55 The Drawing of the Web

While the demons rampaged through the Kingdom of Dawn, the rest of the humanity was not idle. The valiant, though ultimately doomed, defense by the armies of Dawn bought valuable time for everyone else to prepare. An army was assembled at Hermes to launch a counterattack to drive out the demon invaders. Although Neverwinter didn't have the manpower to spare, they were invaluable in supplying the weaponry to the army, especially the more modern weapons. The army was assembled with the greatest haste as every day that goes by, more people die to the demons.

The demon supply line ran through the wilderness between Neverwinter and Hermes and delivered the valuable Red Mist to the demon armies. While this supply line existed, the demons would never run out of Red Mist and they could continue to ravage the human lands. The first step toward stopping the demon invasion would be for the army to cut off their supply line. Once this was achieved, the demons would be up against the timer which would force them to engage in a pitched battle with the army.

Once the main demon force was engaged, that would be the critical battle. If they won then the demons force would be shattered and the army could wipe out the demon Red Mist towers with ease, after which it would be impossible for demons to remain in the area. If they lost, then the demons would be able to reestablish their supply lines and continue the attack. By the time new armies were raised, the battle would be at the gates of Neverwinter and Hermes.

The first target would be the outermost demon supply base. This supply base was established nearby Oakwood town, after that town had fallen. It was the main gateway for Red Mist to enter the Kingdom of Dawn.

As the army approached the demon outpost, they often encountered flybys from Devilbeast patrols. The anti-air guns were able to ward off any large scale attacks from demons, so the only concern were the scouting parties. Fortunately, Andrea had come along to support the army. With the aid of the sniper rifle, she was able to pick off the Devilbeast scouting groups, helping to deny the demons from obtaining information about the army's movements. The army had an unusually high concentration of witches, as many of the ordinary soldiers were occupied elsewhere.

When the army arrived at the demon outpost, they found a moderate group of demons guarding it. As the two forces spotted each other, they prepared for battle.

The soldiers all moved into formation with the pikemen forming lines in the front, with God's Punishment Warriors intermixed throughout them to deal with any serious threats. Behind the melee warriors, were the riflemen. There were also machine gun crews intermixed throughout. The cannons were at the back, now in range of the outpost and preparing to begin bombardment.

Jack was one of the riflemen in the army. He was a new recruit, taken out from the middle of training and sent off to war. This was his first time seeing combat, so he was extremely nervous. He fervently prayed that he wouldn't die. Though he didn't have a wife, his parents and brother were still alive and he knew that his death would devastate them.

All of the riflemen, Jack included, had a very simple role in the battle - stand in formation and shoot at the incoming demons. Although it sounded simple, when it actually came time for the fight to begin, he couldn't help but be nervous about it. He took deep breaths and recalled the drills he had practiced to load, fire, and reload his gun.

He heard the booming of artillery behind him. Everyone in the army had undergone a live fire drill to familiarize themselves with the sounds of battle. When Jack had first heard the cannons, sounding like thunder itself had descended upon the battlefield, he had been quite frightened. Now, the sound of cannons was comforting, knowing that the power was on their side. If the cannons were silenced, that would be cause for alarm.

Jack could feel the tension throughout much of his entire unit as the demons approached. The army was a mixture of veterans and new recruits. The veterans who had seen battle were the bedrock holding up the morale of the army as they stood unflinching toward the tide of demons.

The demon horde advanced, taking shots from the cannons which blew large holes in their lines. Still, they continued to advance under the withering barrage. Eventually, the demons got into firing range. The commander of the unit gave the order to open fire.

Jack steadied his gun as he took aim at a particularly nasty looking demon heading straight for them. He fired and felt the recoil of the rifle. The demon was down, but there were still hundreds more. He quickly opened up the chamber and put in another round. As he went through the well practiced movements, he lost his nervousness and continued to fire. The demons were getting closer, and he could see the men in the front begin to fight against the demons.

As Jack was reloading his gun, he was almost transfixed by the sight of a beautiful woman with blond hair standing to his side. Out of her hands emerged blades of wind which sliced through the approaching demons. Jack couldn't help but feel in awe as the witch sent out attack after attack at the demons. Then, he was quickly reminded of his task and turned his sight back toward the enemy as he continued to fire his gun.

A large monster appeared within the ranks of the attackers, a spider demon. As it prepared to launch its bombardment of spikes, the cannon operators were quickly signaled and they were able to focus their bombardment on the spider demons, wiping out the enemy artillery.

After what seemed like an eternity, the demons turned around and fled. Their bodies littered the battlefield, forming heaps of corpses. Once the demons were out of sight, Jack let out a sigh of relief. The battlefield hadn't quite become silent, as the cannons were now focusing on bombarding the demon supply outpost, leveling it now that the army was unopposed.

The battle was won. It was the first battle for many of the soldiers, changing them from green recruits into seasoned warriors. However, this was just one fight out of the many yet to come.