The Vigia Sharpshooter’s armor-piercing arrow rain was like the Grim Reaper calling names, while the heavy root-spears of the ballistae were like sledgehammers against those colossal Abyssal Lesser Undead made of lava.
The Wood Elf’s cold arrows were silent yet deadly, and the Rodok Sergeant’s shield wall formation was like a reef, enduring endless pounding, with shattered Skeleton almost forming new slopes at the base of the wall.
The Holy Tree Knight’s silver storm flickered at the weak points of the defense line; each strike of their mithril greatswords brought a spray of Skeleton fragments and dark red sparks, their precise culling maintaining the precarious nodes.
Shen Mu’s perception was like the most precise net, covering the entire battlefield.
He clearly “saw” that in a section of the Pangen Bastion near the west side, under continuous impact, the Abyssal Lesser Undead remains piled up beneath the city wall had formed a natural “Skeleton ramp.”
Although the defenders struggled to prevent subsequent attackers from climbing, some frenzied Abyssal Lesser Undead had already used their comrades’ corpses as a pile to leap halfway up the root wall, their bone claws furiously tearing at the reinforced wooden structure, and the sulfur-corroded acidic gas hissed.
More Abyssal Lesser Undead were attracted, converging into a surging tributary, roaring as they lunged towards this seemingly vulnerable point that could be breached.
This was the moment!
A voice as cold as the Arctic gale pierced through the clamor of the entire battlefield, directly entering the ears of the silent yet fervent silver torrent in the core area of the Pangen Bastion:
“Holy Tree Knight, listen to my command! Target—the climbing tributary on the west side of the Pangen Bastion! Swadian Knight, prepare—follow closely!”
The command was concise, clear, and unquestionable.
Ten Holy Tree Knight moved in unison, their cold gazes beneath their mithril visors suddenly brightening like cold stars.
They were extensions of Shen Mu’s will, steel forged by order.
Without words, the leading Knight Captain raised the mithril greatsword in his hand, which seemed to flow with cold starlight, its blade pointing directly at the boiling climbing point.
“For order! For the Lord!” A low battle cry echoed among the Knight, not a roar, but a firm conviction like clashing steel.
Boom!
The heavy inner city winch let out a loud grinding sound of gears within seconds of the order being given.
The thick inner gate, bearing immense pressure, was suddenly opened on its track, creating a gap wide enough for Knight to pass through!
Just as the city gate opened!
“Holy Tree Knight—charge!”
Boom—!
Ten silver bolts of lightning crashed out of the gate’s shadow without reservation!
Heavy mithril hooves crushed the scattered Skeleton beneath the gate arch, emitting a grating crunch.
The ten Knight instantly converged into a narrow, sharp wedge formation capable of cutting through the toughest muscle.
They held their long, heavy steel lances level, their tips, reflecting the light of the tower forest, drew ten cold, silver lines piercing through the chaos!
Their speed instantly reached its peak! Perfectly perpendicular to the direction of the chaotic Abyssal Lesser Undead tide assaulting the city wall!
Target—the flank of the massive, unsuspecting Abyssal Lesser Undead army surging towards the climbing point, with their backs to the city gate!
“Knight! Advance!” The Swadian Knight Captain’s roar followed closely, a hundred heavy cavalry, clad in chainmail with their warhorses also covered in chainmail, surged out of the city gate like an iron torrent rolling down from the mountains!
They lacked the extreme precision granted by the laws of order to the Holy Tree Knight, but they possessed equally unmatched impact force and fearless brute courage.
They were Deherim’s steel warhammers, and now they were to smash shattering cracks into the abyss’s raging tide!
The Holy Tree Knight’s wedge-shaped blade, at terrifying speed, savagely plunged into the middle of the Abyssal Lesser Undead army that was frantically surging towards the base of the city wall!
Boom! Crackle, crackle, crackle—!
The visual effect was like a red-hot blade piercing into frozen grease!
The outermost few Abyssal Lesser Undead didn't even have time to turn before they were directly struck by the heavy horses and sent flying into the air!
The sturdy, dark-red mottled Skeleton, upon direct collision with the mithril heavy armor and high-speed charging warhorses, shattered and disintegrated like rotten wood!
The steel lances that followed, carrying the terrifying kinetic energy accumulated by the Knight and their warhorses, easily pierced through the chests, bellies, and spines of one Abyssal Lesser Undead after another!
The lance shafts groaned under the immense force, and the dull thud of the lance tips entering flesh merged with the crisp sound of bones bursting!
The charging Knight formation seemed to transform into a giant meat grinder!
The impaled Abyssal Lesser Undead were propelled by the powerful impact, either shattered or impaled on the lances, then torn apart by the pulling and squeezing of subsequent forces, with dark-red foul blood and burning sulfur-laden bone fragments spurting like fountains from the gaps in the lance shafts!
This sudden, precisely timed flank attack instantly cut off the massive Abyssal Lesser Undead tide surging towards the climbing point!
Their charge momentum abruptly stalled, and a fatal chaos and rupture appeared within the previously flowing tide!
The Abyssal Lesser Undead clinging to the middle section of the city wall lost subsequent support, exposed to the more direct firepower of the defenders above!
“Kill them! Block the breach!” The Sergeants and Crossbowmen on the city wall were greatly emboldened, and arrows and thrown spears rained down, precisely covering the isolated climbers.
The Swadian Knight’s torrent followed the Holy Tree Knight’s penetration path, striking down like a massive iron hammer!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
A louder sound of clashing steel and crushing bones resounded across the battlefield!
A hundred heavily armored warhorses, carrying an overwhelming momentum, charged into the bloody breach already plowed open by the Holy Tree Knight!
The Knight’s long spears, greatswords, and flails swung, like a storm of steel, mercilessly crushing and harvesting the Abyssal Lesser Undead that had lost their momentum and fallen into disarray.
Fallen Knight?
No need to worry!
Swadian Knight training allowed them to quickly form up even in the midst of a chaotic battle.
Several Knight whose horses were tripped by fallen Abyssal Lesser Undead quickly sprang up under the cover of their comrades, wielding their heavy Knight’s longswords to form small circular formations, engaging in brutal close-quarters combat with the equally fierce Abyssal Lesser Undead that rushed forward, despite the Knight having lost their mounted advantage.
Blades clashed with bone claws, and chainmail scraped against bone spikes, emitting a grating sound.
Each chop was heavy and powerful, the blade sinking into bone, shattering and flinging it away!
Blood and bone fragments splattered amidst the flashing blades!
The Holy Tree Knight, after piercing through the enemy, did not stop; led by their Knight Captain, they drew a huge arc along the base of the city wall, like a silver razor, using their mithril greatswords to carve deeper, wider wounds into the periphery of the dense Abyssal Lesser Undead horde, forcing them into greater disarray and preventing them from quickly reorganizing to support the climbing point.
They were as efficient as cold machines, each sword strike aimed at the most effective target—the enemy’s joints, heads, and those command nodes attempting to reorganize their formation.
The Swadian Knight, on the other hand, were like rolling chariots, crushing and slaughtering through the repeatedly churned Abyssal Lesser Undead horde, expanding chaos into collapse!
The neighing of warhorses and the roars of Knight, the dying shrieks of Abyssal Lesser Undead and the crisp sounds of bones breaking, converged into the most tragic yet most stirring symphony of war in the age of cold weapons!
At this moment, a torrent of steel plowed a temporary path through the mire of flesh and blood, using swords and spears, rather than light and fire, to issue the most primitive and heaviest challenge to the cold giant shadow suspended in the sky.
Light is not only for defense; order can also launch a fierce counterattack in the form of steel!
Shen Mu’s gaze still pierced through the boiling battlefield, through the chaotic bloody smoke, straightly fixed on those enormous pupils like abyssal blood diamonds, cold and sharp, like the sharp spear tips of his Knight.
The will of the End Wolf Shadow seemed to fluctuate subtly; in its frozen giant pupils, the cold calculation seemed to be momentarily interrupted by this countercurrent stirred up by steel.
A hint of… indescribable… confusion?
Or a deeper rage? It flashed across His inhuman consciousness.
The true contest had just begun.
The abyss’s dining table had been cut open by blood-stained steel knives.
More and more silver mithril armor and iron-gray heavy armor surged out from the open city gate!
The roar of the city gate winch seemed to become the war drum of the charge; the Holy Tree Knight Order’s cold, precise charge, like a fine instrument, plowed a bloody path ahead, followed closely by the terrifying iron torrent formed by the entire Swadian Heavy Cavalry squadron!
A hundred heavily armored warhorses, covered in chainmail, galloped forward, their heavy hooves pounding the ground, converging into a steel surge that made the battlefield tremble!
“Kill!!! For Deherim! For Light!!”
The Holy Tree Knight’s mithril greatswords and the Swadian Knight’s heavy long spears and broadswords gleamed with intimidating cold light, illuminated by the golden radiance of the Holy Light Tower Forest.
They were no longer confined to blocking the breach but, like a scorching brand, pressed savagely into the scattered Abyssal Lesser Undead horde, launching an efficient sweep.
Within the light barrier, that was their absolute domain!
Any Abyssal Lesser Undead enveloped by the light of the Tower Forest had their mobility greatly weakened, and their dark-red bone armor, originally as hard as iron, became like rotten dead wood before the holy light and sacred weapons.
The cavalry’s mass charge became a devastating crush.
Hooves thundered, and a steel storm swept through.
The Swadian Heavy Cavalry formed a solid charging wedge, like clearing out a den.
Heavy long spears pierced through the chests of one Abyssal Lesser Undead after another, pinning them to the ground or tossing them high; broadswords chopped down with immense force, capable of splitting mountains and rocks, cleaving those clawing monsters from shoulder to hip into burning fragments; even without weapons, the high-speed charging heavily armored warhorses themselves were terrifying weapons, striking with brutal impact, one Abyssal Lesser Undead after another was smashed into pieces like rag dolls, with dark-red foul blood and sulfur bone dust splattering everywhere!
They repeatedly charged and crushed along the outer perimeter of the Pangen Bastion, completely leveling the previously accumulated Skeleton slope.
The Rodok Sergeant and Crossbowman on the city wall seized the opportunity, unleashing a rain of arrows and thrown spears, precisely covering scattered targets attempting to escape the cavalry’s strike range.
Below the Pangen Bastion, the Abyssal Lesser Undead offensive, which had just been surging like a tide, collapsed and disintegrated at a visible rate under this dual culling of light and iron.
Large areas were cleared, leaving behind only burning sulfur-laden bone fragments and viscous, foul blood plasma.
Victorious roars erupted among the Knight.
“Too weak! These abyssal scumbags!”
“Before the Holy Light, they are no match!”
“Kill! Drive them back to their dark home!”
Some of the most ferocious Swadian Knight, whose blood had been completely ignited by battle, were not even content with charging within the safe zone covered by the Holy Light.
They saw those scattered Abyssal Lesser Undead on the fringes of the Tower Forest’s light, shadowy and retreating into the darkness like stray dogs.
An uncontrollable, wild urge to challenge the abyss surged within their hearts.
“Brothers! Follow me! Let’s see those cowards hiding in the shadows!”
“Headhunt! Bring back trophies for the Lord!”
“Kill—!!”
The leading Knight Captains roared, sharply digging their heels into their horses’ flanks, driving their warhorses, equally stimulated by battlelust and snorting, and briefly broke away from the main force’s sweeping range, like arrows shot from a bowstring, plunging headlong into the dark area still swirling with thin gray mist and abyssal coldness!
A gasp and even more fervent cheers erupted on the city wall!
“Look! They charged out!”
“True heroes!”
“Cut off those filthy heads!”
The Holy Light Tower Forest’s radiance was left behind, and the light ahead suddenly dimmed.
A bone-chilling cold and a strong, sulfurous stench instantly enveloped the charging Knight.
They could clearly hear the “clack-clack” of retreating Abyssal Lesser Undead bones rubbing together and their unintelligible hisses from the darkness, like the whispers of darkness, stirring the deepest fears in human hearts.
But at this moment, fear had long been drowned out by soaring fighting spirit and the fervor to prove their valor.
The sound of swords chopping bone became duller, exploding in the darkness.
Flashes of metal clashing with bone flickered rapidly, accompanied by the neighing of warhorses and the furious roars of Knight fighting desperately.
“Get out! Bastards!”
“Die!”
“Got you!”
Brutal close-quarters combat suddenly erupted in the visually blurred darkness!
The Knight swung their weapons, hacking at the fleeing figures by feel and faint light.
The Abyssal Lesser Undead, no longer suppressed by the light barrier, became even more frenzied.
Bone claws scraped against heavy armor with a grating sound.
Some Knight’s warhorses were tripped by bone spikes suddenly thrust out of the darkness, sending rider and horse tumbling, and instantly shadowy Abyssal Lesser Undead roared and pounced on the fallen Knight.
The defenders on the city wall’s hearts leaped into their throats.
A mere few dozen breaths felt as long as a century.
Just as everyone was filled with anxiety, and Legolas was even about to lead the Elf Rangers out to provide support—
“Roar—!!!”
A roar full of bloodlust and wildness tore through the darkness, suddenly erupting!
This roar was not of fear or pain, but the most primal and domineering declaration of victory a human could make!
Immediately after, several Knight figures, covered in blood, their iron armor riddled with fresh claw marks and sulfur burns, like lions returning from battling fierce beasts, riding equally scarred but still valiant warhorses, suddenly burst through the edge of the darkness, once again bathed in the sacred golden radiance of the Tower Forest!
Most conspicuous was the bearded Knight Captain charging at the very front, a fierce warrior named Calanzo.
His thick right arm was raised high, tightly grasping a massive skull, conspicuously larger than his own fist!
Although the dark-red crystal core in the skull’s eye socket was shattered and dim, residual dark-red blood vessels still flowed between the bone seams, emitting a pungent sulfurous stench!
“Do you see?! Brothers!” Calanzo’s voice was hoarse from excitement and the recent struggle, yet filled with explosive power; he vigorously waved the abyssal trophy in his hand, raising it towards the Pangen Bastion, towards the Holy Light Tower Forest in the sky, and also towards the still silently hovering End Wolf Shadow in the west!
“What if it’s the abyss?! They only deserve to be dust on our armor, decorations hanging from our spear tips!! Next, it’s that big guy in the sky! Long live Deherim! Long live the Lord!!!”
“Long live!!!”
“Long live!!!” (End of this chapter)
