These Winged Skeleton Archers were incredibly fast, held absolute aerial superiority, and their attacks were devious.
While their individual strength might not have surpassed that of a Black Iron Skeleton Warrior, their mobility and sudden attack methods posed an extreme threat!
"Ranged units! Lock on target!"
Shen Mu's voice, like the clash of metal and stone, cut through the clamor, clearly reaching the ears of every squad commander: "Vigia Sharpshooter! Rodok Sharpshooters! Wood Elf Rangers! Concentrate fire! Shoot them down for me! Let them fly!"
The command quickly translated into action.
After a brief moment of panic, the well-trained ranged elites displayed astonishing battlefield adaptability.
"Target! The one flying out of the stairwell directly ahead! Fire!"
A Vigia Sharpshooter captain quickly tracked its trajectory, roaring, and simultaneously drawing his composite longbow to a full moon.
With an instant hum, an armor-piercing arrow shot from the string, like a grey blur, directly at a Winged Skeleton that was attempting to dive and lower its altitude to continue shooting.
The Skeleton seemed to sense the danger, suddenly performing a side spin to evade, moving with ghost-like speed! However—
"Pfft!" The Vakian's armor-piercing arrow precisely caught its spinning trajectory, deeply embedding itself into its rib cage!
The immense impact sent it spinning into a thick load-bearing pillar, its decaying wing bones shattering against the stone column, and its eerie green soul fire flickered violently before extinguishing.
"Good!" The surrounding archers' spirits lifted.
The Rodok Sharpshooters, on the other hand, demonstrated their superior stability and pinpoint killing ability against stationary targets.
From behind a relatively safe cover on the third floor, two Crossbowmen steadily set up their heavy sniper crossbows.
An observer growled, "Left flank! Behind the broken beam! Three o'clock! One is nocking an arrow!"
"Bang!" The heavy sound of the mechanism firing rang out, and an adamantine armor-piercing crossbow bolt shot forth with terrifying kinetic energy!
The hidden Skeleton had just revealed half its body, preparing to shoot, when it was violently headshotted by this precise bolt!
Its skull and soul fire instantly disintegrated into a cloud of scattered fragments!
However, the most lethal hunters were the Wood Elf Rangers, who had already dispersed! They were children of the forest by nature, accustomed to fighting in complex, varied, and uneven environments.
At this moment, they did not stay in fixed cover but used their astonishing agility and spatial awareness to cling like geckos to the remnants of huge murals, the backs of broken escalators, and even leaped high to grab swaying iron chains or beams, launching deadly snipes from angles the Winged Skeleton could not anticipate!
They were silent, moving like ghosts, yet their sharp elven longbows could shoot deadly arrows from the most devious angles.
"Whoosh!" A Wood Elf, hanging upside down from a steel cable, suddenly let go and dropped, and in the mere half-second of hang time in the air, an arrow had left the string.
An arrow, as if it had eyes, shot from below, piercing into the bone seam of a Winged Skeleton's lower ribcage, exposed as it vigorously flapped its wings!
The Skeleton stiffened, its wings instantly stopped beating, and it plummeted like a kite with a broken string.
Another Winged Skeleton attempted to use its speed to move through the chaotic light and shadows for a sneak attack but was simultaneously targeted by two Wood Elves who darted out from behind different pillars!
Two arrows shot almost simultaneously, one to the throat, one through the heart, tearing it into several bone fragments in mid-air!
Counterattack!
An efficient, meat-grinder-like counterattack!
The ranged units displayed exquisite coordination and terrifying precision.
The Vigia used speed and suppressive fire to force them to reveal themselves or change their flight paths; the Rodok Crossbowmen stood like a rock, picking off individuals attempting to conceal themselves or snipe from fixed positions; the Wood Elf transformed into spatial hunters, mercilessly eliminating every target that entered their hunting range.
Although the Winged Skeleton Archers were numerous and highly mobile, their bone arrows still occasionally struck shields or grazed over soldiers' heads, creating dangerous moments.
But within the three top-tier ranged units of Deherim, forming a three-dimensional hunting net, they seemed to crash into an invisible wall of death!
Every attack drew a more precise, more lethal counterattack, like moths to a flame, their numbers rapidly dwindling!
The sky was no longer a safe haven but had become their tomb!
Burning remnants with shattered wing bones and whistling winds continuously plummeted from the sky, smashing onto the floor and piles of ruins, breaking into pieces.
Putrid bone fragments and shattered membranes rained down.
Shen Mu stood at the command position, watching the exquisite and brutal hunt unfolding above him, and the corner of his mouth beneath his full-face helmet seemed to curve into a slight, cold arc.
He took a step forward, his greatsword pointing towards the last passage leading to the top floor, which was blocked by debris:
"The obstacles are mostly cleared... Pioneer Sergeants! Ram open that damned door for me! Holy Tree Knight! Prepare for the final charge! Let's go see what abominations are hidden up there!"
Then, with a tremendous roar, the decaying counters, broken concrete blocks, and twisted metal frames piled at the top-floor passage entrance exploded under the violent impact of the Pioneer Sergeants using battering rams and their full strength, revealing the doorway leading to the dome space behind them!
Before the smoke and debris had fully dispersed, ten silver-white figures, like a rushing stream of light, charged in first!
These were the ten most elite Holy Tree Knights by Shen Mu's side!
They were tall, their bodies encased in heavy armor that gleamed with a soft mithril radiance, their heavy Holy Tree Knight Shields firmly guarding their front, the mithril inlay on their edges clearly visible in the dim light, and the Holy Tree Knight Swords in their hands gleamed with cold light, their blades also flowing with a natural, sacred shimmer—
These precious mithril were the sharpest weapons and the strongest barriers against evil forces!
Behind the door was indeed a huge, partially enclosed dome space.
Broken skylights let in a few wisps of decaying orange twilight, and the air was filled with the putrid smell characteristic of death energy and the scent of dust.
As seen earlier in the atrium, dozens of terrifying "Winged Skeleton Archers" were flapping their wings, made of decayed bone and rotten membrane, either perched on high beams or circling low.
The buzzing sound of their bone wings flapping was particularly grating here.
Almost the instant the Holy Tree Knights stepped into this space—
"Screech!"
A sharp, piercing, alarm-like shriek erupted from the Winged Skeletons' mouths!
Followed immediately by a heart-stopping explosion of bowstrings!
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"
From all directions, from high places and beneath the bone wings sweeping low, inky black bone arrows, like a swarm of snakes emerging from their lair, shot forth with a chilling whoosh, instantly concentrating fire on the Holy Tree Knights, who had just burst in and were the largest targets!
The arrowheads glowed with an ominous phosphorescent light, aiming directly at the knights' helmets, visors, joints, and relatively weaker leg areas!
However!
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!—!"
Dense impacts, like a sudden downpour on banana leaves, exploded on the Holy Tree Knights!
The mithril-inlaid Holy Tree Knight Shields blocked most of the frontal arrows, and the thick armor plates flowed with subtle yet firm sacred runes as if alive; arrows striking the breastplate, shoulder plates, and armguards burst into tiny sparks of dark green, emitting a "sizzling" corrosive sound, yet only leaving shallow white marks, at most a slight dent!
Those tricky bone arrows aimed at the joint gaps were also cleverly blocked or deflected by the chain-link structures at the movable joints, crafted from special alloy and bearing miniature protective runes!
Mithril's powerful resistance to evil and the excellent defense of the Holy Tree heavy armor itself were demonstrated to the fullest at this moment!
Shen Mu followed closely into the dome, his cold gaze sweeping across the battlefield.
He saw ten knights, like bedrock in a torrent, in the bone arrow storm, their speed barely slowing!
Those bone arrows, capable of tearing through ordinary Rodok armor or even slightly thinner iron armor, failed to even force a knight to retreat or leave even a single decent wound!
"Hmph!" The leading Knight Captain slightly tilted his shield, deflecting a cold arrow aimed at his eye slit, and a disdainful snort escaped from beneath his visor, his footsteps suddenly accelerating!
"Follow me forward, kill!!" A low roar sounded.
The ten knights, as one, instantly transformed into ten silver-white lightning bolts tearing through the air!
Completely ignoring the bone arrows flying overhead and from a distance, their target was the Winged Skeleton Archers closest to the passage entrance, perched on low load-bearing pillar remnants or having just swooped down to prepare to draw their bows!
The distance was too close! Only a dozen steps!
The mobility these Skeleton Archers prided themselves on was restricted in the complex indoor environment!
They had just tried to spread their wings again and ascend to escape the death zone of close combat.
But the cold light had already arrived!
"Kill!"
The knights' swords, flowing with holy radiance, descended with a tearing shriek, cleaving down violently!
Buzz!
The mithril runes on the blades instantly lit up with dazzling white light!
Thump! Crack! Thump!
Five sword lights flashed almost simultaneously!
One Winged Skeleton, just half a meter off the ground, attempting to flutter and fly, was split in half, arm and wing, its dry wing membrane instantly burning in the holy flame!
One Black Skeleton, not yet stable on its feet, was split from head to toe by immense force, like rotten wood, breaking into two halves, its soul fire directly extinguished!
Two others tried to block or parry with their bone shortbows, but before the heavy swords imbued with divine energy, their bone weapons shattered like dry branches, followed by the grating crunch of exploding Skeletons!
The last one, which luckily dodged the main attack path, was also struck by a backhand sword swing from a knight, the sharp sword tip precisely piercing into the exposed spinal connection due to its arm swinging to draw its bow!
Swoosh!
The holy light on the sword erupted, sending the remnant flying backward, crashing into the wall and turning into burning bone fragments!
This close-range thunderous execution was so clean and swift it was suffocating!
The remaining Winged Skeleton Archers, perched on higher beams or still circling high above, their soul fires in their empty eye sockets flickering violently, clearly "perceived" the terrifying power emanating from the ten mithril-clad heavy armored figures below, a power that scorched their very souls!
For the Holy Tree Knights, close combat was their absolute forbidden zone! Mithril's restraining effect on the undead formed an overwhelming deterrent at this moment!
"Screech!!" A sharp shriek, a mix of fear and madness, once again echoed through the dome, but it was distinctly different from the previous attack alarm.
The dozens of surviving Winged Skeleton Archers no longer had any thought of attacking; like a startled flock of crows, they frantically flapped their wings, scrambling to rush towards the huge openings around this enclosed space—whether it was the gaping holes of shattered skylights or the massive tears in the side of the building caused by external forces!
They were like a chaotic black tide, carrying the aura of death, almost tumbling and crawling away from this death ground just trodden by the Holy Tree Knights, disappearing into the darker twilight outside.
Only a few gradually fading, fear-filled shrieks proved their former existence.
The Holy Tree Knights silently retracted their swords, stained with foul black energy, shaking off bone fragments and residue from the blades.
Shen Mu stepped forward, his cold gaze sweeping across this empty and ravaged last stronghold of the undead, where only a few lingering rays of sunset filtered through the massive cracks, casting long pillars of light in the pervasive dust, and his voice, like ice crystals falling, echoed clearly:
"Area cleared, control the high ground! Search the wreckage, look for any clues related to the core anomaly."
He paused, his gaze fixed on the depths of the cracks where the monsters had frantically fled: "The bone scraps here have escaped, but the death center of this Long City is hidden deeper. Our objective is not yet complete."
As Shen Mu's command was issued, the soldiers suppressed the shock from the recent dome battle and moved again.
Small teams composed of Rodok Sergeants and Swadian Infantry, like fine combs, holding torches, cautiously and resolutely penetrated every unsearched dark corner of the Cosmic Center.
"Here! Movement in the storeroom!"
"Oil! Throw it in! Burn it clean!"
"Stairwell corner cleared, residual Skeletons found, eliminated!"
Short, sharp commands mixed with the dull thud of weapons striking bone and the crackling of flames, echoing within this lifeless steel Skeleton.
The soldiers faithfully carried out their orders, leaving no crevice where foul undead might hide unsearched.
Burning torches were thrown into corners piled with decaying remnants, the flames dancing, greedily devouring the darkness that had resided there.
Thick smoke, mixed with the stench of thoroughly incinerated corpses, rose, illuminating the already dim interior space in an even more eerie light.
Shen Mu stood on the edge of the broken dome, the mithril heavy armor reflecting the distant bonfires and the twilight.
He looked down at this massive ruin, repeatedly ravaged, now being purified by flames and blades.
His gaze swept across the towering skyscrapers in his view, which had been thoroughly cleansed by Deherim's forces and now bore symbolic victory bonfires.
The burning flames in the heavy twilight were like stubborn fireflies, dispelling the shadows of the buildings and temporarily suppressing the omnipresent aura of death.
However, when his gaze turned to the very center of Long City, that area perpetually shrouded in black clouds and death mist, as if it could swallow even the last ray of light, an indescribable tremor suddenly clutched his heart.
It was as if... something was watching in the darkness.
