The reinforcements from the flood village poured entered the battlefield and bolstered the ranks of the tier 2 troops being slaughtered and the tide of the war started to change.
It was only now that people were grabbing each other by the shoulder and informing each other to take the damn noise cancellation devices off as Neatwit screamed and scrambled to spread the order of retreat.
The advance troops panicked , they had not realised there was an retreating order in place , they had not anticipated it at all.
Especially the elite members who were never used to retreating from a fight were the most baffled as they had never been given an order to fall back except for a strategic retreat ever in their decade long career in the guild.
However orders were orders and the army of death slowly started to fall back towards the river , unaware that their leader who was supposed to open a path for them was currently unable to do so because of two strong opponents outnumbering him two to one.
They retreated slowly , while facing the reinforcements, confident that when they reached the river banks they would be given a way out.
*******
Rudra had no way to have the time to take a survey as to what was going on around him , as the at the moment he was being constantly bashed by two tier 5 warriors at an insane speed.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtDarius was a longsword wielder whereas SMG fought with 15 inch long daggers in both his hands and the two of them together were fast enough to land 1 scratch for every 10 blows traded with Rudra.
Rudra was wasting enormous amounts of stamina sustaining the high speed defense as he had no other option but to keep his guard up until there was an opening because one slip up from him and Darius was going to chip away 15-30% of his HP in a single shot!
" GUILDMASTER LIFT THE RIVER ! ".
Rudra heard a shout in the background and he cursed loudly in his mind.
There was absolutely no way he was going to be able to life the river at this moment , he was helpless.
The enemy troops pressed onto the elites who now due to having to retreat had no more area to maneuver and hence started a bloody struggle where the troops had to chose between jumping into the raging river and saving their lives but effectively taking themselves out of the battle or to stand their ground and fight.
Many fled while many were killed and only a few stayed back. It was a tactical disaster of epic proportions and now the army of death was on the backfoot.
*********
( Meanwhile Karna )
Karna stood ontop of the kraken , although he had no idea as to why he was facing down an legion of ships alone , at this moment none of that mattered as his guildmaster had given him the order to stand guard on this place , and he was going to do so even if it costed him his life!
Karna said " this is it buddy , let's go! ".
The kraken let out a bone chilling shriek as it's tentacles punched right through the first wooden ship , punching a massive hole inside it and effectively setting it upto drown.
However a volley of cannons were launched towards the kraken at this moment , as the ships behind had taken aim at the giant monster and were open firing.
Karna closed his eyes as he used his minds vision to accurately see the projectiles heading his way as he unsheathed his sword and in a bliding speed of sword motion , sliced nearly 300 cannonballs in half before they could harm his pet.
Karna would have smiled if nearly 100,000 arrows would not have been showering on him at the moment as while he could cut down 300 cannonballs there was absolutely no way that he could block all the arrows from the sky .
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Karna protected the eyes of the kraken but that was all he could protect beside himself as a whole barrage of arrows landed on the skin of his friend.
The kraken had thick skin and hence most of them bounced right off however he still got nearly 30,000 in damage from this barrage as blood could be seen trickling in small amounts from a few spots.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmLetting out another roar the duo of the man and the beast once again went onto the offensive as they engaged in a fight with the other ships once more.
********
( Meanwhile the digging crew )
The digging crew were outside the active fight area and did not need to wear the noise cancellation devices, hence they were the first ones to hear Rudra's panicked retreat calls and could look at the situation from a distance.
The entire digging crew was made up of tier 1 and two soldiers from the fourth and fifth legion as this was the safest work for them on the battlefield.
The demons were too strong and it was not possible for them to contribute significantly in important battles as they were only as good as cannon fodders , which meant that works like these maximised their potential.
Max being a tier 2 soldier was a part of this same digging crew and observing the situation infront he understood that something had horrifically gone wrong.
In his mind his brother had the perfect image , he was the ultimate hero , which was why Max never thought he would see Rudra make a tactical mistake ever , which is why eventhough he and the crew were not engaged in direct combat themselves, they felt scared and wanted to abandon their posts and make a run for it.
Every passing second , the overall situation kept worsening for the elites and the worst was actually yet to come.
An army of lava hounds , thousands in number had taken it to the skies of the battlefield.
/// Bonus chapter for the supergift by Sivanthe, please thank her in the comments for this one. ///