Real Mount and Blade Game

On the ashes-covered battlefield to the west of the fortified stronghold, the fierce battle has devolved into a boiling quagmire.

The torrent of Abyssal wrecks and undead gnolls relentlessly assaulted the last line of defense of the Seventh Dynasty's Black Iron Legion.

The "Black Arrow Tower" skeletal infantry phalanx at the forefront was being fiercely attacked by the undead gnolls burning with abyssal flames. Their bones shattered, their shield walls twisted, and their formation, like rotten wood being smashed by a giant hammer, was crooked and on the verge of complete collapse.

The dim, eerie green flames in the skeletal soldier's eye sockets flickered violently as he mechanically and desperately wielded his rusted weapons, yet he could hardly resist the evil tidal wave carrying sulfur and hatred.

Each impact of the abyss's claws was accompanied by the silent disintegration of skeletal infantry.

The ear-piercing sound of bones cracking was drowned out by the deafening roars and the booming of colliding energy on the battlefield.

Thanks to the skeletal archers and feathered skeletal archers left behind by the Seventh Dynasty, who are still fighting tenaciously behind the infantry lines and in the sky!
The soul fire in their eye sockets is steady and cold, their withered arms draw back ancient bone bows, or they hover with their feathered bone wings flapping.

Dense barrages of bone arrows and energy bolts, carrying the aura of decay and death, rained down from behind and from the sky like a torrential downpour.

This "rain of bone arrows," composed of pure death energy, temporarily halted the advance of the Abyssal Scourge and the undead gnolls.

The whistling arrows tore through the pervasive black mist of the abyss, precisely piercing the crystalline core of the grotesque skeleton's eye sockets and shattering the gnoll's burning limbs.

The momentum of the charge was forcibly halted. Many of the abyssal monsters at the forefront were riddled with bullets and fell onto the "corpse piles" of skeleton infantry on the front line, turning into twisted bone fragments and dissipating black and red energy.

It was only through the continuous suppression of this death rain from the rear and the air that the precarious skeletal infantry line managed to barely maintain its last breath and avoid a sudden, catastrophic rout.

Shen Mu stood atop the fortified command platform, his icy will taking in every inch of the battlefield through the "Sentinel's Eye" spell.

He witnessed the horrific losses suffered by the skeletal infantry, saw the Abyss minions charging fearlessly under a hail of arrows, and even more keenly sensed that within the gray mist at the heart of the battlefield ahead, which had become even more concentrated due to the abyss's fierce winds, the enormous and terrifying "skeleton giant shadow" was taking shape!
"General! The Seventh Dynasty's infantry is about to collapse!" A wood elf technician urgently reported the changes in the scanned energy readings. "The intensity of the Abyss Impact is still increasing!"

Shen Mu's gaze never left the churning ashes at the heart of the battlefield.

His voice was calm and resolute, piercing through the clamor atop the ramparts: "Maintain the status quo. All ranged firepower outside the perimeter, do not initiate attacks. Have Legolas focus on locking onto 'that thing's' energy fluctuations."

Just as he finished speaking—

"Roar--!!!"

A roar far more ancient and colder than the howl of a wolf in the abyss, filled with endless resentment and a destructive will, suddenly erupted from the condensed core of gray mist!

With this roar that shook the entire battlefield, the sky-covering ashes were dispersed as if by an invisible giant hand!
A colossal skeletal monster has appeared!

It far surpasses any gnoll, its skeleton as majestic as a mountain, with massive, decaying, and broken bone armor draped over its twisted spine.

Its head was enormous, with two wildly spinning, furnace-like, eerie green flames in its eye sockets, constantly spewing out thick, necromantic smoke.

Its body is forcibly fused together from countless skeletal warriors and even broken war weapons, filled with a raw, violent, and pure death power.

This is the embodiment of the Seventh Dynasty's death essence and boundless resentment, the most intense resistance against the abyss's plundering!

As Shen Mu observed, the moment the giant skeletal shadow took shape, the pitch-black red pillar supporting the End Wolf Shadow, which originated from the core of the Longcheng ruins, suddenly trembled violently, as if it had been pulled hard by a tremendous force!
The giant shadow's hollow eyes locked onto the burning gnolls who were slaughtering the Black Arrow Tower infantry.

It has no weapons; its mountain-like giant claws are the most terrifying battering rams!
The next instant, the giant skeletal shadow moved!

It strides along its enormous legs, which are made of countless twisted and pieced-together bones, each step causing the earth to tremble and crushing swathes of wreckage.

Ignoring the abyssal flames that were slashing at it, its massive bone claws, imbued with necromantic power capable of tearing through space, swept fiercely toward the densest frontline of the gnolls!
boom--! ! !
Like a storm passing by!

The undead gnolls, burning with black and red flames, were swept away like fragile dolls in an instant, disintegrating and exploding in mid-air.

The pressure on the skeletal infantry line suddenly eased!
But what followed was the shockwave of deathly ashes from the charge of the skeletal giant, which sent the remaining skeletal infantry staggering about.

The Seventh Dynasty's skeletal archers, who had been frantically suppressing the Abyss and maintaining their infantry lines, were instantly thrown into chaos by the sudden appearance of this colossal shadow, whose allegiance was unclear and who could not distinguish friend from foe.

The frequency and intensity of the arrow rain decreased significantly.

The stalemate on the battlefield has been completely broken!
On the watchtower of the fortress, Shen Mu's eyes suddenly sharpened like an eagle's! The variable he had been waiting for had arrived!

"Signal! Highest priority! Swadian Heavy Cavalry! Target: Right flank of the Skeleton Giant's assault axis! Cut off the follow-up Abyss Cluster! Holy Tree Knights, prepare to move! Ballistae positions—full power! Cover the fan-shaped area in front of the Skeleton Giant! Blast a path through it!"

A series of instructions were issued precisely, like cold, ironclad laws.

Inside and outside the fortress, the cold torrent of steel began to rumble heavily, and the sound of bowstrings being pulled piercingly rang out!
The fisherman began to tighten his net.

The real storm is brewing amidst this upheaval!

A high-priority signal flare tore through the battlefield. Shen Mu's voice echoed through the ramparts via a megaphone array: "Heavy Cavalry Group—Wedge Array, Crush the Path!"

The Swadian heavy cavalry, which had already assembled inside the fortress, roared out like a silent torrent of steel the moment the gates opened.

They precisely bypassed the scattered gnolls still tearing apart the remnants of the Seventh Dynasty's infantry formation, and like a red-hot iron plow, fiercely chiseled into the vacuum zone on the right flank swept out by the shockwave of the skeletal giant.

The heavy steel hooves trampled the earth, completely pulverizing the scattered wreckage and fragments of black iron bones, opening a wide path of death for the following troops.

Closely following behind was the most dazzling and deadliest silver storm on the battlefield—the Holy Tree Knights.

Instead of engaging the giant skeletal shadow head-on, they moved like a nimble silver lightning bolt, precisely guided by Shen Mu's will, and rushed straight towards the flank and rear of the Abyss swarm that was being reinforced by the End Wolf Shadow.

The mithril sword gleamed with holy flames more intense than those of Tarin, and the steel lance was imbued with purifying runes that tore through the darkness. Against these abyssal minions, fresh from the black mist and not yet fully arrayed, the Holy Tree Knights' wedge-shaped charge was utterly devastating.

Each swing of the sword, each piercing, was accompanied by the violent evaporation of the abyssal filth in the holy flames and a shrill scream.

At the same moment, Shen Mu's cold command rang out from above the fortress: "Forestwood Fortress, target sector—saturation purification!"

"Release!" The commander's roar had barely faded when the sky behind the fortress, in the direction of the Forest Wood Fortress, was suddenly torn apart by a dense barrage of sharp sounds.

Dozens of heavy root spears and crossbow bolts, gleaming with emerald life runes and imbued with the purifying energy temporarily overloaded by the Holy Light Tower Forest, traced deadly parabolic trajectories, precisely covering the fan-shaped area directly in front of the skeletal giant shadow—an area cleared by the shockwave and now teeming with scattered enemies.

The violent explosion, mixed with the shockwave of holy light and the power of nature, not only completely reduced that area to dust, creating a temporary dust-free zone, but also had a strong disturbance and dissolving effect on the necromantic gray mist that enveloped the giant skeletal figure itself.

The timing of this deadly firepower was absolutely perfect.

The powerful wedge charge of the Swadian heavy cavalry forcefully cut off the path of the Abyss's follow-up forces toward the Bone Giant.

The Holy Tree Knights' thunderous flanking attack shattered the last hope of the Abyssal Gnolls and the Burning Life Demon Soldiers to regroup their remaining forces.

The saturation bombardment of Senmu Fortress instantly cleared away the vulnerable "shield" in front of the skeletal giant, providing an unobstructed path for the heavy cavalry to advance, while simultaneously disrupting the giant's own energy stability. The battlefield was instantly reversed!

Although the energy of the Holy Light Tower Forest is being consumed, its light barrier remains stable thanks to the continuous supply from the Faith Overload Protocol, isolating it from powerful interference from the core dark domain.

Having lost its primary target in the Abyss Impact and having its connection with subsequent forces severed by the heavy cavalry, the newly born skeletal behemoth, radiating overwhelming resentment and deathly power, instantly found itself in an extremely isolated and awkward situation.

Shen Mu stood on the high platform, his cold gaze piercing through the chaotic battlefield and locking onto the core of the giant shadow: "The catch has been found, now—close the net!"

With his whispered command, the mithril greatswords of the Holy Tree Knights, forged as if by the gods, gleamed with a light capable of purifying the abyss and tearing apart the souls of the dead. They began to turn their sharpness, joining forces with the Swadian steel torrent that crushed everything. Like two peerless blades, they were about to launch a decisive and deadly encirclement against the chaotic giant shadow and the remaining minions of the abyss.

When the clam and the crane fight, the fisherman who benefits has already revealed his most deadly edge.

The giant skeletal shadow, strangled by the light arrows and iron torrents, roared deafeningly under the dual assault of saturation bombardment and heavy cavalry charge, its thick skeletal limbs breaking apart inch by inch in the scorching holy flames.

The Holy Tree Knight's mithril greatsword cleaved through the rolling gray mist, and the Swadian heavy cavalry's steel torrent completely crushed the Abyssal Reinforcements' flank.

The abyssal gnolls in the center of the battlefield collapsed after losing their leader, falling in droves like stalks of wheat cut down by a scythe.

Shen Mu stood on the command platform, his cold voice piercing through the battlefield's clamor: "Swadian infantry phalanx, advance and mop up!"

The heavily fortified gates were suddenly flung open.

Tier 3 light infantry, wielding leathered round shields, formed skirmish lines and surged towards the edge of the battlefield like a tidal wave, their short spears precisely piercing the skulls of the struggling, fallen ghouls; Tier 4 infantry formed an impenetrable wall of tower shields, their warhammers smashing the kneecaps of the ghouls attempting to retaliate; Tier 5 soldiers, clad in chainmail, wielded their greatswords in silver whirlwinds, leaving a trail of dismembered limbs and blood in their wake. The muffled thud of iron boots on the scorched earth became the final death knell for the minions of the abyss.

"Elf Forest, remote coverage!" Shen Mu issued another command.

The fortified city walls instantly transformed into walls of death.

The Rhodok crossbows rang out with a mechanical clang.

The armor-piercing arrows of the fifth-tier sniper crossbowmen pierced the gnoll crystal cores, the steel arrow storm of the fourth-tier heavy crossbowmen pinned the skeletal cavalry to the scorched earth, and the third-tier guerrilla archers used poisoned crossbow bolts to pick off fleeing lone survivors.

The Vigia bowstring tore through the air.

The fifth-tier archer's heavy bow fired meteor-like arrows of holy light, precisely detonating the abyssal demonic energy within the gnoll; the fourth-tier archer's rain of arrows blotted out the sun, pinning the remaining black iron skeletons into a hedgehog; and the third-tier guerrilla archer's swift volleys completely blocked the monster's escape route to the west.

The battlefield has become a one-way slaughterhouse.

The heavy infantry's ironclad lines advanced steadily, driving the fleeing troops into the death cross of long-range firepower.

The gnoll's burning crimson ray was blocked by the shield wall, and the fragments of the disintegrating skeletal giant were blasted into dust by the ballistae.

On the scorched earth, the blood and bone fragments of the abyss sizzled and evaporated under the rain of holy arrows, and the stench of sulfur was gradually replaced by the smell of burning.

Shen Mu's gaze remained fixed on the Western Black Domain.

The blood-red pupils of the final wolf shadow flickered in the thick fog, as if brewing an even more terrifying storm.

"Clean up the battlefield and retrieve the purification crystal cores." He turned around, his hand on his sword, his voice like tempered iron: "The next assault... won't be long."

The runes of the Holy Light Torch Tower within the fortress suddenly blazed brightly, illuminating the entire battlefield as if it were daytime—a final proclamation of light before darkness descended.

The clamor of the battlefield came to an abrupt halt.

Deep within the core of the far west's dark domain, a long, drawn-out wolf howl, filled with rage and a sense of utterly failed calculation, ripped through the deathly silence.

This roar was like an invisible decree. The abyssal wrecks and undead gnolls, who had been frantically attacking the remnants of the fortified wall and entangled with the skeletal remains of the Seventh Dynasty, instantly broke away like a tide. They abandoned the broken bones and filthy remains of their kind, turned without hesitation, and merged into the pervasive black mist, retreating rapidly towards the core of the dark domain.

Almost at the same time, the oppressive feeling coming from the direction of Longcheng Ash Hills suddenly weakened.

The eerie green soul flames flickering in the eyes of the remaining Seventh Dynasty Black Iron Skeleton soldiers flashed violently, seemingly restrained by some force or self-preservation instinct.

Their massive, yet scarred, skeletal shadows let out a low, unwilling growl, ignoring the retreating abyssal minions. Dragging their enormous bodies, they carried the remaining skeletal soldiers along with them, slowly sinking into the ever-thickening ash and dust behind them like a shipwreck, until they finally disappeared.

An eerie silence fell over the battlefield. Only the crackling of the still-burning holy flames and the cautious sounds of the purification crystal core recovery team could be heard. The soldiers' tense nerves subconsciously relaxed a little, and fatigue washed over them like a tide. Some warriors even couldn't help but cheer softly.

But this tranquility, in Shen Mu's eyes, was more dangerous than the previous battle. His deep gaze pierced through the thinning black mist, locking firmly on the western side where the Shadow of the End Wolf was located.

The forcibly suppressed will to destroy did not disappear; instead, it accumulated and compressed in the deeper darkness, like the eye of a storm about to explode.

"They've retreated, General!" a general reported with a barely perceptible hint of excitement.

"Retreat?" Shen Mu's voice was devoid of any warmth, yet it clearly echoed on the suddenly silent command platform. "The abyss has never 'retreated,' it is merely adjusting its devouring fangs."

The undead legions did not cease hostilities; they merely licked their wounds, plotting their next revenge. The receding of these two severely weakened forces left not a safe haven, but a vacuum brewing an even more terrifying storm.

He turned abruptly, his command falling like a hammer, leaving no room for argument:

"Disarm the attack sequence and enter the highest level of defense alert! Tarlin's detection mode is at full power, scanning the entire frequency band for coordinates of Abyssal backflow and undead lurking. The light curtain range of each Holy Light Torch Tower is the front line!"

"Recycle and purify the crystal cores to accelerate battlefield cleanup! All remaining filth must be thoroughly purified immediately by the engineering team in cooperation with the Wood Elf Druids, so as not to provide a breeding ground for the remnants of the Abyss or the undead."

"Frontline troops are on rotation, reserves are in place, heavy firepower positions are being loaded and ready to fire! Swadian heavy cavalry and the Knights of the Sacred Tree are withdrawing to the fortress for rest but remain on standby. Rhodok sergeants are reinforcing the outer foundation wall, all ranged units are being rotated for resupply to ensure full fire coverage for the next firing window!"

"Expand the surveillance range of the 'Sentinel's Eye'! Legolas, pay special attention to the energy 'sedimentation' and 'vortex' deep within the core of the Black Domain and at the edge of the Ash Hills. Report any distortion of the rules immediately."

"The Abyss will not wait for us to recover, nor will the undead be content to remain silent. The real battle has only just begun."

The order, like ice water flowing over the ramparts, instantly extinguished the last glimmer of hope in the soldiers' hearts.

The atmosphere that had just relaxed on the ramparts tightened again, like a bowstring taut at its fullest. The light of the Holy Light Torch Tower shone even brighter against the dim sky, and the runes at its top scanned the dangerous void at full speed.

The soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, their gazes sharpening and turning cold once more.

The fortified walls stand tall on the battlefield, where the smoke of battle has not yet cleared, like a silent beacon.

Shen Mu, the ruthless leader, pierced through the brief calm, his gaze fixed on the dark vortex in the west, a symbol of destruction and devouring—the eye of the storm was gathering, and the next impact would surely be the final, all-out, deadly strike that the Shadow of the End had been brewing for a long time.

Inside and outside the walls, only the cold light of warning silently proclaims.

The battle is far from over. (End of Chapter)