Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

The battle that erupted in the new district ended within half a day, and under Malin’s leadership, the southern assault team suffered two hundred and seventeen fatalities of factory guards, with injuries four times that number; thirty-seven dwarves were killed and one hundred and twenty-nine wounded, eleven elves were killed and twenty-two wounded; and seventeen half-humans died with two hundred and thirteen injured.

The rat-man’s assault on the two northern exits caused even greater damage, Malin had various persons in charge tally the numbers, and in the end, the total fatalities added up to nine hundred and nineteen, with over a thousand injured.

But they had annihilated tens of thousands of rat-men—just at the two northern exits, the rat-men left behind nearly four thousand corpses, and in the south, so many rat-men were reduced to ashes that it was impossible to count them as part of the victory.

Malin felt the loss was still too great, especially at the two northern exits. Lacking sufficient firepower, humans ultimately used bayonettes to repel the rat-men.

But for the Great Craftsman and the ambassador, the human troops at the two northern exits could be described as fighting to the death without retreat—nearly fourteen hundred in those two places, with almost six hundred dead, nearly every person was wounded. They had never seen a human legion maintain its combat effectiveness under such a high casualty rate, especially during the last brutal close-quarters battle, where human soldiers killed at least four elite units—those unusually large and powerful ones.

The dwarf Great Craftsman looked at those enormous rat-men and was dumbfounded to the point of speechlessness.

The ambassador whispered to Malin, "Sir, are all the soldiers in your factory guards like these?" There was trepidation in his eyes.

"Yes, all of them are like these soldiers, they have been in training for less than a year, and a year ago these young people were workers, farmers, or loggers," Malin proudly responded—these were his soldiers, soldiers he took pride in.

Malin gave orders to have the workshop produce a batch of medals, named Guardian, to honor their will and courage in protecting their homes.

The soldiers who died in battle would receive an additional Oath Keeper medal, to honor their determination to die fighting in order to fulfill the oath they made with Malin. They would receive all the consolations Malin had offered: their children would go to school for education, those with talent would be recommended by Malin to various Churches, and their families would be eligible to live in the dormitories provided by Malin until these children turned eighteen and could fend for themselves. If they found employment in Malin’s conglomerate, they wouldn’t need to move out.

If they found a more respectable job elsewhere, Malin would reclaim the dormitory but provide them with a monetary bonus.

Of course, there would also be awards for Outstanding Service and Ally medals for the elves, dwarves, and half-humans—with the living receiving the former and the fallen the latter, along with a certain amount of Mowish currency in paper money as a reward.