As the sea under the floating city platform’s turned murkier and murkier red, Princess Gaap and her soldiers were pushing forward with impunity. They did not care to show any mercy to any of the cultivators who fumbled, lost track of the main group or ended up injured.
The Wights, or as the other demon soldiers called them, Soldiers of Gem, were the main speciality of Princess Gaap’s army. While Prince Stolas’ soldiers consisted mainly of Tiefling elites, they were not even close in terms of strength compared to the Wights.
If one were to compare armies, the Wights were a bunch of inhuman killers who would stop at nothing to complete their objective. Each and every one of the Wights might have looked like a human, but their eyes consisted of gems, giving them powers corresponding to their type.
Those with Sapphire gems exhibited the ability to inflict cold damage regardless of the weapon they were holding. For Soldiers of Rubies, it was the strength to burn their enemies with their bare hands. However, because of the uniqueness of the Wight’s talents, their army was comparatively smaller compared to one such as Prince Stolas.
Maybe that was why Princess Gaap decided to come in late, to steal the show from her younger brother Prince Stolas’ whose army was gaining considerable ground.
Duke Crocell has finally managed to properly reinforce Prince Stolas’s army and sent forth even more amateur foot soldiers and mercenaries who wished to prove their mettle. In the meantime, the Soldiers of Gem alongside the remaining Flower Knights showed the remaining and retreating cultivators hell. Alas, these fresh troops were too overconfident in their abilities.
Earl Furfur’s Demon Army Battalion ended up becoming the next bunch of foolish soldiers to believe that they were seriously winning at this point in time. The moment the frontline troops entered the start of the bridge, Furfur’s battalion encountered a series of anti-infantry mines which shredded and maimed the demons into mincemeat.
However, after the explosive ditch trap incident, the demons had already learnt their lesson. Duke Crocell relayed messages to the Prince and Princess that he would send his own troops forward first in case Moloch prepared even more dirty traps to stop them.
This choice turned out to be the correct one as the weak demons carelessly continued to charge forward and sacrifice themselves in order for their elites to enter without a problem.
But that was where they were wrong.
While Xiong Da and Yue Han had retreated based on experience (and in the face of an armada of demons), they were already preparing an ambush of their own behind the multitude of physical barriers scattered all over the sky bridge.
Varying levels of road barricades riddled the sky bridge and made it impossible for the entirety of the demon army to go through at once. Instead, they would have to worry about getting pounced every few metres. Something which the duo and every other Pandaren was counting on.
Princess Gaap was riding along with the Wights and saw the sorry pathetic mess of a bridge. She wanted to command her mages to blow them all away but being a demon princess who had never been on a modern battlefield, she was committing a fatal mistake… She was out in the open without protection.
\”Ahh ahh, isn’t that Jin making it too easy for us to spot who the commander is?\” One of the Royal Snake Snipers had his sights on the stylish Princess riding on her stead.
\”Maybe she has some of those invisible shields? Or perhaps it’s a decoy?\” His spotter theorised, but even with his enhanced binoculars and spotting equipment, the spotter could only scarcely believe the Princess was unprotected.
\”Penetration spell cast, Lacerating spell cast. Bring your magic level to seven, then take the shot. If she is protected, we will see it. But if she isn’t, we can’t let some of the other guys get the credit. I want to stay in that pandastic hotel room again.\” The spotter said as he finished prepping the bullet for the Royal Snake Sniper to use.
Holding his deep breath, the sniper adjusted his sights, loaded the bullet in a flash and took the shot. Despite the loud bang from his sniper rifle, the battlefield was too chaotic for Princess Gaap to hear the sound from so far away.
In an instant, the bullet ripped a hole through her chest. The penetration spell broke right through her magical armour and chainmail easily, maintaining the trajectory of the shot. Once the bullet went further in, the laceration spell caused the projectile to turn into a party of metal shrapnel, spreading in various directions before the core of the bullet calibre came out from the back.
The metal shrapnel lodged into her throat, heart and even her carina, disabling her from so much as breathing properly. What’s more, the hole through the chest made her bleed out fast. Without the ability to react, Gaap could not believe she would be killed this quickly before even really getting on the battlefield.
She had full trust in her magical armour and believed that it would be able to stop any arrows that came her way. Heck, once it had even stood up to a catapult sized rock.
And thus, she could not comprehend how something so small could have pierced through her heart and defeated her just like that. Without her being able to make any noise, the Mages of Jade Gem proceeded with their last order, the clearing of the physical barricades with their wind powers.
Yet they too were being targeted from afar by the Orc Artillery Company with the aid of Qiu Yue providing the troops with the coordinates of their new targets.
By now, the orcs had already fired enough shells to result in a heap of their height. This was before the spider robot crawlers could take them away for recycling and clear enough space for the orcs to throw more of their wasted shells away.
The barrels were also refitted, and at times the entire cannon since their firing pin had been blunted by all the shooting. (After all, an artillery cannon is basically a larger version of a gun.)
At the same time, the first batch of Sherman Tanks EX closest to the front gates of the sky bridge fired upon their enemies. Filled with anti-infantry shells, the frontline soldiers had no defences other than the measly wooden or metal shields in their possession. Neither was anything enough to stop the incoming onslaught.
The flower knights, however, managed to use their magic to create a series of energised flower shields to block the attack. The wall of petals scattered the shells, making them explode before being able to touch any of the soldiers, giving them some space to move forward. (And yet to be blown away by the mines.).
Blocking a shot was fine and dandy, but having to stop a series of them simultaneously naturally caused the wall of flowers to dissipate quickly. It inadvertently cost the life of the flower knight as this signature skill requires sacrificing their own blood to maintain it.
And for the cultivators who survived the first wave? They chuckled at the scene of demons getting some payback. Some even cheered behind the barricades as they healed up and got ready for the battle for the sky bridge.
