The potential of every demon to use magic was one of their most dangerous traits. With almost 2000 of them, even though they were individually weaker than trained wizards, their effect on the battlefield was still significant. Even with defensive spells, the massive number of attacks were enough to breach the defenses at some points, causing perhaps a few dozen casualties among the human side. Not all of these would be deaths, but they would at least be injured enough that they were out of the fight.

Meanwhile, the demons looked relatively unaffected by the human offensive. Several of their members had fallen, but it took much more than a few arrows or a single spell to bring even one of them down. Lila’s spells being an exception, but she couldn’t continuously attack, because beside having to spend time defending, she needed to avoid the enemy realizing just how dangerous she was. She would move from place to place, so that the demons didn’t realize how effective that single wizard was.

However, the humans still had a significant numbers advantage, and the demons could not all fire spells at once. There was only so much mana in the area around them, and their control would interfere with each other. However, this didn’t stop them from attacking in volleys, alternating who was using magic such that none of them grew too tired. They were also still advancing on the walls, and would reach them in a short time. Meanwhile, the human wizards were spread thin on the walls and had to almost continuously use magic. Their burden was eased somewhat by the fact that the humans had a large contingent of archers, about 1000, and could continuously put pressure on the enemies, but that only stopped a portion of the demons from using offensive spells. Still, the walls themselves kept some of the attacks at bay, though they would not be able to stand forever without assistance.

As the demons neared the walls, all of their offensive spells stopped, which gave William an uneasy feeling. This was justified when the earth in front of the walls started moving, forming ramps in a few places. This was why the demons did not need any siege equipment. Fortunately, they could not undermine the walls, since they were built deep, based on past experience with demons. As the demons charged up the ramps, William was glad that they couldn’t create enough of them at once to cover the entire expanse of the walls. Instead, there were only a few places where they could run up, letting the humans continue to use their number advantage, and their height.

William also ordered the wizard to take down the dirt ramps. While it would require a more magical work than they had available to return the ground to how it had previously been, it was a relatively easier task to collapse the ramps to either side. Sadly, this wasn’t enough to kill or even injure most of the demons, but just delayed them. It also did very little to stop the riders of the hell hounds, who had been lagging behind the less valuable demon infantry. Their beasts leaped to the tops of the walls, where they were fortunately surrounded by humans immediately. The soldiers managed to keep them away from the wizards for the most part, but at the cost of many lives, since the demons could kill a human with almost every swing of their swords or stab of their spears.

Still, their somewhat straightforward, reckless tactics were hard on the demons as well. Since they were attacking a defensive position, it was still harder on them, even though it appeared relatively trivial to overcome the defenses. The demons couldn’t get all of their numbers to bear, while the humans seemed almost endless. It was still a relatively even battle, which made William wonder.

It would be foolish to try to subsequently take over the country with only this many soldiers. Though this border keep contained 20,000 soldiers, the country of Ostana was large enough to support more soldiers, though there was no room for them in the keep. Many were still throughout the country, patrolling or defending large cities. Why would the demons come into such a disadvantageous position?

Then William realized. They probably didn’t expect the humans to be prepared. Though there would usually be defenders at this border keep, and a smaller standing army in the country, there would not be so many as they had now. It was only because William was warned about the attack in advance that the humans could prepare. In addition, word of their preparations, or the full extent of them, must have been suppressed. Certainly, he had worked toward that goal, but since there was no knowledge of who the demons had as spies, it wasn’t a simple thing to do. Perhaps the mysterious demon woman was responsible for that as well. After all, she had openly admitted that this demon lord, whose name William had not bothered to learn, was her enemy. It would be to her advantage if he went in unprepared. This was only speculation on William’s part though.

The wizards couldn’t assist the fighting on the walls very well, since they would likely hurt allies too. They had previously moved back from the initial walls, onto a second area that had towers that some of them could survey the battlefield from. Now, they worked on dealing with the enemies still trying to make it onto the walls, and also the enemies who were trained as wizards. As the battle had gone on, it became clear that the trained wizards were hidden among the troops, in full armor. Human wizards would find this entirely too restricting, but to the demons who were born with stronger bodies, it was tolerable. It also kept them from being easy targets.

The demon lord was still hanging back with a “small” group of about 100 of the demon cavalry, which somewhat worried William, since that was a significantly dangerous force. However, the battle still looked to be going in the favor of the humans. Then, suddenly, Chris started acting erratically. He was moving around and William couldn’t understand what he was trying to do. William couldn’t see anything that particularly merited such attention. Then, Chris managed to spin William around, and pointed up into the sky. There, William saw a flock of birds. At least, that is what he wished it was. Instead, it was a large group of wyvern riding demons. Wyverns were somewhat like birds, in their looks only. Instead of feathers, they had scales that looked similar. In addition, they also had tails that were more like a lizard… or a dragon. These tails had poisonous stingers on the end. Regardless, they were fast approaching, taking advantage of the focus on the front of the battle to attempt a sneak attack. Fortunately, Chris didn’t have eyes, and his vision wasn’t really limited by direction. Thus, he had noticed them when they got close. William knew the battle was going to easily. As he got word to the commanders about the imminent attack by the wyvern riders, the group lead by the demon lord started to advance.