( Demon King Anos's POV )
Anos arrived at Thumba City expecting a fight, however, he was disappointed to see that the humans were completely caught off-guard regarding his arrival.
Unlike the Demons, the humans were supposed to have a strong and robust internal conversation network that was fast and efficient.
Hence when Anos flew over the Eastern Duchy two hours ago, he expected that the news of his impending arrival would already be communicated to the Southern Duchy, where the defending forces would be ready to fight, but apparently it was not.
There was not a single human fighter who looked ready to fight him and this made Anos feel slightly disappointed.
"So much for humans and their excellent tactics–" Anos murmured, as he came to Thumba City expecting a fight of epic proportions, however, got an open field instead.
On another note, he was quite impressed with how the human city's looked versus the Demon City's, as while the demon cityscape looked like a slum with no clear blocks or City planning, the human city's looked like a beautiful mis-mash of roads, squares and intersections.
It was colorful, it was vibrant and the commoners seemed to be full of life, which was very different from the oppressive atmosphere that Anos was used to back at the Demon Capital.
"That tiny building at the center, is that where their chief lives? It's a building that's bigger than all the rest in the city, but it's still so tiny…" Anos commented, as he set his sights on Duke Nico's manor built at the center of the city as his first target.
As Drogo flew over it once, Anos saw a few powerful humans scrambling out to the monor's gardens as they shouted some form of commands in an indiscernible language.
A few archers prepared their bows and took aim towards Drogo, while a few spearmen prepared to throw javelins.
Nonetheless, even after being on the target radar of several hundred tiny humans, Anos was not worried at all as he simply kept scouting peacefully, without showing any signs of hurry or worry in the world.
As the archers and the spearmen released their projectiles towards Drogo, they put all their strength behind the attack. However, let alone hitting Drogo, the projectiles did not even reach within a hundred meters of the beast.
The sheer downforce generated by the mighty black dragon's wings created a gust of wind so powerful that it sent away the arrows and javelins spiraling downwards, scattering them like mere twigs caught in a gale.
Each attempt to strike the dragon was rendered utterly useless, as the powerful gusts deflected their weapons long before they could come close to their target, making their efforts nothing more than a futile display.
Naturally, the sight of their weapons being rendered so utterly useless left the human forces feeling insignificant and powerless as fear began to creep in within their ranks.
Upon gazing at the black dragon, the beast from myths and legends, the Duke's forces realized that no amount of skill or effort could bridge the immense gap between them and the terrifying beast above, as they mentally lost the will to fight.
However, with all of their families and close friends living within Thumba City, they also knew that if they did not fight for their safety, no-one else would and hence, pushing back against the fear, they kept shooting towards the dragon and the wyverns, even though it was futile.
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( Duke Nico's POV )
Duke Nico was interrogating Eren alongside Vice Commander Phill, when they heard the undeniable sound of the Dragon's Roar.
Scrambling, the duo rushed outside to see what was going on, only to see a sprawling black dragon above Thumba City's skyline.
Sweat began dripping down Duke Nico's forehead as he had never seen such a formidable opponent before, as for a moment, he failed to get a hold of his emotions.
"The Demon King is here….." Nico murmured, the fear of the Demon King still fresh in his mind as it wasn't too long ago that Eren told him all about him.
The Southern Duchy was supposed to be a safe territory. It was supposed to be a land far away from the reach of the demons and hence Duke Nico couldn't believe that the enemy was at his door-steps, bypassing all the safe zones surrounding him.
"ARCHERS AT THE READY! SPEARMEN PREPARE YOUR WEAPONS!
ALL MEN PREPARE FOR BATTLE!
COME ON NOW–
THERE IS NO TIME TO WASTE" Phill shouted from beside him, as unlike himself who was stupefied, Phill seemed to still be functional.
Shouting, he rallied the Duchy's forces into action as he tried to respond to this unexpected threat as best as he could.
'Should I just run with my family?' Duke Nico wondered for a moment, however, just as such a cowardly thought entered his brain, the Black Dragon flew directly over his manor, slapping him with a gust of warm wind, as he realized that there was no outrunning this dragon.
Clutching his sword, Nico immediately regained his composure as he unsheathed it and pointed it towards the enemy above.
"ARCHERS, TAKE AIM!" he shouted, taking command and fulfilling his duty as their leader, striving to instill confidence in his men.
However, as soon as the first volley of attacks were launched, he immediately realized how futile it was, as let alone piercing through the black dragon's hard scales to cause it some real damage, the projectiles that his men shot did not even reach the beast's body.
It was at that moment, that Nico felt his mind going blank as fear paralyzed him.
His brain turned into literal jelly as time seemed to flow slowly around him.
Although he soaked in a lot of information at once, his mind lost the ability to process it, as faced with his unexpected threat, he simply had no answers.
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/// A/N - Guys we are at 506 golden tickets and the rank 15th guy is at 580.
If we can somehow bridge this gap of 74 tickets and reach top 15 this month, I'll do a mass release of 5 chapters upon hitting the target. ///