Chapter 398 278: Handsome Beastman

The seven or eight Six-armed Snake Demons were like wolves among sheep, instantly disrupting the infantry's formation. The once-orderly Shield Array ground to a halt.

These Warriors were not mere brutes who relied on brute force; each was a natural-born Weapon Master, more than enough to look down on the grunts before them.

Their six arms made them like a perfectly coordinated three-person squad. Two Shields were enough to fend off most attacks, while the spears and Longswords they wielded gave them options for both near and far.

They could be called mobile war machines.

The commanders in the distance knew that sending ordinary soldiers to kill this group of Six-armed Snake Demon Warriors would be a matter of attrition, just piling up bodies. With victory already in hand, there was no need to incur unnecessary casualties.

As the orders were relayed, the infantry received the command to avoid a direct confrontation. They let out a collective sigh of relief and began to change formation, using their spears to encircle the Six-armed Snake Demons. Instead of clashing head-on, they focused on restricting their movements.

The gazes of the Six-armed Snake Demon Warriors were savage and brutal, a mix of ferocity and bloodlust. They stood over three Tri-Blades tall, looming over the short humans before them.

They tilted their heads back and let out a great howl, ready to begin another round of slaughter, but their bloodthirsty expressions instantly froze in place.

A dense volley of arrows darkened the sky, raining down on the clearing. The continuous, ear-piercing whistle of their flight was enough to make one's skin crawl.

Crows soared through the air, their mournful caws echoing as if lamenting the fall of heroes.

The Six-armed Snake Demon Warriors were completely unable to block such a quantity of Arrows. They became riddled with shafts, but their Life Force was truly tenacious. They managed to charge forward a few more steps, bristling with arrows, before they staggered, swayed, and collapsed onto the grass. Blood poured from their bodies, pooling into a small stream on the ground.

"It's over." Levi lowered his spyglass. 'These Six-armed Snake Demons are stronger than I thought.'

'I thought they were pitifully weak before, but that was only in comparison to me. They never had a chance to show their true strength before I cut them down with a single stroke.'

'It wasn't until they crashed into the ranks of soldiers that they fully demonstrated their martial prowess.'

Levi recalled what Fatir had said: there were enough of these Six-armed Snake Demons at White Bone Fortress to form two or three legions of ten thousand. 'No wonder Damon suffered such a crushing defeat here, leading to a total rout.'

'Most importantly, the enemy is backed by the Abyss and can constantly replenish its forces. We either have to kill them faster than they can reinforce or we have to close the Space Channel. Otherwise, the longer this drags on, the more disadvantageous it will become for us.'

'To be honest, if the Demons also had heavy siege engines, this war would be far from being an easy victory.'

'But a battlefield is a battlefield. There's no room for 'what ifs'.'

Soon, the cavalry positioned on the flanks began their charge, hunting down the remaining, scattered Demons, determined to leave none alive.

Unlike the Races of the Middle Ages Continent, there was no need to consider the morality of it. Leaving even one Demon alive would be an act of disrespect to the Gods they worshiped and an act of irresponsibility toward the barefoot farmers in the countryside of Debei.

In the end, the Demon corpses were gathered in a large pit for a mass cremation. The weather in Debei was starting to warm, and if the bodies weren't dealt with, a devastating plague could sweep through the land.

No one with a conscience could stand by and let that happen.

With everything handled, the army did not stop to recover from the fatigue of battle. Instead, they continued their march toward White Bone Fortress.

The Demon squad that had ambushed them from Lonely Peak, combined with the testimony of the escaped Holy Knights, made the Northern Nobles understand the severity of the situation even more clearly.

「Another sunset and sunrise passed.」

The army finally halted on a Highland. With a small stream nearby and its position on high ground, it was obviously an excellent spot to make camp.

The location was only a few miles from White Bone Fortress. From this high vantage point, one could faintly make out the silhouette of a massive castle in the distance.

Any commander who wasn't a complete idiot would not have overlooked this spot.

Countless Scouts began to move back and forth between the two armies. Unsurprisingly, some small-scale skirmishes broke out. The Northern Territory's forces clearly had the upper hand, however, and their Scouts returned with a great deal of vital information.

"Hell, I don't think I've seen this many people in all my past lives combined," the Lord said. He stood atop a Giant Stone on the high slope, holding a spyglass and gazing at the distant White Bone Fortress. The sight was enough to make his skin crawl.

White Bone Fortress was a stronghold built into the side of a mountain. Though its walls couldn't compare to Kolon's, they were still eighteen Tri-Blades high. At this moment, the woodlands before it were covered in a dense spread of campfires, as unsettling to look at as pockmarks on a face.

Groups of Demons surrounded these campfires. They were either sleeping on the ground or jumping and dancing around the flames in celebration. There was no proper encampment to speak of.

They were like a tribe of Sihanouk people from the forsaken continent of the Far West. These dark-skinned savages were still living in a hunter-gatherer age, with clothes of beast hide and weapons of stone, a far cry from even the most basic slash-and-burn agriculture.

After all, even the Half-Beastmen in the Wilderness knew how to practice animal husbandry, which just showed how low a level of civilization these Demons possessed.

Although these Demons had nothing that could be called an encampment, their numbers were truly staggering. They covered nearly all the woodland outside White Bone Fortress, as if laying a red carpet over the land.

"Lord Levi, in truth, the Demons here are just the tip of the iceberg." Bodoff had been freeloading at High Cliff Castle ever since he was rescued, and he didn't look the least bit worried. "The Demons guarding the Space Channel... now *they* are truly as numerous as the hairs on an ox. They're everywhere."