The student party’s ambush during their “revisit to the old grounds” was sudden.
Soone had set up a spirit energy barrier for disguise here, making it look flawless from the outside just like ordinary jungle scenery, but this couldn’t fool the veteran players who had fought here before.
Cheche was the first to notice the terrain was wrong, then everyone scattered to search for clues and naturally stumbled into the disguised barrier.
As a result, they were imdiately attacked by a quite elite skeleton army.
Unlike those weak skeletons wandering in the Smuggler’s Woods with only decayed bones wielding bone spears and wooden shields, these skeleton soldiers were each wearing armor in neat formation. Although their weapons were also decayed, the malicious spirit light adorning them carried quite nasty death pollution, getting stabbed once would infect you with plague poison.
Though these things were also undead, they were completely different from ghouls.
When ghouls’ bodies are attacked, they are forced to defend and retreat, but skeleton soldiers have no flesh to hinder them, even if their bodies are smashed they can still attack with scattered limbs, and even if only a skull remains it can bite living things in front of it with its teeth.
Their only drawback was that without flesh and tendons to pull, the skeletons’ movent speed wasn’t very fast, and their individual combat power wasn’t as frenzied as ghouls.
But this elite skeleton army now made up for this weakness with their neat formations.
Shield-bearing skeletons in the front protected archers in the back, skeleton cavalry attacked from the flanks, and a few skeleton mages in the center commanded while occasionally throwing large-scale slow spells, stinking cloud spells and war fog to interfere with players’ vision and movent.
These guys would even throw bone spears and javelins for covering fire.
They didn’t act like brainless monsters at all, but rather like a well-trained army, completing the encirclent of the student party within minutes after engagent.
The damn skeleton mages even summoned large swarms of scattered death ravens to blockade the airspace, forcing vampire players to land again whenever they tried to take flight.
“Did we stir up an undead disaster’s nest? What the hell are these things? Can’t Transia get any more sinister? First ghouls, then skeleton soldiers! What’s next? A lich or death knight?”
Surrounded in the woods, Khaki Tony Tai cursed as he stood up, trying to return fire with his musket while using his shield to protect himself, but as soon as he poked his head out he was hit by several bone arrows striking his shield with clanging sounds, making him duck his head back.
He cursed again.
His companions nearby also looked helpless.
Their “revisit to the old grounds” really had no purpose, purely wanting to see where they had fought before. Who knew they would encounter an ambush of this level here?
“At least 200 skeleton soldiers! And all elites.”
Niuniu leaned against his gnoll warlord bone shield looking at the decayed iron spear he had just seized. He examined the Pioneer Army emblem on it and said quietly:
“Confird, these skeleton soldiers should be the Goldflower veteran soldiers who died at the young lady’s hands that night. Damn, have they just been guarding here without moving?”
“The timing is wrong!”
Dump Truck beside him frowned while loading his hunting rifle, saying:
“It’s only been just over a month since our battle in the Smuggler’s Woods. This forest isn’t a closed environnt, with normal temperature and humidity, how could these soldiers’ corpses decay so fast?
Look at them all turned to white bones, can’t see a piece of flesh, and even their armor and weapons have been given weak enchantnts. This was obviously ‘processed’ by others right? If they were naturally awakened undead, they should have beco ghouls instead!
Like what happened in the city sewers, that was the normal situation!”
“This proves that the Blood Claw Clan and the gnoll Hog were plot hooks buried by the developnt team, with the purpose of guiding us back to the Smuggler’s Woods to discover the changes here, thereby leading to subsequent events.”
“Vampire Ranger” Ah Yuen hobbled over holding twin daggers, saying with sparkling eyes:
“I just risked flying up for reconnaissance, though I nearly got knocked down from high altitude by the fierce ravens, but before I fell I still saw a small camp where the skeleton soldiers were guarding, with firelight over there!
This ans there must be people there! Maybe the mastermind behind this random event, damn, making us so miserable, we must catch and kill that bastard!
And maybe we accidentally encountered a very important random event this ti.”
“Whoosh”
As they discussed, a gust of wind blew through the woods, and the huge Astral Manticore descended from the sky, flapping its wings to hover and blow away the surrounding poisonous mist.
It made a fierce pounce to grab a skeleton cavalryman who failed to retreat in ti with its eagle-like claws, carried it into the sky then slamd it down hard like a golden eagle dropping a sheep. The riderless skeleton horse then whinnied once before collapsing on the spot.
With the manticore’s assistance, the trapped student party imdiately launched a counter-charge to drive back the gathered skeleton soldiers again. Then they saw the Astral Manticore carrying Little Rich Brother and Life Is Pretty Good flap its wings to land behind the student party’s defensive position.
Feel You Poor jumped down holding a hunting rifle, quickly moving like a soldier to gather with his good friends.
“Everyone’s providing support outside.”
Little Rich Brother told these unfortunate folks who were surrounded:
“Can you still move? Quick follow to break out, there are too many skeleton soldiers here, and more skeleton armies are coming to reinforce in the woods. We don’t have the nurical advantage and need to reposition.”
“If we could break out we would have charged out already, let tell you, I found sothing inside.”
Ah Yuen told Little Rich Brother about his reconnaissance earlier. After hearing about the camp guarded by skeleton soldiers, Little Rich Brother imdiately raised his eyebrows.
Just then, Life Is Pretty Good suddenly spoke:
“That must be this skeleton army’s control center! Skeleton soldiers, as the lowest level undead creatures, have no thinking ability. They must have soone commanding them to form such fierce and sharp cooperation now. There must be sothing in that camp!
Taking it down might defeat the rampant skeleton armies in the Smuggler’s Woods.”
“Huh? There’s such a theory?”
Cheche widened his eyes as a spirit mage, looking Life Is Pretty Good up and down asking:
“Brother where did you learn this from?”
“There’s an introduction about undead creatures in Lady Tris’s Midnight Book. Unfortunately I chose Trickster when changing professions instead of the undead system’s Coffin Bearer.”
Life Is Pretty Good sighed quite regretfully saying:
“Otherwise these elite skeletons everywhere would be excellent raw materials for undead servants. But I’m just making a suggestion, in the current situation charging at these elite skeleton soldiers is definitely dangerous. However if we retreat now, finding such an opportunity again won’t be so easy.
Those guys hiding behind the scenes will definitely relocate now that they’ve been discovered.”
“What else is there to say? Let’s charge, worst case offline for 3 days right? Brothers who make it out rember to pack up and take away the equipnt of those who die.”
Niuniu stood up holding his shield.
He actually wasn’t afraid of these skeletons at all. His warlord flail and bone shield set had a “Blood Thirst” and “Life Drain” barbarian ritual and attack effect, enough to let him transform into a berserker to fight his way out in desperate situations.
If it weren’t for these jokers dragging him down behind him, Niuniu would have killed his way out alone long ago.
Now getting support, he flexed the blood wings spread on his back and looked at the gloomy sky in the woods again, saying:
“Since we encountered this random event, wouldn’t it be laughable if we don’t get the key quest items? Little Rich Brother please make another trip, have the brothers outside charge in to put pressure on the skeleton army commander. We vampires who can fly will go around from behind.
This wave will deal with those troublemakers properly.”
“Alright.”
Little Rich Brother didn’t mind making another trip, after all he rode the manticore flying high in the sky. Let alone skeleton soldiers’ bone arrows, even spirit magic spells could hardly hit it.
“Old Ho, quick co with .”
Feel You Poor mounted the manticore, calling to his good friend:
“Your level is too low, staying here is useless and will only drag down the brothers.”
“Bullshit! I’m a Trickster okay? My direct combat power may be a bit lacking, but when it cos to survival skills I have plenty, don’t worry about .”
Life Is Pretty Good waved his hand without looking back, indicating Little Rich Brother not to worry needlessly.
Then he waved his staff to cast a darkness spell on himself, stumbling through the incantation quite ineptly making several mistakes, but the spell effect was very good, letting him quickly rge with the surrounding shadows, becoming difficult to observe and detect.
The student party also patiently waited while holding the defensive line.
Rather darkly humorous was that the defense line they were holding was the foxholes and positions that Brother Stick had commanded to be dug during the transport convoy ambush earlier. Who knew this place would co in handy again.
“We’re here! Get ready to charge!”
After an agonizing ten-plus minutes, Little Rich Brother’s reminder sounded in the private chat channel. The student party who had long made preparations all summoned their blood wings. Then they heard waves of clamorous shouts coming from the side, accompanied by spirit impact blasts raising fierce winds dispersing the war fog, as the gathered reinforcents charged in howling.
Leading were three girls and the Blood Rat Gang NPCs, followed by new players who had just entered the ga.
These guys wore white equipnt wielding retainer weapons. Having their first team fight, they were each extrely excited, charging forward with heads down without organization. The sharp-eyed Gugu Chicken even saw a group of gnoll barbarians mixed in the crowd.
ssy and without any tactics, but the position chosen was quite exquisite, right at the rear of the skeleton army, rushing headlong into the archers’ and skeleton mages’ positions to disrupt their blockade of the airspace.
Niuniu with equipnt advantage was the first to fly out enduring the death ravens’ pecking, other student party vampires following closely behind.
After they flew away, several administrative veterans in the sa position also prepared to break out. Half Off With Full Coverage put a hunting rifle into his son’s hands and instructed Vomit Sauce a few words, then jumped out of the trench together with four veteran soldiers guarding him, with Dump Truck and Bulldozer right behind him.
Though they were administrative personnel, they had properly participated in every major battle with Lord Murphy from the establishnt of the Crimson Citadel until now, and didn’t lack combat experience.
Moreover, these three guys’ guards added up to 12 people, with veteran equipnt making these NPCs quite powerful in combat as well.
Holding a hunting rifle, Vomit Sauce’s legs were trembling and his mind was blank, just following his brave father charging forward continuously, frantically firing and reloading when seeing skeletons pouncing.
Only after their team linked up with the supporting players did Vomit Sauce discover he had taken an arrow in the butt. He quickly pulled it out and threw it aside while no one was paying attention, pretending he was unhard to avoid it becoming his black history if discovered.
Though he had only been in the ga for a day, he had heard plenty of others’ “dirt” while being “Deep Sea Mud Beast” on the forums.
“Brother, why are your pants red?”
Border Town Wanderer was swinging a bone knife seized from a skeleton soldier with great enthusiasm when he suddenly saw Vomit Sauce’s pants stained red, imdiately screaming:
“Your butt is injured?”
“No! This is enemy blood that stained my battle armor!”
Vomit Sauce imdiately replied.
Then he saw Border Town Wanderer and Master Ziwei beside him giving subtle looks.
Please!
At least make up a more believable excuse, we’re fighting skeleton soldiers now! Where would blood co from?
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Little Rich Brother’s shout rang out overhead as he yelled:
“We’ve completed our mission, rescued the people, enemy numbers are too many, don’t keep fighting them head-on! Retreat!”
On the other side, the student party who had circled around from behind to raid the camp also fought their way through with difficulty to reach the camp location previously confird by Ah Yuen.
But disappointingly, this camp built on a forest highland was already abandoned.
The camp was in chaos.
Ashes from burned letters still flew about, showing that the person in charge here left in a hurry without ti to take many things.
Cheche and Electronic Snail rushed over to open boxes in the camp, then smiled happily pulling out several bags of coins, while Life Is Pretty Good who had followed all the way from the shadows also found a necromancy spellbook from incompletely burned letters, and there were several weapons with good affixes in the camp’s travel bags.
But that was it.
Niuniu and Pigeon’s expressions were very ugly, feeling this random event they triggered was a complete failure. This feeling of coming up empty was really uncomfortable, like punching cotton.
“The skeleton army is still surrounding, aning the controller hasn’t gone far!”
Life Is Pretty Good looked out at the shadowy battlefield in the woods from this height, turning back to remind the student party:
“If we chase now we might still catch up. You vampires can track life right? Quick sense around, maybe we can still catch that guy’s tail.”
“No use, I already tried.”
Miaomiao Shark shook her head saying:
“There’s no life energy worth tracking here, the person in charge probably wasn’t alive.”
“Let’s go, retreat.”
Pigeon stomped her foot very unwillingly, saying:
“Retreat first then analyze slowly, take away everything we can from here to see if we can piece together so clues. Letting it escape this ti was just an accident! Our Beast Group will guard here from now on, farming Blood Claw gnoll reputation while continuing to search. We don’t believe we can’t catch this guy playing ghost!”
——
“Huff so tenacious! These damn vampires are completely different from the legendary Blood Vultures, how dare they charge in facing 10 tis their numbers? Is this really the courage those midnight-roaming vampire rats could possess?
Pah!
Besides the Blood Pact, are vampires worthy of being associated with the word ‘courage’?”
At the edge of the Smuggler’s Woods, a mysterious figure covered head to toe in a black hood cursed in a low voice as it rode an elaborately decorated skeleton horse through the woods, advancing toward the Foul Swamp.
This guy pulled out a strangely shaped white bone scepter from its bosom, muttering:
“If the command scepter was seized by them, the master would probably skin alive. Ah, have to return to that damn swamp again, I hate that sunless rotting sll there.”
“Well said! I also hate swamps, the mud there always tries every way to dirty my favorite boots. If possible, I wouldn’t want to set foot in swamps in this lifeti, but regrettably, fate doesn’t follow our wishes.”
A voice sounded from behind as if agreeing, then asked with interest:
“However, you’re already dead, do you still have such sensory troubles?”
“!!!”
The figure on the skeleton horse was shocked.
But before it could make another move, crimson spirit energy threads gathered from all directions like a tightened fishing net pulling its entire body off the skeleton horse into the air, then spread its limbs like hanging on a cross under irresistible control.
The command scepter at its waist fell toward the ground but was grabbed by Murphy who jumped out from a silently concealed shadow cloak.
This thing was bone-chilling cold to the touch, that creepy coldness even penetrating into the soul.
Murphy hovered a few inches above the ground.
He raised his head, looking at this person who had been caught red-handed by him and Tris. The vampire lord casually handed the command scepter to Tris who walked out from the shadow cover beside him, then asked this “Corpse Mage” which was very rare in Transia:
“So, you’re from the Foul Swamp? From what you said earlier, there are many of your companions in that swamp? Can you tell what you’re plotting to do in my territory? Also, what exactly is your relationship with the ‘Source’?”
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