As the 50,000 strong army got closer and closer to the Kingdom of Lanthanor, a peculiar transformation took place on top of the border wall they were going to attack.
The bald Axelorian Commander was now at the head of the army, and he was one of the first to spot this transformation.
The moment the army reached a spot 5 km from the border wall, opaque barriers had sprung up on top of the wall, hiding everything from their vision.
Only small peepholes remained, yet they were only half the size of a man's head, making it so that it was difficult to peek the other side through them especially from so far away.
This was one of the first changes in the war strategy of Lanthanor that alerted the Axelorian Commander that things would be different this time.
After all, over their long history of being enemies, numerous wars big and small had taken place between the two Kingdoms making it so that each was quite familiar with the other's habits and strategies.
Although a few new tricks emerged from time to time, nothing truly groundbreaking had appeared on the battlefield in the past few decades which gave one Kingdom an edge over the other.
"Could it be that…they are all actually barriers? How extravagant!"
As one of the advisors beside him said these words, the commander sniffed before ordering an Exalted Human Mage to check what was on the other side.
Currently, their army comprised of around 47,000 Amateur Human Fighters, 2000 Eminent Human Fighters, 1000 Amateur Human Mages, 100 Eminent Human Mages, 3 Exalted Human Mages and 3 Exalted Human Fighters.
The fact that this was only half the effective military force of the Axelor Kingdom showed how much more powerful it was than Lanthanor. After all, although the latter had 4 times the number of Amateur Human Fighters as this army, it only had 3000 Eminent Human Fighters in total. As for mages, with only 200 Eminent Human Mages and 1000 Amateur Human Mages, the disparity was even more evident. Although the Axelorian Kingdom had many more Amateur Human Fighters, they hadn't deployed them due to the strategy they were implementing in this war.
All in all, the main factor which had ensured Lanthanor's safety since centuries was the gigantic border wall which stood 30 meters tall, defending the Kingdom since antiquity due to the sheer amount of resources that had been poured into it to ensure that it would never be breached.
Considering that the tallest part of the Great Wall of China, which was one of the most famous walls on the Earth reached only 14 m tall, one could imagine how much more imposing this grand border wall of the Lanthanor Kingdom was.
There was nothing special about its base, which was just stones piled on top of each other using clay as glue.
The factor which differentiated it from all the walls standing in Angaria right now, was the special substance that it had been coated with millennia ago when the first Kings of Lanthanor had undertaken this grand project.
From the outside, it only looked like white paint which was used in regular buildings to hide the stone walls to give them a more elegant sight.
Yet, in this case, this 'paint' allowed the walls to withstand the attack of a peak Warrior Level powerhouse.
Yes, this fact was something that made anyone hearing it for the first time gape with shock.
A peak Warrior Level Powerhouse! Be they fighters or mages, individuals such as these were known to hold the power to even flatten mountains if they desired.
Yet, they couldn't break through this wall?
However absurd it sounded, this was the treasure and the base on which the Kingdom of Lanthanor had prospered till now.
All that was known was that when traveling scholars had investigated the wall, they had found out that the 'paint' somehow made it so that any impact it sustained was spread out and distributed all over the rest of the wall.
Of course, even though it was this impregnable, there were still many limitations.
As was the bane of the forces in Central Angaria, there was no way to stop people from directly teleporting inside.
Thus, the main purpose of the wall was to stop enemies from marching into the Kingdom.
Due to the limitations inherent with teleportation, this made it so that the main source of transportation was halted, effectively stopping any and all enemies from having dreams of taking over this formidable Kingdom.
This was why the Axelorian Kingdom hated these walls so much. Teleportation formations like the ones outside the Elfaven were out of the question, as they couldn't be transported. Mass teleportation using all their mages was also not advisable, as there were always shock troops and defensive formations waiting on the other side to attack intruders-making it so that it would effectively be a suicide mission.
Thus, in the end, the only economical way left was to fight it out from outside the walls.
As the Exalted Human Mage he had sent to fly in the sky to check what was happening behind the barrier teleported back to his side, the message he got made him grimace.
It seemed that the barriers covered the entirety of the top of the wall, meaning that they couldn't see what their enemies were doing.
However much he thought about it, the Axelorian Commander couldn't think of a way in which Lanthanor could have placed actual defensive barriers all over the stretch of the wall in front of them. By his estimate, it would cost upwards of 30 million Gold Lans in order to do so, which was the sort of money that Lanthanor wasn't supposed to have.
As they were old foes, there was no stopping for speeches or discussions.
With an expression that belied his apprehension, the Axelorian Commander took a spear from a soldier standing at his side before pulling his arm back and throwing it forward with the remarkable strength of an Exalted Human Fighter.
As the 50,000 soldiers followed the spear with their eyes, they gasped collectively as it had entered the opaque barrier without facing any resistance.
These were actually just for blocking their sight!
"Humph. Cheap tricks. Begin the plan."
The moment the commander gave this order, the entire army split into 100 groups each having around 500 members each.
With more or less the same number of Amateur and Eminent Human Fighters and Mages in each group, the 500 soldiers arranged themselves in a circular formation.
The Eminent Human Mage in each group stood in the center, while Amateur Human Mages made a circle around them.
The next circle comprised of Eminent Human Fighters, while the rest of the concentric circles had the Amateur Human Fighters who all had spears pointing out.
Indeed, each and every Amateur Human Fighter of Axelor was equipped with a leather-like body armor which could block 50% of the power of attacks coming towards them in the case that the attacks were at the power level of Amateur Human Fighters, while also protecting them to some extent from directly being pierced through.
At their side hung a curved scimitar for close range combat, while the spears in their hands had gleaming tips to fend away enemies at mid to long range.
Some also had bows on their backs, but they were in the minority mainly due to the fact that soldiers on top of the wall were equipped with overhead barrier trinkets to protect from arrows.
As soon as this formation of concentric circles was made, the Eminent Human Mage at the center took out a trinket that looked like a metal semi-sphere from his pocket.
As the mage squeezed this ball, a semi-sphere made of metal appeared above the formation of 500 soldiers with metal rungs on the inside which the outermost circle of fighters caught.
There were no openings whatsoever on the metal semi-spheres, yet the Eminent Human Mage in the center could look outside due to a small transparent strip near the top.
All in all, the barren land in front of the East Border Wall of the Lanthanor Kingdom was now surrounded by metal spheres. To Daneel who was watching, they reminded him of 'igloos' back on earth albeit made of metal instead of ice.
"Move!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With this second order from the commander who was in a similar globe, the rhythmic sound of drums rang across the battlefield.
With each beat of the drum, each metal sphere moved forward while closing the distance between them and the border wall.
This was their strategy: to move forward using these defensive formations to engage Lanthanor in a war of attrition.
Yet, what they didn't know was that the King of Lanthanor had no desire in entertaining their presence.
Nodding to himself seeing that the estimation of the three commanders and Kellor was right, Daneel sighed at the loss of life that would soon ensue before hardening his heart and saying, "Deploy all our formations and attack without abandon. We have no time to waste on this distraction."