Their gazes met in the air, silently exchanging information.
That was absolutely not the sound of the wind, nor was it the monotonous footsteps of scattered, wandering Skeletons. That was combat!
A battle of no small scale!
Without any hesitation! The roasted rabbit meat and half a piece of black bread remaining by the campfire were instantly abandoned.
The five men moved with the swiftness of startled sand foxes, their actions quicker than imagined.
Untying their horses' reins, they swung into the saddle in one fluid motion.
“Mount up! Alert formation!” Gegen barked in a low voice. Although he knew the darkness was filled with grey mist and death spirits could appear at any moment, they were the eyes and ears of Deherim, the falcons sent out by Lord Shen Mu!
Their mission was to scout the enemy and investigate danger.
“Go!” Batu followed closely, lighting the spare torch he carried.
The others also lit theirs. Five points of orange-yellow flame suddenly illuminated the deep night, like sparks thrown into an inkwell, instantly lighting up the Steppe Bandits' resolute and vigilant faces, and their tightly gripped scimitars and short bows.
They did not charge blindly; experience told them the approximate direction of the sound’s origin.
The five men spurred their warhorses, maintaining a loose scouting formation, and galloped towards the source of the sound.
Hooves on the soft sand made muffled sounds, but they were deliberately lightened, like the tiptoeing of a predator.
The torch flames flickered violently in the strong wind, casting a wildly swaying circle of light around them.
They crossed a low slope, then rushed down a dry gully filled with gravel.
The sound became clearer and clearer—no longer a vague din, but a dense, chilling cacophony of impacts, the sharp tearing sound of arrows slicing through the air, and a strange, grating sound like metal scraping against glass!
They rushed to the top of another low sand dune.
In an instant, the sight before them caused the five battle-hardened Steppe Bandits to simultaneously pull hard on their reins, their warhorses neighing and rearing!
The suddenly open low-lying area ahead unfolded like a cruel and grotesque hellish painting, illuminated by the flickering torchlight and sparse grey mist!
Hundreds of Skeleton Archers formed a massive, constantly writhing grey ring of death!
They stood in a bow stance, their hollow eye sockets flickering with ghostly green soul fire, their movements unnervingly uniform—nocking, drawing, firing!
Countless pale bone arrows, like whistling locusts, tore through the air with screeching sounds, making sharp “chi chi” noises, raining down in an overwhelming barrage towards the center of the encirclement!
And those trapped in the center were, astonishingly, about twenty knights!
They were the Bone Armor Cavalry of the Ghost Light Dynasty!
They charged left and right amidst the pale arrow rain, struggling desperately!
The thick, dark bone armor, covered in twisted patterns, made a dense, grating “ding ding dang dang” sound under the impact of the arrows. Occasionally, arrows would penetrate joint gaps or strike uncovered parts of the bone horses, causing one or two unlucky cavalrymen and their mounts to shatter with a crash!
But they were also counterattacking, wielding sharp bone spears and bone blades. Each swift charge could cleave several Skeleton Archers attempting to approach into pieces!
The numbers on both sides were vastly disparate. The Skeleton Archers, relying on their tight formation and an endless rain of arrows, were like a cold millstone, slowly grinding down these powerful elites!
Just then, a sudden change occurred!
Perhaps the Steppe Bandits' torchlight was too dazzling, or the sound of their arrival startled the sentinels on the outskirts of the battlefield.
A small squad of Skeleton Archers on the periphery of the encirclement, who were nocking arrows to fire into the center of the battlefield, suddenly turned their stark white skulls in unison. The flickering ghostly green soul fire directly “locked onto” the five uninvited guests on the sand dune!
“Chi! Chi! Chi!”
Without the slightest hesitation or warning!
At least a dozen bone arrows instantly changed direction, carrying a cold deathly intent, and shot towards the top of the sand dune where Gegen and his companions were!
“Careful! Enemy attack!” Gegen reacted the fastest, roaring furiously, while simultaneously yanking his reins to make his warhorse roll to the side to dodge.
The arrows “duo duo duo” deeply embedded themselves into the sand dune where they had just stood, the closest one even grazing Batu’s saddle as it flew past!
Their sudden appearance and being attacked clearly startled the center of the battlefield as well!
At the core of the encirclement, the pressure on the remaining dozen or so Ghost Light Bone Armor Cavalry suddenly lessened!
As if seizing this sliver of hope, the leading Bone Armor Cavalryman, whose soul fire in his eye sockets was the deepest, suddenly raised his grotesque, massive bone blade!
A thick, impenetrable “Ghost Light,” like viscous, inky black ink, instantly erupted from him and several surrounding riders!
At the moment the black light flashed, their speed and strength surged!
They no longer paid attention to the sporadic attacks around them, but like a battering ram imbued with intense darkness and destructive aura, they slammed into a point in the encirclement where the arrow attack had suddenly ceased and a brief confusion had arisen—precisely the small squad that had just attacked the Steppe Bandits!
“Crackle! Splat! Crash!”
The bone blade transformed into a pale white saw-wheel, easily tearing through the Skeleton Archers in its path.
The bone warhorses, covered in dark bone armor, were like rampaging beasts, trampling and crashing.
In just one encounter, that small squad of Skeleton Archers was completely pulverized, and a gap was brutally torn open in the encirclement!
The remaining Bone Armor Cavalry did not stop, carrying that intense darkness, as if it had absorbed all light, and the rolling grey mist, they surged out of the gap like ghosts, instantly merging into the deeper darkness of the distant night.
They left behind a ground littered with shattered white bones and a mess, as well as at least ten or so Bone Armor Cavalry wrecks that had been worn down by the arrow rain during the breakout or before.
The five Steppe Bandits, still shaken, watched the direction in which the “Ghost Light” cavalry disappeared.
After a brief silence, the hundreds of remaining Skeleton Archers on the Gobi Desert almost simultaneously turned their heads. Hundreds of points of ghostly green soul fire simultaneously focused on the five small yet conspicuous torchlights!
An icy, bone-chilling killing intent spread like a tide!
“Retreat! Retreat quickly!!” Gegen’s scalp tingled, and he roared hoarsely.
The five men turned their horses, spurred their flanks, and galloped back towards New Rivadin without a trace of reluctance!
Their warhorses' four hooves flew, kicking up clouds of sand.
It wasn't until they had ridden a considerable distance that the chill of being targeted by hundreds of ghostly green gazes seemed to lessen slightly.
After recovering from the initial shock, Batu couldn't help but gasp, his voice intermittent from the gallop:
“Uncle Gegen… did you… notice?”
“What?”
“Next to those… those Black Arrow Tower bone fragments!” Batu struggled to organize his words, the bizarre scene replaying in his mind: “The grey mist in the area where they were shooting arrows seemed… less dense. Our torches could illuminate shadows forty or fifty paces away. But… but those Bone Armor Cavalry that burst out of the encirclement, on them, and in the black area where they escaped… that black! That mist! It was so thick you couldn’t see anything, like ink! It almost absorbed all our torchlight!”
Su He echoed, “Yes! It was strange! Around those archers, it was like… it had thinned out a bit? Not so eerie…”
“To hell with whether it’s thick or not!” Gegen growled, interrupting them: “It’s a death spirit trick! Don’t overthink it, hurry back and report to the Lord! That’s what’s important!”
That persistent, eerie feeling also lingered in his heart, but what was most important now was to deliver the intelligence.
The five men fell silent, burying their doubts in their hearts, desperately urging their warhorses, galloping like five meteors heading for a harbor, towards the flickering lights of the New Rivadin city wall in the boundless Desert.
That observation from the edge of the battlefield, concerning the strange differences in darkness and grey mist, was also etched into their minds.
...
The icy night wind, laden with sand, mercilessly lashed against the sturdy walls of New Rivadin.
The figures of these five Steppe Bandits, like startled deer driven by an invisible whip, swiftly threaded through the gaps in the pre-set horse traps and chevaux de frise outside the city.
Gegen roared short commands in his throat that only Kujit could understand, leading his companions along Bestour’s strictly defined “safe markers”—unobtrusive wolf-tooth arrow shafts painted crimson—as they desperately charged towards the heavy city gate, which was slowly opening a narrow slit.
“Whoosh—thump!” A whistling arrow with a special sound shot precisely from the city wall and landed in the sand a few steps in front of them, followed by Bestour’s characteristic hoarse roar carried on the night wind: “I see you! Get in quickly! Follow the markers, don’t you dare step on your own spikes! Close the gate!!”
The heavy city gate accelerated its opening with a grating sound, and the five men almost crashed clumsily through the narrow opening, their heavy hooves making muffled echoes on the stone pavement inside the gatehouse.
The city gate slammed shut behind them with a “boom,” and the massive bolt immediately dropped, completely isolating them from the darkness and grey mist outside the city, which felt permeated with a sense of deathly observation.
Without even bothering to soothe their panting, dust-covered mounts, Gegen, Batu, and the others, led by several Kujit light infantry, stumbled directly to Bestour’s temporary post beneath the city tower.
The Kujit general showed no signs of sleep, his eyes bloodshot, like a trapped beast ready to devour at any moment. After listening to Gegen and the others’ incoherent report, mixed with fear and shock, his cheek twitched violently.
“Those bone fragments from the Black Arrow Tower… are actually attacking the Bone Armor Cavalry of Ghost Light?!” Bestour chewed on the intelligence, his eyes blazing with ferocity, and he slammed his hand on the wooden table covered with a map: “Go! Immediately come with me to see the Lord! Don’t miss a single word, tell me everything you saw, everything you heard, especially the difference between that damned ‘black light’ and ‘grey mist’!”
Inside the Lord’s Hall of the main city tower, the light of grease torches dispelled the chill of the deep night, casting flickering shadows on the cold stone walls.
Shen Mu had not rested. He still stood before the unfurled parchment map, which marked the terrain around New Rivadin.
Upon hearing Betusier’s hurried footsteps and the soldiers’ ragged breathing, he slowly turned around.
Lezalit and Aleron had also arrived upon hearing the news. The former had his characteristic composure and prudence on his face, while the latter stood with his arms crossed, his gaze as sharp as an eagle’s.
“My Lord!” Bestour stepped forward, his voice rough from the battlefield: “My eagle chicks encountered a big scene outside the southeast outpost! At least four or five hundred Skeleton Archers from the Black Arrow Tower Seventh Dynasty surrounded and severely beat a group of Bone Armor Cavalry from their Ghost Light Second Dynasty!”
He succinctly relayed Gegen and the others’ observations.
The sudden encounter, the encirclement with bone arrows like rain, the struggle and counterattack of the twenty-plus elite Bone Armor Cavalry amidst the arrow rain, and finally, the thrilling scene where the Steppe Bandits were attacked, inadvertently caused confusion in the encirclement, and the remaining dozen or so Bone Armor Cavalry seized the opportunity, erupting with “Ghost Light” to instantly tear open a gap and break through.
He especially emphasized the peculiar detail Batu had noticed.
Near the encirclement, where the archers were located, the pervasive grey mist seemed slightly lighter, while the darkness and grey mist accompanying the breaking Bone Armor Cavalry were as thick as ink, devouring light.
“…Those bastards’ Skeletons were gnawing at each other all over the ground! When we arrived, the ‘cavalry’ of the Ghost Light Dynasty were being beaten to a pulp! Tsk tsk, that black light was indeed terrifying when it erupted, bone fragments flew everywhere! If Uncle Gegen and his companions hadn’t arrived at just the ‘right’ time, those twenty or so riders would probably all have been lost under the Black Arrow Tower’s arrow rain!”
After Bestour finished speaking, he spat fiercely, his tone conveying both a sense of vindictive satisfaction and a hint of apprehension towards the “Ghost Light” ability.
For a moment, only the crackling of burning torches filled the hall.
Lezalit frowned deeply, while Aleron rubbed the hilt of his sword.
Shen Mu, upon hearing the report, did not show the astonishment or surprise that others did, nor did he even furrow his brow. Only a cold understanding flashed in his deep, abyss-like eyes.
“This is not unexpected.” Shen Mu’s voice broke the silence, calm to the point of having no ripples, as if he was merely stating a most natural fact.
He walked to the map, his slender finger precisely pointing to the area representing the scorched Desert outside the city: “From the coordinates that were like a ‘gift’ from the demon ‘Scarlet Claw’…”
His gaze swept over the ominous-looking parchment scroll on the table, and he continued to speak slowly:
“And the distinct combat styles and energy characteristics of the different undead legions we previously encountered were already clear enough to indicate that, even though both belong to the death spirit rules nurtured by this desolate Desert, ‘Ghost Light Dynasty’ and ‘Black Arrow Tower Dynasty’ are by no means a monolithic force. The instinct for greed and expansion is enough to make them covet each other, and even engage in armed conflict. This unclaimed Desert has always only believed in the law of the jungle.”
Shen Mu’s gaze once again fell on Gegen and Batu, who had reported, his eyes sharp and clear: “Batu, you observed very carefully. The difference in the density of the ‘grey mist’ is not an illusion, nor is it some kind of trick. It is a more fundamental distinction—it is the manifestation of two different undead power characteristics, under the erosion of spirit world rules, causing different interference and permeation in this space.”
These words made Batu instantly straighten his back, as if a key point of his vague confusion had been elucidated. (End of Chapter)
