Chapter 180: Crisis! Cut Off Communication
As the internal inspection of the undead plague formation continued, the entire battlefield fell into another eerie silence.
The aberrant ghosts did not seize this opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
This surprised Gu Xi.
Taking advantage of this moment, Gu Xi finally managed to organize his troops.
Gu Xi found that in the recent battles and subsequent reinforcements, his newly replenished ranks were once again depleted.
Out of 1404 skeleton soldiers, more than seven hundred had fallen in battle, leaving only 701 skeleton soldiers, not even enough to fill the combat squads and the Bone Slash Battalion.
The situation with the zombies was even more dire, as they had initially borne the brunt of the casualties, and those summoned were at the heart of the battlefield, leaving only 52 zombies alive, not enough to form a unit.
Only the ghosts fared better, as their numbers did not significantly decrease, and some even gained levels.
As for the skeletons and undead transformed from bodies brought in, due to Gu Xi missing out on the victor's rewards, they did not receive much enhancement.
Most importantly, their weapons and equipment were not upgraded.
Whether delivered by the undead plague formation or risen from the corpse piles, they were all empty-handed.
This left Gu Xi, who had hoped to benefit from some free equipment, at a loss.
How could they fight without weapons?
It was unthinkable to send them into battle bare-handed, hoping to pick up weapons from fallen comrades.
At this moment, the ground shook again, and another batch of new undead crawled out from underground.
This time, it wasn't just a few skeletons bringing bases; two thousand skeleton soldiers emerged.
All of these skeleton soldiers were level 4, including 1500 regular skeleton soldiers with swords and shields and 500 floating skeletal mages.
These skeleton soldiers were actually a reward sent specifically to Gu Xi by the head mage.
It was to thank Gu Xi for discovering the problem with the undead plague ritual formation.
After a quick inspection, the head mage found that Gu Xi's situation was relatively good.
At the other ninety-nine nodes, most of the bases had been replaced.
If this had not been discovered in time, in the next battle, the undead plague formation would have been taken over by the aberrant ghosts.
At that point, all the accumulated negative energy and the large number of undead would have been controlled by the aberrant ghosts, ultimately becoming part of their forces.
This would have been a severe blow to the head mage.
The head mage had every reason to believe that a powerful leader was orchestrating the aberrant ghosts from behind the scenes.
So, after quickly restoring the bases, the head mage sent this unit to Gu Xi as a reward.
The head mage also understood the core issue.
Among the hundred nodes, only Gu Xi had managed to keep the enemy outside the undead plague formation.
The rest had led the enemies into the nodes, utilizing the negative energy and characteristics within for battle.
This gave the enemies the opportunity to replace the bases.
But even understanding this, the head mage could not force the players to fight outside.
He was well aware of the capabilities of the necromancers he had chosen.
Apart from Gu Xi, whose potential was unclear, the others' potentials were easily assessed.
Sending them to fight outside the undead plague formation would be sending them to their deaths.
Even the head mage could not coerce them out.
Now, the head mage could only hope that Gu Xi, seeing the additional troops sent, would continue to battle the aberrant ghosts outside the formation.
Thus, there would be a secure node to fall back on.
Gu Xi was unaware of the head mage's thoughts.
But the addition of these two thousand skeletons indeed bolstered his somewhat depleted forces.
At this moment, Gu Xi took stock of his resources and felt confident again.
Of the ten bottles of magic potions he had acquired before entering this world, two were left, meaning he could summon the Avatar of Death twice more.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he should be able to withstand the final assault of the aberrant ghosts.
After this event, he planned to exchange for larger bottles of magic potions, as the current medium bottles could no longer fully replenish his mana.
While Gu Xi was contemplating other matters, the token protected behind the city gate suddenly lit up.
From within, came the intermittent voice of the head mage.
"Comrades… be alert… begin… be careful… horse…"
Hearing this, Gu Xi immediately sensed something was wrong.
He quickly ran to the platform where the token was placed and was surprised to find the white light on the token flickering, as if affected by something.
"It's broken!"
Gu Xi immediately understood what was happening.
The enemy had already interfered with the undead plague formation, severing the connection between the nodes.
Next would be the enemy's full assault.
Gu Xi's heart tightened, and then he heard a series of popping sounds.
Following the direction of the sound, Gu Xi saw that the sky was filled with a large number of red balloons.
These balloons exploded above the node controlled by Gu Xi, releasing a shower of colorful strips of paper, creating an eerie festive atmosphere.
The popping sounds Gu Xi had heard were the balloons bursting.
As Gu Xi looked up, more and more balloons exploded.
"Avatar of Death."
Sensing the danger, Gu Xi immediately dispatched the Avatar of Death to disperse the balloons.
But he was a step too late.
As the Avatar of Death took flight, thousands of red balloons of various sizes had already entered the node controlled by Gu Xi, continuously exploding.
At first, the balloons released colorful strips of paper, but as more exploded, the strips turned into various powders, painting the sky in myriad colors.
When the powders descended, Gu Xi realized that his control over the undead army had significantly weakened.
This was a tactic to sever the connections between the nodes of the undead plague formation.
As Gu Xi understood this, he heard a whooshing sound from afar, as if something dark had just zipped past him.
Instinctively ducking, Gu Xi saw a massive pirate ship, over five hundred meters long, swaying above the node he was guarding.
A pirate captain, wearing a hat, clown makeup, draped in white baboon skin, with a hook hand and a peg leg, stood at the bow.
Behind him were thousands of eerie pirates, all painted with clown faces, ready to launch their attack.