The General's Soldiers (Seeking Collection and Recommendation)

The arrow struck heavily into the Skeleton Captain's chest, burying itself deep within the armor. The Skeleton Captain lost its balance, stumbled, and retreated several steps.

At this moment, two enlarged blood-colored fireballs descended into their midst.

"Boom! Boom!"

With two thunderous roars, the blood-colored fireballs exploded. Sparks flew in every direction, transforming into a massive shockwave that blasted all the skeleton warriors away, the Skeleton Captain included.

The Skeleton Captain was in a sorry state, and just as it tried to scramble to its feet, another blood-colored fireball landed on it. Zhao Fu had unleashed a Hellfire Ball.

"Boom!"

An explosion rang out, sending the Skeleton Captain, who had just been about to stand, flying another three or four meters away.

The other skeleton warriors stood up at this time. Having lost the lead of the Skeleton Captain, they gathered together and instinctively charged forward.

"Archers, fire to suppress them!" Zhao Fu shouted again.

The archers released arrow after arrow, successfully creating time for Rogge to cast his spells. Two blood-colored spheres condensed and shot out once more, landing among the skeleton warriors and blasting them away again.

On the other side, the Skeleton Captain was slowly trying to stand up, but a regular fireball landed precisely on it, blasting it back another three or four meters.

Seeing that the Skeleton Captain had been separated from the other skeleton warriors, Zhao Fu immediately said, "Bai Qi! The Skeleton Captain is yours."

Bai Qi nodded and quickly ran toward the Skeleton Captain.

As for the remaining eleven skeleton warriors, they were completely held off by Zhao Fu's group. Whenever three or four of them gathered together, a fireball would fly out, and the shield-bearers and infantry would charge forward to launch attacks.

Zhao Fu's side quickly gained control. On Bai Qi's side, the Skeleton Captain's strength was waning due to the repeated weakening from Zhao Fu and Rogge, and it was gradually losing the upper hand. However, the Skeleton Captain remained formidable; gripping its blade with both hands, every move was extremely fierce, unleashing a wide arc of blade light as it attacked Bai Qi.

Seeing that his own side was under control, Zhao Fu turned his gaze toward Bai Qi's battle. He drew his Ironwood Bow once more and unleashed a Stone-Shattering Arrow, a wisp of mysterious yellow energy condensing on the shaft.

The Skeleton Captain was in the middle of a spinning maneuver, swinging its blade horizontally toward Bai Qi's waist.

At that moment, an arrow struck the Skeleton Captain's waist, forcefully interrupting its movement. Bai Qi seized the opportunity, his sword unleashing a sharp sword aura that pierced directly into the Skeleton Captain's skull. The blue soul fire within the skull flickered, grew smaller and smaller, and finally extinguished.

The Skeleton Captain's body fell apart, collapsing into a pile of bones on the ground. Bai Qi quickly turned and returned to Zhao Fu's battlefield, taking on three skeleton warriors at once.

Zhao Fu ordered a full-scale, powerful assault, and together with Rogge, they unleashed fireballs. The eleven skeleton warriors were eventually all destroyed.

This battle lasted for half an hour, and everyone had consumed a great deal of energy, especially Zhao Fu and Rogge, who were both mentally exhausted.

Afterward, they began to collect the loot. First were the eleven skeleton warriors, which dropped eleven blue-grade weapons and eight Souls of Martial Refinement. Zhao Fu then walked over to the Skeleton Captain's bone pile to examine its great blade.

[Hundred-Edge Blade] Grade: Silver, Attributes: Strength +3, Constitution +3. Description: Originally a top-tier gold-grade weapon, the Hundred-Edge Blade could not withstand the erosion of time and has become an ordinary silver-grade weapon.

A silver weapon—Zhao Fu felt a slight surge of joy and continued to look at the Skeleton Captain's armor.

[Cyan-Gold Armor] Grade: Blue, Attributes: Constitution +1. Description: Originally gold-grade armor, after tens of thousands of years of weathering, it has degraded to blue-grade quality.

Having obtained this armor, Zhao Fu temporarily had Bai Qi put it on. The defense of the Cyan-Gold Armor was certainly superior to leather armor, though it was only a temporary measure; he would need to perform some simple repairs on certain parts later.

As for the blue leather armor Bai Qi had taken off, Zhao Fu unceremoniously put it on himself. Besides these two pieces of equipment, the Skeleton Captain had also dropped a light orb that emitted a faint glow. Inside the orb, there appeared to be a soldier holding a great blade and wearing armor.

Zhao Fu took it to examine.

[Soldier Soul] Description: A powerful essence left behind after a soldier's death. It can be fused into a City Heart to become a Guardian Spirit, or fused into a weapon for enhancement. (Note: 100 Soldier Souls can be fused into a General's Weapon; a Lord possessing 24 General's Weapons can use 1,000 Soldier Souls to fuse them into a King's Weapon.)

Zhao Fu was pleasantly surprised; it felt quite powerful. However, he was curious about what a General's Weapon was, and what that King's Weapon might be, but for now, he could only put it away.

They rested on the spot for a while to recover their stamina and mental energy before continuing forward.

Afterward, they did not encounter any particularly troublesome enemies, killing another twelve skeleton infantry and five skeleton archers, which dropped thirteen Souls of Martial Refinement.

Zhao Fu had originally thought things would continue this easily, but the situation shifted because skeleton shield-bearers appeared.

Zhao Fu had been relying on the advantage of having defensive units while the enemy did not to explore so easily, but now that the enemy was also using defensive units, the situation became somewhat unfavorable.

This time, Zhao Fu encountered five skeleton infantry, three skeleton archers, and five skeleton shield-bearers.

In terms of difficulty, it was even harder than facing a dozen of a single unit type. His arrows were almost entirely blocked by the shield-bearers, and charging in was difficult; shield-bearer against shield-bearer resulted in a stalemate.

The only advantage they had now was numbers and the explosive skills of Zhao Fu and Rogge.

The skeletons had also formed a formation: the skeleton shield-bearers held their shields high, the infantry hid behind them, and the skeleton archers had already drawn their bows and nocked their arrows.

There was no other way; they had to use their numerical advantage and fight head-on.

Zhao Fu's side also had their shield-bearers in front, infantry hiding behind, and archers drawing their bows.

The two sides collided. Zhao Fu's archers focused on suppressing the enemy skeleton archers, because Zhao Fu's side consisted of living beings—getting hit meant injury or death, unlike this group of undead.

Zhao Fu could only focus his full attention on the battle. He wanted to use fireballs to attack the skeleton archers, but the range of his magical skills was not very long, so he could only act when the opportunity arose.

However, the situation was still in Zhao Fu's favor. Two of his shield-bearers were slamming their shields against a single skeleton shield-bearer, hoping to knock them all apart.

Yet, even after becoming undead, these skeleton shield-bearers knew that they could only exert their strength by staying united. So, even as Zhao Fu's shield-bearers pushed hard, they remained tightly clustered together.

The battle was at a stalemate, and Zhao Fu had no choice but to call for Bai Qi to act.