Chapter 587: Chapter 587. Catastrophic Loss
Like his army, Xuang Feng also sacrificed his battle puppets to give him the chance to run. By the time his mid-tier runic-grade battle puppet was down, he was already far away.
Amon examined the broken battle puppet in his hand. It was heavily damaged, but some parts might still be salvageable. He quickly stored it in his black space ring before flying to rejoin his troops, cutting down as many fleeing enemy soldiers as possible.
Echos’ soldiers with the Beast Tamer job excelled in this moment. Their tamed beasts generally had a faster movement speed than the fleeing soldiers. They pounced on the enemies and hindered them until their partners arrived.
Beast Tamer and Plants Keeper were the two specialized jobs where Khode lost to the other countries. It was understandable considering the desolate habitats in Khode. Hence, Khode soldiers were rather inexperienced when they faced the combined assault of spirit beasts and cultivators. This was also why Won Feimao was so quickly defeated by Gao Xingzi and her Yao Bird, aside from the fact that Yon Feimao had very little true battle experience since he mostly stayed at the back during a battle.
Amon surged ahead, slicing through the enemy ranks. His Alpha Flying Knives spun, and the ceremonial dagger flashed, dropping enemy soldiers in rapid succession. With the enemy in panicked flight, their backs exposed, he had his army pressed on the attack. Anyone who decided to stop and resist found themselves instantly surrounded, because their comrades were too busy fleeing. There was no formation or coordination.
Xuang Feng tried his best to coordinate the retreat, but his troops’ morale was too far gone. Most of his yells fell on deaf ears. Only the soldiers who had followed him a long time came to his call, but not many were left in this category.
He looked back and saw half of Echos’ troops hacking their soldiers who were slow, while the other half pushed ahead to catch more prey. These enemies seemed adamant to wipe them out.
He quickly spotted Amon and Yong Baili among the pursuers. These two slew their soldiers in droves. They both had weapons with a wide scope that could hit multiple targets simultaneously. Seeing the situation, he decided to cut his losses.
Xuang Feng grabbed Xuang Chao and barked at those who had assembled to follow him. As they fled, he moved to the rear, tossing talismans that served as booby traps behind them to slow their pursuers. These booby traps might catch their own lagging soldiers, but he couldn’t afford to think too much at this point. He pressed onward, leaving those lagging soldiers to their fate.
Amon saw Xuang Feng’s group leaving. He was originally working his way toward that enemy’s commander, but he also saw Xuang Feng scattering many talismans while fleeing. Some of those talismans hovered in the air and formed elemental walls, so pursuing from the air was also hampered. It would take too much effort, so he focused on slaying the more vulnerable enemies.
During the process, he noticed someone. This person’s appearance had slightly changed, but he was sure he didn’t identify the person wrongly. He charged over before his soldiers killed the person.
His soldier was confused when Amon stopped him from dealing the killing blow to the enemy soldier who had fallen to the ground. The enemy was similarly puzzled by the save. His puzzlement turned to surprise when Amon’s finger poked him with lightning speed at multiple spots. He found himself unable to move.
Amon told his soldier, "Take this one to the jail."
Amon looked around. He spotted several more familiar faces among the enemy soldiers. He went around and captured those people before ordering his soldiers to take these captives back to the town.
The pursuit went on for almost the whole day. Before the battle started, Amon had given prior instructions to pursue when the enemies fled and to stop chasing when the sun set. Any enemies still alive by then would be too scattered and too traumatic to reassemble for quite some time.
On the way back, they looted the enemy corpses and took any valuables they could find. Amon let them. The one he claimed as the army’s possession was the broken battle puppets. Ji Zhi and Zhong Yuan led the looting of these downed battle puppets. They identified the ones that could still be salvageable and ordered the soldiers to bring those puppets to the town’s factory.
Amon also told his soldiers to loot the supplies in the enemy’s camp. In their hurry to escape, the enemies no longer bothered to bring anything. Those supplies were mostly still intact.
Their biggest gain was, of course, the enemy’s Yuanxu Cannons. Amon instructed his troops to prioritize slaying the enemy soldiers without damaging the cannons if possible. With the enemies fleeing in chaos, they didn’t have the time to think about those cannons. Out of the fifteen cannons still operable on Khode’s side before the battle, six were still operational. Combined with the eight they already possessed, the First Demon Army now had fourteen Yuanxu Cannons.
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"How many are with us?" Xuang Feng asked a lieutenant colonel who fled with him. They only stopped moving when it was close to midnight. They were now hiding inside a small valley between two rocky hills.
"A little bit more than four hundred," answered the lieutenant colonel, whose name was Wue Gang.
Xuang Feng drooped his head. Their loss was catastrophic. They started with thirty thousand strong troops, but were reduced to such a pathetic size in a single day. To make matters worse, they didn’t seem to deal much damage to their enemy.
"There should be more who managed to escape," Xuang Chao said. He was sitting by the side. His severed arm had been bandaged, and he had consumed a regrowth pill. His arm would recover eventually. "They will rally to us if we call."
"I think so too," Wue Gang agreed. "I propose we return to Weylun Fort. Anyone who escapes should go to that fort as their first destination."
Xuang Feng was silent. Xuang Chao and Wue Gang didn’t say anything. They could see that the result of today’s battle was a huge blow to him. They waited for his decision in silence.
Finally, Xuang Feng spoke, "Chao, you return to Weylun Fort with our Human Realm troops. Wue Gang, assemble the Martial Realm soldiers. We will fly past Surly Mountain Range and get to the other side, where the Northern Army will come from. We will join that army. They need to know what they are dealing with."
"Uncle, I want to go with you!" Xuang Chao exclaimed.
"No, you are to return to Weylun Fort and stay there until your arm is fully healed. Once you do, you can rally the soldiers who return there to rejoin the war."
"But... That might take weeks," Xuang Chao said.
Xuang Feng’s face was grim when he said, "I have a feeling that this war will end up being much longer than that..."
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Back at Surly Gate Town, most of Echos’ soldiers had returned inside the town. They left their battle puppets outside, which continued to roam the vicinity in case some Khode stragglers were still hiding.
Amon spent a short hour reviewing the reports from his four regiment commanders. They lost a thousand Echos Soldiers during today’s battle. It was a much smaller loss compared to Khode troops, but still a loss. Considering they were cut off from Echos, each loss was not replaceable.
Thankfully, they could grow their force using different avenues. The first was the battle puppets.
Three thousand of their battle puppets were damaged beyond use. Half could still be repaired, while the rest were scrapped for parts. Thanks to the advanced equipment in the factory, the repair should not take long. Combined with the battle puppets they salvaged from the Khode Army, they could build more battle puppets to bolster their force.
The second was the human puppets. For today’s battle, Zhong Yuan managed to process five thousand prisoners using the eight thousand receiver modules. Almost all human puppets lost their lives during the battle, but two-thirds of the receiver modules were undamaged. Amon ordered Zhong Yuan to remove the explosive devices inside the backpacks. The receiver modules were more valuable than having the human puppets commit suicide assaults to take down enemies.
After collecting the receiver modules, combined with the ones not yet used, they still had a bit over six thousand. Now that they had additional prisoners from the surrendered Khode Soldiers, they could replenish their human puppet force.
All in all, Amon considered today’s operation an acceptable success.
After the meeting, he went to the jail, not to visit Zhong Yuan. The man was not there. He let Zhong Yuan rest for today as a reward for his hard work. He was visiting a different person.
As he approached the jail, he saw the large mental regulator installed atop one of the jail’s towers. It was off at the moment. The mental regulator was installed there because the tower was one of the tallest structures in this town. Those towers were meant to monitor if any prisoners tried to escape.
The position of the Mental Regulator was not as high as when it was used in Bright Rock City. Hence, the signal could not travel too far. The human puppets they controlled were only operational in Surly Gate Town’s direct vicinity.
Amon walked into the jail and reviewed the cells. Most of the cells were filled to the brim, but one of them held only one prisoner. Amon entered this cell.
The prisoner looked at Amon when he entered.
Amon told the prisoner, "Lin Xiaolong, long time no see."