Chapter 654: Wear Down
[V6C184 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Upon detailed observation, Qianye’s accomplishment wasn’t as glorious as it seemed because those he had mowed down were mostly worthless cannon fodder; the damage was fairly limited against regular soldiers. As for those high-ranking warriors, they weren’t the least hindered even if they were struck from such a distance.
But Qianye kept on strafing, mostly targeting the cannon fodder. The gatling gun in his hand swayed from side to side, and this movement seemed to give each bullet its own accurate trajectory toward the target.
Such a divine shooting skill was being used to deal with cannon fodder?
But the true veteran soldiers soon realized what was going on. The cannon fodder weren’t valuable at all and, at most, could be used to deal with civilians and ordinary people. Their only fate was to be slaughtered after rushing into the fortress and encountering the elite guards there. However, high-ranking dark race warriors would hide among the cannon fodder in search of opportunities to launch a lethal blow. Sweeping away the cannon fodder was equal to mowing down the wild grass, their favorite hiding place. This greatly reduced the threat they could pose.
The old veterans immediately followed suit, picking up machine guns or high-caliber sniper rifles and firing at the incoming cannon fodder. The other soldiers didn’t think too much but were quite adept at imitating the seniors. Gunshots rang out atop the fortress wall as a hail of bullets poured down onto the dark race squads.
On Qianye’s side, even seven or eight veterans added together couldn’t catch up to his kill count. These people soon realized just how terrifying Qianye’s marksmanship was.
The dark race cannon fodder fell in droves. There were thousands of corpses behind them by the time they had reached the walls. A bitter struggle of attack and defense ensued as the foremost warrior came into contact with the walls.
The gatling gun barrels were red hot due to the continuous fire and almost unusable now. Even then, there were still a number of soldiers beside Qianye providing him with ammunition. Seeing that the dark races had arrived below the city walls, Qianye tossed the machine gun to one side and kicked open a crate of grenades. He removed the safety pins at lightning speed and, with a sweep of his origin power, sent them scattering down the walls.
“Boom!” Shrapnel flew out in all directions, covering almost every angle below the walls and sending the dark race soldiers reeling. A rank-five werewolf warrior lunged at Qianye, but his body was full of injuries and several pieces of shrapnel could be seen stuck beneath his fur.
Although these grenades were primarily for use against cannon fodder, the condensed explosion increased their firepower exponentially. Even a high-ranking warrior was seriously injured.
The werewolf warrior bared his sharp fangs and bit fiercely at Qianye’s neck. Against such a primitive attack, the latter didn’t even need to look at the target. He simply drew his vampiric blade and stabbed at the werewolf’s heart.
The werewolf’s corpse fell down the wall with a thud. Qianye didn’t bother to draw out the vampiric blade and simply left it in place. At this moment, two more dark race warriors jumped onto the walls. It was just that Qianye had arrived in front of them before they could even find their footing, and a cold gleam flashed in his hands as two vampiric blades entered the invaders’ chests.
For a moment, the dark race warriors outside were all shaken and hesitant to advance. Qianye wasn’t in a rush, either. He jumped down into the fort, retrieved his vampiric blade from the werewolf’s corpse, and duly sheathed it. Then, he leapt back onto the wall and retrieved the other daggers one by one. Only after doing all that did Qianye gaze out into the distance.
The defensive line beneath him was filled with dark race corpses. After tossing down the remains of the three high-ranking warriors, Qianye actually had no more enemies to deal with.
In truth, the three high-ranking warriors and the hundreds of soldiers under them made up a complete combat unit. The cannon fodder made up the bulk of the forces and low-ranking warriors served as the framework of the army, while the high-ranking ones searched for opportunities to kill important enemy characters. The tactic seemed coarse, but it was very practical. Moreover, in the hearts of most Evernight leaders, there was really no need for more complicated strategies. The outcome of the battle would be decided by the experts—that was the perpetual rule since antiquity.
At this moment, Qianye had naturally become the core of a defensive line stretching dozens of meters. In response to his instructions, the soldiers hurriedly brought a new gatling gun and several crates of hand grenades onto the wall. Moreover, some soldiers put the daggers they had collected beside him, and there was no shortage of vampiric blades among them.
Qianye set up the gatling gun and began firing madly. In the blink of an eye, he had half-disabled another combat squad charging toward him. Immediately afterward, he used two crates of hand grenades to clean the floor before fighting the high-ranking warriors. Regardless of their race or level, these enemies couldn’t even evade in front of Qianye and were stabbed one after the other with his vampiric blades.
“It works that way too?” On the neighboring battlefront, Song Zining was dumbfounded as he watched Qianye quietly stab the enemies’ vitals with the vampiric blades, and then pick them back up unhurriedly. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes.
He knew Qianye’s biggest secret. Most imperial generals liked to keep vampiric blades on them merely because they were sharp and beautiful. In Qianye’s hands, however, these blades were able to exhibit their full power!
This also meant that Qianye was collecting essence blood, and he was doing so right under the eyes of all the imperial soldiers. It was precisely because he was doing it so openly that no one suspected him.
Even so, Qianye’s actions were extremely risky, and only Song Zining knew why he was doing it. Qianye had figured out that this battle was going to be incomparably arduous. That was why he was measuring every ounce of strength like a miser and grasping any chance at replenishment.
At this moment, an abnormality occurred in the battle situation in front of Song Zining. Several hundred dark race soldiers under the wall began wandering about like headless flies. These dark race soldiers didn’t respond to attacks and were intent on killing one another.
The seventh young master was standing elegantly on the fort wall and even had the leisure to wave his folding fan. This fan was a new one, no longer that priceless life-saving treasure.
He looked carefree and calm. The dark race soldiers below were trapped in his domain and looked all too easy to kill. However, Song Zining’s origin power was also being drained continuously. Moreover, in terms of effectiveness, it wasn’t at all superior to Qianye’s carpet bombing.
Qianye shot a glance at Song Zining, and he couldn’t help but feel both annoyed and amused to see him posturing in a leisurely manner. Suddenly, he let out a loud roar, “Careful!”
This shout, backed by the power of Qianye’s Oceanic Vortex, jolted Song Zining. The latter was also quite outstanding. He immediately sensed the incoming danger and bent sideways like a broken willow, his feet still firmly planted on the ground. With a loud boom, a fist-sized bullet flew over and brushed past him.
This shot arrived all of a sudden and without prior warning signs. Just from the caliber, one could already see how powerful it was. Song Zining was drenched in cold sweat because he knew he would be injured on the spot if the projectile had found its mark.
The marksman was merely a couple hundred meters away from Song Zining. However, he immediately merged into the dark race horde after firing. It would seem that his concealment skills were quite extraordinary.
Qianye didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Song Zining’s wall-top posturing was simply asking to be shot. Fortunately, he was also a decisive person. He immediately pulled away his white robes to reveal the combat attire underneath. He also tossed the fan to one side and blended into the group of imperial soldiers.
The sniper who had fired at Song Zining just now was a viscount at the very least. That shot was apparently quite costly and could be considered a waste even against an officer. Now that Song Zining had hidden himself among the soldiers, that person could no longer fire again.
Qianye sighed at the assassin’s foolishness. That person would be found out sooner or later under Song Zining’s domain. If he didn’t fire now, there would no longer be another chance, and that was unless he stayed far away from the walls. However, Qianye understood the dark races quite well. The competition and infighting between them could only be worse than those amongst humans. How could these fellows resist the temptation to approach the fort?
Qianye decided to help Song Zining out. With a wave of his hand, a crate of grenades flew over to Song Zining’s defensive line and carpeted a ten-meter area in explosions. This cleared out the entire area and left the few high-ranking warriors sticking out like sore thumbs.
The seventh young master excelled in beating enemies when they were down. He immediately made an appearance and took a step forward. With a light wave of his hands, several floating leaves flickered past the enemy soldiers and slit open their throats.
At this moment, a sudden roar echoed through the dark race army, closely followed by the call of a bugle. What followed was a drastic change in the attacking party.
Countless dark race soldiers and cannon fodder flooded toward Qianye and Song Zining’s defensive line. The assassins hiding within the troops no longer conserved their origin power, either. Sniper rounds started flying toward the two at every moment. There were even assault airships flying in at low-altitudes, immediately putting more strain on the barely sufficient aerial defense.
This all-out attack deprived Qianye and Song Zining of any gap for conversation. The enemy was attacking madly.
Song Zining could no longer conserve his power. His domain was deployed in full force, turning a hundred-meter area around him into a land of death. However, the dark race soldiers kept pouring in without any regard for their lives. Even someone of Song Zining’s finesse couldn’t kill that many enemies in a short time. In the blink of an eye, there were hundreds of dark race soldiers inside his domain, but the problem was that his domain could only trap and not kill.
Song Zining knew he was in trouble. He didn’t even get the time to withdraw his domain before numerous beams of darkness origin power erupted from below. One domain after the other landed on Song Zining’s own, the sudden collision kicking up a tempest of origin power which soon burst out in all directions.
Song Zining’s domain held out for a while but was soon crushed amidst the tempest. He immediately turned pale and spat out a mouthful of blood, badly injured from the forceful destruction of his domain.
The dark race soldiers beneath the walls were also swaying unsteadily. They had also suffered grave casualties from the tempest, and several viscounts had to be dragged away from the battlefield. They had worked together to destroy Song Zining’s domain, but they were also badly wounded in the process and could no longer fight.
However, the dark races held an absolute advantage. Why would they be afraid of a trade when they could replace the lost viscounts with ten new ones?