Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 253 The Moon of Demonic Strife
Ivan guards Graystone City, while Sumu lines up all the fearless swordsmen, ready to set off at any moment.

The Fearless Swordsmen now number nearly 500, which is still slightly insufficient. After the last few major battles, they are desperately accumulating swordsmanship and combat skills to enrich the Fearless Sword, and are only one step away from becoming the strongest.

Su Mu estimated that with another battle involving tens of thousands of people, the Fearless Swordsman would be able to accumulate enough sword intent to reach the strongest level.

Therefore, when he was clearing out these enemies in the early stages, he mainly used fearless swordsmen.

Of course, it's still important to choose the right time.

"Report! The elven dragon knights have captured Cloudmist City and occupied the Magic Cloud Zone."

"A large army of tree people has crossed the Rushing River and attacked the northeastern corner of the trading city. The two sides are currently engaged in battle."

"The Trade City's forces suffered a defeat and retreated westward, while the Walled City army showed signs of besieging the city. However, the city's defenses are very strong, and it seems they have driven the Walled City army away."

"The Highland City launched a counterattack, but Leven detected their movements in advance and sent the Unicorn Legion to launch a surprise attack. The two sides had their share of victories and defeats."

As the battle in the heartland began, intelligence reports were rapidly transmitted to Graystone City.

Su Mu remained still and analyzed the situation.

The trading city still possesses some strength, but the opponent's vision is too narrow, believing that as long as they defend their fortified city, they can drag the war out to the end. In reality, in a battle of this scale, if the enemy cuts off all your production lines and eliminates your satellite cities, no matter how strong your walls or how powerful your defenses, you'll be nothing more than withered bones in a tomb, waiting to die.

It's fortunate that the Barrier didn't care about the trading city and was only focused on attacking the capital. Otherwise, with their limited magic scrolls, they would have been able to defend the city, but breaking out would have been difficult.

Levin possesses advanced reconnaissance skills, allowing him to monitor the battlefield situation at any time. The main force of the Highland City is the Discipline Ascetic, who has extremely strong ranged attack capabilities, but in open field battles, without defensive measures, they are easily ambushed.

After this battle, the city of Highlands should be hesitant to act for the time being.

They should not attack rashly until the kingdom's army comes to their aid. Su Mu felt that planting a nail behind the fortified army would be far more effective than adding another field force.

After capturing Cloud Mist City, the Elf Dragon Knights were able to advance westward and directly attack the capital's defensive checkpoints, with no obstacles in their path.

However, they won't be foolish enough to charge straight in. They will definitely disrupt the military deployment in the heartland first, and then break through in one fell swoop after accumulating enough troops.

Once the enemy breaches the pass, there will be no way to turn the tide. At that point, no matter how many nobles Elton has or how many soldiers he can mobilize to come to the aid of the king, it will all be in vain.

The destructive power of striking directly at the heart of the enemy has always been this.

No matter how corrupt Elton is, the capital is still a symbol of the country. Once this symbol is gone, the country will fall apart.

Therefore, Su Mu is also doing his best to stop the army of the stronghold and looking for various opportunities to weaken the enemy.

And that opportunity will come soon.

【Month of Demonic Strife: Increases the effectiveness of adventure, production, and combat magic by 50% and increases the magic cost by 100%.】

Assessment: A magical upheaval, transforming the world.

The arrival of a new astrological moon is beneficial to heroes skilled in magic and possessing abundant knowledge, but a disaster for heroes lacking magic.

The magical power has rioted, and a special aurora can be seen on the horizon, breaking through the sky and reaching the depths of the stars. All elemental magic will gradually go out of control if used even slightly, and more magic points must be spent to stabilize the skills.

The Barrier has many heroes with superb magical abilities, but in the Moon of Demonic Surge, they may not have enough Knowledge attribute to use magic.

But this didn't stump Su Mu. With Maggie's intermediate intelligence and his own knowledge attribute, Su Mu basically had an inexhaustible supply of magic points.

He was prepared to bring the Earth Spirit Orb and engage in a magical battle with his opponent.

"The Treant army of the Barrier has occupied three resource sites: a mid-level gold mine, a primary forest, and a primary gem mine. They are enslaving human workers, collecting previous mineral deposits, and maximizing mining. Miners are being driven to their deaths everywhere." This is the dire situation at the front-line production sites. It's practically impossible to focus on production. They live in constant fear, and the resources they produce cannot be transported back immediately, thus only benefiting the invading enemy.

The barriers don't care about human life or death, and they work continuously at high intensity until they die from exhaustion.

The other party had no intention of staying long-term; they were merely used as bargaining chips, and their actions disrupted human plans, preventing others from engaging in production.

Without resource support, there will be no money to recruit soldiers, and the situation will only get worse.

"Fearless swordsmen, follow me into battle!"

Orling also accompanied the troops into battle. To achieve concealment, Orling only brought 200 Arcane Prayers and ballistae, totaling over 700 men.

Sumu first used a disguised tactic, disguising his troops to launch surprise attacks on resource sites.

Leven's advanced reconnaissance skills are too formidable. If the army marches directly north, the enemy will surely retreat beforehand. The best way to deal with Leven would be to shroud the battlefield in darkness, but this treasure has been used on the undead before, and if it is exposed, the enemy will surely discover their identity.

After mastering Intermediate Confusion and Disguise, Wayne, with the added bonus from the Governance skill, was able to temporarily conceal his whereabouts and evade detection. However, the number of troops could not be too large, so only the most elite 700 men were dispatched to directly attack the resource-rich northeast region.

These territories originally belonged to the trading city. Since they lacked the strength to occupy them, they decided to let Kuraki safeguard them on their behalf.

The first thing to approach was the gold mine, where large numbers of tree people wandered along the riverbank, leisurely washing themselves. Many dwarven overseers on the shore directed the human slaves to work day and night, without a moment's rest.

Some people had their hands stained with blood and their backs bent from the weight of the stones, yet they were still whipped and forced to move them.

The gold prospector, seeing stars, fell headfirst into the river and never rose again. The dwarf overseer kicked the body forcefully, throwing it into the middle of the river, where it was swept away by the crowd.

"Hurry up and do it! Otherwise, this will be the consequence!"

Perhaps such words had some deterrent effect at first, but now they have no effect at all. Everyone's eyes are filled with numbness, and there is not a trace of hope.

They had already foreseen that their fate would likely be no better.

I'm just waiting to die anyway, I might as well faint now, at least that will save me from pain and trouble.

Unable to bear the oppression any longer, one worker stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs, "We're all going to die anyway, let's fight them to the death!"

Hearing his shouts, those around him, though somewhat moved, remained numb and filled with fear.

The dwarf overseer approached with a sinister grin, swapping his whip for a giant hammer, ready to give this rebel a surprise.

The human was so terrified that he began to hallucinate, seeing hundreds of white wolves leaping down from the snow-capped mountains and charging towards the tree people and dwarf legions.

"Great God of Light, could it be that you have come to save us?"

The dwarves naturally spotted the wolves, but they burst into laughter, thinking that these level 1 magical beasts had gone mad and dared to charge at them.

The enormous Frost Treant stood up; one of its arms could kill dozens of wolves, and it prepared to teach the wolf pack a lesson.

Unexpectedly, after the wolf pack approached within a few hundred meters, their bodies suddenly vanished. When they reappeared, a heavy sword struck, severing the tree-man's arm with a single blow and slamming its massive body into the riverbed, smashing it into pieces of wood.

A deafening roar echoed across the battlefield. The fearless swordsmen were incredibly brave and unstoppable, crushing the treant army like a torrent.

At that moment, a hero clad in silver armor jumped down from the griffin and patted the rebel on the shoulder.

I don't know if the God of Light heard me, but I did!

(End of this chapter)