"Roar—!!!"
Amidst the deafening roar, over thirty heavily armored Blazing Axe Mitachurls, like chariots, crushed into the military formation.
Their three-meter-tall bodies were clad in steel plate armor, and their spiked maces swung, bringing with them gusts of Blood Wind (bloody wind).
"Hold the line! Long spear team, advance!"
Gorou's shouts were drowned out by the clang of metal.
A Shogunate samurai's naginata struck a Blazing Axe Mitachurl's shoulder armor, sending sparks flying.
"How is this possible..."
He stared wide-eyed at his blunted blade, only to be cut in half at the waist by a giant axe the next second.
"H-help!"
The young Foot soldier dropped his spear and turned to run, but was grabbed by the ankle by a Blazing Axe Mitachurl and lifted upside down.
Amidst agonizing screams, the poor man was swung like a weapon into the crowd, knocking down five or six comrades.
On the other side of the battlefield, a five-meter-tall Hilichurl Chieftain was clutching a struggling Shogunate samurai.
Armor twisted and deformed in its fingers, and blood gushed from the gaps in its iron gauntlets.
"Let go of me! Please... Ahhh!"
A bone-chilling crunch sounded. The Hilichurl Chieftain lifted the lower half of its mask, revealing a mouth full of dagger-like fangs.
Under the gaze of hundreds of terrified eyes, it bit through the samurai's skull like eating fruit, and red and white liquid dripped from its chin.
"You bastard!"
Gorou's dog ears twitched violently with anger.
He shot an arrow with a backhand, piercing the eye socket of a distant Blazing Axe Mitachurl, then grabbed a spear stuck in the ground and charged out.
Geo element gathered at the spear tip, transforming into a spiral drill.
Gorou leaped high over the corpses, his spear aimed directly at the Hilichurl Chieftain's throat: "Die—!"
"Snap!"
The Hilichurl Chieftain casually grabbed a fleeing Foot soldier and used him as a shield.
Gorou's pupils suddenly constricted, but it was too late to withdraw his strength.
"M-my lord..."
The impaled Foot soldier coughed up blood foam, his trembling hand gripping the spear shaft.
"Kill... them..."
"Boom!"
The dull thud of the Hilichurl Chieftain crushing a head and the sharp whistle of a spiked mace slicing through the air came simultaneously.
Gorou's hastily condensed Geo shield shattered into pieces upon contact. He flew over twenty meters like a kite with a broken string, plowing a deep furrow in the sand.
"Cough... cough cough!"
Gorou spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments.
He glimpsed his twisted and deformed right arm, and without hesitation, grabbed his elbow joint.
"Crack!"
After a gruesome resetting sound, Geo element light flowed over the wound.
When Gorou shakily stood up, what greeted his eyes was a living hell—
The Shogunate Army's front line had collapsed, and the remnants were being harvested like wheat.
The resistance's formation was being squeezed from three directions by three Hilichurl Chieftains, and dozens of people were being crushed into meat paste every second.
The sea was covered with severed limbs, and even the waves were stained red.
Most despairingly, new Hilichurl legions were continuously emerging from the sea of fire.
They advanced over the corpses of their kin and humans, their metal boots grinding the screams of the dying into the sand.
"Could it be that today we really have to..."
Gorou's tail drooped weakly, his spear stuck in the sand, supporting his body.
—
Jesse frowned, holding a delicate Shogunate Army chess piece between two fingers.
Inside the chess piece, hundreds of translucent souls were huddled together in terror, their distorted faces visible through the crystal-like surface.
"Isn't this difficulty a bit too high?"
He shook the chess piece, and the souls inside immediately tumbled like sand in an hourglass, letting out silent screams.
The Wolf King's electronic eye flickered: "Current difficulty rating: Hell, our units' combat power is 7.8 times that of the resistance."
"That's exactly the effect we want!"
Elliot excitedly placed three more chess pieces on the board.
"If we don't push them to the brink, how can there be a dramatic alliance?"
Matt worriedly poked a resistance chess piece. The souls inside immediately huddled together, trembling: "But... are you sure nothing will go wrong?"
"Don't worry."
Zane opened a crystal box embedded with resurrection runes.
"The resurrection procedures are all set up."
He took the chess piece from Jesse's hand and gently placed it in the box.
"Look, we can even watch the battle in real-time."
The moment the chess piece fell into the box, a three-dimensional projection of the Nazuchi Beach battlefield immediately appeared on its surface.
One could clearly see the souls inside huddled in front of the "viewing window," watching the slaughter outside in horror.
Jesse stroked his chin thoughtfully: "Should we add a bullet comment function for them? That would make the viewing experience better."
"Stop messing around."
Zane rolled his eyes at him.
"These are all going to be put back."
He carefully adjusted the time flow inside the box.
"If they knew they were being played with as chess pieces, Gorou would definitely fight us to the death."
The Wolf King suddenly issued an alert: "Warning: Chess piece B-247 is experiencing soul overload."
"Tsk, such poor mental resilience."
Jesse quickly took out the violently trembling chess piece and injected a little tranquilizer into it.
"Alright, alright, it'll be over soon."
Matt's giant fingers gently tapped the chessboard, his seven-meter-tall body wriggling uneasily: "But this difficulty is too high, isn't it? It's only been ten minutes since the start, and both sides are almost wiped out..."
He pointed at several chess pieces that had already turned gray, with densely packed souls huddled together inside, trembling.
Zane unhurriedly took out several exquisite ship sails and flags from the chess box: "Don't worry, how could we really let them all be annihilated?"
He 'slapped' the Crux Fleet's chess piece onto the sea area.
"Beidou already received a commission from Sangonomiya Kokomi."
Elliot, however, frowned: "Is that all the reinforcements? The Abyss Hilichurls we set up can solo Ruin Guards!"
"Don't rush~"
Zane smiled mysteriously and then placed the chess pieces of Kaedehara Kazuha and Sangonomiya Kokomi.
As soon as Kokomi's chess piece landed, dense tactical connections immediately appeared on the chessboard.
"Still not enough."
Elliot counted the combat power comparison.
"At least another thirty percent more troops..."
Zane suddenly showed a sly expression and pulled out a few chess pieces from the bottom of the chess box: "What about these?"
"Fatui Skirmishers?!"
Jesse almost knocked over his juice.
"How are we going to explain this to them after they're resurrected?"
Zane casually played with a Fatui Skirmisher chess piece, a nonchalant smile on his face: "Explain? Why explain?"
Jesse took a sip of juice, almost choking when he heard this: "Cough cough... Are you serious? Directly tell them that these Abyss Hilichurls and Fatui were all arranged by us?"
"Anyway, we're going to resurrect them, and making up lies is more troublesome."
Zane shrugged, the electric light on his thunder hammer crackling.
"It's better to tell the truth. Our plan is to force the Shogunate Army and the resistance to join forces."
On the chessboard, the remaining soldiers of the two armies were fighting back-to-back in desperation.
Gorou was defending against the Hilichurl Chieftain's attack alongside a Shogunate general, their cooperation surprisingly seamless.
"See, how effective it is."
Zane proudly pointed at this scene.
"Forced alliance is still an alliance."
Elliot's Hydro element patterns rippled: "But if they know this slaughter was directed by us..."
"That would be even better."
Zane showed a cunning smile.
"Anger needs a common target for venting. When they are resurrected and realize they've been tricked, their first reaction will definitely be to team up and settle scores with us."
"And by then, if we beat up the Raiden Shogun, do you think they would still dare?"
Looking at the slyly smiling Zane, the three couldn't help but shiver.
Well, that's it. In Inazuma, they're probably going to become something that makes children stop crying.