Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 61 [The Tacticians]

Bang!

The tip of the scythe slid down like a crescent moon, and with a powerful and heavy blow, it forcefully pierced through the Corpse Knight's bronze shield and cleaved it in two!

The cadaver in the bell-shaped helmet raised his sword, assumed a backhand [luring thrust stance], and thrust the tip of the sword diagonally toward the throat of the scythe reaper.

The chainmail reaper wearing a Collins-style helmet neither dodged nor evaded. He swung his giant scythe down sharply, slamming it diagonally downwards. It hooked the Corpse Knight's body through the gap between the shoulder armor and the breastplate, and with a fierce pull, used his necromantic strength to forcefully retract the scythe, severing the Corpse Knight's sword-wielding arm.

The severed limbs and the knight's sword fell to the ground together, and in the next instant, the corpse knight was hooked by the scythe and his head was instantly cut off, and the bell-shaped helmet fell to the ground.

Rahador dispatched more than twenty chainmail reapers, who, while Samael was dealing with Prange on the southern border, quickly infiltrated the interior of the High Grass Plain, broke through the sword and shield knights' lines, and launched a fierce attack on the center of the plain.

However, his true form did not join the battle. He simply leaned lazily on his giant scythe, one hand holding the scythe shaft and the other resting on the back of the scythe, quietly watching the battle between the Reapers and the Sword and Shield Knights from the border line.

"Twenty-three," he murmured.

"The carrion worms, parasitizing and tearing at flesh, destroyed twenty-three..."

Clang! The heavy, massive scythe hooked onto the knight's sword, pulling the sword-and-shield knight from his hand. The scythe then hooked onto his left leg.

Although it failed to sever the leg armor, it tripped the sword and shield knight to the ground and then delivered a vicious scythe strike, the tip of which pierced through the bell-shaped helmet.

“Self-destruction, acid bombs, acid corrosion, eliminate twenty-one…” Rahador slowly turned the sharp fingertips of his gauntlets, the Nether Bronze joints colliding slightly, making a soft clicking sound. “Oh, right, there are also five heavy armored idiots with hammers and shields.”

Two sword-and-shield knights crossed their swords, back to back, raised their shields, and assumed the "blade-counter stance" in an attempt to block the reaper's scythe.

The Reapers tore off their dark bronze chainmail, and from beneath the tattered armor, dozens of fleshy tentacles inlaid with dark bronze blades burst forth, lashing wildly at the sword-and-shield knight.

Under this terrifying flurry of high speed, destructive power, and high density, the [Blade Counter Stance] could only barely block one or two slashes. Then the knight's sword was frantically struck by the Nether Bronze Blade until it was out of his hand, and the shield was slashed wildly, instantly becoming covered in wounds.

The sword and shield knight raised his shield and slammed it into the ground with a powerful shoulder charge from the [Lion Fighter] technique.

However, such an impact is too slow and is only suitable for clumsy, large enemies, or for taking advantage of the opponent's distraction to launch a surprise attack and catch the unsuspecting enemy off guard.

The chainmail-clad corpse demons, undistracted and without armor, moved nimbly and gracefully, darting about like giant snakes, dodging a series of attacks.

The giant scythe was raised high and swung down fiercely, drawing a crescent-shaped arc of light as it fell from above the shield. The sharp, raptor-like scythe tip struck the sword-and-shield knights' wrists precisely, severing their shield-holding hands, and the shields fell to the ground.

With a flash of bronze light, a third hand, spliced ​​onto the chainmail corpse demon, emerged from its chest, gripping a small curved scythe.

With a backhand flick of his scythe, Xiao Qushen's curved blade landed firmly on the neck of the Corpse Knight, hooking its throat and pulling it to the ground. His serpentine body pressed down on it, and his two giant scythes pounded down relentlessly, smashing the helmet and half of the breastplate flat.

"Swamp troll, breaching and charging, killed nineteen...nineteen fast-moving unarmored scimitar undead."

In just a few dozen seconds, eight sword and shield knights had been cleanly and efficiently destroyed.

"Twenty-three... plus twenty-six... plus nineteen..."

"Sixty-eight? No, no, we just added fourteen swords and shields, so it's fifty-four." Rahado chuckled. "Fifty-four, plus eight... sixty-two."

Another Corpse Knight stepped forward, but the moment he raised his shield, two Reapers on either side raised their scythes and hooked them around his waist.

"Sixty-two, plus one more..." He lazily gazed at the rotting knight who was being chained by two reapers with scythe hooks.

The next instant, the two chainmail reapers simultaneously yanked hard on the scythe handles, and the Corpse Knight was cut in half by the scythe blades. The upper half crawled a few meters with difficulty, and the bell-shaped helmet on its head was pierced hard by the tip of the scythe.

“Sixty-three,” Rahado whispered.

Rahado's fighting style is exceptionally ferocious and clean. He incapacitates his opponents by rapidly destroying their limbs and inflicting massive wounds, severing limbs, causing them to lose their balance, and damaging parts of their bodies. He uses attacks to neutralize attacks, and after succeeding, he immediately delivers a fatal blow.

clang!clang!clang!
Samael's sword hilt struck the shield, and amidst the resounding commands of sword and shield, and the ear-piercing sound of claws scratching at the grass, thirteen heavily armored undead cavalry riding flesh crawlers emerged from behind the undead temple in the center of the high grass plains, raised their heavy bronze lances, and began to charge at Rahador's reaper formation!
The Flesh Crawlers are a type of rotting demon that Samael found in the High Grass Plains and the Rusty Copper Forest, which once injured the exiled old Duke. They resemble grotesque, twisted lumps of flesh, with dozens of thick tentacles and limbs haphazardly pieced together. Their movement, known as Nightmare Dash, is unpredictable yet swift and agile.

The cavalry tactics originated from the meeting with Ansba. However, the tactical environment of the Tall Grass Plains and the Gray Moss Fields is completely different, and the types of undead are also very different. Therefore, Samael made corresponding improvements based on the environment and the available undead.

The Tall Grass Plains are a complex terrain covered with towering vegetation, where roots and vines intertwine in the soil. There is no flat terrain like the Gray Moss Wilderness, nor are there plains undead like the Skeleton Warhorse. Yet, the Flesh Crawler can still fulfill its role as a mount in such complex terrain.

clang!clang!clang!
Amidst the roar of sword and shield, tentacles lashed wildly like waves, churning up rotting flesh as they surged toward Rahador's Reaper squadron!
Suddenly, a clattering sound came from the grass. It was unclear when, but Rahador's serpentine corpse demons had slithered into the area of ​​the tall grass plain.

Eight serpentine corpse demons, in pairs, suddenly pulled up the pre-prepared bronze tripwires from the grass, and four straight chains were placed in front of the heavily armored knights!
However, the flesh-and-blood crawler does not rely on a single hard limb to support its body; instead, it has seven or eight tentacles and severed limbs supporting its body. These supple, decaying flesh tentacles are not severed by the powerful inertia of a skeletal warhorse's legs.

The tripwire tripped over the tentacle, causing it to slide slightly and slow down a bit, before the crawler's body crushed it straight through.

The heavily armored Corpse Knights, wielding their heavy bronze lances, used the momentum of their mounts' Nightmare Rush to slam into the ranks of the Scythe Reapers.

To better utilize large, long-handled weapons such as scythes, the Reapers of Rahadur do not wear heavy armor, but rather only thin chainmail that does not impede their movement.

Under the powerful charge of the lances, the Reapers were instantly pierced, thrown into the air, smashed, and crushed by the heavy bodies of the crawlers, and the slowly advancing Reaper line was quickly destroyed.

Samael raised his head and looked at Rahadol on the distant border.

Watching his Reaper lines being breached, Rahado remained calm and composed, showing no anger or reaction. He simply stood there, still holding his scythe.

“Cavalry. A straightforward, dull choice, just like Ansba.” Rahado chuckled. “The mount and the rider each need to occupy an elite command helmet position. Thirteen cavalrymen, that’s twenty-six helmets.”

"Sixty-three helmets, plus twenty-six helmets."

“Eighty-nine,” he said softly. “One hundred, minus eighty-nine.”

"There are still eleven days left."

He slowly straightened up, his arms moved slightly, and his shoulder armor rose accordingly.

Beneath his shoulder armor, which was covered with barbs and thorns, hung four small spherical bells on each shoulder, which jingled softly with his movements.

He watched silently as thirteen flesh-and-blood crawler cavalrymen, wielding tentacles, charged across the tall grass plains, crushing the tall grass and his squadron of scythe harvesters and eight tripwire rotting demons, as they hurtled straight toward him.

"Ah, they're here." Rahado stood alone at the edge of the hazy mist, leaning on his scythe.

"Hmph." He hummed softly, his gauntlet lightly tracing the side of the scythe's blade.

The smooth, dark bronze scythe blade, like a bronze mirror, reflected his heroic winged helmet.

Lead-gray clouds drifted beneath the gloomy, desolate sky, highlighting Rahador's bland and slender figure. Spikes stood erect on his shoulder and arm armor, exuding a menacing aura.

Tiny chainmail rings dangled from the edges of his armor seams, like tattered robes or broken wings.

The feather-like decorations on the Heroic Spirit's helmet shimmered, slowly tracing a sharp angle as he raised his head.

“Then…” Rahador estimated the distance between himself and the flesh-and-blood crawler cavalry, his empty helmet watching the lances getting closer and closer—

"Only a fool would fight head-on with charging heavy cavalry!" He threw down his scythe, turned and ran, galloping towards his misty lake!
The cavalry paused slightly on the border before the fog, slowing down a bit.

"Hahahaha! You can't catch me!" Rahado laughed loudly, swinging his arms and charging forward with long, thin legs.

His running form was extremely professional. Thanks to Rahado's slender limbs, his stride was enormous, comparable to that of a professional sprinter. The extra chainmail rings behind him jiggled and swayed, like a winning flag on a track and field.

The sounds of the flesh-and-blood crawlers charging behind me paused for a few seconds, then resumed with the sounds of tentacles and limbs digging into the ground.

Rahado turned his head and saw that Samael's thirteen flesh-and-blood crawler cavalry had caught up again and chased into the fog of his own territory.

"Wait a minute, are you serious?!" Rahado hurriedly turned his helmet back to the front and started running wildly, swinging his arms with a clattering sound.

Visibility was low in the fog by the lake, and only a small area could be seen.

Scattered along the shores of Lake Rahador were sparse, rusty copper trees and vast thickets of shrubs, interspersed with berries and withered, dried flowers, forming a sprawling maze of blossoms. Rahador ran wildly, diving with the speed of a ten-point diver, plunging headfirst into his own floral maze, the dense foliage and flower stalks swaying before returning to silence.

A few dozen seconds of silence.

Rahadu poked his head out from the sea of ​​flowers and stared at the creeper cavalrymen who were standing some distance away in front of the flowers.

"Uh...aren't you going to chase them anymore?" Rahado asked tentatively.

Samael's cavalry halted and stood quietly in the shade of the rusty bronze trees in front of the flower bushes.

The dappled shade of the trees, which should have been dappled, appeared very faint in the mist by the lake, leaving almost no shadows.

"Do I look stupid?" Samael's voice rang out from beneath the bell-shaped helmet of the flesh-creeping cavalryman. "I saw you hiding an undead in the flower bushes this morning, a serpentine corpse demon carrying a giant decapitation sword."

“Oh…that’s true.” Rahado looked at the flesh-and-blood crawler cavalry in front of him, shrugged his shoulder armor, and the bells on his shoulder armor jingled.

Whoosh! A dull metallic whistling sound rang out from above.

Rahador slowly rose from the flowerbed, brushed the dust off his armor, and kicked aside the bell-shaped undead heads that had just fallen to the ground at his feet.

On the rusty bronze tree in front of them, enormous, serpentine undead wearing Collins-style helmets coiled in the shade, their four arms gripping heavy decapitation swords.

They crept down from the shade of the trees, and the necromancer's combat skill, "Judgment," combined with the massive decapitation sword, delivered a powerful, armor-piercing slash that severed the head of the heavily armored corpse knight.

The massive, flesh-and-blood crawlers were already immobilized. Sharp, dark bronze spears were hurled down from the shade of the trees above, pinning them firmly to their spots.

The ghost copper printer is now enabled.

Rahador raised his hand, and a brand-new giant scythe was forged in his palm. One end of the scythe had a double-headed winged blade, and the other end was fitted with a Morning Star hammer to balance its weight. The overall structure was magnificent and imposing.

"You really think I only buried this much?" Rahado raised his winged scythe and swung it, severing the head of the flesh-and-blood crawler pinned to death by a spear in front of him. He then used the other end of the Morning Star hammer to smash the fallen bronze bell-shaped helmet to pieces.

He extended his gauntlet and flicked the bells below his shoulder armor, producing a loud, jingling sound.

In the lake not far away, a large number of bubbles suddenly rose from the depths of the lake, creating ripples.

The fish in the lake darted about in terror, some even leaping out of the water and onto the shore, where they thrashed about in the dry soil.

A massive dark shadow slowly rose from the lakebed, and the surface of the lake gradually bulged into a spherical shape, forming an arch under the influence of surface tension.

Wow!

The surface tension could no longer sustain the movement of the giant beast in the lake. Water splashed everywhere, bursting into towering mist. Amidst the bursting water vapor, the enormous leaf-like wing-like feet slowly gripped the soil on the lakeshore, pressing large swaths of soil into depressions.

A colossal creature resembling the Loch Ness Monster dragged its decaying body slowly up the lake shore, its head atop a Collins-style bronze helmet.

It has six broad, leaf-shaped wing-like feet, presumably for swimming. Each of the six wing-like feet has a Collins-style helmet-like kneeplate mounted at its joint. Clearly, the control of this colossal undead unit is quite complex, requiring multiple implanted helmets for precise maneuvering.

Its body is as thin as a giant snake, but it has only one huge eye on its head, and its wide mouth is full of fangs.

The leaf-footed giant serpent has six thick bony nozzles on its back, which have been spewing water mist incessantly since it came ashore, like some kind of immortal undead whale. Clearly, it is the reason why the mist around the lake persists.

Its tail is thick and powerful, with barbs at the end reinforced with necromancer, giving it a sickle-like shape.

Rahado, carrying a sickle, hooked the scales of the leaf-footed one-eyed giant snake and leisurely jumped onto the back of the water monster.

"Just kidding, I love cavalry so much because my mount is fucking cool!" Rahado shouted towards the border. "My mount is the coolest of all knights! Woohoo!"

The leaf-footed giant serpent hissed, its leaf-footed feet, covered in barbs of dark copper, slapped lightly, and its body, covered in dark copper scales, darted about. For a beast of this size, its movements were remarkably swift.

Dozens of serpentine, chainmail-armored corpse demons emerged from the flower bushes, carrying large scythes, small curved scythes, morning star hammers, and heavy armor-piercing decapitation swords. They followed Rahador's mount, rapidly advancing to the border.

"Eleven!" Rahado exclaimed excitedly, grabbing the scales of the Leaf-Foot Serpent and brandishing his scythe. "You only have eleven undead left. Installing the implants, setting up combat techniques, and replenishing the undead all take time. In such a short time, you simply won't have enough time to replenish them. I want to see what your last eleven undead are—"

Before the words were finished, a massive, rotting corpse claw, its roots and flesh intertwined, emerged from the exit of the Knight's Tomb basement in the center of the tall grass!

Lahadu was taken aback.

A gigantic claw, a body of fleshy mass, a long tail inlaid with black copper spikes, a black copper shield, a black copper spear, crossbow spikes made of flesh and tendons, and the lower bodies of nine rotting warriors wearing bell-shaped helmets are connected as one, forming a heavy mass, while the nine burly upper bodies are still clad in armor and wielding weapons, forming a bizarre and terrifying behemoth of flesh!
Samael stood surrounded by the shields of the Corpse Legion, while five hammer-and-shield heavy knights, who had survived the battle against the swampy Prange, guarded the knight's temple in the center of the tall grass plain, surrounding the behemoth.

The inspiration for this came from Rahador's flesh and blood chair—the flesh and blood of the necromancer could intermingle and merge into one. Additionally, it was combined with Gwyneth's description of the higher undead.

Samael used a large amount of rotten flesh material, mixed it with decaying rusted copper trees, to form a massive behemoth weighing tons. He then implanted nine high-quality rotten corpse knights into the behemoth's head as the control center. With spears, shields, flesh-and-blood crossbow bolts inlaid with dark copper, the behemoth's giant claws and long tail, this was a siege weapon constructed of flesh and blood!

The Prang Swamp Giant's necromantic combat skill, "Fortress Breaker," has filled in the last missing piece of the puzzle, making it now a colossal machine of destruction!

“Hiss…” Rahado hesitated.

Unexpectedly, the enemy reserved their last few command positions for behemoth units...

Is there a chance of victory? There is definitely a chance; our Reapers outnumber them. However, since the opponent is also a behemoth unit, our Leaf-Foot Serpents will inevitably be injured.

Moreover, if both sides were to engage in a battle of attrition using behemoths, they would likely be at a disadvantage—the Leaf-Footed Serpent is not only a combat unit but also the source of the lake's mist, a key factor in creating their environmental advantage. If the mist-generating serpent were severely wounded, it would likely seriously affect the subsequent course of the battle.

Wait a minute, nine helmets? Rahado counted the number of helmets on the Corpse Legion again.

There are indeed nine.

However, according to calculations, the other side clearly still had eleven command positions.

What are the remaining two?
“Two…” Rahado pondered, suddenly recalling a conversation from earlier that day.

Samael has two unassuming small units: scouts.

Now that the reconnaissance is over, why not destroy the scouts and make room for other undead combatants?
Rahadu pondered and thought, recalling the battle between Prang and Samael that he had seen from afar, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Following their own tactical style, they wanted to launch a full-scale attack and eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible. Therefore, all the undead came out in full force, and there were almost no guards left on the tomb on the island in the middle of the lake.

Samael remained silent, as if he was suppressing a laugh.

“You wouldn’t…” Rahado slowly turned his head, looking behind him.

In the distance, through the mist, two small, swaying figures, about the size of taro, were vaguely visible. They were carrying two large, familiar-looking tanned leather bags and were hopping along with their short legs, heading towards their graves.

Isn't that Prang's acid bomb bag?
Rahadu screamed! If the mortuary in the tomb were destroyed, he would be doomed to lose the civil war in the Heart of Bones!

Ring ring ring ring ring! Ring ring ring ring ring ring! The bells screamed wildly! All the serpentine corpse demons turned and ran wildly, chasing after the two taro-like things!
However, the two rotten root balls were moving quite fast, getting closer and closer to the Knight's Tomb on the island in the middle of the lake in Rahador!
“You’re more cunning than I thought, tactical master!” Rahado piloted the Leaf-Foot Serpent, darting and chasing after the two Rot Root Spheres topped with acid bombs.

"I'll let you off this time! We'll talk next time!" Lahado, disregarding all decorum, spun the Leaf-Foot One-Eyed Giant Serpent around, launching himself away like a slingshot. "No swapping partners, thanks!"

"Whoa who ...

boom!boom!
With two splashes of acid, Rahado's body crushed the two rotten root balls along with the acid bomb bags. His own armor also fell apart in the huge impact, with his arm armor, shoulder armor, breastplate, leg armor... scattered all over the ground.

His winged helmet rolled into a nearby flower bush, where it was picked up by the returning serpentine corpse demon and held high.

"Very well, Samael, a worthy opponent!" he shouted. "Wait for the next time!"

The giant leaf-footed serpent slithered backward and plunged headfirst into the lake, splashing water everywhere.

Samael shrugged, leaned against the behemoth of the Corpse Legion, and placed his hand on a necromancer body, generating a bell-shaped helmet, inscribing combat skills on it, and calmly replenishing his troop losses.

(End of this chapter)