Elemental Cats

"Everyone at the ready!"

General Scoll's voice rang out across the battlefield and stirred the troops. But since there weren't any orders, no one did anything. They just waited for him to continue talking. They could hopefully stop defending and finally go on the offensive. However, the troops hiding beneath the magic barriers were bound to be disappointed by General Scoll's next words.

"Puppeteer, defensive formation forward!"

General Scoll's words were directed toward a person who had, so far, been conserving their strength behind the backlines. Both the fact that only a single person was ordered forward and that it was to increase the defenses was disappointing to the troops, who were getting sick and tired of only defending. But no one objected to the general's order, and a man in golden robes stepped forward while carrying a pillow-sized golden chest.

The golden-haired man had a few fully armored knights of gold accompany him as he left the safety of the war camp behind the backlines and stepped closer to the fray. When he deemed he was close enough, the Golden Puppeteer opened his chest as it faced forward.

The lid barely had time to open before several golden shadows flew out and into the battle. The golden shadows grew mid-air until they expanded to a height of several meters. The hulking golden puppets looked like ornate gorillas of pure gold. The golden gorilla puppets formed a line between the Alliance of Kingdoms' defending troops and the Tribe of Death's attacking forces.

The golden gorilla puppets locked their arms together, which prompted their bodies to emit a golden sheen that swiftly formed a golden-hued magic barrier. The golden barrier bathed the battlefield in a radiant golden light, which momentarily put a stop to the Tribe of Death's attack. But only momentarily, and they quickly resumed their casting.

However, the golden barrier didn't even tremble in front of the attacks. It did shine stronger with each blow it defended against, which obscured the target that the Tribe of Death was aiming to hit.

But, even if there was another barrier to block the Tribe of Death's attacks, the Tribe of Death couldn't stop attacking. Doing that and waiting for the barrier to go down would be equivalent to admitting that they couldn't rely on their Fountain of Death anymore. If anything, the Tribe of Death panicked a little and started using the Chalices of Death even more to hide the fact that they didn't want to engage in a battle of attrition.

Usually, the situation they were in would be the dream for the Tribe of Death, their enemy exhausting themselves by defending. And the Tribe of Death's forces, with the Fountain of Death's endless supply of demonic energy, were free to attack as much as they wanted.

But with the Golden Puppeteers Golden Gorilla Legion and its defensive formation joining the fray, the Tribe of Death didn't feel confident about winning a drawn-out battle, even with the Chalices.

General Scoll could almost sense the rapidly spinning minds of the enemy commanders as they worried about what to do. Whether they should call in the allies from other transcendent factions or if they should continue using the Chalices as they were until another change occurred. But it might already be too late when they decide what to do.

General Scoll was at least confident that they wouldn't be able to use their ultimate trump card just yet. According to his calculations, there weren't enough deaths and corpses for that.

However, that would soon change. It would be for the best if the Alliance of Kingdoms could win the war without letting the Tribe of Death play their trump card. But General Scoll knew that it would be impossible to prevent. What he could prevent, however, was that they used the Alliance of Kingdoms' corpses as material.

The Tribe of Death would have to use the corpses of their own allies and comrades, which might have been upsetting to any other force. But to the Tribe of Death, it was barely more than business as usual. The Tribe of Death didn't care too much about where a corpse came from, only whether it was useful or could be restored and reanimated.

But even if the Tribe of Death wasn't affected by what could have been an excellent psychological attack, General Scoll still preferred that they didn't use his fallen troops as material for their heinous magic.

General Scoll braced himself for the incoming battle, the real fight between the Obsidian Empire's proxy and the Tribe of Death.

He looked at the golden wall that had gradually transformed from a translucent barrier shining faintly with a golden light to a completely opaque wall of gold. It was about time.

It was a little unfortunate that the mana storm was just about to reach the ground and couldn't help pincer the Tribe of Death's forces. But it might as well be for the best that General Scoll only played with things and beings he could affect, not with natural disasters.

General Scoll decided to keep half an eye on the mana storm just in case something happened and he would have to respond instantly, but his main focus would be on the battle that he was about to let unfold in front of him.

Since it was impossible to see through the golden barrier covering the Alliance of Kingdoms' troops, General Scoll knew it was time to launch the attack.

"Division one to four, group left. Division five to eight, group right. Special attack division nine, spearhead left. Special attack division ten, spearhead right."

General Scoll's voice reached the ears of every one of his troops, but it didn't reach anyone else, so the Tribe of Death had no idea what he had said or that he had even given an order.

And since his order hadn't rung out across the battlefield like the other times he interfered personally in the battle, the Tribe of Death didn't suspect anything was amiss.