Real Mount and Blade Game

His gaze swept quickly over the fifteen well-equipped warriors, riding tall warhorses, their faces dusty but their eyes sharp. A faint glimmer of hope ignited deep within his cloudy eyes: "Are there...are there really living people there?"

"Of course!" Batu's tone was resolute, trying to give these tormented people some confidence: "The fortress is to the west! We are soldiers under Lord Shenmu's command!"

“Shen Mu? I think I’ve heard that name before…” the man murmured, repeating the name. Clearly, the name might have been known among these exiles, bringing them a sense of awe.

“Those dark clouds,” Batel said bluntly, pointing to the seemingly unreachable target in the distance. “Do you know what that is? How much do you know?”

Mentioning the dark cloud sent a chill down the spines of the survivors, their fear instantly overshadowing any glimmer of hope, as if they had heard the most terrifying curse.

The gaunt man swallowed hard, his voice trembling with despair:
“That…that thing? Last month…around the time of the full moon, it suddenly appeared! In that direction…it seems…it seems to have emerged from that completely blackened 'black ground' further east of the ruins of Longcheng City, a place where even bone fragments dare not easily enter! At first, it was a little spot on the horizon, then it grew bigger and darker day by day, moving very slowly, like a pool of ink…”

“It was terrifying when it first came out!” a younger woman chimed in, her voice weak and almost tearful. “It was horrifying! So many… so many of those black, bony cavalrymen riding huge skeletal horses, they all burst out from under the clouds! There were so many more than I’d ever seen before! They were like madmen, running around everywhere, fighting each other, and… around here… there were so many around at night…”

As she spoke, she seemed to recall some terrible scene, and covered her face, sobbing softly.

“Yes, yes!” another man added, “After those dark cavalrymen came in, this place was like a boiling pot! They not only attacked those pale skeleton archers outside, but they also killed any living thing they saw... We have been hiding, afraid to move at night, and only dared to scavenge for something edible during the day..." He hunched over, as if the heavy fear had bent his back.

Batel, Batu, and Arslen exchanged a solemn look.

The scenes described by these survivors perfectly matched the information they had previously gathered about the fierce battle between the Ghostlight Dynasty and the Black Arrow Tower Dynasty, as well as the increasing number of Ghostlight Bone Armor Cavalry!
The area shrouded by this dark cloud is clearly a point of eruption or source of power for the Ghost Light Dynasty!
"We can't stay here any longer!" Batel looked at his compatriots, who were like walking corpses, and said decisively, "Go west! To the new Rivadin of Long City! Our castle! Lord Shenmu is there! The city walls are high and thick, and there are several thousand elite troops! There is food, clean water! We have weapons to deal with these bone fragments!" He waved his hand and pointed in the direction of the western fortress.

"To...Longcheng, to New Rivadin?" A struggle flashed in the survivors' eyes. The journey was long and fraught with danger; they were too weak.

“Yes! Go there and mention Lord Shen Mu’s name!” Batu nodded vigorously. He untied the half-full water pouch from his saddle and tossed it to the gaunt man: “Drink sparingly! Try to find secluded places to rest during the day and travel at night! Avoid places where skeletons are active or where dark clouds shroud the area! Your chance of survival lies in the fortress!”

Arslen dismounted and took out a few hard but filling dried meat patties from his food bag, distributing them to everyone: "Hang in there, we'll be saved when we get there!"

Receiving the water pouches and food, this insignificant aid felt like grasping at a last straw to the survivors. Muddy tears silently streamed down their faces, and the flame of survival was rekindled in their despair.

They bowed repeatedly to the fifteen cavalrymen, thanking them incoherently.

Batel watched their frail figures, staggering yet resolute, heading west, and felt a heavy weight in his heart.

He looked up again at the huge, motionless black cloud in the east, where the ominous aura seemed even stronger.

"Our objective remains unchanged!" He waved his hand sharply, his voice carrying the fierce and resolute tone typical of Khergit warriors: "Rest for half an hour, feed the horses water! Then full speed ahead! We'll find out the truth even if we have to bite our way through!"

After a brief rest, the fifteen Kujit bandits once again spurred their horses toward the enormous, seemingly solidified black cloud that loomed in the eastern sky.

The further east you go, the more the earth beneath your feet reveals its grotesque appearance, corrupted by the spirit world.

The desertification is far greater than in the outskirts of New Rivadin, where traces of civilization that once extended from the city of Rung can still be seen – a few sections of broken roadbeds, twisted and broken cable towers, or rusted car wrecks half-buried in the sand.

But they were all completely crushed and devoured by the violent power, and finally completely annihilated in the undulating, endless gray-yellow sand dunes.

The desert here is a pure, desolate, and hopeless desert, as if the earth has shed its last layer of flesh, leaving only a withered and decaying skeleton exposed to the wind and sand eroded by the rules of the spirit world.

The air became hotter and heavier, carrying an indescribable suffocating feeling, as if the deep soil had decayed and then been exposed to the scorching sun.

However, for the grassland bandits who have roamed the grasslands and deserts since childhood, this cursed flat desert has become a natural place to roam.

The Kujit warhorses' slender, sturdy hooves demonstrated remarkable adaptability to the soft sand. The pace of the column was not slowed down much by the sand; on the contrary, led by Batel, they moved like fifteen yellow gusts of wind, kicking up long plumes of dust as they charged toward their target with unwavering determination.

As the sun began to set, it painted the sky a fiery golden-red, making the thick, churning black clouds on the horizon appear like a massive stain spilled from the depths of hell, pressing heavily on the edge of the desert.

At this ambiguous moment when day and night are changing and the light is most unpredictable, the bandits galloping across the grasslands finally saw the scene at the root of the dark clouds!
"My God..." Batu's low exclamation was drowned out by the sound of hooves, but it clearly shook the nerves of everyone around him.

Beneath the deep black clouds that seemed to connect with the sky, stood a strange and eerie "castle"!
It was not built of rock or brick and wood, but was forcibly piled up and solidified from endless yellow sand and piles of pale bones!

Countless twisted, broken, and irregularly sized skeletons—human, wild, and even a mixture of the bones of some unidentifiable, enormous creature—were forcibly embedded in the cohesive sand, forming towering walls, crooked towers, and enormous arched portals.

The entire fortress exuded an aura of despair, a mixture of blood, charred remains, and the accumulated despair of countless years deep within the bones, sending chills down one's spine.

Thick, seemingly weightless gray mist swirled and billowed inside and outside the city walls, like the breath of this bone fortress, making its core area appear hazy in the twilight, with only the menacing outline of the city walls and the spires of several towering arrow towers vaguely discernible.

Strangely, the area surrounding this terrifying fortress built of undead power, beneath what should have been the most vibrant bone stronghold in the realm of the dead, was now eerily silent.

There were no wandering skeletons guarding the city walls, nor the massive arrow formations seen in the previous skirmish.

Where the dark clouds hung low, all was silent, like an empty ghost town. "Stop!" Batel, the leader, suddenly pulled on the reins and raised his right hand.

The fifteen well-trained grassland bandits pulled back their reins almost simultaneously, halting their charge. Only the crunching of hooves on the sand and the heavy breathing of the riders echoed in the suffocating silence.

We're only a few hundred steps away from the Bone Fortress!

Batel's heart pounded like a drum, and his sharp gaze swept across the road like a hawk's.

It’s too quiet, abnormally quiet!

This was no carelessness; it was more like the entrance to some kind of trap, its invisible jaws wide open, waiting for its prey to enter. His intuition was screaming a warning, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

“Batu, Arsleng, look…” Batel’s voice was very low, almost only he could hear it, but his eyes were fixed on the shadow where the thick black clouds and gray fog met above the fortress.

The other two followed his gaze.

In the dark gaps where thick fog and black clouds merged, they discovered that something seemed to be moving inside.

It wasn't a clear figure, but rather the deep darkness itself that was undergoing an extremely subtle and slow movement, like a slit inadvertently lifted between the eyelids of a sleeping behemoth as it closed.

An indescribable, cold, and destructive "gaze" descended from nowhere, like thousands of steel needles, piercing the soul of every bandit on the grasslands.

That feeling was intangible and formless, yet it was a hundred times more terrifying than the prying eyes of the ghostly green soul fire, striking directly at the deepest, most primal fears of the soul!
Batu couldn't help but shiver, his palms instantly covered in cold sweat as he gripped the scimitar.

Arslen, a seasoned and steady veteran, turned deathly pale in an instant.

This is not the kind of oppressive feeling that undead skeletons can possess!
It comes from a higher level, closer to... the rules of necromancy itself!
"Withdraw!" Batel's voice was hoarse from extreme vigilance, but it carried an undeniable determination!
That low growl was like unlocking the shackles of fear from everyone's hearts!
No hesitation!

Fifteen bandits from the grasslands turned their horses around in unison!
The battle-hardened Kujit warhorses sensed the aura emanating from the abyss and became extremely restless. Upon receiving the command to turn, they immediately unleashed their full potential, pawing the ground with all four hooves, kicking up clouds of dust, and galloping desperately toward New Rivadin in the west!
They were moving much faster than they had come!
This isn't about reconnaissance, it's about escaping for your life!

Everyone's adrenaline surged to its peak, and only one thought occupied their minds: get away from this fortress, get away from that terrifying gaze emanating from the depths of the dark clouds!
However, just as they had rushed forward a few dozen steps, leaving the sand and bone fortress behind—

"Creak—!"

A sharp, teeth-grinding sound, like rough bone rubbing against stone, suddenly came from behind!
That was the sound of the massive city gate being forcibly pushed open!
In the midst of his busy work, Batel glanced back and felt his blood almost run cold!

The massive, heavy archway of the White Bone Fortress, studded with countless jagged broken bones, suddenly burst open at the very moment of their hasty retreat.

Inside the city gate, thick gray fog surged and billowed out as if boiling. Then, a dozen tall figures shrouded in the churning, dense black fog shot out like black lightning bolts released from a bow!

They're skeleton riders!
Their mounts were not the skeletal remains of robust warhorses from their previous lives, but rather mutated skeletal monsters that were much larger, with thicker bones, terrifying claws, and burning with two points of eerie green soul fire!

The being riding on it was even more terrifying than any other ghostly bone armor cavalry I had ever seen before!

Their bone armor was an eerie, dark black, almost blending into the swirling black mist around them. The twisted runes on their surface flowed slowly like living things, radiating a destructive, chilling pressure.

The weapons they held aloft were no longer crude bone spears and knives, but much larger, ferocious giant blades or heavy hammers forged from black crystals and some kind of metallic skeleton, their surfaces shrouded in wisps of sulfurous charring.

What's most terrifying is their speed!

As soon as they rushed out of the city gate, the black mist that enveloped them instantly churned violently, transforming into a violent engine that propelled them forward!
Its speed suddenly increased several times, like a black comet flying close to the ground, stirring up a sandstorm more violent than the galloping Kujit warhorse, and with a ferocious momentum that could crush all living things, it launched a deadly charge towards the fifteen tiny yellow dots in front of it!

The shrill sound of the air being torn apart mingled with the rumble of the skeletal monster's heavy hooves pounding the earth, like the tolling of a death knell!
"Run! Run!!!" Batel roared, his eyes bloodshot, as he lashed his horse's rump with his whip.

Those dozen or so dark figures, shrouded in thick fog and an aura of destruction, were incredibly fast! In the blink of an eye, they closed the distance between the two sides!
"Spread out! Fire! Slow them down!" The veteran Arslan's experience came in handy at this moment, his roar carrying the ferocity inherent in the Khergit people. "Use cone-shaped arrows! Shoot their mounts!"

The instinct for survival and the fighting spirit were ignited simultaneously.

Without needing further instructions, the fleeing bandits scattered in all directions like blooming chrysanthemums.

Their failure to turn around and confront the enemy head-on was tantamount to suicide!

The Kujit's signature riding skills were on full display at this critical moment—these skilled warriors twisted their bodies with incredible fluidity, almost instinctive, while galloping at high speed!

"Crunch, crunch—" One after another, the Kujite compound shortbows were instantly drawn to their full length!

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!" Specially made cone-shaped arrows with tiny barbs shot off in an instant, propelled by the powerful force of their backs and waists! (End of Chapter)