Their plan seemed airtight. 2,000 elves, in addition to the 1,000 elves accompanying the Royal Guard to the north, outside the gate. 2,000 elves on the eastern wall, 2,000 elves on the western wall, 2,000 elves on the southern wall. 100 from each stealth squad, followed by 1,000 to distract the interior with 5,000 on standby underneath the interior.
Now, four scouts were sprinting the underground caverns in each direction, as the Royal Guard charged North as quickly as they could.
Thousands of human soldiers began flanking the initial 200, and Jax removed a portion of the ground, revealing a ramp and yelled to the 6,000 elves, "CHARGE!"
The magic squad tried its hardest to mitigate the arrows, but the charging elven warriors were falling, quickly.
"Eva, make me a ladder I need to get to the high ground, quickly!" Jax shouted.
Eva made a ladder out of two vines, and Jax used his muscular physique to get to the top level.
He cast several sprouts in the eastern direction, toward where the one dismantled catapult sat and began dashing through the human archers, slashing them with his blade and entangling them with his vines.
The human army met the elven army in the middle for a full on clash, the ground shook so fiercely it was felt by the elves underground, on the outskirts of the castle.
Taking the initiative, the Eastern elves made a choice to charge, hoping a hole in the wall would come.
A giant boulder came flying their way, and despite their best effort to dodge, nearly 100 elves were crushed due to the boulder's mass.
Back in the interior, Eva worked around the fighting, setting up sprouts, which shot venomous needles at the humans. The only problem: they weren't penetrating the armor. Some of the plants luckily struck humans in the face, but the human side held the height advantage.
Eva noticed the catapult readying to fire toward the east again, she cast entanglement to try and rip it apart. However, as the vines manifest, the catapult launched one last boulder, crushing another 100 elves before being ripped apart.
<><><><>
Mina and Sora finally made their way through the crowd of 6,000 humans charging, both on horseback, and they separated to blow holes in the walls. Their new armor served them well, as every arrow and sword slash simply ricochet right off them.
Sora arrived at the Southern wall and screamed, 'Black winds howl.' and a heavy, yellow and black wind spell shot and created a massive hole in the wall. Unfortunately, the scouts hadn't arrived yet.
Sora thought quickly and jumped out of the hole in the wall, and Blaze traveled quickly until the one scout, waiting for the fiery arrow, saw him.
The man opened the ground and 1,500 elves charged the hole, leaving 500 behind, per plan.
Sora quickly went to the west side and screamed, 'Black Winds Howl," and the same yellow and black wind spell created another massive opening.
"Something about the way that wall collapsed didn't feel right, but I have to continue on," Sora thought.
Mina got to the eastern wall, screamed, 'black winds howl, and saw the 1,500 elves storming, so she cast, 'Fang of Justice,' and the giant white spirit wolf appeared.
"Five minutes. I need that wolf to balance the interior battlefield for five minutes," she said.
Rather than dodging the boulder coming her way, she took out her shield, braced for impact and the boulder immediately flew back at the catapult, destroying the Northeastern tower and all humans inside it.
"That was definitely a good gift," she thought as she rushed to the North gate.
Sora noticed Jax charging along the Northern wall, west, toward the last catapult so he decided to lend him a hand and used 'Fang of Justice' where Jax was standing, and the giant black spirit wolf began shredding a path for Jax.
Sora then met Xavier, Stefania and the Royal Guard at the Northern gate, awaiting instructions.
<><><><>
Jax made his way to the catapult, and the Black spirit wolf made quick work of the humans. He destroyed the catapult with a spell Sora and Mina had not seen.
The sun rose as Jax looked down, frantically searching for Eva. He found her, locked in sword battles. He couldn't believe how many dead elves were on the battlefield. The humans also sustained substantial losses, but this battle was down to a battle inside the walls.
Jax casted spores, which caused the air inside the Kingdom's walls to become dense with fog. The elves had no trouble seeing through it, but the humans predicted this and every time a spore sprouted, it withered and died.
"How did they manage to pull this off? This spell always works." Jax wondered.
Jax dropped down, riding a vine, and fought his way to Eva. The spirit wolves were long gone, and the front gate remained protected and well guarded.
"Eva!"
"Jax! I'm glad you're ok. Why aren't our spore sprouts working?"
"No idea, everytime I cast them, they wither and die."
"Same for me, and they improved their armor, our venom sprouts don't do much, unless they land on their skin. They're quickly destroyed, though!"
"Well let's keep fighting, we need to figure out how to get the gate open!
<><><><>
"Xavier, what do we do? The gates are heavily guarded and won't come down easily." Mina asked.
"We can try to flank the western wall, but that leaves our front 1,000 susceptible to archers or the gate opening and the human army storming through."
"We have to stay patient, Jax and Eva are inside and I know we've lost more elves than we anticipated but we can't risk a foolish mistake," Stefania said.
"I'll be right back, something didn't sit right with me the way the western wall exploded," Sora said.
"Mina, I order you to stand down and rest."
"Ding! Vitality: passive is now in effect on Mina Hart. She will regain energy until she enters battle."
Sora charged to the west as quickly as he could, made a hard turn left and his worst fears came to fruition.
The walls were hollow and held at least 1,000 soldiers who waited for the western unit to charge before killing each and every elf that tried to get through the wall. The elves retreated and reformed a battle formation and were able to take out half the humans.
Sora looked at 1,500 dead elves.
"I'm glad the 500 went back underground, but we have a significant problem on our hands," he thought to himself as he rode back to the Northern gate.
"Xavier, it's bad. The humans hollowed out the Western wall and hid around 1,000 men inside them. Every elf who tries to enter through the wall died. They managed to retreat and get into formation, around 500 humans are dead but I have no idea where they went."
"We need this gate down!" Stefania shouted in rage.
"Does any elf here know water magic?" Sora asked.
"Yes, Jax, why didn't you ask sooner?" Xavier asked.
Angry with himself, Sora muttered, "because I'm incompetent. One of the gifts from Themis allows me to infuse water into my blue blade."
"You're far from incompetent, we all were aware of the gifts you received, the council as well. None of us thought to use it. Get to Jax. We will cover you," Xavier said while raising his rapier.
"Eric, you're in charge. When the gates open, storm in with all 3,000. The surprise is gone."
"As you wish!"
Sora, Mina, Stefania and Xavier made it to the east wall, where the elves successfully made it through. The four rode in and the elven morale jolted, quickly.
"The Heroes of War are here!" the elves chanted.