"Ha!" Eula let out a clear shout, the Song of Broken Pines Greatsword in her hand drawing a graceful arc, fiercely splitting a roaring Hilichurl Chieftain and knocking it to the ground.
She quickly turned, the sword's body precisely blocking the huge axe fiercely swung down by another Blazing Axe Mitachurl behind her, sending sparks flying!
Just then, a group of Hilichurl Crossbowmen not far away spotted this troublesome target. They simultaneously raised their crossbows, the icy arrowheads aimed directly at Eula!
"Hey! Bad guys aren't allowed to bully Big Sister Eula! Jumpy Dumpty Bomb—!"
Klee's childish yet energetic voice rang out. A round, rolling Jumpy Dumpty Bomb painted with a cute smiling face sliced through the air and landed precisely at the feet of the crossbowmen.
"Boom!"
The next second, flames and smoke rose, and the group of Hilichurl Crossbowmen, along with their crossbows and arrows, turned into scattered, charred fragments.
"Well done, Klee!"
Eula had just sighed in relief, but as her gaze swept toward Klee, her pupils suddenly contracted.
"Watch out behind you!!"
"Ah!"
Klee turned her head, only to see an even larger Hilichurl Chieftain with blood-red eyes had somehow circled around behind her. It was raising its rock-encased fists high, ready to smash down on her!
Little Klee was so frightened she immediately covered her head and squatted down, her small backpack shaking three times along with her.
The expected impact and pain did not arrive.
Klee trembled, cautiously opening one eye, and was immediately pulled behind Eula, who had rushed over.
"Who are you?!"
Eula gripped her greatsword tightly, her expression extremely serious as she stared at the tall figure that had suddenly appeared before her.
The opponent was over two meters tall, completely shrouded in a worn black cloak, faintly revealing the thick, ancient-style, robust armor underneath.
A chilling skull mask covered its face, and the giant sword in its hand, which was taller than a person, silently dripped a dark red liquid that exuded a strong aura of death—
The Hilichurl Chieftain that had tried to sneak attack was now lying silently beside them, its body slowly turning into ashes.
This terrifying existence did not answer Eula's question, nor did it even spare her a glance.
Its hollow skull eye sockets looked straight past the battlefield, casting their gaze toward the Demon Dragon Durin, who was entangled in battle with the Wolf King high in the sky, as if assessing something.
Moments later, just as abruptly as it had arrived, its figure slowly merged into the shadows and disappeared, leaving Eula and the still-shaken Klee staring blankly at each other.
— — — — — —
"Come on! Let's see who has more people!"
On the other side, the quartet also began their "performance."
Under the stunned gaze of Lumine and Paimon, they pulled out an ordinary-looking tablet computer and rapidly tapped on it several times.
The next moment, light flashed in an empty space, and a group of figures appeared out of thin air... small figures in a paper cutout style, whose art was extremely crude, movements stiff, and eyes vacant?
They wore rough red armor, carried weapons that looked like children's toys, and walked with wobbly, crooked steps. A few even tripped and fell by themselves while walking.
"W-what are these things?!" Lumine pointed at these "reinforcements" that looked like their IQs didn't exceed 50, her voice trembling.
"Are you sure these are here to help, and not to make us laugh?"
"You don't understand, do you!" Elliot continued tapping furiously on the tablet while explaining without lifting his head.
"These are 'Placers'! They come from 'Totally Accurate Battle Simulator'! Although they all look like their brains were squashed by a door, they are full of martial virtue and take fighting very seriously!"
"There's a Hilichurl Chieftain being pretty arrogant over there, deploy a 'King' to chop it up!" Jesse commanded.
A small figure wearing a crown, dressed in golden paper armor, and carrying a massive longsword was deployed. It walked with swaggering, wobbly steps toward a Hilichurl Chieftain, only to be slapped flying over ten meters away by the Hilichurl Chieftain.
It bounced several times on the ground before getting up and continuing its wobbly charge...
"The gate seems a bit hard to defend, deploy a 'Void Monarch' to support the area!" Zane analyzed calmly.
A dark-style small figure wearing bone armor, a helmet, and wielding a two-handed bone sword was placed down.
It did let out a very imposing roar upon entry (though the sound was like a chicken being strangled), and then... it started swinging its sword madly at the air, nearly hitting a passing Knight of Favonius.
"The archers on the city wall seem insufficient, deploy a few 'Viking Archers' up there!" Matt suggested earnestly.
Several small figures wearing furs and holding crude wooden bows were placed onto the city wall.
The arrows they shot were weak, their trajectories bizarre; eight out of ten arrows missed, and one even hit the backside of a fighting Knight below (luckily, the armor was thick)...
"Also deploy a dozen 'Swordsmen' inside Mondstadt City and let them search for enemies and fight on their own!" Elliot added.
"Why aren't we deploying all high-tier units?" Matt asked at this point.
"Because we don't have enough money. This isn't Sandbox Mode; we only have ten thousand in total, so we need to conserve it," Zane explained, pointing at the number displayed on the tablet, before tapping it a few more times.
Thus, a group of red figures appeared on the streets of Mondstadt City. They held longswords, walked with stiff steps, swarmed any monsters they saw, slashing wildly without any technique, and occasionally even fought among themselves due to pathing blockages...
Watching this bizarre spectacle—these red, idiotic figures chasing ferocious monsters all over the city, occasionally being flattened by a monster's slap, yet sometimes inexplicably using 'turtle shell fists' to kill or injure several monsters—everyone present, including the Knights of Favonius and the fighting Adventurers, fell into a deep silence.
Albedo, who had just arrived, witnessed all of this, and the corner of the genius alchemist's mouth twitched violently.
With the characteristic rigor and curiosity of a researcher, he silently grabbed a "Swordsman" figure passing by and cautiously lifted its crude helmet.
Beneath the helmet was an even cruder, lifeless, extremely vacant pixelated face.
Albedo stared into those "eyes" for three seconds.
Then, silently and gently, he helped the figure put its helmet back on, even thoughtfully patting its shoulder to signal that it could continue fighting.
He turned around and took a deep breath, feeling that if he watched any longer, his intelligence and his life's knowledge of alchemy might suffer irreversible contamination.
This battle was... truly too abstract!
Just when everyone thought that these "Placers," with their unique art style and touching intelligence, would only cause trouble, and even began considering whether the Knights should list them as "unstable factors requiring cleanup," a sudden change occurred in the center of the battlefield!
The Void Monarch, which had previously been swinging its sword madly at the air, suddenly stopped its perplexing behavior.
Ominous blood-red light began to seep from the gaps in its crude bone armor, and a ferocious blood-colored tornado spontaneously swirled around its body! The wind howled mournfully, as if countless vengeful spirits were screaming!
"N-not good! What is it going to do?!" Paimon hid behind Lumine in fright.
The tornado suddenly dissipated!
The Void Monarch, which had only looked slightly gloomy before, had undergone a massive transformation—its body had swelled up, twisted demon horns sprouted from the sides of its helmet, tattered bat wings spread from its back, and the giant sword in its hand was wrapped in purple-black destructive energy.
The entire "person" emitted a terrifying, heart-stopping pressure!
Demon Form: Void Monarch, appearing!
It didn't even need a running start; it simply swung the giant sword, which seemed capable of tearing space, toward the dense tide of monsters ahead!
"Weng—!!!"
A massive shockwave, mixed with purple energy turbulence and countless sharp black bone spikes, violently erupted in a fan shape toward the front!
Everything in its path, whether Hilichurls, Abyss Mages, or Ruin Guards, was instantly torn apart, pulverized, and annihilated!
Like an eraser wiping away pencil marks, it forcefully cleared a massive fan-shaped vacuum zone within the surging monster tide!
This extreme and pure destructive power left Diluc and Kaeya, who had just been fighting alongside it nearby (and trying hard to dodge its friendly fire), completely dumbfounded.
Diluc forgot to maintain the flames on his Favonius Greatsword: "..."
Kaeya's signature smile completely froze on his face, and his Ice Sword nearly dropped to the ground: "...Was that thing just playing possum?"
Meanwhile, the King, who had previously been batted around like a ball by the Hilichurl Chieftain, finally wobbled its way to its target—the Hilichurl Chieftain that had just managed to get up.
The Hilichurl Chieftain angrily pounded its chest, preparing to swat this annoying little thing away again.
However, the Demon Transformation seemed to be some kind of signal.
The King's crude crown suddenly lit up with golden light. It clumsily raised the seemingly ridiculous giant sword, no longer swinging wildly with 'turtle shell fists,' but following a certain... profound trajectory?
"Swish!"
A simple yet lightning-fast slash!
The enormous body of the arrogant Hilichurl Chieftain was sent flying dozens of meters away, as if struck by a battering ram. It crashed through three ruined walls before finally stopping, a massive wound on its chest nearly splitting it in half!
Everyone: "!!!" (The contrast is too extreme!)
At the same time, new "reinforcements" continued to be "airdropped" from the quartet's tablet!
A squad of Musketeers in red uniforms marched over in a wobbly line formation, taking extremely uncoordinated goose steps.
They slowly raised the old-fashioned Muzzle-Loading Muskets in their hands.
"Ready—Fire!" (Although no one actually shouted the command) Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A scattered but surprisingly accurate volley of shots rang out, and a row of charging Hilichurl Shooters and Whopperflowers fell to the ground instantly!
Although the reloading speed was infuriatingly slow, their fire projection capability was genuinely formidable.
On the other side, a Quickdraw wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a trench coat, whose appearance resembled a Western cowboy, flitted across the edge of the battlefield like a phantom.
His figure flickered several times. The action of his Revolver was too fast to see, only the sound of several shots, almost merging into one continuous blast: "Bang bang bang bang bang!"
As he elegantly turned and spun the Revolver on his finger before holstering it, six Blazing Axe Mitachurls behind him froze mid-charge, then simultaneously developed a bullet hole in their foreheads and crashed to the ground.
"Awoo—!"
A Bear-Head Axeman, wearing a massive bear-head hat and bulging with muscle, let out an inhuman roar. Wielding a giant, door-sized axe with both hands, it charged directly into the densest area of monsters like a human tank!
It didn't care about techniques; it only used the simplest, most brutal chops and sweeps!
Every swing of the axe brought a shower of severed limbs and broken arms, carving a bloody path through the monster horde and initiating a furious Musou Mode!
The defenders of Mondstadt City, from the Knights to the citizens, found their current feelings indescribable.
Watching these paper figures—who seemed idiotic and hilarious one second, yet could unleash astonishing combat power the next—they felt their worldviews being repeatedly dragged across the ground.
Acting Grand Master Jean held her forehead, feeling dizzy: "Lisa... Have I been reviewing too many documents lately and started hallucinating?"
Lisa yawned lazily, but her eyes sparkled with interest: "Hehe, it seems the 'Art of War' from another world is much more... abstract than we imagined."