When Zhang Yang had used up his magic power to make ten Wolf Fang Arrows, Qin Yidao and the other nine Elite Archers finally all advanced to Captain-grade Archers.
The affinity bonus had not triggered. It seemed Wu Yuan could be wrong sometimes too.
But that was unimportant, because the archers, whose combat power had always been little more than dead weight, finally truly exploded in strength after advancing to Captain-grade.
As expected of a more technically demanding troop type.
At that moment, Qin Yidao and the others all grew to two meters tall. Their arms were exceptionally robust, long enough to hang past their knees—in one glance, they were clearly built for archery.
As for their attributes, everything except Soul, which was E-, was D+. It was remarkably uniform.
Their archery proficiency had risen from 245 to 355.
They had no talents, but they had two skills, and neither was ordinary.
One was Wind-Chasing Arrow. It did not mean that the arrow was especially fast, but that it could keep up with rapidly moving targets and hit them without fail.
The other was Armor-Piercing Arrow, a skill specifically used to break through defenses.
As for their weapons, things were a little awkward.
After all, every archer came with thirty-five feather arrows upon recruitment, and once those were used up, they could not be replenished.
Thus, Qin Yidao and the other nine now had not a single feather arrow in their hands. Naturally, that meant they had wasted this opportunity for enhancement—an enhancement to Captain-grade, no less.
Their longbows, however, were different. At first, they had merely been ordinary longbows. After one enhancement, they had become iron-limb longbows. After this third enhancement, they had become Captain-grade Great Bows.
Absolutely savage.
The things were 1.8 meters long. Their limbs were extremely heavy and hard as steel, their bowstrings thicker than a thumb. Just sitting there, they gave off an imposing, soul-shaking aura.
With his current E- Strength, Zhang Yang stepped forward to try one. The result was humiliating: he actually could not draw it. Beside him, Qin Yidao explained with a cheeky grin:
"Village Chief, this is a 300-Strength Strong Bow. Without 30,000 jin of strength, it can't be drawn. How about I demonstrate a shot for you?"
Clearly, he had his eye on the Wolf Fang Arrows Zhang Yang had just made. In fact, it was not only him—the others were all staring at them with shining eyes. After all, as Captain-grade Archers, they possessed the skill to shoot eagles from the sky, but having no matching arrows was simply too pitiful.
"Cut the crap. There are only ten matching Wolf Fang Arrows for now, one per person. From this moment on, hide in the small fortress. The enemy could appear at any time. When they do, we'll see whether you have what it takes to kill them."
Zhang Yang snorted, but he was actually very satisfied, and his heart finally settled. He could have upgraded ten Sword and Shield Soldiers or spearmen before this; they would all have been Captain-grade, and their strength would not have been poor.
But he felt that the enemy this time was mysterious and unknown, and he did not even know what tricks they had up their sleeves. They had to put caution first and avoid reckless battle. With ten Captain-grade Archers holding the high ground and enjoying the terrain's advantage, they could at least remain undefeated.
Next, Zhang Yang continued activating the Soul Force Field and extracting Demonic Energy from the wolf demon's blood. Now that he possessed the Azure Wolf Essence, extracting and capturing Demonic Energy had become much easier.
Unfortunately, the Azure Wolf was only a Level 1 monster, far too low-level. Its demon blood contained too little Demonic Energy. If he had known, he should have tried the Red Eagle Demon's blood from the start yesterday. After all, it was a Level 5 monster, and its demon blood contained much more Demonic Energy.
Of course, the difficulty would certainly have been much greater as well.
After three whole hours, even with the Azure Wolf Essence, Zhang Yang had only extracted 0.03 units of magic power. He successfully turned it into thirty Wolf Fang Arrows, and just then, the Village Imp frantically began warning him.
"Village Chief, this is bad! The enemy is here again! There are at least five imps—no, six! They want to kill me! They knew I was hiding here from the very beginning."
Then the imp went silent. It had not been killed; it had simply hidden inside the Wood Demon Tower.
Yet outside, everything was still extremely quiet. Within the village's territory, Level 2 Vision was fully active, but not a single enemy had appeared.
"Sound the gong! Tell Wu Yuan and the others to retreat!"
Zhang Yang first ordered the soldiers to strike the iron shields, then had someone go to the Training Ground. There were still fifty recruits there, and they had to be withdrawn here immediately.
The moment he issued the order, Zhang Yang saw Wu Yuan's group running back in a sorry state. Clearly, they had already encountered the enemy, and someone had been injured.
"What happened?"
Suppressing the anxiety in his heart, Zhang Yang looked toward the distance, but the ancient trees towered into the sky in the forest, hiding everything from view.
"Village Chief, the enemy has archers—and they're Captain-grade! Song Dachui was injured. He took five arrows, but none of them are fatal." Liu Dali suddenly shouted. His eyesight was the sharpest; he could see clearly even from a kilometer away.
Now that Zhang Yang looked more closely, he saw that Wu Yuan's group was indeed being led from the rear by Wu Yuan, Wang Mumu, and Duan Kuan. Wu Yuan kept waving his spear to knock away something, while Wang Mumu and Duan Kuan held shields on either side to provide cover.
But there was still no sign of the enemy in the distance. That meant the enemy archers had a range of at least four hundred meters.
"Village Chief, should we go help them?"
Qin Yidao asked for permission to fight.
"No. Keep hiding. They're not dead yet." Zhang Yang's brow furrowed deeply, but he kept his eyes fixed on the statuses of Wu Yuan and the others shown on the Village Building Order. In that brief span of time, four of them had already been shot. Song Dachui was the most seriously injured, but he could still retreat alive into the Wood Demon Tower's range.
Among the others who had been hit was even Wu Yuan.
A single arrow had taken away one-fifth of his health bar.
"This is the weakness of having no armor. Otherwise, with the Four Berserker Bears, they could charge up and pull off a counterkill!"
Zhang Yang seethed inwardly. The Four Berserker Bears were very strong, but at present, aside from fur loincloths, they were all bare-chested. Going up against the enemy's Captain-grade Archers like that would be no different from throwing their lives away.
At last, Wu Yuan's group retreated into the area covered by the Wood Demon Tower's effects. Zhang Yang immediately activated the Fog of War. This thing was expensive, consuming 100 energy per minute, but it could reduce the enemy's vision by two-thirds.
In an instant, clouds of green mist rose and covered an area of one hundred meters. At that moment, eight figures also emerged more than four hundred meters away in the distance, but they did not seem to be human.
"They have humanlike limbs, but wolf heads growing from their necks. The Great Bows they carry are similar to ours. There are six archers and two carrying shields, but they should all be Captain-grade. Village Chief, the enemy only brought this few people? Something feels wrong."
Liu Dali carefully described the situation to Zhang Yang.
"Damn it!"
Zhang Yang cursed, understanding the situation at once.
"They're either the enemy's vanguard, with the main force still behind them—but that's basically impossible. If this werewolf village could dispatch fifteen Captain-grade soldiers in one go, what tricks would they need? They could simply surround us and attack."
"If not, then there's only the second possibility. That mysterious enemy can't mobilize a large force at the moment, so it sent six Captain-grade Archers and two Captain-grade infantrymen to blockade my village's development. They have a sufficiently long range and sufficiently powerful lethality, while we have no ranged units to suppress them. That allows them to comfortably seal off my village until that mysterious enemy has time to mobilize the main force."
At this thought, a vicious glint burst from Zhang Yang's face.
"Charge out and trade fire with them!"
"Village Chief, shouldn't we use the mist as cover and circle around to ambush them?" Qin Yidao asked. They currently held the advantages of time, terrain, and manpower. If they traded fire, there would inevitably be casualties, and it would be difficult to wipe out the enemy completely.
"Circle around my ass. They have a Village Imp underground and are well prepared. The Fog of War can't hide you from them. Besides, if it's a trap, we can retreat to the fortress quickly."
Zhang Yang cursed, grabbed the last Imprisonment Spear, and charged out. He had a feeling that the mysterious enemy he had encountered this time was even more cautious and harder to deal with than the deer demon. If he did not catch them off guard and kill them now, he probably would not get another chance.
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