The Daboga Marshland was filled with swamps and mists. Tall trees grew directly from the water of the swamps. These tall trees had dense canopies which blocked most of the sunlight, giving the marshland limited lighting and adding its eeriness even during the day.

There were always movements under the water. The water was black. With the mists and poor lighting, no one could see what lurked under the dark water.

Native adventurers had been known to avoid this marshland. Players learned to do that the hard way. That’s why this marshland was mostly deserted.

Aldryth and her army were currently traversing through the winding road by the cliffs beside this marshland. The road climbed up high as they went deeper. The marshland was far down there on their right, while on their left were steep cliffs.

This road was the only way to travel through the Marshland safely. Otherwise, these travelers would have to take a long roundabout way to get to the other side. The road was considered very wide if used by regular travelers or caravans. But for a large army, it was too narrow. The march turned the army into a long column, like a snake going through the irregular road.

“How far away is the enemy?” Aldryth asked.

“My last scouts haven’t returned for quite some while, I think they have been killed,” Dytess replied. “But from the last report, they were just two hours away.”

“We need to pick up our pace,” Aldryth said. “Dump our supply carts into the marshland! They are almost empty anyway. Everyone will have to carry their own rations and potions.”

Dytess carried out the order. Under harsh circumstances, they had to take harsh action.

As they turned the sharp corner where John planned the ambush, they saw a row of human soldiers lining up flat against the wall. Jack was at the head of this row. With his runestone of marching, he had arrived at this place first.

“Queen Aldryth,” Jack greeted.

“King Storm Wind,” Aldryth greeted back.

“Hurry up,” Jack said. “Leave this place to us.”

“I will join you in defending this place,” Jeanny said.

“No, stay with the queen,” Jack told her. “Just get to Lefkauselis. They won’t get past us.”

Jeanny didn’t like staying on the sidelines as that would only make her worry without being able to do anything, but she didn’t waste her time arguing. She resumed the march with the Hydrurond army. As she walked, she looked up and saw several soldiers perched up there on the cliff. The cliff wall was steep and hard to climb, but not impossible.

Since Jack’s army arrived first, they had the luxury to have some soldiers climb the cliff. With the high ground, these soldiers would be able to support the soldiers down there as they engaged the enemies coming around the sharp corner.

Jeanny noticed that all the soldiers perched up on the cliffs were holding long muskets. They were one of Themisphere’s special units, the Musketeers. These special units had unusually long ranges and also had the gunner’s skill, Shooting Stance, which gave them damage boost and range boost when they took the stance and not moved.

They were the ideal units for sniping.

Seeing that everything was well-prepared, Jeanny stopped worrying.

Once the tail of the Hydrurond army walked past, the human soldiers who were leaning by the cliff wall left the wall and came to Jack’s side. They continued to pile up and formed a solid formation facing the sharp turn. The enemies who came through that turn would be in for a surprise.

The soldiers making up the bulk of the front line were another special unit, the paladin. Some ancient champions were mixed in between these paladins. At such a choke point, quality beat quantity. Jack chose the best units to hold up the line.

There were only a few ancient champions because it turned out its passing requirement was extremely high. From droves of soldiers who applied to the Ancient Beacon Tower, only a few passed.

But these few were the cream of the crops. The ancient champions had unusually high stats. They were also enveloped by an aura that buffed their allies. Their weapons and armor were blanketed by a thin layer of light that was similar to when a Weapon Master activated the Ki Weapon skill. The difference was this layer of light was their passive skill. So, its effect was always on.

Behind the ancient champions and paladins were the last of the special units, the Illusionists. They specialized in illusion magic that could confuse and also damage the opponents.

Mixed in with these illusionists were some mage and healer units. The mages were to provide AOE damage output while the healers were to keep the tanks in the front last as long as possible. The paladins had recovery skills but having healers on standby was always better.

Behind them were reserves who would replace them in case the front-line soldiers were killed or lost too much HP.

Floating above them were Emris and a few high-level officers who had the fly spell or wing tools. They were to deal with the enemy’s high-level officers who tried to get through the barricade from the sky.

Jack asked everyone to be silent to not expose their position. All they needed to do now was wait.

*

Aldryth’s army came down to the end of the road which opened up to a large plain. John and the rest of the Themisphere army were waiting there, with a formation that boxed in the exit to the road.

John was situated on a small hill at the rear of the formation. That hill gave him a high ground to have a good view of most everything. Themisphere’s war table was also placed there.

Tip was next to him, preparing to use their guild army summoning crystal if needed. Tip had changed their guild quest to operate under Themisphere’s banner before he left and joined John in crossing the border. He originally planned to teleport directly to Messephyria after crossing the border. So he could use the guild army summoning crystal to summon their guild army in the capital defense. Unfortunately, the capital had fallen when he arrived in Hydrurond.

Jeanny came to John who was standing behind the war table.

“Do you think the enemies will get through Jack?” She asked, referring to the army who was prepared to take on whoever was coming out of the road.

“It’s always better to prepare,” John answered. “Jack’s division might get tired against endless waves. If that happened, we will be ready to take care of the enemies here.”

Jeanny nodded. “What should we do?”

“Just go to Lefkauselis, we got it covered here,” John answered.

“No. If they get through, you will need numbers,” Aldryth said. “This is our fight. It’s not right to leave you to do all the fighting.”

“Okay,” John replied. He was not interested in wasting time to persuade others.

As the Hydrurond army adjusted their positions following John’s formation, they heard a commotion in the distance. The mists prevented them to see far, so they could only rely on the sound to know what happened.𝒏𝗈𝔳ℯ𝐋𝚗𝐄xt.𝐂𝑶𝓜

“The enemies have arrived,” John said.

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