The Serpent Enters the Trap: Shien's Meat Grinder
Deep within that swirling Gray Fog, amidst the ruins of several abandoned territories, a few faint Platinum Flame shone.
At this point, the Magic Creature charging at the front went completely berserk.
For the Dark Races, who were starving during the Blood Moon, what truly tantalized them was never the blazing Sacred Flame.
What most easily drives them to lose their minds is this dying ember, like a flame that's just one breath away from being extinguished.
This means there's food ahead, and it won't be difficult to bite into it.
The vanguard, along with their Ghoul and low-level Magic Creature, all opened their jaws, corrosive saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths.
They stepped on the backs and severed limbs of their kind, desperately pushing forward towards the few remaining embers.
The moment the one in front fell, the ones behind immediately pounced on it.
Nothing could be seen in the Gray Fog. They didn't care. As long as those few sparks were still flickering, they would continue to push forward.
Karen, who had been sitting on the ridge, had been pressing her sword hilt against her chest, a feeling of pent-up anger lingering in her chest.
Shien's orders were very strict.
No head-on battles, no descending into the valley, no preemptive ambushes; only brief appearances from Dark Bunker and ridges are permitted, followed by a single strike and retreat.
When Karen first heard it, she even felt that this style of play was too frustrating.
As Holy Knight, watching the entire Beast Tide pour in right under your nose while you can only stick on high up and taunt it is incredibly frustrating.
"Buzz"
After a muffled, trembling thud, a series of Adamantine arrows shot out from the blind spot, leaving short white trails as they embedded themselves directly into the most crowded part of the valley floor.
The Third Tier Mutant that was shot didn't even have time to struggle before its body was pierced through and hung diagonally on the rock wall.
Black blood trickled down the arrow shaft.
With its death, the remaining Magic Creature were instantly blocked, and the entire valley passage was thrown into chaos.
The Beast Tide immediately became agitated.
The Werewolf and Ghoul in the front row simultaneously looked up and lunged in the direction from which the heavy arrows had come.
But just as they turned their heads, Karen's team briefly appeared on the ridgeline on the other side of the canyon.
Several Sacred Flame Banner lit up, their white and gold edges flashing briefly in the Gray Fog.
The two Holy Knights on the outermost sides also casually chopped down a few edge Magic Creature that were trying to climb the slope, and without uttering a word, they immediately retreated back into the reverse slope bunker.
The wolves at the bottom of the valley became even more agitated.
Just as they were about to pounce on the left, a flash of white light appeared on the right; just as they were about to climb up, a cold arrow pierced down from above.
Each blow wasn't particularly hard, but they all struck the most painful spots.
It felt like there was always a bloody bone hanging in front of your nose, you could see its shadow, but you could never bite it.
The Werewolf leader at the bottom of the valley finally realized something was wrong.
It had looked up more than once to find harassment points on the ridges on both sides, but every time it locked onto one direction, a white light would appear on the other side.
It roared furiously, trying to stop halfway, regroup its vanguard, and even attempting to forcibly turn around to dismantle the Dark Bunker and the exposed Holy Knight.
Its sharp claws dug deep into the ground, carving out two deep furrows, sending gravel and black mud flying backward.
But as soon as it slowed down, the few remaining flames ahead flickered in the Gray Fog, as if deliberately dangling at its eyes.
The white light from the cold arrows on both sides and the Sacred Flame Banner kept flashing at the edge of its vision, making its brain throb.
What's worse, the Magic Creature behind them are completely mindless and can't stop.
For the first time, the Fourth Tier Werewolf truly felt a stifling, humiliating sense of injustice.
It knew there was a problem ahead; it could even smell the foul odor that had been deliberately dug out for it.
But it was still being pushed forward by the tide behind it.
Like a bull with its mouth and neck bound, it can only chase after the blood-stained red cloth in front of it.
The angrier it gets, the more it seems to be led by the nose.
The wind on the ridge grew stronger and stronger, and Karen gripped the neck of her warhorse tightly.
Looking down from his vantage point, the entire Blackiron Canyon was completely filled.
The vanguard of Magic Creature burrowed into the ruins of the abandoned territory, only to be trapped in several deliberately left dead ends, squeezed into the narrowest part of their throats, struggling even to lift their claws.
The Magic Creature in the back were still instinctively pushing forward, stepping on the backs, skulls, and severed limbs of their kind in front of them, arching inward layer by layer.
The soil at the bottom of the valley is no longer visible.
Black, gray, oozing pus and blood, half-crushed and still twitching, the entire valley was writhing.
Their pride in their numbers, speed, and momentum has become nothing but harm weighing on them here.
--
Karen was used to seeing shield formations withstand Beast Tide, and to seeing lives piled up layer upon layer in exchange for a pitifully narrow path to survival.
But the sight of this long, swollen, blackened snake gave him an inexplicable sense of relief.
Shien didn't even try to confront these things head-on.
He simply laid out the path and let them crawl in on their own.
Just then, at that extremely well-hidden observation point on the other side of the canyon, a small platinum flag fell.
The next moment, a very low, muffled tremor came from the depths of the entire Blackiron Canyon, as if some enormous creature was slowly turning over inside the mountain.
The rock beneath Karen's feet trembled slightly, her warhorse puffed out white breath uneasily, and several pebbles on the edge of the ridge bounced up with a clatter.
The Magic Creature at the bottom of the valley was stunned for a moment.
"Boom-!!!"
The first loud bang seemed to explode from the earth's core.
Beneath that abandoned territory in the canyon, the abandoned Source Furnace and the supporting pillars of the ore vein simultaneously detonated, causing the entire foundation to sink violently.
The already crowded dead end at the front collapsed along with the rock strata beneath its feet.
Shattered walls, ruined houses, animal bones, black blood, and countless Magic Creature bodies were all overturned, causing the entire valley floor to arch upwards.
Immediately afterwards, the second landslide occurred.
The rock walls on both sides, which had long been loosened and cut open, completely lost their support during the continuous blasts.
Large cracks first appeared on the slope, then cascaded down the slope in large sections, with two torrents of gray-black earth and rocks crashing violently into the valley floor from above.
The long black snake, which had been pushing and shoving frantically just moments before, was instantly cut in half at the waist.
The front section was completely swallowed up by the collapsed area of the abandoned territory; the middle section was pressed tightly into the narrowest throat by rolling boulders and fractured rock layers; and before the rear section could react, it was completely out of control by the corpses and waves of earth that were rolling back from the front.
It breaks off at both ends.
The entire thirty-mile-long black snake was forcibly cut into three sections.
Karen could even see clearly that just as several High-Rank Werewolf were about to use their momentum to leap upwards, the entire rock wall above them pressed down first.
Before they could even finish howling, they were buried under the earth and rocks along with the Ghoul around them, with only half a claw still twitching outside.
The low-level Magic Creature that were still charging forward couldn't be stopped and crashed into the edge of the landslide, only to be smashed down by the even heavier objects behind them.
For a moment, the valley floor was filled with muffled sounds of bones shattering and flesh being crushed.
Black blood gushed out from the cracks in the rocks and the pile of corpses, flowing out in gurgling streams.
Karen glanced at it only once before spurring her horse on.
The new flag signals have changed.
"First team cuts off the head, second team cuts off the tail, third team seals the waist!"
The entire fleet of Mobile Holy Knight has been deployed.
Karen led her team down the pre-prepared gentle slope, the route so straight it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler beforehand.
Several heavy crossbow positions on the ridge opened fire simultaneously, and Adamantine arrows rained down from above, aiming at the high-ranking wolves that were still trying to climb the outer stone slope.
Once the arrow pierced the body, the wolf and its corpse were pinned back to the landslide area.
Another group of Holy Knight, wielding longswords, cut into the severed rear section from the side, slicing away layer by layer the tail of the beasts whose retreat was blocked.
When the sword swept across, a row of heads and half a neck would often fly off together.
Before the bodies in front had even settled, those behind stepped on them, trapping themselves even more tightly.
In the middle of the landslide area, the Werewolf leader is still alive.
Its entire upper body was trapped between boulders and the corpses of its own kind, with only half of its shoulder and back and its wolf face covered in dust visible.
He roared, trying to regroup, but his voice was drowned out by the broken walls on both sides and the constantly rolling Stone Blocks.
They tried to break through to either side, but the Alchemical Blast Canister that had been placed on the ridge beforehand had already crashed down.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The flames, mixed with shards of Iron Shards, exploded, further devastating the already chaotic landslide area around it.
Several Frenzyblood Werewolf that tried to gather around were instantly blown apart, their skin torn open, and they tumbled back into the pile of corpses.
The fierce glint in the Werewolf leader's eyes finally changed.
It strained with all four limbs, its teeth clenching so hard they rattled, trying to pull itself out of the cracks in the rocks and the mountain of corpses.
But ahead was a collapsed road, behind was a herd of beasts still pushing in, and on both sides were Falling Stones and flames.
The more it struggled, the deeper it got stuck, as if it had really been pushed into a slaughterhouse prepared for it.
A section of rocky slope that hasn't completely collapsed remains at the edge of the mountain.
That was the last opening on the entire battlefield that could reconnect the three severed Beast Tide.
Castian himself came down.
The old bishop, leading his Holy Knight, crashed directly into the slope from the side hill.
The Platinum Flame of the Fourth Tier Blazing Sun Realm exploded along the Holy Runes on his body, making him feel like a red-hot iron, pressing down with intense heat and oppressive force.
A High-Rank Werewolf was leaping up the rubble, trying to break through the last remaining opening.
Castian met it head-on with a punch.
"Bang!"
The skull shattered instantly.
Before the massive wolf could even lean back, Castian had already taken a half-step forward, his entire body pinned to the middle of the slope.
The Holy Knight followed closely behind, their Tower Shield landing on the ground, their spears raised diagonally, completely sealing the already damaged slope.
If any more Magic Creature lunged forward, they were met with the spearheads. If they lunged any harder, they were instantly blasted back into the pile of corpses by the bishop's Platinum Battle Aura.
With that final hammer blow, the entire Blackiron Canyon finally closed completely.
Castian stood amidst shattered bones, dust, and blood, his breathing remaining steady.
If it were the usual way of fighting, against Beast Tide of this size, he would probably already be trapped in a mountain of corpses with his Holy Knight, fighting until his Battle Aura was exhausted, and then using human lives to fill the gaps layer by layer.
But today, he did surprisingly little; most of the time, he just watched and waited.
As the line that Shien had calculated in advance gradually tightened, he personally fastened the last cover plate to prevent overflow.
At this moment, he finally saw something clearly.
Eternal Night Wall wants to survive, it doesn't necessarily have to keep pushing forward with Holy Knight, Sacred Flame, and wave after wave of defenders.
There's another way.
Calculate the terrain, the flow of water, and the instincts of humans and animals, then let the entire mountain range fight for you.
Castian slowly raised his head, his gaze passing over the dust-filled sky and the collapsed rock walls, looking towards the direction of Blackpine Fief.