A ghost knight clad in heavy black armor rode a skeletal warhorse with ghostly blue soul fire burning in its eye sockets, galloping wildly up the steep spine of a bone serpent.
It gripped a two-meter-long, jet-black lance tightly in its hand, the tip of which carried a chilling wind of death.
Riding on the terrifying momentum of their charging warhorses, they tore through the Crusaders' newly established iron defenses like a black lightning bolt.
"Bang!"
A Crusader soldier who reacted a little slower was hit head-on by a lance.
He was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the stone wall inside the city wall. He was unconscious when he landed.
The soldiers in the back row immediately moved forward and filled the gap that had been torn open.
The undead knight, having landed a successful blow, did not pause for a moment. His skeletal warhorse let out a mournful neigh, reared up, and stomped down with tremendous force on the leading dark gray chainmail man.
Faced with this sudden and deadly attack, the leader remained unfazed.
He did not retreat, but gripped the hilt of the broadsword tightly with both hands, and the pale white holy light flowing on the blade suddenly surged at this moment.
Facing the thrusting lances and the pounding hooves of the horses, they advanced instead of retreating.
"clang!!!"
A deafening metallic clang exploded on the city wall.
The broadsword struck the shaft of the lance precisely behind the tip, and the shockwave from the collision of holy light and death energy spread outwards, causing the two approaching skeleton soldiers to stagger backwards.
The undead knight's lance was jolted off course by the sword strike, grazing the man's shoulder armor.
Using the recoil from the sword, the man slid back half a step, gripping the hilt tightly with both hands, his tiger's mouth slightly numb.
The undead knight lost his balance due to the attack, and the skeletal warhorse's forehooves were forced to deflect, breaking the momentum of the charge.
Seizing the moment, the man exerted force with his feet, and the holy light on the sword surged once more, sweeping out to meet the warhorse's side of the neck.
A crisp cracking sound rang out as the warhorse's head, along with half of its spine, was severed. The massive carcass collapsed with a crash, hurling the undead knight violently to the ground.
The undead knight reacted extremely quickly, bracing himself with one hand the moment he landed, while his other hand reached for the bone blade at his waist.
As it flipped and leaped into the air, the bone blade had already spun half a circle in its hand, slashing out horizontally with a chilling aura of death.
The man raised his sword to parry, and the two weapons clashed again, sparks flying. The bone blade drew a blinding line of light on the broadsword, but it failed to break through the protection of the holy light.
The two fought several rounds of combat on the narrow section of the city wall.
The undead knight's bone blade was swift and cunning, each strike aimed directly at the gaps in the man's armor.
The man's broadsword was steady and heavy, and the holy light on the sword corroded the edge of the bone blade with each collision.
In the third round, the man seized the opportunity when the undead knight sheathed his sword and went back to defend. He pressed down with his sword, pinning the tip of the bone blade down, and then lowered his shoulder and thrust forward, completely shattering the knight's center of gravity.
The undead knight staggered backward, and the man gave it no further chance to recover.
The broadsword twirled in the air in a sharp arc before slashing down diagonally from the upper right.
The undead knight raised his bone blade in an attempt to block, but the continuous impacts had already caused cracks to spread along the edges of the blade, and the erosion of the holy light finally crushed it with the last blow.
"Snap!"
The bone blade snapped in two, but the broadsword continued its momentum, cleaving the undead knight and his armor in two.
Two dark, ghostly flames let out a mournful cry amidst the sword light before extinguishing completely, leaving behind only shattered black armor and white bones.
The defenders on the city wall erupted in thunderous cheers. Their morale, which had been somewhat shaken by the breach being torn open, was reignited by this clean and decisive kill.
The leading man slowly retracted his greatsword, its tip pointing diagonally at the ground, shaking off the bone fragments and black blood that clung to it.
He glanced at his subordinates around him: "Don't stand there, hold the breach! Anyone who dares to retreat even half a step will be court-martialed!"
...
The fighting on the city wall had been going on for half an hour.
The sea of skeletons on the Bone Serpent Slope continued to surge upwards in waves. The defenders' arrows and rolling stones never stopped, but one wave fell only to be followed by another. The grayish-white tide of bones seemed endless.
"The third section of the city wall on the left, the skeletons have piled up on the crenellations!" a gray-robed crossbowman shouted, turning his head.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a squad of Dawn Crusaders charged forward, their greatswords sweeping across and slicing through several skeletons that had climbed the ramparts.
Bones were scattered all over the ground, but new skeletons filled the gaps on the slope behind.
Just then, a deep horn sounded from behind the sea of bones.
From the rear of the undead army, twenty-five dark gray figures simultaneously took to the air and rapidly moved toward the west gate of the city wall.
Those were necromancers, each figure shrouded in a dark robe, wielding a bone staff, and surrounded by a pale purple magical shield.
The human defenses reacted simultaneously.
Inside the city wall, twenty-five level 39 human warriors leaped out simultaneously and landed steadily on the open ground behind the crenellations.
They were all well-equipped, including warriors carrying heavy shields, mages wielding staffs, archers carrying longbows, and berserkers holding a scimitar in each hand.
When the necromancer reached the bottom of the Five Bone Serpents Slope, the crossbowman captain on the city wall gave the first order: "Crossbowmen! Hold them off!"
Three hundred crossbows simultaneously turned towards the slope, and arrows rained down like a storm.
However, when the iron arrow struck the necromancer's mana shield, it only created dense purple ripples; the shield remained completely still.
A volley of fire failed to even break through the shield of a single archmage.
The crossbowman captain's face darkened: "This shield's thickness is off."
“Of course something’s wrong.” A clear, cold female voice came from behind him. “That’s the shield resonance of the mage set. Your ordinary crossbow bolts won’t even tickle it.”
The crossbowman captain turned around and saw a woman in light armor walking towards him.
He wore dark gray leather armor, with a thin-bladed, narrow-spineed one-handed longsword hanging at his waist, and moved with agility.
The female soldier tilted her head and looked at the twenty-five purple figures on the slope. She quickly assigned tasks: "Old Zhao, you take your team and guard the middle slope. The four slopes on the left and right are left to the other teams."
The middle-aged man carrying the heavy shield nodded. His name was Zhao Tiedun, and he was a level 39 sword and shield warrior.
He waved his hand, and four men immediately followed behind him: an archer, a priest, a two-handed swordsman, and a spearman.
The six people quickly spread out along the city wall and stood behind the crenellations corresponding to the middle slope.
"They're here," Zhao Tiedun said in a deep voice.
On the slope, the five necromancers had advanced to within twenty meters of the rampart.
They simultaneously raised their bone staffs, the purple light at the top of the staffs suddenly expanding, and five shadow arrows were unleashed at the same time, with twenty-five shadow arrows shooting out in a fan shape, covering the entire section of the rampart.
"Shield!" Zhao Tiedun roared, slamming his heavy shield into the city bricks.
A purple light barrier unfolded from the shield, enveloping all five people behind it.
