Outside the Pangen Bastion, the golden Holy Light domain was like a pure realm opened by a deity in a desolate hell.
Under the brief but brilliant light curtain, Shen Mu's Heavy Cavalry unit displayed a terrifying killing efficiency that made the Abyss tremble.
Each swing of a Holy Tree Knight's mithril greatsword left a platinum trail, precisely dismantling Scythe Demons that approached the tower's base or tried to squeeze through the Heavy Cavalry's gaps.
Those chilling burning scythe-bladed bone claws let out shrill wails in front of mithril and holy flames, their core crystal nuclei bursting and purifying under precise stabs.
And the two hundred Swadian Heavy Cavalry turned into the most terrifying grinding wheels under the protection of Holy Light.
Steel lances, driven by the momentum of the charge, easily pierced through the Abyssal Lesser Undead's bone armor, which was weakened and brittle by Holy Light, as if tearing through rotten cardboard.
Heavy cavalry swords, on the other hand, carried furious power, cleaving through surging Lesser Undead swarms in swathes.
Every hoofbeat was accompanied by the screech of cracking bones and the splash of dark red sparks.
"Kill! Purify the Abyss!" The battle cries of the Swadian Knights echoed amidst the clash of steel and the crunch of bones.
These Lesser Undead, once fearless, appeared clumsy and fragile under the full suppression of the Holy Light Torch Towers.
Their frantic biting bone claws could only leave shallow marks and charred sulfur stains on the steel armor plates, and the faint glow of their dark red crystal nuclei was firmly suppressed by the light of the Torch Tower array, their explosive power greatly weakened.
Wherever the Heavy Cavalry charged, piles of Skeletons were repeatedly crushed and trampled, raising a murky smoke of burning sulfur.
"All ranged—target! Reinforcement clusters outside the light curtain! Covering fire! Support the Knights' charge!" Shen Mu's cold voice once again resounded through the bastion's command chain.
He showed no emotion for the brilliant victory below the city, only the most precise orders.
The city wall instantly responded with a more violent roar!
Buzz! Bang! Buzz! Bang!
The Sen Mu Fortress's heavy ballistas launched their second wave of runic root spears. This time, instead of merely obstructing, they smashed with destructive potential into the Abyssal Lesser Undead reinforcements still attempting to pour through the tears in the mist and light curtain, exploding into fiery bursts of holy flames and Skeleton fragments!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!" A rain of arrows from the Vigia Sharpshooters poured down like golden hail, accompanied by sharp whistling sounds, fiercely smashing into the Lesser Undead clusters outside the Heavy Cavalry's charging gaps.
Under the enhancement of the Holy Light Torch Tower array, the arrowheads were imbued with an exorcising golden glow, easily piercing through rotten bones and pinning more Lesser Undead to the ground.
The Rodok heavy Crossbowmen, on the other hand, were like indifferent reapers calling out names. Their precise three-edged armor-piercing bolts cunningly shot into those Lesser Undead attempting to swell their crystal nuclei and self-detonate at the edge of the light curtain, detonating them prematurely while they were still accumulating energy!
Within the light curtain, every inch of ground touched by Holy Light truly became an absolute death zone for the Abyss's minions.
The Scythe Demons' assaults were extinguished by the Holy Tree Knights, and the Lesser Undead's tide rapidly dwindled and disintegrated under the dual slaughter of Heavy Cavalry hooves and ranged firepower.
On the scorched black earth, burning Skeletons and foul-smelling, viscous blood flowed everywhere, then were seared and purified by the residual heat of the Holy Light.
The soldiers on the bastion, witnessing this overwhelming scene, relaxed their tense expressions. A sense of security, built on absolute power, began to grow—at least under the light of the Torch Tower array, they held an overwhelming advantage!
However—
Buzz!!!
A silent yet soul-shaking terrifying tremor suddenly swept in from the far west!
It was not a sound wave, but a violent outpouring of pure willpower, as if the entire rotten city ground suddenly sank!
Immediately, that sliver of security in everyone's hearts shattered completely like fragile glass!
"Awoo—!!!!!!!!" The wolf howl, piercing through the nine heavens and tearing the sky, exploded from the deepest part of the core black domain!
This time, it was no longer the silent roar of calculation and scrutiny from before.
This time, it was the ultimate declaration, filled with infuriated rage at being offended, ferocity provoked by mere ants, and an undisguised, monstrous killing intent of destruction!
Above Long City, the mountain-sized black-red light pillar supporting the Doom Wolf Shadow suddenly erupted with a blinding, bloody light!
The ethereal wolf shadow suspended at its peak seemed to solidify by several points instantly. Those mountain-like Abyssal Blood Diamond giant eyes, for the first time, clearly, directly, and with a soul-freezing malice, locked onto the Pangen Bastion, locking onto the core area surrounded by the Holy Light Torch Tower array!
It was watching! It was watching Shen Mu!
Almost at the very moment the aftershocks of that earth-shaking wolf howl were still violently vibrating in the air, to the west, the edge of the Abyssal dense fog, which had become like a solidified ink pool, suddenly boiled!
Countless eye sockets, flickering with deeper, hotter dark red Abyssal fire, lit up densely like burning stars from the thick, evil blood-veined black mist!
Then, there was a roar! A roar deeper, more orderly, and containing a purer will of destruction than the previous Lesser Undead hisses!
"Roar—!!!"
Countless tall, hunched Skeleton figures broke free from the confines of the dense fog!
Abyssal Undead Gnolls!
Their numbers far exceeded the sum of all previous reconnaissance encounters and probing attacks! They were no longer sparse squads, but a tide of Skeletons pouring out from the depths of hell, coalescing into an unstoppable, pure torrent of death and destruction!
The dark red Abyssal fire in their eye sockets leaped frantically, connecting with each other, as if forming a surging sea of blood-colored fire!
Their black iron scimitars reflected the light of the Torch Tower array and the red flames of the Abyss, chilling to the bone!
They were not scattered, not frenzied, but under the unified command of some terrifying will, they endured the arrows and ballista bolts pouring down from the city walls, launching a desperate charge in an utterly cold, clustered formation!
The spearhead—once again pointed directly at the Pangen Bastion, directly at the Holy Light Torch Tower array burning with golden light!
The previous "probing" and "assessment" were completely over. The Doom Wolf Shadow now understood the limits of the Torch Tower array and the defensive strength of the Elf Forest.
Now, it intended to use this boundless tide of Undead Gnolls, with this new form of minions containing a purer Abyssal death power, to completely… annihilate the entire bastion along with that dazzling Holy Light!
"All troops—!!!" Shen Mu's cold voice, at the instant the wolf howl ended, exploded in every soldier's ear like a blade forged in ten thousand years of ice, "Highest intensity response! The Abyss's total assault—has begun!"
Outside the light curtain, the final boundary between Holy Light and Abyss instantly plunged into the most violent, most bloody—white-hot slaughter! The ultimate power of the Abyss officially crushed towards the bastion of light!
The aftershocks of that earth-shaking wolf howl were still reverberating through the desolate ruins, tearing at the nerves of every defender.
However, the Abyss's response was far swifter and more violent than fear!
"Roar—!!!"
Accompanied by a unified roar like a lava tsunami, the Abyssal Lesser Undead army—with the endless, more condensed, and more ferocious Abyssal Undead Gnolls as its vanguard—like a torrent of destruction spewing from a hellish rift, completely broke through the viscous, ink-like black mist boundary!
Their dark red Abyssal fire eyes connected into a burning sea of blood, even more intense than the previous Lesser Undead!
Black iron scimitars reflected a cold, evil light. Under the absolute command of a higher will, with a determination to destroy the light before them even if it meant their own annihilation, they ignored the arrows pouring from the city walls and the heavy root spears crashing down.
They launched a desperate, full-scale assault towards the Pangen Bastion, towards the fiercely burning Holy Light Torch Tower array!
Their objective was crystal clear—crush the bastion, extinguish the Torch Tower array!
The moment they plunged into the light curtain, the golden radiance of the Holy Light Torch Towers suddenly surged! The runic orbs at the tower tops spun wildly, and immense purifying power fiercely suppressed every encroaching foe.
"Sizzle—!" On the Gnolls illuminated by the light, the dark red Abyssal energy boiled and evaporated violently, like grease encountering strong acid. The thick gray-black bone armor on their Skeleton bodies emitted a crisp sound as if about to crack, and their charging speed visibly slowed down!
The dark red flames flickering in their eyes swayed painfully, emitting shrill wails.
This suppression by Holy Light was the cornerstone of Shen Mu's steel defense line!
"Heavy Cavalry! Alternate cover! Retreat back to the bastion!" Shen Mu's cold voice, like clashing metal, instantly cut off the iron tide of Swadian Heavy Cavalry still pursuing and crushing the scattered Lesser Undead below the city.
The command was unquestionable.
"Close ranks! Retreat in a circle formation! Hold the city gate for Lord!" The Knight Captain's roar echoed across the battlefield.
The thunderous hoofbeats abruptly changed their rhythm. The Heavy Cavalry torrent, which had been wantonly slaughtering scattered Lesser Undead just a moment ago, instantly transformed into a moving steel forest.
The outer Heavy Cavalry skillfully reined in and turned, their heavy tower shields overlapping in layers, forming a moving shield wall to protect their comrades on the inside; the inner Knights turned their horses, maintaining a vigilant posture, and under the protection of the shield wall, like a receding tide, began to retreat efficiently and orderly along the cleared path towards the open side gate of the Pangen Bastion.
On the city walls, firepower was unleashed!
"Loose arrows!! Maximum density! Target—the charging cluster's frontline!"
"Ballistas! Break their advancing echelons!"
"Rodok Snipers! Target the Gnolls with the deepest markings! Those are elites!"
Bandak's rough shouts intertwined with the roar of weapons. Arrows rained down like locusts, root spears flashed like lightning, and the golden flames of the Holy Light Torch Tower array wove into a net of fire, firmly covering the heads of the Gnolls rushing into the light curtain area.
Under the strong light suppression, even the bone armor of these Abyssal elites was more "fragile" than before. The Vigia Sharpshooters' three-edged armor-piercing arrows easily tore open gaps, and the Rodok's heavy crossbows could even pin smaller Gnolls directly into the scorched earth!
Constantly, Gnolls were struck by precise point-blank shots to their knees and eye sockets, stumbling and falling, to be trampled and crushed by the frenzied comrades surging behind them.
The Holy Tree Knights were like the stabilizing pillars of the tower's base, guarding the most critical nodes. Any Gnoll or stray Scythe Demon attempting to directly assault the tower's base would be cut to pieces by their cold mithril greatswords.
The battlefield presented an astonishing tiered defensive posture.
At the outermost layer, the light of the Holy Light Torch Tower array itself was a continuous area of group weakening and energy burning, forcibly reducing the combat effectiveness and speed of all encroachers.
At the next outer layer, the city walls and the ranged firepower points on the tower tops (archers, ballistas, snipers) formed a cross-fire net, delivering ranged projectile damage, with a focus on striking charging formations and elite units.
At the middle layer, the retreating Heavy Cavalry and the Holy Tree Knights around the tower base were solid bulwarks and mobile defensive forces blocking breakthrough points.
At the inner layer, the Pangen Bastion's animated root walls and the close-range cold arrows of the Wood Elf Rangers formed the final line of defense.
Under this three-dimensional, crushing iron wall, although the Abyssal Undead Gnolls were vast in number and their charging will was resolute, seemingly pouring endlessly from the black mist, their momentum was forcefully delayed and cut down under multiple Holy Light suppressions and continuous firepower.
Most Gnolls were killed in large numbers within the light curtain, under the rain of arrows, and in the interception by Heavy Cavalry and Holy Tree Knights, before they could even get close to the city walls.
Their Skeleton bodies burned and shattered in the holy flames, their foul energy constantly purified with hissing sounds, and layers upon layers of burning sulfur ash accumulated in front of the bastion.
Shen Mu stood on the watchtower, his cold gaze sweeping over the slaughterhouse below the city. Even without the aid of system vision, the battlefield situation was crystal clear.
He keenly observed that the scattered Gnolls, who had fearlessly, even enduring ranged fire, charged through the first few defensive lines, found themselves in an even more desperate situation when they finally reached the incredibly sturdy animated root walls of the Pangen Bastion!
They had none!
These most elite minions of the Abyss actually had no siege equipment! No ladders, no battering rams, no trebuchets!
Even the most basic "corpse mountain tactic" of piling up Skeletons to climb became almost impossible due to the continuous arrow suppression from the city walls and the rapid purification of residual Skeletons by the Torch Tower array's light and flames!
Only a few scattered Gnolls futilely hacked at the thick, animated thorny tree roots and reinforced wooden wall sections, which flowed with natural life force, using black iron scimitars burning with Abyssal power.
"Clang! Sizzle sizzle sizzle…"
The collision of scimitars and hardwood sparked fire and corrosive black smoke, occasionally leaving deep scorch marks and corrosive etchings on the tough animated root wood.
However, the root wall's structure was exceptionally tough due to elven natural magic and continuous vine growth. Coupled with rolling logs, boulders, scorching boiling oil thrown by the defenders from above the city walls, and even the Wood Elves' precise cold arrows aimed at the joints of the hacking points, these few Gnolls who reached the wall base could not pose an effective threat in a short time.
Their frantic hacking was more like a desperate outburst.
Shen Mu's thin lips under his faceplate helmet imperceptibly tightened.
No siege means… The Doom Wolf Shadow's attack, which poured its core Undead power into it, seemed like a surging tide, but its essence was still a… meat grinder!
It was using the lives of these most elite Undead Gnolls and the energy from their remains to continuously irrigate the land near the bastion, accelerating the spread of the black mist and the consumption of the Torch Tower array's energy.
The defilement and remains scattered by each fallen Gnoll made the black mist below the city a bit denser, and the erosion of the Holy Light curtain a bit stronger.
The wails of dying Gnolls formed a continuous chorus below the city, their lives being coldly calculated and transformed into a deadly toxic swamp.
The bloody battle continued, Holy Light burned, and Abyssal blood stained the earth black. The Pangen Bastion stood firm as a rock, but Shen Mu knew in his heart that this terrifying attrition was only accumulating for the next, more lethal impact from the Doom Wolf Shadow, which stood like a mountain in the deep core, watching everything with cold eyes. (End of chapter)
