Chapter 313: Sweeping Away the Demons (II)

After training and upgrades, the range of the Musketeer Guard’s attacks had reached 200 meters, and their combat power had also increased. A single blast from their muskets could knock down a Winged Demon. This didn’t mean their attack power far surpassed that of archers, reaching the level of crossbows, but rather that the energy released from the elemental crystals made their attacks more effective at bringing down demons than arrows.
“Second row, fire…”
The two teams of musketeers took turns firing, with a one-minute cooldown period to allow the barrels to return to normal temperature before they could fire again.
This group of just 30 well-trained Musketeer Guards could achieve results comparable to those of hundreds of archers, even though the training time and difficulty required were much lower than those for a competent archer. Duke Serein and his generals were all deeply envious upon observing the Musketeer Guard’s performance.
Although muskets inflicted the same kind of non-fatal damage on demons as arrows, Winged Demons caught in the crowd below usually met a tragic end. After being trampled by hundreds of their own kind, even the strongest demons wouldn’t survive, let alone those Winged Demons whose bones were already lighter than those of ordinary demons and who had fallen injured.
The Winged Demons, crushed into pulp, quickly disappeared, hidden by the massive swarm of demons.
Though they had repelled several waves of demon attacks and eliminated tens of thousands of demons, the enemy forces behind them remained dense and numerous.
The Dragon’s Tooth Fortress, which could sustain such intense attacks despite having only tens of thousands of troops in total—of which only 3,000 were regular soldiers—along with 500 cavalry, found it extremely difficult to defend.
This time, without Donald having to ask, Duke Serein took the initiative to seek support. Donald didn’t refuse but did put forward a condition: the battlefield had to be cleaned up after the battle, and he would take 50% of the demon cores obtained.
Duke Serein naturally agreed immediately. Although these demon cores could bring him substantial income just like magic cores, it was better to use as few of his own troops as possible. A reduction in his army’s strength would greatly weaken his control over the duchy. Paying a portion of the demon cores as compensation was far better than losing many soldiers!
After agreeing to provide support, Donald didn’t deploy the members of the Night Knights or the Holy Sword Legion. If he were to send them into battle against such a large number of demons, he would be even more foolish than goblins!

Six powerful mages above the Silver rank, led by Donald, took positions on the fortress walls and cast spells together at the demonic army below.
The vast majority of demons preferred to stay in the hot volcanic regions and were skilled in fire-based spells; even higher-ranking demons could bathe in scorching magma. Most demons had strong resistance to fire spells and could be immune to lower-level fire spells. In contrast, they were much less resistant to spells related to cold and ice. Therefore, the six mages chose spells that could counteract demons.
Messel, Chris, and the other two combined their efforts to cast four large-area spells: Ice Storms. Although they were only level 4 spells, when cast together, their range covered the entire area in front of the fortress. Under the impact of ice shards and the damage from cold energy, many low-level demons, mostly at the Bronze level or below, were killed or injured instantly. Crying in pain, they fled in all directions, their chaotic nature evident as they shattered the once-ferocious siege formation. More losses occurred as they collided and trampled each other.
Since Kelthas was skilled in fire spells, he did not choose his strongest spell but instead cast a level 4 group spell as an aid—Summoning a Glorious Mist. Over these days, he had studied the mage system of this world and had mastered most elemental spells and some other auxiliary spells, reaching a level commensurate with that of a peak Silver mage.
Similar to the Mist Spell, but emitting a radiant, heavenly glow, the mist enveloped the demons. The mist contained a small amount of positive energy that could stun and blind ordinary creatures, and it caused significant sustained damage to demons, who carried the evil aura of the abyss. The number of demons killed or injured in this area due to the Glorious Mist was much higher than in other areas.
The one who best demonstrated the power of a Grand Master Mage was undoubtedly Donald.
At first, he did not cast any direct attack spells but instead used his innate magical ability granted by his divine bloodline—controlling the weather—to summon cold winds and dark clouds over the area west of Dragon’s Tooth Fortress.
Soon, heavy rain fell, followed by a drop in temperature. The rain turned into sleet mixed with snowflakes, and even occasional hailstones struck the ground. This environment, combined with the spells cast by the other five mages, amplified the power of the ice and snow spells by at least three levels.
Then Donald himself cast several ice and snow-based area spells.

From level 3 spells like Hail Magic, Ice Burst, and Blizzard, to level 4 Ice Storm, level 5 Frost Mist, and level 6 Ice Seal Ball, they took turns casting all range ice and snow spells below the silver tier. With all six powerful mages unleashing their full strength, in just five minutes, nearly a hundred thousand low-level demon corpses lay beneath the fortress. This spell barrage intimidated the demons behind them so much that even their demon commanders, who had killed hundreds of demons, dared not advance any further!

After this wave of ice and snow attacks, the human defenders got a brief respite.

All the defenders looked at those powerful mages with admiration and respect for their strength, as well as a longing for power.

However, the attack wasn’t over yet. After taking a short break, seeing that the larger army dared not advance, the higher-ranking demons behind them simply used their own pressure to force the lower-level demons to move forward. Thus, another army of tens of thousands of demons advanced toward the fortress. This time, it included not only low-level demons like imps and bloodthirsty monsters but also intermediate close-combat demons of bronze rank such as force demons, dog demons, and blade demons. Although their numbers were smaller than the previous wave, their quality was incomparable.

In the sky, tens of thousands of winged demons gathered. After the close-combat demons, a new group of cunning demons arrived, and even hundreds of fire demons, surrounded by crimson flames, appeared in the rear.

The appearance of groups of silver demons put the human defenders on the fortress on high alert.

Even Donald frowned. With such a large number of silver demons, there were likely to be many powerful gold demon nobles in the final wave, and even legendary great demons might appear.

So Donald decided to first eliminate these high-level silver demons before focusing on dealing with any stronger demons that might appear later.

After brief discussion, Donald told the other mages to rest temporarily to regain their strength for the upcoming battle, while he called upon the druids from the Druidic Order to climb onto the city walls.

Donald took action first, ordering the defenders to clear space on the walls and summoning thirty Ancient Guardians to firmly protect the fortress above. Then, twenty nature druids simultaneously released seeds below the fortress, using the thorny vines—a common tactic used by the Druidic elf tribes to defend their homeland against invaders.