Chapter 219 : Chapter 219
Chapter 219. Terrifying Contagion
The Orc Legion Commanders noticed it as well. More importantly, they noticed the contagion that spread after the enemy’s explosions.
They immediately dispatched their Legendary Combatants to snipe those soldiers from high in the sky, but the Kroll Kingdom’s Legendary Mages forcibly blocked them with Energy Shields.
Purple Magic Barriers collided with the Orcs’ berserk Dou Qi, scattering fragments of light across the sky. Both sides tore at each other among the clouds, and neither was willing to retreat.
Below, the explosions from those Black-Armored Soldiers were dismantling the foundation of the Orc Legions like a plague.
On the ground, wherever the purple smoke spread, the Orcs went mad.
The infected Orc soldiers rotted all over. Roaring, they lunged at their companions, their teeth tearing open the throats of their own kind, their claws ripping out the entrails of their kin.
But they were soon killed by the other uninfected Orcs.
Then something even more terrifying happened. After their corpses fell, their chests would suddenly swell and explode again, scattering corrosive spores even farther.
Again and again, death spread like a rolling snowball. The formation of the four-hundred-thousand-strong army was collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
“Madmen. These humans are madmen.”
The Orc Legion Commander stood on the Raised Platform, watching his soldiers fall in swaths or slaughter one another. At last, fear appeared in his eyes.
He smelled the sickly sweet yet piercing scent in the air, and he knew it was the smell of death.
When another wave of purple smoke from the explosions began spreading toward the central army, the Legion Commander abruptly drew the bone blade at his waist and roared, “Fire! Fire the cannons! Aim at the positions of the Third and Fourth Formations! Blast out an Isolation Zone! Quickly!”
“My lord, those are our own men!” the Adjutant beside him cried out in terror.
“This is no time to care about that.”
The Legion Commander’s eyes were bloodshot with madness.
“If we do not stop these damned things, all of us will die here. Fire!”
The Orc Cannons accompanying the army were quickly turned around, their muzzles aimed at the collapsing ranks of their own Legion.
Dark cannonballs rose into the sky amid the firelight, falling with shrill howls. They blasted swaths of Orcs and purple smoke into charred fragments.
Soil was thrown into the air. Flesh and stone mixed together, forcibly blasting open a scorched strip more than a hundred meters wide amid the dense crowd.
The smoke was temporarily scattered by the shockwaves from the explosions. On either side of the Isolation Zone, the Orcs faced one another across the charred earth. On one side were the uninfected survivors, their eyes filled with fear.
On the other side were the infected, still writhing madly, roaring as they tried to charge across the Isolation Zone.
The several Orc Clan Chiefs on the Raised Platform panted heavily as they stared at the Isolation Zone paved with the corpses of their own kin. Their hearts ached as though they had been smashed by a giant hammer.
But the Legion Commander knew he had made the right choice. At least for now, the purple death had stopped spreading.
High in the sky, Kroll’s Legendary Combatants saw what was happening on the ground, and their attacks slowed involuntarily.
They could feel the chaos among the Orc Legions, but they were also shaken by the enemy’s ruthless resolve.
“These Orcs…” a Legendary Mage murmured.
“They are only struggling.”
Xilan’s voice came through his Dou Qi. He was currently entangled with three Orc Legendary Combatants, his sword blade stained with black blood.
“Do not lose focus. Our mission is nearly complete.”
On the ground, the Gold Legion had already torn open a corner of the encirclement amid the chaos of the Orcs killing one another and firing upon their own ranks.
The soldiers stepped over Orc corpses and broke out in the direction opposite the coastline. No one looked back at that hell shrouded in purple smoke.
Behind the Isolation Zone, the Orc Legion Commander stared in the direction where the humans were breaking out, and a trace of despair flashed through his eyes.
He had won the Isolation Zone, but he had lost the entire battlefield.
Those Black-Armored Soldiers were still charging and exploding without end. The purple smoke was like maggots clinging to bone, ready to cross the Isolation Zone at any moment.
“Retreat…”
He gave the order in a low, hoarse voice.
“Retreat toward the border of the Dwarf Kingdom. Fall back to the Border Fortress…”
The Adjutant froze. “My lord, we still have more than a hundred thousand—”
“We cannot hold them.”
The Legion Commander stared at the ever-spreading purple.
“This place is a land of death. If we do not leave now, no one will survive.”
The Orcs began to collapse, fleeing along the border toward the Border Fortress near the Dwarf Kingdom.
The Legion Commander on the Raised Platform took one last look at the land of the Eastern Frontier. It had once been prey they coveted, but now it had become a grave devouring everything.
He turned and mounted his Warhorse, joining the fleeing ranks. Behind him, the sounds of explosions and roars gradually faded, leaving only that scorched land shrouded in purple smoke, glowing eerily in the night.
Xilan stood high in the sky, watching the backs of the fleeing Orcs. Then he looked toward the Isolation Zone that was still burning, yet there was no joy of victory in his heart, only a chill.
He knew that the price of this victory was far heavier than he had imagined.
Those Black-Armored Soldiers, those purple spores, were like a shadow looming over the future of the Kroll Kingdom.
If this is not controlled properly, the Kroll Kingdom will absolutely be destroyed. Why did His Majesty release such a thing?
At that moment, the wind on the high slope carried a faint smell of smoke. Designation 734 stood atop a rock, a nearly twisted satisfaction hanging on his grayish-green face.
He looked down at the slaughter and explosions constantly unfolding within the Isolation Zone below. Purple firelight reflected in his amber eyes, as though he were admiring a meticulously arranged play.
“Not bad efficiency.”
He muttered to himself, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the Runes on his long robe. That was the mark of the Underground Laboratory, representing absolute control.
A Black-Armored Soldier walked behind him with mechanical steps, the joints of his armor letting out a faint hum.
“Reporting, Legion Commander. The Energy Field of the Isolation Zone has stabilized. The spread range of the spores has been restricted within the Scorched-Earth Zone. The infected will continue to be drawn by the Energy Waves and cannot break through.”
734 slowly nodded. His gaze swept over the Orcs at the edge of the Isolation Zone, those who tried to flee only to be dragged back by an invisible force. The curve of his lips deepened.
“Very good. Let them ‘revel’ here until the energy is exhausted.”
Over the next three days, the soldiers of the Experimental Legion were like silent craftsmen, constantly adjusting the Energy Nodes of the Isolation Zone.
They buried new Rune Stones along the edge of the Scorched-Earth Zone and reinforced the barrier with Energy Waves, ensuring that not even an infected fly could escape.
Occasionally, an Orc who broke through the defensive line would be shot dead with precision by the Black-Armored Soldiers. The corpse would soon twitch and swell on the ground before finally turning into a burst of purple fire.
At dusk on the third day, the final explosion rang out at the center of the Isolation Zone, faint as a dying sigh.
734 raised the Magic Artifact in his hand. It did not turn red. Clearly, the Energy Spores had already been completely exhausted.
734 put away the Magic Artifact and turned to look at the remaining Legion behind him.
The force that had originally numbered ten thousand now had fewer than two hundred left. The scratches and bloodstains on their black armor silently told of how brutal the battle had been.
Yet their posture remained perfectly orderly. There was not the slightest hint of exhaustion in their crimson eye sockets, as though they had merely completed an ordinary patrol.
“Mission complete. Return.”
734’s voice was still hoarse, but it carried an almost imperceptible lightness.
The Black-Armored Soldiers gave no response. They merely turned in silence and followed him toward the Secret Passage deep within the mountains.
Their footsteps passed over the dead leaves without leaving a single print, as though they had never appeared on this land at all.
When the last black-armored figure vanished into the cave entrance, the plains of the Eastern Frontier finally fell completely silent.
Within the Isolation Zone, scorched earth and shattered bones had mixed into a dead gray-black silence. Only when the wind blew through empty suits of armor did they let out hollow, mournful echoes, as though lamenting the forgotten dead.