Chapter 10 The Bitter Struggle

On the battlefield, the fighting had reached a fever pitch.

As expected, Feng Bujue’s earlier lie that "we've cut off three-quarters of their supply lines" was gradually losing its effect.

Although his words had indeed reinvigorated the kingdom's army for a time, this kind of spiritual support was difficult to maintain for long in the face of reality.

Of course, most of the kingdom's soldiers had been mentally prepared for this.

They weren't fools; from the beginning, they hadn't completely believed Feng Bujue’s words. Everyone understood that since the Redundant Army could open the first batch of boom tunnels, they could naturally open a second, third, or even an *n*th batch. Even if Feng Bujue was telling the truth, the end result wouldn't change, because the enemy's forces would eventually replenish themselves…

Frankly, the soldiers were just treating Feng Bujue’s statement as a "placebo," like using morphine to relieve the pain of someone beyond saving… accepting it and allowing themselves to find temporary peace.

"The enemies on the west side have advanced to the city walls."

"Pumpkin Head’s squad has been wiped out…"

"The vampire and Bigfoot units are on the verge of collapse. The Scavengers have injured their progenitor."

"The Ancestor of the Black Dragons has suffered severe injuries and is near death; he has now transformed into his human form and been sent to the magical emergency room."

"The goblin's self-organized suicide charge squad has completed its mission…"

One bad news item after another was relayed to the command post, but the king wasn't there at the moment.

Having rested for a while, Mr. Hankey had returned to the battlefield and was now single-handedly holding back the enemy forces on the south side.

Indeed… there was no upper limit to his shit-controlling abilities, but his stamina did have a limit, and his ultimate moves had a cooldown. Under the onslaught of thousands of Redundant Soldiers and three Scavengers, even someone as strong as Mr. Hankey could only struggle to hold on.

And Feng Bujue’s partners were also deeply involved in the battle, scattered in various locations, fighting fiercely against the Redundant Army.

In the eastern sky, Dian Que Wang had transformed into the "Ancient Demon Guardian" form, resembling a giant bronze bell jar, combining physical and magical attacks to block the enemy's charge.

In terms of combat power, Old Wang was the only one among the NPCs Feng Bujue had encountered who hadn't lost power in the war; unfortunately… his power was incomplete to begin with.

Ever since leaving the Gate of Emptiness, Dian Que Wang had been in a "recovery period." His appearance represented the degree of his recovery; in S2, he still looked like a child, but now he had the appearance of a teenager… To return to his "full power" from the previous era, he would theoretically have to wait until his appearance matured to that of a middle-aged man.

In short, Dian Que Wang’s "transformation" was actually "overdrawing" his power, but given the situation, he had no choice…

Looking at the north side of the city walls, the Billy Brothers and Xiao Tan were fighting there…

Honestly, the Billy Brothers could only play a limited role in this battle, because they could basically only rely on Bill's melee combat ability to eliminate enemies. Even though Bill's combat power was impressive, nearly felling an enemy with three punches and two kicks, such a speed of killing enemies was a drop in the bucket in a large-scale battle with such a disparity in numbers.

And Billy, who excelled in "illusions" and "mental" abilities, was helpless against the Redundant Army, which had no "self-awareness" at all. If his body was still intact, he could have used telekinesis to participate in the battle, but… Dou Mo had destroyed that possibility two years ago.

As for Xiao Tan… he killed enemies even faster than Bill.

After some exploration, Xiao Tan had figured out various ways to "instantly kill" the Redundant Soldiers. His attacks were typical "assassin-style" attacks, using the least amount of cost, the fastest speed, and the highest efficiency to instantly kill the enemy.

But… even so, relatively speaking, his efficiency was still low.

In the face of a sea of soldiers like a dark cloud overhead, it was obvious that this "one by one" killing method was definitely not as good as AoE…

For example, Mr. Hankey's wave of feces hit more than twenty enemies, killing five and injuring more than a dozen. Even ignoring those injured, he had still eliminated five enemies in two seconds.

And Xiao Tan and Bill's way of killing monsters was to move, attack, retract, find the next target, move again, attack again… Not to mention that the enemies weren't just standing targets, and even the weakest would have some reaction. Even if the enemies were just a bunch of standing targets… being able to maintain an average speed of killing one every four seconds was pretty much the limit.

In other words, using that one-by-one killing method, killing five monsters would take about twenty seconds… Compared to Mr. Hankey's efficiency, that was a whole ten times worse.

In fact, this was the biggest problem facing the Monster Kingdom in this battle…

In terms of individual strength, the kingdom's army was definitely much stronger than the Redundant Army. In terms of "one-on-one duels," as long as they didn't face the Scavengers, any soldier of the kingdom's army could win consecutive battles.

But how long could this "winning streak" last? Ten matches was possible, but what about a hundred? What about a thousand? What if they faced multiple Redundant Soldiers at the same time?

This question was like "how long can a thousand martial arts masters hold out against the imperial court's million-strong army?" War wasn't a martial arts duel. In large-scale battles, area-of-effect attacks were much more important than individual combat abilities.

However, AoE skills definitely consumed a lot of energy. If they could be used freely without limit, Mr. Hankey alone could farm all the mobs.

The battle had continued from dawn until now. Those of the kingdom's army with area-of-effect abilities, such as the dragons (relying on their body size and magical energy eruption abilities), mages (of all races, using area-of-effect magic), and Void race (a technology-oriented race using plasma weapons), were basically at the end of their ropes. Their physical strength, magic power, and energy… after such a long time, had been used up.

At this moment, as another batch of new Redundant Soldiers emerged from the sky, despair… finally descended again.

After persisting for so long, when their physical exhaustion had reached its limit, seeing another large batch of enemy reinforcements whose numbers hadn't decreased at all… this feeling became the last straw that broke the camel's back of the soldiers' mental defenses.

They began to fear, not the fear of dying… but the fear of living, of living in this seemingly purgatorial eternal night.

"Don't give up!" But, amidst a sea of despairing voices, there was still one voice that said firmly, "As long as we hold on until Feng Bujue returns, we can win."

As the words fell, Ruo Huai Shang’s figure had appeared on the west side of the city walls. Facing the defensive line that was about to be breached, she also revealed her trump card—[Soul Advent].