Chapter 654: Wear Down (1/2)

[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.