Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 188 - The Valley

Chris

"We need to hit them from the West, it gives us the high ground and it will pin them against the opposite valley wall," Ashton said as he ran his finger over his proposed battle plan.

"How will we safely descend the steep wall? I could jump it, but what about the others?" I said in rebuttal.

After a full night of information gathering the scouts came back with everything they found. The Demons were settled into what had once been a lush valley between two steep hillsides. The surrounding walls of the Valley had sheer drops at certain points but for the most part, it was only steep hills.

The slope made it nearly impossible to climb up or down without significant time and effort.

Learning that the Demons had holed themselves into such an area, we were all rushing to come up with our plans of action. Where they were gave us the chance to box them in, but it also gave them a defensible advantage.

If we just marched at them from the open end of the valley we would be playing directly into their hand. Plus, if things went poorly for the Demons, they could just run out the other side and into the Wild.

We needed to find a way to get behind them and close off the other end of the valley while also not letting any climb out. With the numbers we had, it was unfeasible to surround them entirely.

Another aspect that worried me was the fact the Demons were here in the first place. They usually sought out areas of high mana density or rare treasures to consume, yet they were here.

Either there was a reason for that deeper in the valley we couldn't see, or there was an intelligent Demon leading the pack making them gather here for some reason.

The Demon had to know if all the humans in the area banded together, it would be outnumbered. Was that why it chose a fortifiable spot? Even so, there wasn't anything else to signify an Intelligent Demon at the helm.

The scouts reported hundreds of Demons just milling about in the valley and some were even fighting each other. Conflict inside the ranks didn't speak of someone formidable in charge.

But then again, Demons were entirely different than humans and comparing the Demon's actions to that of humans was a fool's errand. They likely didn't care about the in-fighting that took place.

When Demons weren't busy fighting the other Races, they spent most of their time fighting each other.

Still, we had to come up with something, even if it wasn't the best battle plan in the world.

"We can have any with a bow or significant range up on the crest of the valley while all the warriors charge in from one side, but I don't see how we have the numbers to hold both ends of the valley. Even if we spent the time sneaking around them." Hal chimed in.

To plan our battle I didn't restrict any of my family who wished to join. With the numbers we now had it was infeasible to ask the entire fifteen-hundred-strong army to chime in but the group looking over the maps and scouting report was larger than just me and Ashton.

I wanted as many different eyes on this as possible. From my side, Hal, Rachel, Gabriel, Carrie, Mitchell, and my mother all stood around the maps while only four stood in for Fort Hope.

Ashton, Carson, Noah, and Victoria, the ones we had main contact with and ones highest up in whatever their City Leadership was. The disparity in number was opposite our army composition but I was glad no one said anything.

It wouldn't be good to start nipping at each other when we quite literally had bigger fish to fry.

"No, we don't have the numbers to come at them from both sides. Even one side will be risky as they outnumber us nearly 5 to 1," Ashton said.

We knew they would most likely outnumber us but no one thought it would be this bad. Given the months to accumulate, I thought there would be two or three thousand Demons tops, but that turned out to be more like seven or eight.

The good news was they weren't as strong as us on average.

The ratio of E-rank to F-rank Demons was far lower than what we had behind us which was some of the only good news to come out of the scouts. Even if none got close enough to get an eye on the Leader.

The longer information on the leader remained unknown, the more uneasy it made me feel.

While I wasn't well versed in Demonology, the way they were acting didn't line up with what I had expected. When we finally came across our foe I expected raving beasts destroying everything in their path and consuming anything they could get their hands on but that wasn't the case.

For some reason, they didn't spread out in all directions looking for sources of mana but all settled here.

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We knew from our books there were reasons for that but none of them implied it happening so soon. Of the reasons Demons gathered like this, one worried me the most but it shouldn't be possible, we were still protected from outside influence.

It should be impossible for them to force a convergence.

The reason it worried me was because there wasn't anything in what we read about Demons that strictly stated that what we were seeing now was impossible, only that it should be in theory, as no other data points from a planet still under the System's protection could be found.

Theoretically, our planet was shielded from any and all outside influence. No gods, pantheons, or rogue powers would have any chance of worming their way through the protections provided by the System.

Which made the books confident that Demons forcing a convergence to link our planet to a Demonic one through a permanent portal was impossible. Yet I couldn't come up with another reason the Demons were acting as they were.

That worry extended out to everyone who had background knowledge of the Demon Race and it spread quickly through the ranks. As people became aware, things only grew more tense.

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Knowing that if we failed, the Demons could flood in from a permanent portal would doom everyone to death. Unless people came to their senses and rallied together real quick, which I didn't see happening.

Our battle where some might die turned into a much bigger worldly event.

Which made the battle planning all the more important.

"We should return and conscript everyone. We don't have the leeway to only bring volunteers anymore. This is bigger than us. We can't afford to lose." The other city's warrior said.

The man, Noah, didn't talk much and his first words of the meeting were to retreat and bring everyone they had. While sensible, it wasn't practical.

We couldn't afford the weeks it would take to go there and back with everyone in tow. Plus, the ones that stayed behind wouldn't be that impactful on the battle to come.

"No." I said firmly, "We cannot wait nor should we. We have our target and we have time to plan. We need to work with what we have."

I was not about to turn back right when we finally had the enemy in our sights. Even if we left and ranged wide to find more help, that wouldn't mean anything if we were too late to stop the threat.

Our best bet was to attack now, even if we were outnumbered.

"The death toll will be high if we attack now. Are you sure about this?" My mother asked gingerly.

Like I didn't know that!

Everyone else looked to me like they were thinking the same thing. "It will be high no matter what we do. We can either fight with what we have now or fight a stronger enemy later."

Everyone knew what could happen if we waited, even if they didn't want to admit it. Too many things could go wrong between then and now. Too many for us to wait, at least in my opinion.

"We simply do not have the numbers," Hal said.

He was most familiar with the number of Demons and he knew firsthand how many in the valley there were.

"We have to make do without, then," Ashton said, seconding my opinion that we attack now rather than wait.

"Rogues are my biggest worry. They don't really have the skills to charge in and fight nor do they have range." A voice said. It took me a second to recognize it was from Mitchell.

As the only rogue among our meeting, it made sense for him to bring it up.

The Rogue class was something I didn't have much experience planning around and it was difficult to know what they were capable of. Warriors were easy and so were Rangers, but Rogues were the odd man out.

Their skills were suited for single-target damage, as we began calling it, and they weren't equipped for front-line fighting. While that wasn't bad, they also didn't have the range to attack from afar, leaving them in no man's land in terms of what to do.

They were great scouts, but they didn't really have a place in grand battles like this. Not unless they wanted to chance light armor and short weapons in a grand melee, but that was just asking to die.

Now, saying that every Rogue was like this would be false, but the vast majority were. Some excelled at combat and could dance around any number of foes while whittling them down with daggers, but those were the rare cases.

Also, Rogues could evolve into a great number of things that could either help or hinder their ability to fight like I was asking of them. Affliction Specialists and Duelists would do fine if they were skilled, but Trappers and Assassins wouldn't.

Saying all that didn't mean they couldn't fight, but it was a giant risk to put people with little armor into that kind of skirmish.

"Some will be fine to charge in while some also have excellent range, but the rest..." Mitchell clarified.

"How many?" I asked.

Numbers were my biggest concern. Of 1584 people who came, 212 were Rogues. If we had to go in with two hundred fewer people that would be a problem.

"I don't know exacts, but around half wouldn't do well in a direct fight." He answered.

A hundred. That wasn't the end of the world.

"We can have those hold the perimeter to make sure none escape. Any trying to flee should be easy enough for their Class to kill." I said.

Instead of sending them into a melee where they hold every disadvantage, we could make better use of them on the outskirts to chase down any who tried to flee. There, they would hold the advantage rather than asking them to do what they weren't suited for.

"Can we afford to lose 100 bodies? We only have around 600 left to charge." Ashton asked.

We had more Warriors than any other type of class but that didn't translate directly. If split into ranged and melee, ranged far outnumbered melee. While Warrior was most common, it wasn't enough to offset both Rangers and Mages.

Especially when only half of the Rogues would be joining in the melee.

As it stood, it was about half and half in terms of Melee and Ranged and that was not good news. Six hundred leading the charge against thousands didn't sound like good odds no matter how you looked at it.

"Don't forget the Spell blades. They will be going in too." Gabriel added.

I had forgotten about that portion of the Mage class. The people who evolved into a hybrid that had skills with a weapon while also still being a mage. They could technically do both but were good at neither in my opinion.

Maybe it was just because I didn't like them.

Something about Spell Blades set me off and I couldn't put my finger on why. There was something inside me that disagreed with the hybridization even though I had no reason to.

They could do whatever they wanted with their Class and I shouldn't have cared, but I couldn't get over it.

Anyway, that didn't matter now and they would add to our number. Not by a lot but it was better than nothing. Even with the Spell Blades, the Rogues, and the Warriors, we were in for a rough fight.

The valley would turn into one of Death, no matter how much planning went into it.