Chapter 187 - 126: With Irresistible Force (Part 2)
The boulders were all made of Profound Iron Stone and were incredibly hard.
The Steel-backed Porcupines knew the danger and scattered to take cover. The ones that couldn’t get out of the way simply dropped to the ground, trying to take the impact of the boulders on their backs.
The Steel-backed Porcupines’ neat formation immediately dissolved into chaos. At the same time, a volley of arrows, interspersed with short spears, flew from the mountain stronghold.
In response, the Steel-backed Porcupines entered a combat stance, turning so their backs faced the stronghold.
Amid the rumbling, a cacophony of metallic clangs rang out.
After the arrow volley, apart from a few Steel-backed Porcupines that had been struck by boulders, the rest were completely unscathed.
In the sky, a flock of Eagle-men was diving toward the Steel-backed Porcupines. According to their pre-planned tactics, it was their turn to attack the enemy, grab any survivors, carry them high into the air, and drop them to their deaths.
But they saw that these Pigmen were all unharmed, merely looking a bit disheveled. They hastily slowed their descent and veered back toward the sky.
It was just their bad luck. Having absorbed a wave of damage, the Steel-backed Porcupines’ quills had extended. They simply channeled some of their internal energy, and the quills shot toward the Eagle-men.
Two thousand Steel-backed Porcupines, each firing nearly a hundred quills, amounted to two hundred thousand quills. Since the Eagle-men were slowing down and had no time to evade, they were instantly turned into pincushions.
"No—!"
A great cry echoed from the mountain stronghold. The Beastman commander inside must have been regretting his orders.
After reforming their ranks, the Steel-backed Porcupines continued their backward advance.
Their pace didn’t slow at all as they climbed the mountain backward, moving as swiftly as if they were walking normally as they closed in on the fortress wall.
"Attack!"
Once the Steel-backed Porcupines were within a certain distance of the wall, another command rang out from the stronghold.
The large siege crossbows on the walls immediately fired giant Crossbow Arrows at the Steel-backed Porcupine formation.
Catapults, bows, and spears were unleashed at the same time.
The giant Crossbow Arrows dealt the most damage and had an extremely high armor-piercing effect.
The Steel-backed Porcupines could shrug off the other attacks, but they couldn’t ignore the giant Crossbow Arrows.
A few Steel-backed Porcupines were hit, instantly falling into a near-death state and being knocked back down the mountain by the force of the Crossbow Arrows.
However, this also meant they had absorbed a massive amount of damage, and a volley of quills erupted from their backs in response.
Just then, some Water Element Druids who had followed them up the mountain opportunely cast "Water Healing Technique" and "Bubble Defense" on the Steel-backed Porcupines.
The Water Healing Technique provided slow, continuous healing.
Bubble Defense could negate one instance of near-fatal damage.
This freed the Steel-backed Porcupines from any lingering worries.
With the healing buffs from the Water Element Druids, the Steel-backed Porcupines became much bolder.
They weathered the attacks and marched right up to the base of the wall. Now, the archer Catmen and spear-throwing Lizard-men on the ramparts were finally within the Steel-backed Porcupines’ range.
Previously, the sporadic quills from their counter-attack ability had all been calmly dodged or parried by the Catmen and Lizard-men.
But now, facing a volley from the Steel-backed Porcupines, they were completely overwhelmed. Not just anyone could withstand a salvo of two hundred thousand quills at once.
With the Steel-backed Porcupines’ quills having a damage-stacking effect, it wasn’t long before the fortress walls were studded with them. Even the Profound Iron Stone walls were pierced through. The Beastmen couldn’t take it anymore; they all retreated from the ramparts, trying to evade the sky-blotting barrage of quills.
Once the gate was breached, the Steel-backed Porcupines marched into the fortress. Faced with an enemy they couldn’t damage and couldn’t dodge, the Beastmen had no choice but to abandon the stronghold. They conducted a fighting retreat, evacuating via ziplines to the other two strongholds.
...
"Commander Amuti, what’s our next move? Are we going to brute-force it with the Steel-backed Porcupines again?" Gu Di and Amuti stood on the walls of the captured stronghold, looking out at the other two.
Gu Di was quite bold; while the other lords had only sent observers, he had personally come to watch the battle. He claimed that the experience of watching live was far better than reviewing a recording afterward. Of course, he was surrounded by a contingent of soldiers for protection.
"No, that won’t be necessary." Amuti stood at the stronghold’s highest point, visually gauging the distance, and spoke with complete confidence.
"Metal Element Druids, prepare to deploy the range-boosting Magic Array."
"Wind Element Druids, Fire Element Druids, prepare to cast the combined Mixed Magic: Fire Dragon Tornado!"
Amuti made no effort to hide his commands from Gu Di and the observers, issuing his orders directly.
Lin Yu had already informed him before they came that their joint-casting technique had been revealed in a previous legion battle, so there was no need to conceal it.
In fact, most of the information about his troops’ capabilities was already public knowledge, so there was no need to be secretive around the other lords.
The Metal Element Druids quickly took their positions. Using themselves as nodes in a joint-casting technique, they worked together to form a massive, range-amplifying Magic Array, granting a significant range boost to any allies standing within it.
Empowered by the Array, the Wind Element Druids and Fire Element Druids jointly unleashed the large-scale Mixed Magic spell, "Giant Fire Dragon Tornado."
WHOOSH...
The sound of howling wind filled the air.
A tornado stretching from earth to sky appeared in the stronghold on the next mountain over.
The tornado swayed back and forth, its epicenter constantly shifting within the stronghold.
Its immense suction pulled every movable object in the stronghold into the vortex.
However, many Beastmen had taken advantage of the tornado’s formation to hide in basements or beneath houses made of Profound Iron Stone, escaping the tornado’s initial onslaught.
"Commander Amuti, it looks like many of the enemy have hidden themselves. The tornado looks powerful, but its lethality seems lacking. It’s all bark and no bite," Gu Di remarked with a hint of disappointment, watching from a distance.
"Patience, Lord Gu," Lin Kong explained from the side. "The tornado is just the appetizer. The main course is next."
Sure enough, the tornado’s color began to change. The Fire Element Druids had waited until it was fully formed before they began infusing it with fire elemental energy.
The tornado grew redder and redder. With the addition of the fire element, the temperature around it began to climb.
All the buildings in the stronghold, aside from those made of Profound Iron Stone, began to burn.
As these structures burned, the surrounding air grew thin, and the natural winds created by the fire fed into the tornado.
The wind fanned the flames, and the fire strengthened the gale.
The Fire Dragon Tornado grew larger, its winds grew stronger, and the temperature soared ever higher.
Even the Profound Iron Stone changed color in the intense heat, slowly beginning to melt.
After a while longer, rivers of molten Profound Iron Stone began to flow from the mountain beneath the Fire Dragon Tornado.
"Alright, that’s enough. Dispel the Fire Dragon Tornado."
Seeing this, Amuti knew there was no way the enemy could have survived. With his objective achieved, he ordered the Druids to cease channeling the spell.
Deprived of its Mana, the Fire Dragon Tornado’s power gradually waned. It drifted out over the grasslands before finally dissipating.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP...
Gu Di and the observers broke into applause, commending the Elemental Druids for their spectacular performance.
"Truly magnificent! I have to say, a Mage’s attack is both beautiful and deadly."
Gu Di praised them in awe. The Mages in his own territory were incapable of such a feat; they could only cast their Magic individually, lacking any joint-casting techniques.
"Commander Amuti, is your joint-casting technique for sale? If so, I’ll pay a high price!"
Lin Kong interjected, "Lord Gu, you’re asking the wrong person. None of us in the legion present can make that decision. You’ll have to ask our lord himself about that."
"Ah, yes, of course. My apologies, that was presumptuous of me," Gu Di said, quickly apologizing.
"So, what’s your plan for the next one?"
"More Magic?"
"No, we still have two types of troops whose abilities we haven’t demonstrated," Amuti said, shaking his head. He then pointed to the gelatinous Corruption Spreaders. "However, their abilities are a little slow to take effect, so we won’t be demonstrating them."
"Now, let’s see what our Scarecrows can do." He laughed with excitement as he spoke.
"Withered Messengers, ’Advent’!"
On the last remaining mountain peak, the Beastmen were filled with terror after witnessing the ravages of the Fire Dragon Tornado. They knew their doom was sealed, yet they could not escape. Trembling, they could only clutch their weapons tighter and prepare for one last, desperate fight.
This fear was so immense that the Withered Messengers could perceive it clearly from a kilometer away.
Following Amuti’s command, the Withered Messengers rode this current of fear and descended as one.