Chapter 8 (2/2)

This shield didn’t last long, and strong magical forces quickly assembled from all directions and offset it. In no more than an hour, the golden shield had been completely eroded by the magic, and the roots of the vines had withered and turned into dark wood chips.

“No wonder they have to keep a circle of vines near the village, which seems to be for defensive purposes,” Sui Xiong muttered. “These villagers are indeed the type of people who are well-prepared to live in the black woods.”

With this thought, he couldn’t help but worry a bit. If the villagers could easily defeat this strong magical enemy, then he wouldn’t have the chance to present himself to them. If he couldn’t wait for the right opportunity, his first contact with the villagers would be far less simple.

However, Sui Xiong soon realized that his fears were unnecessary. The magic power gathered around the village was getting stronger and thicker, and more and more skeletons were rising from underground. Soon there were tens of thousands of them. Seeing this horrible number, it was clear that no matter how comprehensive a defense the village had prepared, it would inevitably face a bitter fight. His chance of presenting himself to the villagers would soon come.

Tens of thousands was a wonderful word. When it appeared in storybooks, children wouldn’t bat an eye. But when confronted with this number in person, even the mightiest soldier would be shocked. When followed by the word “enemies”, it made people desperate.

The thick magic power kept condensing and eroded the shield formed by the row of vines closest to the village. The unharvested vines formed a protective cover much better than the ones formed only by roots. Nonetheless, it was defeated soon after facing the endless magic backed by the black woods, and it too turned into black wooden chips. In fact, it lasted even less time than the shield formed by the roots.

Perhaps this was the reason why the villagers only left a small circle of vines: the dark magic would cohere together faster and faster and overpower them no matter what. Even if all the vines were left intact to form shields, they wouldn’t last long, so there was no point in preserving all the vines in the farmland (and wasting all of their food). For these villagers who were far from wealthy, this waste was obviously not allowed.

Although a failed battle would mostly mean death for them, lack of food in the weird black woods apparently also resulted in death. If the only result was death, then it was far more enjoyable to die fighting in battle than die of hunger. If one could only choose between the two, surely most people would want to fight until death after eating and drinking like a hero, rather than being exhausted from hunger and coldness and finally dying in despair.

As the ancient Chinese said, if the people do not fear death, then why scare them with death? When ordinary people could choose only between dying of starvation or of a fight, the threat of government suppression by military means was no longer an effective deterrent to them, and their next plan of action would be far more revolutionary.

This token of wisdom, no matter which world it came from, was universal.

Due to his blind and disorderly speculation, Sui Xiong found that he’d been distracted for some time. When he recovered his senses, he found that the battle had already started.

Countless skeletons, like a black tide, were flocking to and surrounding the entire village. They continuously attacked the wooden fences protecting the village. Although the strength of each hit was minor compared to the solid wooden fences, it would only be a matter of time before the fences collapsed with the accumulation of so many hits.

The villagers were constantly attacking the skeletons with lit firewood. The wood itself caused negligible damage; the flame was what really hurt them. Whenever the flame hit the skeletons, they would retreat as if they were badly burned. If they couldn’t escape, their body would tremble slightly, and the burnt part would fade a bit. It was like being burnt by the sun, albeit a lot worse.

Over time, a thick layer of bones piled up on the ground around the fences. The bones were a light grey color. This meant that the magic motivating them to stand and act as skeletons had dissipated, and at least for a short period of time, they wouldn’t turn into those frightening creatures.

Judging by the quantity of bones, the villagers’ fight was still very effective. However, when Sui Xiong looked at the entire battlefield, he couldn’t help but feel pessimistic about their situation. The number of skeletons didn’t seem to have decreased at all.

He used his psychic perception to observe the underground areas and found that the skeletons were in fact still generating continuously, constantly surfacing one after the other. With the inexhaustible power of the dark magic behind them, the only thing that could limit their quantity was the space that accommodated them.

What the villagers were fighting against was not “thousands of enemies”, but “thousands of enemies with countless reinforcements”.

Simply put, their opponents were endless enemies. There was no chance of victory in this battle.