The battle so far was not looking terribly optimistic. Even the relatively short amount of time taken to deal with the wyvern riders had let the demon lord and his personal guard break into the ranks of humans. If the wyverns hadn’t been noticed, though, it would have had much worse results, likely the deaths of more wizards. As it was, William had already noticed too many of them were dead or injured. He couldn’t make an exact count, but more than a fifth, twenty at least, of the wizards were likely dead or injured. William had seen some of them die with his own eyes. As for the human army as a whole, perhaps a quarter or a third, between five and seven thousand, had fallen. It was hard to tell in all of the chaos that there now was. However, though the demons had lost almost similar proportions, that was before the arrival of the demon lord. His group was causing massive casualties to the humans every moment.

Most of the fighting was now taking place on top of the walls, but in some places humans still held the high ground. However, most had fallen back to the base of a secondary wall, where they wouldn’t have the advantage of the higher ground but could still use their advantage of numbers. Retreating onto the walls would allow the demons chances to get through the gates as they were opened, and attack the archers and wizards remaining there. Thus, the men stayed in the courtyard, to be covered by the support of the archers and wizards. Reinforcements also came out of smaller gates that were opened only briefly.

Right now, the demon lord was the core of the enemy's formation, as much as they could have a formation after battle lines met. He needed to be defeated, not just because of his personal power, but also for reasons of morale. William was hoping that the enemy wouldn’t wish to continue fighting if he was defeated, but it was also a fact that they could not afford to let him continue relatively unopposed. William saw many of the elite forces moving in to attack him and his men. Some of the knight commanders, Gerald, Marius, and Lila had already started attacking him and his soldiers.

The demon lord’s armor was obviously magical. Otherwise, it could not have stood up to so many spells that were aimed at him. He looked at least relatively unscathed up to this point. However, William knew that it was impossible to make armor that would last forever. If they could concentrate enough firepower on him, he would die, no matter how much enchantment there was on his armor. However, for that, they first had to defeat, or at least lessen the numbers of, his personal guard. Good work had already been done on that front, especially Lila with her fireballs. The “dragon heart” she had on her staff greatly helped her already considerable ability to gather fire mana. William was also moving in, but his spells wouldn’t be of much use. Coordinating with Chris for accurate aim was hard in normal circumstances, and even worse in a situation where there were allies around. Instead, William moved toward the front lines, hoping that the enchantments on his magical robes could protect him from most of the magical attacks flying around, at least the ones that weren’t aimed at him specifically. William took advantage of the fact that the demons didn’t expect anyone wielding a staff to hit them with it, bashing in a few heads, or at least distracting them long enough for a knight to impale them.

However, the humans weren’t the only ones advancing on key targets. They knew that the humans had a limited number of wizards, and they could tell which were the most dangerous. Namely, Lila, and also because they had seen him giving commands, William. However, William was quite capable of defending himself against their attacks. He was not strong enough to block the swing of a sword, but with Chris he could deflect such attacks to the side, even some he didn’t actually see coming. This meant William was surviving relatively unscathed, though he had somewhere gathered a few slashes, mostly inconsequential so far. However, his arms were tiring somewhat. William wasn’t in a prominent position, so there were actually relatively few demons who realized where he was, which reduced the overall danger he was in. However, Lila was quite obvious. Her spells were large and flashy, not for the sake of the looks, but just as a side effect of the actual power they contained. She had a squad of knights protecting her, including Gerald, but had caught the demon lord’s attention.

The demon lord and his dwindling number of personal guard rode toward Lila. This change of direction allowed the humans to better flank the demons in his group. However, in the occasional glimpses William could actually see through the masses of humans and demons, the demon lord was getting closer to Lila. He still seemed just as unstoppable as ever. William and the surrounding knights were also pressing forward, over and through the demons. William gradually saw more of the situation. The demon lord had engaged the knights in Lila’s group, along with several of his personal guard. The rest of his guard were protecting his flank from the group with William, and some of the knight commanders. However, those demons were steadily being defeated. When William had gotten within a few rows of demons of the demon lord, he saw Gerald knocked back through the air by a mighty swing from the demon lord. Then, the halberd swung down, toward Lila. William saw a determined look in her eye, as she continued whatever spell she was casting even as the halberd swung down. Then, there was a loud sound, and a flash, and the entire area trembled. When he regained his vision, William didn’t see Lila, but there were no figures standing around the demon lord, and the demon lord himself was not standing as tall and straight as he had been.