Chapter 163 Reinforcements Arrive

They had barely arrived and settled into the camp when Hao Ren and the others heard news of intense fighting on the front lines. The outpost commander immediately decided to draw some personnel from this newly arrived support unit to reinforce the area. Of course, Hao Ren couldn't miss the opportunity to go to the Shattered Plains, so he immediately tried to make his group stand out—in fact, he didn't have to try very hard at all. Izhaks stood out in the crowd like a lighthouse, and the small officer in charge of counting and registering the mercenaries' names hadn't remembered anyone else along the way, only that there was a Tarzan-like ape named Wang Daquan...

Soon, a batch of mercenaries and a regular knightly force were assembled and, led by two outpost officers, left the camp for the Shattered Plains. They rode mutant warhorses that could gallop through the demonic dimensions, quickly leaving the camp behind and soon reaching the site of the battle.

The camp wasn't too far from the Shattered Plains.

The Ten-Year War had profoundly affected many aspects of the human world, one of which was the previously scattered armed group known as "mercenaries." The war had forced the various races of the human world to unite, and at the same time, it had filtered out all those who were not brave enough, steadfast enough, or disciplined enough. The originally loose and chaotic group of mercenaries had also withstood the test of the harsh situation and become an important supplement to the Holy See Allied Forces. They still maintained their "unaffiliated" characteristics, but their overall quality had risen to the level of professional soldiers and could be gathered at any time to become a force to be reckoned with at the call of the Seven Heroes and the Church.

The mercenaries' flexibility, experience, and "cunning" had earned them a place in the Ten-Year War, and even several famous heroes during the war had come from the mercenaries—so one should never underestimate these seemingly ragtag guys. Even Izhaks had been troubled by them back in the day.

The mercenaries had become a "special on-call force" recognized by the Holy See Allied Forces, and the two sides had established a battle-tested cooperative model. This was why, as soon as news of the remnants of the Demon King's army came out, a large number of mercenaries were immediately added to the ranks of the Holy See Allied Forces, and they were able to throw themselves into regular missions with almost no running-in or adaptation—like the mercenaries behind Hao Ren now, they were all experts.

"If you come into contact with demons, scatter immediately and fight them one-on-one," a qualified mercenary naturally became the temporary commander of the team. He ran at the front, but his voice spread throughout the entire team. "This is demon territory, so we can't get entangled for too long. Everything is based on quick battles and disengagement. Take care of one or two enemies and then immediately regroup, follow the regular army and start the next wave of attacks. Pay attention to your own safety. Everyone is still in unfamiliar teams, so we can't achieve precise cooperation, so there won't be many opportunities to help each other."

On the regular knight side, officers were also arranging the next course of action. They all seemed to be old veterans who had been dealing with demons for many years, each of them professional.

"Feels kind of subtle," Izhaks said, riding a mutated warhorse that was almost as big as a calf (it was a credit to them that they could find such a steed for him in the camp). Listening to the soldiers assigning tasks, he was quite emotional. "Back then..."

Hao Ren didn't need to hear it to know what Izhaks meant: back then, these guys were discussing how to overturn his Demon King's army like this...

So Izhaks was really broad-minded. He could still smile at this time!

At this moment, an officer running at the front of the team suddenly shouted loudly: "Attention! Demons ahead!"

Hao Ren immediately looked up and found a group of ferocious demon stragglers ahead. The surrounding mercenary troops and regular knights instantly entered combat readiness. The experienced veterans immediately dispersed their formations to prepare to engage the demon stragglers—this was experience gained from years of fighting demons with their lives. To deal with these monsters, who were born with physical constitutions many times stronger than humans, the only way out was to divide into small teams and quickly encircle and kill them one-on-one. Those who had engaged in frontal assaults with demon troops had already proven one thing with their tombstones: even if you had three or four times the manpower, you couldn't face a demon battalion head-on!

"Probably stragglers retreating from the Shattered Plains," Lanina judged with a glance from afar. "Later, let's secretly grab one alive and interrogate him. Don't rush to kill them."

Hao Ren also noticed the condition of the demon stragglers: their formations were disorganized, most of them were injured, and the main members were thick-skinned Unicorn Demon Guardians, who looked like they had charged out of the battlefield by relying on their thick hides. There was no doubt that this group of demons had fought with the Allied forces on the Shattered Plains before.

The demon stragglers also spotted the ragtag troops. They knew the situation was not good, but these powerful and bloodthirsty creatures never knew how to retreat in the face of battle, and immediately rushed up with their huge weapons!

The battle-experienced Allied knights were the first to charge up. They were surrounded by platinum-colored divine light, relying on their indomitable courage and solid armor—mainly relying on armor—to force open the formation of the demons. Then the mercenaries swarmed up, completing one scattered encirclement after another before the demons could regroup, and began to fight.

All around, the shouts of killing shook the sky, and the sound of explosions of magic and the ear-piercing shriek of cold weapons colliding rang out in a single piece. Hao Ren and the others deliberately charged deeper, grabbing two high-level Demon Guardians who were farther away from the crowd and launching a fierce attack.

Of course, before the battle, they had all wisely dismounted—they had this much self-awareness. Hao Ren didn't think his riding skills were good enough to duel someone on horseback.

"Humans... Kill!" A Demon Guardian saw that the one charging towards him was a thin (by demon standards) man wearing a mage robe, and immediately felt provoked. With a roar, he raised a giant sword that was a foot wide and smashed it down on Hao Ren's head. Hao Ren's mouth curled up slightly, and he clapped his hands together above his head and came up with an empty-handed catch, only to hear a loud "clang"—he used his face to catch the giant sword.

Vivian was dumbfounded: she had seen people catching knives and swords with their bare hands, but she had never seen anyone catching a foot-wide steel plate with their bare hands. Hao Ren did use his hands to jam the upper edge of the sword, but that didn't prevent the blade from smashing into his face: this thing was a foot wide!

The Demon Guardian was also taken aback: "What a hard face!"

Lili saw this scene and felt that the landlord's ability as a MT (Main Tank) had been demonstrated: although he couldn't hold the monster with his face, he could use his face to tank it...

Hao Ren woke up from his dizzy state and immediately felt that he had to regain his honor, so he reached into his dimensional pocket and took out his spear and stabbed it at the enemy: "Eat my Vajra Club!"

The demon's giant sword was inconvenient to wield, so he had to reach out and grab the strange spear that was stabbing towards him in mid-air. He hadn't reacted yet: wasn't this guy a magic class? How could he not only have a face that was invulnerable to swords and spears, but also use such a metal rod to poke people? This thing didn't look like a staff at all...

Hao Ren didn't care what the demon was thinking. When he found that his spear had been easily caught by the other party, he smiled slightly and twisted the back half of the spear:

"Eat my plasma beheading sword!"

The end of the silver-white spear suddenly shone brightly, bursting out a dazzling flame that was two meters long. By the time the demon felt the danger, it was too late. In the blink of an eye, half of his arm was cut off!

But this ferocious guy, who was more than three meters tall, was truly worthy of the name of demon. After his arm was cut off, he didn't say a word, but instead swung his giant sword again at Hao Ren's head.

A silver-white figure darted up from the side at this moment. Lili directly hugged the demon's shoulder and used force to tear off the unfortunate guy's other arm as well.

After all, they were just soldier-level demons. Even if they were elite soldiers, their combat power was only this much.

At this time, Izhaks had also easily taken care of his enemies. Two Demon Guardians who had been captured alive were thrown together, and Lanina stared into their eyes: "Tell me, what's the situation on the Shattered Plains? Did you see anyone from the Demon King's army?"

The two demons resisted the mental erosion fiercely. Lanina, who hadn't practiced her charm abilities much, couldn't control these two guys at once. When Hao Ren saw this, he immediately took out two pieces of rag and covered the demons' faces, leaving only their eyes—Lanina's power really increased greatly after she couldn't see the other party's faces...

The two demons were instantly controlled. They shuddered, as if they had recalled something terrible, and then confessed: "Shattered Plains... there is the Demon King's army..." "The Black Dwarves suddenly came out and killed many humans and demons on the spot..." "The Mad Demon King is still alive..."

"Wait!!" Hao Ren suddenly heard an incredible piece of news. "What did you say?"

"The Mad Demon King is still alive..." one of the demons said tremblingly, uttering those three words that even demons feared. "He appeared... on the Shattered Plains."