Have to say, Sigmund's veteran troops were elite even among demons.
Despite the surging elemental spirits wrapped in heart-chilling thunder and hurricanes, their formation terrifying, the two demon brigades that received orders still charged forward without hesitation at the first moment.
The front-row heavy infantry roared in unison, slamming their giant shields etched with simple runes hard into the ground. The runes lit up, linking together to form a dim energy barrier.
The following soldiers thrust spears through shield gaps. The glow of combat skills intertwined with the exploding lightning around the elemental spirits' bodies, producing deafening noise.
Flesh and blood violently clashed with pure elemental constructs. The demon line inevitably showed dents and casualties from the initial impact, but relying on discipline and fearless ferocity, they truly managed to barely hold back this wind-thunder tide with their bodies.
At nearly the same moment the infantry engaged, the rear demon spellcaster units also completed their chants.
Blood arrows, fireballs, ice blades... various magics arced over their frontline comrades' heads, pouring onto those storm elementals.
Magical energy violently clashed with elemental shells. Elemental spirits continuously let out silent wails under dense spell bombardment, their forms dispersing and reverting to uncontrolled currents and chaotic winds.
At this rate, Sigmund would truly devour this batch of powerful storm elemental spirits at minimal cost.
But the human side clearly wouldn't stand by and watch.
Under the adjutant's command, two thousand Puchi Handlers swiftly split into two wings, each leading over ten thousand Puchi like two white tides. They bypassed the area of intense clash between storm elementals and demon vanguard, launching a side attack on the demon army—storm elemental spirits didn't distinguish friend from foe in battle.
At the same time, the adjutant shouted toward Inanna hidden in a heavy-armor Puchi's abdominal cavity: "Commander! Order the attack!"
"Okay!" A muffled response came from inside the thick rock armor.
The adjutant felt somewhat annoyed. After leaving the elemental chaos zone, the miss suddenly insisted on drilling into a heavy-armor Puchi for some reason.
Though true command was the adjutant's own, having the nominal commander cowering and hiding still affected morale to some degree.
Could only say, good thing the subordinates were all Puchi Handlers, with Puchi as the main force, minimizing the impact on morale. Otherwise he truly didn't know how to fight this battle.
What he didn't know was that these arrangements were all Lin Jun's orders.
He didn't want Sigmund to spot Pink Puchi and thus link back to himself.
For Lin Jun, winning this battle was easy, could even be said to be too simple.
He could completely forcibly control Sigmund's body, give Veralith a fatal face-stab up close, leaving her dead or crippled, instantly ending the battle.
But...
Wouldn't that turn into Lin Jun working at a loss for the humans!
If it really came to that, based on his understanding of Sigmund, that guy would definitely abandon compromise on the spot and mutually destruct with him at any cost.
And Sigmund was one of Lin Jun's most important assets!
This plump body was a treasure that needed Lin Jun's careful protection!
If world destruction was inevitable, relying on this body he could still enjoy over ten more years!
Therefore, the real difficulty of this battle for Lin Jun was how to quietly use his own advantages to help Inanna at least achieve an evenly matched situation, without letting Sigmund notice.
After all, under Sigmund's command was a complete demon legion. To win in a fair duel, unless he brought over all his Northern Territory reserves.
However... this Sigmund guy actually called them rabble...
Eight thousand Puchi—moved!
...
The wing Puchi Handler units quickly engaged in close combat with the demon welcoming force.
After a sparse exchange of arrows and mushroom cannons, both frontline forces collided fiercely, falling into chaotic close-quarters combat.
In an instant, various bizarre attack methods erupted across the battlefield.
Self-destruct Puchi exploded with booms in demon crowds. Sticky poison mist sprayed from mushroom caps. Jumping electric arcs crawled between metal armor. Highly corrosive liquid splashed on shields with sizzling sounds.
This demon force clearly couldn't adapt to these varied attack methods. Formation quickly fell into chaos, paying a heavy price.
After abandoning massive casualties, the damaged demon brigade retreated in disarray, relying on dense volleys from rear archers to barely stabilize their footing and disengage from contact.
The first battle's victory greatly boosted morale on the human side's Puchi Handlers, but made Sigmund's brow furrow tightly.
One of his brigades was actually repelled in frontal clash by a group of enemies who mainly relied on magical pets to fight?
This was simply absurd!
But he also knew this wasn't the soldiers being cowardly.
Those Puchi's strange and varied attack methods indeed made the troops lacking response experience suffer greatly.
As a battle-hardened veteran, Sigmund naturally wouldn't panic from one setback.
Just one round of clash, and he identified these Puchi Handlers' weaknesses and decisively adjusted deployment.
The newly committed demon brigade no longer eagerly pushed forward into close combat with Puchi, but steadily held the line.
At the same time, the rear archer units were magically enhanced. Dense arrow rain began continuously pouring onto the heads of Puchi groups trying to charge over.
Amid whistling air, countless arrows fell, nailing large numbers of Puchi dead to the ground. If Puchi Handlers wanted to drive Puchi to continue attacking, they had to bear enormous battle losses.
This wasn't all.
A force of five hundred blood knights was deployed. Led by Sigmund's adjutant, they bypassed the storm elemental spirits and Puchi, arriving at the Puchi Handlers' flank.
The place where both sides fought was outside the valley. The terrain was relatively flat with not many obstacles. Such terrain actually wasn't favorable for Puchi Handler combat.
After Sigmund's two-pronged response, the Puchi Handlers were instantly put on the defensive.
If they didn't commit large numbers of Puchi to forcibly break through the arrow rain blockade, they couldn't effectively threaten the demon line. But if they sent out all the Puchi main force, the Puchi Handlers would be harvested by the eyeing blood knights—five hundred blood knights routing a thousand Puchi Handler bodies would take just one charge.
"Looks like... that's all they've got."
Sigmund's words carrying a trace of contempt had just finished when the battle situation suddenly changed.
Large numbers of self-destruct Puchi controlled by Lin Jun charged past the Puchi Handler units!
Completely different from those mixed fodder, this batch of elite self-destruct Puchi were covered all over with hard shells, their forms curled into dense spheres. Under the enhancement of [Acceleration LV9], they charged toward the blood knight force on the flank at astonishing speed!
Sigmund's adjutant was also no mediocre person. Reacting extremely fast, he immediately yanked the reins tight, roaring commands for the knights to turn their horses and evade at full speed, while organizing counterattack: "Blood arrow volley!"
Crimson arrows condensed from concentrated blood shot through the air toward the rolling Puchi flood.
However, the battle results were unexpectedly unsatisfactory.
The Puchi's inconceivable speed was one thing. More critically, their uniform [Chitin Shell LV10] provided defense far exceeding ordinary Puchi.
Unless blood arrows hit dead center, even grazes could only make the Puchi tumble a few times, completely unable to effectively stop their charge. This was completely different from the mixed Puchi on the other side being harvested in swaths by arrow rain.
"Cease fire! Full retreat to main formation!" Seeing the counterattack effect was weak while the spheres rapidly closed in, the adjutant decisively abandoned all entanglement and led his force in full retreat.
But it was too late. The Puchi's short-distance sprint speed far exceeded these mounts!
Amid chain explosions, dust flew and shockwaves instantly swallowed the blood knights' rear units.
In the end, of this originally five-hundred-strong elite cavalry force, only over two hundred escaped in disarray. This was still the number preserved because the adjutant personally held the rear at the last moment, blocking with full force.
Those knights who couldn't make it back mostly weren't killed by explosions in the first moment, but had their mounts' legs blown off, falling to the ground and becoming infantry.
Having lost mobility and being isolated on the battlefield flank, facing more rolling self-destruct Puchi, their fate was predictable.
Blood knights weren't ordinary infantry that could be casually replenished. One probing flank action losing nearly three hundred made him feel heartache.
"Looks like this 'rabble' is tricky." The roommate's schadenfreude in his ear annoyed him even more.
But at the same time, Sigmund also completely dropped his contemptuous attitude. More units that had been on standby were mobilized under his orders. He wanted to properly test these so-called Puchi Handlers—exactly how much weight they carried!
(End of Chapter)
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