The Fiend's Creation System

Fierce Resistance

Julius began committing more fiends to the battle and even assigned some new types to fight as well. 

He needed to check the performances of the new fiend types so this was the perfect stage for that. Other than the Thorn Fiend which was classified as a siege-type, there were a few new infantry-type and range-type fiends as well.

There were even the newly added support and auxiliary types. One of the fiends he wanted to see in action was the Plasm-field fiends. These fiends were auxiliary-type fiends that had a rather reliable firepower despite their classification.

When they were dispatched on the field, these fiends with their small builds and rather incredible agility would immediately rush towards the enemy and detonate themselves. Julius called these fiends the suicide fiends but their proper names were the Plasm-field Fiends.

The true ability of these fiends lied in their explosive ability that released a dense cloud of plasm from their body into their surroundings. This ability would automatically trigger if they were killed or if they chose to detonate themselves.

They were essentially just a battery for the other fiends who needed the plasm to trigger their endless regenerative ability. The humans had thinned out the concentration of fiend energy in the air by using their [Purification] spell but Julius had a counter for that which was the Plasm-field Fiends.

When these fiends were dispatched onto the field, they were able to wreak havoc with their explosions, and Julius had even smartly deployed them underground and waited for the humans to approach before suddenly detonating them.

The explosion of fiend energy wasn’t able to completely kill the humans, heavily injuring them was the best the Plasm-field Fiends were able to do with their detonation but the injured human soldiers would immediately be exposed to the plasm.

This was the effect Julius wanted anyways because the fiend energy that pervaded into their body would slowly change them into fiends. Although the fiends’ detonations couldn’t kill the humans, some still died from the debris and shrapnel that resulted from the underground explosion.

This tactic worked to slow down the humans’ approach to the Arachne Sanctum and gave Julius some time to gather his fiends and place them at the locations where he wanted to have a skirmish with the humans.

He dispatched tens of thousands of fiends at once during every skirmish and slowly whittled down the human army’s numbers as much as he could.

Julius didn’t expect his fiends to win these skirmishes since the humans would always send out their champions to quickly end the battle. Thanks to the skirmishes, however, Julius was able to bait out a few more champions to the field.

He was able to identify 10 of the 12 dispatched champions but the remaining 2 were always holding their stance in not attacking. However, from their attitudes, Julius was able to narrow down the few humans still waiting at the human army’s backlines that could be the remaining 2 champions.

It was definitely going to be a hard final battle at the mock sanctum against this human army and their champions but Julius was confident that they could at least repel the humans.

He was prepared to risk tooth and nail to repel the humans while dealing the most damage he could to their army and essentially cripple them so that they wouldn’t be able to launch a secondary attack.

His fiend’s plasm wasn’t able to infect these champions but it was something he expected but at the very least, a good majority of the human army had been infected by his fiends' plasm and were slowly transforming into fiends as they were marching.

All Julius needed to do was accelerate that transformation which would inevitably cause confusion and panic within the human army’s ranks. He was banking on this confusion and turmoil to launch a crippling attack that would repel these humans.

If that didn’t work, killing a few human champions would definitely deter these humans from trying to attack him again in the future. He was going to show the humans that his fiends were a significant threat to them so that they wouldn’t just rashly attack them again like they were doing now.

They had no information about his fiends but they just rallied together an army to attack them. It was such a haphazard attempt that Julius felt insulted that the humans underestimated him and his fiends.

On the humans’ side, the various leaders of the army were elated and smug when they saw the fiends’ futile attempts to stop them. There was a skirmish every few days and the humans grew cocky after winning every single one of them.

No matter how many soldiers the fiends sent, the human army would ‘easily’ repel them. Each fight did cost the humans a few hundred or thousands of soldiers. The soldiers that were lost couldn’t be healed or resurrected but the injured would be restored to their most optimum state by the Holy Light Church’s priests and they’d be able to fight again in the next battle that was to come.

Their consecutive wins over the past few days ignited the passion and morale of the human soldiers so everyone was looking forward to the day when they returned victorious from this campaign.

“General Florence, it seems that we’re definitely on the right track!” A Champion named Charlie Newerth said.

This champion, Charlie Newerth, was the 8th ranked in power among the champion that was dispatched and he was good friends with Florence Atna despite them being from different powers.

He had been actively participating in the battle and was flashy with his sword skills. Julius took note that this person was probably the champion that was dubbed the Swift Wind Sword of the Harroth Kingdom.

It was a kingdom that bordered the Ephalerith Empire in the north so he knew a little bit about it. This champion had once visited the Ephalerith Empire for a goodwill campaign and sparred with the Empire’s General Maximilian, the traitor that killed his father.

At that time, Maximilian was still rather young and he had just stepped into the ranks of champions and yet, he was skillful enough to beat Charlie. This attested to the traitor, Maximilian d’Euphrase’s prowess.

The Ephalerith Empire didn’t dispatch any of their soldiers in this campaign simply because it was petitioned by the Holy Light Church and Julius’s second brother, Caine, was turning his back against them after he used them to take the throne.

It was a shame since Julius wanted to obliterate the Empire’s forces if they were here just out of spite and pettiness. 

When General Florence heard his friend’s words, he nodded but didn’t seem happy at this fact. Charlie noticed the frown on his face and asked, “We’re winning, but why do you seem so displeased by it?”

“It’s nothing. I’m glad we’re winning but I’ve been having this odd feeling that’s been bugging me lately. Don’t you feel that it’s a little too easy?”

“Bah, listen to yourself Florence! Do you not have confidence in the strength of our forces?!” Another champion jumped into their conversation and chimed in.

This time it was a rather crass-looking woman who was hefting a large battle-ax on her back. This one was even stronger than both of them and was ranked 3 among the champions here. She was just below in strength to the 2 hidden masters that hadn’t shown their face in battle yet.

“Heather, this is just a concern of mine. I just don’t believe that the fiends would be this weak!” Florence lashed out. 

He and this woman were both part of the same power that dispatched them here but they didn’t quite get along.

“You’re undermining our power then! Why can’t you ever be satisfied with the results?!”

“Tsk, you and your muscle-for-brains wouldn’t understand my concerns! Hadn’t you noticed that the fiends haven’t once sent any champion-leveled figures to attack us? Only small fries and mobs have been sent our way and look at how powerful they are!”

“...”

“Each day we fight, we lose thousands of good men out there. Yes, we win the battles but as time goes on, we’re losing more and more soldiers!”

“Those fiends are losing more than us!” Heather argued back.

“Are you sure about that?” Florence countered.

Florence had already noticed the large hole in this campaign and that was the lack of information they had on the fiends. They didn’t know their exact numbers, they didn’t know the precise location of their base, and even if the scouts suddenly found the large structure in the middle of the Shifting Hallows that was supposedly the Fiends’ base, but how could they be so sure about that?

For all Florence knew, the structure they found and the resistance the fiends were putting up was all a ruse meant to lower the number of soldiers they had and boost their ego so that they would continue marching deeper into the hallows.

Once they were too deep inside the enemy’s territory, the fiends would suddenly attack and wipe them out in one fell swoop. Not once had they met up with a fiend that had power that was on par with the champions.

They had received information that there was at least one champion within the fiends’ ranks but said fiend hadn’t shown up yet even after they were constantly suffering loss after loss.

“You obviously just worry too much!”

“My worries aren’t unfounded. We don’t have any information on the fiends. How can you presume the number of fiends that are out lurking in these cursed lands? They may have ten times or even a hundred times our numbers and that’s why they’re just throwing bodies our way like it’s nothing!”

Charlie frowned at his friend’s words because they really didn’t know anything about that. For all he knew, his friend’s speculation might even be true despite how far-fetched it sounded.

Florence had been worried about the number of fiends so, at the end of every battle, he would always have his lieutenants do a body count of how many fiends were killed in each battle and until now, the number was close to a staggering one million.

It was just as much as the number of soldiers he had brought into the Shifting Hallows. Actually, after the battle that had just finished today, it was already past one million now. The number of soldiers he had left was around 600,000. They had lost about 100,000 thousand soldiers already on their way to the supposed base of the fiends.

The one million fiend body count greatly alarmed him so he began sending scouts to both the front and rear of his army to make sure that they weren’t being secretly surrounded.

If the fiends could sacrifice one million soldiers to kill one hundred thousand of his, then it meant that their numbers were definitely in the millions or even tens of millions. Florence’s speculation alarmed even himself but he didn’t share it with the rest of the commanders.

It was all just speculation and he didn’t want to falsely alarm his army and fellow commanders because he didn’t know if it was true or not his theory of the fiends’ numbers.

He had just blurted things out now because he had become uneasy and put on edge at the alarming body count numbers but his words did give food for thought. Even his ‘rival’, Heather, had stopped admonishing him for his attitude and began thinking about this.

“You...Florence, you’ve been keeping track of the number of losses the fiends experienced, right?” Heather asked.

“How do you know this? And to answer your question, it’s a yes.”

“W-Well, I have my eyes on you so I know what you’re doing!”

“...”

Charlie, who was on the side, quickly asked, “How many did the fiends lose until now, Florence?”

“...Around a million after this recent battle.”

“...A million?” 

“Yes, a million. They just threw a million bodies at us and made us lose around 100,000. I doubt that they’re done. Also, in every battle, the number of fiends that came at us was always in the range of around 100,000 to 300,000 at a time. The numbers are too uniform to be a coincidence…”

They were talking around a campfire and the champions were resting nearby. Their conversation could be heard so one by one, the champions came out of their tents and joined the trio by the fire.

“Is what you said true, General Florence?” The Fourth-ranked champion among them asked after he joined Florence and the others around the campfire.

“Well, now that you’ve heard it...yes, it’s all true. At first, I didn’t see this as a concern, but after this continued to repeat itself, I began to question...why not just send their army at us all at once?”

“...”

“With their one million-strong army, they could definitely deal more significant and permanent damage to us―heck, they might even be able to rout us with their numbers!”

“You’re saying that they have more than what they’ve shown?”

“Of course. If the fiends could send a million at us in parts just to slow us down or chip our forces little by little, I’m sure they could send out a large enough force that could directly rout us,” Florence paused for a moment and looked at the people that had gathered. All of the 12 champions and their adjutants were present. Even the elusive first and second ranked ones were here, listening to his ramble.

“From what I can see, the fiends are probably just toying with us. It’s unbelievable how cruel the leaders of the fiends are to send their troops out just to die but that’s how I see it. Since they have no concern about their losses, then it must mean that they have plenty of soldiers in reserve while we only have 600,000 now and every loss is a permanent subtraction to that number.”

A figure in a cloak suddenly spoke up after Florence finished his piece and everyone gathered around the campfire turned to the person.

“Since you’ve said this Florence, do you want to propose that we turn around?”

The person wearing the cloak was a woman and she was the second strongest champion present while the one towering behind her was the strongest champion dispatched in this campaign.

The first and second champions were husband and wife that weren’t part of any kingdom but a martial school known as the Yin-Yang Sect. This sect was established by someone only known as the ‘Sage’ and this sage person was the one that had taken in Julius’s third brother, Charleson, as their disciple.

The Yin-Yang Sect was known to produce many powerful masters that would eventually and definitely become champion-level people in the future. That was how famous the sect was and this couple was from that sect.

They were a secluded sect so despite being the strongest people present, they didn’t take command simply because they weren’t commanders. Everyone had their place in the world and each person had their strengths. 

The two powerful individuals weren’t arrogant and allowed a more fitting person to take command. It was why Florence was the high commander of the joint army.

“Master Lilias, this is but a speculation of mine that’s derived from circumstantial evidence. Although I do feel like we should turn back and wait for another day to attack, we’ve already come this far―”

“Just answer the question,” The towering figure behind the woman, spoke out in a booming voice.

“...Yes, I believe we should return. We’re already deep into enemy territory but the visibility of our surroundings is minimal at best. We can’t be sure that the fiends won’t encircle us in the future.”

“Are you sure we’re not encircled already?” Another champion asked.

“I’ve sent scouting teams both to our front and rear, they reported that there have been no traces of fiends to our rear. It means that we haven’t stepped too deep into their territory so that they haven’t encircled us yet or…”

“Or?”

“Or I could be wrong and we’re already close to winning this war.”