The story of the black silk female knight

Unexpectedly, even without Valencia using a nuclear bomb, over 50 lives disappeared from the large settlement of wild beasts in an instant!

Even the wild beasts are fighting desperately!

As those 50 lives were used as consumables, the sandstorm barrier roared once more, instantly gathering even more sand and dust, and transforming the sand into a giant that was 300 meters tall!

Once the giant was formed, it stomped down on the mortar position without hesitation... Once that huge foot landed firmly, it could completely destroy the position with only a few hundred mortars!

Valensa could no longer hide as a zombie. She continued to carry the nuclear bomb and throw it towards the beast settlement, while Nana soared into the sky and punched the Sand Giant's foot head-on.

Bang!

In an instant, a deafening roar, as if the sky were falling and the earth were splitting apart, erupted. Shockwaves swept outwards from the point of impact, instantly knocking down many zombies and skeletons in the mortar formation. The artillery formation was completely disrupted, and the salvo failed.

Even Nana was kicked deep into the ground by the Sand Giant's kick... However, her full-force punch completely shattered the Sand Giant's 300-meter-tall body.

This attack, which consumed 50 ordinary wild beasts, was comparable to Nana's full-force punch.

However, the beast still achieved its goal: the mortar position was successfully destroyed, and the nuclear missile, now without cover, was quickly locked onto by the magic array's interception system and destroyed by the pale green light.

Chapter 37 The First Battle and Aftermath

"Damn it!"

Just when it seemed that the first large settlement was about to be captured, the wild beast unexpectedly consumed the lifespan of 50 beings in one go, not only instantly repairing the damaged sandstorm barrier, but also destroying the undead legion's mortar positions.

Valensa was very unwilling to accept this.

In her mind, it was fine for the first attack to end in failure according to Tia's plan, but this failure had to be a performance, not a real failure.

For a fleeting moment, Valensa reached into her storage space and grasped the special pheromone solvent emission device that Friggia had created in the shape of a javelin, but Tia's repeated admonitions made her abandon her impulsive actions.

Fine, I won't use it then, but I have to get my revenge!

Thinking this, Valensa's divine particle armor suddenly exploded, and dense chaotic divine power surged out. The hundreds of skeletons and zombies around her were swallowed up by the ink-like chaotic divine power before they even had a chance to rise.

Valensa then adopted a sprinting starting posture, preparing to smash through the sandstorm barrier and rush into the large settlement of wild beasts, slaughtering a wave to vent her anger first.

In any case, there was no large red dot on her perception map, and her intuition didn't sense any danger. Based on the current high-end combat power in the large settlement, they certainly couldn't stop her.

"stop!"

Just as Valensa was about to charge, Tia's magic card lit up again, and Tia's voice rang out, ordering her to stop:

"This battle is over. Cover the retreat of the remaining undead army... There's no need to worry too much about the outcome of a single battle. You did a great job; my objective has been achieved."

“...I know, but..."

Valensa was still unwilling to give up and didn't want to go back like this.

"Okay."

Seeing this, Tia gently comforted her again:

"I know you're upset, but don't worry... If you don't want to cry in my arms, I can comfort you in other ways, okay? How about that three-on-one game like last time?"

"Really?"

Valensa's eyes lit up, and she instantly stopped being angry. Her initial desire to rush into the large settlement of wild beasts and wreak havoc turned into a rush back.

"Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"

She dispersed the chaotic divine power that she had accidentally absorbed from her undead allies, and together with Nana, she disguised herself as a zombie again and infiltrated the undead army, which now numbered less than 10, and retreated along the original route.

“Hum…”

Seeing this, Tia thought for a moment and said:

"On the way back, some wild beasts of the rank of Radiant might chase after you and try to capture the remaining undead legion. At that time, you won't have to hold back anymore; you can vent your anger on them."

"I hope so."

Valensa curled her lip, looking disdainful:

"I don't think they dare to chase after us at all... None of the old guys in the Wild Beast Clan are more afraid of death than them."

Sure enough, Valensa guessed right this time.

Not a single Radiant-rank expert from the Wild Beasts chased after them until all the remaining undead had retreated to the expeditionary force's controlled territory.

In fact, the Radiant Beasts had considered chasing after them and annihilating the less than 10 undead army, and even came up with a seemingly wonderful plan.

At that time, there were 5 Radiant Beasts in that large settlement. If 3 of them worked hard to temporarily hold off Valensa and Nana, the remaining 2 could wipe out the less than 10 undead in no time.

However, all the Radiant Beasts wanted to be one of the two to slaughter the undead legion, rather than one of the three to hold Valensa back... They even had a big argument about it, almost coming to blows and fighting amongst themselves, and ended up parting on bad terms, so the pursuit plan naturally fell through.

After Valensa led the undead army to a successful retreat, the expeditionary force immediately began a post-war meeting.

The first step, naturally, is to summarize the results and losses.

In terms of losses, the attack resulted in the loss of approximately 24 undead. Of these, 22 were from the 30 undead that attacked, while the remaining 2 were lost in battles against the elite beast squads that infiltrated the isolation zone.

Of the 22 undead lost on the front lines, less than 10 were killed by wild beasts. Nearly 14 were killed by Valencia's last two nuclear bombs... After all, the undead army had advanced to within about 4 kilometers of the sandstorm barrier, very close to the explosion point, so being accidentally injured was unavoidable.

Fortunately, the lost undead were all low-level undead without self-awareness, and the crafting materials were all wild beast corpses obtained in previous wars, so there was no need to feel sorry about the loss... Valensa brought back the few more valuable fat men from the front line.

As for the low-level undead, so be it. It frees up control slots for Princess E's magic sword Frostmourne, making room for the new, more powerful and beautiful undead units... In strategy game terms, it's about sacrificing low-level units to free up population to create higher-level units.

In short, the losses are within a perfectly acceptable range, or rather, they are all within the plan.

In terms of results, all 92 elite beast squads that attempted to infiltrate the area were wiped out on the isolation zone side, with over a thousand elite beast warriors killed, the ratio of Lighthouse and Pearl being approximately 3 to 7.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a major loss of elite combat power... Many times, an entire autumn war wouldn't see this many elite wild beasts killed, but now they've all been wiped out in a single battle.

However, these elite warriors can now be mass-produced by the wild beasts. Through the ancestral spirit ritual, a hundred or so talented underage wild beasts can be transformed into one elite warrior, so the wild beasts don't seem to care much about using them.

The main results on the front lines were the two nuclear missiles that Valensa successfully used to penetrate the defenses, and the final blow that consumed 50 lives of the wild beasts... which basically halved the number of wild beasts in the first large settlement, so it was a pretty good result.

But the biggest achievement was in intelligence.

The method the wild beasts used to counter nuclear bombs has been figured out. It's an automatic interception system that relies on a large magical barrier. It can destroy nuclear bombs before they explode. It's quite powerful... Even the technological civilization on Wei's side probably can't use laser weapons to accurately defend against a salvo of hundreds of nuclear bombs at the same time.

Valensa also asked Tia about the ghastly green ray that could destroy a nuclear bomb in one hit, asking if it was the disintegration ray of the Sage's Tower.

Tia answered no with certainty.

Because the disintegration ray is more powerful than that ghastly green ray, it is more difficult to activate, and it consumes more energy.

A typical sage is already quite powerful if they can fire two disintegration rays at the same time. The top ten sages can fire five or six rays at most. Even a deceased great sage cannot fire more than ten disintegration rays at the same time.

Like the hundreds of rays that were fired simultaneously during the first salvo of mortars, if they were all disintegration rays, even the top ten sages in the Sage Tower couldn't do it together. And there simply aren't that many Radiant-rank spellcasters in the large settlements of the Wild Beasts.

Among human cultivators, the ratio of warriors to spellcasters is close to 7 to 3. Among powerful beastmen, the number of spellcasters will be even smaller; it would be good if there was one in ten.

Furthermore, the true Disintegration Rays cannot be easily blocked by a Star-level divine magic shield, so those pale green rays are definitely not Disintegration Rays, but rather a spell of the Wild Beast itself, and most likely consume life rather than magic power.

Based on Valensa's perception at the time, each time the Wild Beasts interception system launched the ghastly green ray to intercept the nuclear missile, it consumed the lives of at least 100 Wild Beasts... They were truly using ordinary individuals as war consumables.

The current shortcomings of this interception system are also obvious. The beasts still don't know much about technological weapons and can't distinguish the difference between those flying metal cans. A salvo of mortars can overload the interception system. Valensa's victory this time is a successful example.

However, it probably won't be so easy to replicate this success again... After all, the difference between a mortar shell and a nuclear bomb is quite obvious, even to the naked eye. All that's needed is to slightly adjust the locking mechanism of that large magical barrier.

This workload isn't large, and there aren't any technical difficulties... According to Tia and Suzuran's estimates, the Beast Spellcaster can debug a decent solution in about 10 days at most.

To this end, Valensa contacted Vie again and urgently ordered a new batch of mortars. The requirement was that the shells should look very similar to their nuclear bombs, mainly in appearance and weight. Slightly inferior power and accuracy were acceptable.

This was no problem for Arasaka Corporation, which had a well-developed industrial system. Wei immediately said that the designers would work overtime tonight to produce the blueprints, and the production line could start tomorrow to mass-produce the heavy mortars that Valensa needed.

Another intelligence gain was the rapid training of elite warriors through the Ancestral Spirit Ritual.

Linglan personally conducted some experiments on the enemy on the battlefield and has been able to preliminarily determine that the essence of this ritual power is a curse... Those wild beasts themselves have not actually become stronger; they are merely consuming their life and soul to support the curse and strengthen themselves.

This is why most of the wild beasts that undergo the ritual are juveniles... because juveniles have a longer remaining lifespan, allowing them to serve as fuel to sustain the curse for a longer period, about six months. If an adult wild beast were to undergo this curse, it would likely die within one or two months.

As for the blood-red lanterns that could protect the elite Wild Beast squad as they forced their way through the isolation zone, Suzuran's opinion was that they were not worth worrying about.

Although none of those lanterns were ever successfully captured, Suzuran managed to roughly figure out how they worked through observation.

The essence of how those lanterns can protect the Wild Beast Squad is that they draw on the life force and blood energy of the Wild Beast Squad members to maintain the magical barrier, isolating them from most of the pollution and curses. This is the same principle as how expeditionary force members sometimes use magic to tightly wrap themselves when moving in the isolation zone.

Elite beast warriors who truly cultivate to the Lighthouse level through their own abilities should be able to do this even without a lantern. Unfortunately, almost all of them died in the previous war. Now, these elite beast warriors are all hastily made products. Many of them are not even proficient in using biological energy to launch attacks, let alone using magic or qi to protect their bodies. They can only rely on this lantern.

The blood and life force absorbed by the lanterns are clearly not something that ordinary wild beasts can absorb; they must be from elite warriors who have undergone ancestral spirit rituals... Therefore, there's no need to worry about wild beasts using these lanterns on a large scale to force their way through the isolation zone. The reappearance of these lanterns will likely accompany various surprise attacks by elite wild beast squads.

As for how to counter the protective barrier of the lantern and the elite warriors hastily formed by the ancestral spirits, Suzuran also gave advice from a professional perspective... Use divine spells and items that can dispel curses, use holy water to bless the bullets of mid-to-high-level undead, and it would be even better if they could learn a few more divine spells from the Holy Light.

So during the next few days of the war buffer period, in addition to maintaining constant contact with Vi and purchasing new mortars, Valensa also had to lead Princess Vi's group of ghost lolis and zombie maids in prayer, so that they could wholeheartedly feel the holy light.

After summarizing the results and losses and formulating the next battle plan, Valensa expressed the doubts she had felt during the battle, and Tia said she had the same feeling.

The behavior of the wild beasts is really illogical... especially the top tier of the wild beasts.

If the wild beasts truly want to overcome the prophecy and ensure the continuation of their race, they should learn from the Great Prophet of the Wild Beasts... Even if it costs them their lives, they should kill Tia. At least as top-tier powerhouses, they should stand up and protect their race, instead of cowering like cowards and letting the ordinary wild beasts and underage wild beasts fight desperately.

If those top-tier powerhouses among the wild beasts only cared about their own survival and disregarded the lives of their tribes, there would be no need for them to go to such great lengths, such as scorched earth tactics, infiltration behind enemy lines, and the creation of large-scale magical barriers.

As powerful beings of the Radiant Rank, they could easily abandon their tribes in the Desolate Ridge, burrow into the Misty Mountains or the Witch's Forest, or even find a small island at sea to hide on... Humans rarely bother to find and eliminate them all one by one.

Even Valensa, who keeps clamoring to wipe out all the wild beasts, probably won't... Wouldn't it be better to spend that time dating Tia a few more times or drinking wine and milk tea? Anyway, wild beasts that have completely lost their cohesion and population size can no longer be a threatening natural disaster.

However, the truth is that those powerful beasts of the Radiant Rank neither fought bravely to try to change their doomed fate of extinction, nor did they abandon their tribe and run away... They seemed to be just stalling for time, using the lives of a large number of lower-level beasts to delay the expeditionary force in order to achieve some purpose.

But what exactly is the purpose? It's neither to help the tribe truly overcome the crisis of extinction, nor simply to preserve their own lives... It's really hard to guess.

Based on the existing intelligence and logical analysis, it is very difficult to guess the answer.

In response, Linglan suggested that they try to capture a few beast shamans or warlocks, and ideally find a relatively intact site of an ancestral spirit ritual.

The evil spells used by the wild beasts, according to Valensa's tests, did not resemble those of an evil god. Instead, they seemed to be a variant of black magic, a field that Suzuran was good at.

If given more clues and materials, Lily of the Valley would be confident that she could gradually unravel the secrets of this ancestral spirit ritual.

Tia's revisions to the tactics will primarily be based on her research with Suzuran.

Actually, you could just ask Friggia directly and you'd get the answer... After all, Friggia can be considered the creator of the Wild Beast race, and no one should know better than Friggia what kind of magical talents the Wild Beasts possess.

However, this behavior is like checking a strategy guide and copying homework before playing a game, and the rather proud Tia doesn't want to use it for the time being... After all, she still needs to use this war of annihilation of the wild beasts as teaching material for those allied officers.

The Allied officers did not comment much on the outcome of this first battle, nor did they have any ill feelings towards Tia just because the expeditionary force seemed to have suffered a minor loss.

Previously, when they used the War Banner to strategize and challenge Tia, there were too many times when they seemed to have the upper hand but fell into Tia's trap step by step, and were finally defeated in one fell swoop, losing everything... They even secretly gave this tactic a code name in private, called 'The Witch's Sweet Trap'.

Now, these officers were eagerly anticipating seeing how the wild beasts ultimately fell into the trap and how they would struggle for their lives inside.

After the first battle, both sides indeed entered a period of rest and recuperation. The expeditionary force needed a few days to adjust its weapons, equipment, and tactics, while the wild beasts needed to mobilize troops to strengthen the defense of the first large settlement and adjust the sandstorm barrier.

While Valensa was procuring weapons from Vie and leading the beautiful spirits of Princess E into prayer, Tia was also busy.

While constantly optimizing and improving her tactical deployment, she used specially made energy replenishment bottles as payment to make Chiba Grass do as she pleased, and to make Chiba Grass gather intelligence for her.

Although Thousand Leaf Grass's Leaf Concealment Technique is very powerful, it is still below the Radiant Rank and cannot easily approach large wild beast settlements like Valensa.

What she had to do was continue with the previous Trojan horse tactics, constantly running around the perimeter of the beast-controlled area, hiding miniature listening devices and cameras in the plants, so that the beasts that came out to collect resources could bring them back to their settlements to obtain intelligence.

A steady stream of intelligence continued to accumulate on Tia's desk... and Tia herself became like a humanoid AI, simultaneously monitoring hundreds of surveillance videos and eavesdropping sounds. If she hadn't already advanced to the Radiant Rank and completed her evolution at the life level, Tia might not have been able to handle this level of mental exertion before, and even now it would be extremely tiring.

Fortunately, the hard work paid off.

Based on the information transmitted by those miniature cameras and eavesdropping devices, the high command of the Wild Beasts publicized the results of the first battle among the ordinary Wild Beasts, claiming it as their great victory.

They successfully repelled the invasion of the undead legion, intercepted humanity's terrifying new weapon, and even caused the dreadful Sunflower Duchess to suffer a crushing defeat, fleeing in disarray with the remnants of the undead legion... They even had to disguise themselves as zombies, not daring to reveal their identities for fear of being caught and killed by the great chieftains.

The ordinary wild beasts seemed to believe it too, and they were all overjoyed... Now the atmosphere in each large wild beast settlement was almost like a festival. Every day, wild beasts sang and danced in celebration. Some wild beast tribe chiefs were even willing to open their food reserves and share their precious meat and some human food that they had stolen with the ordinary wild beasts, making the festive atmosphere even more intense.

But things are definitely not that simple. Would the high-ranking members of the wild beasts, who have always treated ordinary wild beasts as consumables, really be so kind as to give out delicious food for free?

Definitely not.

Taking advantage of the high spirits of the ordinary wild beasts, the beast leaders began to conscript soldiers on a large scale and transfer them to the large settlement that had previously served as the main battlefield to replenish the defensive forces there... After all, it was the largest settlement closest to the expeditionary force and could be considered a front-line fortress for the wild beasts.

However, this conscription was clearly different from ordinary conscription. Those wild beasts who were willing to go to the front lines all bid farewell to their relatives with feelings of final parting... It seemed that they were very sure that they would never come back, regardless of whether the war was won or lost.

Having noticed this, Tia paid even closer attention to intelligence related to conscription, especially the sounds transmitted through the listening device... and finally discovered a clue.

These ordinary, lowly beasts actually knew that they would become mere expendable resources in the war to cast certain spells, yet they did so willingly.

The high command of the Wild Beasts is quite adept at propaganda offensives and psychological warfare tactics... In their propaganda, they emphasized the undead legion's strategy of sustaining itself through war.

Would you rather burn your life and soul to become a force that can protect your people, or would you rather become part of the enemy's weapon after death and continue to harm your parents, wife and daughters?

Any intelligent being with normal emotions and passion would find it easy to make a choice.

After the Great Prophet's death, the high-ranking members of the Wild Beasts seemed to have made those prophecies public, and now many young and passionate ordinary Wild Beasts are willing to give their lives for their race.

The relatives of those wild beasts, while showing signs of grief, did not seem particularly heartbroken... some even appeared somewhat envious.

Especially the elderly wild beasts, rather than waiting to die in the rear, seemed to want to become fuel for the spells on the front lines, but they were rejected by the wild beast shamans and warlocks in charge of recruiting soldiers.

Tia, who was well-versed in the principles of magic, quickly figured this out.