Chapter 407 - 379: Siege Catapult Makes an Appearance
As Tachiusu landed for battle with a loud battle cry, the Vine Demon Army immediately descended into the densely populated Dark Forest filled with Tree Spirits.
Da Fei was suddenly startled. So many Tree Spirits below, and they just land like this? Not finding an open space? But there indeed was no open space here, it seems they had to airdrop forcibly. However, with my attribute bonus, the Flower Demons’ Blood Defense both broke through 100, and with their Healing Skills, they should be able to hold on!
And it was at that very moment the Vine Demon Army landed, that the Flower Demon leader Tachiusu flashed with green light all over her body, and centered on her, a huge green Magic Array covered a large part of the forest!
— System Prompt: Legion Commander Tachiusu has released a large mysterious magic "Giant Thorn Forest"! Enemy forces within a 50-meter radius will be subjected to the bind, damage, silence, life stealing, and mana stealing effects of the Thorn Forest, lasting for 30 seconds!
Boom! The ground erupted in dust as numerous thick thorns burst from the earth, instantly binding and wrapping around all the Evil Tree Spirits around the landing point!
Da Fei’s eyelids twitched in shock! Such a stunning spell, this is absolute control over the battlefield! This Vine Demon hero really has the goods! But what does this mysterious magic mean? A hidden magic not among the known categories of Light, Dark, Destruction, and Summoning?
"Fire!" Following Tachiusu’s immediate cry, the Vine Demons began firing Magic Bullets at the bound Tree Spirits around them, the entire forest lighting up with a barrage of bullets, countless "Tear Strike," "Shattering Strike," "Dragon Slayer Strike" and damage figures of "-4," "-6," "-5" filling Da Fei’s screen!
Da Fei was shocked again! The scene was splendid, but the damage numbers were atrociously low!
— System Prompt: Your Intelligence Collection Skill has received incomplete information about the Evil Tree Spirits!
Information has come out! Da Fei quickly checked it!
— Evil Tree Spirit: Large-sized Elite Spiritual Creature, Attack?, Defense 65, Damage?... Special Skill: Advanced Defense Skill, ???
Impossible! Just 65 Defense and one Advanced Defense Skill, how could it reduce so much damage from my troops? After my enhancement, they have an Attack of 130, and I am now temporarily an Expert-level with Attack Skill countering their Defense Skill, with nearly a 60-point difference in Attack and Defense, 1 point provides a 5% increase, which should boost the Vine Demons’ average of 20 damage by 300% to 80 points! How could it be just 5 or 6 points?
And then, that fortress-like black Ancient Tree in front of him spoke, "Little one, do you think you can win?"
Tachiusu shouted, "Evil Branch, your Doomsday has come!"
The Ancient Tree said annoyedly, "I have a name. I am the great Tree Elf Hero Regulas. If you think you can win, then allow me to kindly remind you—did you bring enough ammo?"
Tachiusu angrily said, "I have a name too. I am the great Vine Demon Hero Tachiusu. We have brought all our reserved ammo, prepare to meet your doom!"
The Ancient Tree snorted coldly, "Then I shall see what your fate will be after your tribe’s entire ammo supply is spent!"
Tachiusu shouted angrily, "Your fate will be your death!"
Da Fei then realized, this Ancient Tree was also a hero! No way! I’d rather believe its massive size denotes a Demigod type of solo fighter than accept it as a hero! No wonder my troops’ damage is so low! It means this tree is a hero with super high Defense, given that it has reduced the Vine Demons’ damage by nearly 75%, my troops have at least a 60-point difference in Attack and Defense with it! Meaning its strategic defense must be at 200! That’s like a low-level city wall! Then how high is its personal defense?
No wonder it fearlessly asked if they had enough ammo; it is extremely confident about its own Life Value! Even if a Vine Demon could carry 10 pieces of ammo, after all these minor Tree Spirits are dealt with, how much time and energy will there be left to deal with this final BOSS?
Right, if I had chosen to join the Evil Branch Tribe in this battle, what would have been the result? Would I easily crush the Vine Demon Tribe? I’m afraid it wouldn’t be that easy; the Vine Demon Tribe must have their own strengths. At the very least, this type of mobile Flying Army would completely embarrass any players.
In any case, a player’s participation in this battle shouldn’t just be about adding some simple buffs to Attack and Defense; there must be a decisive factor that only players can resolve. I’ll calmly observe for now!
One by one, the Elite Evil Tree Spirits fell amid the concentrated firepower. Even if the Vine Demons’ damage was reduced by 75%, under the frequent special skill strikes of Da Fei’s Divine Artifact Necklace, as well as Da Fei’s 13-point Luck Value nearly 26% critical hit rate, the 30 seconds of the Thorn Forest was enough for hundreds of Vine Demons to clear the field.
Now, the Vine Demons began attacking the roots of the Evil Branch Ancient Tree soaking in Black Water Lake, with numerous "-1" "-1" damage figures popping up, and all the splendid attack effects from Da Fei’s Divine Artifact Necklace were nowhere to be seen!
Da Fei’s brow twitched, a -1 damage means the damage was reduced by 95%, which implies a 500-point difference in Attack and Defense between my army and the Ancient Tree Hero, and no more hitting effects appearing suggests this Ancient Tree has building attributes, immune to all kinds of assorted special attack effects, this Ancient Tree is truly a city wall in its own right!
Holy moly! It’s a creature, a building, and a hero all in one! How should I face an ancient tree like this?
Wait a minute! It’s a building, right? Too much of a good thing is bad. If it merely had a Defense of over 500, it would’ve had me, but if it’s like a wall, then there’s the perfect nemesis—the Catapult that ignores the Defense of buildings! Of course, it can’t be blamed, if it weren’t a building, it probably wouldn’t have over 500 Defense, right?
Da Fei took out the Space Bag of War Machines that Makar gave him along with the Phantom Crossbow Cannon, which also contained an ordinary Siege Catapult and a healing tent. Fortunately, the Catapult, which had never seen action before, can now take the stage. Assemble it.
As mentioned before, War Machine Science is a discipline that involves three types of war machines, so it has the most sub-skills of all, including a variety of plague tents, firestone catapults, and so on. Until the mid-game, players are mostly grinding monsters and running instances, so the idea of besieging is quite abstract, hence no one learns the Catapult-related sub-skills early on. Initially, the Crossbow Cannon is enough to deal with everything.
But the Crossbow Cannon also has a clear disadvantage. For instance, my Master-level Crossbow Cannon now does over 1000 damage, but its Attack doesn’t benefit from hero bonuses. Even at Master level, it only has 35 Attack. In the face of Defense over 500, the damage gets reduced by 95%, leaving only 50 damage! And the building’s Defense varies with the material, which further reduces damage from light weapons like the Crossbow Cannon. Right, a Crossbow Cannon is essentially just a larger crossbow, classified as Light Weapons. And for a wall with 500 Defense, its Durability would be at least over 100,000. Using the Crossbow Cannon, it’d take till the Monkey Year to bring it down, right?
But the Catapult is different. It’s a common machine, and during late-stage National Wars, basically every player has one. It doesn’t require high skills from players and is also unrelated to the player’s attributes because the Catapult doesn’t have a complex damage formula; it deals fixed damage that ignores building Defense.
——Catapult: Attack 0, Defense 10, Life Value 1000, Damage 100-150, Attack Speed 5, Move Speed 1. Special skill: Ignores building Defense, uses local materials for ammunition, deviates in trajectory.
These are the Basic Attributes of a Catapult without skill bonuses. Each additional level in War Machine Science adds 50-100 damage, 10 Defense, 100 Life Value, and improves accuracy. My Da Fei Master-level Catapult’s damage is 400-750, real solid damage, enjoying bonus from Luck Value critical hits, not reduced by building Defense, one shot could worth dozens from the Crossbow Cannon!
However, this doesn’t mean besieging is easy because the Catapult has one frustrating special skill that makes countless players want to smash their eggs—"trajectory deviation"! It doesn’t mean a miss, it literally means it doesn’t hit where it aims!
Walls are built in segments of 10 meters, so if you focus your Catapult on one segment, you will eventually blow a hole through it, but the problem is the Catapult often hits here and there, just not obedient!
After all, this special skill is a balancing design by the game, to prevent sieging from being too easy.
And it’s this annoying flaw of the Catapult that makes it rarely appear on ships. Of course, there have been instances, like when Da Fei encountered the Ghost Fleet; getting hit then would really hurt.
.......
The battle continues, and the reinforcing Tree Spirits, with their slow steps, are being surrounded and conquered from all directions. Under Tachiusu’s powerful Vine Magic and the focused attacks of the Vine Demons, they are falling one after another. Obviously, this seemed to be the enemy’s strategy to deplete our ammunition, but, that strategy is about to end now!
——System Prompt: You have completed the assembly of the Siege Catapult. You can use local materials for ammunition or use the special ammunition you brought, which has an additional damage bonus.
Oh yeah! Taste my "local material collection" technique!
——Boom! A loud explosion, the Catapult launches a clump of black mud hurtling towards the ancient tree——Slap! "-663!!!"
Oh yeah! Slapped its face with mud!
The mighty attack from Da Fei immediately caused the Vine Demons to scream, and a golden Flying Eagle icon rose above their heads! They’re pumped up with Morale!
Wahahaha! That’s exactly the effect I wanted!
"Not bad! You’ve brought quite useful assistance!" the Ancient Tree spoke, "But, do you think I would just sit and wait for death?"
After saying that, the ground began to rumble, and beneath the Ancient Tree, several thick roots burst forth from the earth, surrounded by a huge black Hero Aura!
Da Fei’s eyes narrowed in shock! What the heck is this?
——Boom! The ground shook thunderously, and those gigantic roots took a massive step forward, like spider legs, as if a colossal mountain was rolling their way!
Da Fei was scared witless! Damn, so it can move? That one step equals dozens of human steps, right? There’s no room for my Catapult to run. How the heck do I continue to fight?
(Today, I got busy with a lot of work at the office and had quite a few drinks, hence there’s only one update.)(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)