The darkness also ensures that for many people, only the flashes of light could be seen in the sky because of the need for light to see.
For those same people, the flashes of light were appreciated because they helped to shed light on the situation and help people see in the darkness.
On the ground was a tide of creatures that made the insect swarm look like a joke. This is one sight that the darkness didn't hinder because the elven army was marching from an area with a lot of light towards the position of the human army where there was poor lighting.
One look at the elven army was enough to make one's scalp tingle in fear. Actually, from the distance, they looked no different from insects. They were only in larger numbers. So they were more terrifying to look at than the swarm.
These two different scenes were the situation of the two separate battlefields. The demigods were fighting above while the mortals were fighting below.
The two battlefields seemed separate, but that was far from the case. Occasionally, debris from the sky will fall and crush mortals on the ground.
Sometimes, a flash of light would extend from the sky to the ground and carve the ground. Any mortal that happened to be in the path of this light streak would be eviscerated or turned to dust.
Other times, rockets were launched from the ground to the sky, or the spear of glory flashed briefly, resulting in an explosion or nothing.
It is clear that the battlefield in the sky is the most important one, as the outcome of the fight in the sky would determine the direction this war would move in. But the fight on the ground was also important, especially in regard to the human army.
If the elven army managed to breach the barrier and destroy the core of their base, the human army would become a rootless weed.
Just the loss of the force field barrier alone would open their equipment to the devastating effects of the acid rain. Things will surely go south from there.
Without the core of their base, the human army would lose their factories, refiners, nuclear power plants, and ground laser array for the spear of glory.
They wouldn't be able to produce combat bots of any kind to assist them in the fight. An end would come to the launching of rockets, and the spear of glory will be put out of commission.
To top it off, if the barrier is destroyed, the human soldiers won't have a rear to retreat to anymore. So the base mustn't be destroyed. Command made that very clear in their message to the soldiers.
Command instructed them to defend at all costs. Then they went on to send special directives to individual soldiers that they intended to use in their strategies or whose help they needed for specific purposes.
Kelvin was not a part of these individual soldiers who were needed for special reasons. He was to guard the barrier just like everyone else.
He wasn't even given soldiers of the first division to form squads with. He was to fight as an individual together with other soldiers.
Everyone scrambled to make their final preparations. For him, this involved checking to make sure that his army-issued armor was in order.
He didn't have much to prepare because this was the most important thing to prepare for the upcoming battle. But he did check his boots, hearing aids, and googles.
Other soldiers did similar things. They checked to make sure that their armor, equipment, and weapons were working and fully charged.
Then he fell into a formation with the other soldiers and marched out of the barrier. As he did so, airplanes and drones took off above them while combat bots trailed behind them.
The human soldiers marched out of the barrier into the ice forest beyond and set up their position some distance from the barrier.
They were still under the darkness of the artificial clouds and within the freezing zone they had created, but they surrounded their base in a full circle so that the barrier couldn't be approached from any direction.
They were smaller in number, but they also had a smaller target that they wanted to protect. By spreading themselves in a circle around their base, they limit how much of the elven army can fight them at once.
So the overwhelming advantage of the elven army in terms of numbers will be largely nullified. Meanwhile, the human army will have the advantage of having an entrenched and highly secured defensive position.
Behind the soldiers, the combat bots appeared. Most of them were equipped with long-range missiles and artillery, which they began firing as soon as they fell into position.
Missile bombs and artillery shells arced through the sky over the human army to strike the elven army in the distance.
So before the two armies met physically, the elven army was already taking casualties. It was unfortunate that the elven army was somewhat prepared, so the number of casualties wasn't that much.
Some creatures from the elven army jumped up to intercept. They either jumped up to swarth the misses out of the air or punched them.
But the elves themselves didn't do this. Instead, they shot arrows into the sky to take down the missiles. Some of their shots were indeed powerful enough to destroy the missiles before they could hit the army.
They also began to retaliate by raising various plants and trees to throw rocks at the human soldiers. The giant vines they animated were especially skilled in doing this. They could throw bigger projectiles for longer distances.
They also raised spiked trees to protect their sky from airplanes and drones. The spiked trees were also occasionally directed to bombard the human army specifically.
This marked the beginning of the third major confrontation between the invaders and the inhabitants of the world. It was also the largest confrontation with the highest number of combatants.