Chapter 8: Using War to Sustain War
Dugu Zhan narrowed his eyes, concentrating his mind and using his powerful soul will to command the remaining two skeleton swordsmen and numerous skeleton spirits to cooperate in their actions.
In an instant, they surged forward like a tide, surrounding the King of the Earth and launching a fierce attack.
Although the wounds caused by the skull arrows are relatively shallow each time, their sheer number makes up for it.
As time went by, these numerous small wounds gradually accumulated, causing considerable damage to the Earth King and greatly reducing its combat effectiveness.
In the heat of battle, a skeleton elf's bone arrow struck the Earth King precisely in the eye.
This sudden, intense pain instantly ignited the fury within the King of the Earth, making him even more brutal and ruthless.
In a fit of extreme rage, the Earth King unleashed a powerful force, scattering the last two skeleton swordsmen engaged in close combat with just a few fierce attacks.
Then, like a mad beast, it charged recklessly toward the twenty-three skeleton spirits.
At this moment, the King of the Earth was consumed by thoughts of mad destruction, vowing to tear all his enemies to shreds.
Outside the battlefield, Dugu Zhan was drenched in sweat, and his soul and mental strength were greatly depleted by the fierce battle.
But he persevered, using his abilities once again to create a new batch of skeleton swordsmen to join the battlefield in an attempt to stabilize the situation.
At this point, the King of the Earth was clearly at his last gasp.
Its body was covered with countless wounds, and its battered appearance showed its exhaustion.
All of this was the "masterpiece" of the relentless attacks of numerous skeleton spirits.
Even so, the dying Earth King unleashed his last strength, scattering ten skeleton warriors once again.
However, the life force within it gradually slipped away, like fine sand in an hourglass.
Finally, with a dull thud, the King of the Earth collapsed onto the ground like a small mountain, lifeless.
Seeing this, Dugu Zhan's tense nerves finally relaxed, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
However, his keen soul perception detected that several powerful ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts were rapidly approaching his location.
The loud noise from the fierce battle must have attracted the attention of these soul beasts.
In this urgent situation, Dugu Zhan quickly ordered the skeleton warriors to disperse and guard the surrounding area, forming a defensive barrier.
He himself strode forward and bent down to devour the remaining soul of the Earth King after his death.
Because he knew that only by continuously absorbing souls could his original soul power gradually recover.
However, this is destined to be a long process, and it cannot be achieved in just three or five years.
...
Time flies like an arrow; five months have passed in the blink of an eye.
At this time, Dugu Zhan had already grown into a level 30 powerful attack-type Soul Master.
At this moment, he was hiding behind a large, leafy tree, his eyes fixed on the soul beast on the ground—a blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboon with a body at least six thousand years old.
After this period of exploration, Dugu Zhan discovered that skeleton warriors created using the bones of spirit beasts of higher age are more powerful in both defense and attack.
"First Soul Skill, Skeleton Swordsman!"
"Second Soul Skill, Skeleton Spirit!"
Dugu Zhan used the same trick again. With a command, eighteen agile skeleton swordsmen rushed towards the blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons like arrows, swarming them in an attempt to entangle them.
Meanwhile, the remaining twenty-three skeleton spirits stood ready in the rear, drawing their bows and firing skeleton bone arrows imbued with chilling soul power, launching an attack on the three blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons from a distance.
This sudden attack instantly enraged the three blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons.
Normally, they are the ones who bully other spirit beasts in this area. Now, some foolish creatures have come to attack them. This is a blatant provocation against their authority.
The blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboon does indeed have a rather peculiar appearance.
However, its power is enormous. Those fists, each the size of a sandbag, contain astonishing power. With just one punch, it can easily break the skull of a skeleton swordsman. Its attack method is simple yet brutal.
One of the baboons, with blue eyes, a green tail, and a red body, raised its fist, as big as a sandbag, and slammed it hard into a skull shield.
In an instant, accompanied by a crisp cracking sound, the sturdy skull shield shattered instantly, turning into a pile of fragments.
Moreover, those seemingly sharp bone swords and the whistling skull bone arrows could only leave shallow wounds on the thick-skinned blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons, hardly causing any real damage.
The battle intensified, and a blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboon seized the opportunity and suddenly picked up a huge rock from the side.
It used its arms to lift the rock high above its head, and then slammed it down on the skeleton swordsman.
With a cloud of dust, several skeleton swordsmen who couldn't dodge in time were instantly smashed into a pile of scattered bones.
These actions clearly demonstrate that these blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons are not stupid, but rather quite intelligent.
They cleverly utilize the surrounding terrain and environment, using rocks and other objects to enhance their attack power, causing considerable trouble for the skeleton warriors.
However, they were faced with an endless stream of tireless skeleton warriors.
These skeleton warriors, like fearless fighters produced on a factory assembly line, charged towards the enemy one after another, fearless of death and charging forward bravely.
After a prolonged siege, the three blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons, despite their thick skin and tough flesh, gradually became covered in wounds.
However, after being injured, they activated their innate soul skills, instantly doubling their strength.
This sudden burst of power caused the dozen or so skeleton swordsmen to fall to the ground in the blink of an eye, turning into a pile of lifeless bones.
Immediately afterwards, the three blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons pressed their advantage, turning their attention to the remaining twenty-three skeleton spirits.
Under their relentless onslaught, the skeleton spirits could not withstand the onslaught and were scattered into piles of cold skeletons.
The flame of the soul that once flickered in their eyes gradually went out as they "fell".
The battle was exceptionally fierce. Dugu Zhan dispatched a total of forty-one skeleton warriors, almost thirteen times the number of the three blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboons.
However, despite having such a huge numerical advantage, the entire skeleton warrior army was wiped out in less than a quarter of an hour from the start to the end of the battle.
...
Hidden in the tree, Dugu Zhan witnessed all of this and slowly took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.
He mobilized the little soul power he had left and, relying on his broken bones, used his soul skill once again.
"First Soul Skill, Skeleton Swordsman!"
Despite his physical exhaustion and depleted soul power, Dugu Zhan focused his mind and successfully summoned thirty black skeleton swordsmen.
These newly born skeleton swordsmen moved in perfect unison under his command, surging forward like a black torrent to once again besiege the wounded three-headed, blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboon.
As the saying goes, "many ants can kill an elephant," and although the three-headed, blue-eyed, green-tailed, red-bodied baboon is powerful, its stamina is ultimately limited.
Moreover, the numerous small wounds on their bodies gradually weakened their fighting ability.
In Dugu Zhan's view, the human wave tactic was his greatest advantage.
As long as his soul power is not exhausted and he still has enough bones, he is confident that he can use this endless stream of skeleton warriors to overwhelm even the most powerful enemy.
End of this chapter...