Chapter 60: Step by Step
Alexander had no intention of delivering the letter in person. Not only did he lack knowledge of the elven city's location, but even if he did, appearing near the city would undoubtedly result in a barrage of arrows aimed at him. He wasn't willing to take such a life-threatening risk.
Hence, the task of delivering the challenge letter fell upon the foreman. When Alexander asked him to deliver it, the foreman hesitated and tried to come up with excuses to decline. He feared that this could be a ploy by the demon to ascertain the city's location. However, all it took was a casual remark from Alexander, "Okay, if you don't deliver the letter, we demons will kill the Dragon Queen, and you will be held responsible!"
Faced with this stark choice, the foreman had no alternative but to accept the mission.
With the challenge letter in his possession, the foreman set off. Anxious that Alexander might be tailing him, he frequently glanced back to check. However, once he realized that he was not being followed, he felt somewhat bewildered.
Nonetheless, the challenge letter reached its destination. As Alexander had surmised, there was an elven settlement nearby. When the foreman arrived with the challenge letter, an elven druid stationed in the city attached great importance to it. He had recently received messenger pigeons from the obliterated pegasus knights and knew that the demon army had arrived.
Originally, he had planned to intensify their training in preparation for the impending demon invasion. However, when he laid eyes on the challenge letter, he was taken aback. After questioning the foreman about how he came to possess the letter, the druid hero pondered deeply.
After a while, the druid hero asked the foreman, "You mean the one who dictated this letter wasn't Xeron himself but a peculiar demon under his command?"
"Yes, yes!" The foreman nodded. "Although I've never seen Xeron, it's highly unlikely that a grand demon like Xeron would personally occupy a sawmill with twenty demons, right?"
The druid nodded in agreement. "Based on your observations, do you believe the demon who instructed you to deliver this letter acted under Xeron's orders?"
"Absolutely!" The foreman continued earnestly, "Just look at the tone of that letter. It's the proclamation of a great demon! Without Xeron's instructions, how could that demon have expressed such audacity?"
The druid hero concurred. The tone in the letter exuded dominance and aggression, openly discussing destruction and warfare. Merely reading it was enough to understand that only a formidable demon could have written those words. The elven druid hero was increasingly convinced.
The demons' true target was the Gold Dragon Queen? This was a dire situation. Immediate warning was necessary.
As allies of the Kingdom of Erathia, the AvLee elves could have requested reinforcements. However, from the latest frontline reports, Dungeon Overlords and necromancers were besieging Erathia. The human forces were incapable of sparing any troops to aid the elves. Thus, the elves had to rely on their own efforts to fend off the demon onslaught.
Their initial strategy was to guard each city and use the city walls for defense, thus thwarting and wearing down the demon army. Consequently, their troops were evenly distributed among the cities. In these circumstances, the Dragon Queen and her nest, another important elven ally, lacked substantial protection. If the demons succeeded in launching a surprise attack and slaying the Dragon Queen, the elves would be in dire straits.
Dragons, including the Gold Dragons, were notorious for their temperamental nature. If their queen were to fall, they would react swiftly and potentially take their anger out on the elves. Without the formidable support of the dragons, how could the elves hope to fend off the relentless attacks of the high-level demons?
Faced with the dire consequences, the druid hero had no choice but to make a weighty decision. He rallied the majority of the troops stationed in the city, leaving only a handful of soldiers at key positions, and then hurried back to the elven capital. Simultaneously, he dispatched messages to the other druid heroes stationed in different cities, urging them to contract their defense lines and converge to safeguard the Gold Dragon Queen.
Though plagued by doubts about the demons possibly employing a ruse, the druid hero chose to believe the warning. The Gold Dragon Queen was an incomparable symbol of honor and importance, far surpassing the significance of the cities they defended.
.....
Alexander patiently waited at the sawmill until the shipments of wood to Xeron's army had been secured. Repairing the siege equipment was a time-consuming endeavor. During this period, Xeron received reinforcements from the demon city, with Rashka and Xeron leading the charge on the front lines. Ignatius remained in the city, summoning demons to bolster their forces. Once a substantial number of summoned troops were amassed, they would move along the routes taken by Rashka and Xeron to reinforce them.
The freshly arrived troops included over two hundred little demons, comprising equal numbers of gogs and hellhounds, along with tens of long-horned demons and evil spirits. These evil spirits were one of the types of middle-rank demons that Ignatius had recently summoned, hinting at the forthcoming appearance of high-level demons.
The middle-rank demons showed deference to Xeron but treated the low-rank demons, including Alexander, with contempt. They wielded whips and bossed around their lesser brethren.
Alexander paid little attention to their behavior and continued to observe these middle-rank demons discreetly.
As the march pressed on, elven scouts no longer made an appearance. Instead, the land was teeming with other adversaries, including wild monsters, beasts, thieves, and stray mercenaries. Though these individuals scattered upon encountering the formidable demon army, the bloodthirsty demons under Xeron's command showed no mercy and left no living creature unharmed.
The path the demon army traversed was marred with lifeless bodies, even causing Alexander, despite his time in the Abyss and acclimation to violence, to feel perturbed by the gruesome sight.
Two days later, the demon army reached the city where the pegasus knights were stationed. These days, Xeron's impatience had grown, and he was eager to lay siege to the city, perched on the edge of a cliff.
However, when the battle eventually unfolded, both Xeron and Alexander were confounded by the feeble resistance they encountered.
The number of elven troops guarding the city was far less than expected. A handful of elven archers manned the arrow towers, and the city walls featured only a few sluggish dendroid guards. Aside from these meager defenders, there were no other visible soldiers.
Xeron, puzzled by the feeble opposition, had no idea that the challenge letter sent by Alexander had achieved its intended effect. The elven hero stationed in the city had already heeded the call and withdrawn, taking the troops with him...
.....
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