Chapter 738 - Darkness Falls (V) (1/2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Cullen felt like his army’s assault was rather comical this time, where they attacked aggressively, but retreated with their heads held low. He expected a strong start, but not a weak finish. If he was leading a human army, perhaps their morale would have fallen to rock bottom by now. However, just as Rhode expected, the Undead Army didn’t have morale at all. They had no frustrations, negative emotions, and feared nothing—because they were the personification of despair.
Even though Cullen had a hard time in his battles, the other Undead Generals didn’t laugh in his face. The emergence of an ancient heritage was totally unexpected and not even ten Cullens could resist the strength that came from its origin. It was especially so when they looked up at the golden radiance enveloping the entire sky. No matter what, every creature would respect it regardless of positions.
But respect wasn’t an excuse for failure.
Cullen sat before his desk and stared at the military sand table in silence. The pitch-black chess pieces had retreated and were positioned far away from their target. He pushed forward his shriveled right hand which held the Undead Army flag and saw the other black flags crumbling. But he didn’t stop. He continued to push and repeat this motion. Every time he repeated the motion, the spiritual flames in his eyes burned ever brighter. In the end, he revealed a sinister smile.
He had to admit that the young human indeed was capable to not activate the holy spears from the start. Instead, he lured them in and only activated them after they arrived at the foot of his fortress. Besides, he also understood the weakness of the holy spears—the time to charge up, which was why launched them in intervals. However, the weaknesses were concealed in the advantages. On the surface, the ancient heritage was threatening. But there was also a problem… Why did that human activate the ancient heritage at that moment?
“Why did I activate the holy spears at that moment?”
Rhode descended the flight of stairs in the dark underground tunnel. The flames burning on the torches cast distorted shadow behind him. He answered Lize’s question without turning back.
“Yes, Mr. Rhode. The holy spears are our strongest trump cards. The Undead Creatures may have retreated, but honestly speaking, we didn’t deal too much damage to them. We did a rough estimation and found out that only about ten thousand of them are eliminated. If it is as what you’ve mentioned, there are many more enemies than this. Isn’t it a little too… reckless?”
“You’re right about that. But we have no other choice.”
Rhode shrugged.
“We don’t have enough Clerics to handle their attacks and currently, only Marlene and Serena are formidable spell casters apart from Bubble and Canary. But what can they do? There is easily a whole bunch of them in the Undead Army with similar standard. At this point, Marlene and Serena are unable to deal massive damage to the enemies.”
“Not only that, but Bubble and I also have to prepare ourselves in dealing with the Night Wyvern’s attack. We have to conserve our strength before that.”
Canary approached them and continued Rhode’s sentence
“Defending the fortress is an uninteresting matter. It is especially so in this situation. We can’t come up with too many strategies like the battles between two armies. The enemies aren’t humans and their determination is as strong as steel. Ordinary strategies won’t work on them. Since that’s the case, we can only meet force with force and frankly speaking, we may not be able to defeat them. Lize, I guess you’re aware that if Bubble and I don’t show up and if Rhode didn’t activate the holy spears, your Clerics would have a hard time dealing with the enemies.”
“…”
Lize and Marlene fell into silence. In fact, that was the truth. They lacked too much manpower. In the two battles, most of the soldiers didn’t contribute much and mostly relied on Rhode and his powerful trump cards. The first clash ended with Orchid Heart, Canary, and Mini Bubble Gum joining forces. This time, they relied on the Holy Maiden Statues to strike off the Undead Army while the others above the city walls were more like bystanders who cleaned up the remaining Undead Creatures.
“What other choices do we have? The soldiers are too weak.”
Mini Bubble Gum shot her mouth off.
“If this were in the past… No matter how many skeletons climbed over the walls, we would slaughter them all. But, there are really too few soldiers here. If the enemies were to climb up and overwhelmed the soldiers, this fortress would have become theirs. This is why Leader beat his brains out to keep the battle outside the fortress. You people should be glad that you’re not the main attacking force. If you are, that means that Leader’s fortress will be doomed entirely. How can you take on that many enemies? We would have been buried to death by them.”
“…”
Marlene knitted her brows, but she wasn’t offended by Mini Bubble Gum. The truth was that they lacked too many manpower. Perhaps they had the Battle Angel Army and Magic Fleet as backing, but Rhode had told them that trump cards must be revealed one by one. They wouldn’t scare the enemies away if he revealed them simultaneously. But…
“But if that’s the case, our weaknesses were exposed to the enemies. Normally, wide-range spells are essential during such battles. But, we didn’t do so and activated the holy spears instead. This equals to telling the enemies that we have a lack of spell casters…”
Marlene clenched her fists and felt cold sweat in her palms.
“But… The enemy must have investigated beforehand and if they have records of our previous battle, they should be aware that there are two legendary spell casters in the fortress.”
“Yes, but Bubble and I didn’t attack.”
Canary shook her head. Her smiling eyes glinted with some cheekiness.
“Why?”