Castle of Black Iron

In only 10 days, the vanguard of demonized puppets corps had already swept the greater part of the territory of Symbian Republic. Following the middle corps of demonized puppets, Zhang Tie witnessed the collapse of human cities one after another.

Deland City, Perigourd City, Edeline City, Somibay City, Holbech City, Kozlian City and Reay City...

All the above cities were once prosperous human cities. None of them were worse than Blackhot City. However, when the middle corps of demonized puppets arrived, many cities were burned into ruins. When passing by those deserted villages and towns, fields and numerous corpses, Zhang Tie was deeply impressed by the cruelty of the holy war and its harm to humans in the past 10 days.

After taking Deland City, the demonized puppets corps didn’t meet any large-scale regular resistance on the way towards south anymore. All the human cities had been deserted or burned into ruins before the arrival of the contingents of the demonized puppets. Even the entire Symbian Republic had become unmanned. Women and kids had evacuated 2 years ago; soldiers also evacuated after the human defense line in Selnes Plain was collapsed; especially after Deland City was collapsed, the remaining human troops in the Symbian Republic became completely disappointed. As a result, nobody would like to stay in this city and wait for the arrival of the demonized corps.

The combined forces of the corps of almost 10 million demonized puppets and that super demons corps were irresistible.

Speaking of that super demons corps, Zhang Tie finally witnessed it during the past days in Holbech City.

Zhang Tie didn’t know how to describe the demons corps. He was shocked when about 100,000 LV 9 demon fighters appeared in front of him.

Before the demons corps appeared, Zhang Tie saw a great batch of at least 4,000-5,000 wing demons hovering above Holbech City like a cloud. Only after the batch of wing demons arrived at the air territory of Holbech City in less than 5 minutes had that super demons corps appeared in the horizon which rolled towards the city like a black flame.

Without arousing an earthquake or any loud battle calls, the contingent of almost 100,000 LV 9 demon fighters just flashed at the foot of the city wall of Holbech City like a hot wind blowing from afar. When the wind stopped, the formation of about 100,000 demon fighters stood still like steel mountains silently. However, facing such an unrivaled qi, the contingent of about 1 million demonized puppets gathering outside the city wall were scared to move backwards.

At that moment, all the members of Senel Clan and Arthur Clan who ruled the middle corps were welcoming the super demons corps outside the city. At the sight of this scene, the face of each one of them turned pale, including that knight who was employed by Senel Clan.

Even Zhang Tie, in the incarnation of the little beetle, who was lying on a brick on the top of a wrecked bartizan, was also shocked by such a power.

If a LV 9 iron-armored demon was in front of him, Zhang Tie would just ignore it; if 10 LV 9 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie could solve them easily; if 100 LV 9 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie would feel stressed; if 1,000 iron-armored demons were in front of him, Zhang Tie would turn around and escape right away. If 10,000 iron-armored demons were in front of him, even a knight would avoid from them, not to mention Zhang Tie. However, there were almost 100,000 LV 9 iron-armored demons in front of him. Zhang Tie didn’t know how many commissioned officers ranked LV 10 to LV 15 were among them. However, Zhang Tie learned it from the members of Clans of Three-eye Association that there were 6 demon knights in this super demons corps under the rule of the demon general, although one of which had been killed in Selnes Theater of Operations.

’How do I resist such a powerful super demons corps?’ Zhang Tie compared all the other corps that he had heard and seen before to this super demons corps and found it was unrivaled across Blackson Humans Corridor. Any human corps in front of this super demons corps could do nothing but be slaughtered, even if they outnumbered the demons; because that sharp blade formed of LV 9 iron-armored demons could easily break out the encirclement of human corps and escape away.

Perhaps humans corps could encircle this super demons corps with outnumbered armored troops in a specific narrow environment before giving them a heavy blow with the coordination of the airship troop. However, the collapse of human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations had indicated that this ideal battlefield and situation would never appear. Selnes Theater of Operations once gathered the most powerful human airship troops and most human armored vehicles. So what? The two predominate armed human services were dragged in a bottomless mire only by the wing demons troop and the demonized puppets corps. Demons were not idiots. They would not stand there and wait for you to beat them after a proper deployment. Conversely, the demon general of this super demons corps was even more smarter and cunning than those most famous human generals.

The wing demon troop served as the barrier and eye of this super demons corps while the corps of numerous demonized puppets served as the shield and tentacles of this super demons corps. This super demons corps always loomed behind that barrier, eye, shield and tentacles, which would give human corps a fatal blow at the critical moment.

Like now, after the demonized puppets corps broke the human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations, it divided into three parts and marched all the way towards the south. This super demons corps loomed weirdly among the vanguard corps, middle corps and rear corps of this demonized puppets corps. Even though the members of clans of Three-eye Association didn’t know about its whereabouts. They only knew that this super demons corps under the rule of the demon general would always stay less than 300 miles away from one of the three demonized puppets corps. Sometimes, this super demons corps would completely get rid of the demonized puppets corps. They were just commanding the military actions of the demonized puppets corps. Nobody knew where they were.

Besides, Zhang Tie found one rule about the whereabouts of this super demons corps——they never made camp in cities; even in Holbech City, this super demons corps also encamped about 100 m away from the city wall of Holbech City.

Hua military experts usually described a powerful troop as follows: when they moved, they were as rapid as the wind and lightning bolt; when they slowed down, they were as dense as the woods; when they plundered, they were as aggressive as the fire; when they remained still, they were as firm as the mountain; when they hid themselves, they were as mysterious as the sun and moon in cloudy days. After watching this super demons corps, although Zhang Tie would not like to accept and admit it, he knew that this super demons corps was the troop that could match the description of the best among all the troops that Zhang Tie had seen.

The moment Zhang Tie saw it had Zhang Tie enlightened that no human troops could defeat this super demons corps unless one of the human troops was composed of the same number of LV 9 human fighters. Based on the battle experience in Selnes Theater of Operations, only human troops composed of LV 9 or above human fighters could defeat a troop composed of LV 9 or above demon fighters. The forces who were most destructive to this super demons corps in Selnes Theater of Operations were not airship troops, armored troops or other human troops, but those squads of demon hunters and paladins who loomed in Selnes Plain.

About 3,000 iron-armored demons were killed by demon hunters and paladins in total. However, the other human corps and troops only caused a casualty of about 1,000 iron-armored demons.

Zhang Tie knew that the collapse of human defense line in Selnes Theater of Operations would give a huge blow to the current human corps establishment system for sure. He could find the loopholes in the current human corps establishment system, so did others. The former division standards of human corps had become meaningless; perhaps in the future, human corps were only divided into two forces, one was used to deal with demonized puppets; the other was used to deal with the regular army of demons. Demonized puppets corps would be defended with high city walls, powerful steam ballistas, armored vehicles and white phosphor gel bombs, which could also pose a great threat to regular demons corps. Even though those human soldiers above LV 2 could operate the weapons. By contrast, only human fighters above LV 9 could deal with regular demons corps; even though a squad, a battalion or a company of human fighters above LV 9 would be more effective than a common corps composed of hundreds of thousands of common human soldiers.

In order to defend the super demons corps, common human corps had to hide in "Iron Tortoises[1]" which were driven by steam; however, field forces that could wrestle with the super demons corps under the rule of human knights who could move as fast as a lightning bolt on the battlefield were more destructive. They didn’t need to be outnumbered, but they should be elites. Only in this mobile way could they curb demons...