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“Alright.”

Masrow more than happily turned around and left, clearly worried that I would suddenly change my mind and force him to stay.

On the other hand, Sidarth was more worried as he stayed on looking at the hundred or so Eight-star Warhorses and Nightmare Steeds arrayed before us. “They have too many Eight-stars, are you sure your golems will be fine?”

“We’ll see.”

Before arriving, it had never occurred to me that they would have Eight-stars numbering in the hundreds, though my golems, with their unbelievable defensive prowess, would probably still have a fighting chance… probably. Despite how much I didn’t want to admit it, those Nightmare Steeds were able to leave a crack on my Winged Abyssal Golems. In other words, this fight wasn’t going to end smoothly.

However, a bow that was drawn had to be fired. No matter what, this war had to be fought.

As for those hundred or so Warhorses, I think I had an idea as to what was going on here.

The Purgatory Warhorses were all nomadic. However, the location of their clan head’s nest was fixed, which was where we were right now. The giant crystal ahead was their clan’s treasure, and that clearly wasn’t movable. These horses would never give up on such a treasure, especially if it had something to do with their evolution into a Nightmare Steed. In all likelihood, that fact was most likely a closely guarded secret of their clan. In order to protect such a treasure, it was only to be expected that so many Nightmare Steeds and Warhorses would join this fight.

So all those empty settlements we encountered on the way here… their inhabitants had all moved here…

Shade had fought with my golems before. He knew how strong their defenses were, and that anyone below the level of Eight-star wouldn’t even leave a hoofmark on these sturdy constructs. In order to beat an army of such monsters, the Warhorses had to produce a large quantity of Eight-stars themselves. It just so happened that our Winged Abyssal Golems numbered around a hundred as well.

In a one one one fight, the Nightmare Steeds and the other Eight-stars couldn’t possibly lose, even if they couldn’t break my golems in the short term. Their Seven-stars could then restrain my remaining golems. As for what happens afterwards… I think I came to the wrong battle…

‘Is it too late to go home now? Fishcakes, I shouldn’t have gotten so conceited when they came over to negotiate…I wonder if it’s not too late if I go over and beg for forgiveness?’

‘Bah, no point embarrassing myself for something that won’t happen. This battle can’t be avoided now.’

After Masrow and Sidarth led their clans away, the Warhorses soon launched their first volley of attacks.

Previously, the Warhorses were hesitant about attacking because they were afraid that the Hellhounds and Purgatory Shadowcats retreating was some kind of ruse. Now that they were sure those two clans wouldn’t be a problem, they definitely won’t miss this perfect opportunity to strike. Thus over ten thousand horses came rushing at me in a tidal wave of dust and thunder.

“Push them back.”

With their lack of mobility, and faced with a head-on charge, all I could do was command my golems to advance. Having done that, I immediately summoned my Devil King Idol and brought Mo Na, Jeerah and Cinderel into its pocket dimension.

Having piloted this behemoth twice already, I had mastered the basic controls of the idol. Even though its rigid construct meant that I couldn’t move my limbs as I wished, this disadvantage also brought with it certain advantages. By sacrificing mobility, I now possessed the defensive prowess of a wall. In the upcoming battle, this would be my greatest guarantee of safety.

The thundering dust wave raged onwards. Beneath me, the ground quaked from my steps. With no room for retreat now, there was only battle!

The ground itself warped from the furious stomping of my Winged Abyssal Golems. These were the first of my golems to clash with the Warhorses and their Eight-stars. Both sides crashed into each other with no holds barred. The air shook for a second as a shockwave swept through the battlefield, sending rock and rubble flying everywhere. One of my Winged Abyssal Golem was thrown backwards a couple of paces and landed squarely on the ground, leaving a gigantic hole in its wake and sending more rock raining down on the battlefield like comets of the apocalypse itself.

While my Winged Abyssal Golem looked to be in a bad shape, that Eight-star Warhorse was in no better condition either. The force of their impact was felt fully by both sides. At the same time as my golem was pushed back, that Warhorse was sent flying over ten meters over, having failed to withstand the resulting force from the clash.

‘A tie? No…’

Things weren’t as simple as I had hoped. That Warhorse recovered in no time at all. From how quick it stood up, it didn’t seem to have suffered much damage. The Winged Abyssal Golem had taken this brief reprieve to stand up as well. Yet in this short clash with that Warhorse, a tiny crack had formed on its formidable outer exoskeleton…

What did this mean? It meant that, with the same star level, a Purgatory Warhorse had greater physical strength than a Nightmare Steed! Lest one forgot, it previously took multiple hits from a Nightmare Steed to leave any damage on my Winged Abyssal golems. In contrast, it only took one strike from that Warhorse to damage it.

The clashes against the Nightmare Steeds had fared relatively better. However, even that wasn’t good news for me. Because my Winged Abyssal Golems were tightly packed together, a simple fall could easily lead to an accidental collision with the Winged Abyssal Golem behind it -such a domino effect was definitely not what I wanted to see.

The Warhorses and Nightmare Steeds on the other hand had no such problems. They were a lot of nimbler and could easily dodge any of their comrades who were sent flying back.

This was only the start of the battle, and a clear advantage was already being wrought. My Winged Abyssal Golems had the defensive strength of an Eight-star, but they weren’t real Eight-stars at the end of the day.

In that case, it was time for me to act.

With earth-shattering might, I took my first few steps into the heat of the battle. One of the Eight-star Warhorses, who clearly needed to get its eyes checked, immediately tried to ram into my Devil King Idol’s calves. It probably thought that it could throw me off-balance by doing so… Well, it thought wrong.

Standing at over twenty meters tall, my Devil King Idol logically should have been slower than my ordinary golems, yet my Devil King Idol had one vital difference that separated it from my other golems: me, its pilot.

With the quickest speed my Devil King Idol could muster, I altered my footstep to land on the poor Warhorse charging my way, and under its disbelieving horse eyes, stomped it into the ground…

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.