It was a scene of three thousand, including three hundred notorious Death Guards from the Church of Calamity, against six hundred people. The disparity in power was completely disproportionate. The fate of the remaining six hundred was death, only the exact moment of their demise was delayed by a few minutes.
Life became cheap with every deafening, pitiful scream of the mercenaries of various races and colours. They fell slowly and listlessly into a pool of blood. Wisps of air, barely visible to the human eye, drifted upwards from the dead bodies before gathering in a corner of the mountain valley.
Han Shuo was the hand in the shadow that had pulled the strings of this battle. With the three Yin Demons monitoring the entire battle, he sat on the sidelines in a hidden corner, extremely comfortable as he absorbed every burst of scattered energy. The desires of the Bloodlust Realm were churning, ready to explode. But his rational mind kept the urge firmly under control.
Lives perished as time passed. The original group of six hundred mercenaries guarding the mine was now reduced to two hundred. The mages in this group were unceasingly unleashing various spells. Their targets were, of course, the mercenaries in the brightly coloured outfits. No one would waste their magic on the Death Guards.
Adam Menlo and his family's experts were the first to arrive. They could only use magic and arrows to attack Laureton's party from a distance in the mountain valley. They watched as the rest of their family were slaughtered in the valley.
It wasn't that they didn't want to, it was just that they didn't dare!
Those elite members of the House of Menlo who could fly in the air were all magical creature riders. This elite army was the foundation of the family. It was a pity that they were few in number, far fewer than the experts in Laureton's Cairo mercenary band. Adam Menlo's heart bled as he watched his family members die one by one. But he didn't dare go near them to save them. He knew full well that once he landed, his group would be met with devastating blows.
He waited, waiting for Florida and Katar's groups to arrive. The newcomers would be able to surround Laureton's group from outside the mountain valley. He waited for more members of the three forces to gather and then unleash their accumulated fury on Laureton.
"Honourable father, save me!" A middle-aged man with a face similar to Adam Menlo's was riding an armoured Black Buffalo in the middle of the valley. His eyes were filled with helplessness as he called pitifully to Adam Menlo, who hovered in the air on his fiery bird.
Laureton stood in front of the middle-aged man, his berserker's war-axe in his hand and his eyes wide. Several berserkers stood beside Laureton, also grinning maliciously as they coordinated to keep watch over the middle-aged man. Laureton was in no hurry to kill him.
Instead, he lifted his head to the sky, as if waiting for Adam Menlo to approach.
But he only saw Adam Menlo turn around after a while, his shoulders shaking slightly. It seemed that Adam had made the right decision, despite the pain in his heart.
"Noooo!" The middle-aged man snarled bitterly. Laureton approached and cut him in two. The echoing sound of his dying scream made the distant Adam Menlo falter on the back of his flaming bird.
At last, the heavy thud of cloven hooves was heard. Florida and Katar were leading a large force of mercenaries into the mountain valley. Adam Menlo's eyes were bloodshot as he struggled to keep up with the heart-wrenching agony of the scenes before him. He was the first to charge into the centre of the valley. combat aura erupted from the spear in his hand and intersected with the blazing flames from the flaming bird's beak, instantly claiming several lives.
The battle had become even more devastating, raging through the mountain valley like a raging fire. Han Shuo absorbed the killing intent calmly and indifferently. He coldly watched the battle that had turned the mountain valley into a level of hell, desperately suppressing his intense desire to join the fray.
The evenly matched forces fought each other until they became mad with bloodlust. Ninety percent of the Valley of Sunshine's forces had joined in, either for the mithril mine, or to gain privileges in the Valley, or to vent their deep hatred accumulated over many years.
The life force of these unyielding powerhouses was happily absorbed by an opportunist. Soon the corpses were piling up all over the mountain valley, hindering the battle itself. The races slaughtered each other to their hearts' content out of interest and hatred.
A bloody-red mist began to materialise around Han Shuo from the large amount of energy he'd absorbed. The sky above the mountain valley was suddenly filled with a bloody red mist. This terrifying, evil, murderous intent brought with it a nauseating, bloody stench as it enveloped the entire mountain valley.
However, the forces were all obsessed with the battle and didn't notice this strange occurrence. All their attention was focused on the enemy in front of them. Every single one of them had gone completely insane, using their weapons, bare hands and feet, or even their teeth to attack.
Han Shuo almost lost control of himself as he fought against his own bloodthirsty urges. Finally, he gave an order to the Earth Elite Zombie lurking underground. Han Shuo understood that this was not the right time as one side had not yet achieved victory. He could wait a little longer. Unfortunately, Han Shuo knew that he was in an extremely bad state. He absorbed far more killing intent than he could bear. He feared he'd lose his mind and miss his chance.
Ninety percent of the forces in the Valley of Sunshine were here, locked in battle. A quarter of them had already perished. This was the most intense battle that had ever taken place in the history of the Valley of Sunshine, with the largest number of participants. Suddenly, the forces that had been fighting to the death felt a violent tremor from the ground. Every corner of the entire mountain valley seemed to explode before they could react, the strong smell of explosives spreading instantly.
With enemies fighting in every corner of the mountain valley, the explosion caused massive damage. The mercenaries instantly exploded into clouds of bloody mist. The earth shook and the mountains cracked with the endlessly echoing series of explosions. More than half of the forces that had been lucky enough to survive so far died from the violent explosions.
The huge rocks above ground were shattered into pieces by the underground explosion. Each chunk was bigger than a man and fell like a shower of rain. The impact of the rocks falling from several hundred metres was terrifying. Careless experts were crushed to a pulp.
The parties in the mountain valley were stunned by this violent explosion. Ninety percent of the Valley of Sunshine's troops were here, but this earth-shattering bombardment didn't discriminate between friend and foe. The damage it caused was amplified. No matter how stupid Laureton's group was, they too could smell a conspiracy.