Chapter 282 - 164: Frozen (3)
However, he couldn’t directly command these lords at the moment. In terms of rank, they were all equals—novice lords. Once they returned safely to the Eye Demon race, they would all participate in the next Lord Competition together.
The lordship status they had gained by parasitizing other lords wouldn’t take up any of the Eye Demon Empire’s official slots. This was precisely why he had gone to such great lengths to have his kin parasitize members of the Human Race. Acquiring these extra slots would earn him substantial rewards from the Empire.
Despite being urged several times, these Eye Demons, newly inhabiting the bodies of lords, continued to stroll leisurely in the rain.
Left with no other choice, Ah Pu led the Core Lords of the Northern Expedition Legion and hurried up the mountain. Having spent the past few days together, Ah Pu had earned considerable respect among the Core Lords, and they generally trusted his decisions.
Shortly after Ah Pu left with his men, the temperature around the camp began to plummet. In an instant, the raindrops turned to snowflakes and hail, the downpour transforming into a blizzard of snow and ice.
The Eye Demon Lords who hadn’t yet left the Central Army Camp immediately realized something was wrong and hastily scrambled for the nearby mountain.
However, the temperature dropped faster than anyone could have anticipated. The standing water in the camp rapidly froze solid.
Everyone still in the camp was frozen in place by the ice on the ground. Even the heroes were no exception.
As the temperature continued to fall, those who were trapped felt an icy chill creep up from the soles of their feet and spread throughout their bodies.
A layer of ice quickly coated their bodies, and as the cold seeped in, their life force rapidly faded away.
Before the people on the mountainside could even react, in less than a minute, everything in the camp had been turned into a lifeless ice sculpture.
Inside the two fortresses at the pass, large numbers of soldiers suddenly stood stunned. The equipment on their bodies vanished in an instant, leaving them with only scant clothing.
These were the soldiers belonging to the lords who had just died. Although command had been transferred to Ah Pu, their allegiance remained with their original masters.
With the deaths of the newly parasitized lords in the camp, these soldiers instantly became refugees, turning into neutral units.
With a collective shout, they deserted the battlefield at top speed, scattering in all directions. Unarmed and unarmored, they were far too vulnerable to remain.
The remaining soldiers of the Northern Expedition Legion were completely bewildered by this turn of events. They never imagined that their comrades would suddenly turn into refugees in the middle of a battle.
Furthermore, the number of soldiers affected was enormous, accounting for three-quarters of the Northern Expedition Legion’s forces on the field. The troops Ah Pu had sent to attack were primarily those belonging to the lords who had handed over their command. The Core Lords had only sent a token force of their own un-parasitized, ordinary soldiers.
After all, many of the Core Lords’ elite soldiers had also been parasitized. Even though the Eye Demons couldn’t take these soldiers’ bodies back with them at the end of this stage due to a lack of full control, preserving as many of their Eye Demon kin as possible would still earn Ah Pu rewards.
The situation on the battlefield had reversed in an instant. The Northern Expedition Legion, which had once held a numerical advantage, now found itself badly outnumbered.
The critical issue was that not only were they in the middle of a siege, but their forces were also extremely scattered and not in formation.
The defenders in the fortress were also stunned for a moment by the sudden change, but they recovered quickly. ’Whatever’s happening to the enemy, killing them all can’t be a mistake.’
The fortress defenders surged out, swiftly cutting down the scattered soldiers of the Northern Expedition Legion.