Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 160 The Corpse Dispatch Vehicle of the Underworld

The world of heroes is full of forces, each with its own unique characteristics, but when it comes to swarm tactics, the Necropolis is second to none.

After traveling for several days, Su Mu and his companions finally arrived near Bear Fort.

Looking out from the cliff, the plains are filled with wandering skeletons, stretching as far as the eye can see, surrounding Bear Fortress.

The scouts said that Ivan's father, Tony Argyle, had successfully defended the city from the invasion, but that was only because the city had not yet fallen. The skeleton army continued to besiege the city, aided by powerful undead siege equipment. A deluge of corpses was being smashed into the city, causing an undead catastrophe.

At the forefront of the city, there are three enormous corpse-throwing carts, tens of meters high and ten meters wide, filled with wraiths and skeletons scorched by flames. As soon as they touch the city wall, they can immediately corrode a large hole.

If the shards of undead were to hit the archer towers, their shrieks would spread across the city walls, corrupting the soldiers' minds, driving them into chaos and frenzy, causing them to fall off the walls. Most deadly of all were the burning corpses; upon impact with the city, they would explode, not only harming the castle's soldiers but also summoning terrifying, poisonous zombies, severely hindering the castle's effectiveness.

【Phantom Corpse Thrower (Tier 3): The Corpse Thrower attacks city walls and arrow towers during siege battles, deals area damage to enemies near the city walls, and summons a certain number of undead troops.

2000 resistance value, attack 18, defense 18, damage is (hero attack + 1) × 2 + 5, base ammo 64.

The Corpse Thrower can use Undead Legion ammunition, and its attack power is affected by the Ballistics skill.

Advanced Ballistics Enhancement: Controls multiple corpse-throwing carts, attacking twice consecutively, with a 100% chance to trigger a zombie explosion.

[Undead Corpse Explosion (Special Magic): Condenses a corpse with ghostly fire, unleashing an explosion that deals damage and summons undead from the bones (the level of the undead is affected by the level of Necromancy)]

Previously, it was rumored that General Dylan changed the course of the war with his magical ballistics. Now, seeing the trebuchet brought by the cemetery, I realize that the trebuchet has such a variety of uses.

The cemetery clan's low-level units originally lacked the ability to break through, but now, with the corpse-throwing wagons, they can directly enter the city to fight, which is a qualitative change.

But for Bear Fortress, it's a bit more difficult to deal with. Before, they could use archers on the city walls to attack the skeletons from a distance, but now they can only quickly clear the corpses inside the city, otherwise the archers can't even fire arrows.

"The Hellfire Litter Carts were only recently brought to the battlefield; Bear Fortress had not been attacked by powerful siege weapons before."

Ivan had maintained contact with his father and was quite familiar with the situation on the battlefield. If the undead army had had the Shadow Chariots beforehand, Bearhold would likely have struggled to hold out until now.

He was somewhat anxious; if the undead army continued its attack at this intensity, the city would fall soon.

Su Mu observed the battlefield for a while longer before finally making a decision: "The corpse-throwing carts are quite resilient. Let's deal with the surrounding undead skeletons first, and then handle these big guys!"

"Order!"

With the Earthbow and the Mystic Prayer, Orling entered Vengeance mode and stealthily approached the enemy from behind.

"Ivan, you lead the Thunder Swordsmen and the Shieldbearer army to follow behind and protect the ranged archers."

"Yes!"

Ivan led the strongest land forces in Kuraki City, keeping a distance from the covert forces so that they would not be detected in advance and could immediately move forward to protect them when the Earth Bow was activated.

As for the griffin army, it serves as a reserve force, and its purpose is determined based on the battlefield situation.

Looking around, there were more than 10,000 skeleton soldiers, densely packed and countless.

However, Su Mu wasn't too afraid of the opponent. The enemy commander was a bit special; he was most likely a hero who inherited the Undead Grand Duke's skills, so his attributes wouldn't be too strong. As long as the skeleton soldiers couldn't stack up their attributes and defense, they weren't a threat.

On the walls of Bear's Fortress, Tony was leading the Burning Crusade in a desperate battle against the graveyard soldiers hurled by the corpse-throwing wagons. Those flying into the city weren't ordinary skeletons, but rather troublesome monsters like the Blood Venom Zombies; even the Burning Crusade couldn't be completely immune to the damage, and killing them would also result in some losses.

Once the high-level units are all wiped out, ranged archers will be left without protectors and will find it difficult to advance.

"My lord, several huge holes have been blasted into the city wall, and skeleton soldiers are constantly charging from outside. The brothers can't hold on any longer!"

"The corpse-throwing carts smashed both towers to pieces, and terrifying howls lingered from them. The archers couldn't hold out for long; they were attacked by the ghostly sounds, their ears bleeding as they jumped over the wall and died. If we don't send reinforcements soon, we won't be able to hold off the enemy outside the city."

"A large number of ghosts and vampires are approaching; they're preparing for a general attack!" Tony looked out of the city and saw high-level undead troops gradually approaching the city walls, ready to launch an attack.

Previously, the enemy lacked suitable catapults and thus only launched probing attacks. Now, with the Ghostly Corpse Throwers, they have entered a full-scale siege phase. Even so, the undead heroes still intend to use skeletons to wear down Bearhold's strength, waiting until the Burning Crusaders are nearly wiped out before undead and vampires charge into the battlefield.

Tony felt powerless, realizing the two armies were simply not on the same level. To fight against this overwhelming undead force, at least a duchy's legion would be needed.

He sent out a distress call early on, but now the neighbors are all too busy to help themselves, so who can come to their aid?
Just when he was in despair, he suddenly discovered a human army approaching rapidly from the southwest. Even when facing a terrifying undead legion of tens of thousands, they still went without hesitation.

"Ivan?"

"Get out of here! The Argyle family needs you to continue their bloodline. Go back to Longlet Castle, don't come here to die!"

Tony practically roared, but the battlefield was thousands of meters away, and Ivan couldn't hear him at all. Even if he had heard him, he would have rushed to his father's rescue without hesitation.

Nobles are often heartless and cold-blooded, fathers and sons turning against each other, brothers fighting amongst themselves, but Argyle is different. Even though his brother and father secretly reached an agreement with the North, seemingly disrespectful to him, they actually wanted to extricate him, at least to place him under the jurisdiction of another powerful force and preserve his life.

Ivan was initially upset, but later he understood his father's good intentions. In the past, his father had always been the one to support the family; now, it was Ivan's turn to protect the family.

"Thunder Swordsmen, charge with me!"

"promise!"

Sensing the commander's intense rage, the Thunder Swordsman's blood seemed to burn, and endless defensive spells covered his body, allowing him to escape unscathed even if he charged into a sea of ​​soldiers.

Behind the undead army, a death knight gazed at the deep bond between father and son in the distance and applauded in admiration.

"It's such a sad and heartbreaking scene. They've sent me so many high-quality corpses. If I could cry, I would have been moved to tears long ago."

The Argyle family is all gathered. This time, I want to see if old Tony is still hiding the watchtower. The people who buried him are all gone; he might as well hand it over obediently.

Max Evans (Death Knight): Attack 6, Defense 5, Cursed Power 7, Knowledge 5.

No element.

Advanced Necromancy: 30% (60%) of enemy troops killed in battle are transformed into friendly skeletons.

Advanced Undead Offensive: Increases the damage of the commander's melee physical attack by 30%. When undead units attack, they inflict a 1% damage based on the enemy's maximum health as a form of corpse poison (effective against units below level 8, but not exceeding the lower limit of the undead unit's damage).
Intermediate Logistics, Intermediate Navigation, Advanced Ballistics.

Forgotten Special Skills: Advanced Fire Elemental Mastery, Advanced Water Elemental Mastery, Advanced Earth Elemental Mastery

A female wizard beside him warned, "Su Mu is a troublesome character. Last time, the Rat Monster was defeated in White Stone City. We must not be careless."

"Don't worry, I've been accumulating troops for a long time to deal with them, reaching the level of ten thousand bones before launching a full-scale attack. Even if Su Mu is strong, with his thousand men, he can't defeat us. If he wants to cross this sea of ​​corpses, he'll have to lose at least half of his troops. That's when the vampire count will have to step in."

Max glanced at the vampire army behind him, but remained completely unfazed.

Before setting out, the Undead Grand Duke had warned his men that Su Mu was not easy to deal with. However, Max was a renowned Death Knight in the ancient ruins and would not take an unknown general seriously.

In his view, no matter who the opponent is, once the Skull Sea is assembled, no one can defeat them.

He even broke free from Stuart's control. If he can amass enough death troops, it's uncertain who will become the leader of the ruins.

The Death Knight's hollow eyes turned crimson, revealing a dangerous aura.

He seemed to already see his future controlling the ruins.

At that moment, the skeleton soldiers entered range, and Vengeful Spirit and Earthbow unleashed a barrage of arrows, silencing the battlefield instantly.

(End of this chapter)