“Father, I don’t want to go,” Leo stated. “I want to stay with you and fight!”

“That’s General Fahad to you, soldier,” General Fahad snapped at his son, who refused to obey his order. “Have you forgotten the promise you made to me when I agreed to bring you along on this campaign? You swore to obey my every order. Is this what your promise amounts to? Insubordination?”

Leo lowered his head, unable to come up with words to refute his father. The only reason he was allowed to accompany the General on all of his campaigns was because he promised to always obey his order.

However, after knowing that his father and the rest of the Veteran Soldiers would be staying to fight against the approaching Monster Army, Leo felt that he needed to be with him more than ever.

The conscripted men of the city had all been assigned to protect the residents as they evacuated towards the Capital City of the Yelan Kingdom.

They had only trained for a few days, so General Fahad knew well that they were not ready to fight against a Monster Army of such magnitude.

To avoid mishaps, he also assigned a dozen of his trusted subordinates to lead the new conscripts, as well as the evacuees to safety. One of the people he wanted to oversee this mission was his son, Leo,

But the latter refused to obey him, giving him a headache.

“Father. Please, let me stay,” Leo begged. “I promise that I will obey every order you give me, but you must let me stay and fight with you.”

General Fahad snorted as he looked down at his son, who insisted on staying to fight with him.

“What good is your promise if you can’t even keep it?” General Fahad sneered. “You still say that you promise to obey my orders when you’ve refused my order to lead the people to safety? I’ve had enough of your farce. From now on, you are stripped of your military authority and hereby delegated as a civilian!”

General Fahad tore the badge on Leo’s uniform, making the teenage boy’s eyes widen in shock. He never thought that his father would go as far as to strip him of his rank to prevent him from staying.

“Guards! Take this boy out of here now!” General Fahad ordered. “Tie him in chains if you have to, and take him to the Capital along with the other evacuees!”

“”Yes, Sir!””

As if waiting for that cue, two Guards immediately entered the command room and grabbed hold of Leo, preventing him from doing anything.

“Don’t do this, Father!” Leo pleaded. “I just want to fight with you to the bitter end! Let me go! I want to stay here!”

However, no matter how much he begged, the two soldiers took him away without mercy.

Only when he could no longer hear his son’s shouts did General Fahad heave a long and depressing sigh.

“You did the right thing,” General Fahad’s second in command, Benjamin, said as he entered the room. “This is no place for him to die.”

“What’s this? Do you also think that we will not survive this one?” General Fahad asked in a wry tone.

“To be perfectly honest, no,” Benjamin replied. “The scouts that we have deployed just sent us a message that the Monster Army is composed of dozens of Deimos-Ranked Monsters, a handful of Argonaut Monsters, and one Dreadnaught-Ranked Monster at its Initial Stages.

“There is also the countless number of Rank 5 and below Monsters, plus their army is at least around a hundred thousand strong. Even if we can match their number, the High-Ranking combatants have such a large disparity that it is impossible to win.

“Perhaps both of us can take on one Argonaut-Ranked Monster each, and a few of our Elites can handle the Deimos-Ranked Monsters. But the moment that Dreadnaught makes its move, we’re done for.”

General Fahad walked towards the window and gazed at the city below him.

Currently, many people flooded the streets as the mass evacuation was in full swing. According to Lux, the Monster Army would arrive in three more days if they kept their current pace.

If the Dreadnaught Monster decided to hasten their movements, the Monsters might come knocking on their city walls before the sun rose the next day.

Because of this, General Fahad ordered that the evacuation must be carried out as soon as possible, giving the people only half a day to pack everything they could before leaving the city.

“Lux told me that he has a way to deal with the Dreadnaught-Ranked Monster,” General Fahad said after several minutes passed. “He said that we should prioritize dealing with the small fries, and he will handle the rest.”

“Oh? That’s quite reassuring then.” Benjamin chuckled, thinking that it was a joke.

But his chuckle only lasted for a short while before his expression became solemn. “… Is he serious?”

“Very serious.”

“I know that this might sound weird coming from me, but for some reason, I now feel that we might be able to survive this one.”

The Generals of the Yelan Kingdom had treated Lux as a War Hero in their hearts after the many accomplishments the Half-Elf had made during their previous campaigns.

Each and every time, the red-headed teenager was able to pull off something new, giving them an opportunity to turn the tides of battle in their favor.

“Actually, I came here to ask you a favor. I wanted to ask you to pass a letter to my wife to let her know that I might not be able to make it.” Benjamin scratched his head. “But now, I guess I’ll keep it for the time being.”

“You do that.” General Fahad nodded. “I also don’t have any intention of dying here.”

The two High-Ranking officers exchanged a knowing gaze before returning to their duties.

Since the Monster Army would arrive in the next three days, they couldn’t possibly not give them a warm welcome that would send them all directly to kingdom come.

———–

“Boom Boom!”

“Boom!”

Eiko and Fei Fei were busy making one Blast Bomb after the other. They wanted to make as many bombs as they could to help prepare for the war, and partly because the two Baby Slimes had grown fond of making things go Boom!

Accompanying them in this task was none other than Boomer, Eiko’s Crimson Monkey Kong Skeleton Bombardier.

Of course, Eiko made sure to summon her clones as well to speed up the Blast Bomb Production.

Not far from them, the Archlich, Asmodeus, was discussing plans with Lux about how to better deal with the upcoming Monster Invasion.

Of course, they weren’t doing this with just the two of them.

Cai, Keane, Xander, Gerhart, Cethus, Einar, Val, Henrietta, Enlil, Jasper, Gilmore (the swordsman who Keane fought in the tournament), Malcolm, and Prince Cyrus were present as well.

They were the individuals representing the different factions and had accompanied Lux in the Gate of Famine, so the Half-Elf gathered them as well.

“I sent a scout to check on the Monster Army yesterday and found out the composition of their army,” Lux stated. “There are dozens of Deimos-Ranked Monsters, a handful of Argonaut-Ranked Monsters, and one Dreadnaught-Ranked Monster. Not only that, there are at least tens of thousands of Rank 5 and below monsters that serve as the bulk of their army.”

The teenagers all listened to the Half-Elf with serious expressions on their faces. The composition of the Monster Army was already a force that Initiates couldn’t possibly contend with.

Only Rankers and above would be able to deal with this kind of situation. But after seeing what Lux was capable of, they felt more hopeful that the Half-Elf had found a way to overcome the situation they were about to face.

“None of you have to worry about the Dreadnaught-Ranked Monster. I have a way to deal with it,” Lux stated. “Cai, General Fahad, and the High-Ranking combatants of the Yelan Army will deal with the Argonaut-Ranked Monsters. This leaves you with only the Deimos-Ranked Monsters to deal with.”

Lux didn’t know whether he should mention this or not to the others, but for some reason, a good number of Rank 5 Monsters within the approaching Monster Army were about to evolve as Deimos-Ranked Monsters.

At the very least, Zagan estimated that they would face at least a hundred of these about-to-evolve monsters when they arrive at their destination.

After careful deliberation, the Half-Elf decided that it would be best to just spill the beans to give his team more time to adjust to their current situation.

Forewarned was better than forearmed.

In a battle of this magnitude, Lux understood that their chances of survival would increase only when his team and allies truly knew what they were about to face.

Important Announcement:

To give you a bit of background to this story, this is like Harry Potter. A teenage boy accidentally rode the wrong train, and entered a Magic Academy where he can *ahem* learn Magic the “special way”.