BXBX NOVEL Chapter 123 Raid (2)
Artifacts or Magetech devices that were used to discern illusions, especially the high-quality ones, were extremely pricy and not something that even the 13 Gates would hand over to some of their goons because the loss of one was deep cut into the budget.
Not only because of their rarity but also because every single one was very hard to make because it required very extensive knowledge over the Magic and also Magetech. Of course, that depended if someone was making an Artifact or Magetech Device with such a purpose, but either way, it was very hard.
Of course, even if the Human Brotherhood had something like that in their disposition, he knew that they would leave such devices for their Headquearts or other places of strategic importance in the Human Continent. That would be most prudent, so their most important places of strategic purpose are well-protected.
It was only after the above had been done that Yvraine and Samiel's Undeads, which he controlled, left the area, as they began to lurk about the forest, especially around the Human Brotherhood's forward fortress, so as to be seen by the soldiers stationed there they could easily lure them out.
Samiel sent out 20 of his Undeads, all of whom were transformed into Silvermoon Elves, whose auras reached the peak of Steel-Tier. It was extremely likely that the humans would not move an inch if they were releasing their true auras of the Bronze-Tier, but this was a more acceptable situation than releasing their true auras.
***
Forward Fortress of the Human Brotherhood, half an hour later.
There is no doubt that the forward fortress that was built by the Human Brotherhood was large, not especially large, but it was still a substantial fortress and one that would stand strong during future battles and incoming war. Clearly it was well-built with a defensive purpose first in mind, and even Samiel had to admit that the Human Brotherhood did a good job during building the fortress.
Also, there was still a lot of room for expansion and additions to the fortress. Even the location was purposely chosen so that after the entire fortress was constructed, they would have a very strong foothold in the Demon Continent, with all layers of the fortress finished, while presently, only the base skeleton was finished.
As of the moment, the current situation within the fortress can only be described as pure chaos absolute, as hundreds of soldiers wearing the sigils of the Human Brotherhood were running around, leaving the fortress in mass numbers when they received orders to capture the scouts of the Nesser Dystnasy they saw lurking in the forests around their fortress.
Most, if not all of these people, were previously pseudo-professionals without Class, meaning they were not Class Bearers, that were subjected to the "power up" by the Super Soldier Serum, not fully aware of the fact they had a very short time to live, due to incomplete and faulty serum.
Most of them were recruited across a variety of Mana-Less Worlds that were invaded by someone from the outside or from the Lower Worlds, where humans were enslaved by other species, so these people were effortlessly manipulated to serve the cause of the Human Brotherhood.
There was no such as free power in the Cosmos and everything came with an appropriate price in the end. Be it Magic, Skills or Leveled Abilities, neither were an expectation, and neither were various Divine Abilities and Blessing bestowed by Gods or various Abilities that were given by Transcendental Powerhouses.
When the commander of the entire fortress Arnold Weidemann saw that there were more than twenty low Tier Silvermoon Elves lurking around the fortress, he was immediately overwhelmed by greed and decided to capture them. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the point of view, Commander Arnold Weidemann didn't think even a second about anything else, just about money.
Such an outcome was anticipated because the Silvermoon Elves were rare species, and they rarely left the territories of the Nesser Dynasty; even if they left, they were typically protected by their Elders or were in the entourage of many stronger Elves to protect them from their enemies, especially from the Underdark.
So, at that moment, Commander Weidemann completely forgot any reason, as he saw this as a perfect opportunity to capture some of them, even if they were of the lower Tiers, because, from his point of view, they could fetch a nice price on many slave markets.
Especially the Underdark would pay an outrageous price for even single Silvermoon Elves. In spite of this, even though he was aware of the slight possibility of such a trap, he chose to ignore it in the face of greater profits.
It was from the height of the fortress' stone walls that Commander Weidenmann first noticed that approximately one-half of the soldiers, who were sent here by the Human Brotherhood, had entered the forests and were searching for the Silvermoon Elves. And thus, he waited for good results that his soldiers would bring him in a short time.
The Commander Albert Weidenmann, was a middle-aged man in his fifties who was wearing a heavy-plated steel armor and had short blonde hair. Contrary to many of the Human Brotherhood, he was someone from the already destroyed High World, which was brought down by the tides of the greenskins.
Thus he was a proper Professional who was Class Bearer and relatively powerful in his own right. He was not like most of the Human Brotherhood, who were just pseudo-professionals, brought up by weird obscure rituals or various experiments through magetech and genetical augmentations.
"How many have already left the fortress?"
He asked his adjutant, who was standing behind him and writing something on a Magetech device, which looked like a tablet. He was writing down some administrative stuff and calculating the people who were sent after the Silvermoon Elves.
"We have deployed approximately 1,500 Soldiers to search and capture the Silvermoon Elves, from which we send one of the Silver-Tier Captains to be sure the mission is a success."
Answered the adjutant Commander Albert Weidenmann of the Human Brotherhood. After they finished the conversation, the only thing left was to wait for the good news to come, with the capture of several Silvermoon Elves and getting rich very quickly and without any effort.
***
Samiel, who was watching everything with gleeful eyes, enjoyed the show that was unfolding in front of him as the soldiers from the Human Brotherhood started searching for the non-existent Silvermoon Elves in the surrounding forest.
Yvraine did a good job at luring them away, and in truth, Samiel was betting a lot on the greed of the commander of the fortress. Of course, she did; the illusions were nearly perfect and Samiel new that greed would overrule them very soon, not to mention he better a bit on the fact that the commander of the fortress won't be the sharpest pencil in the bracket.
One needs to know that greed is one of the greatest sins of countless if not all species across the Cosmos. Be it the lowliest mortal peasant in some random Mana-Less World or the mighty Emperor of Interdimensional Empires that spanned through countless worlds across the Cosmos; greed was in all of them.
It was also well known to him that even a single Iron-Tier Silvermoon Elf would fetch a lot of money on the slave market, especially when factions like the Underdark were willing to pay astronomical amounts of money, even rivaling the wealth of powerful Legendaries or ordinary Kingdoms and Nations in the Middle Worlds.
Of course, nobody would be stupid enough to sell them as slaves as retaliation from the Nesser Dynasty was extremely fierce and brutal. Samiel remembered the case when even one of the biggest slave trading organization obtained a Silvermoon Elven woman whom some random mercenaries managed to capture in some unknown Middle World.
This resulted in the organization itself capturing the mercenaries and giving them, along with the woman they had captured to the Nesser Dynasty. This was the only way they were able to evade the purge. So, this only proved the might of the Nesser Dynasty and the Silvermoon Species as a whole.
If even despite all of this, the Commander wanted to capture more than "20 Silvermoon Elves", it meant only a single thing, that he had some sort of direct connection to some of the 13 Gates, who would buy them if he had to guess probably the Germinal Organization or Magisterium for some experiments and research.
The soldiers of the Human Brotherhood were deep enough within the forest, in fact several kilometers away from the fortress, when Samiel gave Ashimer a command to kill them as fast as possible once they were deep enough within the forest.
A huge number of Undeads appeared all over the forest as if they had come out of nowhere. In the chaos of the trees, they began to assassinate all of the soldiers of the Human Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Ashimer himself went straight after the Silver-Tier human, who appeared to be the leader of the Silver-Tier.
Even Yvraine turned around and started dancing around, killing one soldier after another; with her swift acrobatic movements and swordsmanship, every minute, several people died who came across her.
Everything that was happening was in perfect synchronization; everything moved like a precisely well-working machine. Even Samiel's Familiar Nefertari was jumping from tree to tree across the forest and slaughtering one soldier after another. In the forest, the little Elder Wampus Cat was in her natural habitat, and she instantly turned from a cute fluffy cat to cuddle to a fearsome bloodthirsty top predator.
Samiel waited exactly five minutes before he made his move. In these five minutes, the fight turned a bit around as the soldiers of the Human Brotherhood recovered from the initial shock and started fighting back against the Undeads.
Though he could see it was futile because they were not prepared to fight in the forest, nor they had any kind of combat experience to fight in this kind of terrain. From the way they fought, he could judge that these troops were specifically trained to be purely defensive soldiers used to defend objects like castles, fortresses or outposts.
On the open field, and especially in terrain like dense forest, their combat prowess and potential were lowered several times over. After several minutes, the people at the Fortress should have already received the message that the fierce fights should be happening in the forest.
And exactly like Samiel predicted, this caused the commander of the fortress to send even more of his soldiers toward the forest to lessen the burden on the troops that were fighting against the ambush.
In a spit of a second, when the gates of the fortress opened, and the troops started marching out of the fortress, Samiel used the 5th Level Spell of the Void Magic, Conjure Minor Voidborn, as seven Silver-Tier Minor Voidborns appeared in the middle of the fortress.
Instantly, after the tentacle Eldritch abominations appeared in the middle of the fortress, they immediately went berserk, as Samiel purposely cut the connection and let them wreak havoc there. He knew that if he wasn't controlling them, they would be far more aggressive and would attack everything in their sight.
With their huge tentacles, they started attacking the human soldiers, stomping them down to the ground, smashing and crushing their relatively fragile bodies in front of the might of Silver-Tier abominations from the Void.
From a distance, Samiel could see that even the commander of the fortress personally joined the fight as he, together with four other Silver-Tier captains that were assigned to the fortress, together with a whole bunch of the Bronze-Tier individuals as they managed somehow restrain 6 of 7 Void abominations.
Still, even though they were restrained, they managed to do tremendous collateral damage, as tens of soldiers were dying with every passing minute they were fighting, as the Silver-Tier Minor Voidborns were absolutely frightening enemies. They were not something that even average or elite Silver-Tier Professionals could fight on its own.
After several minutes, approximately 30% of the troops inside the fortress were killed during the fights of the Silver-Tier human Professionals against the Silver-Tier Minor Voidborns. Unsurprisingly, all Minor Voidborns were absolute okey, with no injuries on their person aside from some cuts and bruises.
Though fortunately for the members of the Human Brotherhood, the Minor Voidborns started disintegrating soon because if they were not tied to the conjurer, they could exist only for a limited time span. Of course, everything was within Samiel's calculation as he did it for a specific purpose.
Even five minutes was a pretty lot for their current situation because they would still achieve a lot of what he wanted from them.
Samiel purposely let them disintegrate for a sole reason, and that was to prevent the destruction of the whole fortress and everything that was in it. If he let them be, then sooner or later, they would destroy absolutely everything, including the information he wanted to obtain about the movements of the humans on the Demon Continent.
Even now, they destroyed a considerable part of the fortress, and they managed to do so in just five minutes; considering the fact that the fortress was constructed from solid material and should withstand even the power of the Silver-Tier fighting here, it was something akin to achievement.
But Samiel couldn't let them have it so easy, and thus almost immediately after the Minor Voidborns dispersed into nothing, Samiel attacked with his Bronze-Tier Undead at the full force. Because the soldiers were still in the aftershock of the previous ambush, they let the gates open, which resulted in easy entrance of the Undead into the fortress.