Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 320 Nightmare Knight
Liliana did not lose many troops during her breakout; only a few dozen counts were forcibly detained.

In fact, given her strength, she might not be afraid of Katherine. After all, vampires are a high-level military force. If we're talking about vampire princes alone, she could easily take on ten of them.

But since Catherine dared to come here, she must have something to rely on. She hasn't reached the point of desperation yet, so there's no need for her to fight her head-on.

The vampire had just flown out of the rolling valleys and caught a glimpse of the green grass on the plains when she discovered a squad of dark knights already waiting for her. The leader was a death knight whose body was engulfed in ghostly flames, his skeleton concealed by a mask.

"How dare you flaunt the name of an ancient ruin with just a few bats? Is the person behind you Su Mu?"

"It's a disgrace that Uller was defeated by such a guy!"

Liliana ignored the provocation and searched for the Dark Knight's weak point, preparing to break through.

With the blessing of the Dark Queen, the vampire count and prince were not weak. They held their own against the Dark Knight and successfully tore open a gap in the enemy's defenses. However, an even more powerful enemy awaited them.

His body was engulfed in flames, and he rode a nightmare beast. A group of scorching nightmare knights blocked his path from behind, and no enemy could escape his fear-binding prison.

Nightmare Knight (Graveyard Tier 6, Tier 2 Unit, Dual Elemental Baptism): Attack 20+5, Defense 20, Damage 20-25 (+5), Health 150+40, Speed ​​13, Large Size.

Elements: Fire/Earth; Undead unit, rides Nightmare Beast.

Fiery Curse: Attacks have a 20% chance to trigger a curse, reducing the enemy's damage to a minimum and by -2.

Death Strike: Attacks have a 25% chance to trigger a death strike, dealing double damage (this can stack with a critical strike caused by high luck, dealing 4 times the damage). The lower the enemy's morale, the easier it is to trigger this skill. If four consecutive attacks fail to trigger, a death strike will definitely be triggered.

Earth Sensing: Receives double the bonus from earth elemental magic (including the resurrection effect of Spirit Gathering Spell).
Ferocious Flame: After killing an enemy, capture a portion of their soul, +1 damage (maximum 15), and halve the enemy's healing and resurrection effects (30% of self + 20% of Nightmare Beast).

Evaluation: The ghostly flames from the underworld scorch the souls of the dead; he sees the fear in your eyes!

Nightmare Beast (Tier 4 Warhorse): Dark knights (including advanced units) riding this warhorse gain +40 health, +5 attack, +5 damage, and reduce enemy recovery and resurrection effects by 20%.

Evaluation: It emerges from a mountain of corpses piled high with withered bones, bringing the most terrifying nightmares.

"What a terrifying type of soldier!"

Even with Liliana's experience, she was shocked by the Nightmare Knights. These undead had no emotions; all they had was the mission to create natural disasters.

Nightmare Knights are a hard counter to vampires, weakening healing effects, which actually includes the life-stealing effect, but vampires can't utilize this effect against undead enemies. However, in a chaotic battle, vampires are essentially rendered useless.

Fortunately, the enemy's dual-elemental baptism troops were few, only about a hundred cavalry, otherwise we would have been wiped out here.

"Charge from the southwest! There are fewer Nightmare Knights there!"

Liliana shouted loudly, commanding the vampire army to break through the encirclement. Those vampires who were entangled by the Nightmare Knights could no longer be saved. The only chance of survival was to lead the main force to bypass these terrifying knights.

But the Nightmare Knight was fast, holding fast to the vampire army and preventing them from easily breaking free.

Since that's the case, we still have to fight a battle before we can escape.

She carefully examined the enemy's commander, who was most likely a cavalry-specialized hero, and seemed to be a hero proficient in earth element, making him difficult to deal with in melee combat.

So she used a deadly spell on the Nightmare Knights, first taking control of this most powerful unit for herself.

Fao Alves, leader of the Legion of Death, almost burst out laughing when he saw Liliana using her charm on the undead. Unfortunately, his bones were somewhat leaky, making it difficult for him to perform the special muscle movements like a human. But before he could even rejoice for long, he was stunned by what he saw before him.

A large number of Nightmare Knights, driven mad by their own foes, began to kill each other, causing chaos on the battlefield with men and horses falling everywhere.

Since Nightmare Knights are doubly affected by resurrection, let's grant them a special status effect to weaken it. Using their own weapon against them—that's the power of Deadly Charm. As for the undead, they won't be charmed? That depends on who the caster is.

Taking this opportunity, the vampire princes also flew into the formation, attacking those enemies who were not bewitched and causing considerable damage.

Even the most powerful military force cannot gain an advantage if it is unstable internally.

At this point, the Vampire Prince's attacks, which don't reflect damage and deal percentage-based damage to units below level 7, become particularly effective. After all, knights riding Nightmare Beasts have too much health, making them difficult to deal with with normal attacks.

The enemy leader is also very powerful in both offense and defense, and is probably equipped with special treasures from ancient ruins. It's not easy to fight them head-on; you'll have to rely on skill attacks.

The Earl couldn't deal percentage damage to the Nightmare Knight; they still needed the Prince's help.

Having been tricked by Liliana, Fao immediately used an exorcism spell to dispel the bewitching spell.

His aura of death was extremely strong; he seemed to be angry at his own carelessness.

As he clasped his hands together, a powerful magic circle appeared beneath him. The Nightmare Knights and Terror Knights that had just died crawled out of the soil, and even Nightmare Beasts emerged from the black mist. Powerful magical energy surged and gathered into dark clouds, foreshadowing the return of the dead.

"Despite being weakened by Nightmare Knight, it still has such a strong resurrection ability."

"Oh no, he's a hero skilled in the art of gathering spirits!"

If Liliana still couldn't discern the opponent's characteristics by now, all the battles she'd fought would have been for nothing. As she became a hero, she learned various kinds of magic and knowledge, gaining mastery of all sorts of witchcraft.

She had long coveted the Spirit Gathering spell, which was of great use to the undead army, but unfortunately, she was not a hero proficient in earth element.

Fighting a monster that can continuously regenerate is practically hopeless. Since vampires can't regenerate now, they can only barely hold their own, but that will become increasingly difficult over time.

If we wait for Katherine to deal with the Bastion Legion and completely pursue them, we will be trapped in an encirclement.

"Your Majesty, you go first! I'll hold them off!"

At the critical moment, Akasha stepped forward, leading a group of counts to form a giant bat wall to block the awakened Nightmare Knight.

"The vampire army cannot do without you. Escape from here, find Su Mu, and we will have a chance to rise again!"

Regardless of Akasha's intentions, her loyalty to the Queen is beyond question, and she will not hesitate to sacrifice herself for the Queen when it is necessary.

"Go!"

Liliana gritted her teeth and led the remaining few hundred vampires to retreat southwest. She dared not turn back to look at Akasha, for fear of betraying the sacrifice of the other.

The vampire transformed into a giant bat, but it couldn't stop the nightmare beast's iron hooves. Crimson blood stained the earth, making everything seem so tragically beautiful.

Thanks to Akasha's desperate efforts, Liliana finally escaped the pursuit.

(End of this chapter)