Blood tax

Chapter 534: One of the Ancient Eggs
Commodus chose to increase troops!
His three lieutenants, Steiner, Wenk, and Busse were paladins, clerics, and demon hunters of the Extraordinary rank, respectively, and each sent Extraordinary directly under them to join the battle, greatly increasing the power of the attack.

Griffith's force also suffered heavy losses and needed time to regroup.Therefore, the undead creatures along the way seem to have completely given up on the frontal attack, and can only launch continuous small-scale attacks with the help of terrain cover to delay the legion.

However, the advancing speed of the Commodore Legion was much slower than before.While destroying the crystal towers along the way to limit the black mud, the soldiers stopped every distance they advanced, waiting for the artillery behind to catch up.

"The power of the artillery is indeed impressive, but it takes a lot of time to deploy and deploy," Busey shook his head. "The advance of the legion is too conservative, and the squirm of looking forward and backward will only give the death knight time to regroup the army and outflank us."

Steiner felt that these words questioned his commanding ability, and immediately protested: "If your excellency can ensure that my boys will not be blown up by the self-explosive ball that suddenly appeared, I will take the town immediately!"

Busey shrugged and said, "As long as the priests can protect the safety of the demon hunters, I can wipe out all the self-explosive balls."

Everyone turned their heads to look at Wen Ke.The high-ranking cleric looked at Commodus cautiously: "If His Majesty supports our psychic power..."

Commodus nodded with a pale face, agreeing: "Griffith cannot be allowed to kill the troll lords on the periphery of Zuhaka. After breaking through the line of defense, you immediately start chasing me!"

He withdrew the will enveloping the legion, saving precious psychic energy for the upcoming gladiatorial battle, watching his army advance like a mortal general.

After receiving the promise of protection from the clergy, several demon hunters mixed in with the skirmisher line, and continued to advance after the artillery prepared for fire.After advancing less than a hundred meters, suddenly a group of self-explosive balls rolled out from the alley.They relied on the terrain to escape the previous shelling, and they were about to roll into the faces of the legionnaires.

A demon hunter flashed out from the skirmish line, raised his hand, and was shot away by a icy spinning spear.The spear stab hit the front self-explosive ball, and at the same time as there was a loud bang, the piercing freezing air also vented away, unexpectedly freezing the self-explosive ball rolling in behind in pieces.

Before the musketeers beside him could make a move, the demon hunter turned his hand and threw a second shot.A ignited grenade was hung on this throwing gun, and it exploded in the air as it passed over the self-explosive ball.

"boom--!"

Fine fragments fell like raindrops.There was not a single self-explosive ball left, and it was completely blown up on the spot.

The demon hunter directly under Busey is the vanguard of firepower strikes. With powerful perception, he can quickly capture high-threat targets such as self-explosive balls, and use spiritually enhanced weapons to wipe them out immediately.However, like all witchers, these Beyonders have weak resistance and survivability.

For these powerful and cautious Extraordinary to appear at the forefront, the shield and blessing of the priesthood are indispensable.If you suddenly encounter an enemy at the level of God's Hand, the hope of survival for a demon hunter lies in the fact that you can survive for a short period of time without being instantly killed, and then you can hide in the ranks of the legion!
After a successful combo, the demon hunter didn't show any complacency on his face. Instead, he retreated into the skirmish line extremely cautiously and skillfully to hide himself.

At this moment, the three-headed suture monster suddenly emerged from the shadow of the building, and threw bone chains at the demon hunter in the skirmish line from different directions.

The demon hunter who was attacked was also a veteran. He dodged the first bone chain while retreating quickly, but the second bone chain blocked his retreating path, directly piercing his thigh and dragging him out of the crowd.

The clergy who were covering nearby immediately blessed the demon hunter with various shields and prayers, but it was still impossible to prevent him from being dragged into the tide of corpses by powerful brute force.Amidst the miserable cries for help, the two reckless beasts outflanked the reinforcements, one from the left and the other from the right, blocking the reinforcements with their huge bodies.

This is another ability of the stitch monster besides serving as a meat shield.Stitches, empowered by Griffith, can capture light units in the enemy and drag him into the undead army.The thrown bone chain may miss or be blocked by obstacles, but enough stitch monsters can always guarantee a certain probability of hitting, and the combination of ghouls and beasts in positional battles can achieve amazing results.

Seeing their teammates end up in such a miserable end, the other demon hunters were terrified.They followed Commodus, but not all of them were soldiers, and not all of them were willing to risk their lives. The speed of attack slowed down further.

……

Corpse hordes occupy towns, catacombs, and fortresses, battling legions in mazes of alleys.The Extraordinary lingered, the legionnaires had occupied a position and had to wait for the cannons to be brought up.

"My army can buy enough time." Griffith waved his hand to summon the skeleton army horse, and cast his eyes on the mountain road where the troll fled. "At this stage of the battle, the bonus of command art has also been greatly weakened. The confrontation between the two armies has changed from a surprise attack to a protracted war of attrition. We... what are you doing?"

Erza came out of the meditation room next to her.She put on the leather armor of a troll hunter, and carried three bloody throwing spears on her back. The backpack was bulging and stuffed with things. It seemed that she seized the time to search the treasure house of the pyramid and found a lot of equipment and supplies.

"Look what I found for you—!"

She got on the horse, raised her hand and threw a shiny little thing into Griffith's hand.

It is a boulder surrounded by a flaming blue light.Like the egg of something, the weak pulse seems to be pregnant with something.If he holds it in his hand, Griffith can feel that he is surrounded by an overflowing and soft invisible energy field, and the vitality is almost gushing out of his chest.The dizziness and exhaustion of psionic dryness when commanding undead creatures gradually dissipated, and he could even absorb this gem to restore his psionic power to its peak state.

This is a Philosopher's Stone!

This powerful gem will definitely come in handy in the ensuing chase... Griffith thought for a while, then took out the troll gold coin he was carrying and threw it to Erza.

"Is this a tribute used by the troll empire to sacrifice to the ancient gods?" Erza immediately noticed the ominous atmosphere on the gold coin, "I vaguely feel that it connects the planes of life and death."

"Holding it can transform into an undead creature under the moonlight."

"Interesting~"

Erza accepted the gold coin.She had a feeling that Griffith had withdrawn his will, and the battle of the undead army was becoming chaotic.

"Without your presence, the undead army in the town cannot resist Commodus for long."

"It's just as hard to resist with me here," Griffith replied honestly, "The past combat experience has taught me a truth, that wars of attrition have limits.

"It is impossible to defeat Commodore's army in a face-to-face battle with this improvised army.

"As a person, I am the least interested in tactics without technical content."

Erza nodded appreciatively:
"Then let's have a very technical war of attrition!
"First of all, make a gesture of capturing Zuhaka and taking the eternal ladder and mythical creatures there,
"The more pressure we put on the troll lord, the sooner Commodus will leave his army.

"only……"

Erza looked at the magnificent Zulhakka wall in the distance.In the dark, she heard vague whispers, as if there was a voice calling her.

"I sense an aura that rivals the hand of God. The explorers of Byelan have been in this land for many years...they may have discovered something."

"If you are worried that there is a third force watching, then I can confirm your feeling now," Griffith said, "Horus Osiris, Bishop of the Holy See, and Lansenis, the sword master of MI[-], have been deliberately directing my attention, and even a winged humanoid monster is cooperating with them.

"Some existences very much hope to lead me here to find the secrets of the eternal ladder and the ancient egg."

"The people you mentioned here are all connected to the pathway of death and the pathway of monsters," Erza mused, "In the case of Krista, the behavior of some people in the Holy See of Holy Light was full of inexplicable unreasonable and disordered behaviors, and their motives seem to be more than simply wanting to defect to the life weave of the Void Realm.

"It's more like looking forward to the conflict between the righteous god and the outer god."

"There are quite a few monster pathways in the rebel army," Griffith replied, "The gold coin I gave you came from a believer in the Creator."

The two walked while talking.A select group of ghouls followed to keep up with them.

Erza's eyes flickered with confusion and thought from time to time, trying to connect many clues:

"A certain organization, a certain existence, has been watching you for a long time.

"Griffith, someone wants you to know some secrets earlier and come here earlier. They have already been tempting you during the incident in Hepu Town.

"If your strength is not strong enough to get involved in these secrets..."

In this vast expanse of rainforest, the rain showers are constant and produce an unbearably humid climate.A silent ripple that seemed to have direction and purpose came quietly from the distant high cliffs and domes, along the faintly shimmering moonlight on the dark forest sea.

Suddenly, one twisted corpse after another appeared on the road ahead.

The corpses were all grinning, shrinking and even showing their gums, and the skin all over their bodies was extremely gray.The deep gnawing marks of some kind of giant beast gave people an indescribable horror.

However, the fatal wounds on these corpses did not come from biting.Near the larynx or the heart, there is a large hole, from which their life essence is sucked out.

After walking for a while, Griffith saw the ghoul he sent.They were also torn to pieces, leaving only decayed wreckage.

Griffith immediately called out to his suture monster Guratoni.This powerful rotting soul corpse was sent by him to intercept the high-ranking priest Vinnosis. With its strength, even if it cannot defeat the opponent, it can delay it for a long time.

However, he didn't get a response, only barely aware of a faint psychic energy.

"Battle ready!"

Erza left the skeleton horse and occupied the high ground from the side.Griffith put a shield on himself and searched forward.

After running for 200 meters on the troubled times trail, a pungent stench came over my face.Then, he saw a tyrannosaur in the darkness in the distance, frantically gnawing on a pile of carrion on the ground.

Griffith was about to make a move when suddenly a troll dressed as an elder came out from the darkness beside him, threw himself at Griffith's feet, knelt down on the ground with a plop, and shouted in human language:

"Your Excellency the mighty apostle, your loyal servant, wait and send!"

Um?who?
Griffith almost shot him with Conviction.A few seconds later, he remembered a difficult-to-pronounce name: "You are, the elder Jirapa Kasa from the underground of the Turan Swamp? I remember you."

"That's right, that's right, it's my servant, your humble servant, whose name is Kiraka the sorcerer," Kiraka bowed carefully, "The oracle guides me, humble and weak Kiraka, I'm here to welcome you,

"The high-ranking priest, Venosis, absorbed the evil power of the ancient gods. He has turned into a monster, trying to deny your will."

I'm here for it.Griffith signaled to the devious Erza, ready to fight, and killed a high priest right here.

Suddenly, Griffith saw a black shadow flash in front of him, and the tyrannosaurus tens of meters away had already rushed in front of him.There was a sharp sound of wind, and gravel shot everywhere.Griffith hastily pulled out the first block of Hanguang, and the whole person flew upside down under the impact of huge force.

The holy sword seemed to collide with hundreds of tons of steel, and sparks flew everywhere.With the strength of Griffith's power-type transcendent, he couldn't resist it, and bumped his head against the mountain wall behind him.

"Be careful, Your Excellency the Apostle!" Kiraka ran back with something in his arms, shouting as he ran, "It contains the essence of the Old God!"

(End of this chapter)