Chapter 133 - 103: Not First, But Better
Chapter 133: Chapter 103: Not First, But Better
All who were covered by Aegis gained ten seconds of invincibility. However, not enough of the Holy Knights had returned, so they could only cast Aegis on themselves and one ally.
The Fire Elemental Druids never stopped channeling their magic, and even after the Golden Corps’ War Barrier was broken, they continued to conjure new Fire Meteors.
When the last Fire Elemental Druid ran out of Mana, the Golden Corps’ rear ranks were covered in molten rock. On the ground lay the bodies of Wisdom Priests, Holy Archers, and Temple Guards, burned to black cinders. Many others were wounded and in desperate need of healing.
During the final phase of the Fire Meteor attack, many Wisdom Priests managed to recover and cast individual Protective Divine Techniques. However, many other Wisdom Priests, Holy Archers, and Temple Guards still weren’t effectively protected, or were simply unlucky enough to be struck by multiple Fire Meteors.
After this exchange of volleys, the ranged units on both sides fell silent. Everyone needed to pause and recover their health and energy.
All in all, the Elemental Druids were formidable. They didn’t just trade fire with the Holy Archers; they also went up against the Wisdom Priests. They were essentially fighting two-on-one and holding their own. Of course, their sheer numbers were a big reason for this.
(When Lin Yu adjusted his army’s composition, he not only replaced the Highly Poisonous Bees and Spiny Porcupines but also reduced the number of Shadow Reapers. A small portion of the freed-up slots was used for Corruption Spreaders. The rest were all swapped for Elemental Druids.)
With no ranged units to interfere, the frontline battle reached a fever pitch.
The Temple Guards and War Paladins also began to press their advantage. They unleashed their offensive skills with abandon, completely unconcerned that the Steel-backed Porcupines’ back-spikes would shatter their shield wall.
Sure enough, under the continuous, high-intensity assault, the Steel-backed Porcupines gained a massive amount of charge. A constant barrage of back-spikes burst the shield wall, at which point the Giant Shield Guards immediately deployed a second one. Their abilities were already off cooldown; they had been waiting for this very moment.
The Steel-backed Porcupines were under immense pressure from the attacks of the Temple Guards and War Paladins. Since both enemy types had skills that partially ignored defense, the Porcupines often took a full 30% of the incoming damage, even after their own damage reduction. Coupled with the reflected damage from the Thorn Aura, their health dropped rapidly.
At this moment, the Elemental Druids were all recovering their energy and had no time to cast Healing Magic. The task of replenishing health fell entirely to the Withered Messengers.
To maintain the Steel-backed Porcupines’ health levels, the Withered Messengers were incredibly busy. They constantly drained life from the Giant Shield Guards and transferred it to the Steel-backed Porcupines. Even so, over a hundred Steel-backed Porcupines were beaten into a near-death state and had to retreat to the rear for healing.
The Shadow Reapers would still pass through the shield wall from time to time to ambush members of the Golden Corps. Now, their targets weren’t just limited to the frontline melee units; they also ambushed the Golden Corps’ backline, who were currently resting and healing. This prevented them from recovering undisturbed. In short, their goal was constant harassment, forcing the Golden Corps to remain vigilant and divided.
Amidst the chaos, the previously unnoticed Corruption Spreaders began to make their move.
After attacking for so long, they had left a great deal of their bodily tissue in the ground behind the shield wall. This mass of tissue from the Corruption Spreaders began to attack the Golden Corps members, stealthily infecting them with Corruption.
Some Giant Shield Guards, War Guards, and Temple Guards suddenly noticed their health had inexplicably dropped by a fair amount.
"Oh no, my health is dropping!"
"What’s going on?"
"I don’t know!"
"Mine’s dropping too."
"Oh no, mine too!"
After discovering that many people’s health had dropped, the War Paladins cast Purify on everyone.
Purify cleansed the Corruption status from the Golden Corps.
However, a short while later, the Corruption Spreader tissue spreading beneath their feet resumed its subtle attacks, completely unbeknownst to them.
These attacks were so minor they didn’t even register as taking damage, but they were enough to stealthily reinfect them with the Corruption status.
The constant reapplication of Corruption forced the War Paladins to continuously cast Purify. Eventually, to maintain their auras, they had to stop. After all, the mysterious health drain wasn’t that significant.
Once the Corruption was left unchecked, the special status began to spread.
When all the frontline members of the Golden Corps were infected with Corruption, the situation began to subtly shift.
The first change was that the Corruption Spreaders, not the Steel-backed Porcupines, were now the ones tanking the damage.
Their defense wasn’t high, and they couldn’t mitigate much damage. But since many of the War Paladins’ and Temple Guards’ attacks partially ignored defense, high defense wasn’t that useful anyway.
Their advantage was their high health. After so many days of battle, the Corruption Spreaders’ health was now on par with that of the Steel-backed Porcupines. In fact, some of the more active ones had even more health.
Furthermore, they could absorb the Corruption status to restore their own health. It didn’t matter if they consumed an enemy’s debuff, as that enemy would quickly be reinfected by another unit. There was never any shortage of Corruption to go around.