Chapter 442: Mess

The cavalry pursued Zaos with torches, but they never found him. They didn’t even see him approaching when the first rider fell from the horse after a weird metallic sound echoed through the area. They tried to look around the fallen rider for Zaos, but they found nothing. Suddenly, another sound of metallic echoed, and then another rider that was on the back of their formation fell. When they turned around, they found the shadow of a man standing and blocked their path back to the camp. They couldn’t retreat against a single man, so they charged toward him again… they made a mistake.

When their glaives tried to pierce Zaos, he reflected them with simple sword strikes, but those had so much strength that the riders fell from the horses. Zaos did that several times in a row until the riders were left standing and their horses were running away due to the bloodlust Zaos was emitting. If they couldn’t defeat a single man when they had horses, there was no way they could do it while they were on foot. So, they slowly charged toward Zaos… in the end, he didn’t have easier targets to attack than heavy cavalry that had lost their horses. Even with their thick armor, Zaos managed to break through their defenses by enhancing his sword with earth armor. That made him lose some time and mana, so Zaos drained their mana with his sword to compensate and then disappeared into the darkness again.

After a while, Zaos heard the sound of another mounted unit approaching, but they gave up on chasing him when they found the first unit. That had been the smartest thing to do but quite unexpected. Word of the attack should have reached Drannor by that point, and he still didn’t make any move… knowing him, Zaos thought that he would chase him given such a good opportunity. He certainly had grown wiser over the years, but that even surprised Zaos.

“Drannor is probably planning to face me in the perfect environment. He won’t fall for this so easily,” Zaos muttered while he rubbed his chin.

That complicated things quite a bit… Still, it was a good chance for Zaos to wound dozens of soldiers and delay the whole camp advance. Even if he fails at delaying them, the damage will last for quite a while. That being said, Zaos decided to attack the southern side of the camp to increase the amount of trouble. Things more or less repeated themselves on the second attack. The only difference was the fact that the archers and the heavy infantry and cavalry reacted faster since they were on guard. Before Zaos could try the next attack, though, the sun began to rise. Once that happened, Zaos decided to move away from the camp and see things from afar. At the same time, he still could attack them during the day. Not killing everyone and not getting hurt would be hard since the soldiers would be able to answer a lot quicker and chase him for as long as possible. 

It took several hours because Zaos wounded a lot of soldiers and made some horses run away. Still, eventually, the whole army began to move. That was disappointing, but soon Zaos relaxed a little bit when he noticed their pace. It was a lot slower than expected, given that they were only one and a half days away from the first enemies’ base. He had accomplished his goal, to an extent. It wasn’t enough, but even small progress was progress.

“Drannor decided to save some energy since things are about to get intense…” Zaos said. “Without his advisors, I thought Drannor would have a hard time deciding things by himself, but I was wrong. After being the commander for many years in a war against a kingdom that was even more developed than the Sairus kingdom, he obtained a lot of experience and confidence.”

In the end, Zaos only bought two days for the mercenaries… that was quite a lot considering that he did everything by himself; still, it wasn’t enough for Zaos. He was trying to prevent deaths, but once the two armies meet, he won’t be able to do anything to stop that. Things were going as good as they could be for the demon god and his lackeys…

After thinking for a while, Zaos didn’t come up with many solutions to decrease the duration of the way. Destroying the supply chain would put the blame on the bloody knights. If he decides to weaken the Sairus kingdom army too much, the mercenaries will try to take over the country. Still, a single idea came to Zaos’ mind… What if he beats Drannor so badly that he is forced to retreat?

“That is easier said than done… no decent army would let their commander be reached that easily,” Zaos said. “Considering that the golden spears accomplished a lot in the last few years, their morale is sky-high. They won’t stop even if I break several bones of their bodies.”

Zaos wondered if he shouldn’t have done that on the first day when he got close enough to Drannor… There was no point in wondering about that since he was still waiting for a good response from his previous allies. Still… attacking now wouldn’t be easy since the whole army is on high alert.

In any case, Zaos followed the main army from a good distance. They confirmed that at such a pace, they would arrive at their destination in three days. Still, Elkim definitely will attack them tomorrow night by using Helen’s forces. Maybe Zaos should use their diversion and then meet Drannor.

“After the defeat, he suffered the last time we talked, he probably has a few tricks to deal with me, so I won’t be able to take him down as easily as before…” Zaos nodded to himself. “Still, I can’t see any other solution to this mess. Damn…”