Then, the First Squad's ranged attacks came down.
These were a mix of abilities and physical projectiles—short spears, crossbows, and the like.
The abilities could certainly hurt the Fanged Heavy-Hide Beasts. But one thing was certain: they could not kill them, not even with a direct hit to the head.
As the vanguard, these beasts had top-tier defenses. Even Oliga, with over 50,000 Furelai, throwing a short spear with all his might, could not deliver a fatal blow.
Perhaps a warrior with 70,000 or 80,000 Furelai could.
But when the First Squad's attacks landed, the beasts fell one after another, twitching briefly before dying.
More and more of these long-tusked, mutated lifeforms charged into the "Lu Huai's Spring" formation, and more and more were killed.
In a short time, within that fifteen-meter zone, at least fifty Fanged Heavy-Hide Beast corpses lay piled.
The watching small clan alliance warriors were astonished. They knew it was not that the First Squad's combat power was strong enough to kill the beasts instantly. It had to be the thin mist from the formation.
Their guess was correct. Though Lu Huai's Spring was a small formation, its power and effect were remarkable.
This formation, little regarded by the Su Clan, had likely gone unlearned for many years. Ye Zhongming had once asked Jie Su about it. The answer was that no one in the Su Clan had learned it for centuries. Not only had no one learned it, but the number of people who even knew of its existence could be counted on one hand. Jie Su had only discovered it after Ye Zhongming asked, and he specifically searched for information.
It was an obsolete small support formation from a bygone era, discarded because it was ineffective.
These old, outdated things were the favorites of the Library Palace's scholars.
They had improved it—and transformed it beyond recognition.
The original Lu Huai's Spring had only one function: to slightly slow targets entering the formation, slightly reduce their stamina, and slightly impair their sensory accuracy.
After the scholars' improvements, it became a formation that greatly slowed targets, greatly reduced their stamina, greatly impaired their sensory accuracy, and added a new function: greatly reducing their defenses. Especially if the target had wounds, all effects were further enhanced.
And before Lu Huai's Spring came the wind blades…
Thus, after having these powerful debuffs applied, the Fanged Heavy-Hide Beasts became as fragile as paper. Any attack above Level Nine would kill them instantly.
Those watching were dumbfounded. Since when had these mutated lifeforms become so easy to kill? In the span of half a minute of amazement and admiration, at least two hundred Fanged Heavy-Hide Beasts had been slaughtered before the First Squad.
That area was now filled with corpses. Pushed and jostled by those behind, some were knocked off the path on either side. Those in the middle were pushed into the First Squad's formation, forcing the defense warriors to drag them away and throw them down.
"It's a pity. The First Squad's position is too far forward. Though the path is elevated, the vertical drop from their position is only about 20 meters. Less than a thousand Fanged Heavy-Hide Beast corpses will fill it up. Then they'll have to retreat, or they'll be attacked from the sides."
Lord Star spoke. Though the situation looked good, in reality, the enemy was using their lives to level the playing field.
"Yes, that remarkable formation probably won't last much longer either. Otherwise, it would be truly overpowered."
Duoduo said, watching his son on the front line with concern.
"Let's wait and see. I believe Zhongming will make the right choice."
From the high ground above, the defenders looked down at the battle below but could not help. To provide support, they would need to be closer to the middle or rear of the path. The First Squad was too far away.
"Spread!"
Among the main assault warriors behind the defense warriors, those without ranged abilities began dumping things from their spatial equipment. At first, the observers did not know what it was. But after a moment, they saw that they were metal balls, only about five centimeters in diameter!
No one knew how many had been prepared. In an instant, the path was covered with them. They rolled downward. Any beast that stepped on them lost its footing and fell.
The charge formation of the mutated lifeforms was thrown into disarray!
This worked, too?
The observers were speechless. They were astonished and incredulous at this most primitive of battle tactics.
Such auxiliary methods seemed to belong only to the most ancient era of cold weapons.
But they immediately realized how extraordinary this approach was.
Everyone understood the principle: use the path's slope and the nature of round objects to make the mutated lifeforms lose their footing.
But achieving this was quite demanding.
First, the balls had to be extremely smooth. Otherwise, on a path that was generally flat but detailed with bumps and pits, the balls would not roll well.
Second, they had to be heavy enough that hitting a bump would not bounce them up, rendering them ineffective.
Finally, they had to be sturdy enough that when a beast stepped on them, they would not flatten into discs. That would also be useless. They had to remain round to destabilize the targets.
As the teams behind cleared the corpses off the path, these metal balls took over from the previous formation, delaying the advance.
The demands for the metal balls were high, but for a master craftsman like Ye Zhongming, they were nothing.
The relatively clumsy beasts of the first wave kept falling, lying on the balls, and rolling passively down the slope, taking their comrades down with them.
For the first time since the attack began, a series of clearings appeared below the path.
"Second step!"
Seeing the first step work, Ye Zhongming immediately gave the next order. The same warriors rushed forward, throwing powdered substances onto the path. Ye Zhongming, behind them, also charged forward, waving his hands repeatedly, scattering handfuls of fingernail-sized objects onto the powder.
Then, after finishing, he crouched down, his hands on the ground, channeling waves of energy from his hands into the earth.
With several formations having failed one after another, Ye Zhongming was using his own methods to hold the line.
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