Chapter 539: Central Army Clash
"roar!!!"
Within the Nightmare Army, hundreds of enormous Nightmare Spiders launched a counterattack simultaneously.
They contracted their abdomens, and a dark purple halo seeped from the gaps in their shells.
One and a half seconds later, a series of dark purple energy balls, each one meter in diameter, roared out and shot toward the central army of the allied forces at an extremely fast speed.
【Energy-Eroding Artillery Barrage】!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The energy orb exploded within the infantry formation, causing widespread shadow damage.
Fortunately, with the support of the 【Kun'an Formation】 and the 【Ten Thousand Army Formation】, even ordinary elite Qin soldiers have a health of over 1500 points and a defense of 140 points.
The 450 damage from the energy bombardment minus the 140 defense points resulted in only a little over 300 actual damage.
However, some unfortunate soldiers were hit by five shells at the same time and instantly turned to ashes.
As the distance between the two sides closed to the range of ranged units, the 100,000 ranged troops in the rear of the Allied forces began a frenzied assault.
"Release the arrows!"
The crossbows of 50,000 elite Qin soldiers hummed in unison as the arrows rained down over the infantry ranks and struck the Nightmare Vanguard.
In addition, a mixed formation of 50,000 ranged archers from various countries, including longbowmen from the British Empire, Ottoman composite archers, and Crusader crossbowmen, fired simultaneously.
The arrows trailed hundreds of thousands of fine black lines in the firelight, converging into a moving dark cloud before crashing heavily into the front ranks of the nightmare army.
The shadow wolf's dark purple, translucent skin was pierced by crossbow bolts and arrows. More than a dozen arrows struck a shadow wolf at the same time, turning it into a hedgehog.
The rotting man's grayish-white skin was pierced by an armor-piercing crossbow bolt, and purple fluid gushed from the wound.
The Nightmare Clan's ranged units also opened fire at the same instant.
Tens of thousands of wriggling shadows surged from beneath the feet of the rotting corpses, separating fist-sized spheres of shadow energy that condensed and shot towards the allied infantry formation.
The Shadow Bullet's trajectory was slightly curved, leaving countless dark purple trails in the air before striking the shields of the swordsmen and garrison soldiers.
Each Shadow Bolt applies a layer of Shadow Corruption upon impact, causing the target to lose an additional 5 health points per second for 10 seconds per layer.
The shields of the front-line swordsmen were corroded and mottled by the shadow bullets, and the health of the several people hit by the bullets dropped rapidly. The priests and the accompanying healers in the back row immediately cast healing spells and stabilized the line.
The two sides exchanged fire remotely for more than forty seconds, and the earth trembled.
Finally, the infantry from both sides clashed!
"kill!!!"
It was the sound of metal colliding with flesh, shields striking bodies, blades slicing into bones, and a chilling roar mixed with the screams of hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously.
Shadow Wolf was the first to arrive at the Horizontal Blade Hands' line. Before reaching the shield wall, it leaped up and pounced into the formation from above, over the height of the shields.
The moment the Shadow Wolf landed, the Tang Dynasty's Horizontal Blade Hand thrust his blade upwards, the tip entering through the Shadow Wolf's abdomen and exiting through its back.
The Shadow Wolf's body continued to slide forward for a distance after losing control in mid-air, only stopping when it crashed into the shield.
The Tang Dynasty Mo Dao Hand stepped out from behind the Heng Dao Hand, and with a diagonal slash of his Mo Dao, cut off the Shadow Wolf who had rushed in through the shield from the side.
The rotting men then pressed forward, their grayish-white bodies crashing into the shield formation. Their sheer numbers forced the front ranks to retreat half a step before regaining their footing.
When the Corruption Touch is triggered, there is a 30% chance to inflict the Corruption effect, causing hit soldiers to lose 10 health points per second for 10 seconds, and reducing healing effectiveness by 20%.
Even more deadly is the Corpse Man's final embrace before death, which is automatically triggered when his health drops below 10%. He lunges at the nearest enemy and holds on tightly for 3 seconds.
A swordsman was tackled to the ground by the rotting man and was unable to move for 3 seconds. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the shadow wolves rushed in from his side, tearing his armor apart with their claws and teeth.
On this meat grinder-like battlefield, the mid-level combat forces also engaged in a fierce battle.
The Nightmare Cavalry launched 【Fear Charge】, attempting to tear through the defenses.
The allied centurions and 500s formed small squads and used spears and battle formations to hold them off.
"Cavalry! Nightmare Cavalry!" Centurion Chen Shitou didn't turn around, but his voice made the eardrums of the squad behind him ring. "Spear formation! Barricades!"
Five spears emerged simultaneously from his sides.
"Hold on!" Chen Shitou roared.
【Fear Charge】! The Nightmare Cavalry's charge suddenly accelerated dozens of meters away, their hooves shattering the ground and their scythes sweeping across.
The shockwave, carrying shadow energy, crashed into the spear formation, sending two shield guards flying on the left.
The fear effect was triggered; several soldiers' pupils constricted, and they turned to run away.
Chen Shitou didn't run away. He withstood the fear impact head-on. The scythe swept over his head, and as he crouched down, his halberd thrust out from below, the tip of which pierced the Nightmare Horse's foreleg joint.
Purple fluid sprayed all over his face, but he didn't bother to wipe it off: "Old Liu, now!"
Liu Tie, the leader of the Five Hundred, waited for this sound from the side.
His blue-quality halberd was already leveled, his body leaning forward, the shaft flat against his waist—【Arrowhead - Piercing Strike】!
He shot out like an arrow, his agility increasing by 30%.
The first attack deals 50% more damage. The halberd tip pierces the Nightmare Cavalry's waist and abdomen from the side, penetrates the black iron armor, pierces the dark purple horse's body, and protrudes half of the halberd tip from the other side.
"【Scythe Harvest】!" The cavalryman was not dead yet. His scythe swept out, knocking back several steps all the allied soldiers within a three-meter radius.
Liu Tie's hands went numb from the shock, but he didn't let go.
With his arm muscles bulging, he roared and lifted the cavalryman and his horse off the ground, slamming them hard into another Nightmare cavalryman charging nearby.
The two riders collided, and the scythes flew out of their hands.
A little further away, a Europa paladin blocked a cavalryman's scythe with a single-handed sword.
He gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms taut and defined through the gaps in his armor: "Left flank!"
"Here they come!" An Ottoman scimitar warrior rolled in from the flank, his scimitar slashing repeatedly at the cavalryman's leg joints, leaving deep, bone-revealing cuts from which purple fluid seeped.
Just as the cavalryman was about to swing his scythe back, another Great Xia swordsman leaped out from behind him, his sword tip precisely piercing the gap under the cavalryman's visor. With a twist of his wrist, the sword tip emerged from the back of his neck.
The paladin breathed a sigh of relief and was about to express his gratitude when the scimitar warrior rolled away to avoid another rider's sweeping scythe: "Don't thank me yet! There's more!"
The swordsman kicked aside the cavalryman's corpse and drew his sword to face his next target.
The three of them tacitly reassembled their formation, with the shield, sword, and scimitar each guarding a different direction.
Further back, second-tier professionals from various countries were also gritting their teeth and holding on in their respective battle positions.
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