The skeleton army had sealed off the Cripps Stronghold so tightly not even a mouse could sneak out. Apart from a few steep cliffs they couldn't reach, they were everywhere, like an ocean of bones.
Bone mammoths appeared among the skeletons. They were gigantic, weighing thousands of pounds. There had to be at least tens of thousands of them. Who knew where Qin Han had gotten them from. Even Nie Yan had never seen them before.
Qin Han stood on a mountain peak across from the Cripps Stronghold. Overlooking the land, he saw skeletons stretching out as far as the eye could see, looking as though they were going to engulf everything in their path.
His lips curved into a sinister grin. 6,000,000 skeletons was absolutely sufficient to thoroughly destroy the Cripps Stronghold. Afterwards, the Monet Financial Group would start taking over Asskickers United's territory.
"Boss, when we were mobilizing the troops, I put Eternal Sin in charge of sieging several of Asskickers United's strongholds to the south. However, he seems to be hesitating and pushing things off. I think something fishy is going on," Matchless Divine Sword informed, paying close attention to Qin Han's face.
"What do you think he's planning?" Qin Han asked with an unsightly expression.
"I don't dare to make reckless assumptions," Matchless Divine Sword said. He didn't dare to state his accusations outright. "Previously when Asskickers United dispatched their Masters to harass us, both us and Divine Protectors suffered heavy losses. But Penumbra Empire was completely unharmed."
Qin Han locked his eyes onto Matchless Divine Sword. Matchless Divine Sword broke out in a cold sweat.
It wasn't as though Qin Han didn't suspect Penumbra Empire. After the information from several important meetings over the last several weeks had somehow leaked out, he had already began suspecting Eternal Sin. The moles he planted in Penumbra Empire were also finding evidence. But he couldn't afford to have any internal conflict at this crucial moment. Penumbra Empire's 200,000+ players accounted for nearly a quarter of the Monet Financial Group's forces. If something were to happen, it could have an effect on the whole outcome of the war.
"Have Penumbra Empire launch the assault. If we don't hear back from them within three hours, let them understand the consequences!" Qin Han said in a cold tone.
"Understood!" Matchless Divine Sword said with an unreadable smile. He had successfully placed the most difficult and dangerous work on Penumbra Empire. Like this, God Executioner Sword could preserve their strength.
As a sharp whistle cut across the sky, countless skeletons surged toward the Cripps Stronghold. A world shaking siege was about to take place.
The Cripps Stronghold's walls were 60 meters high and 20 meters thick. A hundred catapults were stationed on top of the walls. Numerous shells were launched into the sky and rained down on the skeletons below, engulfing the impact zones in ice.
A deluge of spells illuminated the skies with dazzling colours, sweeping over the battlefield.
The skeletons advanced dauntlessly forward wave after wave. They didn't fear the cold, stepping over their falling brethren as they approached the walls step by step. The bone mammoths mixed among the ordinary skeletons relied on their high health and defense to charge into the base of the walls, causing cracks to spread out, before finally dying under the concentrated hail of magic.
Brute force alone wouldn't win Qin Han this siege. The catapults from God Executioner Sword were slowly making their way over. They would be arriving here in an hour at most.
Nie Yan and the others commanded the battle from atop the walls. From down below to the horizon stretching far off in the distance, all they saw was an endless sea of white. Elite-class skeletons were as common as grass.
After forcing back one wave of skeletons with a barrage of magic, another would come surging forward.
「Arrow towers, fire! Give them hell!」
A concentrated hail of arrows rained down from the sky, clearing out an entire area below the walls of skeletons.
The bone mammoths used their long tusks to launch skeletons high up into the air and over the walls. One skeleton after another landed inside the Cripps Stronghold, immediately causing a commotion.
「Warriors, Paladins, stop those skeletons! Don't let them reach the casters!」Nie Yan shouted in the voice chat.
「Yes, sir!」
The Warriors and Paladins immediately surrounded the skeletons who were catapulted into the stronghold.
Qin Han had adjusted his tactics, adding a larger variety of troops and thinking of new ways of sieging strongholds. Nie Yan could clearly feel the pressure was much more intense than in previous battles. Fortunately, the Cripps Stronghold's defenses were strong. It would definitely hold for the time being.
「Boss, those bone mammoths are too tanky! We can't kill them,」a player anxiously cried out.
Nearly 10,000 bone mammoths slowly drew closer to the Cripps Stronghold.
「How many of you still have Forbidden Magic?」Nie Yan asked. Forbidden Magic had an extremely long cooldown. It wasn't rare to see ones with cooldowns of one or two months long. Tang Yao, Xie Yao, and Lustboy had already cast their AoE Forbidden Magic recently, so they couldn't use them again any time soon.
「I do,」Undying Scoundrel replied.
「I do as well,」Black Hell said.
「I also have one,」Street Vulture said. He was the elven Elemental Magister who had just recently joined Asskickers United.
Only three left, huh... Nie Yan thought.「Black Hell, you go first!」
Black Hell nodded and walked up to the edge of the wall.
「Wait for them to get a bit closer!」
Black Hell gazed up ahead at the large herd of bone mammoths lumbering their way over. They had sharp tusks and unparalleled strength. If all of them were allowed to get close, the walls would be in danger.
1,000 meters, 800 meters, 600 meters...
Black Hell started chanting, one syllable after another escaping his lips. After chanting 10 full sets of syllables, a dazzling radiance poured out from the sky as a pearly, white gate descended from the clouds. As the doors of the gate slowly opened, an enormous beam of light shone down, engulfing everything within a 500-meter radius.
The miserable cries of countless undead rang over the battlefield.
The beam of light lingered for more than 20 seconds before slowly dissipating. The players on top of the walls scanned the battlefield. All the bone mammoths approaching the walls had been purified. There wasn't a single trace of them left.
Witnessing this scene from atop the distant mountain peak, Qin Han couldn't help but curse, "Shit! It's that forbidden magic again! Just how many do they have!?"
The Archbishops and Magisters in Asskickers United had Qin Han pulling at his hair.
"Keep advancing! I refuse to believe this stronghold is unsinkable!"
The skeletons never slowed down. The area Black Hell had cleared out was soon again filled, as though nothing had ever happened there.
There really seemed to be no end to these skeletons. No matter how many you killed, more would take their place.
While Nie Yan was busy dealing with the surging tide of skeletons, he received a report from Guo Huai. God Executioner Sword's catapults were only 10 minutes away from the Cripps Stronghold!
"Hmm... about time. I've already been waiting long enough." Nie Yan's eyes flickered with an untraceable light.
The skeleton army quickly parted to two sides as 100 catapults emerged at the edge of the plains, slowly advancing forward. Although 100 catapults wasn't a lot, a concentrated barrage from such a force was easily enough to tear a hole through a stronghold wall. That was all the skeletons needed to start flooding into the Cripps Stronghold.
The players from Asskickers United felt enormous pressure after the appearance of the catapults.
「Boss, what do we do? Their catapults are approaching!」
The players from Asskickers United stood in shock, anxiously awaiting Nie Yan's reply.
Nie Yan cracked a confident grin.「Don't worry. Just focus on dealing with the skeletons below the walls. I naturally have a plan.」
Nie Yan's words calmed their uneasy hearts.
Over on a distant mountain peak. Qin Han gazed at the players running around the Cripps Stronghold, then down at the slowly advancing catapults. His lips curved into a cold smile. "Nirvana Flame, I'd like to see what you can pull out of your sleeve this time!" These 100 catapults were all disposable. As long as they could breach the walls, their objective would be complete. It didn't matter how many catapults Asskickers United had hidden in the Cripps Stronghold. His skeleton army would engulf them all!
Qin Han carefully controlled the skeleton army to stay far away from the catapults, lest his own undead target the players of God Executioner Sword.
The 100 catapults drew closer and closer to the Cripps Stronghold, only about 1,000 meters away. It wouldn't be long before they entered firing range.
Seeing the enemy catapults closing in, Nie Yan sent a message to Guo Huai.「Activate the formation!」
「Right away!」
At this moment, countless Mages emerged on the mountains dotting the plains outside the Cripps Stronghold. They'd been waiting on standby in nearby forests. The ocean of skeletons down below caused their hearts to well up with shock. They quickly spread out to prearranged positions. Without anyone noticing, someone had set up platforms near the cliffs of the mountain peaks, with giant magic formations drawn into them.
There were no less than a thousand platforms on the several mountain peaks in the vicinity of the Cripps Stronghold. Setting this all up was definitely a massive undertaking.
Nie Yan had made sure everything was on a need to know basis. The Mages were completely unaware of the existence of these platforms.
Undying Scoundrel and Lustboy led a force of 7,000 Great Mages.
「Five people per team. You guys already know what you have to do, right?」
「Yes!」
All the Mages immediately got to work. With five of them standing on each platform, flawlessly inserting themselves into the magic formations, they all took out special scrolls and started chanting. The formations gradually lit up as the magic particles in the air began vibrating intensely.
One second, two seconds... after 10 seconds, flashes of light were followed by catapults appearing on these platforms out of nothing. There were 1,000+ altogether.
Even the Great Mages who personally carried out the teleportation didn't dare to believe they had moved 1,000+ catapults onto these mountain peaks. This was simply too incredible!