Naked troops

Apollo's base was located in a valley surrounded by mountains. Like the crater of a volcano if you wanted to enter, you had to climb a mountain, and the same was obviously true if you wanted to exit.

None of the mountains was too steep, so, no matter which direction you choose, you could easily climb. This was both a blessing and a curse as it not only facilitated Apollo's own movements but also gave more options for the enemy to attack.

Which is why during the last two days Apollo used all his girls to change the face of the mountain and seal as many options as possible to make it easier to defend.

Leaving 10 girls to protect the HQ, Apollo's troops quickly marched to the peak of the mountain while riding the new born boars.

Upon arriving at the peak, the boars transformed into boar girls, shrinking in size and gaining human arms and legs that would allow them to use bows.

Unfortunately, despite receiving a human form, maybe the boar girls were still considered beasts by the system as they were still unable to receive professions like the cat girls or plant girls. This was no doubt a huge waste of talent as those boar girls were even stronger than normal servants so if they also had the technique it was easy to imagine the damage they could make.

At least real life was different from a game, there is no such a thing as item restriction and as long as you have two able hands and a strong will, anyone can master any tool after practicing hard enough. The boar girls had little time for training, but at least by now they knew how to fire an arrow, and even if their accuracy was terrible, as long as enough arrows are fire, some are bound to hit, right?

Apollo stared down at the enemy, their number appeared to be at least three times the number that attacked the fortress before.

"Son of a..."

This time they were not only carrying swords but also shields and bows, and what Apollo considered the most troublesome trait was that their uniforms had been taken out, leaving them only wearing leather pants.

"It's like they are all going to a beach tour..."

While the scene appeared somewhat unusual to say the least, it was a fact that it had effectively troubled Apollo more than he expected. It was not that Apollo had aversion for the Oni's muscles and tanned skin but a more fundamental problem that had nothing to do with sexual taste.

"How the hell do I differentiate their professions now!?"

Yeah! That was the problem! Because they were wearing all the same outfit, also known as no outfit, it was impossible to identify which profession each Oni had. This meant that Apollo couldn't set the most appropriate answer to their moves due to lack of intel.

The trick was so simple and cheap that Apollo had to take out his hat to the one who thought of it. It was one great way to confuse the enemy while suffering no backlash at all. Sure, they lost the protection of their uniforms, but those uniforms never gave too much protection considering the damage each strike of a servant could do so it didn't matter much anyway, and in exchange they assured that their enemies wouldn't be aware of their best fighters, wearing them down mentally as they now had to be on guard all the time as one never knew when a strong counter would come at them.

"It seems like they learned a lot from the last battle and wouldn't be as easy to kill as before. Well, that's what I expected..."

Obviously they were not the only ones to learn a thing or two from the battle in the fortress and it was a bit funny that in a way Apollo had also taken measures to solve the exact same problem despite taking an entirely different approach, instead of camouflaging his best units among many others of lower level, he transformed all his units in jack of all trades, eliminating the problem from the root. While this solution required a lot more effort than the other one, because of the wonders of the system the degree of difficulty was still at an accessible rate.

That's not all! Things like wooden walls being ineffective still haunted Apollo's mind as he remembered his girls were almost cooked alive and now that he knew the enemy had some skills related to fire, he made sure to leave nothing flammable in sight. During these past days most of the trees in the middle of the mountain had been cut clear, leaving only the fresh grass and little bushes that provided clear view and no protection against arrows. The thick logs were all stored in each mountain peak, ready to roll down the mountain anytime to hit the enemy below.

Apollo doubted the effectiveness of these tricks, but better a doubtful trick than no trick at all, right? He wished he could prepare more of these but he was short on time, so if he was able to incapacitate a dozen soldiers with these logs, he would already be happy.

"Well, there are lots of them, so I doubt it won't hit anyone...Oh! So that's the guy..."

Seeing the sedan chair down below, for the first time Apollo had the chance to see the enemy's master. He wasn't sure what to say about the guy, but something on him made Apollo feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Master, we are all ready!"

Hayate, 45 plant girls, 10 cat girls and 20 boar girls. Aside from the 10 girls who stayed behind protecting the HQ, Briony, May, Hime and 2 nurses who were poisoned, and Alyssa who never came back from the attack operation, all Apollo troops were waiting his command.

"Ready your bows, load the special ammo, let's strike hard from the start!"

"Yes, sir!"

Special ammo... Nothing really special. In simple terms, it was poison, the same one used by Jaylee ambush troops when attacking Apollo.

Do you think this is coward move? Well, if it was the Apollo from before the betrayal, he would never resort to such a thing, but everything in life is a matter of accumulated experiences and this particular one changed his way thinking to a darker tone. Even so, seeing the arrow tips wet in a green rue, Apollo felt an urge to vomit but he held himself in place.

There was no need for greetings or exchanging words, both sides had come here for only one thing which was war. Maybe after the battle was over, they could exchange proper greetings, but for now, all Apollo could do was lift his arm and wait the enemy advance past the marked position, and then, as the moment arrived, swinging his arm down he shouted expelling all the air from his lungs.

"FIRE!!!!!!!"

At that moment 75 arrows flew down the mountain. Some fell short, others flew to the side but most of them fell right on the mark, in the middle of the enemy formation. The enemy already expected the arrow shower so, seeing the arrows incoming, they covered themselves with their shields.

Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat!

Like hail hitting the roof, the sound of the arrows hitting the shields spread through the battlefield. Most of the Oni were intact, but the few who had been scratched or pierced by the arrows would soon have a nasty surprise.

Taking advantage of the reloading time, the Oni troops started to move at once, forming 3 different groups they spread themselves like wings as they continued to climb at a quick pace. The sedan chair stood behind, watching as it's troops advanced but not daring to go with them.

"Second Volley! Focus on the right side!"

Instead of spreading the arrows among all the enemy troops, Apollo decided to focus on eliminating one wing before anything else. The arrows flew like a bee swarm, darkening the sky in their approach, and right before they reach their target, the right wing was forced to stop for a moment and take defensive stance to defend themselves.

"Divide, group A reload and keep shooting, group B intercept center, group C transform and charge at left wing, group D support B and C at once."

""YES!""

Group A was composed of all boar girls, they stood in place and continue to shot.

Group B was composed by all armored plant girls, which meant 5 girls wearing the special tin can armors plus another 10 wearing recycled armors from Jaylee's engineers. Apollo sent them knowing quite well that they would not be able to with against the enemy main forces but at least they should be able to hold them for some time...

Group C was composed by all cat girls that were left. There were only 10, even after birthing another 6 in the last batches of the lab, but their power could not be underestimated as no servant alone could stop them once they entered their beast mode.

Group D had all plant girls that were left, a total of 30 girls. They had the least experience in combat as most of them had been farmers, engineers and scientists up until a few days ago, but now that they had changed into soldier and ranger professions, they at least knew how to fight... probably...

Seeing the odd distribution of Apollo's forces, Eric wondered if he should already send some reinforcements for any of his groups. The battle had not even properly started but he could already feel the pressure building up.

"Come on! Show me something interesting!"

Oddly enough, the feeling of pressure made him happy instead of troubled, making his lips bloom into a smile that made Apollo, who was also observing him, shudder even from kilometers apart.