How long had it been?

A week, a month, or perhaps a year.

She thought those words before dismissing them. It had barely been 8 hours but Duchess Rania Teresa Alumet Vidfamne was exhausted. She stood on the balcony of her castle. It was designed to allowe her to view any side of the city and help defend it against any attack.

The demons had surrounded the city and lied siege to it. They crashed into the gate and walls as arrows and magic spells rains down on them. Merfolks weren't good at physical combat but had great archery and magic casting skills that were surpassed by only the elves.

This and their long life span is probably why the Elven royal family of Everwood accepted one of the duchesses daughters as a wife to one of their sons rather than a mistress or concubine.

That was one of Duchess Rania Teresa Alumet Vidfamne greatest achievements. Perhaps her pride in that achievement made her not so eager to have the union with the royal family of the poor kingdom of Highland.

"Please drink this recovery potion," Shelley Lancaster uttered as she gave a small bottle to the visibly tired duchess.

"Tch...there is no end to them." She uttered as she drank the

"Indeed. No matter how many we kill more replace in seconds." Shelley committed next to her.

They were fighting a losing battle. The demons attacked in droves.

<Water dragon>

The spell water dragon was a high-ranking spell that Duchess Rania could use. She controlled the water that surrounded her castle. Lifting it in the air to form an Asian-looking dragon. Its long slender body danced in the sky.

"Go!!" she commanded and the dragon fell from the sky. It swallowed the demons that surrounded the city wall and gate before dragging them to the depths of the sea.

If she didn't do that from time to time the number of demon bodies by the city wall would make a foothold for the demons that followed.

Eventually, they would spill into the city.

However, no sooner had she cast that spell than a whole new demon force descended on the city wall.

It was plain to see. The demons had numbers to spare.

Tch...a normal army would have given up by now.

"Duchess look out!" Shelley screamed

<Ice spike>

Without even a side glance, Duchess Rania pierced the flying demon with her magic.

Apart from the demon ground beasts, there were some demon sky beasts. Thankfully there were no wayven, griffons, and even black dragons but that didn't that these small flying demonic bats were not annoying.

They heckled the archers and magic casters on the city wall. Knights would constantly have to fight them off.

"If it's not one thing, it's another." She uttered. Her words were to be proven true.

A huge explosion rocked the city gate. The strong wooden gate was blown to pieces.

From the flames some loud footsteps were heard by the knights nearby.

From the smoke it appeared, a female's worst nightmare except for Goblins and commander of the demonic ground forces.

A High Orc.

Larger than two fully grown men with a pig-like face, it walked like a human and wore armor while welding an ax and hammer.

"Rooooooorooroorororoor"

It roared causing the knights to buckle under with fear.

It chuckled at the sight of the knights.

"Kill the men, rape the women, take everything, and burn the city." It ordered

The demons rushed in like a flood.

The goblins ignored the male knights and made a beeline straight for any female they could see.

<Water dragon>

Duchess Rania cast her magic once again. She needed to block the flood of demons rushing in and take out any that she could at the same time.

She also couldn't ignore the high Orc, but luckily he just stood there at the gate, not moving an inch.

She was not going to miss the opportunity.

"Go!" she commanded

The dancing dragon fell at a rapid speed. It went straight down before making a 90-degree turn before slamming into the ground. It now moved swiftly along the main road of the city. It was heading straight for the demons, gate, and high orc.

The Knights jumped out of the way while some of the demons that had rushed in earlier were swept away with the water dragon as it approached the Orc.

"Hump...futile."

<Cancel>

Just before the magic could reach the Orc it was canceled.

Duchess Rania had a paled complexion.

How!? Even an elf of the royal family cannot cancel my magic. Even from this distance, it should still... Wait ... Does that Orc have more mana than me?"

Cancel is a basic spell that every magician learns. It's a spell that cancels magic.

There were two factors affected the spell.

The first is mana. When one side has double the amount of mana as the other side, their magic can't be canceled.

The second is the distance. If the side with a larger size in mana fires a long distances attack, the side with the less amount of mana can cancel it. Of course, all this depends on the distance between the two and the mana gap between them as well.

An attack from far away by someone who has double the mana might be canceled, but one from someone who has four times the mana may not.

Duchess Rania Teresa Alumet Vidfamne has always been confident in her mana pool, furthermore, the water dragon spell uses water that surrounds her castle, which means she doesn't have to generate the water required, allowing her to further strengthen the dragon.

Canceling that attack should be impossible. At least that is what she thought until now.

She glared at the Orc who by now had noticed her.

"Humm...I will leave her to you then?" the orc casually spoke

Right before her eyes, Duchess Rania saw black wings appear from behind the Orc. She was briefly puzzled as she never heard of an Orc with wings

But those wings slowly rose to reveal a black hared man with very white skin.

"Noble vampire." Duchess Rania uttered

The Noble Vampires were in command of the demon sky beast forces. If you're unlucky to run into one you would best say your prayers. They were too strong to fight and too fast to flee from; plus they had the advantage of flight.

The Noble Vampire became notorious in the war for killing men and kidnapping women and children to keep them as slaves.

Their greed for gold and works of art was said to make even a pure-blooded spoiled noble-born male, blush with envy.