“My first hours here and they are attacking already.” Arthur thought.

It was bad luck, but nothing that worried Arthur in the slightest. What if the beast horde was attacking now? It would happen eventually, so thinking about it too much was a mistake.

Arthur left the tent alongside Louis and the other captains. The first thing they needed to do was gather the army. Not a hard task considering all the soldiers heard the horn, so they were already going into their positions.

The monsters usually came from one direction, so almost all the army was positioned there. Some soldiers were on the ground by foot, others by horse. The back line comprised archers and mages.

Another important part of the battle laid on the watchtowers where the strongest mages were. These mages took a longer time to cast their spells, but that was not a problem when using the protection of the watchtower.

When Louis finished setting up the battle formation, he looked at Arthur and said, “Arthur, I’m a mage specialized in melee combat, so I usually fight in the front line. What about you?”

Arthur looked at him and could not think of an answer. He could fight in any area, melee range, midrange, or long range. The best would be to cast the strongest spell he knows and wipe these creatures, but that could also mean harm his own soldiers, and also destroying the environment.

“I will go in the front line with you. Two generals fighting side by side will make quite the story.”

Louis smiled, and said, “take this armor then. It is the standard general armor.”

The people who fought in the front line usually used plate armor for more protection against many attacks. Louis gave Arthur a full plate of armor, all in silver. It also had some gold adornments, catching the attention of anyone who saw it.

As for the weapon, Arthur opted to use the sword Merethyl gave him. George had warned him not to use the Monlog bloodline powers until he was at the rank 1 mage level, as it could drive him mad. So, the black-sword was not an option.

Arthur left the tent after changing his armor. The cloak attached to the armor moved with the wind, and the silver helmet he had made him look like a hero.

“Looking good, brother. Now, let’s go.” Louis said.

They both took the lead to stand in front of the entire army. It comprised about 5 thousand soldiers, plus whoever was in the watch towers or inside the city.

Not all soldiers were outside, as even though the beasts only attacked from one side in all battles, perhaps they could change that and flank them, so it was better to have a group of soldiers inside to prevent that.

“Are you ready, Arthur? Every battle here can be your last.” Louis said.

“Last? Brother, with me here, you don’t need to worry.”

“That is the confidence a soldier needs. Tell me, brother, what gives you that confidence? Some times I lack that.”

“The reason for my confidence? No one ever asked that. Well, the easiest way to have confidence in everything you do is having power. Take this fight, for example. It does not matter how many beasts or what beasts appeared here, I am sure my strength of a nine circle mage is more than enough.” Arthur said, giggling.

Louis looked at him, trying to see if it was a joke, but Arthur was not playing around.

“No **ing way. How? You look younger than me, and nine circle mages are only from legends.”

Arthur looked at him and said, “it is a secret.”

After that, he turned to gaze at the upcoming beast horde who was coming in their direction. The beasts inside the horde were a little different from the ones Arthur saw back in the Shukar Empire.

It had the same beasts as there, but also the addition of new ones. None of the soldiers seemed surprised after seeing that, so Arthur guessed the type of creatures of that horde were only normal.

“Everyone, PREPARE FOR BATTLE.” Louis yelled.

All the soldiers had their weapons and shields ready. The archers were already preparing their shots, hitting the beast horde before they arrived there, diminishing their number by a small amount.

As for Arthur and Louis, who were at the front? Well, they were the ones that rushed towards the beast horde.

Out of the two, Arthur was the fasted, who used his flight spell to reach the beast army within seconds. The first beast that stood in his why was a forest troll, which had 5 meters of height, and had tremendous regenerative power.

All of that did not matter, as the immense sword Arthur had slashed down, cutting the troll in half as if he was a tofu. Louis, who was still catching up to Arthur, saw that and had an expression of admiration.

“Good attack, brother. Now, it is my turn.”

Louis stopped a little farther from the beast’s horde and entered a strange sword stance.

“Moonlight Slash!” He said, slashing his sword, sending a white-colored ray which pierced through many beasts, killing at least 10 with one strike.

Arthur saw it and realized he lacked some spells that could be used with the sword. Most of his spells were mage-like longed ranged attacks that took some time to cast.

The Moonlight Slash? It could be used with a sword, and the cast was almost instant.

“After this fight, I might as well get some similar spells. Does George have any of that type?” Arthur thought for a moment before getting his attention back to what mattered; killing all the monsters.

He dashed through the beast’s horde like a shadow, dodging all attacks with ease and killing those beasts with only one sword slash.

The beast horde did not stop moving, even with Louis and Arthur’s attacks. Only a few of these beasts would stop to attack them, but the majority would continue rushing toward the army.

Louis did not think about that, and classified it as a mere beast’s behavior.

Arthur did not think it was the case. He had lived in the wilderness for a long time, and was the only person who could relate a lot with the beasts, as he was a dragon and a Monlog Giant.

Those beasts were not that high-leveled, and neither were intelligent type ones. The moment Louis and Arthur rushed in like that, all the beasts should try to kill them first before continuing doing whatever they were doing.

Still, that was not the case. All of them acted as if someone was behind them, commanding their attack. An intelligent beast, a human mage, who knows what it could be, but Arthur knew the situation had more to it than the eyes could see.

The appearance of that horde in the Shukar Empire was already strange enough, as if someone had spawned all of those beasts. Now, someone could control those beasts, which gave Arthur more reason to believe something was off.

He said nothing and continued to attack those beasts with everything he could. The number of beasts was diminishing at a rapid pace, way better than all the other battles.

Then the ground trembled, as if something huge was walking towards them. Arthur looked in the sound’s direction and could not believe his eyes.