Chapter 735: Darkness Falls (II)

Cullen stared at the crystal ball before him, where he clearly saw the battle between the fire and water elements. The inherent confrontations made the fire elemental creatures almost unwilling to listen to his commands. Cullen was no longer furious about the chaotic nature of the fire elemental creatures. Instead, he felt incredibly shocked.

The enemy is so prepared?!

Cullen was mentally prepared for the enemy to retaliate correspondingly after the Fantasy Key to the Fiery Plain was stolen. After all, it proved that the enemy knew what they were doing to activate the summoning stone to create some trouble for him before stealing the Fantasy Key. Moreover, Cullen had considered the high possibility that the enemy had stolen the Fantasy Key in order to deal with the fire elemental creatures from the Fiery Plain. But back then, he only expected the enemy to increase the number of elemental Mages to set up counteractive spells or summon fire elemental creatures in response. However, never did he expect the enemy to hold the Fantasy Key to the water plane of existence!

Come to think of it, since the enemy was aware of the elemental teleportation door, it wasn't surprising that they also had a Fantasy Key. But how did they summon that many water elemental creatures in such a short time? Cullen knew how difficult it was to establish and expand the elemental channels. But now, judging from the water elemental creatures darting out of the surging waves shown inside the crystal ball, the enemy's elemental channel wasn't only stable, but also high in level. This left Cullen baffled because in the previous battle, there were neither reports of the enemy holding onto the Fantasy Key to Silver Ocean nor mentions about them summoning water elemental creatures. On the other hand, they heard that there was a fox-eared young lady who held formidable fire elemental powers, which prompted Cullen to activate the Fantasy Key that led to the Fiery Plain. If the enemy had a Fantasy Key, they should have summoned the water elemental creatures. If he knew that it was the Fantasy Key belonging to the Silver Ocean, he wouldn't have done something so foolish!

Could it be that the enemies built the teleportation door that linked to Silver Ocean after the previous battle? Are you kidding me?! Establishing the channel required a lot of time and it had tougher requirements for high-level ones. This was why Cullen chose to use quantity to make up for quality. If it was possible, he wished to build teleportation doors of the highest level continuously and simply end the war by summoning the ultimate Flame Demon.

But the prerequisite was that the enemy must be patient enough to give him five to ten years to build them and it was obviously impossible.

"What's going on!"

Cullen scanned the crystal ball. After a few moments, he turned to the panicky Schrodinger with a gloomy expression. Schrodinger shuddered in an ashen expression as he sensed the wrath and murderous intent exuding from Cullen's eyes. Schrodinger was equally puzzled over this situation.

"I-I don't know anything, Sir Cullen. I swear that the enemy didn't summon any water elemental creatures in the previous battle. General Vidal and Commander Saiborn can testify it!"

"Hmph! Are you trying to say that the enemy managed to get their hands on such a high-level teleportation door in just a few days?"

Cullen let out a grunt. It seemed that it was meaningless finding trouble with this useless bastard any longer. The advantages and disadvantages in battles were largely due to the collection of intelligence. However, the results of Cullen's intelligence gathering had been terrible. All the scouts, including his Corpse Slave that he sent out, were eliminated. There were also no news from Nell, the group of black-skinned fallen ones, so Cullen supposed that they were murdered. Moreover, there was a dense, extraordinary holy aura in the enemy territory, which kept them away from the fortress. Therefore, the intelligence that he gathered up until this point was all from Simon's battle. Cullen didn't believe that the enemy could come up with huge changes to their forces in a short period of time, but it seemed that he was too naive.

Although both sides seemed to be evenly matched, Cullen was aware that if this continued, the fire elemental creatures on his side would be worn out. Moreover, the distance was also a big problem. The water elemental creatures fought from their doorsteps while the fire elemental summoning door was a distance away from the battlefield. Even if he increased the number of fire elemental creatures summoned, they still wouldn't match up to the water elemental creatures. Cullen had initially planned to use the fire elemental creatures' self-explosion and igniting properties to catch the enemy off guard. But he didn't expect to receive this severe blow from them. If he continued this battle, perhaps his fire elemental summoning door would shut down due to over-exhaustion before he broke the ice barrier.

However, as a military commander, he had to always have the ability to adapt. Otherwise, Undead Creatures wouldn't be this powerful.

"Order the fire elemental creatures to back down and regroup. First, Third, and Fifth legion! Get ready for battle!"

Cullen commanded.

The chaotic battle instantly ended.

The fire elemental creatures suddenly turned around and headed off in the opposite direction. In the blink of an eye, the violent sparks vanished and the dusky, scarlet creatures retreated and left the attacking range of the fortress. On the other hand, Rhode gestured and the water elemental creatures abandoned the thought of giving chase, which was closely tied to their personalities. Water elemental creatures were mostly calm and submissive while fire elemental creatures were rowdy and hot-tempered. Shortly after, the chilly wind swept the fog along and revealed the traces of explosions, burns, and presence of the shimmering Phantom Beasts and Batfishes.

The whole city walls was in complete silence. The soldiers were dumbfounded. They had never expected to witness such a fantasy-like battle. After the fire elemental creatures retreated into the distance, the soldiers broke into loud cheers. Although they weren't involved in the battle, they were fired up by the magnificent scene.

However, Rhode wasn't as delightful as them. He gazed forward coldly.

"Lize, order the Clerics to cast the defensive barrier. Now!"

"Yes, Mr. Rhode!"

Lize turned around and commanded hurriedly. The Clerics scuttled forward and chanted softly in unison, where sacred, complex runes appeared and merged together. Shortly after, a golden spiritual radiance flashed and a translucent barrier emerged over everyone. On the other hand, Agatha and the Ocean Elves stepped back while their tentacles spiraled gracefully in midair to draw azure runes one after another. In the blink of an eye, a new, smooth, solid ice barrier grew over the fortress.

At the same time, sparkling radiances that resembled stars emerged in the darkness on the opposite side.

Those weren't the brilliance of stars. Those were arrows lit up with spiritual flames.

"Ambush—!"

A rain of countless arrows streaked across the dark sky and engulfed the entire fortress. The soldiers lifted their shields and hid behind the walls, only to find the arrows clattering on the invisible, defensive barrier over them. For the time being, all they could do was to take cover and wait for the arrow attack to end.

Rhode stood on the peak of the tower proudly. The arrows that were about to reach him were deflected by an invisible strength. He clasped his sword hilt and narrowed his eyes. Although there seemed to be nothing ahead, he sensed his heart pumping fast because he was familiar with this feeling. In the game, this was a usual scene from his battles with the Undead Creatures and now, the entire battle had set onto the path which he was most familiar with.

The rain of arrows lasted for about six minutes. The soldiers lifted their heads frantically. The ones who fought the Undead Creatures in the previous battle appeared fine. However, it was shocking for the newer soldiers to experience such a terrifying arrow attack. There was an instant when they thought that the arrows were indefinite and they would be buried by them like a wave.

Shortly after, they heard a deep sound from afar.

Boom... Boom...

Boom...

That was the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground and resembled the footsteps of a massive creature approaching them. The soldiers gripped their bow and arrow in anticipation. The Phantom Beasts by the foot of the walls instinctively retreated and gathered while the Batfishes swayed anxiously and let out warnings that ordinary humans couldn't hear.

——Gaaaaa!

The deep night sky was like an invisible creature with its mouth opened wide. Everyone witnessed the twisting night sky transforming into a large burning, scarlet cloud with tens of thousands of Flame Crows howling and soaring in the sky. Not only that, but the flames spreading on the ground also erupted and charged forward like a wave.

But this time, behind them were numerous shadows that were as tall as the city wall. After taking a closer look, they were creatures made of bones and clutched warhammers as they shambled forward. The flat iron plate above both sides of their shoulders, which served as platforms had expanded entirely. They were laid out with lightweight arrows and bows and groups of Ghouls and Skeletal Warriors. Even though, logically speaking, these top-heavy presence would likely lose their balance and crumble in taking one step, Rhode was aware that he couldn't count on science in this world.

"Oh my goodness! What are those!"

Many soldiers yelled in fear and subconsciously stepped back.

At this moment, the Undead Army launched their attacks.

Scarlet flames and crystal clear ice collided again. This time, the fire elemental creatures who had gathered all their strength were matched evenly with Rhode's water elemental creatures. At this moment, a dozen Skeletal Trolls lumbered forward and stood up straight.

Swish!

Skeleton Archers who stood above the Skeletal Trolls' shoulders shot out arrows one after another, which struck the solid, ice city walls. But, the purpose of these arrows wasn't to damage the city walls only. Under the bright flames, pitch-black ropes were also seen attached to them.

"Cut the ropes! Quick! Burn them off!"

The commanders ordered the soldiers to cut off the ropes immediately. But at this moment, another wave of arrows streaked across the sky and overwhelmed them. Not only that, but the dark, shriveled Ghouls had also climbed up the ropes already!