Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 76 Corpse Puppet Giant Beast
The next morning, the thick fog in the mountains and forests had not yet dissipated, and the rumbling drums and horns began to sound again in the evil orc camp, which had been noisy all night.

Last night, Pierce ordered several teams of soldiers to float down from upstream on rafts. When they approached the evil orc camp on the riverbank, they would camp there. Standing on the rafts, they would randomly fire a few shots at the bright spots of the campfire in the camp. Regardless of whether they hit the target or not, they would immediately evacuate downstream.

Almost every hour, there would be a commotion in the evil orc camp, or the screams of unlucky people who were inexplicably shot would be heard, and there was almost no peace all night.

Sure enough, at dawn, this group of evil orcs who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage all night immediately roared and began to cross the river and fight again.

Even through the thick fog, Pierce could see their ferocious and angry facial expressions, and their bloodshot eyes from a night of sleep.

A cool mountain breeze blew, and Pierston felt refreshed. He stood on the watchtower, facing the wind and looking up, taking a deep breath of fresh air.

There seemed to be a pungent smell in the air this morning. It was not the smell of blood and rotting corpses that often appeared on the battlefield, but a smell similar to the stench of fermented meat for a long time, mixed with some herbal incense, and seemed to be mixed with a little smell of oil.

The vampires' innate sense of smell is extremely sensitive, but the smell is vague, so Pierce is not completely sure. He subconsciously turns his head to look at Asdalen, wanting to seek his advice.

"Teacher, I seem to smell a strange smell, a smell that shouldn't be here. It's... hard to describe."

Asdalen nodded. He was now a pure alchemical life and had lost all sense of smell, but as a vampire in the past, he naturally understood Pierce's current feelings.

"Don't doubt it. If you are sure this smell exists, then it definitely exists. The vampire's innate sense of smell will never deceive you."

Pierce suddenly felt confident and immediately ordered the messenger, "Have the soldiers evacuate the first line of defense in advance and hold the second line of defense..."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a commotion on the riverbank, mixed with countless screams and roars.

Pierce and Asdalen looked closely and found that a huge monster with a beast's head and a human body suddenly emerged from the bottom of the river.

That strange, pungent stench became even stronger...

"Not good! Go quickly! Let the soldiers evacuate the defense line immediately and retreat to the outpost fortress!" Pierce had a bad premonition in his heart and urged the soldier who was delivering the message loudly.

……

"Captain! Captain! The commander ordered us to evacuate the defense line and return to the fortress!" The messenger ran all the way into the trench, climbed up and spit out a mouthful of mud, then roared loudly into Vaughn's ear.

A horrifying beast-headed monster crawled out of the river, wrapped in the foul mud from the riverbed. Its body was covered with all kinds of ugly suture scars, its skin was pale and greasy, and on its swollen beast head was a pair of crooked, bulging red eyes.

The huge body, more than five meters tall, protected the evil orcs who crossed the river and landed on the shore, slowly advancing towards their first line of defense.

Vaughn discovered that the evil orcs on the other side of the river were beginning to gather again, as if they were waiting for the opportunity for the giant beast to break through the defense line.

He organized three volleys of fire, which, in addition to killing several evil orcs that were wandering around the monster, only left dozens of inconspicuous charred bullet holes on the giant beast.

This guy is not afraid of being shot at by the magic gun at any angle, even if it is aimed at its head, it will be useless.

Vaughn didn't even see any blood coming out of it after being shot. What kind of monster is this?

"Evacuate, let's evacuate immediately, Dave! Take your team and stay with me to cover our retreat."

Everyone followed the order in unison, following the trenches dug vertically, and began to organize their squads to evacuate the outpost in an orderly manner. Vaughn led himself and twenty veteran sharpshooters from Duff's squad back along the trenches to the second line of defense, setting up firing positions to delay the retreat of their comrades.

The giant beast took heavy steps and easily flattened the earthen mounds and trenches on the first line of defense. It moved its red and swollen eyeballs very slowly, as if searching for attack targets on the battlefield.

Vaughn tightly gripped the magic gun in his hand, crouching in the trench and secretly observing the giant beast. As soon as its sight swept across the area where he was, he immediately stuck his head out slightly, aimed at the other's giant eye and pulled the trigger.

The eyeball he had locked onto burst open with a puff, spurting out a large stream of black and red pus. Even from a distance of dozens of meters, Vaughn could faintly smell a strong fishy stench. He shrank his body and retreated back into the trench, unable to help but dry heave twice in pain.

Duff, who was standing next to him, was so horrified by the stench that tears streamed down his face. At the same time, other soldiers in the position could hear retching and coughing.

"Ugh... Let's retreat too, Captain. It stinks... Ugh..."

Vaughn nodded, turned, and quickly waved to the soldiers on the outpost fortress wall, seeking cover for retreat.

Everyone jumped out of the trench one after another, bent their bodies and ran quickly towards the main fort. Vaughn deliberately slowed down and fell behind, looking back from time to time to observe the distance of the enemy.

The evil orcs hiding behind the giant beast saw the soldiers begin to flee the battlefield, and immediately couldn't help but rush over the giant beast to rush towards them. Several bone spears whizzed past Vaughn's body, scaring him so much that he broke out in a cold sweat.

The soldiers on the fortress walls also began to raise their guns and fire back, providing cover for their retreating comrades.

Vaughn suddenly felt a strong gust of wind behind him, as if some huge object was attacking him out of nowhere. He subconsciously lunged forward, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed a huge black shadow passing over his head and crashing into the group of soldiers running in front of him.

It was a rock larger than a man, lifted from the earth and thrown by the giant beast.

An unlucky soldier had his upper body crushed under the rock, blood oozing out from the cracks, and it was obvious that he was dead.

Several soldiers on both sides were hit by the thrown stones and fell to the ground, rolling and screaming in pain. Although the others were scared, they did not forget to rescue their companions. They quickly pulled them up from the ground and dragged them back.

Vaughn and Duff looked at each other, then rushed forward together and picked up the soldier who was the most seriously injured with both legs broken. They ran away, and blood was dripping all the way.

Several huge boulders flew over and hit the wall of the outpost fort heavily, but the damage caused was almost negligible. After all, it was a cement wall made of concrete and stone slabs, and only a few small wall fragments broke.

Vaughn and Duff's team narrowly escaped death as they rushed back to the fortress. Two gigantic alchemical beasts stood up and blocked the fortress gate tightly.

"Tell the soldiers not to waste ammunition and try to attack the giant beast again." Asdalen suggested to Pierce, "I suspect this is a stitched corpse puppet created by an evil orc spellcaster. Among them must be an undead spellcaster who is as skilled in using death energy as Lord Harvey..."

Pierce felt extremely heartbroken when he saw the bloody bodies of seven or eight soldiers lying under the city wall. They were the first batch of veterans he had personally recruited and trained.

They were less than fifty steps away from retreating to the fortress when they were killed by the stone-throwing attack of that damned corpse monster.

On the riverbank in the distance, several giant corpse puppets of the same size appeared and were slowly advancing towards the outpost fortress under the cover of the evil orcs.

"Ask Lord Harvey for help!" Pierce's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth as he gave the order to the messenger.

(End of this chapter)