Arcane Journey

Chapter 149 Head-to-head combat
Surrounded by a gray-red flat stone land, divided into many pieces by canyons and faults, piles of stones and strangely shaped boulders are scattered.

On the heights of this rocky ground, hung a flaming, gigantic golden sun, dyeing the entire sky yellow.

The scorching sun distorts vision and shimmers the air.

Brian stood on a boulder, facing the dazzling brilliance, looking at the enemy army raising dust in the distance, quickly recalling information about the enemy in his mind.

Dozens of centuries of living in the Shadow Plane have taught the Shade that if they want to survive, everyone in this society understands their role very well and works hard for the development of the city as a whole.

Therefore, despite the strict hierarchy of the City of Shade, it places great emphasis on talent.

Everyone hopes to use his best ability to strive for the safety and survival of the society. When every free citizen reaches the senior year (13 years old), he will undergo a specific set of tests to determine his ability.

Once a Shade's potential is discovered, it is trained to enhance those potentials until adulthood (age 18), at which point it begins a full-time career.

Occasionally, over time, some Shademen show astonishing development in other skills, at which point the Decider tests him a second time, sometimes changing their initial selection.

But this situation is extremely rare, because the testing methods for magic and divine arts talents are extremely precise and accurate.

Among the social classes of the City of Shade, only those with a gift for magic and the divine arts have gained respected positions in the city's military.

Although the caster's authority and importance are below that of the city lord, they are far above ordinary people.

The name Arcanist of Shadow City comes from the ancient Netherese name for wizards and warlocks. They and Shar's priests are the backbone of the city.

Responsible for various academic institutions, train talented people, and support various missions under the orders of the princes.

There are approximately 2000 arcanists and clerics in the city, of which about 500 are transformed shademen.

Even if a high-ranking spellcaster slaughters ordinary citizens at will, he will not commit the death penalty. At most, he will be replaced by expensive fines and free 996 labor.

However, if a spellcaster is involved in a magic pet that intentionally kills other spellcasters, if the circumstances are serious, he will even be sentenced to death or imprison the soul by the Spiral Court of the Floating Void City, a judicial institution that specifically targets spellcasters.

Obviously, ordinary citizens are not even as good as a magic pet in the Shadow Empire.

These ghostly arcanists and clerics are by far a relatively powerful part of the group, holding the highest authority in the institutions organized by the various arcanists and clerics.

For those ordinary people without magical talent, if they want to join the army, most of them can only start as low-level soldiers, but for those with ability and intelligence, there are plenty of opportunities to be promoted to officers.

After all, during the long stay in the Shadow Plane, the City of Shadows has been attacked countless times by various hostile creatures, and the army has always been troubled by these shocks.

Now that the City of Shadows has returned to the main material world, the Supreme King has already issued an order to order the army to expand and prepare for war as quickly as possible.

In Brian's impression, the regular army of Shade City has about 6000 soldiers, most of whom are descendants of Netheril, and about 500 are truly transformed Shademen (including all officers above lieutenant) .

Although the High King is the commander-in-chief of the army, this army is divided into small groups, commanded by the twelve Shadow Princes and Hajhorna, the Hand of the High King.

In the mainland countries, the number of 6000 troops may not be very impressive in the eyes of these rulers, but when you know that in the strict system of the City of Shadows, the professional level of every official soldier born is at least above level 3 , I understood their true horror.

The level of a typical ordinary soldier in the City of Shadows is around level 3, that of a lieutenant is above level 5, and that of a captain is around level 8, and starting from the captain, they have the dark guard of the advanced profession Shar.

The army of Shade was getting closer, and Brain could even see the polished bone bows, iron points of spears and banners fluttering in the wind of the slaves in the vanguard.

Apparently the Shade Empire also inherited slavery from the time of Netheril.

Among these slaves, some are civilians without any useful skills and talents, and others are criminal citizens who do not commit capital crimes, but the main source is humanoid slaves, the most typical of which are orc slaves.

Apart from their slavery, Brian felt that the magic selection of the Shade Empire was worth learning from.

Therefore, when the Shadow Guard Assassin Crysanna's assassination attempt failed, the reason why he let her go was not only to break the alliance between De Sud and Haj Horna, but also his real purpose was to win over the Shadow Prince.

This is a very long-term plan, and he is not confident that it will be successful.

However, it can be seen from the current situation that he has successfully planted a seed in the heart of this ghost prince.

As for whether it will germinate or not, everything depends on fate.

After all, he killed De Sude's youngest daughter. Even if the long life made this ruthless father no longer have the so-called family affection, it does not mean that the other party will not have a little grudge.

Then, Brian stopped thinking about it, and began to face the army of Shadow City with all his strength.

Because today's well-prepared battle will determine whether he will be able to gain a firm foothold in the Enook Desert in the future.

"General Oubert, prepare to fight!" Brian looked down at the Purple Dragon Knights who were waiting in battle.

"understand!"

The purple dragon knight Oubert bowed his head slightly to salute him with a solemn expression, then drew out the long sword at his waist, and shouted to the 500 purple dragon guards: "Soldiers, the time for bloody struggle has come!"

"Ahead is the army from the City of Shadows. They want to invade the territory of the Kingdom of Cormyr, spread evil beliefs, and try to make our people fear and die under the shadow of the evil god!"

"The Knight of the Purple Dragon is the sharpest sword in the Kingdom of Cormyr, under the banner of the Purple Dragon, tell me, what should I do now?!"

Under the impassioned declaration, Brian immediately activated the inspirational ability attached to the purple dragon seal ring.

A spell flashed.

A purple flag transformed by magic fluttered in the wind together with the big flags raised by the flag bearers, making a sound of hunting.

The banner fluttered in the wind and flew over the long pole, and Zilong's giant dragon seemed to spread its wings and take off on the banner.

"Sweep away all evil!"

"Fight for Mokou Town!"

"Fight for the honor of the Kingdom of Cormyr!"

500 Zilong guards swung their swords towards the sky and shouted in unison.

Sweat dripped from the sun-baked cheeks of the soldiers, and the burning passion spread in the ranks. They seemed to feel the glory of the past swirling around them, enveloping them.

— "Supernatural Ability: Boost Morale!"

— "Supernatural Ability: Ultimate Resistance!"

A pair of sharp long swords faced the sun that dyed the entire sky golden yellow, and the scorching radiance shot directly at the purple dragon knights and their bright armors. With these high-spirited words, even Brian could feel it. An inspiring force.

[Boost morale (professional ability): Starting from level 2, the purple dragon knight can give an inspiring speech to motivate nearby allies. Every affected ally, including the purple dragon knight itself, can fight against charm and fear effects , gain +2 morale saves, attack and weapon damage increased by 10%. 】

[Final Resistance (Professional Ability): Starting from level 5, the Purple Dragon Knight can use high-spirited words to inspire his troops to be heroic. After using this ability, driven by the desire to fight, the knight's own physical strength will be greatly increased Ascension, so did his allies. 】

…………

It can be seen that the purple dragon knight is the perfect battle leader. They stand on the front line with weapons in hand and give orders, and they know how to motivate the army to victory in battle.

At the same time, a furious war song rang out. In the center of the army, the war singer from the Church of the God of Knowledge, dressed in silver full-body armor, sang an incomparably high-spirited battle song with the help of powerful professional abilities.

— "Supernatural Abilities: Song of Fortitude!"

- "Supernatural ability: song of rage!"

In an instant, the howls of fighting, howls of death and battle howls condensed by music, rushed across the battlefield like a furious storm, dragging allies and enemies into the raging waves of singing.

Song of War, an advanced profession of a bard, an elite leader who completely abandons the ability to cast spells and focuses all his thinking on military affairs.

Accompanied by the furious music activated by the song of war, everyone around seemed to have forgotten all the pain and fear. Facing the surging enemies, there was endless fighting spirit in their eyes.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The bugle sounded, passionate and long, like a hot wind from the desert, which made people's blood surge.

When the trumpets died away, the reverberation of the bowstrings filled the void.

The archers who had ambushed in advance on both sides of the road released a rain of arrows, and the slaves, mainly orcs, began to run desperately, roaring as they ran.

Sharp arrows and crossbows were thrown at them like hail, hundreds, thousands, countless in an instant.

At this moment, the spellcasters, mainly the priests of the Battle Mage and the Church of the God of Knowledge, took out their magic items and scrolls, and released the prepared attack spells and divine spells.

- "Spider Web Technique!"

- "Grease!"

- "Fireball!"

- "Summoning Thunder!"

——"Death cloud technique!"

…………

Accompanied by the emergence of one after another spell rays of light.

Large pieces of greasy grease and spider webs emerged on the ground, and the moment the charging slaves stepped in, their speed quickly slowed down.

Immediately afterwards, thunderclouds condensed in the bright sky, shining arcs of lightning, combined with scorching fireballs among the enemy groups, bursting out clusters of gorgeous sparks of lightning.

The arcane storm intertwined with flames and lightning crazily ravages all enemies within its range.

In the end, a cloud of death like a thick fog covered the area under the gust of wind, harvesting the few remaining enemies.

The first wave of slave-based tentative attacks in the City of Shadows was completely wiped out. They couldn't even reach within 50 meters of their opponents, and fell under the spell attacks one by one.

The short-lived advantage did not make Brian show any relief.

Because he knew that this was just a way for the opponent to use expensive slaves to test their strength and consume their mana.

Shade mages, blackguards, and constructs are their biggest threats.

Fortunately, for this battle, he was well prepared, and even bought many magic scrolls with three rings at all costs.

the other side of the battlefield.

The black guard Garen looked at the slaves who had been cleaned up in a large area. There was no movement on his cold face. He drew out a black rune giant sword and ordered:
"The test is over, release all the construct golems and gargoyles, and attack with the whole army!"

With one order, more than 200 stone golems and flesh and blood golems, as well as more than 500 gargoyles were all activated.

The eyes of this group of constructed creatures shone with a strange red light at the same time. The dark gargoyles flew into the sky, and the constructed golems formed a torrent of steel, covering the black knight and ghost mage behind them, heading towards the army in Mokou Town. Pounced on.

Looking around, it looks like a giant black beast is opening its mouth wide, swallowing its prey.

(End of this chapter)