The Author's POV

The sun started to set, and darkness slowly enveloped the land. A cold breeze brushed through the forest; the paper-like sound of the leaves fluttering sounded across the area.

The scene was rather tranquil, but everyone standing on top of the northern tower, knew that this was the calm before the storm.

Rustle—!

Soon, the silence was broken by the rustling sounds of the vegetation in the distance.

Stationed at the middle levels of the tower, I gazed into the distance. There were many black creatures in the distant forest, approaching our direction. Some were flying, whilst others weren't.

The atmosphere was heavy, and everyone on the middle level of the tower started to take out their weapons, as they quickly got back to their post, readying themselves for the upcoming battle.

"It's time we also get ready."

With the aid of my sword, I slowly stood up. Facing Ava, Leopold and Hein, I looked back towards the forest before muttering.

"This is going to be a long battle."

***

"You two follow me an' dinna touch anything."

Following the dwarf from before deep into the tower, Ryan and Smallsnake soon found themselves inside of what seemed to be the control room of the tower.

The layout of the place was quite simplistic, as the room was about the size of a normal living room. Around ten dwarves or so hurriedly paced around the room, looking through different holographic images, depicting different angles of the tower where the demons could be seen.

In the middle of the room was a large map filled with numerous dots; presumingly depicting the demons that were approaching.

Their number was quite large. Large enough to make Smallsnake gasp in shock.

On the other hand, staring at the room starstruck, Ryan couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Wow."

Running towards the map in the room, Ryan waved his hand over the map. His small hand passed through the holographic image.

"This looks so cool, how does it work?"

"Ryan, calm down."

Smallsnake hurriedly went to stop him.

However, their disturbance did not go unnoticed as an older looking dwarf pointed in their direction and shouted.

"Oy, who let tha two o' them in? An' what be a child doing here?"

"It's me."

The dwarf that led Ryan and Smallsnake in, raised his hand.

"Sir Bamus, I did this under the orders of Sir Orimdus."

"Orimdus? Tsk."

The older looking dwarf, Bamus, clicked his tongue.

"What be that guy thinking? Has he lost his mind?"

"He said ta let them help out with tha miscellaneous stuff. Their combat power be fairly low, an' they may end up being more useful than ye can imagine.

Bamus rolled his eyes.

Although he was the person in charge of the logistics in the northern tower, at the end of the day, Orimdus was the one in charge of the whole northern area.

He had to follow his orders.

"Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you, sir."

The dwarf gratefully looked at Bamus.

Although Bamus was ill-tempered, he was not someone who would refuse a helping hand. Furthermore, he really needed someone to help him out.

Though he wasn't really sure about the ability of the two humans before him, the tasks he was about to give them wasn't too hard.

"You two follow me."

Following Bamus, Smallsnake and Ryan stopped in front of a large wooden desk. Atop the wooden desk was a similar map to that in the middle of the room; the only difference was that it was much smaller.

give ye guys a hard task, ye see

at the map. More specifically the red dots around the

map in tha middle o' tha room, an' it gives us an overall outlook

square appeared on the

"Wooow!"

startled both Ryan and Smallsnake who looked at it with

the two, Bamus's voice filled

o' minutes how many demons be approaching from tha different sides o' tha tower. Ye guys can do

his head,

cant the

devices showed the dots on the screen, couldn't they have a system that

the answer, Bamus

but we do this just in case tha artifacts miscalculates some o' tha data. After all, some o' tha demons

"...So that's why."

turned his attention back

tilted his head and

his arms, Bamus stroked his beard before turning

then I'll leave you two

and 329 from the

Bamus could

all over

"H..huh?"

was just about to leave almost tripped over. Turning

are ye talking about?

Ryan pointed

how many demons are coming? Those

Blinkin a couple of

still 56 on the

"That's wrong Ryan."

"Huh?"

from the side, startling

Soon an

the ones that have infiltrated, there's about twenty-two missing from

head,

is what happens when you're trying

"Sorry."

onto the back of his

at the due from behind, Bamus

"What the."

the main map in the middle of the room, Bamus checked if

long, his

"...Ah."

was still being scolded by Smallsnake, Bamus's eyes

said perfectly matched what the artifact

***

prepared—Like a swarm of locusts, the demons

—Rumble! —Rumble!

ground shook, and a cloud of dust

SHIIIIII—!

next moment, the elves raised their hands and magic circles soon appeared on the palm of their hands. Before long, spells started raining down from above.

behind, I was impressed by the elves

I instead designed

the only different thing that I did

archery, it's just that they were far better magicians due to their affinity with

note, it was quite easy to tell how strong an

by the hair color of an elf, with green hair signifying lower affinity with mana, and with silver, which was the hair color that royalty had, signifying the highest amount of affinity with

WHIIIM—!

sky. Lingering in the air for a couple of seconds, it

BOOOM—!

hundreds of

towards the elf responsible for the attack, I found out that it belonged to the elf that had greeted me before;

"Damn."

mean that they were weak. The low affinity

to us humans, they were still

Xiu—! Xiu—! Xiu—!

different note, the elves weren't the only long-distance damage dealers, as the dwarves shot

somewhat resemble guns, they operated differently as

shot equalled the life of a

dwarves, and gazing below the tower, I found that despite the strong spells

simply

"Uuuaargh!"

were already waiting for them at the entrance as

huge bodies, the orcs prevented most of the demons