The Golden Puppeteer's Golden Gorilla Legion's golden barrier had absorbed too much damage and broken apart. However, the golden barrier wasn't the gorillas' only ability. If it were, it would have been simpler to use less complicated items to deploy the barriers. The golden barrier was only the Golden Gorilla Legion's first move. The golden wall breaking was only a sign that the gorillas had finished absorbing all the magic and force behind the attacks that landed on the defensive formation.
Powering dozens of bulky gorilla puppets required a lot of mana, naturally. And if the Golden Puppeteer didn't have enough himself or didn't want to waste ridiculous amounts of money on mana crystals, there was another method available. To use the soft and shock-absorbing properties of gold to steal the mana from the attacks that landed on the gorillas.
The golden barrier becoming more and more opaque with golden light was an indicator of how much mana the gorilla legion had absorbed and how ready they were to unleash their true strength. The barrier completely breaking was a sign that the gorillas were fully charged.
And after taking a couple of minutes to change modes from defense to offense, the gorillas were ready to show off their fully charged strength.
Right when the Alliance of Kingdoms' forces were about to be squeezed to death by the Tribe of Death surrounding them, the Golden Gorilla Legion woke up. The gorillas, although puppets, roared and beat their chests like drums before charging toward the half of the Tribe of Death's forces that lay in between them and the Alliance's troops.
The gorillas' heavy golden fists pounded the ground and sent tremors all the way to their targets.
The Alliance of Kingdoms' troops heard the signal that was the Golden Gorilla Legion's advance and began their own offensive. Slightly more than half of the troops focused on attacking and cutting down the same half of the Tribe of Death as the golden gorillas, while the rest prioritized defending against and keeping back the other half of the Tribe of Death's forces.
One half of the Tribe of Death's forces were stuck between the Golden Gorilla Legion's reckless rampage and the relentless assault of the Alliance's troops. And the other half was trying to get through the stubborn defenses of the Alliance's line of defenders.
Although the golden gorilla puppets were vastly outnumbered by the Tribe of Death, they were all ninth level puppets filled to the brim with enchantments that increased their strength and durability. They required as much mana as they did for a reason, after all, and the Tribe of Death's forces were individually incapable of defeating a single gorilla.
The golden gorillas burned through their accumulated mana and smashed through the ranks of the Tribe of Death with ease, their heavy fists smashing skulls and splattering blood all over the battlefield.
The Alliance's troops weren't quite as ferocious or successful in their endeavor. But thanks to the gorillas sowing chaos and disorder amongst the Tribe of Death's ranks, the humans also pushed through and cut apart their enemies with building momentum.
The Tribe of Death wasn't completely defenseless, but they were at an absolute disadvantage, and the Alliance's losses were incomparable to the deaths of the Tribe of Death. Caught between two powerful groups of attackers and without the endless stream of the Fountain to rely on, there wasn't much the Tribe of Death could do other than panic and unleash as much demonic energy and magic as possible.
However, without the Fountain and without anything similar to the humans' mana potions, the Tribe of Death's forces didn't have much demonic energy left in their bodies. And there weren't enough Chalices of Death to go around, especially when several Chalices' holders had already fallen at the hands of the gorillas or the humans. The ones holding the Chalices might be stronger than their other comrades, thanks to the increased demonic energy, but they still weren't a match for the rampaging gorillas or the attack squads of the spearhead divisions of the charge.
With more and more of the Tribe of Death succumbing to the gorillas and the Alliance's troops and several of the Chalices ending up at the hands of the humans, the targeted half of the Tribe of Death's army was quickly succumbing.
The Alliance of Kingdoms lost a lot of troops as well, but not nearly as much as the Tribe of Death. It was war. Just that so many had survived was already great fortune.
But it would be difficult to maintain that kind of statistic in the upcoming battle.
Eventually, the Golden Gorilla Legion and the Alliance of Kingdoms' troops met on the battlefield, which meant that there wasn't a lot of that half of the Tribe of Death left.
But the gorillas and the humans didn't chase after the stragglers.
"Fall back!"
General Scoll's voice ordered them to leave the scene of slaughter and retreat to the original defensive line. The harshness in his tone even prevented the troops from striking and ending any injured enemies they encountered along the way.
The gorillas and the humans fled like water streamed as they left the corpses of their enemies behind. Even the ones still alive since the surviving half of the Tribe of Death's army didn't chase.
Since the gorillas were running out of mana and the human troops were on the verge of exhaustion, now would be the perfect time to chase after and kill as many of them as possible. But the Tribe of Death didn't move forward. If anything, they even took several steps backward and away from the scene of slaughter.
When they returned to their original positions, the humans turned around and were surprised by the Tribe of Death's decision. The Golden Gorilla Legion had done its work and would have to be restored before they could be used like that again, so the Golden Puppeteer sucked them back into his storage case.
General Scoll's gaze shifted between three places, his troops, the mana storm reaching the ground, and the scene of slaughter that he had orchestrated. Eventually, his eyes stopped on the scene of slaughter as it and the Tribe of Death's movements confirmed his claim.
The Tribe of Death began moving after the humans were back in their original positions. And two skeletons stepped forward.
One of the skeletons was a large death knight more than two meters tall. It was covered in jet-black armor and held a greatsword larger than an ordinary man in one hand. The death knight accompanied a slightly smaller skeleton covered in fluttering dark grey robes that covered all of its body except for the bony hands and the shiny skull with its ghastly blue flaming eye sockets.
The two skeletons stopped in front of the scene of slaughter, and the lich pulled out a glassy black orb from its sleeves. The orb was larger than its head and brimmed with ominous demonic energy that made the ghost flames in the lich's and the death knight's eye sockets flicker.
The lich roused its own demonic energy and injected it into the orb. Shortly after, a billowing cloud of black fog escaped the orb and shrouded the scene of slaughter before sinking into the corpses and remains of the dead.
After absorbing the black fog, the bones, flesh, and skin of all the corpses trembled, and it looked like they began melting like rubber as everything began moving around.
The sight of all the remains moving around like maggots was vomit-inducing. Thankfully, the human troops were too far away to get a proper look. But General Scoll and his subordinates stood on the raised platform. They saw clearly how all the flesh and bones wriggled and clumped together in the center of the scene of slaughter.
Although General Scoll and his subordinates knew what their enemies were planning, it didn't mean that they were prepared for the sight. At least it happened to the remains of the enemies and not their troops.
General Scoll and his subordinates looked on as the remains continued wriggling even after forming a huge pile. More and more flesh gathered, and the pile grew.
Eventually, the pile reached a suitable size considering it used the remains of half an army.
After all the remains had been gathered in one spot, the pile gradually transformed and began taking on a slightly humanoid shape.
Then, with a burst of black fog accompanied by a ground-shaking roar, the Flesh Golem was complete.
