“Kill!”

As the Crusaders demonstrated their formidable power, the soldiers of the Bander family—even their auxiliary troops—were inspired. They charged in through the breach the Crusaders opened, shouting as they ran forward, some even surging past the pike men.

Although they were slightly weaker, these were still vicious killers armed with sharp blades, and the cannibal demons couldn’t afford to ignore them. The humans’ advantage quickly became absolute.

On the other side, the cannibal demon soldiers felt a despair even more terrifying than the long-distance suppression of the marksmen. When they thought they could turn the tide by engaging in close combat, they were dealt a stunning blow by the Crusaders.

These fearsome cannibal demon warriors, who had been so valiant at the beginning of this engagement, began crumbling within five minutes of making contact with their enemies.

However, it wasn’t their fault that their courage and fighting spirit were lacking; even the Overlord of the Northern Lands, the Lancelot family, would not have been so lavish as to throw twenty-some knights into a small skirmish like this. Yet, facing a race of warriors several heads taller than themselves, the Crusaders showed no signs of fear, but rather experience and know-how.

After all, these Crusaders had faced off against even stranger beasts on Elasia, such as Hydrae, so how could mere cannibal demons intimidate them?

Unlike other knights, due to their rarity in the Golden Dragon Kingdom, only the royal family and a handful of noble families could afford to maintain fully knighted elite units. Most knights were local lords or high-ranking military officers, and even when they fought together, it was rare for them to coordinate seamlessly.

The crusaders were different, however; coordinating their efforts had become second nature for them. After all, during their campaigns across Elasian, they had faced many creatures far stronger than themselves, so they had no choice but to rely on their formations and cooperation to fight against them.

In the face of the tightly knit Crusader formations, their seamless coordination, and their ruthless battlefield swordmanship, the collapse of the Ogres’ front line occurred far more quickly than anyone could have anticipated.

Even Richard hadn’t expected the Ogres’ lines to crumble so swiftly. Unlike the previous night’s raid, which had been carried out before the Ogres had even assembled into groups of ten, this time the Ogres had time to react. At least some of them were awake and fully equipped.

Although their forces were split, they still managed to gather in the hundreds and form a basic formation—yet even then, they were still routed by the Crusaders’ charge.

The close-quarters battle had been underway for less than ten minutes, yet the demon rear guard, barely assembled, had already collapsed.

Under the sharp lead of the crusaders and the supporting assaults of the infantry and the Bander family soldiers, the demon fighters lost more than half of their number in ten minutes. Nearly fifty demons lay dead in a pool of their own blood, while the human casualties did not exceed fifty, most of whom were from the Bander family. Richard’s army had yet to suffer any casualties.

Such a casualty ratio was a blood profit for the humans, but the demons, having suffered a fifty percent casualty rate with no means to retaliate, were utterly defeated.

An uncommon sight unfolded on this nameless field: demon fighters, abandoning their weapons, scattered in all directions.

Though the human soldiers did not chase them down, the moment the two sides disengaged, they once again became targets for the marksmen’s arrows. Even those fortunate enough to escape the deadly rain of arrows were quickly overtaken by the griffins, circling overhead since the start of the engagement.

The sharp claws of these beasts pierced the heads of their fleeing prey, leaving only bloody holes in their wake.

While the orcs still maintained their dense formations and fighting spirit, Richard did not order the griffins to join the fray. Although the royal griffins’ lethal power would have allowed them to achieve a significant victory from the start, their defensive capabilities were not strong. If they were to land and engage in close combat, they would suffer some losses after taking a few of the orcs’ blows.

Airborne units were precious; Richard was not so wasteful as to use them as the vanguard. Instead, he waited until the orcs had collapsed and lost their organizational structure, at which point he ordered the griffins to attack and reap the remaining enemies. With ample space on the vast plain, he ensured that not a single enemy escaped their onslaught.

With a sharp whistling cry, no orc soldier managed to flee more than two kilometers from the battlefield.

After routing the straggling orcs at the end of the enemy formation, the crusaders did not expend unnecessary energy pursuing them, but instead followed Richard’s plan and led their troops to attack the center of the orc army.

Clang, clang…

Another fierce onslaught dealt Nuer, under simultaneous assault by Richard and Ronen, no opportunity to counterattack. Within moments, his body bore several more shallow wounds.

Baron Bandel still held fast against any orcs attempting to rush to Nuer’s aid outside the battle group, but at this rate, it would only be a matter of time before Nuer fell to Richard and Ronen’s combined onslaught.

The disastrous state of the demon army’s rear guard, which had already begun to flee, further dampened Nuer’s fighting spirit. By now, he no longer thought about repelling the human army, but rather how to escape before reinforcements arrived.

“Ah!” Seemingly possessed, Nuer violently swung his wolf fang club, exhausting himself but achieving quite a bit. The high-speed swings forced Richard and Ronen to back up several steps, giving Nuer the opportunity to turn and flee.

As Nuer fled, the already wavering demonic soldiers lost all fighting will. Although the battlefield was divided, the demons still had eyes, and their soldiers were generally taller than humans, so they could clearly see the twenty-some human soldiers in full plate armor leading a charge like a giant tidal wave smashing everything in its path.

These armored warriors led a contingent of elite human soldiers; any demon soldier who blocked their way was crushed instantly. Even Nuer had run, and any demon soldier who stayed would face them directly.

Baron Bandel, who had been fighting alongside the demon army, suddenly felt the pressure lift off his shoulders.

“Is it over?” he wondered aloud.

“Sir, we’ve won,” one of his subordinates replied.

Watching the fleeing demons, Baron Bandel felt as if he were in a dream. Hundreds of demons had turned tail and run.

He had been pushing his energy to its limit, and it was almost depleted. Once it ran out, he would only be able to fight at the level of a peak quasi-knight, which, with the handful of men under his command, would not be enough to hold off the onslaught of so many demon warriors.

The demons’ sudden collapse came as a surprise, though he quickly accepted it when he remembered the terrifying number of knights in the Hunter family.

The demons had run into an opponent they could not hope to defeat, and it served them right…