Chapter 123 - 100: Golden Corps
Chapter 123: Chapter 100: Golden Corps
Of course, most of the group members were just experimenting, seeing what effects would occur when they injected the Extraordinary energy from their own territories into their soldiers.
Out of curiosity, Lin Yu also spent 10,000 points to buy 10,000 Energy Injectors and ran some experiments using the various Elemental Crystals from his territory.
His territory contained large quantities of the five elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—in the form of Elemental Crystals, as well as a small amount of Wind and Ice Elemental Crystals.
Each could bestow different characteristics upon the soldiers.
Metal: Metallize (enhances defensive power and adds a certain value of damage immunity); Sharpen (enhances attack power and adds a certain amount of defense-ignoring capability); Adamant (enhances both defensive and attack power).
Wood: Regenerate (increases automatic health regeneration); Conceal (hides one’s figure with help from the natural surroundings); Entangle (attacks have a chance to wrap the enemy in vines, immobilizing them).
Water: Restore (enhances automatic energy regeneration); Converge (attacks deal additional Water Element damage, and this damage can stack); Water Illusion (creates illusions using water mist).
Fire: Scorch (attacks deal additional fire element damage, causing the enemy to take burn damage); Fury (enter a frenzied state, mindlessly attacking the enemy with increased attack power and decreased defensive power); Taunt (the enemy is affected by the element, generating extreme enmity toward the skill user).
Earth: Petrify (attacks have a chance to petrify the enemy; once petrified, they are unable to act and their defensive power increases); Burrow (can freely burrow and move underground, though movement speed is reduced while burrowing); Earthen Strength (as long as one’s feet are on the ground, they receive a certain boost to all stats).
Wind: Wind Shear (reduces the defensive power of attacked enemy units, can be stacked); Haste (greatly increases movement speed and attack speed); Slow (attacked enemy units are affected by the wind, reducing their movement speed).
Ice: Chill (reduces the movement speed and attack speed of attacked enemy units; stacking to 10 layers will freeze them for 1 second); Ice Armor (forms a layer of ice armor on the body’s surface, reducing the attacker’s attack speed and having a chance to inflict the Chill effect on them); Cryostasis (freezes oneself in a block of hard ice, greatly increasing defensive power and continuously regenerating health).
When used with an Energy Injector, each type of Elemental Crystal allowed one of three different abilities to be chosen for a buff.
The effects were all quite good, but these enhancements only lasted for one day and could only be applied to a single soldier. Permanently enhancing them or directly adding skills to soldiers from the Recruitment Office would cost far too many points. In Lin Yu’s view, it wasn’t very cost-effective. He might consider it later when he had a lot more points.
Using these characteristics, Lin Yu created Taunting Steel-backed Porcupines, Regenerating Steel-backed Porcupines, Wind-Shearing Highly Poisonous Bees, Sharpened Shadow Reapers, Hasty Spiny Porcupines, Concealed Withered Messengers...
By combining various troop types, he could create legions with even more distinct characteristics.
However, after a few days of playing around with novel combinations, Lin Yu stopped and had his legions return to focusing on their matches.
There were only a few days left in the month, and he needed to save up more points because he had his eye on the Skill Evolution Stones in the exchange list.
These Skill Evolution Stones had the same effect as the rank-up rewards from the Training Camp. They could permanently enhance a troop type by strengthening or adding new skills, and the effect applied to all soldiers of that type (including those available for recruitment in the Recruitment Office).
The only problem was that they were a bit expensive. Even with his undefeated streak, Lin Yu couldn’t afford many. He had to hurry up and farm points. Besides, his current rank was tenth, and the gap between the top thirty wasn’t large. He had a chance to climb a few spots, but he could also be overtaken by those behind him.
One day, after finishing his class at the Jade Sanctuary, Lin Yu was preparing to go to the Wisdom Library to continue his studies.
Just then, a shout came from the direction of the arena.
Lin Yu didn’t think much of it. Such shouts could be heard several times a day, and he had grown used to them.
"My lord, my lord!"
In the distance, Lin Chenxi came jogging over to find him.
"What is it?" Lin Yu was surprised. ’At this time, Lin Chenxi should be honing her skills in the Cosmic Arena or working at the Government Affairs Center. Why is she coming to find me? Don’t tell me something unexpected happened?’
"My lord, our legion has met its match!"
"Eh, isn’t that normal? The porcupines have been getting hard-countered lately. In every match, they can hold their own against the opponent for a while, either getting kited or getting into a brawl."
"My lord, this time is different! Our legion’s opponent is incredibly strong. They’ve run into the Golden Corps."
"?? Is that the all-Mythical Tier legion I’m thinking of?"
"More or less. Let’s go have a look!" After a moment’s thought, Lin Chenxi grabbed Lin Yu and pulled him toward the arena.
The two of them quickly arrived at the arena.
On the outer wall of the arena, a massive screen was broadcasting the Third Legion’s match.
At this moment, the two sides in the match were locked in a stalemate.
The battlefield was a plain, and the Third Legion’s opponent was a very conventional human legion.
In the very front were Giant Shield Warriors, followed by Holy Knights. Behind them were Priests, Longbowmen, and guarding Two-Handed Greatsword Heavy Armor Warriors.
All of them were clad in golden armor that gleamed brightly in the sunlight, truly living up to the name Golden Corps.
"Oh boy, to think we’d run into them!"
Seeing the enemy in the match, their highly recognizable armor immediately allowed Lin Yu to identify them.
This Golden Corps was the legion of the current number one ranked player, Yun Qihao. All its members were units under the Goddess of Wisdom and War: Giant Shield Guards, War Paladins, Wisdom Priests, Holy Archers, and Temple Guardians.
Aside from the Giant Shield Guards, which were a Legendary Tier unit, the other four were Mythical-grade.
Because they could tank, heal, and deal damage, and could also handle all sorts of strange, meta-breaking lineups, they were true pentagonal warriors, far more famous than Lin Yu’s Piggy Corps.
On the screen, the Giant Shield Guards’ massive shields were braced diagonally against the ground. The image of a golden buckler appeared as a shield on the surface of each greatshield, and these connected to each other, linking all the greatshields into a single whole.
The War Paladins standing behind them had golden auras under their feet and wielded long-handled Holy Hammers, which they used to continuously strike the Steel-backed Porcupines over the shield wall.
The Steel-backed Porcupines turned their backs, tanking the hits while charging up their backs to fire volleys of barbs. The Spiny Porcupines were also diligently firing their spines, attacking the shield wall.
In a one-on-one fight, a Giant Shield Guard would definitely not be able to withstand the rain of barbs from the Steel-backed and Spiny Porcupines. However, this was a legion battle. With the Giant Shield Guards using all their skills, plus the aura buffs from the War Paladins and the buffs from the Commanding Priests behind them, they had no fear of the Steel-backed Porcupines’ attacks.
The Giant Shield Guards’ shield wall generates a shield with ten times their base Defense Power. The Giant Shield Guards themselves have a passive skill that triples their own Defense Power, so the resulting shield has a value equivalent to thirty times a Giant Shield Guard’s normal defense.
Under the effect of another one of the Giant Shield Guards’ skills, "Shield Wall Link," these shields connect to form a single entity, sharing their shield values and damage taken.
In other words, damage dealt to any point on the shield wall would be distributed among all the Giant Shield Guards.
Finally, the Shield Guards also possessed a "Shield Charge" skill, which passively regenerated their shield value and could also be used actively with energy to restore it.
As a result, as long as the damage dealt in a short period of time didn’t exceed the total shield value of the entire shield wall, the wall would not be broken and could even gradually recover.
Meanwhile, the War Paladins had several auras active at their feet, which included:
Courage Aura: Enhances the attack and defense of allies within 10 meters.
Thorn Aura: When allies within 10 meters are attacked, 4% of the damage is reflected back to the attacker (calculated before damage reduction).
Rock Aura: Enhances the Defense Power of allies within 10 meters and grants immunity to damage from attacks with an attack power less than 1% of the target’s defense value.
Furthermore, under the effect of the War Paladins’ "Sacred Link," these auras could stack with each other. Each friendly unit was benefiting from the aura buffs of at least a dozen War Paladins.
Finally, there were the various buffs from the Wisdom Priests:
"Gushing Spring," which increased the Giant Shield Guards’ energy regeneration rate.
"Divine Grace’s Protection," which further enhanced the Giant Shield Guards’ Defense Power.
"Sacred Regeneration," which allowed the Giant Shield Guards to continuously regenerate health.
After this series of enhancements, the Giant Shield Guards had truly become an unbreakable shield wall.
Faced with such a shield wall, an ordinary legion couldn’t even dream of breaking through.
Even the Steel-backed Porcupines felt powerless against such a shield wall. Even with the Spiny Porcupines behind them, their combined damage output temporarily couldn’t keep up with the rate at which the Giant Shield Guards were regenerating their shield value.
Moreover, the War Paladins behind the Giant Shield Guards possessed the "Divine Strike" ability, which gave them a chance to deal holy damage.
Holy damage could ignore defense and deal full damage directly to the target.
This type of attack prevented the Steel-backed Porcupines’ back-plate damage reduction from taking effect.
Fortunately, however, the trigger chance for holy damage was not high, and the Steel-backed Porcupines could still absorb energy from their attacks to charge up and fire their barbs.
On the screen, the ranged units on both sides made no other moves, tacitly watching their vanguards clash.
However, Amuti had sneakily dispatched the Highly Poisonous Bees and Shadow Reapers to surround the Golden Corps’ ranged units, intending to find an opportunity for a surprise attack.
At the front line, the Steel-backed Porcupines had endured numerous hits and, combined with their own charging, had fired many waves of barbs. When these barbs hit the shield wall, setting aside the question of how much damage they dealt, the porcupines themselves had to endure a wave of reflected damage from the shield wall. This damage couldn’t be mitigated by their backs, making the Steel-backed Porcupines extremely uncomfortable.
However, as more and more barbs stuck into the shield wall, the stacking damage from the barbs grew higher and higher.
Finally, after a 10-minute stalemate, the Giant Shield Guards’ shield wall shattered before the astonished eyes of the Golden Corps’ members. This was an unprecedented event for them this month.
In all their previous battles, no opposing legion had ever been able to break their shield wall. Many legions had been killed off by the reflected damage just from attacking it.
As for the legions that tried to bypass the shield wall and attack their ranged units, their fate was even worse.
The three unit types in the back were all Mythical Tier, with numerous skills and high stats. Attacking them was nothing short of a suicide mission.
Seeing the shield wall finally broken, the Steel-backed Porcupines eagerly pressed their advantage, firing another wave of barbs. The Spiny Porcupines also coordinated with a volley of their own. A dense cloud of spines fell from the sky like a dark storm cloud, covering the area where the Giant Shield Guards and War Paladins stood.