The humans used a dirty trick: they had their strongest archers approach the enemy lines and fire arrows with oil bags attached.
The oil bags burst upon impact, splashing flammable liquid everywhere, followed by fire arrows raining down to ignite a raging blaze.
The gnolls couldn't extinguish these flames, no matter how hard they patted them or rolled on the ground.
The fire scorched their fur, and the stench of burning hair immediately filled the air.
Ignoring the flames, the locusts launched a relentless assault.
The production cost for these fodder units was incredibly low; in fact, there was almost no energy to be gained even if their flesh was recycled.
According to Xia Jin's current statistics, 1 unit of ordinary energy could produce a batch of 20 locusts. After a battle, recycling them would yield roughly 0.98 units of energy.
While this recovery rate might not be as high as that of normal Zerg units, the loss was negligible, making them extremely cost-effective.
...
“Do these wretched humans really think sending such weak creatures will scare us?”
At a rough estimate, there were only about ten thousand of them. The gnolls hadn't been afraid when facing tens of thousands of stronger humans and other Zerg; why would they care about these?
They immediately deployed larger units to strike the locust army from both flanks, instantly stretching the front line to three kilometers in width.
After two hours of fighting, not a single locust remained.
The gnolls had suffered 4,000 casualties, half of whom were killed by humans, while the other half died at the hands of the locusts.
Though they won, the casualty ratio still worried some of the gnoll patriarchs.
“No need to worry.” The patriarch of a massive tribe walked in from outside the tent.
“The enemy doesn't have many left. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent these Tier 1 creatures to their deaths.”
“Great Patriarch.”
The others stood and bowed upon seeing him.
This newcomer was one of the three highest leaders of the gnolls and the only king of all the gnolls near the kingdom.
He walked to the head seat and sat down, nodding to the gathered gnolls.
“So, should we deploy our troops for a decisive battle now?” one gnoll asked.
“There’s no rush.” The Great Patriarch straightened his back confidently. “After several battles of attrition, although many tribes have suffered heavy losses, we have also ground down the enemy's strength. Those magic beasts are indeed powerful, but their numbers are limited. I suspect their reserves are already depleted. Otherwise, after winning so many battles, why haven't they pressed their advantage? Instead, they’ve entered a standoff with us and are even using Tier 1 creatures to make up the numbers. We’ll just drag this out, moving steadily and grinding down their strength bit by bit. When the time is right, we’ll deliver the killing blow.”
“Yes!”
The gnolls below were instantly filled with confidence.
...
In the following days, they began to act according to the Great Patriarch’s strategy.
A brutal tug-of-war unfolded on the vast grassland.
Various gnoll tribes took turns on the battlefield, their thousand-man formations holding the line against wave after wave of charges on the flat ground.
The number of locusts deployed by the Zerg gradually increased.
At first, they came in groups of a few thousand, but later they appeared in the tens of thousands. These black creatures could be encountered attacking from almost any direction.
In just two days, the gnolls killed a cumulative total of 30,000 locusts, losing several thousand of their own.
However, the situation the Great Patriarch anticipated did not occur.
The locusts didn't decrease; instead, there were more and more of them.
A vast, dark tide stretched as far as the eye could see.
The Great Patriarch, who had originally intended to exhaust the enemy's strength with small-scale units, was now beginning to doubt his very existence.
“Why does it feel like we’re the ones being ground down?”
Where did all these Tier 1 things come from?
And every single one of them was fearless.
Refusing to believe it, he increased his investment, pulling 40,000 troops from two tribes to prepare for a localized decisive battle with the Swarm, intending to completely eradicate the locusts in this area.
An astonishing battle subsequently broke out.
The humans sent cavalry for support, while the Zerg deployed several lurkers, which left a massive psychological scar on the gnolls.
This battle lasted for a full seven hours, and in the end, the locust legion was completely annihilated.
The destruction of a full sixty thousand units clearly shocked Amelo and the other nobles.
But seeing Xia Jin’s calm and indifferent expression, the Count could only suppress his curiosity.
He couldn't help but whisper, “Princess, do you not care about these magic beasts at all? I mean, won't the King blame you for this?”
“What King?” Xia Jin was baffled.
She frowned, realizing she didn't understand what he meant, and simply ignored him.
“It’s fine. They’re just consumables.”
“Consumables?”
While Amelo was still in shock, another large group of new locusts appeared in the distance.
The number was 2,000.
He was momentarily dazed.
Rate on N.U.
