Chapter 15: Deadly Attack

  Ohey could no longer maintain their strength to quickly clear the approag aberrant murlocs…

  The creatures would begin to trample over their fallen rades, climbing over the shields and breaking through the defense line.

  Ralph, the steward, keenly noticed this and took a deep breath before shouting:

  "Good job, everyone, keep holding on! We just found at least three pieaterial; everyone will get 10 silver s each, so keep pushing!"

  Ralph's voice carried a strange power, inspiring the soldiers who heard him, and they felt rength surge within them.

  The exhausted cart drivers also felt their energy return.

  The rangers on the rooftops, armed with bows, focused their arrows on the rger, more dangerous aberrant murlocs.

  These more powerful murlocs, pressed in by their rades, could barely move, and they were quickly picked off by the trated volleys of arrows.

  Uhe influenultiple factors, the battle line gradually stabilized.

  In just a few short minutes, over 400 aberrant murlocs had lost nearly a third of their number in cshes with the shield wall.

  Blood soaked the mud, seeping through the defensive lines of shields and carts, and from above, it looked like a red tide slowly engulfing the voy.

  Ange, anding the battle, kept a wary eye on the ever-growing pile of corpses.

  Soon, the bodies would form a slope.

  Ohe murlocs could climb over the pile, they would bypass the shields and directly attack the soldiers holding them!

  "Don’t hesitate!"

  The familiar voice of her lord suddenly reached her ears, and Auro see Matthew nodding at her.

  Beh his silver-white metal mask, a bright smile pyed aatthew's lips.

  "Front line, retreat! Throw the oil casks!"

  Crag sounds followed as the fmmable oil spilled across the bloody ground.

  The red aberrant murlocs, crawling and pushing through the mud, were quickly soaked in the bed oil.

  The soldiers, following the lord's orders, cleared the murlo front of them with their spears and quickly pulled back, shields in hand.

  Simultaneously, several fming arrows fell onto the oil-soaked ground.

  Fwoosh!

  Fmes burst forth, immediately engulfing the murlo front of them.

  A t wall of fire rose up in the marshnd.

  Though the murlocs felt no pain, their survival instincts kicked in as they frantically tried to escape the fmes, spreading the burning oil and fire even further, ing nearly all the murlo front of them.

  They didn’t make it far. Their small, thin bodies were soon devoured by the inferno, burning to ash iense heat.

  As the soldiers retreated under Ange's and, they quickly ied their gear for damage and formed a new defensive line.

  Through his green-tinted goggles, Matthew watched the fmes reflect off the crimson mist, feeling the heat even through his mask.

  With that one move, over 80 murlocs had been buro death, but there were still around 200 aberrant murlocs remaining.

  The situation, which should have been easing, caused Matthew to frown as the real-time status dispyed a sudden, eerie ge in the remaining murlocs.

  "Deep Corruption, Berserk Aberrant State, Challeing 2+! → 3+!"

  Their bodies became more twisted, and their once bloated fish-like forms began to thin out, with their limbs growing long and bony, sprouting sharp spikes.

  With the collective rise in their challeings, Matthew sensed something dire.

  "What’s happening?"

  "Is this some temporary state or the result of being provoked by the deaths of their rades?"

  "No, even 20 years ter, I never saw anything like this…"

  At that moment…

  An overwhelming pressure suddenly surged from the sky.

  Matthew looked up, feeling an indescribable sense of danger flooding his mind.

  All he could see was the eternally looming blood moon!

  The terrifying pressure passed in an instant, as if it had never been there.

  "Ding, Willpower cheitiated. Willpower check passed!"

  The clear, fshing notification, along with the now-alerted Yaya, firmed to Matthew that something critical had just happened.

  The regur soldiers remained oblivious, but the aberrant creatures had undergone a noticeable ge.

  "It must be something with the Crimson Moon, something crucial."

  "Perhaps this ge is why the Crimson Moon’s influence began to dee over the 20 years…"

  "Which means that after tonight, the dangers brought by the Crimson Moon will gradually diminish for quite some time…"

  "But that doesn’t help us right now…"

  Matthew’s gaze remained on the now more powerful aberrant murlocs, their strength increased as if they had ed some straation elixir. He felt a headache ing on.

  ch!

  Crack! Crack!

  The aberrant murlocs smmed into the wooden shields, their impacts growing stronger and stronger.

  Although they hadn’t yet breached the defehe pressure on the soldiers was mounting.

  As the snarling faces of the aberrant creatures and their deafening rrew closer, some of the soldiers began to falter.

  Especially as the wooden shields started to splinter uhe murlocs' cws, f Old John and Captaio quickly step in, dispatg the murlocs trying to slip through the gaps.

  They had to call in reserve spearmen to hold these oints.

  But soon, even the rear of the carts, which were slightly less durable than the shields, began to be torn apart by the murlocs.

  Despite the seemingly small increase in their challeing, the murlocs’ destructive power had escated dramatically.

  Their mutated cws, now bristling with bone spikes, could cause signifit damage to the wooden shields, and with sustaitacks, the shields were at risk of breaking pletely.

  The situation quickly became critical. The previously solid defense line was now teetering on the brink of colpse.

  The spearmen and cart drivers, whose morale had begun to wane, were starting to panic.

  "The inal battle pn is no longer effective. We have to elimihese aberrant murlocs as quickly as possible!"

  "The lohis drags on, the more terrifying they’ll bee…"

  With that realization, Matthew could no loand idle. He once agaihe eerie weight of misfortune pressing down on him!

  His scattered thoughts began to focus, and Matthew tore open a scroll. A powerful fireball formed before him, flying forward amidst the soldiers' cheers.

  Ralph, ever observant, noticed with delight that the fireball summoned from the scroll was slightly smaller and slower than the othew had cast earlier.

  This discovery thrilled the old steward!

  Boom!

  The swirling fireball exploded among the murlo the left, and though its power wasn’t as strong as the othew had cast himself, the density of the murlocs allowed it to still rip apart more than 30 of them. The pressure on the left side dropped signifitly.

  The sed fireball soon followed, crashing into the right side. The resulting explosion opened up a rge gap in the dense crowd of murlocs.

  Seizing the opportunity, Ange directed the front-line spearmen and shield-bearers to reinforce the rear, rebuilding the defenses just as the murlocs were about to tear through the shields.

  The faltering defense line regais stability. Ange immediately ordered the soldiers to repce their damaged shields, personally stepping in to decapitate any murlocs that had slipped through.

  The soldiers who had retreated from the brink of death wiped cold sweat from their brows, cheg their gear while gng with admiration at their lord on the cart.

  But just then, something shog happehat made everyone freeze in horror!

  Leon, who had just stepped back to rest, suddenly leaped up, raising his blood-stained sword, and sshed it down toward their beloved lord!

  The ued attack took everyone by surprise!