There was no need for shouts or war cries. Both sides gradually approached one another on an empty street.

Even a 10 meter wide street was short where nearly 15,000 people were going to fight. This was what made this venue so interesting. Players couldn’t use the buildings as cover, but the same wasn’t the case for the streets.

The crown holders had placed their troops differently. Zyrus placed the defense oriented troops on the front whereas the humans were using their cannon fodder orcs as the vanguard.

They didn’t have to fight head-on. According to the layout of this city, there were a lot of criss-crossing roads along the high walls.

As long as the front lines were secure, they could send their troops to attack the enemies’ sides and rear. Logically speaking, the opposing side had an advantage in a place like this. They had a lot of options available due to their higher numbers.

'They're either dumb or overconfident, maybe both,'

Zyrus judged the enemies with emotionless eyes.

The humans had deployed the offensive troops in order to occupy the majority of their enemy’s manpower. Although it would result in some causalities, it would be worth it if they could kill twice the number of opponents.

However, they failed to realize one important thing.

Zyrus was standing in front of his troops. And in order to defeat his army, the orcs would have to get past him first.

"Now then, why don't we get started?"

"Hmph! Don't bite your tongue later,"

"I've got quite a sturdy tongue you see, it’s more resilient than your neck," Zyrus grinned and charged ahead without wasting any more time.

He didn't need to use the shackles of nihility or the poison breath. After spending all of his SP, just his states were enough to crush any normal player.

Even a group of lv 30 players would have a hard time fighting him, much less these orcs.

Although there were thousands of opponents in front of him, the location was favorable for him. The layout of the streets ensured that he would be fighting no more than a 100 at any given time.

It wasn't an easy task. Compared to fighting the glemorax army though, this much was like a walk in the park.

*Sweep*

-1000,-1000,-1000

Exp +3.5k

Exp +3.5k

.

.

A simple swipe of his spear was now as strong as his skills before the upgrade. His enhanced senses made sure that he would attack critical weakness every time.

*Slash*

"kuh-"

-1000,-1000

Exp +3.5k

.

"Stop him! You useless dregs,"

"Told ‘ya, you shouldn't trust these monsters. No matter what the system thinks, they'll never be as good as we are."

“That’s right.”

The orcs were enraged by the humans’ derision, and so, they targeted all their pent-up resentment towards Zyrus.

Shi kun wanted to step out and help him, but Zyrus forbade him from doing so.

He was getting surrounded by more and more orcs, to the point where he didn't have the time to check his overflowing Exp.

Unlike on the Earth, his title wasn't effective in the sanctuary. He had no means to replenish his stamina and mana to keep up with the battle. Not to mention he was also losing his HP bit by bit.

As strong as he may be, he had his limits. There was no way he could finish off these orcs without using any skills or equipment.

He had killed 50 orcs in just a couple of minutes. He could have achieved a much better result by using his skills.

However, if he had done that, then the enemy leaders wouldn't send more than half of their troops to attack them from the sides.

Zyrus's side had also done the same, but compared to their opponents, Goblins riders and Lauren's squad barely numbered a thousand.

He wanted the enemies to think that they were putting up a brave fight, and he had succeeded in doing so.

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"Retreat!" Zyrus made an exhausted shout and ran back towards Shi kun.

He was a textbook example of a leader who had given his all in a fight. He ignored the enemies' taunts and took the chance to recover.

“Been a while since I used this,”

Shi kun stretched his yellow robe and activated Mbeku's shattered pride. The green bracers trembled with mana, and at this moment, the trolls also used their unique transformation.

Mbeku’s shattered pride was like a beacon of golden light. One of its possible effects was debuffing enemies with a blind status, and it couldn’t have been activated at a better time.

*Guoooo*

Due to the lack of vegetation, the trolls weren't as strong as they were in the park Despite that though, they managed to hold back twice the number of orcs with Shi kun’s help.

"Kyle and Rat kings, go all out," Zyrus ordered as he chugged down a violet potion.

Ria was only responsible for commanding the smaller units within the army. Her Clairvoyance was no match for Zyrus's experience when it came to the deployment of different squads and overall combat structure.

They made a good pair as they can fill in each other's gaps. One was responsible for the big movements while the other strengthened the army by commanding hundreds of smaller units.

Of course, things would be different when she became capable enough to use the clairvoyance skill more frequently.

'This is much better than my previous life,' Zyrus had a satisfied smile on his face is observed his subordinates.

He wanted to take this chance and analyze any flaws that they had. He knew that they wouldn't have the time to breathe in the next battle.

He wanted his army to be as strong as possible before that.

Kyle and Shi kun were doing their job wonderfully. One was a wall that guarded his allies while the other was a sword that cut down all obstacles. The trolls were doing as expected and the goblin riders were as reliable as ever.

Their top-notch accuracy was deadly in a group fight. Coupled with the wolves' speed, they were like mobile turrets that rained down arrows of death.

What surprised him the most were the rats that were squeaking all over the enemy lines.

"They sure know how to hold a grudge," Franken spoke with a chuckle as he saw the group of sawtooth rats tear apart a player.

“Indeed. They’ve become more aggressive.” Zyrus nodded as he looked back at Ria, more specifically, at the troops guarding her.

The ogres and bears were raring to go as well. They wanted to join in the carnage and level up like everyone else.

"Wait till next time," He wanted to watch them fight as well, but it was time to end this fight.

He knew that Lauren and the goblin riders wouldn't be able to hold out for long.

Nor did they need to.

"Ready?" Zyrus asked Jacob who was standing in front of 500 magicians. Neither side was using their mages as it would increase their causalities by a lot.

A Pyrrhic victory was worse than defeat in this place.

“Stop it! Is there a need to go this far? Let’s talk it out.” the scholarly man shouted from the other side. There was no way that he wasn’t paying attention to the conspicuous group of mages.

He had to admit that they had underestimated their opponents. The shield warrior and the trolls were annoying to get rid of. One taunted the orcs to attack him while the others took blows for him like punching bags.

“Say that after you call back your mages.” Zyrus snorted at the opposing leader and charged ahead with Franken.

Although today was his first time riding the reindeer, it wasn’t much different compared to horses. The most remarkable thing about Franken was his antlers. He wasn’t familiar with his companion’s skills, but he knew for a fact that the one-eyed reindeer was a perfect battering ram.

“Damn it, FIRE!”

Zyrus merely smirked at the enemy’s hysterical attack. Even now they weren’t taking him seriously enough. Instead of being wary of him, they were being angry because it was proving difficult to kill his army.

Jacob also used his fireballs along with the others. Wind blades, lighting bolts, water arrows… hundreds of basic spells collided in the middle of the street.

Shi kun and Kyle were strong enough to avoid the aftermath, but the same couldn’t be said for the other players. Their fate was sealed when even the trolls and orcs were blasted off by the impact.

Zyrus didn’t know or care about what happened to them. As he had said before, be it humans or other species, they were nothing more than tools to achieve his goals.

He wouldn’t hesitate to use their lives as a distraction if it meant that he could obtain a victory.

To put it bluntly, the reason he didn’t want Kyle and Shi kun to die was because they were more valuable than the other players. They had proven their worth to him, and therefore, it was his role as a leader to treat them better.

Franken was in front of the leaders in less than a dozen seconds. They were being guarded just like Ria, but unfortunately for them, the ones guarding them were humans.

[Poison breath]

Humans who weren’t quite willing to die for their leaders' sake.

-1000,-1000,-1000,-1000

-1000,-1000,-1000

Exp +2.5k

.

.

Dozens of players dropped dead like flies. It wasn’t enough to destroy their command center at once.

But the time bought by it was enough for Zyrus to cast a domain.

[Shackles of Nihility]

How fatal was a hostile domain that descended in the middle of their formation?

Dozens of black chains erupted from the ground and wrapped around the players. Blue shackles tied up their limbs and corroded their vitality.

*Hisss*

Naturally, the specter scorpions wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity.

“Aaah-”

“S-save me!”

Only the lucky ones were able to let out their dying screams. The players here were strong, but their experience and reaction time were lacking. They allowed the scorpions to crawl over them and use their tails.

They had a single chance to blast them off when they made their appearance. But it was game over once they engaged in close combat.

“Now then, why don’t we have a nice little chat?”

“W-wha-”

“Let me make it easy for you. You serve me willingly and hand over the troops I ask for,”

“Why you little-”

*Thrust*

-1000

“Kuk-”

“Did I talk to you?” Zyrus asked the muscular leader who had a spear lodged in his throat. He was going to use his crown’s ability, and Zyrus wasn’t stupid enough to allow that.

He had 40 agility with his equipment’s bonus. It was twice as fast as a lv20 human who hadn’t invested any stats in agility.

And unfortunately, the dying man was one such example. Neither was he a lv20 player, nor did he invest any stats in agility.

What happens when someone with double your agility attacks you with a spear? You die obviously.

Exp +3k

“You see, I don’t really need more humans in my army. With this, I have the equivalent of 5 silver crowns” Zyrus stated nonchalantly while fiddling with the silver crown.

“I-I see.”

“Good. Good. You give me some spearman and magicians, and I let you keep your pitiful life and the silver crown, How about it?”

If it was any other time, then the scholarly man would wreck his brains to find a way out of this. However, the sudden change of events and the gruesome death of his ally were too much for him.

“...Okay”

Thus, Zyrus obtained a batch of spearmen and magicians. Thanks to ‘Crown’s fealty,’ he didn’t have to worry about their lack of loyalty.

“You really are evil,” Franken spoke as he kicked the scholarly man’s headless corpse.

“It’s that shit for brains fault. Why the fuck would anyone select ‘Contract’ if others could be trusted so easily?”