Chapter 1111 – The Big Shots
"It's still working! Continue to wither down its hit points before the next wave of Bone Spirit Demons comes forth! Mortar focus your attack on the Bone Spirit Demons and halt their advance as much as possible. Artillery Team focus on the Boss except for those assigned to aid the mortars and Pandarens below! Tanks, maintains your distance away from the Bone Spirit Demons and aim for the bigger ones!" Xiong Da ordered as he continued to coordinate the next batch of elemental artillery shells to wreck the Ooofpa Loopas.
Despite the initial shabby coordination, it was rather surprising that they had managed to drop both of the Ooofpa Loopas' health down to 55% and thankfully, there had yet to be any retaliation from the boss monsters from either side. However, the Pandarens had noticed that both were inching closer to the Demopolis walls and that they had started to spawn even stronger Bone Spirits to slaughter them. (Although they were unsure if they became stronger with them, or if it was because of the Boss Monster's falling health pool)
The average Pandaren had managed to handle between five to ten per encounter during the first initial wave. During the second wave, the same competent level of Pandarens had been able to stand against two Bone Spirit Demons and would struggle against a third. Starting with the third wave onwards, the tides had changed.
The Bone Spirit Demons like the gorilla variant had emerged out in the open, causing the fight to be skewed towards the monsters. It took approximately three to five Pandarens to take down a Bone Spirit Gorilla.
But because of the reinforcement of the Royal Snake Battalion and their tanks, the statistics were somewhat biased as the soldiers took on the harder demons based on their experience while the Pandarens cleared the remaining weaker Bone Spirit Demons. That being said, the soldiers did not have an easier time despite having some knowledge of them.
Whenever they did not know how to defeat a certain Bone Spirit type, all they did was spam explosive shells with the help of the tanks against the demons. The constant bombardment barrage was sufficient to slow the Bone Spirits though they could see that it was getting less effective as newer waves of monsters emerged from the orifices of the Ooofpa Loopa.
"Tank 1-3, move backwards for quick refuelling. Snake Alpha Company Platoon 1 will assist with the defence. Platoon 2-4 charge forward while Platoon 5 will assist you from your flanks until the next wave of reinforcements arrives." One of the Royal Snake Captains ordered and Sergeant Rochor acknowledged the orders along with the rest of the sergeants.
"You heard the man, we have to rush forth." Sergeant Rochor repeated the order for his Platoon 2.
"Sarge, can't we use our official techniques?" Zhang Mon complained as he wanted to slay these monsters as fast as possible with the least amount of effort but with the orders restrained to not reveal their techniques, they were bound to withhold their true strength.
This was because they were still one of the Royal Zodiac Military Battalions and showing their hand to the public would only undermine their capabilities, especially when there might be enemy eyes surveilling them.
"If you want to do that, be my guest. Forward my greetings to the general when he calls you in for a 'coffee talk', will you?" Sergeant Rochor replied through the channel and Zhang Min sighed.
"Forget it, bro. I shall treat this as a handicap and learn to grow from it. Besides, we got all these funky inscriptions charms to help us." Meng Ruo sneered as he assisted his pal by grappling the Bone Spirit Demon, allowing Zhang Min to stab and slash it multiple times while seeing in burning up in smoke because of the charms.
"Honestly speaking, you guys need more dungeon fighting. At this rate, the Pandarens will start to regard you as just some pathetic soldiers." The voice alone was able to strike a chord through the platoon's channel since they immediately recognised who it belonged to.
At that point, a high level intensive aura could be felt coming from the top of the Demopolis Wall and it was sufficient to stop the current wave of Bone Spirit Demons in their tracks. In a blink of an eye, that heavy aura could be felt moving down across the Demopolis Walls and crashing into the battlefield, killing a bunch of Bone Spirit Demons simultaneously.
"Sir! It's you who gave us that order to not to show our true skills!" Zhang Min shouted and the figure merely laughed.
"That is true, but I did not say you could not use your grade's brute strength, Corporal." The figure shook off the dust cloud from the initial impact. It was none other than Hou Fei, the Royal Zodiac Snake Battalion's General.
And that was not all, just as he was about to kill a Bone Spirit Demon with his hands, yet another powerful aura came about heading in his direction. His presence was not ignored by Hou Fei but instead of helping him, the figure took the opportunity to use Hou Fei's head as a stepping stone.
The kinetic waves from the impact were sufficient to paralyse the surrounding horde momentarily and that gave the rest an opening which they did not hesitate to utilise to the best of their abilities.
"Act like a general, you dumbass." The figure's fiery aura slowly dissipated and those in the upper echelons identified him as Royal Tiger General, San Ya Bai. At his behest, a new Tiger platoon came rushing down the Demopolis Walls and reinforced the current line against the Bone Spirit Demons.
A few of the Royal Snake Platoons instantly recognised them and even shook hands for a moment before placing their focus back on the Bone Spirit Demons. Meanwhile, the remaining Pandarens were in awe to see two Royal Zodiac Generals working hand in hand since it was not a common sight for such a thing to happen, let alone for the average citizen to have a chance to fight beside them. (even if it was 'only' in a dungeon instance.) To some military buffs, it was basically a dream come true.
There were no rules in the military preventing the Royal Battalions' soldiers (or their higher ranking officers for that matter) from participating in a dungeon instance so when it happened, the streamers all went nuts with their reactions.
Their presence alone had basically increased the credibility of Jin's Dungeon and Pandas store by at least two fold and that was enough to entice the prying eyes from both the public and the other Royal Zodiac Clans to tune in.
"Yeah, yeah. I understand the situation that we need to control ourselves but it would be a shame if we failed to defeat this particular Boss Monster in a dungeon instance, right?" Hou Fei argued and Ya Bai sighed.
Technically, Hou Fei hadn't done anything wrong by merely using his cultivation strength since there was indeed an ambiguity in the rules set by the military council based on their military conduct in public. Thus, Ya Bai merely shook his reply off and joined him to punch the shit out of a Bone Spirit Demon into oblivion.
"Wait, why don't you go kill the one in the south? Why are you stealing my prey? I want to earn some raid points too!" Hou Fei complained and Ya Bai chuckled.
"My entire battalion is still in the queue. They won't be coming in that quickly. Besides, we Tigers know that you Snakes cannot do it without us." Ya Bai reasoned as he smashed a Bone Spirit Gorillas's skull into pieces which the Royal Snake Soldiers had trouble fighting one on one. "Plus, we got to give the Pandarens participating some fighting chance, right? I heard they might have some special weapon incoming."
"Alright then, then let's see if we can clear this wave in record time and kill the stupid Ooof–GAH this fat a.s.s monster first!" Hou Fei accidentally bit on his tongue when he evaded a quick strike from Bone Spirit Elephant and somehow the entire battle eventually became all about them. The rest of the soldiers under them sighed but most of them understood that the Generals did not really have many opportunities to clear some steam, something they desperately needed after 'that' incident.
And since this was a dungeon instance, they were finally able to let loose and go crazy while their subordinates sympathetically supported them from the back.