Free Reborn: Demon's Heritage by D. W. Jackson Page B

took their places to rest, a fire and wind mage took their place. There was a total of six mages at the fort, if one were to include Ash. The plan was simple, they would switch with the other mages to give time for their MP to recover. The fire mages were the best suited to attack and were paired with the wind and water mages to help even out the groups.
    “Master, are you ok?” Allice asked running up to him as soon as he was back on the ground with a worried look on her face.
    “I am fine,” Ash said with a slight grin.
    “I don’t know if I can do this,” Gabe said as he shook slightly.
    “First time in a battle?” Ash asked, feeling a slight twinge of pity for the young man.
    “N-no but this is the first time I have been in such a large scale battle,” Gabe said, his face going slightly white. “There were just so many of them.”
    Ash silently agreed. That was the reason that he hadn’t tried to look over the entire battlefield. No matter how seasoned a person was, that amount of death was too much to take in. It was better just to focus on a small area and try and block out the overwhelming sounds of death.
    After the first battle, the ground was cleared of the dead and wounded. Ash didn’t ask why no one attacked while the enemy cleared their wounded and dead since he had long ago learned the rules that this world used for war. It seemed slightly foolish to allow them to clear the field as the dead bodies would slow down the next advance, but as long as the rules of war were followed, there would be less unneeded death at the end. At least it would make sure that Allice would be left unharmed as long as she didn’t take up arms during the battle.
    As soon as the field was clear, the second battle began. Even from where he sat, Ash could clearly hear the sounds of death. Ash couldn’t help but watch as soldiers were brought down from the wall to be treated in the medical tent. Surprisingly, there were five full healers in the camp. From what Jorin had said, the church of Altina had dispatched priests and priestesses to each fort in show of support of the duchess. Not only had they sent healers, but it seemed that they had also sent out word that no one associated with the church were to fight against them. This might not seem like much, but there was a number of strong knights and fighters who were in the service of the church and every one of them that was forced to hold back increased their chances of winning the war, though with the numbers that stood before them part of that hope had been drowned out.
    Thanks to the healers so far, less than ten people had died and many of the injured were already ready for their next chance to man the walls. Seeing how fast the people who were healed were back up and ready to fight, Ash could only feel wonder once again at the way his new world worked.
    Almost too soon it was once again Ash’s turn to man the wall. It was only slightly past midday and this was already the fourth attack of the day. Unlike the first attack, this time it looked as if five times as many were ready to assault the walls. So far it had been two groups of one thousand and then one group of two thousand. Now it looked as if the enemy was going to take them seriously.
    As the men raced toward the fort, Ash could hear the sound of his heart beating in his ears. Soon that was replaced by the sound of arrows filling the sky. Once again Ash was forced to launch attack after attack. Before he knew it, he had used over half his MP. Breathing hard, Ash looked to where Gabe stood on the other end of the wall to find the mage was already kneeling on the ground his MP totally exhausted.
    Ash continued to cast his spells as arrows rained down onto him and the other knights. Soon it was not just arrows, but magic as well that filled the air. More than five mages had joined in the enemies attacks. By the time Ash’s MP had been reduced to only a quarter, the soldiers were starting to gain a foothold on