Siege of Loyts

Siege of Loyts was a battle during Jaldabaoth's siege on the Roble Holy Kingdom. After the city of Loyts was retaken by the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, the demon sent a 40,000 strong demi-human army to recapture it.

Background
A week after the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army captured Loyts the food supplies of the city were dwindling and the army was about to move out. Outside their walls though a demi-human army appeared from over the horizon. The demi-human army was comprised of 40,000 of the 50,000 troops that the Demi-Human Alliance allocated to manage the prison camps of the Northern Holy Kingdom. Though the humans that occupied the city only numbered 10,000 strong, the demi-humans allowed their enemies a few days to prepare. The commanding demi-human chieftain, Rokesh, under the orders of the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth was given command of the campaign and instructions to maximize the fear in the humans.

After three days had passed, Rokesh gathered all the chieftains for a war council to hash out their plan of attack. After the Naga Raja briefly restored order among those present, defusing a fight between Vijar Rajandala and Nasrene Belt Cure with a stern warning that their actions would be reported to the Demon Emperor. Rokesh ordered that the army will attack the city in two days, but until then they will be content to observe the human army. While the delay in the attack would give the human defenders time to launch a counterattack, it would also mean to allow the demi-humans time to deal with their human captives that they brought along. It was suggested that they use the humans they bought as food and kill them before the city to terrorize them, though Vijar believed such an action might push the humans to surrendering and make things boring. Rokesh agreed as another part of Jaldabaoth's orders were not allow some of the humans to live. The plan was to attack the western gate and kill everyone there before moving to the eastern gate and chase the humans away. Nasrene Belt Cure and Hectowaizes Ah Ragara were left to handle the eastern gate, while Muar Praxua would lead ranged fighters to harass the northern and southern gates. All the other chieftains though would concentrate on the western gate save for Rokesh who would be away from the frontlines to coordinate their forces. That being said Rokesh announced the meeting over and ordered them to rest and save their strength so that the could lead the humans into despair.

Battle
On the fourth day, the demi-humans did as they planned and brought their captives to the outer wall of Loyts. There before the human defenders who were unable to attack them the demi-humans proceeded to butcher the prisoners and eat them. The demi-humans then proceeded to attack the western and then eastern gates of the city. Remedios Custodio commanding the Liberation Army's forces planned to hold out the siege at least until the nobles that were freed from the camps reached the Southern Noble Alliance and brought back reinforcements. It was her belief that the enemy was underestimating them and that the best strategy would be to gather all her forces at the east gate and crush the attack before moving to the west gate. But realized that the plan would fail as the small detachment at the west gate would be lost to the enemy's main force.

The captain sought an idea from her second, Gustav Montagnés but before doing so the paladin informed her that people were expecting the Sorcerer King to take part in the battle. However the Ainz Ooal Gown would not be participating as he was still recovering his mana and to hold himself in reserve in case Jaldabaoth attacked. Despite the reasons some remaining nobles in the city attempted to offer large sums of money to receive his help to no avail. To Remedios for the people to request the aid of the Sorcerer King an unholy undead was ridiculous and even insulting when they saw him as a hero. The captain refused to acknowledge the contribution Ainz provided to the cause of the liberation, holding him responsible for the deaths of the hostages in spite of the fact his actions allowed her to retake the city. Furthermore she rejected the idea that her friend Calca Bessarez was dead, and any aid received from the Sorcerer King would sully the Holy Queen's reign. The fact of the matter still stood that Ainz came to the Northern Holy Kingdom at his own risk and was able to conquer the city with only two people made him a hero.

To counter this image, Remedios suggested slandering the Sorcerer King though Gustav advised against it as it would turn the people against her. In that case the captain believed that the simple solution was to prevent the Sorcerer King from being seen by the people by silencing them. The idea is even worse, and Remedios wonders if she made a mistake in bringing the Sorcerer King to their nation. Gustav understood her frustration, but pleaded that they needed to appease the people for the time being. In the end Remedios decided to leave the decision to Caspond Bessarez and delay the people's questions and rely on their own strength to defend the city.

In response to the demi-humans' attack on the western gate, about 80% of all paladins, priests, soldiers and able-bodied men were set to defend it with Remedios. The remaining 20% were led by Gustavo at the eastern gate and the non-combatants kept watch at the northern and southern gates. The demi-humans made their move during the day and marched to the western gate, at their front ogres carried ballistas and started shooting gigantic arrows at the walls and shatter the battlements of the defenders. The defenders were able to launch a response due to the ogres being out of range and protected by shields. Morale was already falling for the human defenders not just due to the odds but also the absence of the Sorcerer King, but when some of the militia were speared through by the bolts of a second volley, the defenders at the battlements began to panic. To keep them focused, a paladin used [Under Divine Flag] and [Lion's Heart] to suppress their fears and had them resume their posts. A third wave of attack came leading to more destroyed battlements and casualties. A fourth wave of attack was about to be launched by the ogres using flaming projectiles when winged angel summons flew at the demi-humans dropping down, fire bombs. To combat the angels, Pteropuses took to the sky and Spidans shot webs to ensnare them. Many of the angels were caught or knock out of the sky, but their fire bombs dropped with them delivering the demi-humans in a fiery inferno.

The ogres having raised their shields to block away the flames gave Neia Baraja at the walls of the western the opening to use Ultimate Shooting Star Super to strike an ogre in the head injuring it. In response to the attack on their fellow, the ogres loosed projectiles from their ballistas at the wall. Neia and a few of her comrades escape the counterattack. As the fire from the angels was slowly being contained the ogres raised their weapons again at the wall with their shields protecting them. They volleyed an endless hail of lance-sixed bolts while the defends could do nothing but hunker down and weather it. The demi-humans used drumbeats to coordinate the attacks of the right and left wings of the front. The army that was sieging the gate finally moved and it wings moved in parallel with each other with the center detachment in formation. Whilst the wings arched forward, a small detachment of the demi-humans flanked the city.

The demi-humans of the right and left wings carried assault ladders to scale the walls and break into the city. Many of the demi-humans had human children bound to their bodies to discourage the human defends to not shoot them otherwise they would harm the hostages. Neia leading the archers at the western gate killed the prisoners with her bow and arrows, knowing that killing the children would be a mercy. After seeing that their human shields were not effective the demi-humans slowed the pace of their assault on the wall. Neia rallied her unit to cast stones to hit any of the attackers and prevent them from reaching the walls as she continued to mercy kill the hostages. While the militiamen were originally hesitant to continue their attacks due to the children, they eventually came to realize that they had to protect the innocents within the walls first. They followed Neia's lead to kill the human shields first mercilessly.

Neia was hit by a ballista bolt, but her Turtle Shell protected her, saving her life. The defenders put up a valiant effort to defend the walls, but were slowly overwhelmed as the demi-humans were too numerous. Reaching the walls, the demi-human attackers used ladders to scale the walls before the paladins and angels could repel them. Armat s and Blader s reached the top and easily ignored the attempts by the militia to push them off and the numbers of the demi-humans on top of the walls grew. Neia confronted the demi-humans at the wall some being Stone Eater s and tried shooting rocks at her but did very little harm to her due to her armor and continued to kill the enemies before her with her arrows until one of her attackers injured her hand. To continue fighting she activated Necklace of Heavy Recover to cast [Heavy Recover] to revitalize herself. One of the leaders of the attack, a Stone Eater named Jajan of the tribe of Lagon claimed the head of the paladin commander, boasting of his accomplishment as he ordered his kin to kill the remaining defenders.

The loss of the paladin turned grim to the remaining forces guarding the gate and the militiamen began to lose morale. Neia out of arrows to fight quickly salvages a quiver from a dead solider to restock. Refusing to be defeated Neia launches at arrow at Jajan piercing his skull and killing him. She capitalized on her kill and continued to shake the demi-humans' morale declaring what to did and her name to all before resuming sniping at the invaders. The demi-humans concentrated their attention on her and upon recognizing that her armor belonged to Buser assume her to be his killer. Seeing her as dangerous the demi-humans refused to advance against wary on her abilities. That with her fearsome glare earned the archer the name "The Mad-Eyed Archer". The demi-humans' hesitation allowed Neia to rally her fellow defenders to hold their defensive line and reform their ranks.

The Pteropuses begin to rise from their ranks and fly over to the wall. Rather than cross over it, the aerial demi-humans target Neia who with mechanical precision downs them all. While focused on killing the Pteropuses she fails to notice an Armat sneak to her side and rips her left arm apart injuring her. When it follows up with another attack this time aiming for her head, the archer barely doges it and manages to stun it by smashing her bow into its face and impale it with her sword. Before the demi-human could counterattack Neia saved by nearby militiamen who kill it. By the time Neia gets up, almost all of the soldiers at the wall have been killed. Neia and six others find themselves separated from reinforcements by a mass of thirty demi-humans. Without priests or paladins, one of the men try to convince Neia to escape though she rejects the chance to flee as it would disgrace her master. She led meager force against the demi-humans who cut them down. Neia was the last one to fall as her armor helped her endure the worst of the attacks, but she eventually fell as demi-humans stabbed her with their weapons.

Meanwhile Remedios also at the western gate was contending with the 10,000 demi-humans that were bearing down on her forces. It was help original plan to hold the line and prevent any demi-human from getting past her by constantly drinking fatigue recovery potions, believing that the gate would be an obstacle that would hinder the enemy. Finding no flaw to the plan other than the difficulty to fight one on one ten thousand times, the paladin was confident that victory could be achieved by her countrymen alone. Her opinion of not relying on Ainz Ooal Gown had not changed due to her prejudice towards the undead and also his willingness to sacrifice hostages. Remedios orders the militiamen to hold off the demi-humans first wave assault long enough for her and the paladins to finish them off.

The first rank of militiamen carried greatshields were then set up around the western gate creating a wall of steel, followed by the second rank carrying shields roughly the same size and embedded into the ground. Paladins used [Under Divine Flag] to protect the militiamen from fear so that they would not be pushed back. The third and four ranks were composed of spearmen wielding longspears that thrusted their weapons between the shield teams to form a wall of death. While it seemed like the perfect formation, it had a major flaw in that it was weak against demi-humans with special abilities or magic casters. Despite this weakness the formation was the only one effective in their situation and Remedios ordered the western gate's portcullis to open. The opened gates caused the demi-humans outside to pause considering it a trap. However the paladin captain standing in front of the open gate taunted the demi-humans to come and get her causing the demi-humans to take the bait and chase after Remedios as she turned back jumped over the shield wall. In the chase many demi-humans slipped to the ground as it had been covered by large amounts of oil and those downed were trampled by their comrades. Only large heavy demi-humans made it through without accident like ogres. They charged at the shield wall but failed to properly judge the lengths of the longspears and were impaled. Still the ogres were not taken that easily prompting Remedios to order firebombs to ignite the oil around the western gate. A fire erupted behind the ogres. Faced with the blazing heat and zero visibility due to the smoke the demi-humans had two options to either advance or retreat. The demi-humans outside the gate and unaware of the danger opted to advance and continued the assault. They fell into Remedios's prediction who ordered the spearmen to pull back their spears and thrust at the charging enemy. Those demi-humans that were missed by the spears were taken care of Remedios who jumped over the shield wall and slayed the enemy in spite of the smoke interfering with her vision. Few demi-humans made it through the portcullis and Remedios intended to kill them and weaken the vanguard's willingness to fight.

The demi-humans had retreated beyond the smoke on the other side of the gate. Despite the calls from her men to fall back under the protection of [Under Divine Flag] but the captain senses that something was coming. Soon enough out of the smoke, three individuals emerged: Vijar, Nasrene and Halisha. The captain surmising that they were strong called for her fellow paladins, Sabicus and Esteban to fight alongside her against the three. Despite knowing that her underlings could not hold a candle to the chieftains the captain still followed through intending to call on more paladins like Franco and Galvan to take their place should the first pair fall to buy time. The paladins showed no hesitation at their orders, vindicating the captain that her path was the true embodiment of justice.

The three demi-humans having introduced their named to their opponents, Nasrene and Halisha are instantly recognized by Sabicus. This disappoints Vijar as his father's reputation still overshadows him. The three demi-human leaders know Remedios as the strongest paladin in the nation. Vijar is excited to face her believing that by killing her he will finally succeed his father's title as Demon Claw. Nasrene initially requests Vijar to allow her to fight the paladin promising to use her influence to sing praises of Vijar's name in exchange. Her intent apparently is to curry favor with Jaldabaoth to bear his child which disgusts Remedios. The demi-humans merely laughed at Remedios anger without a care that they were on a battlefield, infuriating Remedios further. Remedios then aims to take Vijar whilst Sabicus and Esteban take on Halisha and Nasrene.