Golems, classers and beasts streamed out of the canyon, quickly forming files and columns. Clearly, they had been expecting our warm welcome, and they were well prepared to handle it.

Vaguely, I remember Ash sounding a horn, signaling a charge to our troops. Moments later, I found myself swept up in the frenzy, all 25000 of us sprinting at the rapidly forming army on the other side.

Suddenly, our soldiers seemed to remember they had movement skills, and our charge evolved into a mad rush made up of hundreds of different skills, each lighting up the damp morning atmosphere. Some took off from our column of charging classers, while others seemed to favour more defensive buffs. Momentarily, I almost got caught up in the excitement and used aura step, but held back at the last moment. I and my two tier 4 guards weren’t meant to lead the charge, we were meant to go after the golden guard that threatened to topple the careful balance Ash had engineered in this war. The way he had phrased it led me to believe my role in this was rather important, though who knew what Ash was thinking anymore. For all I knew I was just another sacrifice meant to fan the flames for him. Oh well. I had unsettled business with that guard anyway. He had made me doubt my cause with his silver tongue, and it would feel cathartic to rip it from his throat...

I paused. That had been a cruel thought... Was the bloodlust getting to me? I shook off this line of thought and placed my focus on the frontline.

Our initial charge had just made contact with the opposing army. Many of the abyss watcher’s men were no less mad than ours, which meant that our faster soldiers were the first to meet each other on the battlefield.

The horizon turned into a myriad of lights as the two factions met, like fireflies lighting up the night sky. Purple abyssal skill effects met white, ashy auras in mid-air, causing ethereal, hollow sounds to ring out over the battlefield repeatedly. The sound of the abyssal skills being used reminded me of the sound of our church’s bells, though they seemed distorted, as if I was hearing them while someone was screaming themselves hoarse through my other ear. It was an unsettling sound, to say the least. Meanwhile, the dry man’s soldiers preferred to use skills based on the concepts of bone, drought, and time. These skills had their own distinct sound, more reminiscent of bones breaking far too loudly, like dry twigs being crushed underfoot.

The two collections of sound came together to form a strange cacophony, which drowned out the hoarse screams of the warriors that were still fighting and the dying, pained moans of those who were about to perish.

As more and more classers joined the front lines, it was becoming extremely difficult to keep up with the battle, however. All I could tell from this distance, was that our side had just created three giant bone mammoths, that were stomping through our opponents’ frontlines. Oh, no, actually, they were just destroyed by an armada of golems, that had used their green lasers to blow them apart. Just as the tide shifted in the favor of the abyss watcher, our side came up with another change and created a forest of bones around the golems, which slowed them down enough for half a dozen of our tier 4s to break some of their crystals.

From there, the battle only continued to escalate, the tide shifting like grains of sand in the wind.

Eventually, three figures appeared on each side. By now, the majority of both sides’ soldiers had started clashing. Now, the generals were about to take the stage.

Just like Ash had said, one of the abyss watcher’s generals looked pretty banged up, wincing as he floated over the battle. He was doing well hiding his pain, but it was still apparent on his face from this distance. Meanwhile, Dullahan, Ash, and Olgierd looked ready for a fight to the death, healthy as can be for the moment.

The two trios wasted no words and threw themselves at each other, uncaring for the shockwaves their battles created. In fact, it looked like both sides were trying to shift the damage to the other’s side. Entire swaths of both of our armies were being annihilated with each casual swing of theirs. This really put into perspective what it meant to be a tier 5. Let alone a tier 7...

Their battle continued, yet still, I held back. I had my objective, after all. I had no intention to let the golden guard ambush me. Slowly, the generals lifted higher and higher into the sky. Supposedly, both sides had realised that their collateral damage wouldn’t serve any purpose, they were just trading back and forth. That felt strange to me, though. I could understand our side trying to delay the battle, but why were the abyss watcher’s forces attempting to do the same? What did they gain from delaying us here? Before I could satisfy my suspicion with answers, though, a golden figure appeared above the battlefield. It crashed down to the ground, creating a bloody trail as he landed. With each step he took, our side was losing dozens...

The golden guard. Finally, he had seen fit to show himself.

With a cruel grin, I gestured for my helpers to follow me and charged at him. He saw me coming from a mile away, but hadn’t expected me to disappear right at the last second. My two guards blocked one of his three floating swords each, while the third pierced the ground where I had stood moments earlier. Now, however, I had appeared behind the golden guard, and I was swinging an overloaded sword straight at the nape of his neck, while five overloaded orbs slowly took shape in a pentagram behind me.

With supernatural speed, his armor covered the spot I had been aiming for, though my sword arc still made contact. He stumbled forward under the sudden push, but regained control quickly. His swords homed in on me just as quickly, unfortunately. I had to create some onyx chains to block them before they sliced me in half, but that opened up a window for my guards to attack Mr. Golden. From this close-up, I could see that this enemy of mine was just a middle-aged, golden-haired man. He grimaced as the latrine guy to my left and the stoic samurai to my right dug their weapons halfway through his moving armor, but recovered before they could finish him off. A golden bubble appeared around him and then burst, throwing us all backward.

By now, a small area around us had been opened up. None of the other soldiers wanted to interfere in the battle, and they stayed clear. It felt like we were fighting in the eye of the storm now, and my rival seemed to feel just as exhilarated as I did, because a wide grin to match my own appeared on his face.

Again, we charged at each other. This time, I used Aura step, which kicked up a large amount of dust with each step I took. I knew gold’s stats completely outclassed my own, so while I acted like I was about to initiate a direct clash with his sword, I dodged to the left at the last second and used a double aura step to surround us both in a dust cloud. While I could no longer see him now, my [Weak aura sense] was just sensitive enough to pick up his mana signature, as well as that of his swords, which seemed interconnected to him. Like they were a part of him, but not, at the same time.

Thankfully, that allowed me to dodge his weapons as they circled around him at intense speeds, creating a strong gust that was threatening to dispel the dust I had kicked up.

“Stop those swords!” I commanded my two helpers, who were all too happy to comply, and jumped into the whirling saw of swords, blocking the weapons as they did so. I sent some overloaded orbs at the last weapon, which halted it for a small moment. Suddenly, though, the swords seemed to regain all of their momentum. Had gold used a special skill, maybe? They were thrown back, but my purpose had been achieved. During those few seconds they had bought me, I had charged up sword laser as much as I could.

Feeling my bones crack from the strain, I pushed my sword in the general direction of the guard and released the pent-up energy. The laser cascaded forward like a wave and pierced the dust cloud, as well as the spot where I could feel gold’s mana. The shrill shriek of my laser drowned out the sound of his swords, which quickly flew to his side and attempted to divert my laser. They failed to make it veer off course, but held steady until I ran out of overloaded mana. Still, that initial hit had reached him and left a devastating wound. I had even used my [Corrosive curse mark], the deadliest skill I had.

As the dust settled, a sorry sight was revealed. Gold, now more zombie than man, had lost most of his skin and now looked like some kind of flesh man. Boils ran along his as-of-yet small curse mark, but the laser itself had decimated the front of his armor. He looked like a burned corpse. Yet somehow, he was still standing, and his swords... Wait a minute, his swords...

I cursed and used some pure mana to apparate behind gold, repeating my initial attack. In the nick of time, I had dodged the giant sword that had carved its way out of the ground like a spike. My companions hadn’t been that lucky. Both the latrine guy and the samurai had been impaled, and the mana-destroying nature of gold’s floating weapons had killed them before they could even scream.

As I swung my weapon once more, the red blood of my companions running down the flying swords like small rivers seemed odd... disconcerting. I had led these men to their deaths... yet I had no time to mourn them, I thought with renewed determination.

The armor around gold’s back was still in decent shape but, just like I had hoped, it seemed like it had lost its abilities after being mostly destroyed. My form and sword regained their physical properties right as it was about to touch the back of his neck. I had expected gold to react in time to block or dodge, but was instead rewarded with a wet squelch as my sword dug into his flesh. And continued until it broke his neck, and continued until it parted on the other side. His head fell onto the sandy ground of the battlefield, and his body toppled over with a quiet thud. His three swords remained motionless in the ground, my helpers still impaled upon them.

For a moment, I felt like I could rest. It felt like the battle around me had stilled, like all the soldiers had seen one of their leaders die and were about to give up because of it. I had achieved what I had wanted to, what I had been tasked to do. I could rest now... Or so I had hoped. But I couldn’t.

Because the battle around me hadn’t stilled at all. Bone constructs were erected out of the ground, only to be destroyed moments later, classers were still dueling hotly with each other... Not a single person cared about what I had done, about my achievement. This was war.

As that realization settled into my mind, I became sharply aware of my situation and regained my focus.

Without wasting any time, I gathered the corpses of my helpers, as well as the swords they had been killed with, while leaving behind gold. His other equipment had been turned to dust, and he carried nothing else valuable. He would be food for the crows.

I re-entered the battle with renewed vigor, empowered bloodlust, and cut my way through my opponents one by one, reveling in the levels I would gain after the end of the battle. I accrued wounds because of my carelessness, but regained my strength as Dark form kept me alive.

More and more enemies fell to my sword and skills, and more and more blood pooled at my feet. More and more men and women came to me, to die...

Everything became a blur, yet time continued to pass.

After what could have been a week, or could have been just an hour, someone pulled me out of my madness.

My mind regained its clarity as I found myself floating far above the battlefield, held up by the black robe I was wearing.

“Who...?” I muttered quietly, not quite sure of what was going on yet.

“It’s me. You seemed lost in battle. Having fun?” I heard Ash’s voice ask from behind me. I turned my head lazily, too tired mentally to respond coherently. Huh. I didn’t know I could get tired anymore...

“Wha?” I asked intelligently.

“Hah...” Ash sighed. “Listen, I don’t have time to wait until you gather yourself. One of the opposing generals had been killed by me, which allows me to mop up some of the small fries. However, intelligence has come in that the abyss watcher might have sent in some units through the dungeon after all, in hopes of catching us off guard. I had deemed that strategy unlikely, since it takes ages for any meaningful amount of troops to get through there, and they would have to be limited to tier 3... Still, it appears the watcher thought ahead and sent some people in right after he got the news of the dry man evolving, so we can expect company from the dungeon after all. I want you to take some troops and hold them off while I deal with the remaining troops here. Got it?”

“Uhu.” I assented, still not in my right mind. I could understand that he wanted me to fight, at least.

The next thing I knew, I was back at the encampment, finally recovered from the mad haze I had swum in earlier. I was staring at some unit commanders that Ash had sent my way. Apparently, two days had passed since the start of the major battle. We only had to stall for another day if we were lucky. Victory was on the horizon. Before that, though, we had a single battle left.

For some reason, the system didn’t see combat as ‘finished’ yet, though. I would have to wait for my level-ups until the dry lord arrived.

“Sir, what are your plans?” one of the tier 3 commanders asked me.

Right, plans... Shit. I didn’t have any of those, unfortunately...