Game of the World Tree

In reality, the players had no means to purify the corpses.

Instead, it was through the use of the passive skill [War Sacrifice] which drains the lifeforce of its target, allowing the goblins’ corpses and their faithless souls to return back to nature in a different manner…

Of course, Brein were completely unaware of this.

This passive ability of War Sacrifice was well concealed by Evé, and it was normal for those unaware of it to perceive such ability as purification.

Well, in a sense, it could be considered purification, although it’s being done in a more comprehensive method.

Discovering that the elves have such methods further energized Brein.

Meanwhile, the undead army finally reached the city walls, scaling the stone barriers with ease by utilizing the abandoned ladders left behind by the goblins.

Brein noticed that during this process, some sections of the walls had elves stationed who clearly had the skill to destroy the ladders while the undead still hadn’t climbed up yet.

However, no one did so and instead seemed very eager to fight the undead.

There were even those who stood beside the ladders, waiting for the undead to finally come up and fight.

What a bunch of battle-crazed lunatics…

Brein muttered to himself inwardly.

At the same time, he had already made up his mind to never antagonize these reckless and brutal long-eared fellows in the future…

The undead had clawed their way up the towering city walls, their skeletal hands scraping against the stone wall. In a heartbeat, they clashed with the defending elves, their swords flashing like streaks of silver lightning against the darkened surroundings.

The clash of steel echoed once more throughout the vicinity, interwoven with the fierce war cries and incantations of the elven mages.

Amidst the tumult of battle, the air crackled with magic as the battlefield once again descended into chaos.

Unlike with the goblins, the undead were clearly much stronger.

Most of them had strength that ranged from low to intermediate Iron-rank and were quite disciplined, akin to an army without any sort of emotions…

As such, the disparity between the two opposing forces became apparent as soon as they clashed.

Most of the elves clearly lacked experience in fighting the undead, showing none of the calmness they had initially exhibited when they slaughtered the goblins.

While occasionally an undead would have its head severed by the elves’ attacks and collapsed into a pile of bones, the vast majority of the undead had withstand the elves onslaught.

Ultimately, the undead were just too resistant to be beaten.

To them, losing a leg or an arm appears inconsequential, as a few missing bones merely slightly impact their combat effectiveness and mobility, at most.

Unless they are hit in their vital points, many of the elves’ attacks were ineffective.

So far, the best method the players found would be for a priests to use light attribute spells to suppress the undead, then destroy their soul fire while their strength was being suppressed.

But unfortunately, most clergymen belonging to the Church of Death didn’t possess any light attribute spells, and the elves themselves didn’t have any priests at all since that jobclass is still largely unavailable to the players.

As a result, except for some powerful individuals in the upper Iron-rank who could easily clash with the undead, the vast majority of the players succumbed to disarray amidst the onslaught of the undead army.

While the players understood that cooperation was the key to winning the battle, the undead were just as equally disciplined.

Moreover, this time, the assault of the undead army vastly exceeded any of their previous attacks.

With their numerical superiority, the undead army quickly opened up a gap in the defense line on the city wall, gradually occupying key positions on some sections of the area, while the elves and the Hermetic Alliance defense force were forced to slowly retreat, overwhelmed by the relentless advance of the undead.

Amidst the cacophony of clashing blades, expletive curses, echoing laughter as well as explosive bursts of magic, and the sickening shattering of bones, a relentless tide of undead surged up the city walls, escalating the battle into a frenzied crescendo of chaos and carnage.

By now, the outer perimeter walls of Blade City had completely turned into a hellish landscape.

The ground was littered with broken bones, whilst the stone walls bore the grim stains of fallen elves’ blood, emanating a nauseating scent that filled the air.

Having faced them before, the terror of the undead was very clear to Brein, but the resilience shown by the elves had once again exceeded his imagination.

In fact, during their earlier bout with the goblins, Brein noticed that these elves seemed to be unafraid of either death or pain.

And now, as they courageously fought against the undead army, seeing them in action once again deepened Brein’s understanding of these elves…

In every passing moment, an elf would fall into battle, but every elf who died in battle fought tenaciously until the last second before their demise.

They showed no fear in the face of the undead army’s relentless advance.

Even as their wounds multiplied and even as they suffered fatal injuries, these elves still laughed as if they couldn’t feel pain whilst fighting against the undead.

Moreover, as their injuries worsened, their determination to fight grew much stronger. Attempting any means of ‘mutually assured destruction’ to eliminate a group of skeletons before their demise, as though the very idea of failing to do so inflicted more agony than the prospect of death itself.

At that moment, these elves seemed to become undead themselves, and as their numbers dwindled and their fallen brethren one by one were ‘purified’ and turned into ashes, the rest of the elves paid no heed to the sacrifice of their comrades, as if their eyes were only locked onto the enemy, whilst reveling in the wanton slaughter of the battlefield.

Watching such an intense battle, Brein’s admiration for these weird elves grew even more stronger.

Perhaps they may not have been highly skilled on an individual basis, they grasped the importance of cooperation and harbored a resilient mindset, along with an abundance of fighting spirit.

Such individuals might have appeared weak in isolation, they became a formidable force when united as an army.

As time went on, although more and more undead have managed to climbed onto the city walls, the number of elves have also increased as well.

Despite some elves dying, newer ones kept arriving from the teleportation array to join the fight against the undead.

Amidst the shouts and cries, the city wall gradually became an arena of relentless, drawn-out tug-of-war of sorts as the clash between the elves and the undead by now evolved into a chaotic spectacle, with neither side yielding to the other.

Meanwhile, the local soldiers of the Hermetic Alliance had long been pushed aside and relegated to support.

It wasn’t as though they didn’t want to join the battle per se, but rather, these long-eared battle fanatics seemed afraid of someone else stealing their prey, thus they had no choice but to shift their focus in supporting the elves instead.

Looking at the expanse of the city walls filled to the brim with elves, Brein began to wonder if all the elves from the surface had somehow been convinced by Lord Firebeard to participate here in the war underground…

However, at the same time, while he was deeply impressed by the elves’ fighting spirit and resilience, he also felt great pity as their numbers fell one by one…

Elvenkind is essentially an immortal race, and their fertility rate was notoriously low compared to other humanoid species.

After this war, who knew how many of them would be left alive…

This mere fact left Brein feeling as though these elves were a bit foolish…

He’s sure they themselves knew how hard it is to bolster their race’s population, but why in the great Goddess of Death’s name were they still being reckless in their behavior?

Like earlier, they could have destroyed the ladders while the goblins were fleeing, thereby isolating the undead army beneath the city walls.

Had they pursued such an approach, then they could have made their lives much easier. In this instance, all they needed to do was to simply launch long-range attacks from atop the wall and wait for the undead army’s summoners to exhaust their magical energy.

With the enemy side depleting their means of bolstering their numbers, they would naturally retreat on their own, and the elves could avoid heavy casualties….

Yet, they still insisted on fighting the undead head-on.

Such a choice, although it killed more undead, also exacted a heavy price upon themselves.

By now, Brein had lost count of how many elves he had seen die in battle.

Yet the remaining elves persisted in charging towards the forefront of the battle, as if they were throwing their precious lives away.

Brein mentally shook his head incredulously.

Madmen…

Seriously, what a bunch of battle-crazed madmen!

Fearless of the repercussions, heedless of losses, and utterly indifferent to their own lives as well as the lives of their own fellow brethren!

In fact, as time passed, Brein started to worry that these battle-crazed elves would inevitably be completely annihilated by the undead army due to incurring too many deaths…

And this worry of his is starting to become a reality, as these elves only seem to care about killing the enemy and occasionally picking up items the skeletons dropped and nothing else!

Brein lamentingly sighed.

“I wonder how many of them are still alive?”

With a heavy heart, he began counting the surviving elves, but as time went on, to his surprise, their numbers… seemed not to have dwindled as much as he thought?

He knitted his brows.

…How weird.

Yet before he could try to make sense of it, Brein was greeted by a sweating local soldier that came from the city council with astonishing news.

“What did you say!? All the 8,000 sets of equipment we prepared have already been distributed?”

— 358 —

【 EQUIPMENT SHORTAGE 】

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