"Counterattack!" General Li Wendong shouted, swinging his axe as he charged forward.

The scimitar wielders leaped over the shields, pouncing toward the nearest Undead Archmage.

The Undead Archmage waved its staff, and a Death Curse struck one of the scimitar wielders; his health bar began to drop at a visible rate, and dark purple veins appeared on his skin.

The healer immediately dispelled the curse, but the scimitar wielder had already reached the mage and slashed his scimitar against the shield, dealing -120 damage.

The Undead Archmage's Mana Shield had the effect of absorbing 3,000 points of damage, and Spell Deflection could also deflect a portion of the attacks.

The scimitar wielder's attack hit the shield like striking water, with most of the force being dissipated.

The other Undead Archmages began to focus fire on that scimitar wielder; several Shadow Arrows shot out simultaneously, causing his health bar to plummet. The healer tried desperately to restore his health, but could not keep up.

"Retreat!" General Li Wendong rushed forward, splitting a Shadow Arrow with his battle axe and pulling the scimitar wielder behind him.

The shield bearers stepped back up, using a shield wall to protect everyone.

The trident warriors from White Elephant Country flanked around to the side, thrusting their tridents toward the back of an Undead Archmage.

The mage's shield trembled violently, cracks spreading across it, but Spell Deflection triggered, causing the tridents to slide off.

The mage turned around, raised its staff high, and a Shadow Shockwave knocked him back several steps.

The battle fell into a stalemate; with the Undead Archmage protected by a shield, it was difficult for the twelve people to quickly achieve a Shield Break.

General Li Wendong glanced at the sky above, then at the coalition's main force in the distance, gritting his teeth: "Hold them off! Wait for reinforcements!"

The twelve changed tactics, abandoning frontal assaults and instead circling the ten Undead Archmages, with shield bearers on the outside, the healer in the middle, and the others waiting for opportunities to counterattack.

Although the Undead Archmages' spells were fierce, the twelve-man formation was not broken.

Both sides remained deadlocked on the flank outside the south gate of Thang Long City for nearly an hour.

The Undead Archmages' mana began to bottom out, and the twelve people's injuries grew increasingly severe; the shields of three shield bearers had shattered, and they had switched to backup round shields.

The healer's mana had been exhausted three times, and each time, they had to drink potions to hang on.

But no one retreated, because they knew that as long as they held off these ten Undead Archmages, the main force to the south would have time to crush the sea of skeletons.

...

On the main ground battlefield, the slaughter between the 50,000 coalition troops and the 200,000 Undead Army had reached a white-hot intensity.

On the open field several miles outside the south gate, corpses piled up, and blood soaked the yellow earth. Nearly thirty of the one hundred war elephants had fallen, their massive bodies lying across the sea of skeletons.

The iron blades on the tusks were stained with black blood; the archers in the arrow towers had long since perished, and the towers themselves had been blown to pieces by the Necromancers' Shadow Arrows.

The surviving war elephants were still charging, elephant hooves crushing white bones and trunks flinging skeletons away, but their speed had slowed down, and every stomp consumed more stamina.

The casualties of the heavy infantry were equally shocking; nearly two thousand of the ten thousand Ice Axe Heavy Infantry had been lost, but the remaining eight thousand-plus men still stood in neat formations, giant axes held high, hacking away at the surging skeletons one axe-swing at a time.

The Skeleton Soldiers' health bars shattered ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ under the battle axes, and bone fragments splattered.

The Undead Warriors' spears thrust out from the gaps in the skeleton horde, and heavy infantrymen kept falling, but those behind immediately filled the gaps.

The infantry phalanxes advanced behind the heavy infantry; the Delhi Sultanate Infantry from Tieba Kingdom would bash with their shields when their scimitars grew dull, punch with their fists when their shields shattered, and when their fists could no longer strike, they would grapple with the skeletons and roll together into the pile of corpses.

The Yellow Turban Strongmen from Zhenyue City would swing iron chains when their iron staffs broke, and the Kshatriya Warriors from White Elephant Country would stab with daggers when their scimitars became notched.

The Cossack Light Cavalry on the flanks had completed their stalling mission; more than half of the three thousand cavalry on the left wing had been lost, and fewer than eight hundred remained of the two thousand on the right.

Their horses were exhausted and foaming at the mouth, the cavalrymen's lances were broken, and their sabers were dulled, yet they continued to patrol the edge of the skeleton sea, waiting for opportunities to charge and kill any isolated Necromancers.

On the walls of Thang Long City, the defenders' arrows were more than half depleted, and the defenders were thrusting with spears, hacking with scimitars, and throwing stones.

Awakened and Adventurers below level 6 fought valiantly on the walls; they were low-level and poorly equipped, but no one retreated.

An eighteen-year-old Adventurer had his shoulder pierced by a Skeleton Warrior's rusty sword; gritting his teeth, he pulled the sword out, stabbed his dagger into the skeleton's eye socket, and then collapsed onto the battlement, never to rise again.

The front line of the skeleton sea had thinned significantly. Under the continuous suppression of the coalition's long-range firepower, the Necromancers' mana was exhausted, the frequency of resurrections was becoming lower and lower, and the replenishment rate of the Skeleton Soldiers finally could not keep up with the rate of attrition.

The pressure on the infantry phalanxes eased, and the front line began to slowly push forward; the Great Qin Elite Soldiers' phalanx had already advanced to the middle of the sea of skeletons.

The eight thousand black-armored Elite Soldiers formed eight phalanxes, with the front row loading crossbow bolts, the middle row firing the Qin Crossbow: Rapid Fire, and the back row ready to fill in at any time.

The three-stage firing of the Qin Crossbows never stopped; arrows poured down like a rainstorm, pinning the Skeleton Warriors attempting to surge from the front to the ground.

As the phalanxes continued to press forward, the sea of skeletons became increasingly dense, and there was no longer time to reload the crossbows.

The Elite Soldiers in the front row put away their hand crossbows, raised their halberds, and engaged the Undead Army in close-quarters combat.

The halberds pierced through the skeletons' ribs and knocked away the Undead Warriors' shields; black armor and white bone collided, with the sounds of metallic clashing and bones shattering rising one after another.

Just behind the phalanx, Feng Qingyan held her staff high, and the flames on the Fire Crystal flared high.

A few strands of hair dampened by sweat clung to her cheeks; not only did this not diminish her beauty, but it added a touch of stubborn heroism.

She raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, the movement of her fingertips brushing past her eyebrows carrying a natural, effortless sharpness. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

On the left wing of the phalanx, the sea of skeletons was surging through a gap, attempting to outflank the rear of the Elite Soldiers.

Feng Qingyan waved her staff— "Wall of Flames!" A wall of fire, three meters wide and sixty meters long, rose from the ground with a roar, standing between the sea of skeletons and the Great Qin Elite Soldiers' phalanx.

The flames were orange-red, the temperature extremely high, causing the air to warp.

The Skeleton Warriors crashed into the Wall of Flames; their health bars plummeted, their bones burned charred black, and they fell apart before they could even rush out of the Wall of Flames.

The Wall of Flames continued to burn, firmly blocking the sea of skeletons attempting to outflank from the left, and the pressure on the Elite Soldiers' flank was drastically reduced.

In the distance, a Necromancer floating in the air noticed her, raising its withered wooden staff to channel a Death Ray, aiming directly at Feng Qingyan.

Feng Qingyan narrowed her eyes, advancing instead of retreating, rushing forward a few steps, and pointed her staff at the Necromancer; the Fire Crystal erupted with blinding red light.

"Flame Burst!" A basin-sized orange-red fireball, trailing a long tail of flame, struck the Necromancer with precision.

Boom! The fireball exploded, the shockwave sending several surrounding skeletons flying.

The Necromancer's spellcasting was interrupted, its soulfire flickering.

Not waiting for it to counterattack, Feng Qingyan raised her staff again for a second Flame Burst! The fireball struck the exact same spot again, fragments scattering everywhere.

Before the Necromancer could react, a third Flame Burst smashed into it, hitting it square in the chest; its soulfire pulsed violently twice, then extinguished.