A Resounding Victory

The instant that Horned Demon was taken down by three ballista bolts, the demons knew the situation on the battlefield had turned dire.

Demons were indeed intelligent Abyssal Creatures capable of thought.

They merely appeared exceedingly savage.

Their Destructive Power was astonishing.

But when these demons were slaughtered and began losing the battle, the fear they were supposed to feel still emerged.

After all, demons, as Abyssal Creatures, had originated from Demon Worms formed when countless fragments of living souls were forcibly fused together by the will of the Bottomless Abyss, then evolved.

At their core, demons possessed all the negative emotions that soul creatures had.

Including fear and terror.

"Roar! Woof woof woof!"

Even the more ferocious, less intelligent hellhounds bared their fangs and put on a show of lunging forward, yet they did not take a single step ahead. That only proved they were bluffing!

After the Horned Demon, the commander of this small demon force, was killed, the demons should have scattered on the spot according to their usual habits!

The only reason they were still deadlocked now

was that the Horned Demon had died far too quickly, and the demons had not yet reacted!

But the demons failing to react did not mean Shen Mu, who had been observing and directing the battle from the rear, had failed to react.

"Pike Square! Advance!"

Shen Mu raised his torch forward.

"Advance!"

At the same time, as Shen Mu gave the order, the Swadian Footmen truly began stepping forward slowly.

Following Shen Mu's pace from behind, they held their hedgehog-like Pike Square steady and began squeezing forward step by step, crushing the hellhounds' and imps' space.

They also began forcefully thrusting their sharp pikes bit by bit toward the faces of the hellhounds and imps before them!

Shen Mu intended to use this narrow corridor to wipe out every last Demon Troop that had dared invade!

"Buzz... boom!"

Just as Shen Mu and the Swadian Footmen's Pike Square advanced, the ballistae on the third floor had not stopped firing.

Ballista bolts once more bombarded the most crowded part of the Demon Troops.

Another bloody path was blasted open.

As long as they were struck by a ballista bolt, whether hellhound or imp, whether claw or torso, they were all violently blown apart.

"Caw! Caw caw caw! Caw caw caw!"

This frightened the imps, already panicked by the death of their commander, the Horned Demon, into fleeing backward. That in turn caused even greater chaos, congestion, trampling, and collisions!

The imps that had still been able to band together and coordinate against Shen Mu and the Swadian Footmen began fighting one another for a chance to escape.

The scene became even more chaotic, and the situation even harder to control!

"Buzz... boom!"

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

Combined with the ballistae and the Mercenary Sentinels' fire,

imps fell in swathes like moths smoked from the air, still struggling, pleading, and shrieking as they tried to flee.

But the Swadian Footmen pursuing them soon caught up and impaled them with their pikes on the marble floor of the corridor, already stained red with filthy blood.

They could not even struggle more than a few times.

They did not even resist.

They scattered from fear, grew more afraid because they scattered, and scattered even more thoroughly, until fear had completely robbed them of the ability to resist.

The stretch from Shen Mu's Stronghold Main House to the Elevator Room and the two branching corridors became a road of death!

"Kill! Long live Swadia!"

By then, the Swadian Footmen had abandoned their pikes, and even the Pike Square had disbanded.

They wore Fan Shields on their left arms and gripped Germanic Swords in their right hands.

Some held torches as they eagerly pursued the fleeing imps!

And it was not just the Swadian Footmen.

Once the imps had retreated beyond the ballistae's range, the ten Lake Rats Recruits who had been operating the ballistae on the top floor while serving as reserves immediately grabbed their Small Bladed Axes, came down the stairs into the corridor, joined the Swadian Footmen, and followed behind them with cruel grins as they hunted the imps.

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh!" The Lake Rats Recruits, who had originally been half fishermen and half professional bandits, were truly thrilled.

The Small Bladed Axes in their hands were exquisitely made.

As long as they got the angle right, every swing could deal a devastating blow to any enemy or creature they chopped at!

The physically frail imps flapped their wings as they continued scrambling forward in retreat.

When the pursuing Lake Rats Recruits caught up, they swung their Small Bladed Axes at the backs of their heads.

Their skulls burst open on the spot.

They immediately toppled face-first to the ground without making another sound.

Even when they saw surviving hellhounds ahead, less intelligent creatures howling like cornered beasts as they tried to pounce,

they simply drew Fishing Darts from the packs on their backs.

These were one-meter-long spear-like darts with exceptionally thin, sharp tips, ordinarily used for spearing fish in shallow waters. Almost by reflex, they hurled them at the hellhounds' faces or their lunging bodies.

At such close range, the throws inflicted even more powerful damage.

Whether hellhound or imp daring to counterattack, they were immediately pierced through by the Fishing Darts.

Then they crashed heavily to the ground.

The Lake Rats Recruits caught up in just a few strides, raised their Small Bladed Axes, and brought them down hard on their heads, ending their lives for good!

"Kill!" The Lake Rats Recruits cried out excitedly.

"Kill!"

The Swadian Footmen cheered back in response.

Only Shen Mu, who had not joined the front line, stood behind the soldiers with a Fan Shield and Germanic Sword in hand, the smile on his lips never fading.

In just another ten minutes or so, the offensive and defensive positions had completely reversed.

The Demon Troops that had come to invade Shen Mu

were instead being hunted down by Shen Mu's forces!

Aside from the Mercenary Sentinels still stationed in the Stronghold Main House, who did not dare leave lightly and held their Light Crossbows while watching with envy,

twenty-five Swadian Footmen and ten Lake Rats Recruits were now hunting hundreds of remaining imps, trampling over imp corpses and sticky, foul-smelling blood in a slaughterhouse-like...

massacre!

"Stop!"

They did not stop until they reached the door of Room 7040.

The promoted imps flapped their bat wings, cawing as they rushed inside in terror like drowned dogs.

Only then did Shen Mu speak, stopping the soldiers who had become excited from the pursuit and were even beginning to grow frenzied.

In particular, he held up his torch and looked at the pitch-black, utterly ruined door to Room 7040.

Darkness and gray mist gathered within.

Out of caution, Shen Mu still waved his hand, leading the gradually calming soldiers to form up and return to their Stronghold Main House.

There would be no need to worry about exploring this Spiritual Realm Scene until daylight came.

After all, for now,

he had used his absolute terrain advantage to crush the Demon Troops within this Spiritual Realm Scene in the apartment corridor.

In a pursuit spanning less than a hundred meters, they had likely killed two or three hundred imps.

Though more than half had escaped back inside,

they had already lost the Horned Demons and hellhounds, the main forces among the Demon Troops.

What trouble could a mere group of imps possibly stir up?

"Return to the stronghold and rest up for now."

Shen Mu gave the order.

When they returned to the entrance of the Stronghold Main House, the thick stench of blood and sulfur nearly rushed straight into their heads as they relaxed.

Even Shen Mu, who was not particularly squeamish, could only endure it by covering his nose with a wet towel.

Fortunately, the soldiers from the Mount & Blade World could endure it.

After all, in Calradia, whether in the Mount & Blade setting or the Bannerlord setting, it might look like a paradise where heroes and nobles built their achievements, but it was actually a cruel hell for soldiers born as commoners.

Brutal Siege Warfare, immoral village massacres, robbing merchants, slaughtering villagers, and corpses left uncollected after Field Battles.

This thick stench of blood and decay was truly nothing much.

These Mount & Blade soldiers could even sit atop corpses and gulp down thick wheat porridge from wooden bowls, cooked in the kitchen.

As they ate, they laughed and mocked their comrades' pathetic performances on the battlefield, while boasting about how many kills they had stolen.

This was not a joke.

It was exactly what the Swadian Footmen and Lake Rats Recruits, resting briefly in the corridor outside Shen Mu's Stronghold Main House, were doing!

Shen Mu sat at the head of the long table, holding a wooden bowl filled with thick wheat porridge as well.

His expression was blank.

Because a dialogue box had appeared on his retina.

Ding! This was a resounding victory!

Based on the perfect performance of you and your subordinates on the battlefield, you have obtained 1× Silver Tier Treasure Chest.

You have completed the mission!

You have received the following rewards...