Chapter 552: Eye of the Storm
High in the sky, eight hundred Nightmare Faceless Ones crashed into the charging Nightmare army below, like kites with broken strings.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Hundreds of huge breaches exploded in the charging formation, and the earth trembled violently.
Dust and shattered carapaces flew in all directions, and the Corpse Man and Shadow Wolf that were hit were pushed to the sides by the impact, leaving a brief blank space on the ground.
However, these blank spaces were quickly filled by units that kept pouring in from behind.
The faceless beings climbed out of the pit, their flowing black matter covered in grayish-white dust and dark purple bodily fluids.
A fall from a height of 500 meters is not fatal, but it will cause them to lose 21% to 25% of their health.
However, these monsters, who felt no pain, activated 【Shadow Devour】 the moment they landed.
All Nightmare units below level 20 within range were decomposed into pure shadow energy, which transformed into countless tiny points of light that flowed into the Faceless One's body.
Corpse-like beings, shadow wolves, worm-like shadows... those low-level units that hadn't yet recovered from the charge vanished in swathes of light devoured by the shadows.
Each unit devoured restores 3% of the Faceless One's health.
Hundreds of Faceless Ones simultaneously unleashed their skills within the army formation, resulting in the immediate sacrifice of tens of thousands of Nightmare low-level units by their own side.
Just then, a huge, silvery-white figure swooped down from hundreds of meters in the sky.
With its wings half-open, Fengxue's nine golden halos spun wildly around its body, while the black light of nightmares intertwined with its own silver-white scales.
Its dragon eyes locked onto a densely populated area of Faceless Ones. About seventy Faceless Ones, who had just climbed out of the pit, were gathered in a pile of mangled, rotting corpses, surrounded by a large number of low-level troops charging forward.
The dragon raised its head slightly, and the icy blue light in its chest burst forth through the gaps in its scales.
【Frosty Breath】!
A chilling, blue current, fan-shaped at a 60-degree angle and reaching a maximum range of 100 meters, gushed forth from the dragon's mouth, covering the area like a liquid ice storm.
Nearly a thousand points of frost damage swept over, and a thick layer of ice simultaneously condensed on the bodies of more than seventy Faceless Ones. Countless damage numbers jumped out from above their heads, and each one lost more than five hundred points of health.
Some of them also triggered the frostbite effect, causing an additional 50 health points to be lost per second and a significant reduction in movement speed.
Immediately afterwards, the Nightmare Erosion effect takes effect, deducting 50% of the maximum health from all covered Faceless Ones and halving their healing!
"roar!!!"
The Nightmare army was completely enraged, and the ranged units began a frenzied counterattack.
The giant Rift Nest Weaver contracted its abdomen, and a dark purple halo seeped from the gaps in its carapace. Dozens of energy balls from the Corrosive Energy Cannon shot straight through the air and crashed into Feng Xue.
The Nightmare Shadowweaver's twisted touch followed closely behind, its shadow tentacles tearing through the air.
However, Fengxue activated the golden set effect, resulting in a defense level of 747.8.
Whether it's the Twisted Touch or the Corrosive Energy Cannon, it's completely immune to them!
Only a few Faceless Ones' 【Shadow Tear】 could barely scrape off a dozen or so drops of blood from it.
Having landed a successful blow, Feng Xue didn't linger. With a flap of her wings, she launched an 【Aerial Dive】 and crashed towards the gathering place of the Faceless Ones on the other side.
The moment it landed, the shockwave sent dozens of shadow wolves flying into the air, and several rotting corpses that couldn't dodge in time were crushed into grayish-white powder.
The dragon's tail swept across, its thick tail hammer swung across a fan-shaped area, repelling several Faceless Ones that tried to sneak up from behind.
Fengxue rampaged through the Nightmare army, each dive taking away several Faceless Ones' corpses, each breath blasting open a clearing in the ranks.
...
Just as Fengxue was wreaking havoc among the Nightmare army, the Nightmare vanguard finally entered the range of the Hangu Pass defenders' long-range siege equipment.
"Boom!"
On the city wall, thousands of crossbows and catapults roared simultaneously.
Arrows and stones streaked in the afternoon sunlight, tracing countless parabolic arcs as they crashed into the Nightmare Vanguard.
The stones created shallow craters as they landed, and the crossbow bolts pierced the shadow wolves' translucent skin, pinning several to the ground.
However, the ballistae and catapults only deal a fixed 300 damage, and it takes several shots to kill a Corrupted Man whose health is barely over 1,000, not to mention the elite units with much higher health.
The suppressive effect of ranged weapons is limited; they can only create chaos in the vanguard and cannot stop the Nightmare army's overall advance.
"The big ones are coming!" someone exclaimed from the city wall.
Hundreds of enormous Nightmare Spiders, each eight meters off the ground, entered the firing range.
They contracted their abdomens, and a dark purple halo shone from the gaps in their shells. Accompanied by a deep, long roar, hundreds of energy balls streaked through the air in straight beams as they crashed into the city wall.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The muffled explosions rang out in succession, and blinding dark purple light continuously burst forth from the city walls.
Most of the energy orbs hit the defending troops precisely, and the violent energy instantly swept outwards.
However, the smoke of battle cleared.
"That's it? You're just tickling me!"
One of the thousand-man generals wiped the soot off his face, looked at the shallow crater blasted into the ground, and instead of backing down, he let out a rough, cold laugh.
The single-target damage of the energy-corroding artillery is indeed as high as 450 points, but the first batch of defenders at Hangu Pass were mainly Qin garrison soldiers.
The Qin soldiers already possess extremely high base defense, and with the added bonus from the Hangu Pass wonder and the terrifying amplification from the 【Ten Thousand Soldiers Formation】, their maximum health has soared to an astonishing 1400 points.
After deducting over 100 points of defense, the 450 points of artillery fire would only cause two to three hundred points of graze damage to them.
Unless they are hit by the same shell more than five times in a row, they cannot be killed at all!
"Hold the formation! Don't panic!"
"As long as we don't get focused down, we won't die! Shoot them back hard!"
"promise!!"
Taking advantage of the defenders' high morale, Isabella flew directly into the air, her golden robes billowing in the wind, her staff held high above her head.
"Eye of the Storm!"
She spun in mid-air using her staff as an axis, instantly creating a hundred-meter-high cyan tornado around her.
At the center of the tornado, countless wind blades poured down like a torrential rain, each carrying a blue storm capable of cutting through everything, crashing violently into the nightmare army 700 meters away.
With an area damage of over 900 points and a 20% chance of knocking back, the Corpse People and Shadow Wolves, whose health was barely 1,000, were left with only about 200 health after deducting their defense. They were instantly killed when they were grazed by crossbow bolts and live ammunition.
The blue tornado raged for a full three miles before slowly coming to a stop.
"Holy crap! Isabella's area-of-effect attack is insane!"
"One sweep and a whole area is covered! This isn't fighting monsters, it's mowing the grass!"
"With Lord and Fengxue holding the line in front, and us dealing damage from behind, this battle is so exhilarating!"