Faraam glanced at the first unit in front of him; many had died as a result of the first collision with the nightmare creatures.
Most of those who died were from the outskirts, and some were from the guards.
Mostly because of the way the first unit was formed. Gunlung used the prize of living inside the castle as bait to make those who lived in the outskirts join this army.
Of course he didn't plan to really keep his promise. Why? Well, because he was planning to use them as meat shields, fated to die. As for those who might live... he might accept them if he sees potential in them or accuse them of running away from battle.
Faraam shook his head in disappointment; if he had killed them, he might have gotten quite the soul essence.
'A shame, really.' He chuckled softly.
"What are you laughing at?"
Faraam glanced at the hunter next to him and smiled.
"I thought of a joke; do you want to hear it?"
The hunter grimaced, "Wrong time, dude."
Faraam shook his shoulders and sighed, 'What better time than this?'
Suddenly a voice echoed near them, barely hearable with the chaos that was happening in the front line.
"Listen, everyone! The second unit will be divided into two parts; the first will be led by me, Gemma, and attack from the left, and the second will be led by the vice-leader, Malek, to attack from the right. We will begin in five minutes; be ready!"
Faraam glanced at the nightmare creatures in the distance...
'Double envelopment... it's not bad, but if they believed they will win this easily, they are quite wrong.'
Indeed, it is true that the first unit was holding good, and with the second unit attacking from the flanks, the sleep army would be able to kill the nightmare creatures quite easily, but... the main force has yet to attack.
Before Faraam made Marcus fall into his trap and be killed by the Fallen Tyrant, he had counted them. There were around fifty Awakened Beasts, ten Monsters, and five Demons, and the sleeper army had already killed a third of them, with not many casualties, only fifty sleepers dying, which was within the calculations he did.
The problem is the Fallen ones; there were eight of them, counting the Tyrant. Most of them were Monsters, with only one being a demon, and one Fallen is equivalent to ten to fifty awakened ones; of course, that depends on the class.
So the real battle has yet to begin, and it seems Gunlaug knows this. That is why he is planning to kill as many Awakened abominations as possible, to focus on the Fallen ones, even if it causes some sacrifices.
After three minutes exactly, the order came, and the second unit charged forward.
Reaching the first unit, they divided into two and flanked the sides of the nightmare creatures.
Slowly the second unit spread until fully encircling their enemies.
Faraam, who had already summoned [Sword of Despair], lunged at one of the abominations.
He thrust it deep inside its side, then ran along its body until the sword had nothing to cut.
The beast screamed in pain and turned toward Faraam. It then charged at him.
It attacked with both its two heads.
Faraam knew that even a touch from its horns could break his ribs, let alone an attack that would be able to penetrate his body and emerge from his back.
So he did what anyone would do. He calculated the time the beast would take to reach him and dodged at the right time, then with the flexibility of a dancer, he threw his sword above and backflipped, dodging the other head, which tried to devour his upper body.
Landing on his feet, he caught the sword and slashed upward, severing the head full of teeth from the body.
He then kicked the ankle of the beast, making it lose its balance for a second. Using that opportunity, he stabbed the sword in the middle of the other head.
The Beast fell down dead, and the spell whispered to Faraam.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Degenerated Bull.]
"Again with no memory?..."
Cursing, Faraam ran to another nightmare creature.
***
Time passed, and Gunlaug remained watching above the walls surrounding the bright castle.
The battle was going according to the plan, at least for now.
The sleeper army has nearly eradicated the nightmare creatures... though the casualties were high, but to win you need to sacrifice something.
Because it is impossible to achieve something without losing something else.
Gunlaug raised his head and looked in the distance past the second unit.
"They are here... Kido tell Gemma to retreat back and join the first unit and create a wall, and bring that thing."
Kido nodded her head and started giving orders.
The lord of the bright castle watched the second unit retreat, joining the first unit in creating a wall, stopping every nightmare creature from getting past them, and the archers still firing their arrows.
After a minute, the sound of something rolling echoed above the walls.
Looking back, he saw a giant, powerful crossbow on a sturdy wooden frame, featuring two strong arms at the front connected by torsion springs and a grooved shaft underneath. It was ten meters in height and five meters in width.
It was a ballista, a large one at that.
"Prepare it for lunch."
"Yes, Lord Gunlaug!"
The crew quickly started working, pulling the springs. Since the ballista was quite large, it took them around two minutes to finish.
Gunlaug watched as the Fallen abominations reached the shooting range
As that happened, the golden armor he was wearing began to melt and eventually fell off, revealing his face and his covered body. It then flew in the direction of the ballista and began to take the shape of a bolt, a transcendent bolt.
Then it started slowly falling on the ballista until it rested on the groove.
"Aim at the one on the far right, exactly at his eye in the middle of his chest, and shoot."
The ballista started turning to the right, rose a little, and then shot!
The transcendent bolt flew with a speed so fast that in mere seconds it reached the Fallen Demon and penetrated his chest! killing it immediately.
The spell whispered to Gunlaug, announcing it, as he watched the Demon fall.
"He looked at the crew handling the ballista and asked, "When will it be ready again?"
Someone from them rose and spoke, "The Springs are destroyed, so we need to replace them—"
"Give me time."
"Five minutes, my lord."
"Do it as fast as possible, or everyone down there will be killed, and then it will be you."
The man gulped his saliva and nodded his head.
Gunlaug then looked to his right toward his executioner and said, "Go there and help."
Harus nodded and jumped down from the castle's wall, heading to the human wall.