Chapter 95 - 77: Prairie Fire
Chapter 95: Chapter 77: Prairie Fire
Led by the two legendary heroes, Lin Chenxi and Spectre, the territory’s forces poured out endlessly from the Heaven-Reaching Vine stations near the embattled defensive line.
They quickly dispersed behind the defensive line and began picking off the swarming zombie horde.
"Attention. Do not use high-power attacks. Stall the zombie horde’s advance as much as possible and wait for the Death Devourers to arrive."
Spectre’s voice echoed across the battlefield.
The soldiers received the message and began using their own skills to deal with the zombies.
The fairies had the easiest time. They only needed to attach themselves to injured plants and heal them, which played a significant role in stabilizing the front line.
The elves and other Druids mostly worked together, using joint casting to summon vines that would entangle the zombies, preventing them from advancing another inch.
However, compared to the sheer size of the zombie horde, these vines could only delay their advance for a moment. The casters then had to retreat slightly and re-entangle the zombies at the front.
In order to injure as few zombies as possible, they didn’t even dare to add thorns to the vines.
Meanwhile, the spirits and Extraordinary Animals were also working together to hold back the zombies.
Spirits and Extraordinary Animals of the Wind and Earth Attributes had a relatively easier time blocking the horde.
The Wind Attribute spirits and animals cast spells together, unleashing tornadoes that rampaged through the horde, disrupting their movements. The twisters swept up zombies and scattered them around the defensive line. As long as they weren’t in a large group, the zombies couldn’t form their ladders and were unable to break through.
The Earth Attribute spirits and animals manipulated the ground, creating deep pits in the horde’s path that many zombies fell into. Alternatively, they would erect an Earth Wall maze in the zombies’ way, diverting the horde to more distant areas and relieving pressure on the defensive line.
Some spirits with powerful Mana (high-level, with more energy) could manipulate the earth, turning the ground into an escalator that sent the zombies at the front directly to the back of their own horde.
Spirits and Extraordinary Animals of other attributes could only step forward to kill zombies when absolutely necessary, or bolster their own defenses and act as meat shields.
Through their coordinated efforts, the zombie horde’s advance slowed considerably, and the number of zombies killed was also reduced.
Reflected on the contribution leaderboard, this meant that the score increase for "Anonymous" had slowed down.
[World Chat Channel (788345)]
Zhao Zhaonan: "Anonymous 1’s score increase has slowed down!!"
Mi Qisheng: "He’s losing steam. Guess that’s all he’s got!"
...
And so, some people resumed their mockery and ridicule. Little did they know, Lin Yu’s side was only holding back to prevent the zombies from absorbing energy from their fallen. If they killed too many, he feared an unstoppable zombie hero might emerge that he couldn’t control.
An hour passed like this. The zombie horde broke through more than ten defensive lines. Within the forest, over a dozen slopes made of piled-up zombies formed a spectacular, grotesque sight.
Zombies continued to emerge endlessly from the tall grass. They surged up the slopes made by the zombies in front, driving deep into the heartland of Lin Yu’s border Defensive Array and assaulting his lines.
Moreover, ranged zombies had appeared in the horde. They stood at the top of the zombie slopes, spitting mouthfuls of corpse-poison-laced liquid at the plants and soldiers below.
To dodge the liquid, the soldiers had no choice but to fall back, leaving the plants to be swiftly annihilated.
Then, the swarming zombies, under the cover of the ranged attackers, would continue building up the slope in front of the High Nuts. The ranged zombies would then climb to the new peak and resume spitting their liquid.
This strategy greatly increased the speed at which the zombie horde broke through Lin Yu’s defensive lines.
Fortunately, after an hour of stalling, the territory’s Death Devourers and Withered Messengers arrived in the Northern Territory.
Lin Yu, watching from the Lord’s Mansion, was overjoyed to see the Death Devourers and Withered Messengers emerging from the Heaven-Reaching Vine station. He hurriedly notified Spectre and Lin Chenxi.
The pair heard Lin Yu’s message and rushed to the Heaven-Reaching Vine station to lead the Death Devourers and Withered Messengers to the front line.
More than fifteen thousand Death Devourers spread out along the dozen-kilometer-plus battlefront, enough for more than one Death Devourer to stand on every meter of the line.
Interspersed among the Death Devourers were a number of Withered Messengers. Their purpose was to prevent surprise attacks from powerful enemy units; if an enemy was spotted, they just needed to cast Fear on it, allowing the others to focus their fire.
When the Death Devourers simultaneously activated their innate ability, "Devour Death," a blank zone devoid of any moving zombies appeared before the defensive line.
At first, the zombie horde paid it no mind and continued to press forward. But as soon as they crossed into an invisible zone, they lost all their Death Energy and dropped dead.
The surging horde came to a sudden halt. The zombies at the front stopped moving forward. A few stragglers were pushed from behind, stumbled into the range of the Death Devourers’ ability, and died instantly.
The zombie horde no longer advanced, stopping dead in their tracks. The commander behind them had also noticed the anomaly and hesitated, unsure how to proceed with the attack.
The Death Devourers didn’t give them time to think. After digesting the absorbed Death Energy, they began to advance toward the zombies.
They didn’t walk fast. Every step seemed incredibly heavy, and with each step, countless zombies fell before them.
A commotion broke out in the zombie horde. Some zombies began to retreat, while others stubbornly pushed forward.
The two groups collided, pushing and shoving each other. It even escalated into a conflict, and they started fighting amongst themselves.
Watching this, Lin Yu felt a sense of relief and satisfaction.
"Hahaha! Serves you right for trying to ambush me! Now you’re fighting amongst yourselves! Go on, fight! The more of you die, the better!"
’Eh... zombies... dying... absorbing energy?’
Lin Yu’s celebration was cut short as his heart suddenly tightened. He realized something was wrong with the way things were developing.
The conflict among the zombies grew more intense. Even zombies in the distance that hadn’t been fighting now began to pair off and battle to the death.
’Damn, are they really this decisive?’
"Spectre! Chenxi! Get the Death Devourers to move faster! Those zombies are performing a ’yang gu’!"
Although Spectre and Lin Chenxi didn’t understand what "yang gu" meant, they saw the zombies turning on each other and that some were leveling up in the conflict. They naturally understood the zombies’ intentions.
Seeing that their horde tactics were failing, the zombies planned to level up and advance their ranks on the spot. They were no longer trying to overwhelm Lin Yu with numbers, but rather break through his defenses with high-quality units.
Once they understood, they quickly ordered the Death Devourers to pick up their pace.
The Death Devourers quickened their steps, but they were still much slower than their normal walking speed.
It wasn’t that they were unwilling to move faster, but that with "Devour Death" active, every step they took completely consumed all the deathly aura within the ability’s range.
The sheer number of zombies was overwhelming, especially on those zombie slopes. The layered piles of zombies contained an immense amount of Death Energy (as many zombies in the piles were not yet dead).
This vast amount of Death Energy took time to absorb and convert. Furthermore, since most of the zombies were still alive, absorbing their Death Energy required the Death Devourers to expend extra effort to draw it out of their bodies, which slowed down the absorption speed even more.
Perhaps noticing that all areas the Death Devourers passed through were completely cleansed of any deathly aura, the zombies began a fighting retreat, no longer approaching Lin Yu’s defensive line.
"Stop them! Don’t let them get away!"
"Tornadoes! Hurl those zombies back toward the Death Devourers!"
"Earth Walls! Pits! Create a maze to slow the zombies’ retreat!"
"Full-out attack on the zombies near the Death Devourers! Make sure none of them return!"
...
A stream of commands issued from Spectre and Lin Chenxi, each directing a portion of the forces to prevent the zombies from executing their fighting retreat.
The same tactics originally used to block the horde were now being used to prevent their escape.
Moreover, the Metal, Water, and Fire Attribute spirits and Extraordinary Animals, who had been holding back, were now unleashed.
The zombies in the path of the advancing Death Devourers were bombarded by all sorts of skills and utterly destroyed.
It was much faster for the Death Devourers to directly devour the Death Energy from corpses than to draw it from living zombies.
At the same time, the Death Devourers no longer bothered converting the absorbed Death Energy into their own experience—a process that took some time. Instead, they converted all of it into Life Energy and released it back into the earth, nourishing the land while also neutralizing a portion of the ambient Death Energy.
Thanks to this series of actions, the Death Devourers’ advance finally returned to a normal walking pace.
-----------------
At the border between the forest and the savanna, the neat line separating the two had devolved into a tangled mess.
When the zombies saw the zone of death continuously advancing, they abandoned their infighting and ’yang gu’ ritual, all beginning a slow and steady retreat.
The head-high grass was no longer spitting out zombies; instead, it had become a gluttonous maw, indiscriminately swallowing up any zombies that entered.
By the time the Death Devourers reached the edge of the grass, the zombies had already vanished in an orderly line into its depths.
On the contribution leaderboard, Lin Yu’s points had increased by 1.2 million, reaching a total of 2.88 million. He surpassed Qian Duoduo for second place and was now only 500,000 points behind the number one, Yun Qihao.
[World Chat Channel (788345)]
Zhao Zhaonan: "It’s finally stopped growing. That was so fucking scary!!"
Mi Qisheng: "Sob sob sob, Boss Qian got backstabbed again."
...
The loyal fans of Qian Duoduo and Yun Qihao were still speaking up for their respective idols. One was marveling at Anonymous 1’s rapid score increase while feeling relieved that Yun Qihao was still number one; the other was lamenting that Qian Duoduo had once again been surpassed by Anonymous 1.
The onlookers in the chat group began to speculate on how Anonymous 1 had managed to kill so many zombies on the last day. All sorts of strange theories appeared in the channel, with the idea that Anonymous 1 was a shill being the most popular. Everyone started guessing how Anonymous 1 had contacted the event organizers to become a plant, acting as if it were already a foregone conclusion.
Regardless of what was being said in the chat, Lin Yu looked out at the vast savanna and made a decisive choice: to pull the problem out by its roots.
"Fire Attribute members, set the grass ablaze! Burn all of this damned grass for me!"
"Wind Attribute members, control the winds and spread the fire across the entire savanna!"
"All other members, stay on fire prevention duty! Don’t get caught in the blaze, and make sure the fire doesn’t spread to our own forest."
Lin Yu’s troops immediately began to set the savanna on fire. Destroying nature was something Lin Yu normally wouldn’t want to do.
As a World Tree Lord, this really wasn’t something he should be doing. But who could blame him, when this savanna made it so easy for enemies to hide?
’At worst, after it’s all burned, I’ll just have the Death Devourers spread the Power of Life across this savanna to restore the vegetation.’
Balls of flame ignited the savanna. The wind howled, fanning the flames and spreading them across the plains. Before long, a raging inferno had consumed the entire savanna.
Animals continuously fled from the depths of the savanna, their roars echoing intermittently, interspersed with the low growls of zombies.