Chapter 50

  I made my way through the many recovering demons laying on leather sheets on the ground. I was glad to see they were awake and well enough to be conversing with one another. The few who hadn’t made it had already been taken away it seemed, but I didn’t know where. I stopped when I saw Iskaret. She was doing fine and out of danger, although she wasn’t able to use her legs yet.

  ‘Hey Iska, how is it going?’ I asked as I knelt beside her.

  ‘Still alive, Lord, still alive,’ she reported, trying to get up.

  ‘Don’t move!’ I told her. ‘You’ll be back on your feet soon; the Third Ringers are waiting just for you to cut them to ribbons.

  She plonked back down with a grin, and I put the IFD scanner on her legs. The data appeared on my NeuroHUD, and as I cast Hades Heal I guided Hell Mana to repair bone, muscle and nerves.

  ‘Oh, I feel it,’ Iskaret said, pushing herself to sit up and looking at her legs and making a weird face. ‘Like tiny Flesh-snatchers burrowing in my legs and eating it from the inside.’

  ‘I’m glad you’re enjoying it,’ I commented, keeping my focus on guiding the spell.

  ‘Enjoying?’ she grunted.

  ‘Are you not?’ I grunted back at her, just to see how she’d react.

  ‘Yes Lord, of course I am,’ she blurted her answer through gritted teeth.

  ‘Good.’ I smiled behind my helmet’s visor.

  Who was to say I couldn’t have a little fun while treating injured soldiers? I used to be one of the more popular medics back in my army days. Oh, after a month in Hell was it really time to say things like “back in my army days”? As if it had been a lifetime ago? It did feel like a lifetime ago. Ah, something to ponder later.

  Reinos noticed me during the second cast of the spell and rushed to me immediately.

  ‘My Lord!’ he greeted me as he arrived in front of me, careful not to step on anyone on the ground by accident.

  ‘Okay, I’ll be back to check on your legs,’ I said to Iska as I stood up.

  ‘Take your time, Lord, I’m sure there are others who need healing more,’ she grumbled.

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘Nothing, Lord, nothing.’ She snapped to attention as she lay on the leather sheet.

  I just shook my head, trying to keep myself from laughing, and I turned to Reinos.

  ‘Good to see you general. Let’s go over your reports.’

  ‘Right away, my Lord,’ he said.

  I left Grashon and the gang to catch up with Iska and followed my general out of our makeshift field hospital — one without a roof, walls or medical staff. We made our way to the south gate where a constant stream of demons was going in and out, carrying weapons and supplies.

  ‘I have five hundred soldiers going through the camps to collect all weapons, food, and anything else that might be useful.’ He explained as we walked. ‘That includes dead minotaurs; their hides are thick; it makes decent armour and clothes for scouts and mages.’

  ‘I imagine there are plenty of bodies?’ I inquired.

  ‘There are,’ he said, sighing. ‘Just the first three camps counted over four thousand enemy soldiers. We killed them all. The other seventeen camps are harder to guess; many fled after you defeated their general, and at the time we didn’t pursue them so we could concentrate on destroying those who stayed.’

  ‘You say that like it’s a bad thing,’ I commented.

  ‘We let a lot of them go. Maybe half of approximately thirty thousand,’ he sighed. ‘We could have killed more.’

  ‘Not a bad result for an army of just under seven thousand,’ I said. ‘You’ve done very well.’

  ‘Thank you, my Lord,’ he said, sighing again. ‘It’s just under five thousand now.’

  ‘How is my army doing?’ I asked.

  ‘With the expectation of over a hundred injured soldiers returning, the number is 4956.’ He reported. ‘Most soldiers have leveled up once, some twice.’

  I checked the military menu in the RMS as he spoke, confirming his reports.

  Fourth Ring Military

  Generals: 1

  Armies: 1

  Garrisons: 0

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Ongoing Campaigns: 1 (Death to the Third Ringers)

  Ongoing Invasions of Your Ring: 1

  Ongoing Invasions of a Ring by Your Forces: 0

  Available Ring Energy: 7,390,504

  Please open menu points for more details.

  Cost of adding new, custom menu points: 10,000 Ring Energy (RE).

  I opened the Armies menu.

  Armies: 1

  Retributors of the Vengeful Flame

  Personnel: 4956

  Army average: Level 20

  Composition:

  - Mages: 886

  - Warriors: 3962

  - Other: 396

  I tried to overlook the fact that the Genius was coming up with names and epithets left and right and on his own without consulting anyone. Retributors of the Vengeful Flame? Sounded cool and everything, but even if Reinos didn’t feel left out, I did, and I would have appreciated to be given the opportunity to have a say in the naming of my army. Well, aside from that, I considered the campaign objective achieved; I had come here with ten demons, and I was going to leave with almost five thousand. Good stuff. The ratio was leaning heavily towards the physical fighter types — soldiers, warriors, archers and scouts — but with almost nine hundred walking-talking flamethrowers behind them, I thought they were a formidable force. And with an average level of 20, they were a cut above the minotaur forces I’d seen so far, at least in terms of quality.

  I tried to open the category “Other”, but I couldn’t, leaving me to wonder what those four hundred demons were. They were a part of the army, that much was clear, but the reason why they hadn’t made it into the “Warrior” or “Mage” categories was a mystery. Were they logistical support, or was it their titles or jobs that didn’t quite fit? I wasn’t sure, but at the moment it wasn’t a priority to find out.

  ‘Do you think we can get most of them an extra level in the next three days?’ I asked as we reached the gate. ‘The Wilds have enough animals, and maybe even some minotaurs hiding in there.’

  ‘I could send them in,’ Reinos said. ‘A third of them a day, different sides of the city. If they push hard, it might be possible. Not everyone, but a good number.’

  ‘Good. Let’s do it. We’ll need the level advantage.’

  ‘It will be done, my Lord.’

  ‘If you can, break them into squads or groups of different sizes and have them practice stealth and ambush tactics. You know what those are, right?’

  ‘I do.’ He nodded. ‘But if levels are the priority, it won’t give us much time for anything else.’

  ‘Just do what you can. Anything is better than nothing.’

  We stopped at the gate, fire and ice-demons slowing down in their comings and goings to take sneak peeks of us — well, me — then speeding up again. Ah, I could almost feel my popularity rising. Then Reinos scowled at me, shattering the moment, and asked,

  ‘Lord, what is the plan now? What’s next?’

  ***

  I leaned against the city wall right next to the gate, ignoring the gazes of dozens of demons as they were coming in. Reinos stood in front of me, and I took my helmet off so I could look him in the eyes properly.

  ‘Well, there are some developments you don’t know about,’ I said to him.

  ‘My Lord?’

  ‘Zeneth!’ I called out after taking a deep breath.

  I had no idea how he was doing it, but the dark Fifth Ring demon walked into my view in a normal and natural way, no indication of where he had been or how he had kept himself hidden even from me. I assumed his array of psychic skills were as high level as they could get, and I understood why all the previous demon lords of this realm felt it a necessity to cultivate psychic skills — both defensive and offensive — for themselves and their heirs, even though it wasn’t a popular or natural choice for fire and ice-demons. Well, the shadowy creatures of the Kralsen Hive Mind might have been considered an enemy of the state for the past thousand years, but I had a contract with them, so they were on my side for the moment, and I hoped to keep it that way.

  ‘Who is this?’ Reinos asked, looking at him, no doubt perceiving him as a scrawny ice-demon, like everyone else except me.

  ‘This is …’ I began to say, but Zeneth didn’t let me finish the sentence.

  ‘Zeneth-Rakar.’ He stated the name he wanted to use. ‘I am a captain in general Kralsen’s army.’

  ‘General Kralsen?’ Reinos perked up immediately. ‘Is he here? Is his army here?’

  ‘No,’ Zeneth said with the curtness I had come to expect from him.

  ‘No? So …’ Reinos tried to figure out what was happening, but Zeneth didn’t let him.

  ‘Hellfire Lord, it is done,’ he said to me.

  ‘Your people managed to contact Riaret in Orroth?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘She is interested.’

  ‘That’s it? Interested?’

  ‘She is interested.’ He repeated his statement. ‘It is our opinion that if the circumstances will allow, she might challenge you.’

  ‘And I assume by “circumstances” you mean the enemy defeated and the city relieved?’ I inquired.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Okay, that’s better than nothing.’ I noted.

  ‘Are we marching on Orroth then? To get general Riaret to join us?’ Reinos asked, his voice somewhat … shaky. Or surprised. Or something else. I wasn’t sure.

  ‘That’s the plan. We’ll take three days here to organise and prepare, then we’ll leave.’ I explained, then I turned back to Zeneth. ‘Do we have that time?’

  ‘We do. An army of about seventy thousand minotaurs has left Scaragar, and by our estimate they are headed here, and will arrive in twelve, maybe thirteen days.’ He reported the hive mind’s findings.

  The hive mind wasn’t an army, Kralsen wasn’t a general and they didn’t have captains. But they had their demons in many places in ones and twos, they could go almost anywhere undetected, they could all communicate with each other without exception, and I was impressed as hell with my new spy network already.

  ‘Hm. Not a huge surprise; the minotaur King knows his general is gone, and he probably know who’s done the deed.’

  ‘The same champion who attacked him at the Lost Pillars,’ Reinos said. ‘And he doesn’t know you’re the ruling demon lord, otherwise he’d have sent half if not all his forces.’

  ‘Correct.’ I nodded. ‘At the moment I’m just a nuisance to him, and I want to keep it that way. And talking about nuisance, can your people slow that army down or sabotage them somehow?’ I asked Zeneth.

  ‘No. And even if they could it wouldn’t slow them down,’ he said.

  ‘I see. Okay.’ I said upon hearing the answer I had expected. It was worth a try. ‘So, we prepare, and in three days we march.’ I said to Reinos. ‘And there are a few things I want to know.’

  ‘What is it, my Lord.’

  ‘Shields,’ I said. ‘Why don’t demons use shields? Wouldn’t that be a useful thing for warriors? You know, shield walls and such?’

  I had not seen a single demon use shields, not fire or ice-demons, not minotaurs, not anyone. Armour was fairly common, and I would have thought shields would be too, just like they used to be on Earth for a long period of history according to my teachers back in school.

  ‘Shields are weak,’ Reinos said, looking at me like I was mad. ‘Without bonding it to a demon they are a hindrance rather than protection. And bonding a shield is expensive, not to mention difficult to level it to a point of usefulness.’

  ‘Is armour cheaper then?’

  ‘No, it’s expensive to bond too, but it doesn’t get in the way, and levels faster,’ he explained. ‘Not to mention many warriors prefer two handed weapons, so I’d say there isn’t much room for shields anyway.’

  ‘Right. Forget shields then,’ I said, ready to move onto the next topic with which I could potentially embarrass myself in front of my general. ‘Let’s talk supplies and logistics. And we need to decide whether we’re going to abandon Garoshek completely or if we leave a garrison behind.’