Chapter 50: Bloody Battle on the Kaga Wasteland

Outside the fortress, on the wasteland that had been preliminarily purified for a month, the distance was still a filthy blood-colored land. According to the demons captured by the Harpies later, the demon lord who came this time was named Kas the Skinner, a demon lord promoted from a brutal Berserk Demon, whose strength was equivalent to Master Rank, known for liking to skin demons alive.

When the chaotic demon army appeared from the distant skyline, 35,000 spearmen wearing iron armor and holding giant wooden shields had already lined up in military formation. The shields were deeply inserted into the earth, forming a steel city wall. Armor-piercing spears up to three meters long extended from the gaps in the shields, forming a forest of death.

The second line of defense was archers and accompanying Shamans. The Shamans kept chanting, casting "Stone Skin" and "Heart of Fury" for the front-line soldiers, and carving "Weak Fields" on the ground, continuously weakening the demons that touched the line.

15,000 archers and crossbowmen were located on the high slopes behind the first battle line and on temporarily built wooden arrow towers. They were divided into three waves, ready to carry out alternating uninterrupted shooting under the order of the Battle Banner Chief.

20,000 heavy armored troops, as the general reserve, were personally led by Uglu. The soldiers were covered in refined steel plate armor, holding giant axes or maces. They sat quietly behind the position to recharge their energy, and even the giant tusk wild boars were covered in full heavy armor, and their defensive power was impeccable.

When the demon's vanguard appeared within range like a moving forest of flesh and blood, under the order of the Battle Banner Chief, the heavy ballistae deployed in the formation roared first. Giant crossbow arrows with barbs tore through the sky, shot into the demon tide, stringing several Berserk Demons together like candied haws and nailing them to the ground.

As the demons entered three hundred paces, the flag officer of the archer camp waved the command flag. The first wave of quenched arrows rose into the sky like locusts, drawing a deadly parabola in the air, and then fell into the demon formation with a sharp whistle. The screams of Dretch Demons and the roars of Berserk Demons mixed together, and the tide of the charge seemed to be shaved off by an invisible sickle.

The demon legion immediately returned the favor. Several groups of green evil fireballs were thrown from behind the enemy army, smashing into the spear formation, burning mucus splashing everywhere, instantly creating gaps. Under the urgent command of the camp commander, the rear spearmen quickly filled the gaps. At the same time, a small group of Winged Demons appeared in the sky, trying to dive into the archer position, but were immediately intercepted by the anti-aircraft crossbow arrows blessed by the Shamans.

Under the continuous baptism of the arrow rain, the demon's vanguard finally hit the steel-like spear forest covered in scars. At this moment, the archers' shooting did not stop; they began to carry out overhead shooting, sending death to the heads of the demon's subsequent echelons.

The demon's powerful impact made the entire phalanx vibrate, but the formation did not collapse. The spears pierced the Dretch Demons in the front row in pieces like harvesting wheat.

Berserk Demons and other mid-level demons hit the shield wall one after another. Their power was huge, and shields were broken and soldiers fell from time to time, but the comrades in the rear immediately filled the gaps expressionlessly. The entire first battle line was like a black dam standing tall in the blood-colored tide.

The demon commander was dismissive at first, thinking that relying on pure violence could crush this "wall." It invested more and stronger demons, including some Vrock Demons holding heavy weapons, trying to tear a gap in the defense line.

Archers used the maximum elevation angle to throw arrows into the depth of the demon team like raindrops. Although these arrows were not highly accurate, they fell densely, seriously hindering the reinforcements of the demons in the rear, and causing effective harassment and damage to the mid-level demons who were driving the Dretch Demons.

Crossbowmen and sharpshooters used heavy crossbows and armor-piercing arrows to calmly aim at large targets such as Vrock Demons and Spider Demons that were destroying the shield wall. Cold arrows flew out from behind the shield wall, accurately shooting into the eyes, throats, and other weak points of the demons. A Vrock Demon that had just raised its giant axe was instantly hit by three crossbow arrows in the face and fell to the ground with a bang.

When the corpses piled up to a certain extent, a "slope" that could be climbed was formed, and subsequent demons jumped over the spear tips by stepping on the corpses of their kind. Realizing that the time was ripe, several heavy units such as Vrock Demons and Babau Demons began to concentrate on attacking a point of the formation. Relying on their terrifying weight and power, they knocked away entire rows of soldiers like bowling balls, forcibly tearing open gaps one by one.

Seeing this, the flag officers ordered one after another, "Focus fire! Stab!". Several spears around began to give up their respective targets, stabbing at the joints, eyes, and throats of the giant beasts from different angles at the same time, using coordinated attacks to make up for the lack of individual strength. The demon's offensive stalled.

Just as the formation was gradually stabilizing, the Macrophage Worms and Earth Giants dispatched by the Demon Lord suddenly launched an attack from beneath the formation, causing a large number of soldiers to fall into deep pits without any preparation, instantly disintegrating the integrity of the formation, while low-level Dretches also took the opportunity to launch an offensive.

At the same time, demon warlocks directly released large-area foul-smelling clouds, causing devastating blows to the dense spear formation, and the spear formation began to totter. The fear aura brought by mid-to-high-level demons constantly impacted the soldiers' psychological defense line. The entire army was already on the verge of collapse.

"It's time!" Having said this, Uglu put on his helmet and ordered the heavy cavalry to charge. The giant tusk wild boars had a shoulder height of nearly two meters and weighed more than a ton. They were covered in heavy plate armor, leaving only slits at the eyes. Their purpose of being tamed was charging and destruction.

On the battlefield, they only saw them lay flat their huge, metal-wrapped tusks, like two huge battering rams. Any demon hit directly, whether it was a Dretch Demon or a Berserk Demon, would fly out with shattered bones as if hit by a catapult.

The cavalrymen were fully armored, and their weapons were mainly long-handled maces, war hammers, and giant axes. Their mission was not stabbing, but hacking and crushing. They used the huge kinetic energy brought by the wild boar charge to swing terrifying weapons. A simple horizontal slash could cut several demons on the path in half or smash their heads.

Their core tactic was "always moving." Stopping meant being surrounded and dying. They would repeatedly charge and kill in the demon tide like plowshares plowing the land, completely churning and crushing large pieces of "demon soil."

Uglu ordered 2 battalions to cut into the flank of the demon legion attacking the spear formation diagonally from the flank or gaps in the defense line in a wedge formation. This could most effectively reduce the pressure on the spear formation. Another 2 battalions launched a charge from another direction, forming crossfire with the first wave, completely surrounding and splitting a large area of demons.

At the same time, the last elite battalion was retained, personally led by Uglu, to deal with emergencies or launch a "decapitation" charge against the demon commander. Faced with the sudden change, the demons appeared obviously panicked, and a large number of Dretch Demons screamed and fled everywhere.

Large demons such as Vrock Demons tried to stop the charge. They threw hook axes or hit them head-on. A few heroic (or stupid) individuals used brute force to overturn one or two wild boars, but more often, they would be hit by several wild boars from multiple directions at the same time, hit hard from above by the cavalry's heavy weapons, and finally fell in front of absolute power.

The demon lord furiously drove its elite guard forward to intercept. It ordered: "Stop those damn pigs!"

And let all remaining large demons (such as Spider Demons, Minotaur Demons) concentrate to form a flesh-and-blood defense line, trying to delay the cavalry's charge with numbers.

"Attack their legs!" a demon commander yelled. Some smarter Succubi tried to use magic to attack the relatively fragile leg joints of the wild boars.

"Kill the knight on the back!" another commander roared: "Winged Demons and demons capable of long-range attacks, concentrate fire to attack the cavalrymen themselves."

Just on the charge path of the wild boar cavalry, the ground suddenly burst, and several "Abyssal Giant Armor Demons" covered in rock shells broke through the ground. These monsters were like living fortresses, with a sturdier build than giant tusk wild boars. They did not have sharp claws and teeth, but had huge bone forelimbs like battering rams.

Their mission was only one: use their bodies to block the charge! The heavy cavalry's offensive gradually slowed down. Seeing that it was not good, Uglu immediately ordered the cavalry to line up for infantry combat, and the two sides fought together again.

However, at this moment, several Glabrezu suddenly appeared from behind the demons, and began to spray a large number of dwarf demons toward the spear formation. A large number of insect swarm demons also began to harass and attack. Although these demons were not strong in combat, they became the last straw that crushed the spear formation.

Seeing that the most powerful cavalry was blocked, the demon legion's morale was greatly boosted. Kas the Skinner roared that victory was in sight, and invested all the reserves, including the last batch of Winged Demons and its most bloodthirsty Bloodletter guard, into the attack on the spear formation. The spear formation, which was already under huge pressure and suffered heavy casualties, finally reached its limit.

"Left gap, fill it! Fill it quickly!" The Battle Banner Chief's voice was already hoarse.

But this time, the gaps came too fast and too many. A Vrock Demon knocked away several soldiers, and the Bloodletters behind it surged into the interior of the formation like red lightning. They did not seek to destroy the formation, but crazily slaughtered the officers, flag bearers, and Shamans inside the formation.

Panic spread like a plague. Soldiers who lost unified command and belief support began to fight on their own, and were then split and surrounded. Countless cracks appeared on the solid "Iron Wall," and finally completely shattered, turning into countless small circles of desperate resistance.

Watching the collapsing spear formation, Centaur Camp Commander Ryan ordered a raid. The Centaurs pointed their lances at the unprotected back of the demon legion and issued a roar of charge. There was no heavy hoof sound, only a gray storm.

Five thousand Centaurs raised their speed to the extreme, like the sickle of the god of death, silently scraping across the earth, and only erupted with sky-shaking shouts at the last moment. Like a hot knife cutting through butter, they directly penetrated the demon's weak rear army, trampling the positions of the Plague Toad and Succubus wizards responsible for long-range support to pieces, instantly lifting the magic threat.

The remaining Centaur detachments shuttled back and forth in the demon formation, constantly throwing javelins, firing arrows, and spreading the terrifying news that "we are surrounded" with their thunderous hoof sounds and war cries.

The demons fighting on the front line heard the screams coming from behind, and the army's morale instantly disintegrated. The demons besieging the wild boar cavalry were in chaos, giving the trapped heavy cavalry a chance to breathe. They began to fight back hard, forming an internal and external pincer attack with the Centaurs. The demon's chaotic nature became their hell at this moment; they pushed and trampled each other, and even swung weapons at their companions to escape.

Uglu and Ryan met in the sea of corpses and blood. The Ogre Legion Commander nodded solemnly to the Centaur commander, and everything was in silence. This victory did not belong to any single branch, but to the cooperation and sacrifice of all branches that never gave up in desperate situations. ===== CHAPTER 51 =====