"To battle!!!"
Serlun raised his Demon Scythe and roared. At the same time, he cast a mass Stone Skin spell, bolstering the demon troops' defenses against the rain of arrows.
Although Serlun understood that his rash advance might have given the elves an opening, he was not panicked in the slightest. As an Upper Demon, he had his own pride. He had fought many wars for Lucifer Kreegan in this world; a mere ambush would never break him.
Demons were naturally bloodthirsty, and the instinct for battle was practically carved into their bones. Under Serlun's command, the demon troops quickly recovered from their disorder. The Geg troops began returning fire through the arrowstorm, hurling great numbers of explosive fireballs toward the other side of the forest.
The demon camp had originally been within the forest. However, knowing that he could not fight the elves in woodland terrain, Serlun had ordered the demon troops to set the forest ablaze. A vast stretch of land around them had turned into scorched earth. The elves' first rain of arrows had nearly come from the boundary between the burned ground and the forest, and when the exploding fireballs set that area alight again, the elves were forced to reveal themselves.
The towering Withered Tree Guards appeared first. These slow-moving treants stepped forward with heavy strides. Some of them were still on fire and looked rather bedraggled, but Serlun's expression darkened the moment they appeared. There were simply too many Withered Tree Guards—more than two hundred of them, forming a solid wall of shields along the battle line and thoroughly protecting the fragile Elf Troops behind them.
Next came over a thousand Wood Elf archers. Among them were Phantom Shooters, whom the elves called rangers. These Phantom Shooters were ace troops with peerless archery; every