I looked ahead in the raws.
The upcoming battle will take a couple chapters.
Commoner devils get annihilated (duh).
Ultimate magicians split off and face off against the elites (different from the scout squad elites).
They undergo some very difficult, simultaneous fights and get injured, with the POV constantly switching between them like it's an anime or something.
Excluding Shin's fight (whose fight is somewhat boring since his opponent relies on traps and is too busy mocking him and provoking him until he suddenly learns why Strom is so cautious of Shin), the other Ultimate Magicians display some impressively clever (for this manga, at least) tactics and teamwork, demonstrating that they've actually learned something about fighting.
Ex. 1: Thor and Julius face off against a pair of close-combat experts. They perform some impressive double-teaming to eventually defeat the devils. (Hard to explain how, just know that it was alot more impressive than before and involved more of their bodyguard melee training than actual magic).
Ex. 2: the Prince faces off against a tricky opponent that combines throwing knives and portals to attack from multiple angles constantly. Aug struggles hard but eventually comes up with some clever tactics (electrifying himself like he did in the anime, shooting back through the portals, etc.).
Maria has a deeply emotional battle against the female devil, whose unfortunate, f*ck-the-empire backstory is given.
Only 2 of the elites actually survive the fight. (The raws ended there for now, not sure what next).
Shin's opponent tries to take down Shin kamikaze-style. He fails (obviously).
Shin maybe realizes that Strom is acting separately from these guys...?
The manga does a slightly better job spreading out the focus on more of the squad, but some of the lesser members (Alice, Rin, Olivia, Mark, etc.) get less attention.
