LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 153: Lightning Shocker
“Damn it! Why did it turn out like this?!”
Zhujubo’s city lord was a veteran who had spent half his life on the battlefield. He had suppressed slaves, curbed the Karluks, and clashed with the Uyghurs… but what happened today completely smashed his common sense.
The terracotta soldiers had no strategy or tactics when sieging cities; they were purely pushing their way forward by putting their lives on the line. When those at the frontline collapsed, those behind would quickly take their place and push forward.
With their bodies, they filled up the ditches and jammed up the moat, paving the way for other terracotta soldiers to reach the foot of the city wall.
To be frank, they still posed no threat to Zhujubo’s garrison troops.
Such cannon fodder had no chance of tearing down the city’s powerful barriers with their half-assed weapons.
However, more and more terracotta soldiers were gathering beneath the city walls, stacking higher and higher up. They were practically stepping on the bodies of their fallen comrades!
The garrison troops desperately unleashed their firepower on the terracotta soldiers, but it was to no avail. The bones and mud left behind by the defeated terracotta soldiers would only stack higher and higher.
In the end, the fallen terracotta soldiers formed a ramp leading straight to the city walls. A path was formed just like that!
A tinge of fear arose in his heart as he watched as the terracotta soldiers struggled to climb up the uneven ramp to reach the city walls.
A fearless undead army of such scale… can I really defeat them?
Zhujubo’s city lord had no time to consider this matter, for the terracotta soldiers were already charging up the ramp. He could only roar in anger, “Kill them! Hold your ground and drive them down! Don’t let those clay lumps get in! Split into teams!”
He was able to swiftly come up with a countermeasure in the spur of a moment.
With the formation of a ramp, it was no longer a typical fortress battle. He quickly changed his perspective and viewed this as a battle on a slope. Naturally, the tactics he used to fend against the enemy changed as well.
Fortunately, the fighting prowess of the terracotta soldiers was lackluster.
Under his orders, the Tibetan soldiers formed a dense formation of heavily armored soldiers armed with swords and spears along the city walls. With their overwhelming might, they easily crushed any terracotta soldiers charging upward.
Behind them, the mages operated defensive artifacts to bombard the back lines of the terracotta soldiers, keeping the latter’s formation loose to ease the pressure on the frontlines.
Once the Tibetan soldiers got tired, they would slowly retreat, and another new line of soldiers would take their place. Sometimes, they would send war slaves forward too.
Zhujubo’s defense looked almost impregnable.
The terracotta soldiers charged again and again, but it was futile.
“Hu!” Zhujubo’s city lord heaved a sigh of relief. “It looks like we’re safe for now, but still…”
With pressed lips, he looked at the huffing Tibetan soldiers who were sweating profusely, as well as the mages who were downing potions like water.
Can we last a month at this rate? We might just deplete all of our resources within a week. Things will swiftly go downhill from that point onward.
However, he soon realized that he was still being too optimistic.
Whoosh!
An ominous buzzing sound crackled.
Bzt!
There was a flash of light, and a dragon manifested out of lightning gushed toward the city wall. The war slaves fighting off the terracotta soldiers collapsed, having turned into charred corpses.
It didn’t help that they were maintaining a tight formation and dressed in metal armor that was highly conducive for lightning attacks.
An entire platoon of war slaves was wiped out just like that!
“What the hell!” Zhujubo’s city lord nearly spurted blood.
War slaves were invaluable war machines, but he lost dozens of them in an instant!
“Heh, that feels great!” Shu Yichao yelped in excitement after wiping out an entire platoon of heavy infantrymen with his Lightning Arrow. “Spells are so convenient!”
Not only spells deal higher damage than physical damage, but most troops had higher armor than magic resistance too. It was not tough to stack up defensive equipment to reach 100 armor, but it was difficult to reach even 50 magic resistance.
“I bring the spark of death!”
Another violent lightning arrow rushed toward the city walls like a venomous serpent.
The Tibetan mages tried to stop it by erecting their barriers, but the lightning arrow’s destructive prowess was too much for them to handle. They watched helplessly as the lightning arrow tore their barriers into shreds and ravaged the frontline soldiers, creating yet another vacuum on the battlefield.
“So exhilarating! Such a great way to de-stress!”
Shu Yichao felt like he was playing Candy Crush, unleashing destruction wherever he wanted just by pointing his finger.
“Oyoyoy.” Seeing how much fun Shu Yichao was having with his Lightning Arrow, Miazova pointed out in disdain, “I thought someone said that not even dogs will use magic?”
“I’m not a dog,” Shu Yichao blinked his eyes innocently, “so it’s normal for me to use magic.”
He unleashed yet another surge of lightning at the city walls, blasting the Tibetan soldiers into bits.
“Bastard!!!” Zhujubo’s city lord trembled with rage.
The Tibetan warriors he had painstakingly nurtured and the war slaves he had spent a bomb to purchase were being wiped out like dew water under the scorching sun. He felt like his heart on the verge of breaking apart.
“Can’t you retaliate against their mage?!” Zhujubo’s city lord roared at his mages.
“He’s too far!”
“We can’t hit him from here!”
“I have no idea how he’s able to attack us from so far away!”
The mages looked incredibly bitter. None of them could strike that far away even with the amplification of the lightning defensive towers, yet the enemy necromancer was able to do it… This didn’t make sense at all!
The Tibetan soldiers started to panic.
Isn’t it ridiculous how powerful the enemy necromancer is? How can he destroy us from such a far distance away? How are we supposed to guard the city walls like that?!
None of them dared to maintain a tight formation anymore, knowing that they would just make easy targets for the enemy necromancer. As such, their formation slowly loosened up.
This created an opening for the terracotta soldiers to charge forward and potentially gang up on the Tibetan soldiers. Cracks started appearing in their defense line.
Zhujubo’s city lord felt an intense headache.
If we maintain a tight formation, we would just become easy targets for the enemy necromancer.
If we don’t maintain a tight formation, it’s only a matter of time before we get overrun by the terracotta soldiers.
While the Tibetan soldiers were panicking, the lightning arrows suddenly stopped.
There was a brief silence before a mage exclaimed in delight, “He has depleted his mana! I knew it! Such a powerful spell is bound to consume a lot of mana. He might be powerful, but he’s bound to only be able to cast that spell a couple of times!”
“Are you certain?” Zhujubo’s city lord reflexively asked.
“Yes, I am certain!” the mage thumped his chest and replied confidently. “You may put your heart at ease, city lord. He can’t cast any more spells.”
All spells had their downsides.
Powerful spells tended to have high mana consumption. Useful spells with low mana consumption tended to be highly complicated. Simple spells were unlikely to be useful.
“Good.” Zhujubo’s city lord sighed in relief. He waved his hand and ordered, “Men, get in formation again! Drive those monsters down!”
…
Meanwhile…
“Eh? I thought that this bug had been patched?” Shu Yichao stared at his interface in shock. “Somehow I managed to bug it out.”
Beacons of the Otherworld used to have a peculiar bug.
By simultaneously casting a spell and switching weapons, one could cast spells without depleting their mana, and their physical attacks would deal magic damage too. In other words, as long as the player got the tempo right, they could keep casting spells without depleting mana.
Shu Yichao didn’t notice it initially. He simply habitually switched weapons after casting Lightning Arrow, and he somehow managed to bug out the effect.
“Is this mod based on the older version? Does this mean that I can use those classic bugs too? Holy shit!!!”
Shu Yichao started unleashing his lightning on the city walls once more, but this time, it wasn’t just lightning arrows but a lightning storm!
Bzt!
The crackling lightning was like the Grim Reaper’s scythe, leaving behind an awful charred stench in its wake.
Seeing the obliteration of the soldiers who had just gathered together, and the barrage of lightning in the sky that showed no signs of ending, Zhujubo’s city lord felt like his mind was ringing nonstop.
“Didn’t you say that the necromancer can’t cast his spell anymore?” he pointed at the charred corpses on the ground and roared at the mage. “What’s going on?! Are you going to say that I’m seeing things now?!”
“…” The mage sweated profusely. “M-maybe he brought enough potions to recover his mana…”
“City lord!” The guard leader stepped forward and said, “This is already the worst-case scenario. We won’t be able to last long at this rate. There’s only one way left.”
“…I understand.” Zhujubo’s city lord grimly looked at the Shu flag fluttering in the distance. “You’re hoping to end this by executing their commander, right?”