"Their strength is about the same." Xu Huo looked at the several combat puppets that had appeared nearby. "These puppets will self-destruct, so don't hold back. Kill as many as you can."
The painted woman nodded excitedly, then turned and flew toward the two combat puppets on the left. Xu Huo turned to face the combat puppets on the other side.
There was no question about the combat puppets' strength. They couldn't use items themselves, and their bodies ran on instruments, so they also relied mostly on instruments in battle. As a result, unlike outside Circus City, the Players' combat abilities were greatly weakened, while the puppets remained as strong as ever.
Of course, Xu Huo had plenty of instruments on him too, and not every combat puppet was equipped with sophisticated B-level or A-class instruments. In terms of equipment alone, Xu Huo had the advantage.
After killing more than ten combat puppets in a row, he confirmed that the combat puppets active outside were a different grade from those that stayed in Circus City. Though not every one of them carried top-tier instruments, the number of instruments on these puppets was still considerable.
As the battle grew larger, the instruments on the puppets drawn in later were more sophisticated than those on the earlier ones, and their fighting styles grew more varied. They no longer self-destructed as soon as they were damaged. This showed that combat puppets, like the toy people, were divided into activity zones. The closer they got to the Suitcase Man's Castle, the stronger both the combat puppets and toy people would become—and all this was happening before the Dungeon had even opened.
Still, this wasn't entirely bad news. There were so many combat puppets, divided by both grade and area, which meant the Suitcase Man