Chapter 15: Deadly Attack
Once they could no longer maintain their strength to quickly clear the approaching aberrant murlocs…
The creatures would begin to trample over their fallen comrades, climbing over the shields and breaking through the defense line.
Ralph, the steward, keenly noticed this and took a deep breath before shouting:
"Good job, everyone, keep holding on! We just found at least three pieces of material; everyone will get 10 silver coins each, so keep pushing!"
Ralph's voice carried a strange power, inspiring the soldiers who heard him, and they felt new strength surge within them.
The exhausted cart drivers also felt their energy return.
The rangers on the rooftops, armed with bows, focused their arrows on the larger, more dangerous aberrant murlocs.
These more powerful murlocs, pressed in by their comrades, could barely move, and they were quickly picked off by the concentrated volleys of arrows.
Under the influence of multiple factors, the battle line gradually stabilized.
In just a few short minutes, over 400 aberrant murlocs had lost nearly a third of their number in clashes with the shield wall.
Blood soaked the mud, seeping through the defensive lines of shields and carts, and from above, it looked like a red tide slowly engulfing the convoy.
Angela, commanding the battle, kept a wary eye on the ever-growing pile of corpses.
Soon, the bodies would form a slope.
Once the murlocs could climb over the pile, they would bypass the shields and directly attack the soldiers holding them!
"Don't hesitate!"
The familiar voice of her lord suddenly reached her ears, and Angela turned to see Matthew nodding at her.
Beneath his silver-white metal mask, a bright smile played across Matthew's lips.
"Front line, retreat! Throw the oil casks!"
Crackling sounds followed as the flammable oil spilled across the bloody ground.
The red aberrant murlocs, crawling and pushing through the mud, were quickly soaked in the blackened oil.
The soldiers, following the lord's orders, cleared the murlocs in front of them with their spears and quickly pulled back, shields in hand.
Simultaneously, several flaming arrows fell onto the oil-soaked ground.
Fwoosh!
Flames burst forth, immediately engulfing the murlocs in front of them.
A towering wall of fire rose up in the marshland.
Though the murlocs felt no pain, their survival instincts kicked in as they frantically tried to escape the flames, spreading the burning oil and fire even further, consuming nearly all the murlocs in front of them.
They didn't make it far. Their small, thin bodies were soon devoured by the inferno, burning to ash in the intense heat.
As the soldiers retreated under Angela's command, they quickly inspected their gear for damage and formed a new defensive line.
Through his green-tinted goggles, Matthew watched the flames reflect off the crimson mist, feeling the heat even through his mask.
With that one move, over 80 murlocs had been burned to death, but there were still around 200 aberrant murlocs remaining.
The situation, which should have been easing, caused Matthew to frown as the real-time status displayed a sudden, eerie change in the remaining murlocs.
"Deep Corruption, Berserk Aberrant State, Challenge Rating 2+! → 3+!"
Their bodies became more twisted, and their once bloated fish-like forms began to thin out, with their limbs growing long and bony, sprouting sharp spikes.
With the collective rise in their challenge ratings, Matthew sensed something dire.
"What's happening?"
"Is this some temporary state or the result of being provoked by the deaths of their comrades?"
"No, even 20 years later, I never saw anything like this…"
At that moment…
An overwhelming pressure suddenly surged from the sky.
Matthew looked up, feeling an indescribable sense of danger flooding his mind.
All he could see was the eternally looming blood moon!
The terrifying pressure passed in an instant, as if it had never been there.
"Ding, Willpower check initiated. Willpower check passed!"
The clear, flashing notification, along with the now-alerted Yaya, confirmed to Matthew that something critical had just happened.
The regular soldiers remained oblivious, but the aberrant creatures had undergone a noticeable change.
"It must be something with the Crimson Moon, something crucial."
"Perhaps this change is why the Crimson Moon's influence began to decline over the next 20 years…"
"Which means that after tonight, the dangers brought by the Crimson Moon will gradually diminish for quite some time…"
"But that doesn't help us right now…"
Matthew's gaze remained on the now more powerful aberrant murlocs, their strength increased as if they had consumed some strange mutation elixir. He felt a headache coming on.
Crunch!
Crack! Crack!
The aberrant murlocs slammed into the wooden shields, their impacts growing stronger and stronger.
Although they hadn't yet breached the defenses, the pressure on the soldiers was mounting.
As the snarling faces of the aberrant creatures and their deafening roars grew closer, some of the soldiers began to falter.
Especially as the wooden shields started to splinter under the murlocs' claws, forcing Old John and Captain Sean to quickly step in, dispatching the murlocs trying to slip through the gaps.
They had to call in reserve spearmen to hold these weak points.
But soon, even the rear of the carts, which were slightly less durable than the shields, began to be torn apart by the murlocs.
Despite the seemingly small increase in their challenge rating, the murlocs' destructive power had escalated dramatically.
Their mutated claws, now bristling with bone spikes, could cause significant damage to the wooden shields, and with sustained attacks, the shields were at risk of breaking completely.
The situation quickly became critical. The previously solid defense line was now teetering on the brink of collapse.
The spearmen and cart drivers, whose morale had begun to wane, were starting to panic.
"The original battle plan is no longer effective. We have to eliminate these aberrant murlocs as quickly as possible!"
"The longer this drags on, the more terrifying they'll become…"
With that realization, Matthew could no longer stand idle. He once again felt the eerie weight of misfortune pressing down on him!
His scattered thoughts began to focus, and Matthew tore open a scroll. A powerful fireball formed before him, flying forward amidst the soldiers' cheers.
Ralph, ever observant, noticed with delight that the fireball summoned from the scroll was slightly smaller and slower than the one Matthew had cast earlier.
This discovery thrilled the old steward!
Boom!
The swirling fireball exploded among the murlocs on the left, and though its power wasn't as strong as the one Matthew had cast himself, the density of the murlocs allowed it to still rip apart more than 30 of them. The pressure on the left side dropped significantly.
The second fireball soon followed, crashing into the right side. The resulting explosion opened up a large gap in the dense crowd of murlocs.
Seizing the opportunity, Angela directed the front-line spearmen and shield-bearers to reinforce the rear, rebuilding the defenses just as the murlocs were about to tear through the shields.
The faltering defense line regained its stability. Angela immediately ordered the soldiers to replace their damaged shields, personally stepping in to decapitate any murlocs that had slipped through.
The soldiers who had retreated from the brink of death wiped cold sweat from their brows, checking their gear while glancing with admiration at their lord on the cart.
But just then, something shocking happened that made everyone freeze in horror!
Leon, who had just stepped back to rest, suddenly leaped up, raising his blood-stained sword, and slashed it down toward their beloved lord!
The unexpected attack took everyone by surprise!