"Obischillaci! It’s the Green Demon and the Salt Demon! How did forest green demons and salt trolls appear here? And they have a Shaman too?" Liu Zhenhan was dumbfounded.
As soon as he uttered these words, everyone around him who had a bit of knowledge was struck dumb.
Green Demons and Salt Demons are branches of the ogre family; green demons have leaf-like protective color on their bodies. They normally appear at the edges of dense pine forests at the foot of snowy mountains. They are not physically heavy like ogres due to their life in the forest; they are more agile, cunning, and crafty, far surpassing their ogre cousins in these aspects.
The Salt Demons are a branch of ogres that live in the saline-alkali forests on the border between Wolf and Fawkes. Saline-alkali forests and Red Earth Highland are regarded as the two barren places on the wasteland. The salt demons love to eat salt; they are smaller than ordinary ogres, but their bodies are stronger. They live in salt caves all year round, and their bodies are filled with salt crystals, similar to wild boars covered with pine resin and rolled in sand. These salt crystals are their natural armor. This text is hosted at Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
Just like the ogres, both Green Demons and Salt Demons are infamous native bandits of the Donau Wasteland.
The probability of a shaman emerging from a bandit tribe is almost negligible. Unlike the shamans of the Bimon Kingdom, the shamans of the bandit tribes usually only know one trick – the bloodlust spell, a dual-effect magic that provides healing and triggers partial berserk instincts for combat.
Green demons have skin that changes color to mimic various plants. Their hair is also similar to leaves and grass. Salt demons look like chunks of rock.
According to Liu Zhenhan’s estimation, this was probably why human sentinels didn’t notice them. These green demons changed the color of their skin to resemble withered grass, and under the cover of the shadow of the barren hills and dim moonlight, it was indeed hard to detect them.
While the Salt Demons and Green Demons are both notorious bandits of the Donau Wasteland, their territories do not belong to the Red Earth Highland. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the Green Demons and Salt Demons would have any mutual grudges. Claims of familial relationships among bandits are as absurd as goblins claiming to be evolved from the Moss Clan rats.
Although Liu Zhenhan couldn’t figure it out, he realized something – these bandits were far more formidable than the Bear Goblins and Ogres he had previously encountered. To his astonishment, they had a shaman!
A band of robbers with a shaman isn’t simple; their combat power had increased about twofold. These bandits were on a completely different level compared to the foolish Bear Goblin bandits.
To put it plainly, it was like comparing Liu Zhenhan to a prince. One was a small overlord, the other had ascended to a high position, looking down at the world below.
It wasn’t unusual for bandits to ambush a human merchant group, but why were the Green Demons and Salt Demons bandits, that belonged to different territories, gathered here together? Bandits usually worked within their territories and did not encroach upon each other. Liu Zhenhan was filled with questions.
While Liu Zhenhan was thinking hard about why this was, the human camp was thrown into chaos. As soon as the Salt Demons entered the battlefield, the human mercenaries were immediately in trouble. The salt-scales on the Salt Demons’ bodies were so thick that a light strike with a sword did nothing. Even a strong strike could at most chip off a piece of salt. Only the heavy weapons like the meteor hammers held by rangers could cause substantial damage.
Salt Demons have not only a hard shell of salt but also a natural layer of stone-like skin. With this double protection, they were like human heavy infantry covered in heavy iron armor. They were not opponents that the mercenaries, mostly light-armed, could deal with. Even though the rangers’ meteor hammers could break the scales of the Salt Demons, their numbers were too few. Because the battle lines had been drawn too closely, they didn’t have room for their warhorses to charge, and they were often knocked over together with their horses.
The heavy rain had stopped, and the moon Xiang Pa revealed her shy face from the cloud cover again.
The three Green Demon Shamans, who were currently casting the bloodlust spell, were conspicuously clear. The red halo from their staffs made these Green Demon and Salt Demon bandits even more relentless, ignoring their injuries and fighting more vigorously.
The number of Green Demon and Salt Demon bandits was too high. The outcome of this fight was doomed from the moment the ambush began.
Most of the bandits on the wasteland attacked in small groups of dozens to harass the merchants. This human merchant group was protected by two hundred mercenaries and rangers. They thought their security force was well enough, but they were defeated when they faced a large-scale bandit band of over a thousand members.
Seeing that their several attempts to break out were drowned out by the bandits’ human wave tactic, a white flag was raised amidst the crowd of mercenaries. Judging by the golden trim on the white flag, it should belong to a certain priest.
In front of this flag with internationally-accepted meaning, the bandits gradually stopped upon the command of their leaders. Even the bloodthirsty Salt Demons, under the shouting of their leaders, withdrew their blood-stained weapons.