The place Qianye was pointing to was an area dotted with caves, located in a corner formed by two cliffs. Howard was puzzled. “That place is indeed easier to defend but we’ll be too crowded. Won’t that make things easier for the demonkin snipers?”
The demonkin army contained a large proportion of long-range shooters. Almost all their members in the council army were competent snipers. The defense would be a nightmare once they were pinned at a narrow corner.
Qianye’s arrangement went against the experience they had gained from a lifetime of fighting against the demonkin.
It wasn’t just Howard. Nighteye also glanced at Qianye in puzzlement.
Qianye waved his hand, saying, “This area is more or less an open field with no cover to speak of. The demonkin won’t build any defensive structures within our firing range. Of course, that would be a great opportunity for us, but their commander won’t be that dumb. The only way we can deal with that is to use the two cliffsides for cover.”
There were some cracks and caves in the cliffsides to the left and right, but not as many as the place Qianye wanted to make his stand. With the vampire army positioned here, there would be very limited space for the enemy to position their troops.
Howard wasn’t too happy with this. “Our advantage will be almost negligible if the demonkin lineup is made up of skilled sharpshooters. Don’t forget that they have a constant supply behind them while the squad on the airship is our entire fighting force.”
Howard’s argument was not without sense. Although the men who had been shipped here were all direct descendants of the vampire clans, they were uncoordinated and irregular. The overall fighting power wouldn’t be too different from ordinary vampires on Fort Continent.
Even though they were trading vampires for elite demonkin snipers, this kind of trade would not bring them victory. This was no holy war, so the demonkin would have a constant stream of reinforcements.
While Howard was calculating quietly, Qianye said, “Here, we might have a chance at trading one for one. That would be all.
Qianye shook his head. “That might be the case in the beginning, but a fortress on flat ground will be overrun at one point. Once that happens, we will be wiped out entirely and the loss-ratio would have no meaning whatsoever.”
“They might not be able to overrun the fortress with me overseeing the defense.”
Howard wasn’t bluffing. His title was the Dark Gospel because his most powerful skill served to enhance his units, raising their fighting power by an entire level.
“In that scenario, they will wait for reinforcements instead of attacking.”
“We can’t deploy our entire force near the cliffside.” At this point, Howard seemed to have understood. “Were you planning to fight a battle of attrition?”
“Correct.”
“How do you know they can’t outlast us?”
“I’ve already tested the casualty tolerance of each race back in Blacksun Valley, including the vampires.”
Howard said, “Since you know the limits of our race’s tolerance, what makes you so confident they can hold out until the end.”
Howard thought about this for a long while before finally nodding his head. He then headed out to summon the vampires from the airship and began constructing the defenses.
Nighteye sighed as she watched the busy vampires. “You still don’t consider yourself a vampire, do you?”
“No, I am indeed a vampire.”
“Then why did you set up this kind of strategy?”
“Because we have no choice. Only fierce cruelty can force the demonkin back.”
“What if they don’t retreat?”
“Then these clansmen will be wiped out. The demonkin will also pay a steep price, one they won’t want to recall.”
Nighteye sighed. “Very well, the legacy of four major clans will end in your hands if the demonkin won’t retreat.”
Qianye said, “They will retreat. Zining has long since figured out their bottom line back in Blacksun Valley.”
She and Zining had fought as enemies back then, each leading their armies to slaughter the other. Although she let Wei Potian off and showed mercy to Zhao Jundu, she hadn’t gone easy on Song Zining at all. The latter knew this as well and switched to an all-out defense mode, turning the fortresses into meat grinders. The Evernight Faction’s losses were so great that it stifled the entire faction—the vampires weren’t spared, either.
Even someone as cold and indifferent as Nighteye felt her heart race at the sight of corpses strewn across the entire wilderness.
The humans would ship back several airsh.i.p.s full of corpses every day as they suffered equally painful losses. Toward the end of the war, the dark race experts started to wonder if the humans were indeed intelligent creatures. How come they were so unafraid of death?
Who would’ve thought the vampires would be in their shoes in such a short time? A long-lived race that had once reigned supreme was now following the lowly short-lived races, rolling in blood and mud to see who would remain standing in the end. Perhaps the only fortunate thing for the vampires was that no slave armies could be deployed on the Dawn Continent.
In a single day and night, a fortress had risen up in a corner of the valley. The stronghold was constructed against the cliffside, utilizing the caves as fire ports. The trees stretching out from the caves provided cover for the marksmen.
Howard instructed the vampires to dig tunnels into the mountain, forming a network between all the caves. It was just that the stone on the Dawn Continent was too hard. Although the clan descendants weren’t weak, this labor placed a great deal of stress on them.
The excavation of the tunnels progressed at a snail’s place. They had only finished connecting some of the caves when the vampires heard the dragonship roaring.
The demonkin had arrived.
A dozen or so airsh.i.p.s appeared above the valley and advanced in a combat formation. A mighty demonkin elder stood on the deck of the flagship, the insignia on his c.h.e.s.t announcing his identity for all to see.
His eyes narrowed as he gazed upon the dragonship entrenched atop the cliff. A glorious marquis nearby said, “That should be the Martyr’s Palace, the airship that destroyed two duke-grade airsh.i.p.s outside the void continent.”
Even though there was only one grand-duke airship in the fleet, Brock showed no signs of fear. “If the Martyr’s Palace is here, it means Qianye is also here. Issue the order, make landfall, and attack from the ground. All airsh.i.p.s assume combat formation, our target… the Martyr’s Palace!”
Seeing the incoming fleet, the Earth Dragon could no longer endure this provocation. It let out a long howl and sallied forth to meet the enemy.
As someone in charge of a large demonkin fleet, Brock was not a mediocre person. He had to have his hidden aces to dare launch an assault despite the enemy’s accomplishments.
Grand Duke Brock gazed at the ascending Earth Dragon and said, “Fleet, attack!”
The flagship began to accelerate toward the Martyr’s Palace, leaving all the other warsh.i.p.s in the dust. Before the giant dragon, a three-hundred-meter duke airship was akin to a cub standing next to a grown beast. Yet Duke Brock kept on charging and seemed to have no intention of backing off.
Atop the skull of the Earth-Dragon. Qianye didn’t fully understand the duke’s logic, but he welcomed this kind of charge nonetheless. If nothing else, the war on the void continent had proved that duke-grade airsh.i.p.s from Evernight did not have enough power to beat the Martyr’s Palace.
Qianye sped up the palace as well and charged up the main cannon, preparing to blast the opponent to oblivion.
Within the demonkin warship, Duke Brock turned around and said, “Was it confirmed in the end? That used to be your main cannon, right?”
She clenched her jaws, saying, “Correct! That’s indeed Landsinker, the main cannon I spent so much effort building. It’s fit for a grand duke’s airship! Robbing my Landsinker… I’ll…”
“Enough, return to your post.” Brock interrupted her. He kept his gaze at the fast-approaching dragonship, his expression growing harsher as time went by.
In the blink of an eye, the two giant airsh.i.p.s were within firing range. Their main cannons fired at almost the same time.
Brock’s main cannon had clearly been enhanced, and its firing range was far greater than ordinary airsh.i.p.s of the same level. Landsinker had also undergone various modifications during its time on the Martyr’s Palace. Add to that the endless supply of origin power from the Earth Dragon’s heart, its might had grown significantly. The artillery was evenly matched.
At the exact moment of Landsinker’s rumble, Brock’s eyelids and cheeks twitched unnaturally. He took a step forward and slammed the control table, pouring a terrifying amount of demonic energy inside.
The duke flagship performed an inconceivable drift, moving a small distance sideways. This unbelievable movement spared the airship from the most devastating angle of impact. At the same time, a wall of black mist appeared in front of the vessel and countless grimacing faces materialized upon it.
The giant armor-piercing bolt fired by the Landsinker slowed down noticeably as it struck the illusory wall, almost as though it had shot into mud. By the time it had penetrated the wall, its firepower was greatly weakened. It only managed to nail itself to the hull armor and not penetrate it.
An attack that couldn’t penetrate the hull armor did little in terms of damage. This shot could be considered useless.
