Real Mount and Blade Game

The heavy clatter of hooves echoed through the burning ruins, and the firelight reflected off the armor created a moving metal wall, becoming a more effective psychological deterrent than swords.

A contingent of heavy infantry phalanxes also split off, advancing from the rear with sturdy shield formations to cut off retreat routes in certain directions, while simultaneously unleashing a thunderous shout: "Lay down your weapons! Surrender and you will be spared! Move to Deherim!"

The people who were originally huddled in the shadows, trembling with fear, had their last shred of hope of escaping completely shattered when faced with such a massive and imposing military formation surrounding them.

The scattered escapees, driven from the ruins and stopped by the cavalry, were like helpless fish and shrimp swept up by the waves. They were eventually led by the knights to a temporarily selected open area far from the core battlefield and gathered together.

Fear was still written on every face.

But seeing that the soldiers were mainly driving people away rather than slaughtering them, the despair in some people's eyes subsided slightly, replaced by a numb obedience.

The crowd grew larger and larger, a dark mass filled with uneasy whispers and sobs.

Shen Mu remained seated on his horse, observing everything from his elevated position.

In the distance, under the concentrated fire of ballistae and rockets, a huge, burning branch of the ancient war tree snapped and collapsed, crashing to the ground and stirring up a sky full of sparks and dust, as if adding a new footnote to this bloody conquest.

His gaze shifted from the burning ancient tree and the orderly army to the group of Blue Star humans being driven away in a concentrated manner, as small and uncertain as an ant colony. A barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips.

Destroying the enemy is easy, but digesting the "resources" is just the beginning.

Amidst the embers of fire and death, the migration to Deherim was forced to begin.

However, Shen Mu did not take the migration of these Earthlings to heart.

He glanced at it calmly and then looked away.

He cared more about the Wood Elf village in front of him, which had become a purgatory.

Thick smoke billowed, obscuring the remaining starlight in the sky. The burning core area of ​​the Wood Elf village was truly like a hellish scene.

The ancient war tree, a behemoth composed of twisted wood, rotting flesh, and dark brown slime, now stood amidst towering flames, futilely waving its terrifying bone claws and barbed vines.

"Roar—!!!"

A painful roar shook the burning air; it was the scream of an ancient consciousness, forcibly awakened yet trapped in agony.

But its power is firmly bound to the earth.

Each of its attacks, with its enormous, pillar-like bone claws and serpentine, wildly thrashing vines, could only barely sweep across an area of ​​a hundred meters, bringing up shards of charred wood and splattering slime, before drooping or retracting limply, twitching and burning in vain in the flames.

"No! Attack! Attack!!"

Deep inside the treehouse, the once prestigious central room is now nothing but ruins and the stench of burning.

Yang Di was injured on one side of his body by a burning wooden beam that fell down. His blood mixed with soot turned him into a blood-soaked figure, like a vengeful ghost.

He huddled in the corner, his only remaining eye glaring like a copper bell, staring intently into the distance through the thick smoke and cracks in the wall.

There, lies the ruthless, heavily fortified defenses of the Deherem Legion.

More than 200 meters away.

Rows of cold siege ballistae, like silent behemoths, released thick bolts each time they were taut, which, like battering rams, slammed into the massive trunks of the ancient trees, producing a dull and terrifying impact!
The wood chips mixed with the brown, fishy-smelling liquid flew everywhere.

Arrow rain, an endless rain of arrows!

The rockets ignited by the Kujites rained down like meteors, relentlessly striking the ancient tree and igniting its decaying flesh.

The Rhodok's heavy crossbow bolts cunningly sought out the gaps between the vine roots and the fleshy growths.

The longbowmen of the Holy Tree Knights rained down arrows that blotted out the sky, covering every corner of that colossal creature.

Shen Mu's army, like the most sophisticated killing machine, carried out the executions methodically.

They stood there, ruthlessly, efficiently, and with absolute security, at a deadly distance beyond the reach of the ancient tree of war!

"Idiots! Morons! What are you doing? What kind of warriors back that far away?!"

Yang Di clutched his hair, which was covered in blood and dust, his voice hoarse like the scraping of a broken gong, filled with a near-hysterical frenzy: "Come back! Shen Mu! Bring your people back!! I'll crush you! Tear you apart, ahhhhhh—!!"

His roar echoed inside the treehouse, but was completely swallowed up by the howling of the ancient trees outside, the roar of the crossbows, and the crackling of the flames.

He saw the cold eyes of the soldiers on the front lines, the composure of the generals riding back and forth to deliver orders, and in the distance, he saw the young figure surrounded by the Holy Tree Knights, overlooking the battlefield like a king.

—Shen Mu!
That indifferent face, that posture sitting upright on horseback, every detail mercilessly mocked his struggle!

despair!

Despair that seeps into your very bones!
It was like cold venom that instantly infected every inch of his flesh and blood!
His empire was destroyed, his men died or betrayed him, and in the end, his trump card, which he was so proud of and willing to exhaust all his resources, became a huge, fixed target!

They can only be trampled on like a dead dog!
"Why!? Why—!!?"

Yang Di pounded his fists furiously on the scorching floor, oblivious to the bleeding knuckles. His single eye was bloodshot and nearly shattered: "Planet...the Wood Elf Plane! Grand Elder! Where are you?! Power! Give me power! Make it move! Let it rush over and crush them!!"

It was as if his hysterical cry, filled with the deepest resentment and despair, pierced through the fragments of the chaotic space and dimensional barrier.

A massive, ancient spiritual wave, brimming with extreme anger and questioning, pierced his already chaotic mind like a cold iron spike!

A majestic and furious voice seemed to explode directly in Yang Di's chaotic mind, drowning out all his frantic roars:

"Yang Di!!!"

The name alone contained boundless rage.

"You blasphemer! You greedy scoundrel! What we gave you was a bridge to nature, a seed to sustain the ecosystem! How dare you... how dare you use it to extract the last fragments! How dare you waste countless precious spiritual resources to force the growth of... this twisted, incorrigible, and inferior 'Ancient Tree of War'?!"

The voice was like ice that had stood for millennia, carrying the utmost contempt and disgust of a higher being for a lower microorganism.

"The wrath of the plane is burning! Those remaining fragments of natural will, meant to stabilize the passage and guide the last vestiges of life, have been squandered on your pointless and abhorrent revenge! Do you know what that means to us?! It was an unforgivable waste!!"

Yang Di was stunned by the sudden rebuke, and then, a hundred times more intense rage and resentment erupted from the depths of his heart! "Aaaaaahh ...

He clutched his head and screamed in agony, not only from the excruciating physical pain but also from the crushing mental torment. But then he abruptly raised his head, his remaining eye flashing with a demonic glint, and with the last vestiges of his mental strength, he unleashed a hysterical curse at the source of the cold, questioning voice:

"Go to hell! Wood elf! Pointy-eared rat!"

Yang Di's spiritual echoes were filled with profanity and desperate madness:

"My loyalty?! Our sacrifice?! The entire Green Leaf Group's decades-long foundation, thousands of lives sacrificed!! To be your watchdogs!! Zhang Song! Zhang Bo! So many Wood Elf warriors!! They all became cannon fodder for you!!"

"Now! Now you sit idly by and watch me besieged by that bastard Shen Mu! My village is burning! My warriors are wailing! I'm calling out to you! I'm calling out to you with my life!! And what are you doing?!"

His "voice" was like that of a weeping, vengeful spirit:

"You sealed off the dimensional portal! You severed the rune connection! You threw me away like useless trash!! You watched us march towards destruction!! And now you have the nerve to question me about the power I expended?! If I didn't fight to the death, were I supposed to wait for Shen Mu's men to chop off my head and use it as a football?!"

The other party's response was faster and colder, like a whip lashing Yang Di's fragile spirit:

"Shut up! You lowly worms! Green Leaf Group is nothing but a lowly swamp that has stained a trace of our glory in the apocalypse. It should have been left to fend for itself in the storm! We have already shown you great kindness by sheltering you and bestowing upon you runes! It is your incompetence! You worthless trash! You have ruined the situation step by step until it is beyond redemption!"

The voice was full of contempt and impatience:
"Your lives and deaths are no longer worth the plane's continued attention! What matters is your last desperate struggle—that piece of trash created by forcibly burning fragments and mental power!"

The elder's cold mental fluctuations revealed a sharp mockery:
"Look what you've created! A deformed creature! A bloated one! A defective product that can't even coordinate basic dimensional traction, can't stand firm, and can only wait to die in place! It can't even take root in the earth and traverse mountains like a true ancient tree of war! Now it can only roll in the fiery grave you dug yourself! This is the ultimate desecration of the power of nature! A complete failure! You've squandered our precious heritage and only created a larger pile of firewood and a laughing stock!"

"Immature forces give birth to immature monsters—"

The elder's final conclusion was like a verdict:

"Your foolishness has ruined Green Leaf's last chance to survive and completely exhausted the remaining patience and investment of the plane!"

boom! ! !
Another massive branch, engulfed in raging flames, snapped off the ancient tree under the bombardment of the crossbows, producing a deafening roar.
It crashed heavily near the ruins of the treehouse where Yang Di was hiding, sending up a shower of sparks and a scorching shockwave!

The massive tremors caused the already crumbling house structure to collapse completely!
Yang Di was thrown by the blast wave, crashing hard into the charred wall before rolling to the ground.

The cold, cruel conclusion from the dimensional elder, the revealed fatal flaw that the ancient tree could not be moved, along with Shen Mu's mocking gaze from afar, were like countless red-hot steel knives, completely shredding his last nerves.

"Aaaaah—Shen Mu! Wood Elves! You damned bunch...you'll all die a horrible death! You'll all die a horrible death!!!"

From the ruins came no longer the roars of humans, but the chilling, broken, and mournful screams of a ferocious beast on its deathbed, a scream that compressed all its despair and resentment to the extreme.

The cold, cruel conclusion from the elder of the Wood Elf plane, the revealed fatal flaw that the ancient tree could not be moved, along with Shen Mu's mocking gaze from afar, were like countless red-hot steel knives, completely shredding his last nerves.

The roars emanating from the ruins were no longer those of humans, but rather the chilling, broken, and piercing screams of a ferocious beast on its deathbed, a scream that compressed all its despair and resentment to the extreme.

"Roar—!!!"

As if sensing that its core controller was on the verge of complete collapse, the ancient war tree let out an even more painful and frenzied roar. Its massive wooden body convulsed violently and fragments flew everywhere under the continuous bombardment of ballistae and rockets.

Just as Yang Di's shriek was about to be swallowed up by the boundless darkness and the excruciating pain in his body, the cold and powerful mental link representing the elder of the Wood Elf plane suddenly trembled once more!

This time, it wasn't just a reprimand; it even carried a hint of...urgency?

"Yang Di! Listen to me!"

The elder's icy mental fluctuations forcefully interrupted his wails, carrying an unquestionable command: "The plane is enraged, but you... have one last chance!"

Yang Di's shattered mind shuddered violently, as if struck by an electric current.

opportunity?

Is there still... a chance?!

His eye, which wasn't covered in blood, was wide open, shining with an extremely frantic yet morbidly hopeful light amidst the thick smoke of the ruins.

"Ha...haha...opportunity?" He squeezed out a hoarse, broken laugh, mixed with coughing up blood.

"Don't question it! You have no other way out!"

The elder's spiritual power, like a cold iron clamp, firmly locked onto his faltering consciousness, conveying a clear command: "Abandon your control over that inferior creation! Immediately, extract all the mental power accumulated within your lord's core! Without leaving a trace...integrate it into your own spiritual core!"

Yang Di was stunned.

Drain all the Lord's power?

Integrate into oneself?

That signifies the complete abandonment of control over the ancient war tree, and also the severing of the last remaining connection to this "territory" that is about to be utterly destroyed...

That enormous monster will immediately lose its last guiding power and turn into a purely ferocious beast!

What does the elder want to do?
"Then, turn on your 'Mind Beacon'! Use yourself as the coordinate point and turn it on to maximum power!"

The elder's command was unquestionable, filled with an oppressive force that forcibly suppressed any hesitation: "The dimensional portal needs precise location to lock onto you! This is the only way to save your life! Speed!"

"Mind Beacon... Coordinates... Help me?"

In Yang Di's chaotic thoughts, the last shred of survival instinct was suddenly gripped by the words "to save your life."

"What are you hesitating for?! Foolish! This is an order! Not a question for you to consider! It's an order to execute immediately!"

The elder's thoughts lashed at his mind like a whip, filled with extreme impatience and an anxiety that Yang Di had never felt before, an anxiety that almost made him lose his composure.

It was as if if they didn't act soon, they would miss out on something crucial!

No time!
Despair is like the final death warrant!
Yang Di's last shred of rationality was completely shattered.

He abruptly closed his eyes, like a drowning man grasping at the last straw, following the last connection between his soul and the Lord's core, and with his last bit of spiritual strength, he pulled hard!
Buzz—(End of Chapter)