Sigmund: "Left wing, switch mountain formation to dispersal formation, withdraw in stages! All archers, immediately take hawk-eye potions and strength extracts—nail those rolling fungal balls to the ground for me!"
Louisa: "Here, here, and here! Have the self-destruct Puchi split into three waves, roll back and forth, feint but keep distance, draw their ranged fire! The heavy-armor Puchi cluster on the front—now, crash through at any cost and tear open that transitioning gap!"
Lin Jun: Shifted the cannon Puchi left a bit, moving them out of the opposing archers' attack range.
With Little Pig's addition, Sigmund immediately felt pressure multiply. Though the opposing commander's direction was somewhat green in some places, they displayed astonishing battlefield instinct, always precisely catching the moment his formation transitioned to launch surprise attacks!
This feeling of being completely seen through made him feel as if he were clashing with his old rival Alama, forcing him to continuously issue commands in response.
On the other side, besides her excitement, Louisa also deeply felt the terrifying commanding prowess of Sigmund.
She occupied numerous advantages the boss provided, yet the opponent, even with his main force tied down by storm elemental spirits, could still command multiple fronts and steadily hold the line.
In a fair contest, she'd probably have been defeated long ago.
However, war never had fairness to speak of!
According to her calculations, just ten more minutes—after two more fierce exchanges—she'd be confident in tearing open an irreparable gap in the opposing defensive line.
With the boss backing her, there was no reason this battle would lose!
"Little Pig, I'm going to lower the Puchi numbers, okay?"
"Eh?"
...
No choice—couldn't not lower them and play with cards face-up to the end, right?
When it came down to it, he wasn't here to screw over little West. His goal was only one thing—the sunstone!
As a calm mushroom, he absolutely wouldn't deviate from his original intent due to momentary impulse.
Moreover, the storm elemental spirits couldn't hold out much longer either.
On the battlefield, a storm elemental spirit had just electrocuted a panicked half-vampire into charcoal. The next second, it burst apart without warning. The powerful shockwave sent surrounding demons and fellow elementals flying.
This wasn't an isolated case. More and more elemental spirits began collapsing one after another.
They were fundamentally unsuited to the outside environment. The consequence of leaving the elemental chaos zone for too long was being killed by the external environment.
In the distance, under a heavy-armor Puchi's mushroom cap, a pair of jade-green eyes revealed themselves, taking it all in.
Inanna felt somewhat apologetic toward these elemental spirits that were close to her.
Lin Jun felt these storm elemental spirits were purely tools. After all, under [Inspiration] vision, they didn't even have souls.
And now, these tools had completed their mission, buying Lin Jun enough time.
Commotion suddenly came from Dragon's Roar Valley's direction!
Alama, who'd been waiting in vain for Sigmund's attack, would naturally want to investigate. He logically discovered this batch of supporting Puchi Handler troops.
Alama had also suspected whether this might be a trap set by Sigmund, deliberately directing a human force over to fight at the valley entrance for him to see.
So he initially held a cautious attitude.
But after careful observation, especially seeing the demons' genuine heavy casualties, he determined Sigmund couldn't possibly pay such a price to stage a show, especially when the audience was him with no way to retreat.
However, Sigmund had long prepared for Alama's intervention.
Despite the frontal battlefield being strained, he never deployed the troops led by Veralith. This fresh force had always firmly guarded the valley entrance.
It was impossible to let Alama charge out!
Generally speaking...
...
Among the troops defending the valley entrance, a scrawny goblin uneasily shifted its bare feet, rough toes digging into the muddy ground.
The troop organization under Veralith's command had always been chaotic beyond measure. She would even stuff goblins and ravenous trolls into the same formation.
Therefore, situations where goblins were accidentally trampled into pulp by allied trolls, or simply grabbed and stuffed into mouths as snacks, occurred from time to time.
As a "mature" goblin that had survived with difficulty in this cruel environment until now, it had long learned it must maintain vigilance at all times. Those turbid yellow eyes continuously scanned all surrounding behemoths that might bring danger.
Puchi—
It suddenly felt something soft lightly squeeze its side.
Survival instinct made it immediately jump two steps to the other side to avoid being accidentally stepped on. But looking closely, opposite was only another equally confused goblin companion looking toward it—no one else had passed by.
It tilted its ugly head in puzzlement, looking around, trying to find the source of that tactile sensation just now.
The next second, accompanied by a deafening boom and explosive shockwave, it and its equally bewildered companion, along with many more surrounding demon soldiers, were all blown into scattered fragments together.
It no longer needed to think about that problem.
...
Next time he'd need to further optimize the invisible Puchi's foot structure. The slight puchi sounds made while moving were still too easy to expose.
As Lin Jun gradually lowered the Puchi numbers in Louisa's command direction, Little Pig's situation visibly became difficult.
And Lin Jun didn't waste these freed-up slots.
He instead used magic power to shape one invisible self-destruct Puchi after another, having them silently infiltrate the battlefield edges, ultimately successfully mixing into the loosest peripheral zones of Veralith's troop formation.
He really had to thank Veralith's chaotic command style and troop composition—saved Lin Jun quite a bit of trouble.
If it were a disciplined legion like Sigmund's, key positions would inevitably be equipped with sentries or mages skilled in reconnaissance. The invisible Puchi's sneak attack risk would be much greater.
Moreover, Lin Jun didn't want to create a completely invisible army on the battlefield—that would be way too conspicuous.
Alama immediately noticed the chaos caused by the explosion. While personally blocking Veralith, he had Lorenzo lead troops to forcibly tear open a gap at the explosion site.
And the adjutant, who'd long been beaten by Sigmund until crying for mercy and had even started considering how to protect Inanna in retreat—upon discovering Alama had torn open that gap, decisively led the remaining people and protected the heavy-armor Puchi containing Inanna as they moved over.
Sigmund didn't want to just let them go in like this. However, the storm elementals' pre-collapse outburst came wave after wave, forcing him to respond.
A portion of remaining Puchi even fearlessly held down his forces' steps. In the end, Sigmund could only watch helplessly as the Puchi Handlers were received by Alama into Dragon's Roar Valley.
"Really was an exhilarating battle, huh! Angry?" The roommate predictably popped up again.
"No." Sigmund took a deep breath. Instead, a trace of hunting enthusiasm's sharp gleam flashed in his eyes. He spared no praise: "I misjudged. That commander hidden behind the scenes on the opposite side—talented, a rare talent!"
"Mm-hmm, I saw that too."
"However, their magical pet army is almost completely consumed. Even if they luckily rendezvous with Alama and shrink into this broken valley, so what? Just bringing two problems together for my convenience to wipe out in one go! Hmm... after breaking through Dragon's Roar Valley, I can give this newcomer a chance to submit."
"???"
Group 1 exploded, might not recover. Everyone join Group 2.
(End of Chapter)
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