Chapter 25: Skeleton Soldiers, Skeleton Archers

At dawn the next day, Demon Blood led a small team out to search for traces of the Undead Clan nearby.

They didn't return until around eleven o'clock and, unfortunately, they had no significant finds, just cleared out some wild monsters.

These wild creatures were all from the Undead Clan, which made Qin Muye even more certain of their presence in the vicinity. Otherwise, it would be quite improbable to say they randomly appeared. It's not likely that they were all randomly from the Undead.

However, now was not the time for Qin Muye to ponder these matters, as the monster siege was about to begin.

[Wave 2, Your Comprehensive Strength: Elite Level 1, This time the wild monsters are: Elite Level 1 Skeleton Soldiers × 400, Elite Level 1 Skeleton Archers × 100.]

"Changed profession? Isn't this a bit much? Yesterday it was only 100 Skeleton Warriors, and today it's Soldiers combined with Archers, and 500 of them at that."

Qin Muye saw a dense formation of Skeleton Soldiers marching in neat steps in the distance—the front four hundred armed with swords and shields, clad in armor, were the Skeleton Soldiers, followed by the Skeleton Archers with longbows and short swords.

Discipline-wise, this group of skeletons was indeed better than the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters, even surpassing those trained for just one night. It was like a rabble facing a regular army, but the real test would come in combat.

If we really get down to it, the skills of these three elite types of skeleton troops aren't much different, and their attributes are similar as well.

For example, Skeleton Soldiers have both an attack and defense of 5, very balanced, while the Skeleton Archers have 8 Attack and 2 Defense, and the Skeleton Warriors have 6 Attack and 4 Defense—the sum of attributes for each being 10 points. As for skills, there's no difference whatsoever.

The real difference probably lies in their coordination.

The Skeleton Soldiers marched steadily toward the territory. Although there were only 400 of them, from Qin Muye's perspective atop the Mage Tower, it was still a substantial number.

On our side, there was a total of only 182 Magic Energy Spirit Monsters plus Demon Blood.

"First cast Evil Curse on the Skeleton Archers—they can break our defense!" Seeing the Skeleton Archers starting to draw their bows, Qin Muye quickly notified Demon Blood.

Even with Demon Blood's boost of 2 Defense points, it was still best to play it safe.

Demon Blood did not respond, but he showed his approach through action, immediately casting Evil Curse on the skeleton army.

Then he cast Bloodthirsty Magic and Attack Acceleration on our side.

At the moment, the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters needed to face two enemies each. The two forces clashed, but this time it wasn't as easy as when they faced the Skeleton Warriors.

The shields carried by the Skeleton Soldiers were raised in defense immediately.

This is where the disparity lay; Qin Muye's Magic Energy Spirit Monsters had no weapons or armor, so they simply charged on sight.

The initial charge scattered the Skeleton Soldiers in front of them, but the casualties weren't substantial—as most of the damage was just fractures.

Then arrows rained down from the sky, clinking off the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters, since the 9 points of boosted defense along with the 3-point reduction from Evil Curse left the Skeleton Archers with only 5 Attack Points, insufficient to break the defense.

Qin Muye, sheltering in the Mage Tower, also breathed a sigh of relief; it was good that their defense wasn't broken.

After all, 182 versus 500, there was no numerical advantage whatsoever, and more importantly, the enemy had equipment and ranged capabilities.

In fact, he wanted to strip the wild monsters of their equipment, but unfortunately, the monsters would vanish upon death, along with their gear, leaving him no choice. Otherwise, a thrifty person like Qin Muye would never pass up the chance to take that equipment.

At the moment, the situation had stabilized. Leading the charge with demon blood, like a sharp sword, he tore a long crack through the ranks of the Skeleton Soldiers.

The Magic Energy Spirit Monsters couldn't break through the shields with their attack power, so they had to look for ways to kill in one hit, but these Skeleton Soldiers were obviously professionally trained, advancing and retreating in an orderly fashion, especially skilled with shield techniques, effectively blocking the attacks of the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters.

However, there was a limited number of times they could fend off the attacks. As the onslaught from the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters continued, cracks began to appear on the shields, and sometimes, when their defense was lacking, a Monster could punch through and shatter a skull.

Things were much simpler on the demon blood front—he had a standard long sword and sufficient attack power. Even shields couldn't stop him, and with one slash, he would scatter both the Skeleton Soldier and its shield to pieces.

His target was straightforward: prioritize the ranged fighters.

As the defenders, lacking ranged attackers was a significant disadvantage.

Even an outsider like Qin Muye could tell that today's battle was much tougher than yesterday's.

With disadvantages in equipment and numbers, only the attribute and skill advantages could barely even the playing field.

Now, the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters had already started to lose life value, but this was also a bit of good news. After all, the Elemental Resonance skill was taking effect.

Exchanging 1 point of life value for 1 point of attack power made their attacks much more ferocious.

Furthermore, the 100 Magic Energy Spirit Monsters who had received training last night had also gained some experience, so upon recognizing this advantage, they began to consciously let themselves bleed to increase their attack power.

Since the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters noticed their line was slowly being pushed back, these Skeleton Soldiers weren't as strong in offense and defense as they were, but they were consistent and eroded steadily, and had it not been for demon blood moving to the back to clean up the Skeleton Archers, their situation would have been even more difficult.

"The disparity in combat experience... it seems that the attribute increase at Elite Level might just be the icing on the cake, but the real strength lies in the experience and quality that match the title of 'elite.'" Qin Muye understood the difference between elites and regulars.

The previous Skeleton Warriors who attacked could be likened to wandering Rangers, relying solely on courage.

But this time's Skeleton Soldiers and Skeleton Archers were different; they could be called elite troops. If the attacking power were enough to break the defense, the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters would surely suffer damage. At that point, Qin Muye would have to step in to cast healing on his own troops to restore their life value; otherwise, his side would face annihilation.

But fortunately, the defense was not broken!

Of course, this was not absolute. If they suffered too many attacks, they would still take damage, which is why the Magic Energy Spirit Monsters could deliberately injure themselves to boost their attack power.

As the number of dead Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Soldiers grew, the advantage gradually shifted back to Qin Muye's forces.

When the last Skeleton Soldier was punched to pieces by a Magic Energy Spirit Monster, this monster siege event finally came to an end.

Yesterday, it took three minutes to resolve, but today, it took nearly fifteen minutes—a nearly fivefold increase in time. This caused Qin Muye's heart to sink; tomorrow's outlook seemed even less promising.