The army of Amidon finally made its appearance and blew the horns of war.
In the distance, a dense black cloud covered the grasslands clouding the rays of the sun's while moving closer.
Christina looked at the huge lineup and raising her arm signalled the soldiers to gear up.
She had split the troops into three parts.
While 300 soldiers were on the top of the walls, other 400 soldiers were on the ground fully armed with battle gear in case Amidon breached the Fortress gates.The remaining would act as the messengers for now and would be on standby to lend a hand in case of emergency.
All the people nearby the villagers and inside the Fortress had already left the place leaving behind those who wanted to lend a hand in the war even though they were not soldiers nor they were trained in the art of warfare, they wanted to help in doing miscellaneous tasks.
The Master ranked warrior whose name was Frank stood beside her, turned back and shouted"Archers take your positions and prepare yourself to fire at the enemies."
"Mages start casting your spell."
The archers pulled the string of their bows and raised their bows towards the sky, shooting the arrows onto the army.
Swish!Swish!Swish!Swish!Swish!Swish!Swish!Swish!
The army general on the other side shouted fiercely"Get ready to fight."The commander's voice thundered and the soldiers responded fearlessly.
Swords were drawn, shields were raised and raising their shield, they started to advance towards the huge walls.
The arrows fired from the fortress rose to the sky and like a huge swarm of insects fell on the advancing soldiers of Amidon and collided with their shields.
TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!TANG!
A heavy clattering sound of metal clashing resounded across the whole valley as the arrows collided with the shields.
Some of the arrows fell on the shield and bounced off after hitting on it while some of the arrows pierced through the defences of soldiers and pierced their skins, giving them grievous wounds.
While soldiers of Amidon were advancing slowly, the archer on their side didn't stay still and fired arrows toward the archer firing from the top of the fortress wall but most of the arrows either didn't reach them from such a distance or missed.
Amidon didn't suffer many casualties and was able to get quite close to the walls by hiding behind the huge shields.
They were advancing quite slowly and steadily trying to be as cautious as possible.
But as they were about two hundred metres from the wall of the fortress, a huge fiery ball landed before them and exploded.
BOOOM!BOOOM!
The soldiers in the radius of the explosion were blasted away and were thrown in the air like a ragdoll.
And those who were hit directly by the mass of fireballs were burnt to death on the spot.
"Arghhhhhhh!"
"Kuekkkkk!"
Loud screams of agony echoed along with deathly wail.
The soldiers who were able to survive the deadly strike shrieked and yelled but their life was ended by the archers even before they could retreat.
Huge amounts of mana lightly shook the atmosphere as many flashes of light were shot down from the wall and the projection of lights descended and created havoc.
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM
Dust and debris flew all around as the bombardment continued.
Huge craters were formed followed by a mini shockwave that shook the entire place.
The line of advancing soldiers fell into complete disarray as they were thrown here and there by the blasts.
Before the mighty spell of the mages, they were nothing but just a huge target whom the mages used as target practice.
Powerless to attack and defenceless to defend.
The burnt smell of flesh lingered in the atmosphere which assaulted the sense of smell of advancing soldiers.
The soldiers on the top of the walls smiled as their morale boosted up seeing the army suffering and losing out so many soldiers.
It was safe to assume that they had almost won the first encounter.
And they were sure that the morale of the soldiers of Amidon would surely go down.
That's what they thought though it was quite far from reality.
...….
Unlike archers, mages didn't fire the spell from the beginning.
The mages were biding their time while waiting for the soldiers to come closer and made a final dash.
The Master rank beside Christina looked at the scene with a satisfied expression.
Wright had a squad of around 40 mages of whom fifteen were present on Christina's side.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that Her Highness Catherine expected this kind of thing and that's why Her Highness had left so many mages with them.
A single mage may change the outcome of the battlefield.
Christina didn't speak upon hearing Frank's words and just observed the battlefield.
She stared at the first 400 batches of Amidon soldiers who were going to be completely wiped out.
"Frank, you shouldn't be too happy now," Christina spoke while turning back.
"The real war hadn't even started. This batch of soldiers was just cannon fodder who were sent here to die while the main force observed our strengths."
"What?" Frank shrieked in panic on hearing Christina's words.
"Commander in chief, are you sure about that?"
Christina nodded and spoke, "If I am guessing correctly, currently they might be planning to breach the walls."
....
While a joyous atmosphere prevailed on top of the walls, a serious discussion was taking place in the tents of Amidon forces.
"So, how is the situation?"
A man asked with a stern expression. His body radiated a strong fierce aura and his strength seemed to be at the peak of the master rank but his demeanour didn't seem to be that of Master rank.
"It's nothing serious. All the men sent were dead. It's just a trivial loss."
"So, all the useless ones died." The man spoke while looking at the map.
"Did you notice anything?"
The general nodded and narrated,"Sir, we found that they have dug the ground at the embankments of the wall forming a huge pit so that we cannot use the seized ladders."
"I see." The man nodded while rubbing his chin.
"Use those to take down the wall. Order the two generals to attack and take the mages to fill the ground."
"Attack before dawn, try to test Christina's current strength. Though she was crippled when he left the central armed forces she would surely have started to rank up again with more solid foundations."
"Now disperse, "The man shouted.
"Yes, Sir."
As the people left, a playful smile appeared on the man's face.
"The outcome of the war should already be decided by tomorrow. By this time, the secret squad would have already made the move and taken down the most important chess piece." The man sighed.
As he already knew, everyone who was fighting on his side were just cannon fodders whose win or loss wouldn't make any significant contribution.
After all, the result of the war had already been decided with the success of the experiment.
With a satisfied expression, he beckoned his hands towards the back while several girls were present who walked towards him and poured the wine.
"Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Let's see just how tough you are Christina." The man muttered while raising the cup and taking a sip.
