The sounds came from the dark depths outside the camp, far away at first, so far away that they were difficult to distinguish among the crackling of the fire and the rhythm of the waves crashing on the shore.
But as time goes by, those sounds are gradually getting louder, from vague to clear, from sparse to dense, until they are like an approaching rainstorm moving quickly on the ground, slapping every inch of the land that has been stepped on.
The footsteps overlap and can no longer be separated into individual movements. A large number of boot soles or animal hooves contact the ground at the same time, leave the ground at the same time, and contact again, forming a continuous and uniform vibration.
The rhythm is steady and heavy, as if someone is continuously beating the same piece of stretched leather with a row of evenly spaced drumsticks in the distance.
Douglas also stopped moving towards the fire at that moment.
He turned his head sideways and faced the direction of the sound. His body stood still in that direction for a moment, as if he was using his ears to confirm the characteristics of those footsteps.
He did not classify it as a group of monsters or beasts at the first time like others did, because the footsteps were spaced, rhythmic, and layered, with heavier ones in front and lighter ones on the side. There was also a layer of denser, finer treading sounds farther away that were almost covered up by the footsteps in the front row.
He stood for a moment, then turned around and strode towards the soldiers who were re-arranging.
When he walked between the soldiers, he raised his voice. "Take giant shields and spears and form a formation. It's not a beast, it's an army."
The soldiers who were organizing their equipment did not pause after hearing the order.
The heavily armored soldiers in the front row each bent down, picked up the large shields thicker than a hand from the scattered weapons and shields on the ground, and stood them up in front of them.
The bottom of the shield smashed into the soil on the ground, making a series of dull, short impact sounds, like a row of rivets being driven into a wooden board one after another.
The edges of the shield are close to each other, forming a continuous barrier higher than a human chest. The scratches and dents from the previous battle remain on the shield's surface, and the surface has a light luster.
The spear protrudes from the opening above the shield surface, maintaining a forward angle. The hands holding the spear are arranged alternately so that the spear tip forms a two-level gap in height.
The first layer is waist-high, and the second layer is slightly higher, so that any approaching creature in front needs to pass through two rows of spear points at the same time to reach the shield surface.
The soldiers in the rear held longer spears, placed the spear shafts on the shoulders of the soldiers in the front row, and pointed forward diagonally from above the shield formation, forming a third layer of coverage.
The entire phalanx completed the switch from dispersion to convergence in a short period of time, like a piece of plate armor being pieced back together, with the joints tightly sealed.
The sound of a horn sounded in the distance against the background of the footsteps. It was a low, long sound that lasted for several breaths, coming from a location where Redd could not identify the specific direction.
The horn's timbre was deeper than that of an ordinary bugle, with a thicker diameter and a larger resonant cavity, dragging out a slowly decaying reverberation in the night sky.
Then the second horn followed, the volume slightly increased and the direction shifted a bit, as if it was coming from a position further to the flank.
The command to attack was transmitted in the night sky, like a layer of overlapping lines, falling on the moving footsteps.
Redd Standing at a higher position at the rear, he could look past the shields and spear points forming a formation and see that the edge of the black mist ahead that had not yet been completely dispersed was being disturbed by a large number of moving silhouettes.
The number of those silhouettes far exceeds the group of cursed creatures that besieged the camp just now, and their mode of action is not to surround or charge at will.
Instead, they maintain a dense, compact formation that moves in the same direction. Their edges are straight, and the width of the front row is the same as the width of the back row.
Those footsteps and horn sounds have been superimposed together to form a continuous wall of sound, advancing towards the camp from the depths of darkness.
Redd's eyes quickly passed over the approaching silhouettes, and then fell on King Ghidorah. The command he shouted was short and direct, "King Ghidorah, straight ahead, attack."
King Ghidorah had turned around as the voice fell.
Its three heads were aligned with the dense outline coming from the depths of darkness, golden light lit up from the gaps between the scales, and the process from accumulating power to erupting was completed within half a breath.
Three Gravity Beam shot forward at a nearly horizontal angle and swept close to the ground.
The golden light pillar drew three bright trajectories in the black mist and darkness. The moment it touched the moving outlines, the first half of the outlines it touched were directly dissolved within the coverage of the light, and subsequent layers were also peeled off one by one as the light pillar passed by.
The areas swept by Gravity Beam became empty in an instant, and the dense moving outlines on the ground disappeared, leaving only a layer of white smoke covered by high temperature.
A wide gap was torn open in the wall of sound that was moving forward, but after a few breaths, the uncovered contours at the rear began to fill the gap and continued to press forward at a faster speed.
There were more of them than before, and the rhythm of their movement was more compact. A new horn sounded again, this time closer than before.
Redd When he saw the outlines of those who were filling positions, he already had a new set of estimates in his mind about the number of opponents and their formation methods.
He stood in front of the darkness that was closing again, watching the rapidly advancing outlines crossing the charred area swept by Gravity Beam, and noticed that there was also new movement taking shape in the direction of the flanks.
He issued an order, and the phalanx of spears advanced under the support of shields. The spear points crossed the cleared area and headed towards the following queues that were filling the gap.
Their advancement speed was not fast, but each step was even, compact, and landed at the same time, maintaining stable synchronization with the shattered ground in front of them and the darkness that was re-closing behind them.
In front of the passage opened by shields and spears, the presence of the orcs was no longer an approaching silhouette, but a presence being intercepted by flames and steel and repeatedly ground at the line of contact.
The spear phalanx advanced slower than expected because the ground had become uneven after experiencing repeated strafing by Gravity Beam.
The hard shell formed by the re-solidification of melted sand shows wavy undulations in some areas, making it easy to slip when you step on it.
The soldiers in the front row need to lower their center of gravity, use the bottom of the giant shield as a support point, and move their center of gravity forward after taking each step firmly, so that the advancement of the entire phalanx maintains a slow and even rhythm.