Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

The chaotic raid from Chaos ultimately resulted in over two thousand casualties, with the vast majority marked as killed in action—at first, they were classified as missing, because this was according to military standards.

But Malin, against all objections, had them designated as killed in action.

Today, the 21st Battle Group of the Northern Kingdom responsible for the front line was annihilated. From the group leader, the deputy group leader down, all platoon leaders and deputies, and all non-commissioned officers were lost. Of the entire group’s 20 full-strength platoons, only the three platoons on break survived when Malin spotted the enemy’s trace, but because the rest area for those on break was too close to the first defensive line, after Chaos pressed on all fronts, they were quickly obliterated, with only three wounded soldiers from the initial battle sent to the rear.

The rest areas of the 19th and 40th Groups, close to the first defensive line, suffered heavy losses. The 19th Group only had five wounded soldiers left who had been sent to the rear due to frostbite during training, after their rest area was breached by Chaos. Everyone fought till the last moment; in every platoon’s resting room, there were cases of soldiers pulling the pins on grenades to die with the enemy.

The 40th Group was luckier; nearby were the 15th and 16th Groups, both Dwarves, who used fish explosives and flamethrowers to repel the onslaught of Chaos, retreating with the more than half-lost 40th Group to the second defensive line.

However, the group leader and deputy of the 40th still fell in battle. The group leader of the 40th led his guard to stand at the front line during the initial fight. After the deputy arranged for the retreat of two platoons far from the battleground, he joined the battle with the remaining men, fighting while retreating. After the group leader was killed, the deputy was seriously wounded and breathed his last as the Dwarves arrived to help.

Besides, troops at the second line also suffered deaths and injuries, but overall, all the wounded were saved—when the final Holy Light ignited, it also sustained the lives of all the wounded personnel on the scene.

Malin took a full blast of Holy Energy to the face. With Malin’s foundation, ordinary Holy Energy couldn’t push him past his limits, but the blast of Holy Light to the face still had a profound effect on him. As for the average soldiers, let’s not even mention them; they received more than twenty times the amount, with some even surpassing a hundredfold.

Therefore, all battle groups started to be scheduled for rotation that afternoon, with the entire force set to undergo rotation starting tomorrow. The Benevolent Church’s medical team assessed Malin’s condition, like if Malin’s maximum effective treatment threshold was 300, then the current value in Malin’s body is 2000, more than seven times over.

"At least three months are needed for it to naturally subside," said the Benevolent Church’s medical team after explaining, and then stamped a forced convalescence seal on Malin’s medical treatment recommendation.