Chapter 231 - 231: Skeleton Uprising, Skeleton Lizards (2)
Realizing this, Ji Chen immediately shouted loudly, “All troops, climb up and build a defensive line at the top of the sand dune!”
“Half-orcs, be prepared as the reserve force to support our allies!”
Upon hearing this, the troops, who had just snapped out of their resting state, charged up the sand dune without hesitation. They quickly joined forces with the night watch troops and constructed a defensive line spanning hundreds of meters based on the circular shape of the sand dune.
Seeing this, Ji Chen let out a sigh of relief and followed suit by climbing up the sand dune.
Despite having already defeated tens of thousands of skeleton monsters on their way here, the sight of the approaching skeletons still sent a shiver down his spine.
Under the illumination of the blood moon, countless skeletons, resembling a sea, were rushing towards the defensive line.
The blood-red flames flickering in their eye sockets filled the entire field of view.
There must be at least over a hundred thousand of these skeletons to present such a formidable front!
Where did all these skeletons come from!?
However, he soon noticed that these skeleton monsters’ attack lacked organization and order. They were simply swarming forward with their numerical advantage, seemingly without any commands from a skeleton leader.
The defensive line constructed by the army stood firm like a mountain, resisting the wave-like assaults of the skeleton horde without budging.
Yet, the number of skeleton monsters was just overwhelming. Shoulder to shoulder, they surged forward, pushing and shoving to get through.
When they caught a whiff of Ji Chen and his allies’ scent, they grew even more frenzied. Their jaws clamped together with a clatter as they pushed and shoved, even breaking their own ribs and those of their allies in the process.
While most of the skeleton monsters were blocked by the defensive line, a portion of them was gradually pushed to the edges of the line, creating openings.
Seeing this, Ji Chen frowned and ordered Daro to lead the waiting half-orcs to fill in the gaps, killing off the invading skeletons and sealing the breaches.
Whether it was due to the blood moon or the night itself, these skeletons with blood-red flames in their eye sockets seemed to possess slightly greater strength on average than the blue-flame counterparts they had encountered earlier. They attacked fiercely and fearlessly.
The Naga Berserker swung their dual blades, slicing through three or four skeleton monsters with each strike, reducing them to pieces.
The Dragon Blood Murlocs hurled their tridents with great force. Each trident, resembling a charged crossbow bolt, brutally shattered several skeletons lined up in a row.
The Elemental Sea Pixies, now advanced from Tier Three to Tier Four, had significantly enhanced firepower.
Their water arrows were created a chain reaction, with the main arrow exploding among the enemy group and hundreds of secondary arrows blooming like a flower, releasing a violent energy that swept over a radius of thirty to forty meters, creating temporary gaps.
With each explosion, over a hundred skeleton monsters were torn apart. Even the surviving ones were left in tatters.
In terms of killing efficiency, they were the strongest troops under Ji Chen’s command.
The sounds of battle echoed through the red desert. Two hours had passed, yet the number of skeletons before them showed no sign of dwindling. Instead, more kept pouring in from the distance.
Ji Chen gritted his teeth and decided to deploy the self-detonating water spiders that he had not yet used.
He wanted to witness the power of the Tier Three 3-star creatures when their strength was concentrated in an explosion.
After giving the command, a wave of fifty self-detonating water spiders moved around to the sides from a distance.
With their eight slender legs moving swiftly across the gravel, they quickly arrived at the flanks of the skeleton horde. Under Ji Chen’s control, they lunged at one skeleton first.
Seeing the approaching self-detonating water spiders, the skeletons, oblivious to life and death, immediately charged forward.
Their sharp bone claws struck out violently, piercing into the bodies of the self-detonating water spiders and agitating them wildly.
At the next moment, the moving forms of the self-detonating water spiders momentarily froze, emitting a faint green light from within their bodies before violently exploding.
Boom—
A small mushroom cloud suddenly rose up, accompanied by intense air currents carrying rapidly expanding energy, impacting everything around and kicking up numerous pieces of gravel.
As the gravel settled and the dust dispersed, a scene unfolded.
Centered around the point of explosion, within a radius of fifty meters, all the skeleton monsters, whether common skeletons, more advanced skeleton hounds, or black skeletons, were turned into a cloud of white dust. They lay scattered on the gravel, forming a white desert.
A hint of astonishment appeared in Ji Chen’s eyes, and he almost held his breath. He hadn’t expected the power to be this immense; it was much more potent than C4!
Coming back to his senses, he broke into a crazy smile.
This time, he was determined to blow these skeleton monsters to pieces!
With a thought, the remaining forty-nine self-detonating water spiders charged forward as well.
Boom-
Boom—
On the battlefield, small mushroom clouds would sporadically rise, accompanied by thousands of skeleton monsters being reduced to dust.
Continuous explosions created large gaps in the skeleton horde, which took a while to fill back up.
With each self-detonating water spider’s explosion, system notifications sounded one after another.
“Ding- Your troops have killed 536 ordinary skeletons, gaining experience…”
“Ding- Your troops have killed 215 black skeletons, gaining experience…”
“Ding- Your troops have killed 87 skeleton hounds, gaining experience…”
“Ding- Your level has increased (22—23).”
“Ding- Your level has increased (23—24).”
“Ding- Your level has increased (24—25).”
Witnessing his levels rapidly ascending as if taking flight, Ji Chen couldn’t help but break into a broad smile, revealing his almost visible teeth.
This wasn’t just gaining experience from killing monsters; this was experience farming.
Whose character could level up this quickly?
Several hours later, no more skeleton monsters appeared in the distance. When the last one was split into pieces, his level had settled at 27.
Apart from him, the other heroes had also gained several levels.
Alice had the highest level, reaching 28, while the others were all between levels 25 and 28.
This wave was a massive boon!
By now, Ji Chen’s initial frustration from the sudden attack had been cast aside, replaced by a sense of satisfaction. He wished for a few more waves of this scale of skeleton horde.
At this rate, reaching level 35 before leaving this mystic realm would be a breeze!
After hours of intense battle, the army began to show signs of exhaustion.
Glancing at the blood moon slowly disappearing behind the clouds, Ji Chen’s heart gradually relaxed. He spoke loudly, “Leave some guards on watch and the rest can rest.”
With that, he descended the sand dune and returned to his tent, resuming his rest.
The next day.
After the army had finished regrouping, they set off again, heading towards the depths of the vast red desert.
However, this time, there seemed to be something different.
After marching for two hours, amidst the monotonous sea of red, a black stone forest came into view.
A multitude of skeleton monsters were encamped around the stone forest.
Seeing this scene, Ji Chen couldn’t be more aware that it was another skeleton camp.
However, the number of skeleton monsters here was much larger than in the previous camp.
Among them, new types of skeleton monsters had even emerged.
Resembling lizards, their bodies were formed by bones, stretching four to five meters in length. They had only a pair of forelimbs, while their thick, muscular tails took up half of their total length, clearly not meant for aesthetic purposes.
Between their necks and heads was a circular bone shield, and atop their pointed skull grew a fierce bone horn.
This image appeared quite mighty and domineering.
[Skeleton Lizard]
[Tier]: Fourth Tier, 2 stars
Bone Poison (Purple skill, claws carry poison, causing negative effects like paralysis to enemies)
Sturdiness (Blue skill, 50% increase in overall bone strength)
Agility (Blue skill, strong forelimbs allow for rapid climbing, 35% increase in movement speed)
[A special presence among the skeleton tribe, possessing strong ambush capabilities]
Ji Chen’s pupils contracted slightly.
Fourth Tier, 2 stars…
This was the first time he had encountered a fourth-tier skeleton monster, and it didn’t seem like a pushover.
Fortunately, these skeleton lizards didn’t appear to be mere cannon fodder. With a quick glance, there were only about a hundred of them on the outskirts of the stone forest, a number still within controllable range.
Observing the skills and traits of these skeleton lizards, Ji Chen’s mind gradually formulated a plan..