The orange-red flames instantly engulfed its upper body, and the violent explosive force forced its left arm bone shield to shift outward, causing the bone knife to tilt downward as well.
Now!
The young archer took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the tension in his heart.
His left hand steadily supported the bow, while his right thumb gripped the arrow's fletching tightly, pulling the bowstring to its fullest extent.
His gaze did not follow the scorched sternum, but was fixed on the left eye that was now exposed outside the edge of the shield.
That fatal weakness, which was originally perfectly concealed by the bone shield, was exposed at his excellent firing angle the instant the fireball exploded.
"collapse!"
The bowstring trembled, and the arrow transformed into a golden streak of light as it left the bowstring, piercing the skull centurion's left eye socket with unparalleled precision.
With a soft "poof," the ghostly blue soul fire in his eye sockets suddenly splattered out.
The skeleton centurion froze for a moment, and then his entire skeleton collapsed as if its support had been removed.
The bone knife, longer than the snake's body, struck its spine and rolled down the steep slope.
【Level Up: 7 → 8】
The young archer slowly lowered his longbow and gently exhaled a breath of stale air.
After confirming that there were enough arrows in the quiver to support the next round of shooting, he reached out again, smoothly drew out the next arrow, and steadily nocked it on the string.
This time, his hand did not shake.
...
The afternoon sun struggled to peek through the thick purple clouds, and the battle a thousand meters above the ground had also entered a tense tug-of-war.
The standoff lasted for about an hour in the morning. Lin Feng and Hel Shadow faced each other across the distance, their fighting styles exactly the same as three days ago.
Hel relentlessly used Shadow Arrow Rain and Death Ripple to suppress Lin Feng from a distance, while Lin Feng skillfully deflected the attacks with the parry of the Wildfire Spear and the movement of the Sky Chasing Boots, occasionally retaliating with the Blazing Spear Light.
Both sides were carefully expending each other's magical power and physical strength, and neither was in a hurry to decide the winner.
The afternoon battle also lasted an hour, but the tension was noticeably higher.
Hel revealed his ferocity from the start, unleashing two high-level immobilization skills in succession, attempting to freeze Lin Feng in place and focus fire on him, but Lin Feng was able to escape both skills due to his extremely high negative resistance.
Lin Feng seized the opportunity and used "Beacon Fire Across the City" to forcefully advance, forcing Hel to hand over "Veil of the Dead" and "Shadow Swiftness" and retreat hastily.
Both sides had their share of offense and defense, but neither achieved a decisive victory.
When the battle ended, Hel's shield was cracked by the Wildfire Spear, and Lin Feng's left shoulder was grazed by a Shadow Arrow, his flesh charred, but the Bloodlust effect quickly restored his health.
The two exchanged one last glance across the distance before turning and retreating back to their own lines.
They all knew that today's aerial battles were merely a tug-of-war; the real battle would be decided on the ground.
As night fell, the undead army's offensive did not cease in the slightest; the skeletons were tireless, and the undead needed no sleep.
The climbing on the Bone Serpent Slope never stopped. The surviving bone siege towers were still frantically building bone plates outside the city walls, and the energy bullets of the Bone Mortars would whistle into the city every few moments, exploding into clusters of deathly fire in the night.
The temporary treatment area in the city was brightly lit, and priests took turns casting spells, with golden light from healing spells flashing among the wounded.
Each flash of light was accompanied by a few suppressed cries of pain, followed by a moment of deathly silence.
The stretcher team frantically shuttled between the city wall and the treatment area, carrying many people up, but fewer and fewer were able to be carried down intact.
Some people were covered with white sheets and silently sent to a unified burial site, while others were left with only incomplete limbs. The people collecting the remains silently gathered together the parts that could be identified.
Inside the city wall, in the reserve rest area, the soldiers who had just been relieved slumped against the cold wall like clay sculptures, closing their eyes to rest.
Some people were mechanically gnawing on hard, dry rations, some were wiping their dulled weapons by the dim light of the fire, and some were silently wrapping bandages around their bleeding wounds.
No one spoke, not because they didn't want to, but because they didn't even have the strength to open their mouths.
Lin Feng stood on the West Gate tower, his gaze slowly sweeping across the defensive line built of flesh and blood on the city wall.
The troops guarding the city at night have completed their rotation.
The day shift soldiers dragged their weary bodies away, and the night shift soldiers silently took over their positions.
The entire troop rotation proceeded smoothly and orderly, with the deep voices of commanders at all levels echoing across the city walls without a trace of panic.
"The garrison inside the city has implemented a three-shift system."
Jiang Yelan's voice came from behind her. She walked to the edge of the battlement and stood side by side with Lin Feng, her gaze also falling on the group of soldiers who were silently changing shifts.
"They rotate every eight hours. Tonight's night shift guards are mostly reserve troops who rested during the day."
Jiang Zhaoyue followed closely behind, holding a piece of dry food in her hand, and silently handed it to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng reached out and took it, but never took a bite.
He looked at the exhausted but still steadfast soldiers on the city wall, at the long lines of wounded soldiers in the treatment area, and at the mountains of bones piled up below the city wall.
The skeletons gleamed a pale gray in the night, their sheer number even blocking the moat beneath the west gate.
"This is only the first day," Lin Feng said in a low voice.
Jiang Zhaoyue didn't respond, nor did Jiang Yelan.
The two women simply stood quietly behind him, gazing with him at the sea of bones that continued to surge in the night, seemingly without end.
On the other side of the battlements, Zhao Tiedun, holding his newly replaced heavy shield, leaned against the wall and closed his eyes to rest.
The female warrior sat beside him, a trace of dark red blood seeping from the bandage on her left shoulder, but she still gripped the longsword tightly in her right hand, the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} hilt pressed firmly against her knee.
The battle report was delivered to the city gate the next morning.
Lin Feng unfolded the battle report, his gaze sweeping over the cold numbers on it.
On the first day of the battle, the human race suffered over 20,000 casualties, with the gray-robed crossbowmen suffering the heaviest losses, with over 4,000 falling.
The undead army also suffered heavy losses, with approximately 50,000 skeleton soldiers and 10,000 undead soldiers being wiped out.
More than forty siege towers were reduced to rubble, hundreds of skeletal mortars were destroyed, and hundreds of necromancers who operated the mortars were also reduced to ashes by Isabella's whirlwind piercing and the bombardment of the catapults.
The city walls were damaged in many places, and the defenses were riddled with holes, but White Tower City still stood firm.
