The Author's POV

"They're here."

Hein cast his gaze off into the far off horizon, then turned his attention to the people standing next to him. Everyone was here, from Ryan to Han Yufei. Apart from Ren, everyone that was part of the mercenary group was present.

A solemn air pervaded the area around him, and he could feel his hand clenching the shield in his hand even more tightly.

"A-are you sure you guys can handle this?"

As Ryan gazed into the distance, he struggled to find the right words to say. The color of his face began to fade, and he moved backward without meaning to.

"Alt..hough Ren did say that the next wave would be a lot harder...I didn't think it would be this much harder..."

"I get you."

Hein murmured something quietly as he turned his head and looked off into the distance, where he could see the entire landscape turning completely dark.

The longer time passed, the more evident it became that a sense of impending doom emanated from the distant sea of darkness that stretched all the way toward the horizon and didn't seem to end.

'What's this smell?'

Sniffing with his nose, Hein was able to detect the putrid odor of dead and rotting flesh coming from all of the orcs that had been killed in the previous war and were still being kept in the area where they had died.

It made his stomach churn, and just as he was about to turn his head away, Leopold spoke.

"We can no longer be as relaxed as we were in the previous battle."

Ava nodded her head in agreement as she quietly mumbled something else under her breath.

"...I hope I won't have to sacrifice any of my pets."

Her voice was audible enough for Hein to hear. He shook his head upon hearing her words.

Realistically speaking, her wish was impossible. The number of demons in the distance numbered more than a million.

With only about a hundred thousand orcs on their side, the battle was a very disadvantaged one.

'The only way I can see ourselves winning is if Ren, Liam, and the others can make a difference. '

The reality was that the strongest beings typically won wars. The wars fought by the lower-ranking beings were not as significant as those waged by the superior beings.

Each one of the higher beings could wipe out thousands of lower ranked beings with just a swipe of their hands. It was very important that they made a difference.

"Hey, Liam."

Hein suddenly called out.

Liam turned back to look at him once he heard his name.

"What is it?"

"...Do you feel any strong presence coming from the demons in the distance?"

Liam had a special power.

One that provided him with the ability to gauge an individual's level of power with just a single glance. Although Liam gave off the impression of being a very reckless person on the outside, the only reason he was able to be reckless was because of this broken ability of his.

He had a complete understanding of the power level of his adversary, so he was able to judge when to fight and when to retreat. Although it was indeed true that he was a battle maniac, there was a good reason why he was still alive up to this point in time.

it sure as hell wasn't because he was

most part

feel a lot of strong

surprise, Liam's voice was extremely solemn at the moment,

also detected a hint of excitement in his voice. Clearly, the situation had tickled his

ranked demons that

"How many?"

"About twenty-seven of them."

"Tss..."

breath

instantly shifted and became incredibly heavy

"Twenty seven!?"

in shock as he

expression was incredibly

'We might be screwed...'

looked at Ryan. His reaction...he understood it. Counting Liam, Angelica, Silug, Omgulong, Ren, Jin, and possibly,

make matters worse, Liam's next

a Duke

was emanating from his eyes became brighter. It wasn't long before his face became extremely

demon. I'm afraid he's someone that is in the late stages of his rank.

"Haha."

a nervous laugh

finally felt hopeless as his knees started to

actually

ever, and the pressure coming from them was even more apparent. It

"Haaa..."

out a long sigh and lowered

I'll be

a deep breath, slapping the sides of his cheeks and making a

"Fuck it!"

He cursed out loud.

all the training that we did over the past two years, there's nothing that will say that we will lose. I also doubt

anything about giving

suddenly felt Liam's

turned his gaze toward the distance and

that the war wasn't winnable. I was

halfway through

cared as he continued to stare into the distance and slowly unsheathed

more excited I am getting. Finally, I don't have to hold back...I want to see just how strong I've

Clank. Clank. Clank.

a deafening metallic rattling reverberated throughout the air as the castle's gates began to lower and large catapults began to move out into the surrounding area. Diverse types of orcs, numbering in the

frames instantly attracted the attention of Hein and

things again, it's no use. Although they are strong, it takes way too much time to reload those things.

leaned his body forward, gazing

'He has a point.'

nodded his head when

obvious to him. At least from

reload, but they also disrupted the momentum of the orcs, who were forced to reposition themselves in order as each reload displaced

was wasted as a result of

not necessarily

head once he heard

toward him,