A Helpless Battle

Allen didn't care what Battle Qi rank Xiulunte was.

As long as Dina was behind him, even a Sword Saint would be useless.

Unfortunately, Xiulunte, having suffered a loss before, wouldn't fall for his ploy. Why would he fight Allen, who could kill a Behemoth with brute strength, without Battle Qi support? Xiulunte's combat intelligence wasn't that low.

More and more infantry, holding tower shields, protected Xiulunte in front of him.

However, Allen wasn't in a hurry to pursue Xiulunte.

Although he couldn't use a halberd, Rock Hammer was a good blacksmith. The weapons he designed were very versatile, so it didn't stop Allen from using it as a club.

The hard-textured Dragon Slaying Halberd flashed with a dark, ethereal glow. Allen swung it with great force, not needing to specifically target anyone. Since the enemies were all in front of him, each swing took one down, like playing whack-a-mole. With his height of over 1.8 meters, Allen had long arms and legs, and the Dragon Slaying Halberd in his hand was also long. He was constantly providing business for the healing Priests under Wood.

The infantry of the Earth Dragon Legion perfectly embodied the term "cannon fodder." Their faces were numb, and they mechanically thrust their spears at Allen. They didn't even pay attention to distance or control their strength, just like in their usual training: thrust, thrust, thrust.

As one of the three Heretic Extermination Legions, the Earth Dragon Legion had participated in the most battles and also suffered the highest casualty rate.

The Earth Dragon Legion had the largest number of low-level soldiers. Their expeditions often targeted the strongholds of alien races, so they were usually the first troops to engage the enemy.

Any race that could survive on the Saint Cassis Continent until now was no pushover.

The Church was also very smart. They only fought races that were severely out of touch with mainstream society. They didn't dare to provoke powerful individual races like Dragons and Giants, instead picking on the weaker ones to crush.

However, other alien races with larger populations were not to be trifled with either.

Especially for races with larger populations like Barbarians, Behemoth Orcs, Druids, and Elves. The Church had been clashing with these groups for thousands of years and hadn't completely subdued them. Every victory came at a great cost, often resulting in a Pyrrhic victory.

Take the Barbarians and Behemoth Orcs, for example.

The saying that the Church suffered 800 casualties for every 1,000 enemies killed wasn't entirely accurate regarding the severity of the losses. It meant that after a battle, the enemy's faith remained unchanged. Regardless of who they converted to, the Church gained nothing. The main issue was that these three races were incredibly poor. After a battle, the Church couldn't even recoup a fraction of its expenses.

The Wilderness Barbarians were naturally immensely strong, with semi-petrified skin and unparalleled ferocity. Their stamina was incredibly robust; they could fight from day to night without needing a break.

The Behemoth Orcs were even more formidable. Many of their powerful tribes had combat capabilities that surpassed the Barbarians. Their various orc units cooperated seamlessly, making them difficult for the Church's few extermination legions to handle.

The Druid race could transform into large beasts like giant eagles and grizzly bears. They could fly and walk, and they never engaged the Church in direct combat, mastering the art of guerrilla warfare. They might transform into giant eagles to ambush supply lines or into black bears in the dead of night to give high-ranking commanders nightmares. Perhaps they believed guerrilla tactics were the proper way to fight.

The Elves were skilled archers who hid in complex and dark forests. Their whistling arrows would find their mark precisely, shooting directly into one's mouth rather than eyes, hitting every target with unerring accuracy.

In recent years, whenever friction arose with the aforementioned races, the Earth Dragon Legion was always the first to be dispatched. And once dispatched, the low-level infantry within the legion suffered the most severe casualties.

Since Xiulunte took charge, the lives of the low-level infantry became even less valuable.

As the commander of the Earth Dragon Legion, Xiulunte was fond of using human lives as a means to achieve victory. Countless victories were built upon the corpses of these low-level infantry.

When fighting Barbarians, the Earth Dragon Legion used the lives of low-level infantry to wear down the Barbarians' stamina, with Mages and high-level Qi Warriors intervening at the end to deliver the finishing blow.

When fighting the Beastmen of Behemoth, they still used low-level infantry to deplete the enemy's stamina.

To deal with the Druids, they also used low-level infantry as live targets and bait.

And when dealing with the Elves in the forest, it was even worse. Everyone knew that one low-level infantry soldier was equivalent to an arrow; their value was the same. Unless an Elf missed their shot and had to fire a second arrow, then congratulations to that unlucky infantryman, his value doubled, worth two arrows. Of course, some were incredibly unlucky, getting shot in the face by several Elves at the same time with arrows.

Allen, who had switched to swinging his weapon, caused a wave of infantry to fall with each swing of the Dragon Slaying Halberd. Then, endless waves of infantry would charge forward, as if lining up to be beaten.

Allen felt no pride. He could see the numbness, the resignation, and even the despair and helplessness on the faces of these legion infantry.

But Allen also felt powerless. He knew that apart from the squad leaders and mid-level commanders who were sons of nobles, the low-level soldiers of the Church's three major legions were basically commoner youths. As long as their families could afford to eat, no one would run off to become cannon fodder for the Church, because their fate was either to kill alien races or be killed by them.

Perhaps the most intelligent race on the Saint Cassis Continent was humanity, but they also had the worst physical constitution.

Therefore, the cannon fodder infantry of the three major legions only asked where the enemy was, never who the enemy was, as they couldn't defeat any of them anyway.

The only difference was whether they were stomped to death by a Behemoth Orc or shot to death by an Elf.

So, when they faced Allen, who fought like a descending Lü Bu, they just numbly thrust their spears. If they were lucky, they could retract it and thrust again. If they were unlucky, they would be sent flying by Allen.

With Xiulunte's strength, he could have easily stopped Allen from slaughtering his soldiers like this, but he didn't.

This was because Xiulunte believed in the law of the jungle. He believed that only the strong could stand until the end. He needed his legions to constantly filter and replenish their ranks from top to bottom. Only in this way could the Earth Dragon Legion be invincible, retaining the strongest, or perhaps the luckiest, low-level infantry.

This was Xiulunte's ruthlessness, the cruelty of the Earth Dragon Legion, and the helplessness of these low-level infantry.

Allen couldn't remember how many infantry he had sent flying or how many ribs he had broken.

The archer squad drew their bows outside the gate. A small number of cavalry surrounded the old castle, with great shield bearers protecting Xiulunte in the center. The most numerous infantry, as if following orders from above, ignored everyone else in the castle and charged towards Allen to their deaths.

Apart from Rock Hammer, who was fighting Magellan, Allen was the only one left fighting inside the castle.

Dina and two Barbarians protected the Old Butler.

Sakre, from a top noble family, was too proud of his status to slaughter these unfortunate infantry who could only follow orders helplessly.

The short, stout man who had thrown several nets outside the castle earlier was also forced to stay hidden by the archers.

Diao Ling held a handleless broken blade in each hand, glaring, unable to help at all.

Xiulunte, who was heavily protected, watched Allen fight with increasing anger, clapping his hands softly with a mocking expression.

Two ascetics dressed as beggars lowered their faces expressionlessly.