Chapter 124 - 101: The Battered Piggies
Chapter 124: Chapter 101: The Battered Piggies
The Giant Shield Guards quickly raised their massive shields, protecting themselves and the War Paladins behind them.
TING! TING! TING!~~
A series of crisp taps echoed as the spikes fired by the porcupines collided with the massive shields.
The Giant Shield Guards’ shields were enormous, covering most of their own bodies and those of the War Paladins. The spikes from the Spiny Porcupines could not penetrate such a defense.
However, the barbs fired by the Steel-backed Porcupines proved more effective. Due to the close range, they had greater penetrating power. Moreover, the Giant Shield Guards had hesitated for a moment at the start and reacted too slowly. Consequently, many of the Steel-backed Porcupines’ barbs dug into the Giant Shield Guards and War Paladins, siphoning a wave of blood and nudging the porcupines’ precarious health bars upward.
Having recovered some health, the Steel-backed Porcupines grew emboldened. They immediately drew upon what little energy they had left to recharge, unleashing another volley alongside the Spiny Porcupines.
They were confident that this time, with the accumulated damage, the Steel-backed Porcupines would achieve a greater result and recover even more health.
Amid the rain of black spikes, accompanied by cries of "Sanctuary!", a brilliant light erupted from the ground.
When the rain of spikes landed, much to the surprise of the Steel-backed Porcupines, neither the Giant Shield Guards nor the War Paladins had taken any damage.
They were each enveloped in a shimmering barrier, which had blocked all the attacks.
A few seconds later, the barriers flickered once and vanished.
The Steel-backed Porcupines immediately began to recharge for another volley of barbs, just as the Spiny Porcupines’ spikes once again flew through the air.
"Shield Wall!!"
A great shout came from among the Giant Shield Guards.
Sanctuary: Simultaneously provides a protective effect to oneself and one friendly unit.
The Sanctuary effect didn’t just grant them ten seconds of invincibility and restore their health, energy, and status. Most critically, it reset all their skill cooldowns to zero (with the exception of special skills like Sanctuary itself). This was the War Paladins’ ultimate ability, and it consumed a vast amount of energy.
The Giant Shield Guards planted their shields into the ground once more. Golden barriers of energy emerged from the shields, expanding and linking together until a massive shield wall materialized before everyone’s eyes yet again.
Lin Yu watched, dumbfounded. He could already imagine how broadly Yun Qihao would be smiling if he saw this.
The porcupines fired several more volleys in frustration, but the shield wall didn’t budge. It was indistinguishable from the previous one; breaking it again would require another period of accumulated damage.
Amuti’s expression was grim. ’The enemy’s front-line tanks are unexpectedly tenacious.’ The barbs of his legendary-quality Steel-backed Porcupines had been countered, mainly because the barbs couldn’t siphon health when they hit shields.
Now, the Steel-backed Porcupines were once again trapped in a futile cycle of taking damage while shooting at the shield wall.
Only this time, their health was not as high as it was at the start. It was highly unlikely they could last long enough to shatter the shield wall a second time.
"We should go. Let’s help the porcupines. If no one helps them, they’ll be dead soon. It’s time to show what we can do."
Amuti spoke with absolute confidence, but deep down, he was extremely worried.
In battles like this, whoever showed their hand first was at a disadvantage.
The enemy still had three other unit types that hadn’t made a move. Judging by their gleaming golden armor alone, they were clearly not to be underestimated.
As for his own forces, the primary roles of the Highly Poisonous Bees and Shadow Reapers were surprise attacks and scouting. They were effective when he had the advantage, but much harder to utilize when fighting from behind.
Deploying his Withered Messengers now was tantamount to playing his trump card. If the results were poor, this battle would be lost.
The Withered Messengers slowly advanced to a position just over ninety meters from the Steel-backed Porcupines.
This distance would allow their "Life Link" to connect to both the Steel-backed Porcupines and the Giant Shield Guards, while keeping the Messengers safe from enemy ranged attacks.
Green Energy Chains began to appear, stretching from the Withered Messengers toward the battle zone.
Some of the chains connected to the Steel-backed Porcupines, while others latched onto the Giant Shield Guards.
The Life Link continuously siphoned life force from the Giant Shield Guards, which was then transferred by the Withered Messengers to the Steel-backed Porcupines.
The depleted health of the Steel-backed Porcupines began to recover, rising steadily.
At first, the Giant Shield Guards didn’t know what these green Energy Chains were, but since they came from the enemy, they were obviously a bad thing. However, they were unable to move while maintaining the Shield Wall, so they could only let the chains connect to them.
"Brothers, a little help! Get these chains off us!"
Some of the Giant Shield Guards shouted to the War Paladins behind them.
In truth, they didn’t need to shout. The moment the War Paladins saw the Energy Chains, they had already begun preparing the relevant Divine Arts.
"Purify!!"
"Purify" was a Divine Art used to remove negative status effects from the body, but since the Life Link didn’t count as a negative status, the spell had no effect.
Next, the War Paladins tested several other Divine Arts, finally discovering that only "Absolution" could sever the green Energy Chains.
"Absolution!!!"
Having discovered which Divine Art was effective, the War Paladins began casting the resource-intensive spell one after another.
All of the "Life Links" connected to the Giant Shield Guards were severed.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. By this point, some of the Giant Shield Guards had also figured out the effect of the "Life Link."