Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Delta---

Vermar observed his work from a safe distance, standing on the rooftop of one of the giant blocky buildings. It still felt a little crazy to him, that cities could look like this, but he had to concentrate on his work.

The two portals he had set up, using the sets of gate stones the previous teams failed to use, were almost ready. Originally, they, the teams of legends, were supposed to secure the landing zone for the armies on this side, but things went awry, with the other four teams fighting the giant tree.

Vermar could hardly look at the display of powerful skills and spells raining against the tree's giant trunk. The hunter was unsure whether there even was any progress. Looking at it from the outside, the fight was a stalemate, maybe.

Jarvan, Soti, Demus, Krista, and the people they brought were too strong to be defeated by the onslaught of roots and vines. In comparison, the tree was suffering visible damage. The blade winds of Jarvan's Deathclaw ripped into the trunk.

Soti, who was specialized in archery was even able to take whole chunks out of the trunk by sending massive swarms of magic arrows against it. Krista's party was even more effective, as the mages were able to calmly chant high-power spells under the protection of her shield.

Demus' and his Order of Covdite used sword aura and holy magic to cut and burn parts of the tree, but the resulting wounds were little more than superficial. From their perspective, they made progress. One side was quickly accruing damage while the other didn't. It was clear who had the upper hand.

Unlike Vermar, they didn't see the whole picture. To them, the scars and wounds on the tree were gigantic, but the world saw it from a distance. He had a much bigger view of the Guardian Tree. And he had to say, they hardly dealt any decisive damage.

The huge wounds were a joke compared to the beast's supermassive size. Not only were they not severe, but they also quickly healed without constant fire. Maybe the legends would have been able to sever the trunk and fell the tree if they got serious and worked together, but the current situation was a war of attrition that would take ages without a clear winner in sight.

Seeing they wouldn't be able to secure the landing zones any time soon, he intended to get the invasion force to this side quicker. They could get rid of Minas Mar and then raid the tree with the whole army. Once it was constantly blasted by strategic class magic in addition to the attacks of legends, the tree wouldn't be able to resist anymore.

Vermar snickered when the gates stabilized and finally opened. With this, everything would end soon. He watched the gates in anticipation for the orderly rows of the elite army to march in. Of course, they would first follow procedures and check with a golem eye before-

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The wolf's sharp eyes caught a sudden movement at the gate. A person came running through the gate. Shortly after passing through the gate, they stumbled and fell. They hectically got up and looked back at the gate.

His confusion grew as he saw more and more people exiting from the gate. He recognized the army of Lord Byron by the colors of the armor, but there were no orderly rows, no signs of military discipline. It was a crowd of soldiers simply running at full speed.

For a moment he had the illusion that he had heard the sound of music, but it vanished so quickly, that he wasn't sure it was real in the first place. Just what was going on?

...

Vermar was too far away, unlike the security golems of Minas Mar. The scenes transmitted to the screen in the command center showed a crowd of soldier, their faces twisted in fear and many screaming at the top of their lungs.

“They are coming!” “I don't want to turn to dust!” “Just why did we have to update our home call!?” “Don't run too far, you bastards! Get back in line! ” commanding officers could be heard among the screams of terror

Not only Vermar was confused by the scene, but the members of Minas Mar also had a hard time understanding the situation. They were preparing for a similar occasion as the wolf expected, but instead, they got a completely dissolved army, escaping from something on the other side of the gate.

“Just what are they running from?” Leana mumbled, but her question was quickly answered. As the streams of people finally slowed to a trickle, some of them began messing with the portal barrier, moments before the source of fear emerged from the gate.

Thick, green vines came from inside the portal, catching some of the stragglers that were blocked by the changed barrier and turning them into mummies. The culprit was clear, seeing the botanical beast smash against the inside of the barrier.

“I didn't expect that the tree would turn their own gates on them, despite fighting four legends at the same time...” someone mentioned, staring at the screen, standing right beside Leana.

“Seth?” she exclaimed surprised. “ Why are you here? Didn't you want to go outside?” the princess asked inadvertently.

“I was, but does this scene look like I need to take action? It is as I feared. The Guardian tree already stole my show! Let's save the performance for Natina. I'm sure she is still lurking out there,” the blacksmith asserted, looking at the screen.

A great number of soldiers had made it through before the gates were closed off. There were maybe 15-20000 soldiers clogging the empty streets outside the tower's barrier. It was hard to estimate, with how many soldiers had spread through the streets.

But only a fraction of those that made it through were actually organized. The small group was gathered at the two gates, reinforcing the barrier under the command of their officers. Seeing how the rest were still running, or trying to hide, Seth found it weird that they had fled to enemy territory instead of using Home Call.

“let's try to use Operation Sandman and leave the stragglers to the golems to capture, “ Seth suggested after a moment of thought. Although these guys were on another level compared to the demons, they were disorganized and did not seem in a condition to fight or resist the magic.

“Capture them? Why would you want to take them alive?” Leana asked, surprised by Seth's sudden leniency toward the enemy. After all, these were elites of Spatia, trained to ruthlessly kill and subdue natives of other worlds.

“To save myself the work. Once they are knocked out, the golems can strip them of their equipment and we can use them as prisoners of war to get more money from Spatia,” Seth said nonchalantly.

It only took the blacksmith a cursory glance to see the soldiers as a resource with 15-20,000 sets of epic equipment walking around on his streets. Putting them to sleep, meant not to fight them, which meant the equipment wouldn't be damaged and he and his crafting department wouldn't have to repair it either.

After that, it felt a little overboard to simply kill people in their sleep, after robbing them. Seth's next best thought was that they could probably get a pretty penny if they captured them. Although they were almost helpless in front of the Guardian Tree, none of the soldiers seemed weak. losing such soldiers was a great loss, maybe great enough to get some ransom.

“We should also help the tree,” Leana mentioned, bringing his attention back to the four legends and their teams that were trying to destroy Delta's tree.

“Any suggestions?” the blacksmith asked, the princess. She knew the situation better than him. Leana nodded immediately. It seemed that she already had a plan.

“Yes, let's...”