Chapter 45

The combat effectiveness of the lizardman army exceeded Ade Lai's expectations.

As a former centurion of the conscript legion and now the Sheriff of Silver Pine Town, although he didn't dare boast about being a veteran of a hundred battles, he had beaten up mere lizardmen a few times.

These things looked fierce, but their organization was terrible; gathered together, they weren't even as good as the thugs in the underground streets of Thunder City.

In his impression, a front line supported purely by lizardmen usually couldn't hold until the fifth volley before being beaten into a rout, and then they were either chased by Grand Duke Campbell's knights or blown to the sky by the brothers of the artillery regiment...

However, he never expected that these guys, who had never won a foreign war, would be so difficult to deal with in the labyrinth!

It wasn't just the human commander Ade Lai who was confused; Mo Erlag, standing in the lizardman army, was even more confused than the former.

In Mo Erlag's impression, human muskets were scary, but they were far from lethal.

Considering the loading speed and excessive penetration, this thing might not even be as powerful as their bows and arrows.

By comparison, what they feared more were Grand Duke Campbell's knights and magic regiment... but it was very clear that neither of those things was here.

Standing here were just eight hundred or so farmers holding "fire sticks"!

As for transcendent power, the only one who could cast spells was an old man in a cloak, likely only at the peak of Bronze-tier strength.

Besides that, there were a few guys who looked like adventurers, who could only repeat this Black Iron-tier spell or battle technique... these juggling-like tricks were simply not worth mentioning in front of his Dragon-tongue power!

As for those five priests in white robes, they were clearly also Black Iron-tier, though perhaps because they carried the protection of Saint Xisi, the range of their spellcasting had received a significant boost.

With just this bit of combat power, logically speaking, it shouldn't have been enough to block his army, but for some reason, the young men of the Earth Dragon tribe had put in all their strength and just couldn't push through!

The battle situation fell into a stalemate, and the casualties on both sides were climbing sharply!

Both sides regretted it a little, but no one dared to shout "stop."

Encountering each other in such a narrow labyrinth was a situation where whoever flinched died; there was simply no retreat to speak of!

Mo Erlag tried to cast Dragon-tongue magic once more, throwing a dragon-breath bomb toward the crowd ahead.

However, holy light shrouded the human soldiers again; the white barrier was like a wall, not only swallowing his dragon-breath bomb but also injecting holy power and courage into the human soldiers standing in the front row!

Mo Erlag was thoroughly anxious; seeing the young men of the Earth Dragon tribe continuing to suffer casualties, he no longer held back, bringing out the magic power he had originally prepared to deal with the Demon King.

"You are seeking your own deaths!"

Chanting spells in Dragon-tongue, golden light shone from his eyes, and golden light was faintly visible in his tightly closed mouth.

Seeing that scene, the face of Che Er, the president of the Silver Pine Town Adventurers' Guild, changed wildly, and he exclaimed.

"Dragon Roar! Quick! Use the Holy Barrier!"

"Do you think my magic power is infinite?!" The priest Ma Te of the Silver Pine Town church cursed in a low voice, his face pale; a hint of fatigue had already appeared on his face, which had previously been composed.

It wasn't just him.

The four priests who were casting spells in unison with him were all panting, and a flush like the final glow of a dying person appeared on their aged faces.

Especially one of the elderly priests, who spat blood and sat on the ground, leaning against the wall.

The transcendent power the opponent mastered was clearly above theirs!

They had relied on the holy relic worshipped by the Silver Pine Town church to barely block that dragon-breath bomb, and it turned out the opponent still had the energy to continue casting spells!

Saint Xisi above...

He shouldn't have waded into this muddy water!

If it weren't for that damn sheriff's sweet talk, telling him that as long as he followed along, he could easily earn merit and then be transferred to the church in the prosperous district of Thunder City... he wouldn't have had a brain spasm and entered some labyrinth!

Just as Priest Ma Te was cursing some stupid sheriff, that stupid sheriff also wished he could give himself two slaps.

Without a doubt.

Things were screwed up!

Ade Lai couldn't understand even if he scratched his scalp off why the Demon King's army's combat effectiveness was so strong; how did the lizardmen, who should have collapsed at the first touch, not run away when they got here?!

Although the militia was currently at an advantage, the opponent still caused them significant casualties by relying on brute force and evil arts.

More than a hundred corpses were already lying on the ground, and the number of injured was countless!

Even if he could win this war in the end, it would be a miserable victory!

Earn merit and transfer?

It would be good enough if his sheriff's hat wasn't taken away!

"Commander! We can't wait any longer!" The leader fighting in the front row turned back and roared, "Light it! The brothers can't hold on much longer!"

Ade Lai gritted his teeth, estimating it was time, and finally waved his hand to issue the order, using his final trump card.

Because the power was hard to control, he had originally intended to save that thing for when he had no choice but to run away.

"Light it!"

The fuse was lit.

A faint spark soon followed the lizardmen's feet, darting toward the wooden crates scattered in the labyrinth corridor.

At this moment, the battle was at its most intense, and no one noticed the abnormality under their feet.

And almost at the same moment Mo Erlag used "Dragon Roar," hundreds of kilograms of explosives detonated instantly, the scorching fire instantly shredding the surrounding lizardman soldiers!

The power displayed at that moment had far surpassed Steel-tier magic!

It even reached Silver-tier!

Mo Erlag's Dragon Roar was simply vulnerable in front of that terrifying power, and it was swallowed up by the aftermath of the explosion in a casual manner!

Not only that—

The boiling shockwave was like erupting magma; after sweeping through the lizardmen's position, it soon rushed toward the Silver Pine Town militia's position, regardless of friend or foe!

Everyone had no time to dodge and collided head-on with the scorching shockwave, falling backward in droves like wheat flattened by a storm.

It wasn't just Ade Lai.

Everyone present, even the gunners who had served in the artillery regiment, had underestimated the power generated by the explosion of hundreds of kilograms of explosives in a confined space!

But there was no help for it.

Things like compulsory education had only existed as a flash in the pan in the history of the Kingdom of En, and the Enlightenment and the liberation of thought were suppressed in all directions by theocratic rule and "divine right of transcendence."

Even though this world already possessed things like steam engines, and had even improved them, the vast majority of people only used them as a kind of "alternative transcendent power."

Including the explosives granted to them by Isaac IV.

Shock dynamics?

What the hell is force?

That terrifying explosion quickly swept through several labyrinth corridors, not only swallowing both warring sides but even involving several players who were hiding in the distance to watch the fun!

Fortunately, they were standing relatively far away and only suffered minor injuries.

But those people and lizards at the center of the explosion were miserable; they were either buried by the collapsing tunnel or blown up so badly that not even a complete corpse could be found.

In the dust.

Ade Lai, leaning on his scabbard, stood up shakily, looked around with blank eyes, and deep despair emerged.

Casualties were countless.

Priest Ma Te lay dying in the corner, and President Che Er was also unconscious with his eyes tightly closed.

And his subordinates... including the guy who urged him to light it quickly, most of them were nowhere to be found.

His Adam's apple moved, and his legs went limp, kneeling on the ground.

Here...

It was simply hell!

"Roar—!"

An angry roar suddenly came from afar, interrupting the sorrow and panic in his heart.

Ade Lai quickly drew his sword and stood up, only to see a murderous lizardman walking from the shadows ahead, holding a scimitar and staring at him without blinking.

Fierce light flashed in those amber pupils, and that ferocious expression looked as if it wanted to swallow him alive.

Ade Lai swallowed his saliva; although his knees were trembling, he still mustered the courage to fight.

Come on!

It's death either way.

Perhaps—

For him, having lost everything, death would be an easy choice...

On the other side, Luo Yan, who was in the Demon King's territory, was still looking in the mirror.

Or to be more precise, he was pondering his faith value, which was jumping up and down.

This thing hadn't been right since the morning; at first, the growth was gratifying, but later it grew and then dropped.

Why is this thing like A-shares, jumping up and down...

He was incredibly puzzled.

Although the daily growth value was still hovering around 2000, and with expenditure unchanged, it wouldn't drop below 1000 net value.

But this thing didn't have a setting like a limit-down, and he couldn't make up his mind whether it would drop back to where it rose from in the blink of an eye.

Faith?

Loyalty?

How come they don't love me anymore just after falling in love?

Luo Yan couldn't figure it out.

In these few short hours, he didn't seem to have done anything inhuman—

Wait!

Could it be that it dropped because he didn't do anything?!

Luo Yan suddenly realized.

Just as he was calculating who to persecute today, Hearing You You's voice had been calling one after another for a while.

"Demon King! Alakdu has brought your servants!"

"Should I mark them all with green names? Give them a name!"

"Ahhh!!! Demon King, something terrible has happened! Put the naming thing aside for now, the lizardmen have attacked!"

"Wait, I heard from the players that they seem to have started fighting with humans?!"

"Earthquake! Did the labyrinth have an earthquake?!"

"So noisy, can you only say one thing at a time?" Luo Yan replied impatiently, then suddenly stood up from the ground with a start, "Wait, lizardmen? Started fighting with humans?!"

That the lizardmen would attack was within his expectations; he had already made preparations in the hall at the entrance of the labyrinth, just waiting for them to come and deliver their heads.

But what the hell are humans?!

Are they adventurers?

But... that's not right.

In his impression, adventurers wouldn't clash with groups of monsters; those guys were all bullies like Chris who feared the strong and bullied the weak.

Although he had the intention of using surface humans to deal with the lizardmen, he hadn't expected a direct conflict to break out between the two.

"Mm-hmm! I heard from the players that it seems like the human army has entered the labyrinth..."

When saying this, Hearing You You paused for a while and said in an awkward tone in a low voice.

"Uh... things happened a bit suddenly; it seems like it's already over just now."

As the "Land God" of the Demon King's territory, Hearing You You could only move around the Demon King's territory and Luo Yan; it couldn't run to the front line to see what was going on.

The information it conveyed to Luo Yan was basically second-hand information from the official website, and there was no way to avoid a delay in time.

Moreover, sometimes players would exaggerate, which was also possible.

Although Luo Yan didn't put those four-legged snakes in his eyes, he had to be more careful about the surface humans.

Thinking of this, he immediately stood up from the ground and stuffed the mirror he had been looking at for a long time back into his pocket.

"Issue a mission to the players in the Demon King's territory and have them gather at the entrance of the labyrinth!"

"Also, have Alakdu wait for me below!"

"Received!" Hearing You You, having received the order, immediately went to do it.

Luo Yan poured the magic potion he had just prepared into a beaker, and then walked out of his workshop.

Fighting on my Demon King's territory!

If he didn't go to collect a toll, then he, as a Demon King, would be too "human"!