Black clouds weighed on the city, as a pitch-black fog gushed over like a gigantic tsunami. A silver line could be vaguely seen beneath the black clouds.
“What’s that?”
Rajmaya knew that something was amiss from the moment she lost contact with her scouts, but she was still shaken up when this terrifying phenomenon appeared before her eyes.
Skeletons, skeletons, and more skeletons. An army of skeletons that stretched to the horizon emerged from the black fog, and the sheer number of them was enough to shake anyone up.
What shocked Rajmaya the most was the flag bearing the words ‘Tang’ and ‘Shu’.
“The remnants of the Shu clan conjured these monsters?”
Rajmaya felt light-headed. She had thought that the remnants of the Shu clan could only gather hundreds of troops at most, but looking at the army before her…
I’d have to add a couple of zeros behind their troop count…
…
Meanwhile, Shu Yichao, who marched at the forefront of his army with a flag in hand, assessed Rajmaya’s army.
“So that’s a proper Tibetan army? Their frontline heavy infantrymen have pretty high stats.”
The Tibetan heavy infantrymen had 100 damage and 120 armor, and their attacks were imbued with the ‘armor break’ effect too. Normal soldiers stood no chance against them.
“Oi!” Miazova, who was also holding a flag beside Shu Yichao, wasn’t too happy. “Grandson, why didn’t you bring the Anxi army here? How dare you use me as a flagbearer?” (T/N: Anxi army refers to the soldiers of Great Tang stationed in the Western Region, aka the Black Armor Ghost Horsemen.)
Shu Yichao looked at Miazova as if he was an idiot. “My foolish son, the enemy would have hesitated to chase us if I brought them along.”
When he saw on his minimap a huge bunch of red dots setting off from Shule, heading in his direction, he nearly went giddy with excitement. This was a good opportunity to take down his enemy in the wild!
But upon careful contemplation, he realized that it might not be as easy as he expected.
The enemy’s troops were far stronger than his skeleton soldiers. He could try to overrun them with sheer numbers, just like what he did with Bikna, but with the fighting prowess and movement speed of the skeleton soldiers, there was no way they could pursue fleeing enemies.
And if he couldn’t eliminate the enemy in a single swoop, he would have to squander precious time sieging Shule in the future, especially given the number of mages they had.
Thus, Shu Yichao dispatched some of his skeleton soldiers to lure the enemy into his Eternal Blight. He didn’t bring his ghost horsemen with him, lest the enemy thought it was too risky to chase after them.
“I see.” Miazova nodded.
So he only brought the weaker skeleton soldiers over to feign weakness? Indeed, the enemy would realize something was amiss if the white-haired Anxi soldiers joined the battlefield, no matter how foolish they were.
“At least your brain has some substance,” he remarked, “I thought you were a buffoon given all your reckless maneuvers.”
“Tsk.” Shu Yichao scoffed. “I can use my brain too, just that it’s not always needed to do so.”
…
“Hm?”
Meanwhile, Rajmaya, who had cast Eagle Eye on herself, spotted Shu Yichao standing under the flag. Her eyes immediately widened in wonderment.
How can someone be that beautiful? He’s like a fairy from high heaven!
Rajmaya swore that this was the most dashing youth she had ever seen. For a brief moment, she even forgot why she was here.
“Charge!” Shu Yichao raised his hand and ordered.
Countless skeleton soldiers rushed at the Tibetan army like an opened dam.
“Is he the mage behind these monsters? But why is he wearing armor instead of a mage robe?”
Rajmaya didn’t have time to ponder about this, as the white skeletons were already rushing toward her, so she began mobilizing her army.
The bloodthirsty war slaves charged forth under the mages’ command. The Tibetan heavy infantrymen quickly shuffled into another formation. The wolf cavalrymen spread out along the flanks in an attempt to encircle the enemy.
The forest snipers behind loaded their arrows and drew their bowstring. Their leader nervously waited for the skeletons to enter their firing range before giving the signal.
“Ready… Fire!”
Shoosh shoosh shoosh!
Arrow rained from the sky.
The forest snipers had lived in the forests from a young age, and they made a living by hunting animals. Their difficult living environment molded their unwavering willpower and tempered their archery, turning them into famed snipers.
No human or prey was willing to face their arrows.
Yet, these proud forest snipers quickly noticed a problem.
“Arrows don’t work on those skeletons?”
Usually, they could take down a huge patch of enemies with their arrow volley, especially when their targets were unarmored or lightly-armored. But today…
“Damn!” The sharp-eyed leader of the forest snipers quickly grasped the root of the problem. “Our arrows are passing through those monsters!”
The forest archers’ archery was as impressive as ever, but skeleton bodies were mostly empty! That hugely discounted the effectiveness of their arrows.
After several volleys of arrows, Rajmaya also realized that the forest archers wouldn’t be of much use in this battle. Thus, she ordered, “You may stop now. Send in the war slaves!”
The war slaves were armored from head to toe that exposed just their feral eyes. Under the mages’ control, the war slaves marched forward with huge swords and battle axes, letting out bestial growls as they charged at the skeleton soldiers.
With their overwhelming force, they easily smashed through the skeletons.
“Hah!” Rajmaya’s heart was put at ease.
The sight of skeletons roaming in broad daylight did make her fluster earlier, but it became apparent to her through this clash that the strength of the skeletons were only at the level of weak militias.
Her hundreds of war slaves could easily deal with tens of thousands of troops of that caliber.
I was overthinking it.
“Hm?”
Just then, Rajmaya spotted Shu Yichao retreating into the black fog with his flag.
Is the enemy mage trying to escape after realizing that his skeletons aren’t a match for my army?
“Trying to escape?” Rajmaya sneered. “Chase him, my warriors! Capture that mage alive! Remember…”
Her throat bobbed up and down.
“Capture him alive!”
Following Rajmaya’s orders, the Tibetan soldiers charged ahead. They laughed frenziedly as they tore the skeletons apart into shattered bones. The war slaves rammed ahead like rolling boulders, knocking down the skeletons like bowling pins. The wolf cavalrymen sprinted straight ahead for the enemy mage.
What an exhilarating victory!
That must have been the thought on all their minds. They relentlessly pursued the fleeing enemy mage while taking down the enemies along the way.
However, they did halt at the brink of the Eternal Blight.
“Light the torches!” Rajmaya ordered.
With that, the Tibetan army entered the Eternal Blight.
“Look, aren’t they obediently following us?” Shu Yichao remarked while leisurely baiting the Tibetan army deeper into his turf.
The Tibetan soldiers and war slaves were formidable foes. Once they got into their battle formations, they could easily defeat skeletons ten times their troop count. It was not that easy to drown an army with skeletons once they got to a certain scale.
So, Shu Yichao had the skeletons slowly bait the Tibetan army. He led the Tibetan army into thinking that they were unrivaled in this world, so that they wouldn’t stop pursuing him out of excitement.
“We can reap this harvest once they are exhausted and cracks show in their formation.”
“…” Miazova eyed Shu Yichao.
It couldn’t find a fault in Shu Yichao’s strategy. It was the classic method of feigning defeat to bait the enemy into an encirclement.
But something feels amiss.
Miazova spent a moment in thought before recalling something.
Rajmaya’s eyes were gleaming… I think I know where the problem lies now.
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