Final Lord

Chapter 263 Hank's All-Out Attack
The corpse fungus island let out a liberated roar, its sky-covering cap violently expanding, while tens of thousands of sporangia simultaneously contracted—

The world suddenly changed color!

The once clear sky was obscured by churning fungal clouds, and a torrential downpour of ink-like rain poured down. These black raindrops were not ordinary liquids, but extremely concentrated corrosive spores; each drop would explode the moment it touched a soldier's armor, flowing into the gaps in the armor.

Mixed in with the pitch-black rain were swarms of spore-blinding flying insects, their transparent wings covered in venom, like a death cloud pressing down on Salang's troops.

"Rumble--"

The ground in the middle layer of the Black Forest suddenly churned like boiling water, and dozens of fissures tore open like the gaping mouths of giant beasts. The monster army, which had been lying in ambush for a long time, poured out in full force.

Slime splattered acid from the cracks, mushroom beasts pounded the scorched earth with earth-shaking strides, and the remaining roots of hollow trees burst forth from the ground like giant pythons. Behind them, the Enchantress Queen stretched out her cap, her pink markings twisting into a mocking smile.

The humus in the Black Forest churned under the trampling of iron hooves and mycelium, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of blood and spores.

Salang's troops struggled to maintain their formation amidst the horde of monsters, and the battle was extremely fierce.

The number of monsters far exceeded that of the counter-rebellion forces. A dark mass of spore flies blotted out the sun like a storm cloud, slime molds spewed out from the cracks in the ground, and hollow trees trudged heavily, crushing the earth. The great black umbrella guards that surged from the depths of the black forest—their scarlet gills beneath their caps lashed out like whips, and wherever their tentacles passed, the soldiers' armor tore like paper.

However, Salang's troops were not a rabble.

"Shieldbearers, form ranks! Spearmen, fill in!" Salang roared, the trembling of bronze shepherd bells echoing across the battlefield.

The well-trained soldiers quickly adjusted their formation, layering iron-clad oak shields to form an impenetrable wall that barely held off the monsters' onslaught. Archers in the rear used a precise rain of arrows to suppress the spore-like insects in the sky, while incendiary arrows exploded between the fungal caps, slowing the monsters' advance.

The half-goat troops roamed the edge of the battlefield. The [Mist-Bewitching Goat] appeared and disappeared in the mist, its scimitars reaping lone monsters like venomous snakes; the [Dreamless Goat Beast]'s bone staff was deeply embedded in the ground, and hypnotic ripples interfered with the movements of the Black Umbrella Guard, giving the human soldiers a chance to catch their breath.

Salang himself was stationed at the center of the army. With each swing of his scepter, a beam of white magic would strike, blasting the approaching monsters into pieces. Inside the transparent cavity in his abdomen, a mead-like liquid churned violently, continuously providing buffs and healing to the troops.

"Hold on! Don't let them break through the defenses!" Salang's sheep-like eyes flashed with cold composure.

Although the monsters were powerful, their attacks were chaotic and disorganized, while Salang's army was like a precise war machine, with seamless coordination between different units. The discipline of the human soldiers and the extraordinary abilities of the half-goat people complemented each other, managing to hold their ground amidst the monster onslaught.

However, the stalemate is only temporary.

The number of monsters continued to increase, while Sutton's soldiers fell one after another. The archers' quivers were running low, the shield guards' oak shields were riddled with holes, and even Salang's magic power was being rapidly depleted in the intense battle.

"Sir, if this continues, we won't be able to hold out for much longer!" The messenger's voice trembled slightly.

Salang's lips tightened as he scanned the battlefield. He knew a swift victory was necessary, or total annihilation would be only a matter of time. But he wasn't worried; he had already sent the message back, and he was confident that Viscount Hank would find a way to resolve his predicament.

Just as the monsters and Salang's forces were locked in a bloody stalemate, a series of synchronized hoofbeats suddenly rang out from the outskirts of the Black Forest—the sound initially like rolling thunder, but within seconds it transformed into a deafening roar that tore through the battlefield! Viscount Hank's personal guard cavalry, the Silver Thorns, had moved out!

These knights, clad in dark silver scale armor, poured out of the camp like blades forged from a torrent of steel.

Their warhorses were covered in silver-white runic armor, and the sparks kicked up by their hooves as they pounded the scorched earth formed a line of crimson fire.

"Silver thorns, pierce them!"

At the command of the leading knight, three hundred silver-armored cavalrymen simultaneously lowered their lances. The lance tips gleamed coldly against the gloomy sky, and the thorny patterns coiling around the shafts seemed to writhe as if alive. These were the [Mind Immunity Runes] bestowed upon them by the Blood Serpent Serpents, enough to resist the most vicious spore invasion of the Black Forest.

Before the monsters could react, Silverthorn's iron hooves had already crushed the slime slimes in the back row.

With each additional meter of charging distance, the crimson light swirling around the spear tip intensified. When the first spear pierced the cap of the giant black umbrella-shaped fungus, the accumulated kinetic energy exploded, and the spear blade burst open like a blasting arrow, the flying metal fragments shredding all the spore-bearing insects within a five-meter radius!
"Spread kills, speed boost!"

The knights' cold slogans echoed across the battlefield.

With each monster that fell, their hooves quickened their pace. What began as a neat wedge formation transformed into dozens of silver lightning bolts weaving through the swarm of fungi. The straw-like monsters thrown into the air by the charge were trampled into mincemeat by the iron hooves that followed before they even hit the ground; hollow trees that tried to intercept them had barely sprouted roots when they exploded into burning ashes under a barrage of thrusts.

Salang's forces were under immense pressure. The half-goat soldiers seized the opportunity to regroup, forming a pincer movement with Silverthorn. The tide of battle began to turn!

at the same time--

On the horizon outside the Black Forest, Hank's main force finally began to advance.

The heavy cavalry, a steel torrent, swept across the scorched earth like a black tide, while catapults creaked and groaned under the weight of the supply train. Black-robed spellcasters, mingling in the ranks, their hands constantly flashing with a decaying green light, were clearly preparing some kind of wide-area destructive spell.

Mair stood atop the Corpse Fungus Sky Island, her slender fingers clutching a pouch of gold coins. She tried to locate Hank using the debt markers, but her gaze swept across every corner of the battlefield, unable to find that iconic mink cloak.

"My lord, I can't find Hank!" A rare hint of anxiety lingered in Mair's voice. Her emerald pupils reflected the rampaging Silverthorn Knights below, those mind-control-immune iron cans reaping monsters with frenzied abandon. "His personal guards are all out, but he himself is nowhere to be found."

"Calm down." Wang Bufu's voice came through the mental link, as steady as a rock. "This is just our Plan A. It's normal that we can't find it. Hunters always send out hounds to scout ahead when they're hunting."

As if to confirm his words, three scarlet flame flares suddenly rose from the eastern side of the battlefield. That was Hank's Legion's highest-level tactical order—

The all-out offensive has begun!

(End of this chapter)