On the Windrise Kingdom's Southern Route, the second echelon collapsed even faster than the first. On reflection, that made sense. Although the second echelon had far more men, their strength fell far short of the Demonfolk's.
In the chaotic fighting, the Demonfolk could still rely on their skin and scales to hold off the beast tide for a while. These ordinary soldiers had no such ability. People on the Heavenly Spirit Continent emphasized individual strength, and their armies had few distinct troop types. There were certainly no specialized units such as heavily armored infantry.
Spirit Masters believed that as long as they were strong enough, they had no need for such cumbersome equipment. As for heavy cavalry, the Heavenly Spirit Continent barely had any cavalry at all, let alone the heavy cavalry that had developed from it.
Without heavy armor to protect them, these ordinary soldiers were little more than dregs before the beast tide, easily torn to shreds. In just fifteen minutes, nearly half the Windrise Kingdom's soldiers were dead or wounded.
The remaining soldiers had long since fled while those at the front were still fighting. It was not that the soldiers at the front did not want to escape; faced with magic beasts and spirit beasts, they had no strength left to flee. In fact, most of those fifteen minutes had been spent waiting for some hungry spirit beasts to devour the corpses.
Once some of the magic beasts and spirit beasts had eaten their fill, the beast tide charged forward again. By now, these beasts were no longer pursuing the humans out of hatred. Their true objective had largely become food.
Normally, so many spirit beasts and magic beasts lived in the ring-shaped valley that, although its supply of wild animals was abundant, it was not