Chapter 18: Chapter 18: The Battle for the Town
"If it weren't for these gaps, there really would be no way to attack," Fang Jie observed grimly, eyeing the location where fierce battle ensued.
Arrows continued to rain down from above, but the townspeople seemed to lack proficiency in archery, hardly able to hit the skulls of the Skeletons in the thick of the fight. And without a hit to the head, there was basically no impact.
Many mutated soldiers rushed out, engaging in combat with the Skull Soldiers at the breaches.
These mutated soldiers were incredibly strong, possessing great strength, often requiring two or three Skull Soldiers to take down just one local soldier. But the Skull Soldiers were not without use; these Undead feared not death.
Even if it meant dying in droves, they were determined to thrust their Longswords into their opponents' flesh.
Thus, at those cracks, the ground quickly became littered with Corpses.
Some Skull Soldiers, unable to reach their human adversaries, relentlessly assaulted the nearby wooden fences. With each slash, wood chips scattered everywhere.
Those long-neglected fences didn't take long to fall apart, piece by piece.
Subsequently, the contact zone between the Skull Soldiers and the town's soldiers grew wider, and the battle became even more brutal.
Behind the lines, Fang Jie was already busy. Whenever a Skull Soldier fell, he would use the Corpses on the ground to perform a summoning. As he summoned, Fission occurred, and two Skull Soldiers were sent back into the fray.
"Damn it, why are there so many Skeletons? What the hell are you all doing?"
"I don't know, at first it looked like there weren't that many. Can we even hold them back at this rate?"
They hadn't noticed the Skull Soldiers being continuously reinforced, but the enemies before their eyes seemed never to diminish. By now, dozens of their own soldiers had died.
The entire town's military force, initially totaling almost five hundred.
Due to the Lord's decision, quite a few soldiers had rebelled, and after the suppression, now less than three hundred remained.
The remaining soldiers, though beginning their demonic transformations, were still human after all, and still capable of fear. With so many deaths, were it not for their position in the defense of the town, they would have likely collapsed already.
"Damn, quickly inform City Lord Kasi. You there, go now."
The City Defense Officer pointed at someone nearby. The soldier's face was the very picture of despair. Who would want to deliver such news when doing so surely meant trouble? Now with the Lord's mind addled and in a rage, who knew what could happen?
But seeing the City Defense Officer's gaze, and those eyes that almost glowed with a red light, he knew he had no choice but to go.
No matter how much he dragged his feet, he eventually reached the central building in town.
"It's so noisy, what's going on outside, why is it so loud?" Kasi emerged on his own.
Anyone familiar with Kasi would be shocked at the sight, for at that moment, Kasi no longer resembled a normal human being, looking more like a Demon, with horns on his head grown quite large.
"Reporting to the Lord, there are, there are Undead attacking our town."
"Exterminate them, go now."
"But there are many Undead, the exact situation is unclear, and they are almost breaking through."
"Useless, all of them useless. If you can't wipe out that bastard, then just block them for me. Just hold them back for two days. When the great Demon God descends, those damned Undead will surely regret it," Kasi turned and walked towards his room, then suddenly turned back and said, "I need another two hundred people for a blood sacrifice. If you can't find them outside, take them from the town." With that, he entered his room without looking back.
The soldiers looked at one another, but there was nothing to be done at this point.
Soon after, the town erupted in cries and screams. The town's inhabitants, who initially felt nothing, were one by one dragged away by the soldiers amid the crying and screaming, quickly adding up to two hundred.
What awaited them was nothing more than being killed in batches and having their blood drained from their bodies.
However, the battle continued. Part of the city wall, amidst loud noises, collapsed entirely. A great number of Skeletons surged in and began the most brutal slaughter with the soldiers inside.
The sounds of battle frightened those nearby; no one dared to approach, but eventually, the noise began to diminish.
There were undoubtedly other soldiers in the town, but they had scattered. They were living beings, frightened by Death. Seeing an unending tide of Skeletons rushing in, how could they stand their ground?
"Truly a disaster-level event. It's cost so much just to get to this stage."
Fang Jie observed the Magic Power in the Magic Gem; he had already conducted more than three hundred summonings. A total of six hundred Skull Soldiers had failed to deal with all the soldiers inside.
For anyone else, they might have run out of corpses to use. Fang Jie stepped forward, noticing there were not many bodies left. However, the recent battle had yielded even more corpses of higher quality.
While instructing the Skulls to collect the bodies, Fang Jie walked among them, beginning again to summon reinforcements.
"Run, run, the Undead are coming, run!"
The civilians, seeing the Undead rush in and in addition to the deformed soldiers hunting them, could no longer withstand it. A frenzied civilian ran outside, utterly disregarding everything; the Skeletons could kill him with just a casual blow.
But the others watched this individual escape, and the Skull Soldiers seemed to have no intention of attacking him.
Seeing this person flee, others also began to test their luck. When they realized that the Skeletons indeed would not attack them, the civilians could no longer contain themselves. One by one, they fled in a panic, not caring about anything else.
Some began to pack their belongings, or to loot and plunder, seizing the opportunity to make a windfall before running off.
Fang Jie ignored all this as long as the people weren't those transformed by the Demons.
The demonized soldiers couldn't possibly leave the town, as in a sense, they were already controlled. The moment they were discovered, these soldiers would resist and then die at the hands of the Skull Soldiers.
In just a short time, as Fang Jie pushed forward, more and more soldiers died.
By the late night, all the civilians in the town had fled. The remaining few soldiers, about twenty, had retreated to Kasi's residence, shivering as they watched a sea of Skeletons surround them.
"Stop, surround them, don't let anyone escape."
Fang Jie commanded and then hid himself in a civilian house, not wanting to be seen. His elite Skull Soldiers, reduced to a hundred, also concealed themselves nearby for his safety.
The corpses were stacked in a neighboring house; three hundred Skull Soldiers had completely surrounded the Lord Mansion but did not launch an attack.
After replenishing his Skull Soldiers, Fang Jie watched from a distance, waiting for the final moment. In the sky, a scent belonging to the Demon grew heavier and continued to develop toward a Peak.