"Why are there dark creatures here?" Redbeard Troda was shocked. He couldn't help but stop barking orders to his subordinates to charge up Mount Tali as he stared in bewilderment at the dense army of undead creatures bearing down on him.
"Boss, I think - I think the target of these damned dark creatures is us!" As the shimmering purple eye of the little skeleton focused on the cowardly bandit, he suddenly felt the warm spring air plummet into the depths of winter. A deep chill crept through his body.
"Light mages, kill these filthy dark creatures!" Troda was now aware of the unfavourable situation, so he hurriedly yelled at the mages ahead on Tali Mountain.
There weren't as many mages as there were swordsmen and knights on the Profound Continent. The fact that this bandit group could field a few mages was a clear demonstration of their strength. The journeyman mage and the adept of light clearly realised that it would be up to them to deal with these dark creatures, so they had already begun their incantations the moment Troda finished speaking.
Rays of glowing swords and orbs of light shimmered in the air as they slowly made their way towards the undead creatures. Seeing the light magic descending, the earth elite zombie who had been at the forefront scratched his head and suddenly sank into the earth from the body of the fire-breathing warhorse. Immediately after, a barrier of dust suddenly appeared, blocking most of the light swords and orbs.
Although a few light swords and light orbs managed to land on the dark creatures and purify a few skeleton warriors, they barely made a dent in the horde of dark creatures.
These two light mages were not light Grand Magus like Ferguson, who could cast a damaging area of effect spell like Radiant Glory. Mere sparks of light were snuffed out like candles in the relentless advance of over a thousand undead creatures, especially as the undead army also included the little skeleton and elite zombie warriors who were not afraid of light magic in their ranks.
Of course, the black armour of the high-ranking evil knights made them very resistant to light magic. Thus, the army of dark creatures did not falter under the attacks of light swords and orbs. They continued to charge at the bandits led by Redbeard Troda.
"Stupid pigs, feeding you was really useless!" Troda swore loudly and drew a bright, double-edged broadsword from his space ring. Then he roared at the subordinate behind him, "Come on, smash these dirty bones!"
Troda immediately charged out in front, three thousand bandits at his side. The bandits, who didn't understand things like battle formations, just followed Troda like a crowd, charging at the dark creatures with fierce expressions on their faces.
Faulke led the group of terrified soldiers in another direction, away from the path of the dark creatures. The soldiers of Brettel City looked at their city lord in fear, not daring to retreat in the face of Han Shuo's ruthlessness. "Prepare the crossbows and bows, shoot until you see them fall. You cowardly idiots, concentrate!" Faulke couldn't help but curse when he saw the soldiers actually daring to crane their necks on the battlefield.
Accustomed to being scolded, the soldiers raised their bows and crossbows and fired wildly at the Redbeard bandits running down the hill. Although these soldiers were far from accurate, the bandits were too close together. Each arrow drew blood in the crowd, as long as there was enough force behind the shot.
On one side were soldiers who hadn't been trained for long, and who were summoning up their courage for the first time to stand up to the bandits. On the other side were fiery bandits who didn't understand combat techniques and used brute force. As defenders, the bows and crossbows in the hands of the soldiers were quite vicious. Three hundred or so bandits were killed and five to six hundred others injured in the blink of an eye as a dense rain of arrows rained down.
Having paid the price of three hundred lives, the bandits finally reached the foot of the mountain. They now had two options. They could either charge at the Brettel City soldiers on their flank, or charge forward to meet the slowly advancing undead army.
Troda was furious. He had finally realised that those who had dared to attack him were the cowardly soldiers of Brettel City. The same soldiers who ran away from every battle like cowardly dogs, making a mockery of the Seven Duchies and the bandits.
Yet, at this very moment, these soldiers had actually dared to take up arms and attack his men, causing quite a bit of damage. This was an unforgivable insult to Redbeard Troda. So when he reached the foot of the mountains, Troda yelled maniacally, "Brothers, destroy those bastards!"
Troda once again led the charge as he roared at the soldiers led by Faulke. He didn't bother to attack the undead creatures ahead, as he had planned. But even if he didn't attack the undead, the creatures of darkness controlled by Han Shuo and the little skeleton would not let them go peacefully.
As the dark green of the Canopy of Necromancy crept over the ruby hue of the dusk, a thick aura of death slowly spread under the canopy's cover. All the bones of the undead creatures glimmered with evil light as they bathed in the undead atmosphere. Their slow march suddenly tripled in speed, and even the slow-moving hate warriors became as fast as flying gargoyles.
With a series of deep and archaic chants, rays of rippling grey liquid poured down from the sky. As the grey liquid poured down, In the middle of the path the bandits were taking towards Faulke and the soldiers, patches of acid swamp appeared with azure smoke.
The bandits who had carelessly stepped into the acid swamp suddenly howled in pain. Their skin and muscles were rapidly separating from their bones due to the corrosion of the acid swamp. Fifty to sixty living skeletons suddenly appeared in the acid swamp in the blink of an eye.
"Damn it, avoid those pools of azure smoke!" Troda shouted, then glared furiously at Han Shuo, who was elegantly casting necromantic spells. Troda roared. "Evil necromancer, why are you defying us? I shouldn't have wronged you earlier!"
Han Shuo temporarily stopped singing and looked at Troda with interest. He said softly with a charming smile, "Brettel City is my territory, wouldn't killing and robbing in my territory count as offending me?"
"Haha, so you are the unlucky new city lord. Do you think Brettel City is Seamist City? Do you think that you, a necromancer, can change the situation of such an abandoned place?" Troda taunted Han Shuo after he revealed his identity.
"How will I know if I don't try!" Han Shuo chuckled slightly. He then pointed the skeleton staff in Troda's direction and commanded, "Children, tear them apart!"
The purple eye of the little skeleton riding on a huge undead creature shone with a fierce light. He looked at the undead creatures rushing towards Troda and suddenly patted the undead creature underneath him. This undead creature, which looked like an oversized hedgehog, stretched out three pairs of five-metre-long wings that seemed to be made of azure-coloured rotting flesh. With a flap of its azure wings, the huge undead creature lifted the little skeleton into the sky towards Troda.
This seemed to be the signal for an attack. As the little skeleton and the undead creature took off, the gargoyles that had been circling above quickly flapped their bat-like wings and followed closely behind the giant undead creature, attacking Red Beard Troda's bandits.
Han Shuo hovered in the air, watching the spiky undead creature through a yin demon. He didn't know why, but the dense white bones protruding from its body actually looked quite familiar. After a period of detailed observation through the Yin Demon, Han Shuo suddenly remembered that the little skeleton and earth elite zombie had collected a lot of bone spikes from super-ranked magical beasts. These bone spikes had shimmered with a strange energy, which was actually surprisingly similar to the energy flowing through the spikes on the undead creature.
"Could it be that this undead creature I've never seen before has actually been refined by that little skeleton?" This thought occurred to Han Shuo at random, but he quickly dismissed it as too fanciful. A little skeleton that he had personally refined shouldn't have that kind of special ability.
Don't kill him, I want the leader alive!" Han Shuo suddenly shouted when he saw the little skeleton and the undead creature diving towards Troda.
Han Shuo had learned from Dick that the bandit named Troda had often raided Brettel City in recent years. He was a bandit leader who had amassed an unknown amount of wealth. Han Shuo wanted to make him spit out all the riches his group had looted. Brettel City currently needed a large amount of gold coins, and the two hundred thousand gold coins Han Shuo had brought with him were not enough to continue supporting everything.