In the suddenly chilling air of the command room, the Kujit cavalry archer captain was singled out: "Kujit Outlaws are to immediately spread out from the Pangen Bastion, in groups of sixteen, and patrol the Holy Light Corridor in a radius. I want you to snap at the Gnoll's vital points like steppe eagles with snakes—sound the signal arrow immediately upon discovering Gnoll traces, and any who dare to engage in close combat will be court-martialed!"
As Kalanzo instinctively reached for his battle-axe, Shen Mu's mithril gauntlet slammed onto the edge of the sand table, making the arrow models rattle:
"The close-combat ban is now in effect. All Swadian Heavy Cavalry are to withdraw to the second-line Pangen Bastion, and the Holy Tree Knight Order is to hold the Holy Light Torch Tower bases." He pointed to the Abyssal Black Tide area on the sand table, where dark red veins surged, "The Doom Wolf Shadow is drinking death—every fallen warrior's body is bait fed to the Abyss!"
Legolas suddenly looked up, his emerald pupils reflecting the contaminated energy flow reversing on the tactical light screen: "Those Gnolls… are they recycling battle remains?"
"Not just remains." Shen Mu's voice was edged with frost, "Wounds cut by Gnoll scimitars release energy-siphoning spores; close-quarters combat is equivalent to personally laying down energy conduits for the Abyss!" He suddenly turned to the generals, "From this moment on, within three hundred meters of the Pangen Bastion is an absolute no-fire zone—let the corpses of the Abyssal minions pile up beyond crossbow range, so even their wails cannot reach the light screen of the Torch Tower forest!"
Barely fifteen minutes after the order was given, a piercing alarm came from the west watchtower!
The Kujit Outlaws' signal arrow tore through the sky, and dozens of hunched dark figures appeared at the edge of the thin mist.
The Gnoll Bone Men were arrayed in a wedge formation, their black iron scimitars uniformly pointing towards the front-line crossbow positions—a stance poised for a charge!
However, they abruptly halted at the Torch Tower forest's light cordon. The leading Gnoll howled to the sky, Abyssal fire swirling madly in its eye sockets.
In the heart-pounding silence, the Gnoll pack all opened their jaws—
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Dozens of dark red rays, viscous as asphalt, burst from their throat bones!
Their target: the crossbow bases of the Sen Mu Fortress!
"Boom!!!"
Bandak's roar and the crossbow's thunder exploded simultaneously. Burning rune-spears shattered the rays, and purifying holy flames intensely annihilated corrosive energy in the mist zone.
The Vigia arrow rain instantly covered the Gnoll front line; three monsters exploded into sulfur fireballs as holy light arrows pierced their skulls!
Shen Mu stood on the observation deck, his cold gaze penetrating the explosion's smoke and dust. In the depths of the rolling Abyssal mist, those mountain-like blood-diamond giant eyes hung in the sky, icy calculation patterns flowing within their pupils—like a chess player scrutinizing the cost of pawn exchanges.
The Torch Tower forest's light flickered violently in the smoke, and corrosive black mist billowed from the edge of the light screen due to the energy clash.
Deafening hoofbeats tore through the battlefield's brief silence. When the Gnoll Skeleton's dark red rays exploded into sulfurous smoke in front of the crossbow positions, Shen Mu's command, from beneath his full-face helmet, had transformed into an icy rule, imprinted into the consciousness core of the Holy Tree Knight through a mental link.
"Coordinates locked. First and Third Holy Tree Knight teams cut into the left flank's arrowhead, Swadian First Knight Brigade on the right flank's anvil." Without amplification magic, his will was the law of the battlefield.
At the western edge, where thin mist and thick blackness intertwined, shadows surged suddenly! Thirty Holy Tree Knights, like silver specters breaking free from the shadows, their mithril greatswords trailing Holy Flames of Order, plunged into the Gnoll pack's flanks at an acute angle, exceeding physical limits!
Almost simultaneously, a steel wall formed by two hundred Swadian Heavy Cavalry pressed forward with a roar, their steel lances leveled, and the iron hooves of their chain-armored warhorses crushed paving stones—a perfect anvil and hammer formation!
"Clang—!" The piercing clash of sword blades severing black iron scimitars became a continuous sound.
The Holy Tree Knight's blades precisely cleaved into the Gnoll's skull eye sockets, and the shrieks of Abyssal fire being consumed by platinum holy flames were like death wails.
The Swadian Heavy Cavalry's torrent rolled over; Gnoll Skeletons unable to dodge were crushed and exploded as lances pierced them, and viscous dark red plasma splattered onto the heavy armor, corroding the steel kneepads with a "sizzle."
The combat was efficient, almost brutal.
Ten minutes, just ten minutes!
Thirty-seven Gnoll remains turned into burning debris under the iron hooves, and the surviving Abyssal Lesser Undead had long been pinned to their charge path by the Kujit Outlaws' arrow rain.
Before the Pangen Bastion soldiers' cheers could rise, Shen Mu's icy voice cut through the battlefield's lingering sounds: "Cleanup crew incinerate remains, Knight Order return to positions immediately!"
But as the iron torrent retreated, in the scorched, smoke-filled battlefield, an anomaly quietly grew.
Between the cracks in the ground scorched by purification beams, wisps of inky black mist, like living mycelia, emerged from beneath the charred corpses, interweaving and spreading at a visible rate.
In less than half a day, the originally thin boundary zone had turned into a churning inkwell, which even the pale midday sun could not penetrate.
This thick blackness was distinctly different from the old dead spirit gray mist—the gray mist was ethereal like gauze, but the black mist was heavy like glue, its edges even tinged with dark red veins, and to the sulfurous stench was added a sickly sweet, dizzying, putrid reek.
"Sir, Torch Tower number seven's shield energy consumption is abnormal!" The command room's light screen flickered, and the energy flow spectrum of the Torch Tower forest network suddenly showed warning red lines at its western edge.
The engineer's voice trembled, "The black mist… it's continuously eroding the tower base runes, automatic defensive rays are frequently triggering, and the shield is passively consuming faith reserves!"
Shen Mu's gaze swept over the 3D sand table; the inky black area representing the black mist was spreading like concentrated ink dropped into clear water. He tapped his fingertip heavily on the sand table boundary: "Kujit Outlaws triple rotation, conduct zigzag cross-patrols centered on the Torch Tower.
Each rider with two horses, signal arrow warning distance compressed to three hundred meters—I want to know every claw that extends from the black mist!"
The order was like ice water poured onto hot sand.
A hundred Kujit Outlaws charged out of the Pangen Bastion, their light armor and fast horses cutting into the edge of the dense mist like sharp blades.
But just two hours later, a sharp, bone-chilling signal arrow suddenly exploded piercingly in the eastern mist zone!
A team of Outlaws broke through the black mist, three riders with pierced breastplates slumped on their horses, inky black viscous liquid seeping from their wounds.
The centurion leading the team's eyes were bloodshot: "There's something in the mist! Faster than Gnolls! Claws… like glowing scythes!"
Shen Mu's mithril gauntlet instantly crushed a corner of the sand table's edge.
The Abyss's blade had evolved into a more lethal edge.
Outside the fortress, in the ink-like, heavy black mist, two pinpricks of crimson ghostly light quietly lit up, like the cold gleam of fangs revealed when an Abyssal behemoth licks its lips…
The Kujit centurion's piercing warning cry was like an ice pick, piercing the Pangen Bastion's brief silence.
The unspoken fear was far more suffocating than any specific description—"faster than Gnolls," "glowing scythes"!
The air within the Pangen Bastion instantly solidified, the soldiers' knuckles gripping their weapons made soft cracking sounds, and their gazes involuntarily turned towards the churning, ink-like Abyssal Black Tide.
Shen Mu's mithril gauntlet slowly relaxed, a few strands of crushed sand table stone powder rustling down. Beneath his full-face helmet, his icy gaze was like a tangible force, penetrating the thick Pangen Bastion wooden walls, locking onto the inky black viscous liquid gushing from the breastplates of the three riders. That was not blood, but active corrosive poison!
"Holy Light Torch Tower forest, western section numbers seven to nine, emergency link, overload purification!" His voice was like the first crack in an ice surface, instantly activating the Pangen Bastion's energy core.
Buzz—! Buzz—!
The rune orbs atop the three Holy Light Torch Towers on the western side of the Pangen Bastion suddenly erupted with dazzling platinum-gold radiance, their lights connecting like tangible fiber optics, instantly forming a giant triangular purification field! Immense holy light energy surged madly into the black mist at the boundary!
"Sizzle—!!!!"
Like a red-hot branding iron pressed into ice, the churning inky mist was instantly boiled and evaporated!
Large areas were forcibly purified and dispersed, exposing the scorched, cracked earth beneath!
A sacred hum, like a grand bell, slammed into the surging Black Tide!
This dispersion was also an illumination!
Right at the edge of the mist rift torn open by the strong light—
"Hiss-ga—!!!!"
Inhuman shrieks accompanied by piercing sonic booms suddenly erupted! Dozens of shadow-like figures, faster than ghosts, shot out from the thin black mist!
Their forms were more slender and twisted than the Gnoll Bone Men, as if forcibly kneaded together from molten tar and pitch-black shattered bones!
Their lower limb structure was bizarre, like inverted scythe-blade joints; each push-off from the ground left burning scorch marks, and their speed was so great they left trails of afterimages!
But what was most terrifying were their upper limb extremities—they were not hands or claws at all, but two bone-blades, shaped like giant praying mantis scythes, burning with eerie green hellfire and constantly dripping magma-like black-red corrosive fluid!
With each swing, the air was scorched into twisted trajectories, accompanied by soul-ripping shrieks!
Scythe Demon pack! A new unit of slaughter evolved by the Abyss!
Their objective was extremely clear—under the brief exposure of the light screen, they charged directly towards the nearest Holy Light Torch Tower bases! The scorched earth did not hinder them in the slightest; their charges, trailing sulfurous flames, were like deadly poison needles!
"Crossbows—armor-piercing burning root-spears! Cover the light screen tear!" "Rodok snipers! Target scythe joints!" "Vigia—scattered fire! Suppress the following Lesser Undead!"
On the city wall, Bandak's roar, the crossbows' thunder, and the bowstrings' hum instantly erupted in unison!
Heavy root-spears, burning with runes, tore through the air, precisely smashing ahead of the Scythe Demons' charge path, attempting to create explosive obstacles; the dull "thump" of Rhodok heavy sniper crossbows firing was continuous, and arrows enhanced with armor-piercing and holy light rained down on the fast-moving, burning scythe-limb joints; Vigia Sharpshooter's arrow rain, meanwhile, covered the Abyssal Lesser Undead following behind the Scythe Demons, attempting to surge forward with this assault!
However, the Scythe Demons' speed and bizarre footwork far exceeded expectations!
They nimbly bypassed or withstood the explosive airwaves and smoke, and arrows embedded in their burning scythe-blade torsos erupted in small bursts of holy flame, only to be rapidly "swallowed" by the flowing tar-like substance, and the corrosive fluid could quickly erode runes!
Only a few precise hits on their leg-root joints caused a few Scythe Demons to lose balance and tumble to the ground, where they were pierced and set ablaze by subsequent arrows.
Most Scythe Demons had already pushed through the barrage and entered the "exposed zone" torn open by the Holy Light Torch Tower forest's strong light, and a few of the foremost ones had their burning scythe-blade bone claws viciously hacking at the low walls and fortifications around the tower base!
The Swadian Light Infantry and Rhodok Crossbowmen stationed behind the walls only saw a ghostly green flash of fire descend upon them!
Just then!
Shen Mu's icy voice was like a heavy hammer striking the hearts of all the Knights:
"Holy Tree Knight Order! Teams one to five! Target—close-quarters threats to the tower base! Clear them out!"
"Swadian Knights First and Third Brigades! Cut off black mist reinforcements! Crush the enemy outside the light screen!"
"Steppe Bandit—roaming scattered fire! Disperse Lesser Undead clusters! Anyone who dares to step into the light screen, kill them!"
No sooner had the orders fallen!
"For Order!"
Inside and outside the Pangen Bastion, a thunderous response suddenly erupted!
The five Holy Tree Knight teams closest to the tower base, ten Knights, were like tightly wound springs suddenly released!
Their mithril greatswords, trailing platinum-gold flames, transformed into silver lightning bolts from various pre-deployed hidden cover points!
Their target was not the surging tide of Lesser Undead, but the elite Scythe Demons who had already reached the edge of the low wall and were about to destroy the tower base's defenses!
Boom! Clang!
Mithril greatswords and pitch-black scythe-blade bone claws burning with hellfire violently collided!
Piercing metallic clashes and explosive sounds of energy annihilation erupted!
Eerie green hellfire and platinum Holy Flames of Order fiercely clashed, the airwave staggering the surrounding light infantry!
The Holy Tree Knight's swordsmanship was exquisitely precise, not a brute force clash, but one of deflecting and guiding!
One sword parried a fatal slash, while another, like a viper's tongue, precisely struck the glowing core hidden beneath the Scythe Demon's twisted torso—a node of Abyssal energy even more concealed than a crystal core!
"Puff!" Holy flames erupted from the core, and a Scythe Demon let out a desperate shriek, instantly exploding into a mass of burning fragments!
At the same time, the fortress's side gate burst open!
Two hundred Swadian Heavy Cavalry, like an iron torrent breaking a dam, their heavy iron hooves crushing the shadows of the city gate, carrying a suffocating charging momentum, slammed into the main force of Abyssal Lesser Undead that were continuously pouring out of the black mist tear, following the Scythe Demons' charge!
"Deherim—crush them!!!"
The Knight Brigade Captain's battle cry was like thunder!
Rumble!!!
Torrents of steel and bone violently collided! Steel lances easily pierced the Lesser Undead's decaying bone armor, pinning them to the scorched earth; heavy cavalry swords swung like wind, shattering and smashing swathes of Lesser Undead!
Under the illumination of the Holy Light Torch Tower forest, the Lesser Undead's bone armor was like rotten wood, and the cavalry cluster's charge demonstrated terrifying destructive efficiency!
Where iron hooves passed, bones turned to ash! A burning, dark-red-sparking path of flesh and blood was plowed open along the charge route!
The Kujit Steppe Bandit, like nimble wolf packs, galloped on horseback at the edge of the battlefield, their composite cavalry bows opening and closing with astonishing frequency, a dense rain of arrows like a rotating storm, precisely covering the Lesser Undead clusters attempting to bypass the heavy cavalry and approach the edge of the light screen from the flanks. Their harassment tactics were extremely effective, forcing the Lesser Undead to constantly scatter, unable to form a concentrated attack on the light screen's gap.
Under the absolute blessing of the Holy Light, the entire battlefield situation underwent a decisive reversal!
The Holy Tree Knights were the sharp tip of the Blade of Order, firmly entrenched on the tower base defense line, efficiently and precisely slaying close-quarters Scythe Demon threats; the Swadian Heavy Cavalry were like an indestructible hammer, repeatedly charging and killing within the light zone outside the city, crushing the main force of surging Lesser Undead; the Steppe Bandit were flexible whips, scattering scattered enemy groups, covering the flanks. And the ranged firepower on the city walls was like hail and torrential rain, continuously pouring down on the front lines!
Within the light screen, wherever the Holy Light reached, it had become a meat grinder execution ground for the Abyssal minions!
Shen Mu stood on the observation deck, his mithril heavy armor reflecting the fire of clashing metal below and the glory of holy flames annihilating the Abyss.
His cold gaze swept across the battlefield, watching the Scythe Demons and Lesser Undead torrent crumble under the Holy Light, yet he showed no sign of relaxation.
His gaze ultimately penetrated the gradually thinning battlefield smoke and the rolling black mist on the periphery, casting towards the distant, deep, mountain-like Doom Wolf Shadow suspended above the core black domain.
Those giant Abyssal blood-diamond eyes still watched here with icy indifference, devouring every trace of death energy scattered from the battlefield, as if completely unconcerned by the tragic losses of its own cannon fodder before it.
The battle was merely accumulating chips for the final confrontation. And the Abyss's patience would eventually run out. (End of Chapter)
