The battle against the enemy commander was easier than Alex expected, as not only did he dominate the peak Sixth Stage Elementalist in the context of pure strength, but once he used the Tenebrous Shard Enclave to boost his darkness manipulation, he was a force of nature on the battle.
Alex knew he had improved after his recent battle against the Fallen Seraphian, but he was not certain by how much, and defending the fortress just gave him the reason to go all out and find out.
Alex's mastery of Darkness had only grown from 17% to 21%, his mana body had grown past 96% purity, and his reflexes also underwent a great numerical improvement but nothing life-changing.
However, in practice, Alex estimated his overall abilities had improved by at least 15% to 20%, but when exerting his abilities to the fullest, he sensed that this enhancement exceeded his prior estimates.
Alex had never wielded such strength, magical or physical, and with the system data not matching his understanding, he could only make rough estimates and test his new limits in battle.
To test his limits, Alex dragged any captain in the vicinity into the folds of the Dark Enclave, knowing the commander alone was no match for him, and while the captains were far weaker, their numbers made them much more challenging to deal with.
Alex felt the threat of death when facing the commander being backed by four captains, making him think that he bit more than he could chew, but he knew he needed this experience to quickly get comfortable with the changes.
It was a good battle, as Alex came out victorious with a tenth of his health left and his physique littered with deep gashes and elemental burns, but he recovered to his peak using the Chrono Sanctuary skill.
After the leading commander and half of the captains were dead, there were few left to lead the enemy forces who were not faring well under the coordinated assault from three sides, and in a matter of minutes, the entire dynamic took a drastic shift.It did not take long before the enemy forces accepted their defeat and began to retreat, sacrificing the lives of the unfortunate ones to save the rest of their comrades.
A bloodbath ensued as more than half of the enemy forces, numbering over two thousand, were ruthlessly slaughtered before the calm returned, and the defenders turned their attention to their own losses and began treating the injured soldiers in their ranks.
Alex was treated as a hero for saving the fortress, and the fortress's Major captain took him to his chamber away from the chaos of the battlefield to rest before he began to inform his higher-ups of their successful defense.
It didn't take long before Alex was contacted by his family and, this time, directly by his family patriarch, who, after congratulating him and indirectly asking about his strength, gave him the good news of him being given a large-scale fortress all to himself.
It was Zero way of rewarding him or pushing him into more challenging situations where he would be forced to use more points with the opportunity to earn slightly more than he spent.
Alex was happy with the promotion, knowing that with three days gone, only two days were left before the event came to an unofficial end, and while there was a way to stop the incoming disaster, he knew with certainty that the players would never choose that option.
After resting, Alex teleported to his newly assigned fortress and met with the previous commander, who was assigned to a new location.
Afterward, Alex dedicated time to familiarizing himself with the Major and captains under his command, aware that his last two days would be spent with them, but they received him with more contempt than respect simply because his strength did not match his authority.
After learning their names and occupations, Alex went to his chamber to rest and analyze his latest battle, and once he was done with that, he checked his team's points and ranking in the event.
After the recent success, their team points grew past twenty- four million, which was a bit surprising, but after he saw the recent contribution of 6.3 million points made by Ravyn, he understood its source, and with that, their team ranking was pushed to the top once more.
As he couldn't go around hunting, Alex decided to chat with his team, contacting Ravyn first to learn what part he played in the assassination, to kill time, and also to learn what the silent figure of his team was capable of in his own element.
Ravyn told him how he killed people related to the targets, in turn forcing them to gather in one place to pool their information on who they suspected to be undermining their authority, an insider or an outsider.
Once it was done, he seized the disguise of a major healer of the camp and poisoned five of his gathered targets by tricking them into drinking a tasteless, colorless, and orderless poison in the name of a cure for the poison that they never ingested.
The Quest only required his team to kill four of the seven targets, so once the deed was done, Ravyn left the area, and with that, he ended his vaguely detailed story.
Alex already understood that Ravyn was a man of few words, but he never expected that he was so bad at communication because of how vague his description of the entire event was, or maybe he was very good at it, as he did share all that happened in a few lines.
But he was happy knowing that Ravyn truly had the skills and a solid head over his shoulder needed to use them because barely any assassin could go into the enemy camp, kill seven of their strong figures, each being a Sixth Rank warrior, and then orchestrate the assassination of five influential and strong figure.
Alex didn't stay free for more than a few hours, as he was informed of an army marching toward his fortress and swiftly given a quest by the system with a decent reward, but also warning him about the difficulty of the fortress defense.
The fourth day ended with Alex burning through two million points once more and making close to six million in return, and as the dawn of the fifth day arrived, the entire defense line was assaulted with the full might of Grimmarsh kingdom.
As the seven days were coming to an end, and the Grimmarsh kingdom had created footholds and built supply chains, they also began to stop holding back and came to their targeted area with full force.
The fifth day commenced with Dawnvale kingdom, having 93% of its territory secured, but that number dropped by 14%, making more than two-tenths of the kingdom's control fall into the hands of the attacking forces.
Alex not only survived the day but also made a killing with the points, earning 7 million points in total in a single day, and it was the result of protecting his fortress twice and killing three major captains, one with the assistance of his captains, and the other two with the help of his summon.
At the end of the Fifth day, Alex had all his skills on cooldown and had no means left to defend against another full-scale siege, but he understood that none of them would survive the few hours into the Sixth day.