77 The Clash

Standing on the fortress walls, I watched as a swarm of monsters began invading the forest, the soldiers behind me that were on their positions looked nervous as this was the first battle they will face.

'5km...4.7km…' I began to watch as the monsters composed of many races such as demonic wolves, orcs, ogres, humanoid beasts and some demon looking ones.

I raised my left arm signaling the soldiers to prepare for a head-on collision to the walls and to focus on what I will say next.

"Soldiers… No, brothers, we might not share the same blood or race, we might not be of similar mindsets or religions, but today, I want you all to survive! I want to see you guys covered in the blood of your enemies and not your own!" I said this and hit my shield twice with the sword.

Clank! Clank! Clank! Every soldier began to hit their shields, creating a magnificent scene, the sun began to rise, and every soldier was able to see the monsters, this time they weren't worried but pumped up.

'1.2km… 500 meters… 200' I counted and finally shouted as loud as I can, "Trigger the traps under the trees!"

A soldier pulled a giant rope under the fortress, a few soldiers joined him and pulled harder, outside of the walls, the trees began to position themselves in a defensive manner causing all of the wolves who were running at full speed to crash on it.

The other wolves were smart and jumped over the tree before rushing towards the walls and trying to claw their way to the top.

Eric stood next to me and shouted: "Open the trap doors!"

The land beneath the walls suddenly swallowed several tens of the wolves before closing itself. I smiled as I watched Eric command. I raised my voice once again "Release the ropes!".

The soldiers pulling the ropes down released it, the trees began to roll downhill. Hundreds of monsters began to die, but it seems like this is but a small amount of them. Suddenly a loud shout was heard behind the monsters as an ogre came in rushing towards the walls and jumped above it before landing on my sword.

Slash! Cut in half before being thrown towards the warehouse, looking at the enemy I smiled, "Everyone! Switch to your bows and prepare to shoot!"

Everyone followed commands and switched to their bows adding the arrow and pulling very hard. I watched as the monsters were attacking the walls, I still didn't allow them to fire, I was waiting for the right moment as I watched the ogres carry the orcs before throwing them.

"Fire!" I shouted with full force, and arrows began to pierce the orcs flying with a great force, "group 10 to 14 prepare to engage the enemies in melee combat!" I shouted as I commanded four groups to switchgear.

Orcs that haven't been shot began to land on the walls, ground and some even crashed into the wall before falling over their comrades and killing them in the process.

Swish! Ting! Clack! The soldiers were fighting hard as the ones with the bows began to add another arrow to their strings and pull them back before shooting.

Eric and I watched silently as the soldiers battled, "Brother Eric, command the battlefield, I will be fighting the enemy alone… I order you not to die, am I understood?" I said while clenching on the sword and shield.

"Sir… Yes, sir!" Eric said as he went towards the captains who were commanding their troops before he began to supervise them.

Standing on the edge of the walls, I looked at the enemies that were crashing on the walls over and over again.

"Release the spikes!" I shouted before jumping at the enemies 40 meters away from the wall. Spikes began to appear over all of the walls surrounding the fortress.

I landed on a demon with a few horns on his head, letting the shield taking all of the impacts, I stabilized myself and slashed the demon head. Walking with a fast pace, I cut whatever attacked me and blocked an attack coming from the enemy without getting hit once.

"You are dead," I said as a murderous intent filled me, my entire body transformed and everything that attacked by me got either slashed by my sword or destroyed by my arms that were long enough.

Tink! Blocking a few attacks, I used the edge of the shield to slash with, and the armor surrounding me began to change into a tattered set.

I slowly looked at everything around me while fighting and saw the ogres all gathered together, I began to rush to them downhill, throwing the shield on the ground, I jumped on it before sliding downwards while slashing anything the came towards me.

The wind blew and the blood on my body covered every inch of it, time began to slow as I was sliding and I started to see the green and red lines.

I smiled, and following the green lines, I noticed that it was even faster and more efficient to reach the enemy behind.

"Hahahaha!" I laughed as I finally reached close to the ogres before jumping off the shield and landing on one of the ogres head, they were large, but truthfully, nothing is more prominent than asura.

Boom! I landed a punch on the head of the ogre making it explode, I held my sword hard and slashed the monsters that began to climb the headless ogre, the other ogres seemed to be enraged as they attacked me with the other monsters.

I was thrilled, this is where I belong…

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"He did surpass everyone before him…" Observer A said as he watched the old man smiling behind him. Observer B shook his head and had a frown on his face before speaking "A fool made for the battlefield, this test is about time… the more he lasts on the battlefield, the better the result is… but it only gets harder from now on."

The old man shook his head "He can survive" As he said that he looked at the fortress built on the hill before shaking his head "But they can't."

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Roar! A giant bird appeared in the sky leading a large number of birds with it. I looked at it with anger and roared before running back at the fortress with full speed.

It took me a few seconds, and after reached the fortress, I saw a lot of injured soldiers, but I didn't allow them to rest. My eyes were fierce, and everyone that was fighting was smiling, I looked at the Giant bird before looking back at the bodies of dead soldiers.

Moving towards one of the dead soldiers who had his eyes open and sword clenched, I smiled and closed his eyes before picking up the bow next to him.

"Rest in peace brother…" I straightened my back and looked at the giant bird, taking the arrow out of the dead orc next to me, I placed it on the string and pulled it back carefully.

"Men, Prepare for direct collision!" I shouted before releasing the arrow towards the giant bird eye.

Puff! The arrow pierced the giant bird eye and caused it to be enraged as it increased its speed towards the walls of the fortress.

BOOM! Pa! Pa! Pa! The giant bird created a hole in the wall while the birds around it began to pierce the soldiers who had their shields up by penetrating them through and dying together.

I looked at the scene and felt nothing, and I ran towards the giant bird who was injured from impact and jumped down from the wall before slashing through its neck. I blocked all of the monsters trying to enter the hole by pushing the giant bird within the hole itself, and luckily the beak was enough to cover the gap.

I ran on top of the body and jumped high enough to reach the walls before slashing through all of the monsters. After finishing with the small monsters, I looked at the soldiers who were injured, all of them… looking at the bodies around us on the walls and ground, 200 was lost.

I shook my head and looked beneath the walls again, monsters… waves of them. I can't save everyone here, I clenched my fist as I looked back at the dead bodies again, but then my body froze as I was looking at a specific dead body.

I began to walk towards it slowly, the battle was everywhere, my emotions were running wild and every step I took, I heard a soldier falling.

'Damn it!' I said as I reached the corpse of the werewolf that had dead monsters around it and scars all over it, eyes open and a face showing great ferocity to anyone that dared to offend it.

"Eric…" I said as I closed his eyes before standing up and looking at the battlefield again. Five hundred soldiers are fighting, there was nothing else left.

Even if this was a trial, those soldiers are my true brothers… "Retreat to the mines…" I said in a shaky voice, not out of sadness but rage… "RETREAT TO THE MINES! ROAR!" I shouted to command all of the soldiers before roaring, and my aura filled the entire fortress making the enemies who were affected to either faint or die from shock.

Soldiers began to run towards the mine route within the fortress, less than 500 soldiers entered, the rest… died in honor. I gave a salute to all of my deceased comrades within the fort before moving towards the mine and destroyed the entrance.

I can't sacrifice everyone for a mere trial, and I wouldn't do that in my world, I wouldn't do it here. 'Soldiers, there is enough supply inside the mines, survive while I hold off this line.'