It was as if they had practiced the act of running for their lives before the battle. They escaped as soon as someone moved in their direction with a group after looking at them with bad intentions.
The morale of the villains was high. Plus they couldn't surrender because they were afraid of being killed later. They were not heroes who could surrender and would only suffer some harsh words. Any villain who surrendered was sure to die after the battle.
Plus, there were a lot of financial rewards waiting for them regardless of the outcome of the battle. The villains would be rewarded based on how many enemies they kill, not based on the victory of the villains as a whole.
The fact that they would gain double the reward and a lot of popularity if they won is only the uncertain dessert after the meal. The villains cared about securing a good meal. So they fought with all their might.
That was, of course, for the villains who chose to participate of their free will. The rest of the troops on the side of the villains didn't come to participate willingly. They were slaves forced by their masters to fight.
Heroes can't use slaves to fight for them. In fact, they must not be associated with slaves and human trafficking at all, or their career will be finished. But villains have no qualms about using villains openly in view of the whole world.
So one aide had free will while the other side had soldiers that had to fight to the death. One can imagine which side will surrender more.
The turning point came when powerful troops joined the team of heroes. One of them was an alpha hero that could make earthen spikes jut out from the ground.
These earthen spikes skewered the enemies in droves. The death rate of the villains increased sharply and continued to increase because of these powerful heroes.
Many villains chose to surrender at that point because they wouldn't be blamed for running from someone they stood no chance against.
The villains also retaliated with their own powerful villains. They substituted these villains for the dead villains and those who had surrendered.
One of them was a green woman with an alpha ability that infected others with a deadly disease. Her body was constantly producing spores that infected her enemies as long as the spores made contact with their flesh or they inhaled the spores.
What's worse is that the spores are too small to be seen. Many of the heroes were caught off guard by it. By the time they noticed the green patch on their skin, it was already too late.
The fight was riveting. Kelvin didn't regret that he took time to watch it. What's more, the heroes won at the end of the day.
The villains had lasted until the final hero was sent to the battlefield. But this final hero was too powerful.
He caused the people who looked into his eyes to get vertigo and lose their sense of direction. They would fall in front of him and fail to struggle effectively as they were killed.
This hero worked together with other heroes to sweep the villains. The villains had to escape for their lives, which led to the victory of the heroes.
He said smugly to Wrath, "So I was right."
She said, "It was a close victory. It was a pyrrhic victory at best."
"I still won."
Wrath corrected him, "No, you didn't. The heroes won. You are a villain."
He said, "Right. Even though the villains lost, I am still proud to be a villain."
Actually, all the villains in the city were celebrating the outcome of the battle. It is because the heroes didn't have a glamorous victory. Wrath was right about that.
When the surrender and kill count were tabulated, it showed that the heroes only suffered a 31% casualty rate. 68% had surrendered.
The opposite was true for the villains. The percentage of those who had died was twice as much as those who had died. It was 67% to 33%.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the casualty of the heroes was 1585 while that of the villains was 628. It was a 2.5 times difference.
It is shameful because the total number of troops for the heroes was 5,126, while the total troop count of the villains was 937. It was a five times difference in size. Yet, 3,485 heroes ran away from the battlefield while only 309 villains surrendered.
The heroes outnumbered the villains five to one but surrendered ten times more than the villains while they lost almost three times more people than the villains.
The heroes only barely won. Their victory was not something worth celebrating. Their fans were disappointed in them, and most of them were ashamed of their performance.
Their popularity didn't increase at all. Instead, it fell as many people lost faith in their heroes after watching them run away in fright.
Meanwhile, the villains were celebrating. They had spent a lot of money to assassinate powerful heroes and buy powerful heroes, and it had all been worth it.
Their slaves were the ones that died for them, so they didn't care about the casualties and were in the mood to celebrate. They cheered all over the streets of District 666 of the city and partied all night. One would think they were the ones who won.
It is something that heroes can't do even if they had won a big victory because they will have to mourn for the dead. Right now, it felt like all the people that died in the secret and open war died for nothing. No hero cheered or celebrated. But the villains were having the time of their life.
Kelvin shook his head in wonder. Then he returned to studying.
He didn't stop unless he had to speak with his subordinates. Even that was for a short amount of time.