Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 162 The Mark of Oblivion
So far in the battle, Ivan has been the one who has suffered the most. He commands Thunder Swordsmen and Shield Soldiers, and now with the addition of Wild Griffins, his already meager mana is starting to crumble.

This was only because Su Mu had intentionally equipped him with the Cursed Armor to comprehensively enhance his attributes; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to hold on until now.

After all, Ivan's profession is the Rage Knight, and after promotion, his main attributes are offense and defense. It is impossible for him to comprehend knowledge and magic power with a high probability like wizards and sorcerers. This is determined by the characteristics of heroes, which is normal.

The Cursed Armor performed poorly, casting four debuffs at the start. Curse of the Dead had no effect on the undead, and Doom only slightly reduced luck. The Slow and Weakness spells were the truly effective ones; due to the wide coverage of the combined artifacts, even wraiths and vampires were affected, thus buying time for ranged archers.

The horde of skeletons in the graveyard is terrifying for a reason: the undead are immune to mind magic and certain special spells, making them more effective in combat.

If the Cursed Armor had fought the Barrier in its first battle, it might have been more effective. Ivan had heard Su Mu say that magic isn't useless when disaster strikes, but rather that a lack of special skills and troop coordination can be fatal when luck is bad!
Overall, the defenses are strong enough that the skeletons can't break through the shield bearers' defenses. The Vampire Count and the Howling Wraith were stopped on the hill by the Wild Griffin and engaged in a melee.

They are all units with special skills, and can deal some damage even to the Wild Griffin with its maximum physical defense.

After a large number of shrieking sonic waves converged, clearing out an area of ​​griffins, the vampire count used his 10% lifesteal ability to revive his teammates around him.

At this moment, Max also demonstrated his special ability. A magic circle was generated under his feet, which condensed corresponding mirror images in the densely populated areas of the battlefield. The corpses on the ground were reassembled, and the soul fire was ignited, which actually resurrected a large number of the dead.

【Spirit Gathering Magic (Level 3 Magic, Earth Element): Revives selected friendly undead units, with the revived Soulfire Points being (Curse Power × 50) + 30.

Advanced Earth Elemental Mastery: Revives a selected friendly undead unit, granting (Curse Power x 50) + 160 Soulfire Points.

The infamous level 3 necromancy is also one of the core elements of the skeleton horde tactic.

Max didn't rush to revive the frontline troops. Instead, he replenished the undead near the corpse wagons and commanded the skeletons to enter the corpse wagons' death furnaces. Inside, there were creaking sounds of bones breaking as the low-level skeleton soldiers were crushed into terrifying corpse stitch bombs, which were then bombarded towards the core of the Earth Bow.

He had misjudged the situation, believing the undead army outside the city was sufficient to handle Su Mu's forces, and the Netherworld catapults were still attacking the city walls. After several rounds of fighting, Max had completely lost his previous arrogance and turned all his firepower towards the enemy outside the city.

The trebuchet's attack range is very wide, covering almost the entire battlefield. The explosive projectiles formed from undead bones slammed into the center of the archer formation, instantly killing dozens of Earth Archers.

Furthermore, after the corpse explosion, a large number of Blood Poison Zombies appeared, entangled with the archers, and limited the Earth Bow's output.

Although the Soul Arrow Technique is powerful, once entangled by melee units, there is not enough time to condense the magical arrow, greatly reducing its power.

At this moment, the power of the Arcane Prayers is revealed. Their melee combat is as lethal as ever, and they can also enjoy the bonus from Soul Arrow. They can easily kill several Blood Poison Zombies with a single blow, making room for the Earth Bow.

The new round of prayers worked once again, the healing spell restoring life to the injured comrades around them and resisting the damage caused by the self-destruction of the Blood Poison Zombies.

The only weakness of the Prayer is its low health; it struggles against annoying units like the Blood Poison Zombie. It's like stepping on a cockroach and ending up contaminating your own foot.

Orling mobilized the prayer followers, instructing them to eliminate the Blood Poison Zombies within a small area while preserving their own health. There was no other way; the number of prayer followers was too small, and some had to be intentionally preserved.

The battlefield situation is currently favorable, so there's no need for Earthbow to act too hastily. Compared to the resurrected troops from the Spirit Gathering Technique, it's not as effective as the number of enemies killed by the Undead Slayer.

As Su Mu unleashed another wave of undead killings, a ghostly corpse-throwing cart in front of the city gate finally succumbed to the impact and collapsed with a crash. The massive cart frame broke in half, and countless white bones crumbled and shattered, burying the 'ammunition' behind it, leaving only a pile of rubble.

Seeing this, the soldiers inside Bear Castle regained their hope and shouted, "The kingdom's allies have arrived! Lord Ivan has come to save us! These undead are about to collapse! Let's charge out together!"

The Burning Crusaders, their morale soaring, led their spearmen out of the city gates and slaughtered the skeletons.

They were closest to the corpse-delivery truck and were initially being overwhelmed, but now, with reinforcements, they were the first to rush to the vicinity of the corpse-delivery truck.

With a combined effort, hundreds of people pulled down the massive war machine burning with ghostly flames. The unreformed bones and flesh were dumped onto the ground, polluting the green grass and turning it withered and yellow.

The green flames were still burning on the bones, but the previous gloom and oppression were gone.

Tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers have been reduced to less than a thousand, and the human soldiers see the dawn of victory.

Max was soaring into the air behind the army that he was too exhausted to breathe.

Level 3 magic is already considered mid-level, and even with advanced earth elemental mastery, it consumes a huge amount of mana. An average hero can only cast it seven or eight times at most. Since the start of the battle, he has used Exorcism, Death Ripple, and multiple Spirit Gathering spells, almost completely depleting his mana.

But when Max saw Su Mu and Maggie backing them up, he almost fell off the plane.

The Undead Slayer seemed to have no mana left, unleashing an endless barrage of attacks with astonishing destructive power. Max estimated that the opponent possessed over 20 points of magical power; otherwise, it would have been impossible to inflict such terrifying damage.

Maggie is even more monstrous, unleashing an endless variety of magic. There's no magic of the four elements that she doesn't know, and she often casts one spell and then immediately casts another without any interval, leaving people in despair.

"This war is unwinnable."

Max excels at sieges and ambushes. His high mobility allows him to inflict unexpected damage, while in head-on battles he relies on advanced offensive techniques and the intimidating power of a horde of skeletons to gain the upper hand.

Unfortunately, the opponent had both a tank like Ivan who could withstand the horde of skeletons and a powerful ranged attacker like Olling, who completely countered him.

This opposing team's combination could be the deciding factor even in a national war; using it for the siege of a single county city is a waste of its potential.

Max kept cursing, not even considering that his own horde of tens of thousands of skeletons was besieging Bear Fortress, which was also a case of overwhelming numbers.

However, the undead hero has one advantage: he has no feelings for his soldiers. Once he decides to escape, he simply sends the remaining wraiths and vampires to surround and block the enemy, while he rides a giant vampire bat and moves off the battlefield.

The sorceress also realized that the situation was not good and wanted to leave in advance, but Max used the pressure of the high-ranking death knight to force her to stay in place.

Max hurriedly left before the army was routed.

Max ran into trouble when he touched the edge of the battlefield.

Orling was wearing the War Shackles, but the skeleton soldiers were so powerful that they didn't even attempt to reach the edge of the battlefield, so he didn't pay any attention to this magical array. Now that Max wanted to escape, he naturally discovered the trouble with the War Shackles, but he still had a secret weapon he hadn't used yet.

Max blew a bone conch shell, his eyes fixed on Orling on the battlefield. A melodious and enchanting sound traveled thousands of meters to Orling's ears. He suddenly staggered, feeling dizzy and his mind went blank, as if he had forgotten something.

With his dazed movements, the chains that had been wrapped around his hands slowly disappeared, the enclosed dome around the battlefield collapsed rapidly, and the effect of the war chains was dispelled.

This was originally a trump card left to him by the Grand Duke of the Dead. Max was thinking about whether he could use it at a critical moment, but as the war progressed, he found that there was no chance at all. Even if the enemy lost one treasure, there was no way to fight. It was better to use it to escape.

This scene was very well concealed, and due to the chaos of the battlefield, most people did not notice Max's subtle actions.

However, Maggie's curse power had reached a terrifying level, and she could observe even the slightest movement within several kilometers, naturally discovering Max's actions.

"The enemy commander is trying to escape!"

Without time to explain, she used the Slow spell, but Max was prepared and used her last magic to exorcise him and the vampire bats, allowing them to escape from the area and get out of the maximum casting range.

Without saying a word, Su Mu rode on Gale, leading dozens of wild griffins, and chased after Max.

Even without the shackles of war, he wouldn't let his enemies escape. To think they could escape with vampires is to underestimate his griffin.

Maggie understood immediately and instantly cast Swift Acceleration on the griffins.

In this way, they can barely offset the advantage brought by the other side's logistics.

"The situation is settled. You work with Ivan and Orin to clean up the battlefield. I'll go after the Death Knight."

After saying that, he rode the griffin and soared into the clouds.

(End of this chapter)