Loser System and Berserker Me C.96: Breaking

Contrary to the expectations of England’s regent, the sight of the Metal Fortresses wavering or even succumbing to despair didn’t happen. Their footsteps didn’t slow, and they continued to charge on with determination.

If anything, the Crusade’s celebration allowed them to advance with greater ease.

“What?” England’s regent couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Why aren’t they frightened?! Why aren’t they wavering?!”

Someone soon answered his question, not with words but a spear.

Shoosh!

A black flash pierced through the center of the celebrating army.

Blood splattered.

An entire row of soldiers collapsed just like that, plunging the battlefield into silence.

The smoke scattered, and a blood-red cavalryman emerged.

The earlier bombardment failed to strike Shu Yichao. He had no idea why those people were celebrating.

Bam!

A ballista spear flew in Shu Yichao’s direction, but he took out his scimitar and sliced it into two. He began charging forward like an unstoppable bull.

“Struggle in the pits of despair!”

The Crusade’s morale was crushed to see Shu Yichao ‘rising from the dead’ and coming after them once more.

“AHHH, MONSTER!!!”

“The Scourge of God has come back to life!”

“He’s unkillable! We’re going against the Lord’s will!”

The Crusade panicked.

“What’s that fellow doing?!”

The Duke of Milan felt light-headed. He understood that England’s regent had done that to undermine the Khitans’ morale, but the problem was that not only did he fail to do so, but he had also crushed their own soldiers’ morale.

Boom!

The Metal Fortresses finally arrived at the frontlines. They followed the path Shu Yichao had opened up for them, allowing them to disregard the fences and ditches dug by the Crusade to charge into the enemy ranks.

Soldiers and horses toppled over. The Crusade’s formation was being overrun.

Shoosh… Pak!

A ballista spear rammed into a Metal Fortress and knocked him down his horse.

“Good!”

A few soldiers of the Crusade exchanged high-fives to celebrate this mini victory.

To their shock, the Metal Fortress rose up the next moment and began smashing his metal cudgel through the terrified soldiers before him.

Are these people unkillable?!

The Crusade further descended into despair. Clearly, they didn’t understand how overpowered troops could become in Beacons of the Otherworld.

“We can’t hold on anymore!”

“Is this the end?!”

The Metal Fortresses tore through the Crusade’s formation to rush to Shu Yichao’s side, and together, they started smashing down the Crusade soldiers as if playing whack-a-mole. Wherever their weapons hammered down, the sounds of shattering bones could be heard.

And Shu Yichao was fond of targeting areas with commanding flags, so as to root out enemy commanders and eliminate them. Soon, the usually lofty counts and barons were quashed into oblivion too.

Shu Yichao and his army were meat grinders, churning out minced meat wherever they went.

Even the elite foot soldiers Milan was known for were forced to retreat. The Crusade soldiers howled in despair.

Swords, crossbows, axes, metal hammers… They had desperately tried all their weapons on those metal cans, but not once were they able to pierce through the other party’s armor.

Even if a Metal Fortress did sustain lethal damage, under the game’s mechanics, the damage would first be attributed to their steed, so they would still be able to rise up once more and rejoin the battlefield as a heavy infantryman.

However, from the view of the Crusade soldiers, it just looked like the Metal Fortresses were unkillable.

Thus, they succumbed to despair.

“We need to escape!”

“That’s the Lord’s judgment! We don’t stand a chance!”

“The Lord has sent the Scourge of God here to punish us sinners!”

The breakdown on the frontlines was contagious; it quickly spread to those at the back and those by the flanks. The Crusade’s army of 60,000 suddenly transformed into tens of thousands of headless flies. They tossed aside their weapons and armor and ran off in all directions while screaming their heads off.

The commanders didn’t stop them, for they were escaping too…

They regretted not being born with more legs, so that they could have fled faster.

“How did this happen?”

The Duke of Milan fell in despair and he watched the earlier imposing army of 60,000 unraveling like an old clay house soaked under rain water.

“Scourge of God! It really is the Scourge of God!” the Duke of Milan cried miserably.

It was an army of 60,000 against 2,000, yet their army of 60,000 crumbled in less than half a day. How else could this be explained other than the Lord’s will?

“Duke, you have to run!” an aide urged. “We can take the loss. You should escape into the city first. We should be able to rally 20,000 to 30,000 men to stall the Scourge of God. If we can hold till reinforcement arrives, we might stand a chance! We are an army of 400,000, after all!”

“Yes, you’re right.” The Duke of Milan snapped out of his daze.

He quickly took out whatever was conspicuous on him, leaped onto his steed, and fled into Milan under his aides’ cover.

“Chase after them!”

There was no way Shu Yichao would let the enemy escape.

A footsoldier was worth a couple dinars, a knight ranged in the tens, and nobles dressed in opulent clothes could well fetch into the hundreds. It was not only fun to rake in kills, but he could strengthen his army in real time too!

I can buy more Metal Fortresses at this rate! Slaughter them all! We can’t let a single one of them get away!

“Go all out!”

…

The Duke of Milan had made a wise decision choosing to escape, but he had underestimated the severity of the situation. The deserters from the Crusade had completely jammed up the city gates!

“Open the gates!”

“I’m begging you, please open the gates!”

The soldiers at the entrance of the gates desperately pleaded, but the soldiers on the city walls dared not to open the gates, not when the blood twin-headed eagle on the battlefield’s horizon was heading their way.

“The Scourge of God is here!”

Realizing the urgency of the situation, the soldiers dared not dilly-dally anymore and began ramming the gates.

“Hurry up and open the gates!”

The gates had been closed in such a hurry that it was a bit loose, such that it began to waver under the soldiers’ ramming. This brought a glimmer of hope to the soldiers outside the gates, prompting them to ram it even more frenziedly.

“I am your duke!” the Duke of Milan roared. “Men, open the gates now!”

Not a single person replied. The soldiers on the gates only knew to tremble.

“It’s over.” The Duke of Milan felt faint.

Clearly, the terror of the Scourge of God had made his soldiers lose their marbles.

He wanted to shout at those soldiers and question them if they were really so naive as to think that the Scourge of God wouldn’t be able to breach the gates just because they refused to open it, but a quick glance at the garrison troops made him realize that they were scared out of their minds. Words wouldn’t be useful here.

“Let’s leave!”

The only thought on the Duke of Milan’s mind was to flee. He couldn’t care less about his noble title, his castle, or his army now. He swore he would never get involved in this darned Holy War again if he could escape alive.

The Scourge of God was not a force mortals could stop!

I can have all the heads in the world, and it still won’t be enough for him to decapitate!

It was just a pity that he moved too slow.

Thousands of Metal Fortresses had already caught up with them by this point, encircling most of the Crusade’s deserters.

The slaughter hereby commenced.

It was like a metal ball thrown inside a cage of eggs. Everything shattered. Juice splattered.