“Sir, the log fortress is just up ahead.”

Although he hadn’t gotten much rest, Al seemed energetic.

Under the guidance of Richard and other Elven scout leaders, the more than one thousand Flying Bear Army soldiers had approached the log fortress after half a day of marching.

Standing on a tall hill, Richard could see the situation at the log fortress with his naked eye. The cannibals had already gathered, and it seemed they had noticed the approaching army.

It would be difficult for a group of over a thousand soldiers to conduct a surprise daytime raid, and Richard had no intention of attempting one either. He believed that a superior force should advance openly and crush the enemy with overwhelming numbers.

“There are more cannibals than we initially estimated,” Richard observed.

According to Al and the other Elven scouts’ descriptions, there should have been around two hundred, but it now appeared there were at least three hundred.

Excluding the weaker elderly and younglings, there were at least one hundred fifty adult cannibals with quasi-knight-level combat abilities, not to mention the equivalent number of demon warriors who fought on par with knights. This group of cannibals would not be easy to deal with.

“My apologies, sir. We absolutely did not intend to deceive you,” Al explained hastily, fearful that Richard might have misconstrued their intentions.

Richard had no intention of pursuing the matter. The half-elf tribe led by Al had indeed been caught off guard by a sudden onslaught, powerless to resist the onslaught of their enemies, so it was understandable that they might not have been able to accurately determine the number of demons.

“Prepare to attack.”

“Yes, sir.”

Off to the side, Quill and Cress and other officers began directing the Flying Bear Army to arrange themselves into an attack formation.

However, the demons inside the log fortress seemed uninterested in waiting for the Flying Bear Army to make the first move.

The heavy gate of the fortress dropped, and a crowd of demons bearing all sorts of weapons rushed toward Richard and his men in a simple formation.

Demons were not stupid, and their choice was not wrong. A wooden fortress that had not been reinforced or specially treated could perhaps hold off wild beasts or a small group of snow pirates, but it would never be able to defend against a prepared army. Moreover, demons were not suited to defense.

A simple battering ram or a fire attack would easily break through the defenses of such a fortress. Fortunately for Richard, the demons unexpectedly displayed a measure of intelligence; if they had chosen to defend the fortress to the last, they would have made his life significantly more difficult.

“Hold!”

At the wave of a command flag, the Flying Bear Army soldiers who had been marching forward in lockstep halted in their tracks. The spearmen in the front rank dropped into a half crouch, their pikes pointed ahead.

“Bow!”

The archers of the Flying Bear Army drew their bows, awaiting the next command.

“120 yards.”

“100 yards.”

“80 yards.”

“Fire!”

“Wind! Wind! Wind!”

At the soldiers’ cries, a rain of arrows descended, precisely covering the path of the advancing orcs.

Unfortunately, this volley of arrows had little effect. Although the orcs lacked protective gear, their thick skin and tough flesh made them naturally resilient, equipping them with a kind of armor. The majority of the arrows failed to pierce their skin, and those that did were lodged in their dense muscle tissue, failing to deal fatal damage.

The orcs remained mobile; in fact, the sight of their own blood spurred them to greater fury. Richard saw several orcs who had been struck by four or five arrows pull the weapons out of their bodies and continue their charge.

Only the System’s archers dealt significant damage to these orcs. With Richard’s Intermediate Offensive Spell active, their arrows pierced deeper into the flesh of the orcs than those of the Flying Bear Army.

Furthermore, they possessed astonishing accuracy, most of their arrows finding purchase in the joints and eye sockets of their targets. The majority of the dozen orcs that fell in this volley owed their demise to these System-produced archers.

“Fire!”

The charging speed of the orcs was swift; the archers had barely enough time to release a second volley before the monsters closed in, leaving no further opportunity for the archers to attack.

“Kill!”

The spear-armed soldiers in the front lines bravely thrust their weapons forward, yet most of the spear tips became lodged in the orcs’ thick muscles, unable to advance an inch. The charging orcs swung their crude wooden clubs, easily gripped in their huge hands, with devastating force.

A single blow from such a weapon was enough to either kill or maim a Flying Bear Army soldier. Against such blunt force, their finely crafted armor offered practically no protection.

“Ah!”

The sounds of clashing and screams filled the battlefield.

Occasionally, an orc would be impaled by several spears simultaneously, incapacitated and left to shriek in agony on the ground.

The battlefield’s momentum leaned toward the Flying Bear Army, which could only hold on by sheer force of will, with no opportunity to counterattack. Yet their soldiers fought tenaciously, showing no signs of retreating in the face of this battlefield juggernaut.

Yet this balance did not hold for long. A particularly robust orc leapt into the crowd of soldiers, drawing a dozen or so Flying Bear Army fighters into a standard formation against a strong opponent. They thrust their spears forward, only to find that their tips barely pierced the beast’s hide.

The demon swung its war club, sending several soldiers flying, and those who landed on the ground did not get up again.

The demon continued to swing its war club, easily dispatching all those who approached. Even the courageous Flying Bear Army soldiers momentarily faltered, but their pause was brief, and they swiftly filled the gaps in their ranks. Compared to dying on the battlefield, the soldiers feared their severe military law even more.

At last, a demon warrior appeared. Unlike ordinary demons, these warriors were stronger, and their battle prowess was roughly equivalent to that of human knights. Although they did not know how to cultivate or utilize energy, they possessed their own unique methods of training.

By relying on their powerful physicality, some of the more talented among them could also absorb energy into their bodies. However, unlike humans, they lacked a standardized method for Qi drawing; rather, they coarsely utilized energy to fortify themselves, a method that would likely destroy a human’s body if attempted.

Yet the demon warriors could withstand it, and with the help of energy, they could temper their bodies until they were no less than human knights. Furthermore, due to this crude tempering method, their bodies developed a natural resistance to human knights’ energy attacks.

The orcs, emboldened by their victory, slaughtered the Flying Bear Army, threatening to break their lines. The surrounding orcs, inspired by this display, began to cheer.

However, the orcs’ arrogance was short-lived, for having determined the strength of the enemy, Richard turned to Ronen and gave him a signal.

Seeing his fellow soldiers cut down by the hands of the demon warrior, Ronen could no longer stand idly by. He silently rallied a dozen Crusaders and crept up on the demon warrior together.