A little bit of both. One of my dai oni got lucky and, although it was routed and died 3 or 4 times, survived due to phoenix pyre and was able to bring down an air queen in single combat
Also, in the same battle, a group of undead horsemen I summoned with pale riders killed two unequipped eagle kings. That was the luck part. The nicely done part was 3 castings of ghost riders running down the amphibious water queen and destroying her just before she could escape the battlefield. So grand total of my gem expenditure to kill them was 20d gems
. The dai oni is pretty badly afflicted now, including being muted though so I'm not going to pull that off with him again. But for the moment he is still equipped. His deeds will be whispered of in awe for years to come in Yomi's darkest depths.
The sea is looking rather bleak lately. Only a matter of time until caelum's ownership of the oceans is complete, unless something drastic happens.