Announcement: Bonus chapter for completing the challenge!
Not long after, the five Towers of Grudges appeared before them.
Those spooky constructs made Zhao Lei and his group stop for a moment.
Before they could think anymore on it, the Towers had already activated and hundreds of grudge ghosts were summoned from all around and were now charging at them, screaming all the while.
"They're grudge ghosts after all!"
Rather than panicking, Zhao Lei instead relaxed some.
It's because the information he got was correct. Therefore, since they've already prepared for all this, what threat can merely a few hundred grudge ghosts possibly be to them?
"Kill!"
"Wipe them out!"
"Charge forward! Kill the Demon King!"
The Bloodhoof Tribe pushed forth and attacked in a frenzy. The hundreds of grudge ghosts fiercely fought back at the same time, but they were unable to break through the minotaurs' formation.
The minotaurs' enchanted weapons can very effectively kill grudge ghosts and the damage from the grudge ghosts' self-destructs were immediately healed up by the minotaur priests.
From how things were currently going, the attacking side seemed to have the upper hand.
The grudge ghosts were constantly being killed and forced back.
Zhao Lei and the rest of his tribe's elite forces haven't even joined the fight yet. They just watched the current on-goings while feeling assured of their victory.
"Hahaha!"
"That's all they're capable of!"
"And here I thought they'd be stronger!"
"Those grudge ghosts might be annoying."
"But it's impossible for them to stop us!"
However, such thoughts only lasted for a few minutes.
It's because the situation slowly revealed certain unexpected issues.
"Strange!"
"We've been killing them for all this time."
"Why are there still so many grudge ghosts?"
Zhao Lei had noticed a strange issue. The grudge ghosts were being wiped out one by one, but their total numbers weren't really decreasing!
The warriors of the BloodHoof Tribe clearly had the upper hand at the start, but after they wiped out one to two hundred grudge ghosts, the minotaurs' weapon enchantments weakened and the minotaur priests' MP was draining more and more. Thus, they were unable to maintain their momentum, their progress slowed, and they started taking casualties.
On the other hand, the grudge ghosts didn't lose their momentum and continued forward in a steady, unending stream. The entire time, their total numbers remained steady.
Zhao Lei finally realized the issue, "Damn it, the towers are suspicious. Those grudge ghosts are being summoned by the towers. Quick, destroy those towers!"
When they realized this fact, several of the Heroes had a chilling thought.
If those grudge ghosts were all summoned creatures... Then doesn't that mean that they aren't the Demon King's actual minions?
If that guess were to be true, then they're going to be faced with an unbelievably terrifying truth!
What they've been fighting all this time against was merely one of the Demon King's defensive traps. From start to end... They were only struggling against a couple of towers, not the Demon King's actual army!
As for the Demon King himself, he was still hiding behind the scenes and has never actually acted yet!
He's quite mysterious, to the point where the Heroes still knew nothing about him.
They had thought that they already controlled all the information, but it was all wrong from the start. Rather, it was all a false trait and a trap!
When Zhao Lei thought of that possibility, he started sweating profusely. He could no longer sit still and let out a roar while releasing a red aura which instantly covered all the minotaurs there.
Minotaur skill: Wild Roar!
It's an ally buff that maintains their high morale, thus increasing their Strength and HP stats.
"Destroy those towers no matter the cost!"
Zhao Lei didn't know if that terrifying guess of his was true or not.
Right or wrong, his current critical task is to destroy those Towers of Grudges in order to prevent the endlessly summoned grudge ghosts from sapping his army's strength.
Up on the mountain.
Zhang Nu showed a playful expression as he watched all this unfold.
"They discovered the trick of the Towers?"
"It looks like those guys aren't as stupid as they look then."
"Alright then. In that case, it's time to get a little bit serious then!"
Zhang Nu gave the orders, "Undead army, deploy in full!"
Zhao Lei was getting ready to personally charge for a Tower. He was certain that he could endure the attacks of 20-30 grudge ghosts on his own and simply destroy the Tower of Grudges with a single flurry of attacks.
"Chief!"
"It's bad!"
"We're surrounded!"
"A huge amount of skeletons are attacking from nearby!"
White masses came out from both ends of the canyon. Before their eyes, dozens of skeleton soldiers were leading nearly a thousand skeleton soldiers in a massive tide attacking them from both sides.
This new development utterly stunned Zhao Lei and his group.
Several Heroes' eyes practically popped out of their sockets.
"Shit!"
"That's way too insane!"
"Am I having a nightmare?"
"Where did so many skeletons come from!"
"Just how many minions did this Demon King summon!"
That's way too much!
The skeleton wave tactic was crushing in sheer quantity!
Just the pressure that they were emitting was indescribable.
At the same time, up on the high grounds, one robed skeleton after another revealed themselves next to the Towers of Grudges. They raised the staves in their hand and formed fireballs before tossing them at the minotaurs currently trying to climb up.
"Gah!"
"Roar!"
The minotaurs stuck by flames fell one by one, screaming.
Right now, the current situation of the demon subjugation army is as follows:
Skeletons at the front, skeletons at the back, mages suppressing them from above, and grudge ghosts everywhere hitting any hole in their formation!
They were pressed in from all sides without any respite from anywhere!
They were completely checkmated!
"We're done for!"
"How could this be!"
Zhao Lei couldn't believe what he was seeing.
He had originally thought that he would crush all opposition without any issue, but all that was overturned in mere instants. Now, he was trapped deeply and surrounded, attacked from all sides as his army was collapsing in every direction!
[You've slain a minotaur. Gold +9!]
[You've slain a minotaur. Gold +9!]
[You've slain a high ranked minotaur warrior. Gold +90!]
[You've slain a high ranked minotaur warrior. Gold +90!]
[...]
[You've slain a minotaur Hero. Hero's Soul+1!]
[You've slain a minotaur Hero. Hero's Soul+1!]
The slaughter continued without end at the bottom of the canyon.
The Demon King Zhang Nu sat up above, watching it all happen.
He knew from the start that there was no doubt as to the outcome of this battle.
Zhao Lei's demon subjugation army might be quite strong, but they had pretty much no chance of winning against the triple combination of the undead army + Towers of Grudges + geographical lockdown.
Zhang Nu's greatest strength wasn't the undead army.
It was his draconian army as well as his own personal might as the abyssal dragon!
However, given the current situation, it doesn't seem necessary to use the draconian army yet.