“Bang!”

The horde of man-eating demons charged ferociously into the allied army’s formation, with Hatch leading the charge. With a single sweep of his wolf fang club, he effortlessly knocked aside the spears thrust toward him, then followed up with a swing that sent one soldier flying several meters away.

Behind the ranks of pike-wielding soldiers, several soldiers from the Flying Bear Army fearlessly charged forward carrying armor-piercing hammers.

“Clang!”

A heavy hammer slammed into Hatch’s back, striking a resounding metallic clang, and slightly dented his armor. Hatch himself didn’t notice the impact and continued charging forward, oblivious to the fact that he had stumbled slightly from the blow.

The Flying Bear Army had specially prepared these maneuvers to deal with enemies in heavy armor, like the man-eating demons. Upon realizing that ordinary soldiers had difficulty dispatching them with swords and spears, Richard ordered the armory to create a batch of specialized weapons such as armor-piercing hammers, clubs, and tools like the armor-piercing awls and sickles.

If Hatch were an ordinary man-eating demon, the blow would have likely left him dazed, and the remaining soldiers armed with various heavy weapons would have been able to surround and successfully kill one of their kind.

Unfortunately, Hatch was a warrior with one foot already in the chief’s seat, and he quickly recovered from the initial blow. The two soldiers who rushed him head-on were sent flying before they even got close to their target.

The soldier attempting to attack him from behind suffered an even more brutal fate, his entire body being slammed into the ground by Hatch’s strike.

However, before Hatch could begin his slaughter of the ordinary soldiers, Ron and a neighboring crusader intervened.

“Clang!”

Ron’s weapon met Hatch’s, ringing sharply.

Hatch was stronger than Ron, and Ron found himself immediately at a disadvantage.

But how could Ron, who had made ambushing others a habit, possibly engage in a head-on fight with someone so obviously stronger?

The moment Ron engaged Hatch, another crusader silently approached from the side, thrusting his longsword toward the demon Hatch. He ignited his energy at the last second, channeling it into his blade.

Despite his vigilance, Hatch’s thigh was slit open by the sword, and blood poured down his leg, leaving him in quite a sorry state.

With Ron and one crusader restraining Hatch, the rest of their unit swiftly regained their footing and stabilized their position on the front line.

The spear formations, which had been the most formidable aspect of the human battle array, proved to be ineffective against the heavy armor of the ogre infantry. The spearheads barely managed to kill a dozen ogres before the tide of battle turned against the humans.

On the battlefield, units with such immense size and power were truly unreasonable opponents, and the throng of ogres swiftly broke through the first line of human defense, plunging into the heart of the allied army’s formation.

“Stand your ground! No retreat!”

“Death to any who retreat!”

Within ten minutes, the human forces had already begun to falter, and some auxiliary troops even started fleeing. Fortunately, the lord overseeing the rearguard executed them immediately, preventing their comrades from following suit.

The System’s soldiers, interspersed amongst the ranks of ordinary soldiers, played a crucial role in stabilizing the front lines. Each crusader was accompanied by two or three pike infantry, forming a stalwart wall against the enemy tide.

The effect was especially pronounced with the particularly skilled crusaders, whose energy-charged strikes could fell an ogre with quasi-knight capabilities in a few blows, instilling great confidence in their fellow soldiers.

“Kill!”

After losing two soldiers to an ogre’s powerful strike, a Flying Bear Army warrior finally struck the ogre soldier in the back of the head with a long-handled hammer.

An attack that would splatter the brains of a normal human only served to stun the demon, making him double over in pain.

But that was enough. More soldiers rushed forward and finished him off.

Normal human soldiers found it extremely difficult to eliminate a single demon warrior, and the auxiliary troops completely avoided engaging them in direct combat, focusing instead on dispatching the dog-headed people who were wreaking havoc in their ranks.

Although the dog-headed people were not strong, they could not be ignored. In real life, no one would allow a mad dog to bite them, and these dog-headed people’s attack power was roughly equivalent to that of a mad dog, so they needed to be dealt with as well.

A single blow from a demon warrior’s wolf fang club could easily kill or maim a human soldier, but the charging demon warriors couldn’t remain unchecked for long; they would quickly be cut down by either crusaders or the lords bringing up the rear of the army.

The battlefield settled into a strange stalemate. On paper, the allied forces had a significant disadvantage in terms of basic combat power, as any single demon warrior could fight five or six of their seasoned, well-equipped soldiers. However, the allied forces enjoyed a decisive advantage in terms of knight rank battle prowess; out of these three thousand demons, there were no more than ten elite demon warriors, even counting Hatch.

However, the allied forces had nearly thirty knights under Richard’s command, not to mention the weaker, but still formidable, knights among the various lords. This significant advantage in elite combat power directly countered the allied forces’ inferiority in basic combat power.

Clang!

Hatch!

After Ron’s longsword was deflected by Hatch’s halberd, he pulled back and managed to slice open a wound on Hatch’s side, but Hatch swiftly dodged and the cut wasn’t deep, causing only a bead of blood to well up.

Yet Hatch was growing impatient. The course of this battle had not progressed as smoothly as he’d anticipated. Although the human soldiers were few, the number of knights among them vastly outnumbered expectations.

At least thirty sets of knight-level energy emanated from the battlefield, stabilizing the front lines and dragging the fight into a stalemate.

This was the greatest weakness of the war hawks: They relied on momentum. Like a boxer going for a knock-out blow, their strength diminished with each strike, and their morale suffered as well.

Fortunately, the dog-headed people were naturally fierce fighters; despite the setbacks, no obvious drop in morale occurred.

What Hatch needed to worry about now was himself. Seeing that the battle had reached a stalemate, Richard finally spurred his horse toward Hatch.

Hatch was about to face a siege by three knight rank experts.