Preparing for Battle: Mortis' Strategy and the Moral Thrust."

"Mortis' hunt went flawlessly, and before long he found a couple of hares that were over a meter tall and had horns, as well as three huge Bork wild boars, only one of which, however, fit into his space ring. He had Marshal carry the other two and so ran with him to the battlefield. This caused great panic, but when those present realized that he was a companion, the situation relaxed. The adventurers and nobles wondered why Mortis brought so much game, but when he said that this would be a feast for everyone, the mood rose.

In the evening everything was prepared and consumed, which made for a better mood, although of course it did not completely take away their fear. But they at least became a bit more relaxed when portals opened on the other side and a general with commanders and company leaders came through, accompanied by thousands and thousands of demons, monsters, ghosts, skeleton warriors and skeleton mages.

When the enemies entered the battlefield, a meeting was immediately called where Mortis and Merlin talked with other adventurers' commanders. Since Mortis had already taken the lead before it was actually clearly established who was leading them, he was made a general since he is a noble who joins their cause. That should give a big morale boost. Mortis didn't expect anything else, and also because of his title, where everyone gets 3% on all stats and he gets 10%, it was the best thing that could have happened for them."

Mortis and Merlin sat around the campfire for a while longer and were silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Suddenly, Mortis turned to Merlin and asked, "Can mages create an invisible shield?" Merlin replied, "We can create a mana or elemental barrier, but why do you ask that?" Mortis had the idea of creating a huge barrier just in front of the demons so they could trip over it and be quickly defeated by the fighters. Merlin couldn't answer him this question, but he would try it with some mages and Mortis would go to the tanks and melee fighters.

Mortis discussed the idea with the tanks and melee fighters, the shield bearers should let the enemies through one by one so the melee fighters can defeat them quickly. Spearmen should stab over the shield to destroy the opponents. The three commanders of the tanks took on the task of giving the signal to let the enemies through the shield bearers.

Shortly after the strategy was discussed, Merlin excitedly came back and reported that it was working. Mages could manifest a shield outside the barrier that would grow larger and more stable depending on the number of mages involved. If 50% of all mages created the shield, the first batch of demons could be stopped while the other mages channeled their powerful spells and the other mages classes bombed the first batch of demons into nirvana.

Mortis was happy to hear this, as it would deal a blow to the morale of the others and they would be able to make up some ground on the field. If it was close, they would still have a way to retreat or steal space from the enemy so that they could only act passively. With these nice thoughts, Mortis headed out to get some more sleep before another hot battle would begin.

The next morning, Mortis was awakened early by Merlin, as everyone was already nervously lining up. Many had not been able to sleep anyway and the demons were already making noise to intimidate people. But they had not counted on Mortis, who made his armor neat, summoned his spirit bear, sat on it and stood in front of all the adventurers. Merlin conjured a spell that Mortis would be heard by all on the battlefield.

Soldiers! I stand before you today as your general and as your comrade in the fight against the dark forces that threaten us. I stand here to tell you that we are ready to defeat this enemy and bring him to his knees!You all have your reasons for being here - some of you are fighting for glory, some of you are fighting for the freedom of our country, some of you are fighting for the safety of your families. But whatever your reasons, you are here and you are ready to fight. That alone is a virtue you can be proud of.

But we are not just fighting for ourselves. We fight for everyone we care about - our families, our friends, our communities. And we also fight for all those who are not able to fight for themselves. We fight for the weak, for the oppressed, for those in need.

Today we are facing a challenge like we have never seen before. The Demon Lord and his army of creatures are a threat to everything we love and cherish. But we will not retreat. We will not give up. We will not allow this darkness to take over our land.

We have prepared for this moment. We have trained, we have organized, we have strategically positioned ourselves. We have the best equipment and the best training available. And above all, we have courage and determination.

I promise you that we will defeat this enemy. We will push him back, we will crush him, we will destroy him. We will fight for the future we all want - a future of peace, prosperity and freedom.

So, comrades, raise your weapons and your hearts. Let's go into battle and show what we really are - one unit, one team, one family. Let us show that the darkness cannot defeat us, that we are strong, and that we will win!

Mortis raised his scythe and a huge image of his weapon formed out of the mist and remained for a short time. Then the mist scythe turned into thousands of small scythes that flew to each adventurer and strengthened them. The adventurers went wild with excitement.

After Mortis' speech and demonstration, it suddenly became louder. The adventurers were unstoppable and only wanted to see demon blood. Morale had soared that the demons wondered what was happening. The humans were wildly pounding their shields and stomping on the ground, ready to drive these bastards out of their land.

When the starting signal for the battle sounded, the demons were confused as to what was going on. Those in the rear surged forward and almost overran those in front, but the demons did not move. Instead, the humans ran at their enemies with angry roars, as if they were all berserkers. They were after the demons' heads.

The demons slowly felt panic rising as they saw a huge shadow fireball spell mix flying towards them. The barrier disappeared just before impact, this spell took the lives of three troops and injured those standing to the side or further back. The enemy commander didn't know what to do and ordered his troops to just charge blindly forward - but with fear in their eyes, just like his demonic soldiers.

The humans, on the other hand, were on fire and could hardly wait to meet their enemies.

Mortis ran to the front to lead his soldiers and show them that he himself was on the front line. When the demons were close, Mortis stood on the Spirit Bear and allowed himself to be catapulted directly into the enemy line of demons. Mortis made the Ghost Bear disappear and Sarah, the Ghost Assassin, had Mortis' back while he slaughtered through the opponents like a madman using his Scythe Whirl and Graveyard of Weapons abilities. Mortis laughed and took the last breath of life from the demons. As he did so, he became more and more energetic, wanting to quickly collect souls and gain experience to become stronger.

Mortis and the adventurers were the true devils in the eyes of the demons, simply unstoppable, sweeping through every formation and plan the demons made. An enemy commander, who looked tall and muscular, boldly faced Mortis to give hope to his demons in case he defeated this human. But Mortis used the "Mist Trace" ability, which made him faster and his attacks stronger, and as he ran past, Mortis severed the head from the shoulders of this large Org. As a result, the demons now wanted to flee in panic, but for them the battlefield was a one-way street, because in front of the portal to the demon world the demons were waiting to join the battle.

The corpses of the demons were already piling up, but these beings held their ground valiantly in their base and defended the portal, even if they were forced to use their own comrades as shields. If the base fell and the portal was destroyed, the fight against the adventurers would be over, and the demons could only hope that things would go better on the nobles' battlefield. Mortis had enough of this confusion and roared to Merlin, "Merlin, I want to see a fireball that will make these bastards think it's a new sun coming down on them. Destroy the whole hill with all the mages if you have to." Merlin's eyes lit up as he instructed his squad to focus on him. He was only too happy to comply with this request. Merlin held his staff in the air and concentrated on forming a fireball that these creatures would never forget - not that they would survive it, but he gave it his all while the other mages sent him mana so Merlin could make this hill disappear with everything on it. After about two minutes, a yellow ball could be seen above the demons' base and they knew they had lost. This yellow fireball descended very slowly, but as soon as it was just near, it took the demons' air and burned everything in its path. With a huge yellow explosion and a burning hill, the battle ended after only two hours.