When this blob of night approached the Dragonlites, they realised it was just a bunch of crows. They did not take them seriously, opting to wait for them to get close enough to get turned into roasted chicken...erm bird.
Many in the frontlines laughed when those suicidal crows voluntarily splat themselves onto their s.h.i.+elds as they instantly evaporated from the heat. They had mistakenly believed that their enemy was resorting to such a tactic to waste their mana so that they would have less for the later fights.
Because of this lapse in judgement, some of the mages slacked, and part of the s.h.i.+eld became less reinforced, allowing the crows to penetrate through the s.h.i.+eld. After the sacrifice of their predecessors and the cackling crows zoomed through and caused significant damage to the frontlines.
However, any Dragonlites that had been hit were quickly replaced by the following row of their comrades as Marquis Forneus bellowed out commands to take control of the situation. He demanded the second batch of Dragonlites to put up another s.h.i.+eld to keep the flying horde moving forward.
Yet the crows were not some dumb birds, especially under the influence of Odin"s Ravens. After learning that the direct a.s.sault was futile, they quickly retracted and attacked from the sides instead, seeing that it was just a s.h.i.+eld at the front.
In the skies, the horde was vulnerable from any direction, and thus Marquis Forneus ordered for a swift landing to prevent the murderous crows from hurting them anymore. In the meantime, he ordered a few of his Dragon Devils to prepare a counter-attack should the crows come too close to them. After all, the rest of the prized warriors needed to carry their weight for the rest of the "show".
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Meanwhile, the Pandarens realised what was coming would be a h.e.l.l of a battle considering the Giants were rus.h.i.+ng towards them without any hesitation. The land hovers and Venus Four Pandawans were doing their best to delay the Giants, but they could only do so much against their sizes and ma.s.sive numbers.
Despite their lack of firepower, Sarge Rocher and the others had devised a method they had seen in the first movie trilogy of a galaxy far far away. They used the land hovers with grappling hooks and went around the Giants, binding them on their legs and tripping them.
Unfortunately, unlike the AT-Ts in Galaxy Wars, these Giants were sentinel in nature, and they had the ability to untie those ropes themselves after they fall.
"Unless you bash them hard on their head...or nose." Sarge Rocher shouted with glee as he sped up fast enough for a quick impact against the nostrils of the crouching Giants and sprayed a rain of bullets into their nose. (If not for his safety gears attached to the seat, he would have flown forward.)
With the armour piercing shots, some of the bullets went through to their brains and killed them instantly. For those who were fortunate to survive, other Royal Snake soldiers slammed the land hovers again with the usage of the boosters into their eye sockets and shot through them too. It was extraordinarily b.l.o.o.d.y yet highly effective.
Still, Earl Barbatos was not relenting with his charge of Giants. Right now, he knew that the overall advantage was on his side. Those minor annoyances may take out a couple of Giants, but it was a drop in the bucket against their numbers.
Sometimes, no strategy was also a viable strategy, especially against Moloch"s trickeries. The foot soldiers at the front continued to apply pressure, preventing the Pandarens and Pandawans from helping out the Venus Four and others any further. Because of the importance of the sky bridge, there was no need for Qiu Yue to send any more Pandarens as excessiveness would reduce the effectiveness of the troops too.
Nevertheless, the Pandarens were not prepared for another little tweeny surprise that suddenly popped up at the side of their vision.
"Collective Raid Objective:
Annihilate a total of 3,000 enemies with thy powers.
Currently slain: 057/3,000
Rewards: Special support from Yun."
Some were too busy to look at it while others wondered a little about the objective why it showed so little until they eventually came to the conclusion that what Jin meant was to kill 3,000 demons without their monster allies" support.
"Ehhhh, why did you decide to use me after all? I thought that was just an optional idea?" Yun questioned Jin on the System channel once she saw the impromptu message on her phone. Jin didn"t inform her before he decided to apply the alternative plan given the current situation they were in.
"Yeah, mainly because I thought it would be great for the Pandarens morale. After seeing the huge and powerful Giants and Dragons, the System notified me, that it calculated that we need something big and flashy to make up for it on our own side. So I thought since every single Pandaren knows and loves you dearly… Besides! I know you like some special attention once in a while." Jin urged Yun to continue with the plan.
"Fine, what can I do since you silver-tongued devil has already established the objective before consulting me?" Yun replied with a sigh.
However, a small little curl involuntarily appeared at the side of her lips, and her heart was beating faster than usual. The "mother" figure for Jin knew what he had planned for her in this particular situation, and she started to check her phone to see if there were any final adjustments needed for the special costume she would come out in.
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"What the h.e.l.l is this collective raid objective? Is Yun really that powerful that she can change the tide of battle? " Jing Ru thought to herself, trying to recall if she ever saw Yun in action before. As she reloaded her shotgun, she saw a land hover from a distance and waved at it to pick her up. Meng Ruo was within the vicinity and did not hesitate to rescue the damsel in distress.
"Ah, you are that brave female gun cultivator that we saw jumping around hitting the Giants." Meng Ruo greeted her as he extended his arms out after an impromptu stop to let Jing Ru upon it.
The soldiers had been briefed about this joint exercise and were therefore aware that among Jin"s customer base, there were veterans who had earned the nickname of Pandawans. And the one Meng Ruo picked up was a member of the Venus Four, which was its own group within the Pandawans.
"Army?!" Jing Ru was a little shocked when she saw a soldier in his military fatigues despite his Half Snake Mask.
"Yep, we are doing a bit of exercise, courtesy of Boss Jin." Meng Ruo knew this was a piece of information the soldiers were allowed to say to the civilians as he quickly started the engine and moved forward to another Giant.
"Could you distract the Giant, that way I will be able to shoot my grapple gun up to its waist." Jing Ru suggested, but Meng Ruo felt his masculine instincts were taking over, wanting to show off in front of the girl.
"How about I use this land hover and trip the giant down, and you can grapple on his a.s.s to place a C4 or two?"
"Don"t be dumb. We do not have enough time, and two more Giants are closing in. By the time you are done tripping it, we will be in some hot mess. My friends will tease me to death if I am the first one to get eliminated in such a shameful way." Jing Ru stated as a matter of fact after bringing down a few Giants until she had no more AI squadmates around her.
"If you"re here to play some form of hero, do it with some other girl, not me. Either you listen to me, and we can both survive this or I can jump out of the-" Suddenly the land hover swerved, and it made Jing Ru grab the rails of land hover tightly as she saw a giant war mace barely swinging away from the area.
"You were saying?" Meng Ruo shouted back since the wind draft was starting to pick up and Jing Ru did not know whether to be mad at him.
"Stick to the plan as I asked. Please!" She shouted back, and Meng Ruo reluctantly acknowledged.
"If only I could show my cultivation out!" Meng Ruo grumbled to himself as he amped up the speed to reach the giant further in front of them.
In the meantime, 101 demons had been killed, 2899 left for the collective Raid Objective.