Chapter 77: Exclusive Morale Buff
On the defensive line a few kilometers in front of the base camp fortress, the two opposing armies faced off about half a kilometer apart.
The vassal soldiers of the Vassal Alliance were still clad in their combat suits, wielding war blades resembling horse-slaying sabers.
The color of their combat suits had changed, from the original black to a black tinged with red, as if coated in a layer of resin.
This was an emergency-selected heat-resistant coating produced by the military research department of the Vassal Alliance. They had prior research in this area, but when fighting against humans, the human side rarely used soldiers with flames or high temperatures. Although this research had yielded results, it had been shelved and never widely deployed.
After the devastating defeat of the Hammer Unit in the previous battle, the Vassal Alliance learned from their pain. They requisitioned this heat-resistant coating formula from the military research department, had the more productive Watchtowers handle the manufacturing, and sent the finished coating directly to the border fortress of Twilight City.
Upon arriving at Twilight City, each unit began distributing the coating, and the vassal soldiers applied this mixture of "thermal resin" and "liquid chromium-aluminum" onto their combat suits themselves.
This coating's heat resistance wasn't exceptional, merely average. However, because it contained thermal resin, when exposed to high temperatures, it caused the coated material to become exceptionally hard.
The hotter the environment, the stronger the defense of the vassal soldiers' combat suits. However, the joints of the suits couldn't be coated, otherwise, once the ambient temperature reached a certain level, the suits would become as rigid as ice, trapping the soldiers.
Given the Vassal Alliance's capability in producing war materials, they could manufacture combat suits with superior heat resistance, but that would take time. Mass-producing this coating and applying it to existing suits was far faster, ensuring soldiers could reach the battlefield sooner.
In addition to the heat-resistant coating, the armor plates originally inserted into the chest area of the vassal soldiers' combat suits were replaced with hollow ceramic plates filled with liquid nitrogen.
Upon withstanding a certain level of impact, these hollow ceramic plates would crack, releasing liquid nitrogen that could, to some extent, cool the vassal soldiers.
The previous battlefield had turned into a fiery inferno, leaving the vassal side shaken. The heat-resistant coating and liquid nitrogen ceramic plates seemed like simple countermeasures, but factoring in time and manpower costs, equipping hundreds of thousands of soldiers with these two items in a short period required a powerful logistics department and production capacity.
The enemy's 330,000 vassal soldiers were divided into 12 units. When battle commenced, these vassal units would charge the defensive line from several major directions. No matter how complex the tactics in an offensive-defensive battle, the essence remained unchanged: one side builds a line to hold, while the opposing side charges.
The enemy would continue to enhance their fire defense capabilities over time, but our side wasn't standing still. After the human side captured vassal combat suits, Su Xiao obtained a total of 11,900 units of Living Ore.
Adding our own production, the Living Ore reserve reached 13,500 units. Of this, Su Xiao spent 5,900 units of Living Ore to add 118 new Heavy Tanks to our side.
This brought our Heavy Tank count to 120. In the previous battle, just 30 Heavy Tanks charging had turned Colonel Rez's face pale.
The charging power of Heavy Tanks had been personally experienced by Orlandi, the top-tier Eighth Rank fighter.
Aside from Heavy Tanks, Su Xiao consumed a total of 7,000 units of Living Ore to evolve 143,820 Boar Warriors.
Su Xiao's forces now numbered 375,620 Boar Warriors, 120 Heavy Tanks, and finally, 25 Sun Maidens.
The evolution cost for Sun Maidens wasn't high. As a Tier 5 unit, each cost only 200 kilograms of Living Ore.
The problem was that there were too few female pig-heads with the potential to become Sun Maidens. If male pig-heads evolved into Boar Warriors, leaning toward the beastly side, then Heavy Tanks were fully beastified, evolving and transforming on a basis of atavism combined with insect genes—that was the Heavy Tank.
In contrast, Sun Maidens evolved toward rationality and spirituality. Pig-heads had little talent in this area, so only female pig-heads with more human genes could potentially become Sun Maidens.
It was normal for pig-heads to have human genes. Their ancestor, the "Ancestral Half-Beastmen," originated when beasts, during mechanical contamination, devoured humans. The continued contamination caused the cells and genes of both to fuse, giving rise to the "Ancestral Half-Beastmen."
After the above expenditures, 600 units of Living Ore remained. Su Xiao used these 600 units to make a deal with the human side that seemed like a loss but was actually a gain.
After this battle, our side had captured a large number of vassal standard weapons. The Boar Warriors no longer lacked weapons; there were even surplus.
However, the Boar Warriors' weapons were too varied, mostly war blades. For them, untrained in such weapons, these war blades were not user-friendly.
Sometimes on the battlefield, their usage of war blades was particularly bizarre. There were even instances where several Boar Warriors surrounded a vassal soldier with war blades and ended up beating him to death with the flat of the blade. Note: not cutting, but smashing like a cucumber.
Therefore, Su Xiao proposed a trade with the human side. He offered 600 units of Living Ore to exchange all existing war blades, alloy axes, serrated swords, and other weapons for long-handled war hammers.
Su Xiao's proposal was a perfect match with the human side. Their soldiers disliked long-handled war hammers the most—too cumbersome and not suited to their fighting style.
On the other hand, when our Boar Warriors used war hammers with the "Rageflame" effect, the weapon type bonus increased the explosion range of the flame blast by 25% to 30%.
After clearing out the human side's war hammer reserves, our side had about 300,000 war hammers.
This meant that among the 375,620 Boar Warriors on the defensive line, nearly 300,000 were equipped with long-handled war hammers. Once battle began, flame hammers would be swung wildly, causing flame explosions with a density and range far exceeding the previous battle.
At the very front of the defensive line, the two armies faced off a few hundred meters apart. This time, the vassal side wasn't just sending soldiers to charge; they also brought many armored war vehicles. These vehicles were driven by alloy tracks and mounted with heavy machine guns, each bullet nearly 20 centimeters long.
These armored war vehicles weren't entirely metal structures; they had biological components inside. They looked very similar to the structure of a mobile fortress, just much smaller, capable of holding about 6 to 7 people.
At the front of the vehicle was a magnetic impact device, whose power was on a different level from cannons. If hit by this magnetic impact, a Boar Warrior would instantly turn into a mass of flesh and blood mist.
The two heavy machine guns mounted on the living war vehicles fired explosive rounds with terrifying power, but they were heavy and had a fearsome recoil.
If not mounted on a living war vehicle, a vassal soldier could at most fire 10 to 12 explosive rounds from a heavy machine gun before their internal organs ruptured from the shock, resulting in severe injury or instant death. Hence, this weapon could only be mounted on living war vehicles.
From the structure of the living war vehicles, it was clear this was a unique technology of the "Watchtowers." Even when dealing with the Vassal Alliance and the Aurora Council, it was only lent, not sold.
The vassal side's living war vehicles and the heavy artillery positioned further back were their trump cards.
The Sun Faction, on the other hand, had 370,000 Boar Warriors. The enemy had living war vehicles; we had Heavy Tanks and Sun Maidens that could serve as "healing wards" on the battlefield.
Most importantly, our side had another ace up our sleeve.
The blazing sun hung high in the sky as the two armies faced off. An eagle's cry came from high above.
Bang!
An explosion sounded from above, and a line of fire fell vertically, plunging into the densest area of enemy soldiers.
The straight line of fire gradually faded into the air, but in the next second—
Boom!!
A massive golden fireball expanded, instantly spreading to 2 kilometers in size. The Sunflame inside blazed fiercely. This fireball, a full 2,000 meters across, sank its lower half into the ground, like a small sun falling to earth.
The Boar Warriors on our defensive line stood frozen, their first action being to look up at the sun in the sky. After confirming the real sun was still there, they breathed a sigh of relief, and then an indescribable surge of excitement stirred within them.
The incarnation of the sun had descended to destroy their enemies. This was a miracle!
"Eternal Sun!"
The Boar Warriors' shouts seemed to pierce the sky. Their morale, originally at 92 points, immediately shot to 100+, not only full but overflowing.
Su Xiao saw for the first time the morale value become "Morale MAX." Moreover, the entire morale bar ignited with golden flames.
"Kill them all."
At the very front of our army, standing atop a Heavy Tank, Hausman roared loudly. Hearing his shout, the Boar Warriors surged forward like a torrent of flames. Unbeknownst to them, faint golden-red flames had ignited on their bodies.
Within the enemy formation, which had just been hit by an ordinary Apollo, chaos erupted.
Standing among the crowd, the Golden Count paid it no mind. He stared at the approaching army of Boar Warriors. The momentum bearing down on him made him genuinely feel that the situation was dire.