Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 457 Death Knight
This hill is not far from Longlet Castle; once across, the road is smooth. This is the perfect place for Kuraki's men to stop them.

But Rod dared to swagger in like that for two reasons: first, he was certain that Kuraki's main force was not there, and second, he had gained new power.

Turning my head, I saw that the Dark Knights, who were originally pitch black, had all turned into terrifying beings covered in blood. They rode on Nightmare Horses, holding Death Scythes, and took pleasure in harvesting souls and slaughtering reptiles.

【Death Knight (Graveyard Tier 6, Tier 2 Unit, Baptism of Three Elements): Attack 25+8, Defense 25, Damage 25-35 (+8), Health 180+60, Speed ​​15, Large Size.

Elements: Dark/Fire/Earth; Undead units, riding withered ghosts.

Dead Soul Curse: There is a 30% chance to trigger a curse on attacks, reducing the enemy's damage to a minimum and decreasing by 3.

Death Harvest: The first attack will always take away a life below level 8 (area-of-effect life plunder; it can only be retried after 10 Death Knights are captured within a certain area). There is a 30% chance to trigger a critical hit, dealing double damage (which can stack with a critical hit caused by high luck, dealing 4 times the damage). The more lives an enemy has been harvested, the easier it is to trigger this skill.

Fire/Earth Sensitivity: Doubles the bonus from fire/earth elemental magic (including the resurrection effect of Spirit Gathering Spell).
Death Servant: Each time a Servant sacrifices enough lives for Death, they receive a blessing. Accumulating 100 Death Points grants one chance to resurrect; once a blessing is acquired, it cannot be repeated. (Death Points for Tier 1-7 units are 1*1 to 7*7, then multiplied by the tier.)

Assessment: These are Death's servants, the most ruthless life-stealers from the underworld. Seeing them means your death is imminent!

【Dead Soul Monster (Tier 5 Warhorse): Dark Knights (including advanced units) riding this warhorse gain +60 health, +8 attack power, and +8 damage. When a Dark Knight touches an enemy, the enemy cannot revive or recover.

Comment: Withered souls are their best delicacy.

Rhodes was well-prepared. This group of Death Knights was not large, only about 50, but the baptism of the three elements gave them extraordinary power.

Of course, Death Knights are not ordinary units; they cannot be recruited even in ancient ruins. They are special units that Nightmare Knights have advanced to through the blessing of the Deceptive Artifact, and this divine power is the skill that Rhodes gained through evolution.

Rhodes felt that the favor he received was growing stronger, not much less than that of the eldest prince who had established the altar. Moreover, his power was constantly increasing, and he could gain extraordinary advancements simply by wandering around with the Death Knights.

But sometimes he becomes increasingly irritable, and blank scenes appear without any memory of them, which frightens him.

Rhodes attributed this to the overwhelming power of the curse bestowed by the artifact of deception, which was too potent for his mortal body to withstand. He had also privately inquired with his undead subordinates whether he was experiencing any abnormalities, and received the reply that he was not. He even used rewind magic to examine himself, and found nothing wrong.

Rhodes felt the need to slay more living beings to heal his own flaws. And only by avenging himself on Kuraki could he be free from all constraints on the path of magic.

"They're just some bushes, we can just step over them, is that really worth reporting?"

The lich leader, seeing the path before the cliff, was slightly angry, believing that such a small obstacle was not worth reporting. Rhodes, however, sensed something was amiss; he detected unusual fluctuations in magical energy.

"Is it a hidden unit, Kuraki's bandit squad?"

Clearly, Rhodes had witnessed the prowess of Wayne and the thieves in the North and found them utterly repulsive. However, with the Death Knight present, any thief who dared to show their face would be instantly killed.

"Rush over!"

With a wave of his hand, Rhodes summoned Death Knights to charge, rampaging and crushing everything in their path.

If it were a different unit, he might have considered what kind of scheme the other party might have, but with the Death Knight in hand, he didn't need to think too much and just charged in. He was not afraid of any enemy, even if the opponent was a level 7 unit.

However, things took an unexpected turn. After the Death Knight reached the top of the cliff, he saw more than a dozen sneaky thieves. He intended to kill them in one fell swoop, but they suddenly disappeared during the process.

This left Rhodes and the liches in the distance dumbfounded. It took them a moment to realize that the Death Knight had fallen into a trap.

The underground traps were concealed by magic, and combined with the enemy hero's stealth ability, they became undetectable.

The traps were littered with broken swords and blades, inflicting continuous damage on the Death Knights, but their magical power was clearly insufficient, having negligible effect on high-level units. "How laughable! They think they can restrain the Death Knights with these traps? Dream on!"

The Death Knight slashed back and forth through the blade, quickly destroying the trap. However, unexpectedly, the blade was imbued with a counter-damage magic, so the attacks from melee units actually had a certain impact on him.

Most of the Death Knights were not even scratched by the blades; instead, they were damaged by the rebound of their own attacks.

"Destroy these traps with long-range fire!"

Seeing this, Rhodes immediately ordered the lich to attack the traps, but because the traps were all underground and had a very unique structure, the ranged attacks were not very effective and could not destroy the traps.

Death Knight tried to jump out of the trap, but was restricted by an invisible force field and found it difficult to escape, which was quite troublesome for a while.

"Tear it down for me!"

After a moment's hesitation, Rhodes ordered the Death Knights to forcefully dismantle the trap. They were only a step away from Longlet Castle; they couldn't be held back by a simple trap.
Time is the most precious thing right now; the enemy must be trying to hold off the undead army.

Rhodes had a feeling that the battle in the hills might have changed, and he had to get to Longlet Castle as soon as possible.

Upon receiving orders from their commander, the Death Knights began destroying the blade traps at any cost, remaining unmoved even as they were slashed beyond recognition.

After all, it is a super strong unit that has been baptized by three elements at level 6, and it has been strengthened by a level 5 warhorse, so it is really tough.

They quickly dismantled a trap, but it took them quite a while to leave. Finally reaching the ground, they braced themselves for crossing the area, only to be sucked into a special space and fall into the blades.

Even the undead felt a chill as they gazed upon the vast array of blades.

"I%……&"

Rhodes really wanted to curse at this moment. How could Kuraki have such a disgusting hero? It's one thing to be unable to beat someone, but to resort to such underhanded tactics.

The Death Knight has a lot of health, but it can't withstand the continuous counter-damage.

The best course of action now is to wait a while. After all, terrain magic is still magic, and its duration is related to spell power. Judging from the magic's destructive power, the opponent's spell power is not too high, so the duration will not be too long.

Rhodes had Death Knight wait in the trap, and sure enough, after several tens of minutes, the trap gradually dissipated.

Just as he was basking in the glory of his brilliant decision, the advancing Death Knight fell into a new trap once again, driving Rhodes to madness.

He immediately ordered all his troops to charge forward, wanting to see how many traps the enemy could set. He also kept a close watch on the battlefield, hoping to find the hidden thief hero.

But the opponent's concealment skills were truly extraordinary, making them extremely difficult to detect. What surprised him even more was the sheer number of blade traps laid out, covering a vast area.

It doesn't do much damage to the Death Knights, but it can be quite effective against low-level units, with skeletons and zombies falling in droves.

Rhodes was forced to let them charge through the blade array to create enough space before ceasing their attack.

Back and forth like this, it dragged on until the morning of the next day. The undead army finally emerged from the valley and looked at the faintly glowing plain in the distance. Rhodes' face was full of gloom.

He was somewhat hesitant about attacking Longletburg.

(End of this chapter)