I became a legion lich

252 Simultaneous war

“Paladins, we are retreating now!” The bishop shouted and the paladins began to retreat, now that the orcs were too wounded to follow. Despite the powers of the evolved orcs, priests used the amount to overcome defenses and cause serious injuries.

The church forces desperately fled, reaching the other side of the island within minutes. The crusaders jumped onto the boats as fast as they could and cut straight through the anchor chains and started rowing as fast as possible.

There were enough boats for everyone, as the church’s troops arrived on the island using the same boats.

The church’s forces managed to flee the island, but the evolved demihumans were still chasing them.

The Sky knight reported that the demihumans had given up trying to destroy the light shields and were turning around to try to chase them.

In the end, the demihumans were forced to give up the chase when they strayed too far from the island. Their own ships had been destroyed and they would be unable to chase the humans fast enough before they ran out of mana.

They returned to the island, where they celebrated their victory over the human cowards, while the church forces fled with their tails between their legs.

***********

Back to Eishin’s Divine Palace.

.....

The mood in the throne room had plummeted as everyone watched the hologram nervously. Not a word was spoken during the entire battle, but the angels noticed the murderous gleam in Eishin’s eyes as he saw the crusaders slaughtered.

“Should we send some support to help them flee or a strike force before they settle on the island?” Canan suggested to break the silence, but Eishin refused.

“No not yet.” Eishin replied somewhat stunned. “There are no troops nearby and attacking without a good plan would only cause more deaths. The bishop made the right decision to retreat while it was still possible and reduce the number of casualties.”

“Besides, the other battles will start any moment and unfortunately we don’t have enough troops to send troops everywhere. Small islands or places of little importance will have to be abandoned if they can’t defend themselves.” Eishin spoke, but from his expression, just saying those words was enough to disgust him.

“It makes sense.” Canan agreed with his words and questioned him about something else. “By the way, what were those things? They reminded me of minotaurs, but there were many differences compared to the other giant races.”

“I believe they are descendants of the behemoths. They were bestial giants with characteristics of different beasts, reaching up to 30 meters in length.” Eishin explained.

“Behemoths possessed the indestructible racial ability, which increased the body’s resistance by several times, making behemoths the toughest and hardest to kill among giants.” Eishin felt a headache just remembering how difficult battles against these things were.

“Behemoths had a magical organ in their bodies that stored earth element and spread it throughout the body, increasing its durability. It was an ability derived from the earth just like wukongs, although its effects are completely different.” Eishin explained.

The two continued talking about the different species of giants until alarm bells started to go off. Several attacks took place at the same time and different holograms appeared on the ceiling.

Eishin and Canan patiently watched all the battles, sighing heavily as they realized that most of the battles were in favor of the demihumans.

Even with the humans possessing overwhelmingly superior numbers and the power of magic to attack from a distance, the raw power of the demihumans was enough to tip the tide in their favor.

Just like the demihumans from the previous battles, the smaller demihumans like goblins or a few larger demihumans tried to teleport to ambush the enemies, but Canan and Eishin had learned from their previous mistakes.

They distributed magic items that attracted teleportation to their position and rained down spells at any sign of teleportation, killing the demihuman before they could understand what happened.

Even with the initial ambush plan failing, the battles were still in favor of the demihumans. If it weren’t for the barriers and the magic items that the order and the church distributed to their mages and priests, the battles would have been over in seconds.

War slaves did not have the same support as mages and received only mediocre equipment. When the barriers were breached, they were the first line of defense and flesh shields to slow down the demihumans, but they barely served as fodder.

They were ordered to fight, but most of them lacked any willpower and had already given up on living, their movements becoming mechanical and easy to predict, the only thing moving their bodies was the slave collar.

The kingdom’s regular army was next to face the army, but they fought even less than the slaves. Their movements weren’t restricted by anything, but most were normal humans and even the elite troops capable of using mana weren’t able to match the evolved demihumans even when fighting many against one.

The battle seemed almost lost and the kingdom’s regular army was already starting to think about retreating, when the large-scale spells cast by court, order or church rained down on the demihumans.

The spells cast by the court magicians were just various lasers or orbs of pure mana, the only element everyone had in common while the church only used the light element, forcing everyone to look away to avoid being blinded, but it was the order who more stood out.

Unlike the army of kingdoms or the church, they cast large-scale spells from all elements of magic. The order of magic had tens of thousands of mages and trained mages separately to learn large-scale spells of their own elements in addition to pure mana spells.

Fireballs the size of houses fell like rain, tornadoes of wind blades so large that they made demihumans look like children, sandstorms capable of burying cities, waves of ice capable of freezing the sea in front of them, rays of light pierced the line demihumans and waves of darkness drained his strength while festering all his wounds.

The spells devastated the ranks of the evolved demihumans, giving the humans hope of victory. At least until the clouds of dust generated by the spells dispersed and humans could confirm the effects of their spells.

The evolved demihumans had used the evolved minotaurs as meat shields, fending off most attacks with their own bodies. Most minotaurs were killed by the large-scale spells, even the absurd resistance granted by the indestructible was not able to withstand multiple large-scale spells at the same time.

Other demihumans also suffered casualties and serious injuries, but they held their ground and resumed their advance the moment the dust settled.

It was impossible to cast other large-scale spells that fast, so the mages and priests quickly drank mana regeneration potions and cast individual spells as fast as they could, but the evolved demihumans didn’t allow them to reorganize.

They tore through the ranks of the kingdom’s soldiers, mowing the soldiers as if they were wheat, and rushed straight at the greatest threat. Some orcs and ogres still fell dead from the desperate attacks of the army, but the survivors didn’t care about the dead and continued the charge.

Even though the mages desperately tried to run away while casting their spells, the demihumans relentlessly pursued them. Wizards could barely defend themselves using the powerful magic items distributed by the order of magic and the church, but the effects of their enchantments would not last forever.

The evolved demihumans began killing the mages and priests once the effects of the enchantments wore off and the order’s reinforcements decided it was time to intervene.

Portals appeared on the different battlefields, using the items that forced teleportation as beacons, and dozens of mages came out. They cast whatever spells they had on hand, turning the tide of battle in the humans’ favor.

They also carried magic items and cast all their spells as soon as the demihumans came within range. The sheer destructive power of all the activated enchantments at once was enough to kill even the trolls at once and their great regeneration.

The battlefields defended by the church did not have portals to transport their priests, but purple spheres appeared on the battlefields and the saints and greatest champions of the church came out.

Although their numbers were much smaller than the church’s reinforcements, their effects on the battlefield were even greater. The saints and champions didn’t waste a single second after arriving at the battlefield and immediately rushed towards the demihumans.

Whether using magic or physical attacks, the saints swept away the demihumans with the same ease they had hitherto had with ordinary soldiers, making the humans scream in victory and the demihumans in outrage, but neither made any difference in the battle.

In the end, both mages and saints were able to reverse their respective battlegrounds, but casualties were still massive everywhere.