Lita did her best to slow down the advancing army of the blood merchants , however the army avoided major cities and were travelling in relatively remote routes that only had minor towns or villages in the vicinity hence she could only mount a weak defense at best against the enemy , but she still managed to cause major casualties to the tier 0 troops of the enemy thinning the initial 33 million troops to nearly 30 million.

  Although it did not affect the main forces of the blood merchants much , it was a huge releif for Rudra as the useless cannon fodders were dealt with without much issues.

  For Rudra his initial battle plan was one that started with a bang , hence for him if the bang was reserved for the better tier 1 or 2 forces , it would be a much better outcome , than wasting the big surprises on the tier 0 forces.

  Taking this favour to heart , Rudra vowed to come to the aid of the Russians whenever they needed the elites to back them as what the Russians showed to the elites was true commradery in their hour of need.

  While many who thought that the elites were bound to loose the war rose in rebellion . The true friends also rose to the occassion. One of those true friends being the Grey international subguild of the elites , who were given battle plans by Rudra to be followed carefully.

  The first part was to ambush the blood merchant convoy on their way to Purplehaze city and ensure that the tier 0 cannon fodders were dealt with.

  This plan consisted of a total of 200,000 troops and the mission was to ambush the weaker sections of the convoy as it passed through narow forest passes using guirella warfare tactics.

  While the second group was reserved as an outflank , to circle the enemy and cut off all paths of retreat during the first phase of the war.

  The second group consisted of 800,000 troops.

  Rudra wanted to thin down the enemy numbers as much as possible before they entered the True Elites Kingdom territory , as from then on it was a free pass towards Purplehaze city , with Rudra leaving over 17 villages and one town completely unguarded.

  Naturally he had evacuated the area and rigged them with explosive mines all over , however despite the traps he knew that the army would arrive at the gates of Purplehaze city , sooner than later albeit after suffering minor losses.

  Rudra's prediction was spot on as over the next two days although the incoming blood merchant army suffered many explosions on their way towards Purplehaze city , they kept marching on without batting an eye for the dead.

  Watching from the walls of Purplehaze city , one could see a human army that lasted as far as the eye could see , as a sea of humans gathered 5 killometers outside the city walls.

  The army being so large that they had to have army flag bearers at regular distances , to make sense of where the front and the back lines truly were.

  The blood merchants had a pitch black flag that had a bright red weighing scale symbol plastered over it. With one side of the scale being bent and dripping with blood.

  Contrary to them , the Elites had a clean white flag , that fluttered proudly in the wind with a grey wolf insigna painted in black at the middle.

  As time passed , the enemy forces started to form ranks and the army camp started to take a proper shape , as the war weapons which were dismantled for the carrying journey started to be re-assembled at the camp.

  As Rudra and the elders watched the enemy forces assemble as everyone's stomachs felt funny with butterflies flying inside and goosebumps arising on their skin.

  Not only was the army incredibly huge , but they also had massive war machines that they had carried over , with uncountable cannons and large boulder throwing machines within their ranks.

  Although Rudra knew about the cannons , the boulder throwing machines were new information for him, as he had no doubt seeing the size of the balls that were loaded on those machines that no portion of the wall would be able to hold on for more than 2 blows of those massive balls.

  This was very bad information for the elites , as it was imperative that they held onto their lines and not let the enemy breach the walls of Purplehaze city in the first phase of the war . However it would be impossible to hold that line , if the wall broke before phase one was completed.

  " This …… This …… Guildmaster what will we do ? ". Medivh asked Rudra , panick evident in his eyes as he had lost all hope within his heart seeing those massive machines being assembled , however while everyone else panicked Rudra was incredibly calm as he assessed the situation.

  Rudra knew that for the Elites to win the war , phase one was the most crutial phase where they could absolutely not let the enemy breach the wall. Hence , the opponents tools of war needed to be dealt with before they were allowed to be used on the walls , there was no question about that.

  The only thing that Rudra regretted at the moment was the lack of information. He had no idea how many hidden cards the opponent were hiding or how many unknown variables he had to account for!

  Since he had seen the war machines before the fight began , he could prepare for them , but he could not prepare for the surprises that were bound to happen once the war started , which was why he only had 30-35% confidence in winning the war.

  Nonetheless just as he was preparing a strategy to counter the enemy's war machines. A human rider with a white flag rode from the blood merchants camp towards the wall .

  " Let him come ". Rudra ordered as he allowed the rider to enter the wall and deliver the message to Rudra.

  The rider said " The leader of the blood merchants and the devout of the merciful lord Lucifer , Scar-face , invites King Shakuni of the elites to discuss terms of surrender , or the rules of war ".

  Rudra knew about the rules of war , it was a system contract that was signed between two parties before war. According to which the two parties would set up ground rules for the coming fight.

  Rudra was obviously never going to surrender , however he was open to negotiating war terms , especially as he had a trick that might majorly influence the direction of the war should the opponent fall for it while signing the war terms.

  Hence accepting the enemies proposal , Rudra rode halfway towards the enemy camp , whereas scar-face came halfway as the two faces off in the middle of the two armies.

  As Rudra dismounted from his Grey Wolf mount , he had a regal aura around him with black smoke rising around his body , a king's robe over his neck and a crown over his head as he looked like the incarnation of Hades himself.

  His walk had a swagger about it that screamed superiority , as compared to the warrior looking scar-face Rudra looked like a true leader.

  However scar-face was not someone to be intimidated by the looks of Rudra , as he stared right into Rudra's eyes with a murderous and menacing glare that had the message ' I can kill you without even breaking a sweat ', Inside them.

  Rudra on the other hand activated his eyes of truth , as he delved into the secrets of scar-face the terrifying leader of the blood merchant group.

  [ Scar-face ] ( Lv : 476 ) ( Commander ) : The leader of the blood merchant group and the warrior that lucifer hand picked to lead his organisation's operations on middle earth.

  A peerless warrior with no equal under the tier 5 realm.

  Undoubtedly scar-face had an extremely impressive strength with him being at the absolute peak of tier 4 , yet Rudra was not scared for even a moment.

  With his legendary class and years of the golden ratio , he was sure that his stats were not so far off from scar-face that he may be suppressed in a one on one battle.

  It was a battle that was bound to happen sooner or later , hence even though both parties met under the banner of peace today , the tension between them was so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

  However there was an even more interesting character present at this meeting than Scar-Face , as Dronacharya greeted Rudra with a smug face.

  " Surprised ? …… Hehehehehe ". Dronacharya laughed as he waited to see Rudra's shocked expression. However Rudra just rolled his eyes at the idiot whose presence he had long discovered within the enemy camp.

  /// Sorry guys i am currently travelling for 2 days , hence i cannot publish the bonus chapter today. But i will surely catch up with the promised backlog , as soon as I am able to . So please continue with the GT support ! ///