The Era of Gods - Chapter 103

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: My Performance Was Affected Because I Was Too Poor

Translator: 549690339

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As per the agreement, there was no limit on the number of combatants for this battle.

The reason was that Lin Xiao’s Clan was mostly comprised of Fishmen, and while numbers below a thousand were manageable, any more and the disadvantage would become overwhelming.

This was something he didn’t hide, nor did he need to.

If this had been before, a Clan primarily consisting of low-level Fishmen like Shang Xiaoxue’s wouldn’t even get a glance from him, but after the previous battle, he no longer dared to underestimate them.

Even though in the last battle the Fishmen were completely crushed by his Centaurs, he had noticed that Lin Xiao’s Fishmen were extraordinary. Had it not been for his well-armed Centaurs, the outcome might have been uncertain with equal equipment, which intrigued him.

Once the details of the battlefield were set, Lin Xiao immediately deployed four hundred Naga and ten thousand Fishmen, effectively deploying nearly all his available forces, all of which were at least Level 1 Fishman warriors. After receiving the Generalist Warrior Profession Card, their combat power exceeded Level 2, but they were just shy of reaching Level 3 combatants.

If these Level 2 Fishman warriors were equipped with a Profession, or if their Professional Level was raised, they could be comparable to Level 3 combatants.

Compared to Lin Xiao, who had nearly emptied his ranks, Shang Xiaoxue also fielded an army surpassing two thousand fully-armed Minotaur Cavalry under the lead of a Centaur Hero on the plains at the edge of the battlefield.

In Shang Xiaoxue’s Divine Realm, there were nearly three thousand Centaurs, along with over five thousand Kobolds.

Kobolds were his initial Race, but after acquiring the new Centaur Race, Kobolds became a vassal Race mostly tasked with mining and blacksmithing.

The wealthy Shang Xiaoxue procured a full set of Blacksmith’s Professional Cards and trained a portion of the Kobolds as dedicated blacksmiths. Half of the weapons and armor equipped by his Centaurs were forged by these Kobold blacksmiths, which made Lin Xiao envious, as he longed for a set of his own.

Just like the last time, Lin Xiao again relinquished command, letting Slarda take the helm to act freely. After all, it was a simulation challenge, and death here wasn’t permanent.

Since Lin Xiao did this, Shang Xiaoxue naturally wouldn’t show weakness. After briefly instructing his Hero, he refrained from any further commands. Both of them sat at the Vault of Heaven, overlooking the Earth, where the vast grassland was dissected by several rivers and swamps. Both armies, under the command of their respective heroes, gathered at the center of the terrain.

In less than an hour, the two armies converged across a river that bisected the terrain. The river was shallow and calm, and without hesitation, the Centaur Hero ordered an attack to be launched.

But Slarda on the opposite bank of the river was even quicker to react, ordering the vanguard Fishmen to use their “Salted Fish Charge” first, hastening into the river to seize the advantageous position.

The “Salted Fish Charge” no longer required a target to activate and instantly bridged a fifty-meter gap, allowing them to be the first to enter the river and occupy the favorable terrain.

The river was over a dozen meters wide. Even though the river was calm and shallow, about a meter deep, at the center it neared two meters. The Centaurs could wade through it without obstruction, but by this time, a large group of Fishmen had already entered the river.

The moment the Centaurs attempted to cross, Slarda shouted loudly:

“Stop them.”

The Fishmen who had rushed into the water surged out. With a powerful flick of their strong tails, the skill “Thunder Strike” exploded around them with great force. The water of the river rapidly expanded and distorted, blasting upwards in a wave several meters high that spread out from the Fishmen. The sheer force of the skill knocked the fording Centaurs into disarray, and many close by were stunned and toppled into the water, the skill proving more potent than when used on land.

Seizing the moment, a swarm of Fishmen rushed forward to drag the fallen Centaurs under the water and hold them down.

However, the water was too shallow for such a tactic to be lethal. In deep water, it could be deadly, but in the barely two-meter deep river, it was less effective, as the Centaurs could easily regain their footing.

But this provided just enough time for more Fishmen and even Naga to arrive as reinforcements. Along the several kilometers of riverbank, they formed a defensive line, firmly keeping the Centaurs to the other side of the river.

After that, both sides reached a stalemate.

The Fishmen and Naga couldn’t assail the Centaurs on the shore, and the Centaurs couldn’t affect the Fishmen in the river, even with javelins. As everyone knows, the refraction of light makes objects underwater appear in a different location than they are, and unless you have the experience of an old fisherman, the aim is negligible. The two thousand Centaurs threw more than twenty thousand javelins, but less than a thousand Fishmen were killed. After they expended all their javelins, the situation became completely deadlocked.

Fortunately, this was only a simulation challenge. Since they were at an impasse, there was no need to continue fighting.

Next, they simulated challenges across different terrains.

There were terrains favorable to Naga and Fishmen, with plenty of water, as well as desolate flatlands suitable for Centaurs. They also faced off in forest terrains, less suitable for both, and even volcanic terrains, which were particularly harsh for Naga merpeople.

They deployed different forces to different terrains not only to grant combat experience to their Clans but also to themselves.

With such experience, in the future, they would be able to respond more adeptly to these adverse environmental conditions.

After exchange for five or six rounds, others joined in the exchange. Lin Xiao immediately sent out mass invitations, and soon someone responded, entering the challenge mode as if they had been waiting all along.

The respondent was Tang Ling, who flashed a strange smile at Lin Xiao and entered the virtual environment ahead of him.

His Clan consisted of Bull Monsters, not the orc Race Minotaurs but a type of Bull Monster dwelling in the Dark Territory underground. These formidable creatures with a human body and a bull’s head towered over two meters tall and were incredibly strong, excellent candidates for heavily armored infantry that specialized in siege warfare.

Apparently fixated on defeating Lin Xiao early on, he dispatched over three thousand fully-equipped Bull Monsters in one go.

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Fully clad in armor cards, their enclosed steel helmets revealing only their eyes, wielding a two-handed axe and a row of small hand axes each the size of a palm at their waists—they too were armed to the teeth.

There was no suspense in this round of combat, as the front ranks of the Fishman warriors were instantly flattened by the Minotaurs arrayed in formation. No matter how high the Fishmen’s morale or how tenacious their will, the disparity in equipment was simply too great.

The Fishmen resisted stubbornly, refusing to retreat even in death, persisting stubbornly even as more than half had fallen.

Tang Ling stood above the plane, in the Vault of Heaven, arms crossed, looking down on the realm with a face full of smug satisfaction.

Lin Xiao sat cross-legged in the Void on the other side, emotionless, looking down upon the Earth. His face didn’t show any disappointment; instead, he was carefully observing the battlefield and Slarda’s performance within the battle.

Almost as if cast from the same mold, while he still managed to observe the battlefield with a cool and calm demeanor, Slarda also retained a measure of composure even as his subordinates faced such a disadvantage, standing on a large rock overseeing the battle with a cold gaze.

Above the Vault of Heaven of the plane, unknowingly, over a dozen figures had appeared. Seeing the one-sided nature of the battle, Bai Ze shook his head and said:

“This guy is bullying people again.”

A few beautiful girls glanced at the battlefield, and one of them shook her head, saying:

“The Fishman side is doomed, they’re bound to lose.”

No one argued with that, as an absolute gap made a comeback impossible.

Then, one of the girls, whose pupils gleamed with a green radiance, suggested:

“Should we make a bet on how long he can hold out?”

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuexin furrowed her brows and shook her head:

“They are our companions, let’s not embarrass them.”

Bai Cheng also nodded and added:

“There’s no need for a bet. This student Lin Xiao does have strength; it’s just that his resources can’t compare to ours. If he had access to our resources, some of us might not even be able to match him.”

Just then, there was a change within the plane. Slarda, who had been observing the enemy, suddenly rallied all the reservists to leave the Central Army and charged towards the raging battlefield.

With him at the forefront, nearly two hundred Naga followed closely behind, piercing like a sharp knife into the slightly scattered ranks of the unsuspecting Minotaurs.

Leading the charge, Slarda leaped over fifty meters high from above, unleashing a Thunder Shatter that tossed up a thick layer of shattered stones, clearing over twenty meters of space around him. The nearest circle of Minotaurs were killed by the shock, while the outer circle was blasted back, left dazed.

Then, with a brutal Salted Fish Charge, he burst through a straight line of Minotaurs, traversing a hundred meters to crash fiercely into a Minotaur Hero who had unknowingly entered his line of sight.

This towering three-meter-tall Minotaur Hero was an ordinary hero. Though its rank was much lower than Slarda’s, it had become a hero earlier and its current strength was no less than Slarda’s. It’s just that Slarda’s sudden and berserk attack was too abrupt, catching him off guard.

In a critical moment, Tang Ling directly and precisely commanded the Minotaur Hero’s guards with a Divine-mandate. A group of guards rushed selflessly forward, and along with the Minotaur Hero who grabbed one of his guards to use as a shield,

“Bang!”

With the arrival of the vast shadow, a group of Minotaurs flew through the air together. Slarda’s broad snake tail swept away the surrounding Minotaurs, and with a fierce leap, he brought down an anchor from above, smashing the Minotaur Hero into the ground mid-air, denting its thick chest armor.

Regrettably, the Minotaurs had already reacted, and a large swarm of them crowded around, blocking Slarda’s path forward.

Up in the Vault of Heaven, Tang Ling’s expression changed slightly. With a thought, she took direct control of all the Clan movements within the plane, orchestrating each of their actions with fine precision from a god’s-eye view, easily thwarting Slarda’s plan.

Already advantaged, the combat power exhibited by the Minotaurs under the cheat-like guidance of the god’s-eye view surged manifold compared to before. With Slarda now enveloped by the encirclement, the situation took a drastic downturn.

“No way to turn this around.”

“The equipment gap is just too wide.”

The onlookers gazed at Lin Xiao with eyes that bore no ridicule but rather a complexity.

After this battle, they had clearly seen that Lin Xiao’s Fishman Followers possessed combat capabilities far surpassing normal Fishmen, with each of the Fishmen, whom they remembered as pitifully feeble, showing impressive might, even going toe to toe with some Level 2 Minotaurs—a truly preposterous notion.

What surprised them the most, however, was the Fishmen’s tenacity, maintaining an extremely strong fighting spirit even after losing more than half their forces.

Even now, with casualties exceeding seventy percent, they had yet to collapse, which was truly inconceivable. They admitted to themselves that if their own Clans suffered more than half losses in battle, morale would waver, and without a Supervising Team, the lines could not hold; if the losses exceeded seventy percent, even with a Supervising Team the situation would collapse, save for a few core members with insufficiently devout faith.