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When compared to the panicked Warhorses below, the greatest advantage my golems had over them was that morale wasn’t an issue to them whatsoever, plus they were really sturdy. An attack from one of my golem wasn’t something that could easily be ignored by the Warhorses. Yet the same couldn’t be said for them. While some of the Warhorses’ attacks might have left some damage on my golems, they were for the most part unfazed.

That was merely the level of my ordinary golems. When it came to the Devil King Idol, this gigantic construct was more terrifying than a war elephant charging into a crowd of soldiers. In a straight line, its speed was nothing to scoff at. As for actually attacking the Warhorses, it didn’t have to do much at all -it could just simply tumble around and they would be slaughtered.

Naturally, I wasn’t about to engage in such a shameful display. For the most part, the Warhorses who failed to escape in time were either swatted to death or flattened into a horsecake by my feet. At times, I would pick an unfortunate Warhorse to be a makeshift projectile. Sometimes, they became a weirdly shaped soccer ball… it really depended on my mood, but it definitely wasn’t a pleasant sight.

Unfortunately for them, there was no way for them to stop my rampage unless their Overlord stepped in. But would their Overlord really step in? And if he did, would he suffer divine retribution?

Of the ten or so Nightmare Steeds attacking the Devil King Idol right now, quite a number were old friends, like Warsight, Shade and Shadowfall. Just like before, Warsight was more than happy to show her irritable and impulsive side. It didn’t take long for her to grow restless from their lack of progress. Thus, she came up with a drastic measure to fix this.

“Blast it! It’s neither budging nor retreating… this won’t work at all, we need to think of something… What about we drag the Purgatory Shadowcats and the Hellhounds into this battle as well. It’s already chaotic enough as is, a couple more actors might even help us. If that blasted statue accidentally steps on a cat or dog, that might just stir up some internal turmoil.”

Ever one for action, Warsight didn’t even wait for her companions to respond before galloping off to enact what she thought was a brilliant plan.

“Warsight, wait…” Without much time to think of an excuse to restrain her, Shadowfall could only do his best to come up with a few practical reasons to persuade her. “Neither of them have entered this battle yet, there’s no need for us to attack them at all…”

“That’s exactly why we should attack them. Besides, I haven’t seen any traces of Eight-stars in either of their camps. As long as we attack them, we can easily herd them towards that invading statue!”

Having said that, Warsight sped off without giving Shadowfall another chance to speak.

“Watch out for an ambush…”

His warning fell on deaf ears. It was made clear that Warsight was dead set on using the Hellhounds and Purgatory Shadowcat to force an opening. In all likelihood, she was probably planning to use her superior strength to force the Hellhounds and Purgatory Shadowcats to act. The three of us were allies in this battle. While the two of them hadn’t joined the battle yet, they had the important role of preventing the Warhorses from escaping. That was why they hadn’t acted till now.

In truth, her plan might just succeed and drag them out from the jaws of defeat. This plan could be the turning point they were looking for in a progressively worsening battle. While it might have seemed like the Devil King Idol wasn’t able to catch them, the fact was that they had already lost two Eight-stars since the start, plus one who got flattened because he wasn’t looking. My Devil King Idol was still in perfect condition as well.

These Warhorses were creatures with emotions. In contrast, my Devil King Idol was an unfeeling construct. This battle was basically a battle between living, feeling creatures and a mechanical monstrosity. Every Warhorse required time and effort to groom into the horse they were today. A construct was different -all you needed were the materials and the method. No matter how one looked at it, this wasn’t a beneficial trade at all.

The Warhorses must have felt this as well. They could tolerate trading lives with another clan, but they would never accept losing lives over a battle against machines.

That was why when their casualties reached a certain threshold, their morale began to falter, especially when faced with an unstoppable Devil King Idol. It didn’t take long before they began to lose the will to fight. Soon, their formation crumbled and there were signs of deserters.

All these factors added together created the current situation where the Warhorses were slowly losing ground despite being numerically superior.

So the question was how to break this stalemate? The answer was simple. Bring the Hellhounds and Shadowcats into this battle, creating a veil of chaos for the other Warhorses to retreat. In battle, accidents couldn’t be avoided. If those two clans were to join in, there were sure to be accidental casualties.

Since we were all allies, that meant I couldn’t go on rampage like before. Should they achieve this goal, it would only be a matter of time before the tide of battle turned in their favor.

“Guess we can only try now.”

Even though he often couldn’t see eye to eye with Warsight, he could still tell what she was planning from her actions. He just didn’t approve of this action. But since she had already galloped off, it meant that this plan was now in action. All he could pray for was that neither clan had any Eight-stars hidden away… but was that even possible?

“Warsight shouldn’t have acted so rashly. The Hellhounds and the Purgatory Shadowcats are sure to have some Eight-stars hidden away… if we rush into their camps like this, we would surely come out short.” Shadowfall voiced his concerns

“We’ll all have to head over then. I don’t believe that they will have more Eight-stars than us.” Shade replied. “I’ll go inform Brother Warheaven. Hopefully, we can make it on time…”

“Alright, that will have to do.”

After that short exchange, Shadowfall led a herd of Eight-star Warhorses and Nightmare Steeds towards the direction of Warsight: the Hellhound camp.

At the same time, Shade galloped away at the fastest speed possible to inform the Nightmare Steed known as Warheaven who had just knocked over one of the Abyssal Golems. Upon hearing the report, he immediately let forth a furious howl, then like a speeding comet, knocked over the golem that was just about to get up again. This time, he didn’t stay to check if it stayed down, rushing off instead with Shade and the rest of the Eight-stars. Their direction: the Purgatory Shadowcats.

‘They actually want to force my allies into battle…I swear… they already said they were here for the popcorn, so why bother them? Not like my plans will change just because you bring them in.’

I wasn’t all too concerned whether or not their braindead plan would work or not. Even though I guessed that the number might be small, I was in no doubt that were in fact Eight-stars guarding the camps of my allies.

“Halt.”

Just when it looked like the Nightmare Steed Warsight would make it into the Hellhound’s camp unopposed, an unassuming Cerberus suddenly stepped out of the pack. At the same time as that, his body grew massively. By the time his body stopped growing, he was almost as huge as a grown elephant. One could even feel the faint aura of an Eight-star off him. Even Warsight had to stop mid-air from the threat he posed.

“Zhandalar! What are you doing here?”

That Cerberus was probably an old acquaintance of Warsight, else she wouldn’t have recognised him right away.

Zhandalar coldly eyed the airborne Nightmare Steed, then slowly said, “Scram. Go back from whence you came.”

“Bah. You think you can stop me just by yourself?”

Just as Warsight was about to attack, the voice of Shadowfall suddenly came from behind. “Warsight! Don’t act rashly, we’re here to help!”

With their ability to gallop on air, and the lack of any opposing air forces, these Eight-star Warhorses and Nightmare Steeds were easily able to throw off their mechanical enemies to catch up with Warsight.

“Just you? A single Eight-star?” With her reinforcements behind, Warsight was looking a lot more arrogant as she slightly lifted up her head to look down upon Zhandalar. “If you don’t get out new, you might just end up dead.”

“And who said I was alone?” Zhandalar’s eyes remained glued onto Warsight. Without even turning around, he barked. “Come on out. There’s no need to hide anymore.”

As he said that, the Hellhound camp began to stir. Nearly fifty Eight-star Cerberuses stepped out from the ranks of the ordinary Hellhounds. With every step they took, their bodies began to grow until they reached their normal size by Zhandalar’s side.

“Now, who’s the one who should be leaving?”

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.