Half a Year Later

After the minor conflict, Blake became much more well-behaved. Without the Church, a powerful figure, stirring up trouble, internal conflicts within the alliance decreased significantly.

Everyone is perceptive and knows very well that the major powers at the top are not causing trouble now. To start something now would be to invite trouble upon oneself.

If you unfortunately become the focus of a power struggle among major forces, you'll be forced to choose sides. There might not be any trouble in the short term, but it's hard to say what will happen after the war ends.

Throughout human history, there are countless examples of forces that declined due to choosing the wrong side. With so many precedents to follow, it is essential to learn from these lessons.

The Church has calmed down, but Hudson is dumbfounded. He originally thought Blake came prepared to cause trouble, but now it seems it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.

He vaguely realized that he seemed to have tricked the Church again. He had pretended to be an Undead Great Sorcerer in order to sell the "Blood Moon Horn" for a good price, but he didn't expect that the people of the Church would actually believe him.

It's really speechless. Such an important matter, and they didn't even bother to verify it before launching it.

However, given his current status, it seems difficult for the Church to verify his identity. Unless it's during a gathering, it's difficult for Church personnel to get close to him at other times.

For some reason, Hudson felt something was off. Even if Undead Great Sorcerer's identity was real, revealing it wouldn't have much of a negative impact.

Undead Mage do have a bad reputation, but apart from the Church calling for their extermination, other forces are not that hostile towards them.

Since breaking with the Church, Undead Mage have openly appeared in the kingdom's mage ranks, and even Arcanist and wizards, whom the Church considers blasphemous, have made public appearances in the Alpha Kingdom.

In an instant, Hudson realized that the Church's move was not aimed at taking his life, but at seizing his military power.

The identity of Undead Mage might not be warranted, professional discrimination still exists. Once his identity is confirmed, Hudson's position as head coach will certainly be in jeopardy.

If he were to step down now, the next two likely candidates to take his place would be the Marquis James and the Duke Cavadia, both of whom have connections to the Church!

After reaching this conclusion, Hudson was completely distraught. External enemies couldn't destroy the Alpha Kingdom, but internal troubles were a different story.

Whoever is colluding with the Church means that the Church's tentacles have already secretly reached into the kingdom.

Hudson wasn't too worried about the conflict between the Kingdom and the Church; they'd been fighting for so many years, they'd probably used every trick in the book.

But if he gets dragged into this himself, that's intolerable. If we don't find and sever the enemy's tentacles, wouldn't that make him seem easy to bully?

Unfortunately, there's no lead at all. Given Blake's status, Hudson can't possibly arrest him for interrogation.

With absolutely no clue, finding the traitor within the team is proving incredibly difficult.

After this defeat, the enemy's next moves will inevitably become more covert.

Unable to find any clues, Hudson saw everyone as a traitor. He became increasingly cautious in his actions.

Time flies, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye. In the past few months, the front lines have generally been peaceful.

Within the alliance, only a few major factions occasionally bicker, providing topics for conversation during leisure time and preventing any major chaos.

At first, the Beastfolk attacked and caused damage, but after suffering several heavy losses, the eagle-men learned their lesson and stopped foolishly throwing stones. Even when the royal court issued orders, they mostly just went through the motions.

It was all out of necessity; the Human Alliance improved its efficiency, and the air force was the first to arrive on the battlefield.

Despite contributing only a portion of their resources, the combined forces of hundreds of organizations, large and small, still managed to assemble an air force of over 20,000 people.

The pressure instantly shifted to the Eaglemen; even in a head-on battle, the Terran air force was not at a disadvantage.

Moreover, these human forces, which lack martial ethics, have equipped their air forces with Magic Crossbow in order to better deal with the eagle people.

Compared to the wealthy and powerful human race, the Orc Empire's performance was much more meager, relying solely on bows and arrows.

The Orc Empire already had a low production volume of high-end items like Magic Crossbow, and the cost was frighteningly high.

Especially after the outbreak of war, the Alpha Kingdom blocked all trade routes, which directly caused them to lose their production capacity.

Without the precision parts crafted by the Dwarves, the Magic Crossbow manufactured by the Orc Empire themselves were all behemoths.

Even the smallest Magic Crossbow weighs five or six hundred pounds. It's passable for infantrymen, but if eagle-men soldiers were to use it, it would probably take two or three people to carry it.

They were exchanging arrows and Magic Crossbow, and the sight brought tears to Hudson's eyes.

Massacre!

A blatant massacre!

Intensive firepower strikes can often inflict heavy damage on the Eaglemen Air Force in a single engagement.

Aside from a few powerful eagle-men who manage to charge in for close combat, ordinary eagle-men soldiers often die before the enemy can even touch them.

The battlefield is the best teacher, and reason tells Hudson that a great era of Magic Crossbow is likely to follow.

If the production cost of Magic Crossbow can be reduced, the future pattern of Continental War will be completely rewritten.

Let alone the lowest-ranking soldiers, even ordinary knights have little power to resist the Magic Crossbow.

Even Sky Knight couldn't withstand the dense barrage of Magic Crossbow for long. Once the power of the Life Seed within them was exhausted, they would have no choice but to flee.

It must be admitted that weapons related to war are developed and popularized very quickly.

The exact time when the Magic Crossbow was invented is impossible to verify, but portable miniature Magic Crossbow actually appeared only about forty or fifty years ago.

Due to cost constraints, it has never been deployed on a large scale. However, research in related fields has never stopped.

Judging from the diverse designs of the Magic Crossbow crossbows in everyone's hands, these items were created by different alchemists and are clearly the result of the efforts of various major forces over the years.

What left Hudson speechless was that these results were not the result of a deliberate effort by everyone to organize and research them; they were merely a side business that alchemists engaged in in order to make money.

"This can't go on. The strength that the human race has shown is far greater than that of the last Continental War."

In particular, more than a third of the enemy's air force is equipped with miniature Magic Crossbow. The closest of these crossbows has a range of over 100 meters, while the furthest can reach 300 to 400 meters.

In our battles with the enemy, many times we suffer heavy losses before we even have a chance to get close!

In the past six months, a total of seven thousand Eagle Warriors have died on the battlefield, while the casualties inflicted on the enemy would not exceed three thousand, including enemy ground troops.

"Unless we can also mass-produce Magic Crossbow, this war simply cannot continue!"

The Eagle Emperor said with a livid face.

I originally thought that causing trouble for the enemy and carrying out air raids would be a good job, but I never expected the losses to be so heavy.

What worries the Eagle Emperor most is the speed of human development. If this trend continues, the Orc Empire's living conditions in Aslant will only worsen.

"Eagle Emperor, calm down. We've almost suppressed the rebellion within the country. Next, it's time for the decisive battle with the human race."

Judging from the current situation, the Empire's strength is clearly insufficient to defeat the enemy head-on.

The dangers of the Magic Crossbow certainly need to be carefully considered, but it is not without a solution.

The crisis has spread, and it is not only us who need to accept the challenge; all races on the continent must reconsider the threat to humanity.

Record the battle footage of the Magic Crossbow and send it to the Dwarves; they will then know what to do.

Next, we'll stick to the old strategy: trade space for time, and slowly wear down the humans through repeated resistance.

There's no need to worry too much. While the united human race is indeed invincible on the continent, the Human Alliance has long since split apart.

We are facing a human race comprised of hundreds of factions, not a unified human race. The internal competition alone will consume at least half of their strength.

The fate of humanity is intertwined with that of the people; the rulers of the various races on the continent, unless they are fools, will not stand by and watch humanity perish. As the situation in the empire deteriorates, the various races will inevitably put pressure on humanity.

"If nothing unexpected happens, as long as we drag this out for a while and then find a mediator to apologize and admit defeat to the human race, this war should be over."

Alex tried to comfort her.

The tragic fate of the Eaglemen is just the beginning; as the war deepens, many more races will encounter similar fates.

Deep down, Alex couldn't help but feel a little smug. Finally, there were others to share the blame; it wasn't just their Behemoth Clan suffering alone anymore.

"Eagle Emperor, Behemoth Emperor is right. What we need to do now is hold on. Humans are indeed very powerful, but the other races on the continent are not to be trifled with either."

The main problem was that the war was launched too hastily, and there wasn't enough time to coordinate relations with the various ethnic groups; otherwise, we wouldn't be in such a passive position.

We've learned our lesson, but if we learn from it, we'll still have opportunities in the future.

For example, the miniature Magic Crossbow in the human army.

Once we establish good relations with the dwarves, producing spare parts will no longer be a problem, and we will have the potential to equip ourselves on a large scale.

"At worst, we can develop maritime trade and trade with the dwarves by sea, completely breaking the Alpha Kingdom's blockade!"

"The Lion Emperor said with great pride."

From his calm and composed tone, one could not tell that he had single-handedly started this war, nor could one see a trace of remorse.

It just goes to show that being the boss really makes a difference. My skills haven't increased much, but my shamelessness has certainly grown.

His speaking and acting style was not only similar to that of the late Behemoth Emperor, but practically identical.