Real Mount and Blade Game

The Abyss Undead Gnolls' charge suddenly became reckless, and Shen Mu ordered them to switch to a shield wall defense.

Thick, inky black mist surged towards the ashes of the undead legion, like a greedy maw devouring them.

Generals like Caranzo witnessed the soul fire drifting in the gray mist being instantly engulfed, and the black mist then rapidly expanded.

Shen Mu remained still, the thorny barrier standing like an insurmountable chasm in the blinding light—he had seen the abyss's true prey.

The twisted and enormous shadowy outline of the ancestral tomb entrance stood menacingly at the edge of the field of vision, but the heavily fortified assault group suddenly encountered unexpected resistance on the Ash Battlefield.

The previously chaotic cluster of abyssal wrecks suddenly vanished, replaced by hundreds and thousands of extremely twisted and grotesque abyssal undead gnolls.

Their bodies were much larger, their skeletons twisted beyond recognition, their muscles coiled with dark red abyssal matter like congealed blood, and the flames burning in their bare chests were no longer chaotic soul fires, but drops of viscous, writhing, seemingly conscious purplish-black abyssal cores.

The earth-shattering howls were no longer simply expressions of anger, but rather seemed to originate from the pain of a soul being torn apart and a fanatical loyalty to some power that was deeply ingrained and forcibly instilled.

These core guards, like a pack of hyenas smelling carrion, ignored the slowly advancing Seventh Dynasty skeleton formation and instead, with even greater force, stirred up a foul-smelling, rotting black whirlwind, roaring and recklessly rushing towards the flanks and front lines of Shen Mu's forces!
"Halt! Shields up! Thorn Barrier - Power Injection!" Shen Mu's voice instantly resounded through the "Tallinn" command network, echoing in the minds of every soldier in the assault group. It was cold, clear, and unwavering.

His figure on the command platform remained motionless, only the knuckles of his fingers gripping the sword hilt turned slightly white.

This unusual target itself reveals the chaos and urgency of the abyss's will—what are they afraid of? And for whom are they buying time?

The order to charge instantly transformed into an unwavering will to defend. The Swadian heavy infantry at the forefront halted abruptly, their massive tower shields crashing onto the scorched earth with a deafening clang of metal striking metal, and in an instant, a wall of steel, outlined by holy light, rose before them.

At the center of each tower shield, the runes drawn with the "blood of the gods" were fully activated by the Holy Tree Knights behind them, bursting forth with a blazing silver-white radiance. They intertwined with each other, and the phantoms of thorny vines clearly emerged in the light, spreading rapidly to form a light wall flowing with divine purification power—the "Thorn Barrier." The ultimate defensive form of this mobile sanctuary was urgently activated! The surging torrent of Abyssal gnolls crashed heavily into this indestructible light wall.

The sizzling sound of burning flesh mingled with the pungent smell of burning flesh.

The moment the charging abyssal gnoll crashed into the light barrier, the abyssal substance attached to its body evaporated like ice and snow, and its bones shattered into pieces under the intense purifying impact.

However, the purplish-black viscous substance in the core of those chest cavities boiled violently, unleashing an even more astonishing and sinister power, which allowed them to forcibly withstand the first wave of purification impact. With their forelimbs and claws covered with twisted bone spurs and rotten flesh, they gripped the light wall tightly, frantically biting and ramming it, and even self-destructing, spraying out large clumps of corrosive flesh in an attempt to contaminate the energy flow of the light wall.

The immense pressure was transmitted to the shield wall, causing each tower shield to tremble violently. The heavy infantrymen holding the shields had their hands split open, blood spilling from their mouths and noses, yet they still held on tightly.

"Vegia! Arc Scatter! Block frontal shockwaves!" Shen Mu's command was as precise as a blade.

The Vaegir archers calmly drew back their composite bows, which shimmered with ice runes. With a piercing sound of ice crystals forming, countless pale blue ice arrows drew elegant yet deadly arcs, plunging fiercely into the Abyssal Jackal horde at the rear of the charging wave.

*Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!* The body of the inferior corpse hit by the light arrow instantly exploded with a large amount of frozen flesh and ice crystals. The icy energy spread and stagnated in the crowded formation like a plague. Some of the Abyss Gnolls' joints were even frozen and sealed, and their movements suddenly stiffened like rusty gears, disrupting the rhythm of the surging torrent behind them.

"Rhodok! Heavy explosive crossbow! Five rapid-fire rounds! Clear the left flank of advancing minions!" Caranzo's urgent battle cry came from the right.

In the Rhodok position, the thick crossbow arms, accompanied by a huge mechanical twisting and friction sound, forcefully launched heavy metal arrows, enveloped in blazing light, into the air. Upon reaching their apex, guided by Shen Mu's data consciousness, they precisely struck a small group of elite Abyssal Gnolls on the left flank who had broken through the ice barrier and were attempting to flank the heavy infantry shield wall.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Five enormous balls of holy flame and shockwaves violently covered the area, the ground trembled and caved in, and rocks, flesh, bones, and weapons of abyssal monsters were thrown into the air.

In the charred crater, only wisps of black smoke and a pungent, burnt smell remained.

Several "Reaper"-class elites who attempted to threaten the light barrier from the flanks were torn to pieces before they could even swing their massive scythe-shaped bone claws.

However, the Abyss's offensive was not diminished in the slightest by these casualties.

The thick abyssal black mist did not rush towards Shen Mu's thorny barrier—the holy light, which was enough to instantly purify ordinary inferior beings, made the black mist instinctively avoid it—but instead, with an almost thirsty and incomparably greedy attitude, it surged even more fiercely towards the other side of the battlefield, where the Seventh Dynasty's skeleton legion, which was slightly weakened by Shen Mu's legion diverting its left flank forces!

At the heart of the battlefield, the energy laws revealed a chilling scene.

The abyssal black mist that permeated the surrounding area now resembled a living, dark swamp sludge, or countless hungry maws, frantically and actively crashing into and enveloping the desolate ashes of the undead legion.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only silent energy annihilation and terrifying engulfment. The moment the gray fog came into contact with the viscous, ink-like black fog, it immediately emitted a hissing sound, as if being corroded by strong acid. The boundaries of the fog instantly blurred, distorted, and caved inward.

The black mist greedily "torn" at the edges of the gray mist, and the gray energy streams that were torn off were like tiny streams, violently swept into the depths of the black mist, and then... disappeared!
Instead, the surging black mist, as if infused with nourishment, became even thicker and more condensed, its extent visibly expanding and spreading! Even more chilling were the scattered soul flames across the battlefield—

“Those…spots of light!” On the high platform of the ramparts, Bandak’s rough voice was filled with undisguised horror. One eye was pressed against the observation crystal tube, while the other eye was wide open in shock.

Looking in the direction he indicated, one could see that the pale green soul flames that leaped from the chests of the skeletal soldiers that had just been shattered or were about to be extinguished were not completely extinguished and dissipated before being tightly bound by the thick black mist that was spreading in!
As if drawn by an invisible magnetic force, wisps of faint green light struggled violently but could not escape. They screamed as they were forcibly pulled out of the bone fragments and stretched, like water droplets sucked by a straw, and swiftly disappeared into the center of that boundless dark vortex.

Each inhalation of a soul flame caused the nearby core of the black mist to churn even more violently, like the beating of a strong heart, releasing an even more terrifying pressure—a pure "evolutionary greed," endless, with the sole purpose of devouring and strengthening itself.

As the black mist frantically plunders the energy and soul fire of the undead legion, the entire battlefield environment is rapidly deteriorating.

The direction of the ancestral tomb, which was originally quite clear, began to become blurry and distorted, as if space itself was trembling under the influence of the gluttonous black mist core.

The ash particles permeating the air were given a new form. They swirled around the surging black mist, condensing into countless tiny yet sharp prisms that spun and cut wildly with the rhythm of the black mist.

Several mid-ranking knights on the edge of the Holy Tree Knights, responsible for maintaining the resonance of the light barrier, were emitting a faint metallic scraping sound from their rune armor—the crystal dust was cutting through the holy energy flowing across their armor at high speed!

The smell of ashes and decay was completely replaced by an intense, suffocating stench of blood.

This smell does not come from actual bloodshed, but rather from the deep desecration of rules and the forced corruption of energy, a sweet and pungent stench that pierces the very depths of the soul.

It is all-pervasive, penetrating the light blocking the thorny ramparts and spreading into the gaps in the formation of the rampart assault group.

The weaker reserve infantrymen began to turn pale, cold sweat beaded on their foreheads, their breathing became rapid and labored, and a hint of indescribable madness even surfaced in their eyes.

Fortunately, the powerful chanting of the Holy Tree Knights and the elves, along with the natural resonance, is still stubbornly dispelling this influence.

In the air behind the barrier, the light and shadow twisted strangely. The undead bone fragments, which should have been silent, emitted an even more piercing and eerie friction sound after the thick black mist passed by, as if countless tiny bones were being pieced together by an invisible force.

They struggled to stand up again, their eyes no longer filled with the fire of the soul, but with two smaller, more chaotic abyssal sparks burning with the instinct of greed—these were simply the abyssal servants, born from the abyss forcibly plundering energy and remnants of will from the undead, and being born in reverse, a lower level of chaos but fearless of death!

"General!" Caranzo's voice came through the communication network, unusually urgent due to the illogical "transformation" before him. "The left flank of the skeleton formation has collapsed! The black mist is devouring them!"

He pointed to the other end of the battlefield. The Seventh Dynasty's skeletal legions were putting up the fiercest resistance in that area, and at the heart of their defenses, a sizable phalanx of black iron skeleton swordsmen was being surrounded by abyssal elites and newly formed minions several times their size.

Countless rotten claws clashed wildly with broken and rusted black iron weapons, sparks flying everywhere.

The swordsmen's cold, burning soul flames were steady and resolute; each swing utterly crushed any enemy that lunged at them.

However, an invisible strangulation was also underway. The surging, thick black mist, like a viscous asphalt waterfall, heavily covered the area of ​​intense combat, ignoring the flying bone fragments and weapon shards below.

Wisps of pure gray mist, mixed with the lingering embers of soul fire scattered across the battlefield, were relentlessly and violently drawn upwards by this greedy black cloud!

The necromantic ash fog in that area was rapidly thinning and dimming!
The "Death Domain" that supports the existence of the Skeleton Legion is being forcibly stripped of its foundation! Without the support of their own battlefield domain power, the Skeleton Swordsmen's movements have become noticeably sluggish, and the power of their sword swings is far less than before.

At the edge of the formation, a high-ranking skeletal swordsman was wielding his sword with all his might, cleaving a crack in the massive bone claw of an Abyssal Corrupted Giant Skeleton Gnoll. His movements were fluid and deadly.

But when the black mist covering the sky suddenly intensified its suction force, and an exceptionally dense core gray energy was drawn from the swordsman's body, the high-level swordsman's movements suddenly froze, as if some key balance that maintained the subtle control within his entire skeleton had been instantly broken!
In that instant of stiffness, another, slightly smaller, elite abyssal gnoll suddenly pounced out from the shadows to its left, its massive maw, covered in purplish-black slime, bit down hard on the bone joint of the skeletal swordsman's arm holding the sword!
Boom!

A sharp, teeth-grinding cracking sound rang out clearly.

The sturdy arm bone snapped in response, and the black iron greatsword he was holding clattered to the ground! Despite losing an arm, the skeletal swordsman still tried to fight back with his remaining arm bone, but the soul fire in his chest cavity, which represented the source of his power and the foundation of his existence, became flickering and dim as it was frantically sucked and eroded by the black mist after losing the protection of the domain's power!

At this critical moment when its power was waning and its foundation was crumbling, a pale bone spear, shrouded in a heavy aura of death, shot out from nowhere, like a venomous snake that had been waiting for a long time, and pierced precisely through the core of its sternum!

puff!
That core soul fire, representing the origin of existence and originally powerful and resilient, flickered violently a few times like a candle in the wind. Finally, under the impact of the corrosive power attached to the bone spear, it unwillingly shattered into a cluster of pale green fireworks, which were frantically and instantly swept away and devoured by the black mist that had been waiting impatiently all around!

The skeleton swordsman's entire frame, like building blocks stripped of their core, clattered to the ground.

Just as the core of the high-level skeletal swordsman was destroyed, the concentration of gray fog in the entire area suddenly dropped by a large margin.

The edge of the Black Iron Skeleton Swordsman formation where it was located seemed to have been torn open by an invisible giant hand.

Behind them, the abyssal servants, those inferior creations spawned by the black mist using the remains of the dead as "raw materials," were emitting strange, incomprehensible cries, like ants swarming to the spot where blood had been smelled, frantically and eagerly pouring in through the collapsed breach!

"Halt! Maintain defense! Swadians, take turns resting to ensure the frontal shield wall remains stable! Reinforce the middle layer of the Holy Tree with Holy Power Resonance! Vaegir, suspend Arcane Scattering and prioritize energy supply to the core nodes of the Thorn Barrier! Khergit Rangers, tighten the circular defensive perimeter and maintain vigilance on the inner lines! Keep the formation intact! No unit may step into the melee area without my personal permission!"

Shen Mu's command was once again transmitted coldly and clearly through the "Tallinn" network. His voice was as steady as a ten-thousand-year-old glacier, completely extinguishing the urge to launch an attack that had almost burst forth from the hearts of Caranzo and the others due to the collapse of the skeleton formation.

He sat high on the command platform, his gaze piercing through the flickering light of the thorny barrier and the chaotic, bloody battlefield ahead, locking onto the core area where the abyssal black mist and the necromantic gray mist clashed most fiercely.

There, the intertwining of black and gray resembled two chaotic pythons locked in a relentless struggle, devouring each other. Each collision resulted in the annihilation of energy, and each devouring was accompanied by the unsettling, ever-powerful pulsating echo of the black mist.

In that chaotic and turbulent place, deep within the core of the ruins of Longcheng, behind the enormous shadowy outline of the entrance to the ancestral tomb, a greedy aura of immense, suffocating power, originating from an ancient evil will, seemed to have become even stronger and more... insatiable after absorbing this tragic "nourishment"!
Shen Mu's lips curled into a cold smile, like a hunter finally identifying the prey's most fatal weakness.

“Erien!” His voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly pierced through the entire noisy battlefield, carrying an undeniable force of will. It struck a relatively intact hill at the edge of the battle, where a necromancer was floating, observing the battle. “Tell your ‘Black Emperor’ Anhe! If he continues like this, he’s not fighting the Abyss, but feeding the Abyss’s core, ‘Shadow of Yenogu’! It will prematurely transform and devour everything—including the divine remains he himself tried to touch! I need an explanation, now!”

On the hilltop, Erion's figure, shrouded in a layer of grayish-white semi-transparent mist, suddenly froze.

His eerie green vortex-shaped eye sockets contracted sharply, and his withered face seemed to tighten even more because of Shen Mu's direct and to-the-point question, like a taut, cracked plaster statue.

He remained silent for several breaths, and deep within his empty, swirling eyes, it seemed that invisible information was crossing space and engaging in a fierce exchange with his distant sovereign.

A moment later, an even stronger, almost materialized will of hatred erupted from his soul, no longer directed at Shen Mu, but directly at the churning abyss!

“Shen Mu… your eyesight is like a blade.” Arian’s hoarse, grating voice carried an unprecedented urgency and a kind of fury after being forcibly exposed, as if every word was burning his soul. He suddenly raised his bony right hand and pointed it directly at the core of the abyss in front of him, where the black mist was the thickest and the greedy pulse was constantly reverberating!
“Yes! The dead undead legion… is not just nourishment! Its remaining 'order' imprints were used as fuel to ignite the source of the evil god! And the power of our ash source… is being forcibly absorbed by that thing, accelerating the ignition of the 'Wolf God's Resentment Flame' deep within the remains of the ancient god Yeno! Once it completely ignites the core of the last remaining divine remains… we…”

boom----! ! ! !

Before Ereen could finish roaring out the core secret, the viscous black mist in the center of the battlefield suddenly erupted into an unprecedentedly violent upheaval!

It was like a sea of ​​lava that had been brewing for millions of years erupting in an instant!

A terrifying beam of light, so pure it was almost viscous and dripping, somewhere between pitch black and murky dark purple, suddenly shot up from the core of the central vortex, tearing through the churning black and red clouds and piercing the dark sky!

An indescribable, terrifying pressure, filled with endless greed, thirst, destruction, and absolute hatred for all things, crashed down from the sky like billions of tons of invisible lead!
hum!
The light wall of the thorny barrier instantly emitted a sharp, mournful cry, unable to bear the weight any longer!

The Swadian heavy infantry at the front were struck as if by a heavy hammer. Most of them fell to their knees with a thud, spitting blood from the corners of their mouths. The arms supporting the tower shields trembled violently and made a tooth-grinding sound of bones grinding together!

The Holy Tree Knights, who were maintaining the resonance of the barrier, collectively groaned, their faces as pale as paper!

"withstand!"

Shen Mu's voice was like tempered steel, shattering the heavy gloom that shrouded his heart, and carrying a chilling and resolute feeling of finally approaching the ultimate truth.

Beneath his feet, the entire fortified barrier resonated with energy nodes transmitted from the earth, like the heartbeat of a reviving beast.

Behind him, the runic halo representing the core of the Thorn Barrier spun wildly in reverse at an unprecedented speed, converging and condensing all the scattered holy light energy into the most solid and dense state.

The light reached its peak amidst the piercing energy shriek, as if a silver-white sun was born in front of the barrier!

Deep within Shen Mu's pupils, all that remained was the distant, viscous, nauseatingly purplish-black pillar of light soaring into the sky, and at its source, the ultimate source of calamity buried deep within the ancestral tomb, being ignited by the combined forces of a greedy abyssal will and the resentment of the ancient wolf god—

"Thorn Barrier! Maximize! Rule Infusion, Divine Protection! Holy Tree Knights—Radiant Resonance Array at its limit! Rhodok! All Energy Core Heavy Crossbows, prepare for overload 'Barrier-Breaking Piercing Load'! Give me a point! I need a point that can tear through its filthy shell!"

His commands, supported by the core energy network of the barrier, were like invisible blades, piercing into the depths of every soldier's consciousness.

Shen Mu placed his left hand on the seemingly ancient longsword scabbard at his waist. The scabbard was icy cold, and the sword intent inside vibrated and hissed wildly, waiting for the moment of thunderous strike!

The final clash has begun, fangs bared, and the Shadow Hunter has already drawn his bowstring taut at the eye of the storm. (End of Chapter)