The battle begins

(I hate siege battles when I'm on the defensive side!)

(You may have the terrain advantage and your troops may be more rested than your enemies but you end up in a complete passive position where all you can do is react to the enemies hand.)

"Master! The enemy has arrived!"

(This is a bit late, but, maybe it was a mistake for me to have come here?)

(I mean, it's not like I can fight at all. At most what I can do is order my girls, but at the same time my presence creates an weakness that the enemy can exploit. Is this worthy at all??)

"Master! Wake up!"

"Hmm?"

"The enemy! It's here!"

"Sorry, I was a bit lost in thoughts. Are the preparations done?"

"Of course!"

"Then, no need to waste our time. As soon as they get in range, fire the arrow!"

"Aren't we going to talk to them?"

"Huh?? Why would we do that? They are invading us. It's not like this is a mistake or misunderstanding. If it was, they wouldn't be bringing so many troops with them."

"That's..."

"Even if we talk, what's there to talk? The only time we will need to talk is when discussing the surrender terms of either sides, any other time is a waste of time, and as of now, neither of us is convinced of their defeat so there is no way we will surrender!"

"Hmm, all right!"

Seeing that Daisy still hadn't left, Apollo rose the question.

"Anything else?"

"M-master, how does I look??"

Daisy was wearing one of the few armors that were completed before we could depart. Maybe because Apollo never discussed the armor's style with Leilani the end product looked quite... peculiar, as it appeared just like a person wearing a giant tin can.

(Just like a tin can!)

"You look great!"

Of course Apollo would never say that on their face. As long as the armor was doing it's job protecting their lives, for him they were the most beautiful things in the world... though they surely could improve quite a bit once they had more time in their hands.

"Yes! I'm going now!"

"Godspeed!"

Daisy jumped through the stairs, climbing it in just two steps. Apollo? Well, he stayed inside the makeshift house that was made specially for him using their cart as the roof and extra ladders as it's pillars. It was far from the safest place in the world, but at least it would prevent loose arrows from hitting him. As for him climbing the wall.... there was no need to show the enemy their target, right?

"Mini-map activate!"

This was one of the commands Negi had shared with Apollo and Lee that she had learned as she played around with her bracer at the first days.

Hearing these words the bracer on Apollo's hand changed it's screen to one showing the mini-map of the terrain surrounding him. While it's range was limited to a hundred meters, this was more than enough to cover the whole fort and even show the enemies trying to invade.

Looking at the bracer's screen Apollo couldn't help but smile awkwardly as it made him remember one of his favorite games, but the scene happening all around him was pretty real and it was impossible to face it in such a half hearted way.

Over the walls people or different races and jobs organized themselves in a single row and readied they bows to fire their arrows.

"Ready! Aim!..."

--//--

On the other side of the battle, minutes prior, Ector was sitting on his sedan chair when a huge, muscular oni approached him.

"My Lord, there is a fort in the middle of our path."

"A fort?? Wasn't our target a few more hours away?"

"Yes, My Lord. It seems like this is just a defensive structure they built outside their base..."

"Hmm...Destroy them!"

"Eh?"

"Charge at them! Destroy them at once! The fort and everybody inside it! Finish it in less than 3 hours! You can do it easily, can't you?"

"That's..."

"Stop wasting my time and do it now! This will delay my planned chronogram by maybe a few hours. I need to make them pay the price for messing up my agenda!"

"Yes, my Lord!"

Instead of taking a careful approach, Ector was absolute sure of his troops strength so he dared to act recklessly. Even if he was wrong, all he had to do is make some more again, right? With the huge amount of resources he had accumulated after defeating other 3 Players, he was confidant that no one could stop him anymore.

The red oni went back to the front of his troops and announced loudly.

"My Lord has a new command for us! We shall destroy the enemy fort ahead of us and everybody inside it in less than 3 hours! To do so we shall overwhelm them at once and finish them off in a single strike! Everybody ready your weapons! CHAAAAAAAAARGE!"

At that moment 60 soldiers and 20 rangers charged at once toward the fort, like a huge wave that intended to destroy everything on it's path!

--//--

Back at the fort, as Daisy saw the Oni moving toward them, she didn't let it intimidate her and shouted out loud.

"Fire!!!!"

With a single command, 13 soldiers, 5 Rangers, 10 Engineers, 5 Lumberjacks fired a total of 33 arrows in direction of the enemy.

Right now, it didn't really matter which profession each one had. As long as they could use their hands, they could shoot an arrow.

It was not like Apollo was expected for them to all hit their targets, as long as they shot there was a chance they got lucky and if they luckily made a few scratches on the enemy's army it was already enough.

The wave of arrows crashed against the wave of enemies, but the Onis stood strong, continuing with their charge as if nothing had happened. It was not like there were no casualties, it's just that they completely ignored them and continued to charge madly at the fort. Once the dust cloud settled down, one would be able to see 10 bodies who had fallen and trampled by their own comrades in this mad charge, but at least for now such numbers would remain hidden by the dust.

"One more! Ready! Aim! Fire!!!!!"

A second wave of arrows arrived, hitting another few unlucky enemy soldiers, but the charge continued and they would soon reach the walls if nothing was done.

Inside his tent, Apollo tension was reaching it's peak. On the mini-map there were so many red dots that he couldn't even count them all and while a few had fallen behind as he heard Daisy commands over the wall, it was far from enough to allow them a fair fight once they reached here.

"Let's pray this works out! Start plan B!"