Chapter 113 – Stronghold

When Dream and Idona had arrived back at the ship, Ciroc was sitting there already awake.

He looked at them with a grin on his face as if he'd been waiting. 

"Good morning you two."

"It is isn't it."

Dream smiled back at him. At the same time, Ciroc sent him a telepathic message.

"Was it as good as I think it was?"

"It was good but not that good."

"I see."

Dream just rolled his eyes at his slightly disappointed expression. 

After a small chat and when more people had woken up, Ciroc got up from his chair.

"Alright, everyone get up and eat your meals. We'll be heading out in an hour."

Hearing that, those who weren't awake spurred to life, and those who were began bringing out food to eat. 

Like that, breakfast passed quickly and everyone loaded into the carriages. Dream also sent off the ship back to the space factory. Its departure was hailed with much emotion.

Dream took control of all the carriages and led them back to their primary route, to which it was then handed back to the original drivers. 

"We'll be hitting the land bridge soon. Reports say that there's light demon presence, so we should be able to pass it by the afternoon. We'll then move on towards the supposed demon capital. What's on the way is unknown, but there will definitely be a large number of demons, especially those of a high level. Everyone should be prepared to fight at any time."

Ciroc gave a rundown to everyone in the carriages over a mana channel. Though as he spoke, Sophia was coming to Dream with a problem.

[The land bridge isn't actually void of demons. In fact, it's the opposite. Take a look.]

Sophia brought up a map in Dream's mind. It was a live drone feed.

[There's a chokepoint on the land bridge which leads to the mainland. At this chokepoint is a heavily fortified stronghold. The stronghold and wall that blocks entry to the mainland are crawling with demons. At least 120,000 demons total. Though I can't estimate their levels from the drone, it doesn't take a genius to know that there will probably be a good amount of class 3's.]

'...Depending on the amount of class 3's, we'll be busy and need help with the other small fry. Hmm... Oh, the army. What's their status?'

[Other than the 50 bobs that are cooperating with the Empire, the army is going strong with about 1800 troops.]

'How long until they can get here?'

[They can be there before you arrive at the stronghold.]

'Then load them up.'

[Already in progress.]

'Thanks. I should tell them about this.'

Dream stopped watching the live feed of the stronghold and turned to Ciroc.

"We have a problem."

Dream's voice broke the relaxed atmosphere. Everyone turned to him.

"What's wrong?"

"I've just received intelligence. The land bridge has demons on it. And quite a bit at that. Take a look."

Dream stood up and moved to the table in front of everyone. He took out a device and unraveled it, letting it cover up the map. Right after, it lit up. It was a screen.

On the screen showed two images. One was of the 8 carriages moving in a line, and the other was of the stronghold.

"I'll keep it simple. There is a chokepoint on the landbridge, and the demons have set up a stronghold that blocks entry to the mainland. This is what you see in this image."

Everyone got up and looked at the image on the table. They could see a tall wall and a large fortress behind it. And all over this fortress and wall were demons moving every which way, like a bunch of ants. A few people had wide eyes looking at the sheer number. 

"From just looking at the area, I've estimated about 120,000 demons. The majority of these are obviously class 2 and under, but there are more than likely over 30 class 3's. And that's a minimal estimate."

"Hmm..."

Everyone looked at the image with frowns. That was truly a large number, and at this point, nobody was questioning the information. Dream had pulled enough wild cards out of his ass for them to not be surprised anymore. 

"Looks like we'll have a tough battle ahead of us. If need be, Idona and I will step in and take care of some class 3's so you guys don't get swarmed by the class 2's."

"Actually, I've got some backup coming that are gonna help us."

"Backup?"

Everyone looked at him once more.

"Yes. I've got a little under 2000 troops coming to assist. Though none of them can take on a class 3, they will be able to handle the class 2's and under. So we shouldn't have a problem being swarmed."

"2000?"

"More like 1800."

"..."

Everyone stared for a second before shaking their heads. How could he just have 2000 people at his beck and call? And how is he supposed to get them here?

Though they doubted him, he hasn't lied about anything so far. And while none of them could fathom such a thing, they didn't speak up to express their doubt.

"...If you really do, then that'll help us. Do we need to wait for them?"

Ciroc spoke up, choosing to believe him rather than doubt.

"No. In fact, they should be arriving soon."

"So you were prepared for this battle?"

"No. I called them over a few minutes ago."

"..."

Yet another outrageous statement, but still, nobody spoke up. Dream's confidence seemed to stifle their disbelief.

"Alright. Then proceed as normal?"

"Yes. Though I suggest we park ourselves some distance away from them."

"Of course. As if we'd just drive ourselves straight into hell."

"Just making sure."

"Then I'll let everyone know."

Saying that, Ciroc relayed the situation to everyone. Once aware, everyone began making any necessary preparations. It was more than likely that everybody would be participating in this fight.

After a few hours, they began approaching the stronghold. This was also the time that the reinforcements Dream spoke of had arrived. 18 VTOL's silently hovered overhead fully loaded with troops. 

And finally, they had arrived in front of the stronghold. Well, more like 2 miles from it.

Everyone loaded out of the carriages and faced the huge stronghold and massive wall that spanned the width of the land bridge. They could see the tens of thousands of demons running and flying around, and the aura that huge horde gave off was threatening, even to them. It was like they had corrupted the atmosphere and rejected life itself.

After they had unloaded, the planes also set themselves down and opened their hatches. Everyone watched as 1800 metal soldiers poured out of the ships.

"Wait, these are your soldiers? Aren't these the ones that were spotted on the third continent wiping out demons?"

After a fighter from the Empire spoke, everyone remembered the reports from the meeting before they left. The reports described metallic humanoids with 6 arms that wielded swords and ranged weapons. These soldiers happened to fit that description perfectly. 

"These are indeed my soldiers. I sent them out even before we came to the Empire. I wanted to collect intelligence about the demons and get a grasp on their threat level, so I built them and let them fight. They'll help us fend off all the low-level trash covering those walls, making sure we don't get blindsided while focusing on the strong ones."

"But can they handle that many?"

Ciroc spoke up after seeing their power level. Dream smiled.

"I think they'll do their job fine. Anyway, I think our enemies have already noticed us."

Dream looked off in the distance and could see how agitated the demons were getting. Many of them were looking at their group who were standing out in the open. Their surroundings were just grasslands and the coast after all, so there wasn't really anywhere to hide.

"I'm sensing class 3's. Looks like the estimates were off. I'm picking up on 72 

"That's about 15 more than our total number..."

Idona spoke up after scanning the area with her mana. Hearing the number she found, everyone suddenly felt much more pressure.

Besides the two class 4's, there were about 55 class 3's who were on this expedition. And already, the number of demons surpassed their own number.

"I have an idea."

Dream spoke up and everyone turned to him.

"I have good stealth abilities and I'm rather fast. So we can have some people take on two demons while the rest fight one. While the battle goes on, I'll flow between everyone and pick them off while you guys are distracting them. Generally, we're all individually stronger, so something like that shouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't take long before they match our numbers, then we'll just assist each other as we kill more and more."

"Hmm..."

"I'm just giving an option that doesn't require class 4 intervention. We'll get more experience that way."

"...What does everyone think?"

Ciroc looked around. After thinking about it for a bit, nobody had a problem and nodded.

"Alright, then we'll do that. Idona and I will be on standby in case anyone gets into a bind. I don't plan to have any casualties under my watch."

"Understood."

"Then if there's nothing more, we should start this battle. Dream, how do you plan to send in your troops?"

"Simply."

Dream smiled and looked towards the metal troops. When he did, they began to spur to life, equipping their weapons. They got into an orderly cluster in front of everyone and faced the demons.

Dream only gave one command.

"Go ape shit."

With that, all the soldiers bent down and transformed into an animal-like form. They then dashed towards the stronghold at high speeds.

*Screech!*

Demons began screaming at the approaching enemies before launching volleys of magic at them. Fireballs, ice, arrows, and rocks were hurled straight at the robots.

*Boom!*

As they made contact, smoke and dust was kicked up. Not even a moment later though, every soldier continued running out unscathed.

Seeing that it didn't work, the demons continued firing volleys. The robots also continued dodging though, and soon the demons changed tactics and sent out their own fighters to meet head to head. 

Tens of thousands of class 1's and thousands of class 2's were sent out through the gates. The screaming red horde ran like mad and without a care for their lives straight to the metal soldiers. 

From everyone's point of view, it was like Dream was trying to dilute an ocean of blood with a single drop of water. These metal soldiers were outmatched and severely overpowered. They might be able to take out a few thousand demons before being overrun. Though they trusted his confidence, this situation seemed a little too unrealistic.

But they still watched with expectation, just in case he was right yet again. And when the small, spread out silver cluster finally clashed with the red horde, only blood was drawn.

*Shing!*

Pools of blood were instantly spilled as each soldier decapitated multiple demons each. Immediately after they all pushed in deeper as if trying to get themselves surrounded. The robots split up and weaved through the ocean of red at high, unpredictable speeds, taking the heads of every demon that crossed their path. 

"Oh my god..."

Everyone stood there with wide eyes and slack jaws. They watched as each robot danced around with their six swords, using every one with grace and precision. They were fast, flexible, sharp, and they cut through flesh and bone like they were harvesting crops. Not a single second was wasted as they moved from one area to another like clockwork, taking hundreds and thousands with them along the way.

"...At this rate, there won't be any small-fry left when we move in."

"Hm. You jinxed it."

Although they loved watching the deadly dance the robots performed, there was always someone to crash the party. Though it wasn't like they could expect the demons not to notice thousands of their kind being slaughtered and not take action.

40 class 3 demons mounted the wall and overlooked the silver soldier annihilating their force. Though they didn't make a move yet as they had also noticed the force 2 miles away. 

"The time is now. All of you head out. If you can kill some of them before the other 30 come out, then all the better. Just don't get caught off guard. In fact, everyone except Dream can partner up as you head in. Got it?"

"Yes."

"Then head out."

"Yeet."

Dream was the first to react and disappear from everyone's view. And with him as the signal, everyone else also dashed out.

The class 3 demons saw this, but they didn't decide to move. They instead stayed put and let their enemy come to them.

'Crafty But how will you like it when I destroy your wall.'

Dream saw this and moved in. He flew ahead and got close to the wall before spreading out his mana.

*Rumble*

The wall that the demons were on suddenly started shaking. Moments later, the wood and rock wall exploded.

*Boom!*

Easily 300 meters of wall was obliterated and the demons on top came falling down. Though this obviously wouldn't cause them damage, it would put them on a level playing field.

The mages and fighters saw this and smiled before increasing their speed. Soon, they bypassed the small-fry and clashed.

*Bang!*

Fists and magic bombarded into each other as the humans found their targets. The demons immediately found themselves overwhelmed, and a few had even died on the spot under combined fire. 

Though they were instantly disadvantaged, the demons regrouped with their exceptional teamwork and fought back. At the same time, the 30 other demons came out to support and jumped into the mix. 

"Ah! Help!"

A fighter shouted out as 4 demons suddenly jumped on him. They fluidly combined their attacks and he had sustained injuries in only a few seconds. It was immediately apparent that he would die if not supported.

And his call for help was indeed answered. The 4 demons, focused on killing easy prey, weren't aware of the threat behind them. 

*Shing!*

One demon had his head cut off unexpectedly. The others saw this and looked over only to see nothing.

*Shing!*

Not long after, another demon had its head cut off. At this point, they began getting defensive.

"They're all yours."

The fighter heard a communication in his ear. He smiled knowing who it was and went back on the offensive, catching the still defensive demons off guard.

After killing those two demons, Dream didn't dally and supported the other mages and fighters. if any got ganged up on, he would fly over and kill one or two. If any were struggling, he would maybe cut off a limb or sever tendons. Even if Dream couldn't get to a fight in time, he would just aim and use his flux bullets. This way, he could have the entire battlefield covered.

The area was chaotic, but with his keen perception, strong mind, and Sophia's information sorting, Dream was able to keep to keep tabs on everyone and every demon. He was constantly moving around and injuring demons, providing advantages for everyone. And occasionally he would kill some. 

Though unfortunately, there was still one unknown variable that nobody had accounted for. And it was looking right at Dream through the walls of the stronghold.

"...Damned human."