Arpious of the Planes

(Zoe POV)

Suddenly, a blood-red aura surrounded me and my army, filling us with seemingly endless power.

Once Mia had confirmed the pincer attack to start, Owen's army, Akito's army, Olivia's army, and Treyni's army of different monsters charged towards the human army like savages. My army spreads out amongst the other armies, discreetly racking up countless kills in just mere seconds.

Well, the only civil, calm, and collected commander was Mother Nature and her army of summons. She calmly led and directed her army of summons into small pockets of the human army that showed fatal openings.

Mother Nature didn't just command her army from the back, but she also attacked the human army as well. A warm aura radiated from her body, filling her surrounding comrades with slight power but mostly new motivation.

With Mother Nature's skill, they wouldn't lose hope even in the direst of situations… or that's at least what I guessed. I just went off slight clues and Mother Nature's personality to come up with this conclusion.

For now, it didn't seem like taking action was necessary, but I know her highness wanted to end this war quickly. Also, if I wanted to gain her highness's approval, I would need to do something spectacular other than just commanding my army.

Using [Gale Walk], I was able to step into the air and maneuver around the hundreds of spears that tried to stab me from below. With each step, I blasted a gust of air that knocked the wind out of most human soldiers.

As I ran through the battlefield, the only thing that came to mind was,

"Weak," I mutter.

[Gale Walk] isn't even an offensive skill, but it's knocking out soldiers with each step of my foot.

I grip my curved long daggers before actually starting an attack. Since my choice of weapon is a dagger, aiming for body shots is useless. Instead, I always aim for the neck- no, any assassin should always aim for the neck when they get the chance.

The humans are wearing heavy metal armor, but there is a pretty big slit between the helmet and chest plate. Just one swipe of my knife and I caused blood to gush out of their nearly split neck, killing them instantly.

The humans around me noticed my basic attack pattern and backed up a bit before landing on the ground.

[Gale Walk] wasn't all-powerful. You could only do 5 steps in the air at a time before having to touch something.

Touching something, either the ground, dead body, or struggling soldier, in order to reset my [Gale Walk]. But the humans weren't as dumb as I thought. They backed away from me, forcing me to land in the murky water that went up to my ankles. The humans then lunged their spears towards me after seeing this split-second opening.

[Tangible Bloodlust]

My bloodlust exploded out from me, freezing the human soldiers in place. I pushed the tips of the spear away from me as I realized my shoes had gotten wet. I cringed at the moist feeling on my feet before taking another gander at the human soldiers.

They were frozen in place, cold sweat running down their backs. Their frightened reaction amused me, so I decided to play around with them for a bit.

"MY SOLDIERS, MAKE SURE NOBODY ATTACKS ME AS OF NOW!" I shout, but my voice is muffled by the war cries that vibrated through the air.

'Don't worry, I told them. Her highness is watching closely as well, so try not to mess anything up,' I hear Mia's voice ring through my mind.

Shit. Now I have to make sure to satisfy her otherwise her highness will be disappointed in me… I can't have that happening.

First, I disarmed the surrounding soldiers in an instant with [Grand Wind Magic]. Some soldiers had tried to run away, but with a swift flick of my hand and using [Wind Blade], I cut their heads off immediately.

The soldiers who were thinking of escaping started sweating even harder. I could see the sweat leaking out from under their metallic helmets.

"The queen is expecting a good show, so don't take this too personally," I say condescendingly, with cold eyes.

I proceeded to torture and broke down the soldier's powerful farce. Well, it might've not been a farce, but it soon seemed like one as they all broke into tears as I detached all their limbs from their body.

Finally, I detached their heads from their bodies with one clean cut before looking up at the two silhouettes in the sky. A pair of yellow and gray eyes glowed in the darkness of the early morning.

I bowed deeply before doing my job once again.

I rearranged my soldiers in positions that would support the slowly being pushed back armies.

As more time passed, more blood was shed, causing a shroud of blood-red mist to envelop the battlefield.

It was getting harder to see, and I tried to use [Grand Wind Magic] to push away the mist, but it just kept coming back no matter how many times I blasted a gush of wind in front of me. The mist soon became so thick that the only things visible were the shadows of falling soldiers, who I didn't know which side they were on.

I kept pushing through and dishing out almost empty commands to shadows that seemed to respond to my voice, and then suddenly... a large blast of wind partly cleared the blood-red mist from the battlefield.

And then more blasts of wind hit the army directly, sending some of the humans and our own side flying, but now the battlefield was clear once again. I could see perfectly, and this time I could give more precise and calculated orders.

"YOU THERE, COVER THE SPOT THERE! YOU, COVER OVER THERE! YOU SUPPORT THOSE GUYS RIGHT THERE! YOU SUPPORT YOUR COMRADE RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!"

I felt my throat tiring, but I knew I couldn't give in yet. The queen was still watching, and I decided to give my best without revealing the best of my abilities due to the queen's will.

『Status』

[Name: Zoe]

[Race: Wind Elf]

[Status: Calm]

[Level: 26/100]

[HP: 327/500 MP: 492/700 SP: 371/600]

[Strength: 120]

[Defense: 100]

[Magic: 150]

[Speed: 200]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 50]

[Skills: [Body Enhancement] [Grand Wind Magic] [Concentration] [Slash] [Wind Blade] [Gale Walk] [Enhanced Hearing] [Wind Knives] [Enhanced Senses] [Presence Eraser] [Grand Dagger Enhancement] [Silent Steps] [Lie Detection] [Tangible Bloodlust]

[Mastered Weapons: [Dagger (Partial)]

[Titles: [One with the Wind] [Hard Worker]

…

It's not like I wasn't taking any damage. I received slight cuts and the occasional punch in my gut when I was too invested in giving out orders. I also decided to stop using [Gale Walk] as it makes it much harder for my soldiers to hear my voice as I'm bouncing all over the place.

[Body Enhancement] was the only thing keeping me from losing too much blood. Using any of my other skills will be going against the queen's will of "Not using our full power."

[Presence Eraser] is a skill that does exactly as it says. It erases my presence. It is the perfect skill for doing a late at night assassination on a lowly piece of trash. Just like [Gale Walk], this skill wasn't all-powerful as it would only erase my presence from anybody weaker than me or at my level.

Also, though it does erase your presence, it doesn't erase your body. If you stood in front of somebody, they would still see you, so this is useless in such a massive war where soldiers are everywhere.

Somebody like the heroes who are still riding their brown-shaped monsters will immediately notice me once I activate the skill, so there isn't much point in using it as of now.

[Silent Steps] is something that could be very useful later on. Since I retreated to the land from the murky water, my shoes weren't sloshing around. If I did use [Silent Steps] while in the water, the sloshing of water would instantly reveal my presence.

But on land, my footsteps don't make as much as a rustle. Even humans or monsters with enhanced hearing or senses won't hear my footsteps, so using this as a sneak attack later will be useful…

As I continued to lead my army and cut down hundreds of human soldiers, I saw a bright light approach me quickly. I was barely able to duck down and avoid it, instantly evaporating the soldiers behind me.

My jaw dropped, and our monster army was in shock. I looked up to see the supposed Light Hero had made a move that almost instantly killed me.

My breathing started to turn heavy as a drop of sweat ran down my cheek.

The human army who was despairing in fear just seconds ago was now yelling in excitement. I could see the veins bulge from their neck as they charged towards us. Our side started to stumble back as the humans' war cries muffled my orders that I tried to shout at the top of my lungs.

"Shit… I might not be able to follow her highness's will-"

I saw it. In the distance. I saw it. Something that changed the course of the war in an instant.

Her highness had plunged her hand through a woman with fully white clothing. The woman was in shock, but that was her last facial expression before her eyes turned dim.

Her highness's expression was full of joy and ecstasy… at seeing the human soldiers despair once again.