thing she could do was to hope that someone arrived at the right time to deal with the trolls, right then and there.

'The noise from the east stopped, that must mean he's done with the monsters on that side. We just need to hold out for a few more minutes.'

Amanda gave them the signal and the bombardiers open fired at the troll who just walked in through the hole in the wall they had made, and as usual, the troll hardened itself. All the cannonballs could do was to make another crack on the trolls hardened body. While all this was happening, one of the trolls shot out an arrow which ended up destroying the cannon in a single hit!

'These monsters work very well together. There is no way they are doing this on their own...'

In Amanda's opinion, the armed trolls in front of her were being commanded. They were too much in sync. As if they exactly knew when the other was in danger and immediately went to support a fellow troll if it needed. They worked in close cooperation. This was the reason why the group of soldiers had been instantly surrounded by the group of trolls, despite throwing everything they could at them. They couldn't be reckless... one mistake could be the end of them.

This was why they had to bide their time for an opportunity. If a new group of soldiers showed up, the group of trolls would most probably move too and surround the new group as well.

The problem was that the other soldiers were still far away... reluctant to help them out. Thus it was difficult for Amanda to pin her hopes on them.

'If someone would just show up here...' She thought.

Just then she saw something like a ball flew over her head and landed between the troll's legs. The ball-like thingy caught the troll off guard, a moment later the ball exploded. Flames poured out of the grenade but not much damage was done to the troll as it managed to step back in time, yet one could see it was in pain. But all of a sudden Amanda wasn't interested in the troll's condition anymore, rather than she turned around to see who their saviour was...

"It's really nice to see you. I never thought I would be this happy to see you." Amanda sighed in relief... they were saved! THEY WERE SAVED!

"Stop smirking like an idiot and get your men out of here!" Arnold yelled as he charged through the crowd, but then he heard a voice telling others to do the opposite. It was the Brigadier General.

"My soldiers! We can do this on our own! Keep firing at the trolls don't stop!" The Brigadier's voice boomed through the loudspeakers that were present throughout the base.

The brigadier was nuts about stealing glory, that much Arnold had expected, but what made Arnold's blood boil was the fact that a few of them were actually listening to the Brigadier's absurd command, and decided to stay there while Amanda and her soldiers slowly backed away. Even Allen was with her despite knowing that he wasn't very useful against the trolls.

Arnold yelled at the soldiers once again but they simply refused to obey him. These soldiers were the first to die at the hands of the trolls. Arnold furiously looked at the intelligence building where the Brigadier General was currently broadcasting from.

"This bastard... I'm gonna kill him after I'm done with the trolls!" Arnold knew it would be a waste of time to go and argue with the Brigadier, and only God knows what the trolls would do during that time.

Right now he had to take care of the trolls first. The Brigadier would be the next, "Just you wait as*hole!"