Chapter 1862. Tactical Retreats
The battle at the two fronts raged on. Both sides suffered losses. The losses on the underworld forces were greater since the defenders had advantages on the defensive structures and siege weapons. However, these defensive structures and siege weapons were decreasing as time passed. On the other hand, the underworld forces seemed unending.
After two days since Beelzebub arrived, Ragorth at the North defensive line called for a retreat. If he persisted in fighting, they would lose too many troops. Without troops, the remaining defensive lines would be useless.
The Council of Virtus originally expressed a strong objection to this decision. They refused to retreat and wished to continue fighting. Luckily, Megan talked them out of it.
Mihos and Pallas had learned to respect outworlders after their experience with Jack and Paytowin. Hence, they didn't dismiss Megan's words. This allowed her to make them see reason. A planned retreat was not a defeat. It did not taint their courage.
The whole army started to make their tactical retreat. They had rehearsed the move before, so it was not the defenseless retreat where they were opened to attacks. As they slowly made the retreat, a few members of the Runecraft Society were doing something on the ground.
What they did was deactivate the rune diagrams sealing the hidden traps, caltrops, and war fires previously set up on their retreat path. They used a special deactivation skill where the rune diagrams dissipated with time, allowing the retreating army to safely pass before those traps became active.
The demons continued to chase after the retreating army, unaware that they had stepped on the traps that were about to come to life.
Once the rune diagrams completely dissipated, the demons found their advance halted. The caltrops stopped a great number of them since they were all activated at almost the same time. The traps did the same. Multiple elemental energies assailed and incapacitated the demons. Lots of fiery explosions occurred. The flames from the war fires turned a large area into a sea of fire. It was as if a massive fire wall had suddenly appeared, cutting the underworld forces from the retreating army.
The demons who had passed through the trap area looked back in consternation. They were at the front, so they had already passed the area when the traps activated, but they were not many.
The defenders were ready. They took advantage of the demons' surprise and sent burst attacks to take out as many of these demons. With their number greatly reduced, the remaining demons didn't dare to continue the pursuit. The defenders now broke into a quick run to put a safe distance between them and the underworld forces.
Ragorth used the Army Haste Magic Scroll to increase the army's whole speed. He gained this magic scroll from the Scroll Masters.
Beelzebub was behind the demons ensnared by the traps. He didn't have the habit of fighting at the frontline. He mostly sent his bugs to do that. He was now gazing at the sea of fire caused by the war fires and the defenders who were quickly disappearing on the horizon.
He didn't show any expression. He cast a spell. The ground where the flames were still burning started to toss around. Some demons were trapped there, but he didn't care. There were plenty of demons behind him. The earthquake from his spells destroyed all the caltrops and the traps, as well as the trapped demons. The field before him was soon cleared.
He gestured for the demons to continue marching. Their speed was neither fast nor slow.
*
Hydruond's Southern defense line fared better compared to its Northern counterpart. Mostly because of Linda's management of the troops. The rate by which the defensive structures and siege weapons were lost was slower. Thus, it was on the third day after Satan arrived before they started retreating. This retreat was also because Satan displayed another of his ultimate powers.
Eoranth's HP had slowly recovered due to the rune tree. With Honuren and his aides, he could pull back a little to recover when things got dangerous. Thus, the battle between them could seemingly proceed endlessly.
This was just an illusion, though. A few members of the Council of Elpo who aided him and Honuren got killed either due to carelessness or when Satan caught them by surprise. Satan had some explosive skills that dealt tremendous burst damage. Even the rune tree became ineffective due to this.
One such skill took Eoranth by surprise. He even almost lost his life. This was what prompted Linda to issue the retreat order.
It happened when Eoranth's HP had recovered back to seventy percent. He charged forward again to engage Satan in direct combat.
Satan's fiery hammer was already reformed. He was swinging the hammer around. Each swing produced a flaming wave that hit the surrounding area. When he saw Eoranth charging over, he threw the hammer in his hand. The flaming hammer spun in the air.
Eoranth spun his body. His tail slapped the flaming hammer away, but then he saw Satan's body change color to half-silver and half-dark-purple.
"Defend!" Eoranth exclaimed.
They were ready. Wilted had informed John that the Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction had a cooldown of three days. Everyone near Satan took defensive and evasive moves. Eoranth cast his Extreme Teleportation again. He refrained from using this spell until Satan used the Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction. He disappeared and reappeared far away, near the defensive walls.
By then, Satan was already bringing his hand together. The two energy cores of soul and chaos crashed into each other.
"Harharhar. Do you think I am using the same move again? Indeed, I cannot use this skill before because this skill shares the same cooldown as the Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction, but this one has a different effect!"
Once he stopped speaking, the two merged orbs in his hands exploded. But unlike before, the explosion didn't create a huge sphere. It instead formed a long column. A column of intertwining silver and dark purple. This column headed toward Eoranth.
This move was not Satan's default skill, so Wilted was not aware of this. This skill was technically Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction, but Satan modified the skill using mana manipulation to such an extent that it became a completely different skill. He focused the skill's destructive power on a single direction. Instead of causing a huge explosion, the energy was shaped into a concentrated column.
Satan called this modified skill the Soul and Chaos Extinguishing Cannon. This skill could hit a target at an extreme distance.
Eoranth was taken aback by this. He put his two arms before him. His wings also came forward and covered him. A giant illusory silver shield materialized. A rune shield filled with runic symbols also appeared behind this soul shield. The rune shield strengthened the soul shield.
The Soul and Chaos Extinguishing Cannon slammed into Eoranth's Soul Shield. The shield flared brightly. Eoranth focused his concentration. He used mana defense to support his soul shield. Despite that, cracks appeared at an alarming rate on the soul shield's surface. The runic shield supporting it from behind was dimming.
Finally, the runic shield fizzled out, and the soul shield gave in. The silver and dark purple energy slammed into Eoranth. Eoranth's wings disintegrated, leaving only their skeletal bones. His huge body was thrown back from the impact and crashed into the walls. The walls crumbled as the overspilled energy from the extinguishing cannon hit. The defenders who happened to be there were killed instantly.
Eoranth was sent flying a huge distance while the energy column continued to wash over him. He only stopped after the energy column weakened around two kilometers from the point of impact. After that, he was still tumbling on the ground due to the powerful momentum.
He didn't get up after he stopped tumbling, which worried everyone. He was too far for anyone to see his HP bar.
Linda didn't wait to find out. She immediately issued the retreat command.
Their tactical retreat plan was the same as the one at the North defense line. The difference was that Satan charged over to pursue the retreating army, unlike Beelzebub who remained at the back. Honuren and the strongest natives from the Council of Elpo swarmed at him to hinder him. Arlcard also helped. They did not worry about Satan's Soul and Chaos Chain Reaction since he just used a skill that shared its cooldown.
Their advantage here was the rune tree, which allowed them to be a little reckless, but a few still lost their lives.
The mobile fortress fired a barrage using its siege weapons as they retreated.
Once they passed the area with the hidden traps, Linda used the Army Haste Magic Scroll. The one she used here was not given by the Scroll Masters but was the few leftover scrolls she gained from World Maker.
When they passed where Eoranth was lying, the dragon rose. His HP was below ten percent. If he didn't use the multiple defenses as he did, he would have died from Satan's attack. Everyone heaved a relief seeing him getting up. Tip hurriedly activated the rune tree's active ability to instantly restore thirty percent of Eoranth's HP. Eoranth couldn't fly due to his damaged wings. He retreated with the others by walking.
Honuren and the others continued to hinder Satan while slowly retreating to prevent him from laying waste to the army.
When Satan saw his army was blocked behind him, he stopped. Honuren and the others quickly flew away to join the retreating army.
Satan could continue and chase the defenders by himself, but there was no telling if the enemies prepared more traps. Not that he was afraid, but it was not wise to head out alone. He stood his ground and gazed at the retreating army.
"Hmph… They are simply postponing the inevitable," he grunted.