Chapter 119 – Chapter 20: Blitz #2
The next morning, In-gong gathered the group together and talked about their future schedule.
The simple plan was to join with the reinforcements, move to Evian and join General Vandal in fighting against the barbarian king.
They had guessed this roughly last night, so only two people reacted to it. One was Nayatra, who hadn"t been in In-gong"s party until yesterday, and the other was Amita.
"Eeeeeh! First, the Demon King"s Palace, and now you want to drag me to a battlefield!"
“Yes.”
Amita paused at In-gong"s cool reply, then they started to hit the ground with their tail.
"Ohh! Ohh! Ohh!"
If they were a person, they probably would have grabbed In-gong"s collar. Daphne hugged Amita from behind.
"Amita, if we go to the battlefield, we need your power. Moreover, you"d be willing to send me to a terrible battlefield alone?"
"Oh&h.e.l.lip;"
Amita"s tail and shoulders slumped at the same time. Daphne continued talking as Amita"s ears drooped.
"Before leaving today, I will buy more of Amita"s favourite sweets. When we return, I will buy you more. Then won"t you have enough sweets for a while?"
Amita was happy at the thought of more sweets.
They eventually let out a long sigh. Amita jumped out of Daphne"s arms and said,
"It can"t be helped. I will go for Daphne"s sake."
“Thank you, Amita."
Daphne smiled at Amita, then she winked slightly at In-gong. In-gong nodded as he watched Amita"s tail.
"It is good that I left it to Daphne."
They were heading to the battlefield, so Amita"s skills were needed more than usual. The distribution of equipment was important, but the maintenance was also important.
Amita waved their tail in resistance whenever asked to do anything, but they always gave in at the end.
"Master, the talking racc.o.o.n has become happy again."
"Yes."
In-gong responded to Green Wind"s whisper, then he looked at Nayatra. She looked somewhat anxious about being dragged to the battlefield.
"Nayatra, are you okay?"
Nayatra flinched at In-gong"s question, then she responded with a firm expression.
“I am one of Prince"s subordinates. I"m okay."
In fact, she stated that she was okay when asked, but her reaction was completely different.
Although Below the King"s Flag and Conquest Coat of arms had the effect of increasing loyalty to In-gong, it didn"t completely remodel her mind. It was sort of like boosting the effect?
Despite Conquest Coat of Arms, Nayatra still felt some skepticism towards In-gong.
‘And she has started calling me Prince instead of Your Highness."
This was the first time that Nayatra had called him Prince. Maybe it was a type of goodwill toward In-gong.
After smiling at Nayatra, In-gong looked in Felicia"s direction. Felicia clapped lightly and got everyone"s attention.
“Okay, now that it has been decided, shall we move? We will move out of Takar with the supplies purchased yesterday and will join the reinforcements at the meeting place. We will head to Evian this afternoon."
While In-gong was searching for Nayatra in the slave stores, Felicia had bought supplies. In this regard, Felicia was indeed reliable.
After having breakfast at the hotel, they heading to the stores. A few stores had closed after last night, but most of them were operating normally.
"They need to show that they are still steady." The gate inspection will be stricter than usual, but otherwise, it should go smoothly."
It was like Felicia said. Even though they were scrutinized more closely than possible in case barbarians were hiding in the food wagons, pa.s.sing through the gates itself was no problem.
They moved to the transportation formation near Takar. Originally, the reinforcements had planned to join them at Takar, but they didn"t want to trouble Takar, while they were still sensitive to the barbarians" attacks.
The transportation formation was spread like a spider web around various places in the Demon World. Therefore, not all the formations were connected together. Of course, technically, it wasn"t impossible to connect all the formations, but the Demon King"s Palace didn"t want that. There were security, political and cost issues.
The issue of security was about a possible attack towards the Demon King"s Palace through the transport formations, while the political issue was about the reluctance of certain species. It wasn"t pleasant to have the forces of the Demon King"s Palace capable of entering through the transport formations at any time, even if they didn"t intend to rebel. Therefore, the formations directly linked to the Demon King"s Palace were only placed in palaces or cities with a strong loyalty to the demon king.
‘Basically, all the species that have queens."
During the Lycanthrope subjugation, the first thing Chris had done was destroy all the transportation formations linked to the Demon King"s Palace.
‘The transportation network was severely damaged before and after the Day of Ma.s.sacre."
The queens of various species destroyed all their transportation formations.
In-gong was reminded of things he had experienced in Knight Saga. It was a future that In-gong would surely stop. This was a no-brainer.
They arrived at the transportation formation and waited for a while until the dark elves arrived. There were 200 people riding dracos, with a mix of warriors, magicians and priests.
"It is great to see 6th Princess."
The one who led the dark elves was Alita Doomblade, the youngest of Felicia"s aunts. She had a mix of silver and purple hair and was an excellent hunter.
“It is great to see you, Aunt Alita."
Felicia welcomed Alita with a hug and introduced In-gong and the others. Like Felicia, Alita was dressed in revealing clothes and laughed playfully.
"You are the 9th Prince of the rumours. It is an honour."
What was this 9th Prince of rumours?
In-gong greeted Alita with a smile. Alita seemed like a rougher, more mature version of Felicia.
"Knight Saga&h.e.l.lip; She was the last escort protecting Felicia."
Then the expression on Alita"s face changed. She saw the cute-looking Amita waving their tail and went over to pat them.
In-gong looked at the troops and materials Alita had brought. There had to be enough supplies to eat and drink for 200 people, so the amount was quite considerable.
At noon, the reinforcements from the lycanthropes arrived. There were 200 of them, exactly like the dark elves, and they were wearing partial armour made of leather.
"It is great to see 8th Princess."
The lycanthrope reinforcements were led by Kaparang, who was considered a rising star in the Blood Companions. Although the royal blood that flowed through him was a bit distant, Caitlin still regarded him as a cousin.
“I"ve heard a lot of rumours about you. It is a tremendous honour to be able to fight with such a great person."
“That’s right, Shutra is amazing."
Caitlin laughed while In-gong shook Kaparang"s hand. Kaparang was much bigger and more muscular than Chris, but his smile was just like Caitlin"s.
"I wonder what the rumours are.’
In-gong recalled everything he knew about Kaparang as they shook hands. He couldn"t remember every member of the Blood Companions. Unlike the dark elves, who could be both peaceful and fierce in combat, it was natural that almost all lycanthropes were warriors.
Therefore, the lycanthrope reinforcements were all warriors. It wasn"t that they couldn"t just magic or divine power, but they needed to be capable of bare-handed combat to be cla.s.sified as lycanthrope warriors.
The lycanthropes had separate supplies that were three times larger than the dark elves". It was basically the difference between the dark elves and the lycanthropes who were born with a big appet.i.te.
The number of reinforcements equalled to 400. They were elites, so their battle power surpa.s.sed 1,000 ordinary soldiers from the Demon King"s Palace.
While In-gong and Caitlin were talking with Alita and Kaparang, Felicia gathered the supplies and set up a plan for moving. Once out of the influence of Takar, they would have to deal with the problem of transporting supplies in the lawless Evian area.
Some time pa.s.sed. They were just about to head off with the reinforcements.
"Royal Princess!"
The official in charge of the transportation formation came rushing towards In-gong"s group. He stopped in front of Felicia and screamed as he drew out several bundles of paper.
“An urgent message from Evian!"
"General Vandal?"
In-gong asked reflexively, and the official shook his head. He held out the bundles of paper and exclaimed,
“It isn"t General Vandal! Urgent messages from different bases came pouring in simultaneously!"
In-gong could tell that it wasn"t a normal situation just by the official"s white face. Kaparang asked the official,
“What is going on? Wasn"t General Vandal going to intercept the army?"
The barbarian king had led an army beyond the limit line, and General Vandal had led his army to intercept the barbarian king. It was General Vandal, so it shouldn"t be a situation where the other bases of Evian should be attacked.
“The barbarian king"s army turned out to be greater than expected."
Alita took the papers from the official and spread them on a desk. There was a difference in the times that the messages were sent, but every place had an emergency.
Alita"s face became pale as she read the number of enemies reported at each base.
"It seems like he is trying to occupy the bases while Vandal"s army is tied up. Then General Vandal will end up being isolated."
As soon as Alita spoke, Carack quickly unfolded a map of Evian and marked the location of the bases as well as General Vandal"s presumed location. As Alita said, if the bases were captured, it would cause serious problems by isolating Vandal"s army from the supply lines, making them unable to fight properly.
It was a strategy that wouldn"t be possible unless there was confidence in the number of troops. In other words, it was possible to defeat the army by breaking down the troops.
Felicia bit her lip and asked,
“Where is the closest place that reported an emergency?"
“It is the seventh base, but it is four days away from here. Even if we rush, we will only be able to make it in two days."
Delia replied with a dark expression. The unit, which consisted of 400 elites, had high combat power and maneuverability, but there was still a limit.
At their fastest speed, it would take two days. That was too late. The seventh base would"ve fallen by then. An exhausted unit would be facing the enemy who had occupied the base.
Objectively, they should give up on the seventh base. It would be better to ask for additional reinforcements from the Demon King"s Palace and hope that General Vandal could hold on as long as possible.
Felicia closed her eyes tightly. Then In-gong said,
“We will get there in time."
"Shutra?"
In-gong had manipulated his mini-map while looking at Carack"s map. He recalled the battle against the barbarians in Knight Saga and inferred the situation between General Vandal and the barbarians.
He had to cut off the barbarian"s offensive. In order to do that, he had to protect the seventh base. The problem was how to get there in time.
Everyone"s eyes were focused on In-gong as he looked up. He asked Felicia,
“Felicia noona, can you block anyone from seeing around the supplies?"
"Your Highness?"
Kaparang asked with confusion, but there was no time to reply. Felicia just thought about what In-gong needed instead of demanding the reason.
"I understand, I"ll do so. Daphne, can you help me?"
"I understand."
Felicia and Daphne headed to the place where the supplies were located. Although Alita and Kaparang tried to follow, In-gong left them with Carack and headed to the supplies place with Caitlin. It wasn"t easy to make the mountain of supplies invisible, but Felicia easily solved In-gong"s demand. Felicia summoned the spirits of light and water at the same time, with Daphne a.s.sisting her. The spirits created mirrors that reflected the light that hit it and obscured the supplies.
Then it was In-gong"s turn. He placed the supplies for 400 people into his inventory. There was a limit to how much he could put in at once, so he had to utilize his inventory ability more than a dozen times.
Even Felicia and Caitlin, who already knew about In-gong"s inventory ability, were astonished. What type of powerful magic was it that it could store all these supplies at once?
Felicia tried to suppress her soaring academic desire to know, while Caitlin blinked. She was so surprised that she couldn"t even say her usual phrase.
By taking all the supplies, In-gong lightened the burden on the reinforcements and moved to the next step. Although everyone was perplexed by the supplies suddenly disappearing, In-gong issued a simple order.
The dark elves boarded the dracos, and the the lycanthropes used their beast forms.
At this point, both Kaparang and Alita realized In-gong"s idea. They didn"t know how he had taken care of the supplies, but it was still irrational. It was impossible to get there in time, and they would just exhaust their stamina while moving. What good was arriving at the battlefield if they couldn"t fight?
However, Felicia believed in In-gong. Kaparang and Alita were restrained, and everyone was forced to follow In-gong"s order.
Caitlin was no different. She ordered the lycanthropes to change to their beast and climbed onto her black hose.
In-gong asked Felicia,
"Remember Thunderdoom Fortress?"
“I remember. I can"t forget it."
Felicia laughed while there were tears in her eyes, and Daphne and Delia had similar expressions. Carack just smiled and looked straight ahead.
“This time, you won"t be behind me?"
“Follow closely."
In-gong smiled from aboard Maybach. He took a deep breath and activated Conquest.
The barbarians used unexpected behaviour to cause a crisis, so his actions should be unexpected as well.
“Master, I will help you."
Green Wind appeared in a semi-solid state and flew high into the sky. The coat of arms surfaced on her forehead.
The guardian of Enger Plains&h.e.l.lip;
Green Wind had a sacred light around her, and she embraced all 400 reinforcements with the light.
"Protection of the Wind."
It was the buff that sped up In-gong"s movements on Enger Plains.
All the reinforcements were given Protection of the Wind, and a green wind circled around their legs. Despite the Conquest Coat of Arms restoring her strength, it was still hard to bless everyone. Even so, Green Wind did it with a smile because she didn"t want to disappoint In-gong.
The green wind blew above In-gong"s head, and he grabbed at the air. It wasn"t just the power of the King"s Knights that had grown, but Conquest as well. The power of Conquest was far stronger than when In-gong first received it.
"Below the King"s Flag."
A white light emerged from In-gong"s hand. It formed a flagpole with a white flag fluttering in the wind.
The king"s flag made of light&h.e.l.lip;
In-gong wielded it like a huge spear. Then the white light of Conquest wrapped around the reinforcements.
The power of Conquest was added to Protection of the Wind.
It wasn"t just Kaparang and Alita. The 400 reinforcements all stared at In-gong.
"Go, Master. Faster than the wind."
Green Wind said. Carack smiled wildly and shouted,
“Karaha!”
No more dialogue was necessary. In-gong raised the king"s flag and set out at the vanguard. They started to run faster than the wind.