Chapter 12: Naraku Has Run Away

Under coercion from Neraka, the skeletal archers under his command had no choice but to take their places atop the battlements with their comrades. They managed only a single volley of bone arrows before a storm of arrows poured down upon them and swept them from the wall.

Then Gru led his phantom undead archers slowly from their hiding place. The moment Neraka saw him, his face went deathly pale. He understood at once that his plan to forcefully kill Li Bin had utterly come to nothing, and that his only remaining concern was how to bring back the vampire warriors he had sent out in one piece.

Li Bin, however, had no intention of letting them go. He exchanged a glance with Gru, who immediately understood and shouted his orders: “Change to silver arrows. Prepare to fire.”

From the wall, Neraka watched in anguish as the vampire warriors he had finally managed to lure in were each struck by more than ten silver arrows and reduced at last to drifting ashes. But he was soon roused from his grief, for the wall on the far side of the undead city was now under fierce attack as well.

That side was being assaulted by more than ten fake bone dragons under Lide’s command. Though only tenth rank, under Lide and his subordinate Blood Night’s control, they still displayed formidable fighting strength.

The fake bone dragons moved in groups of three, sweeping across the battlements and directly knocking the skeleton soldiers and corpse soldiers below the walls.

Faced with this, Neraka directed his troops to withstand Li Bin’s attack while also dispatching forces within the city to the far wall to halt the fake bone dragons’ advance.

That move suited Li Bin perfectly. With a faint smile, he unleashed his third wave of attack. This assault was led by more than five hundred ghost bats, followed by a free-attack formation of one squad of vampire warriors recently acquired by Li Bin and five squads of harpy troops. Their objective was clear: breach any gate of the undead city.

As for why he used a first-rank unit like ghost bats at the forefront, Li Bin had his reasons. Ghost bats did not count toward troop formation limits. Each vampire could control ten of them, and each ghost bat could summon three level-zero hatchling bats every day to fight for three hours. Ordinary people would never bother with such creatures, since they had no attack power of their own. But once they carried dangerous items, their threat far surpassed that of any force under fifth rank.

Just like now, the ghost bats, flinging themselves forward without fear of death, carried either highly volatile explosive powder or holy water specially meant to deal with undead.

Though these could not deal a fatal blow to the undead army, they could wreak utter chaos within the city.

Soon this free force, led by no hero at all, charged beneath a gate, where the original guards had already been withdrawn to the wall under fake bone dragon attack, leaving only a handful of low-ranking troops.

For the vampire warriors and harpy units carefully selected for this task, those low-level troops were no match at all. After the gate of the undead city was forced open, the free force surged inside and began their independent assault.

At the opened gate, Tide had been waiting for quite some time. Although his death knights had received no reinforcements, Li Bin had still prepared substitute troops for him. The rank-seven skeleton knights now appearing under his command were among them.

Mounted on bone steeds and clad in bone armor, bearing bone shields and steel sabers, these skeleton knights did not possess the strength of death knights, but they made up for it in numbers. Merely seeing the killing aura of these five squads gathered together in a triangular formation was enough to drain the morale from some timid troops.

Moreover, these skeleton knights did not need to concern themselves with morale, life, or comrades. They only obeyed orders and charged forward with single-minded force. Anything in their path was cut down on the spot; if the blow did not kill, the skeleton knight behind would follow with another strike.

Thus, before long, this unit had stormed to the vicinity of the city hall, advancing at a speed that even Li Bin, who had devised the plan, had not foreseen.

From the wall, Neraka watched the flood surging into the city and knew his stronghold was lost. He was a man of some stature, however, and acted decisively. Gathering all his rank-seven and higher troops at once, he burst from the wall as though preparing to fight Li Bin to the death.

Li Bin was startled by Neraka’s move. He had not expected such a counterattack in this situation, and so, no longer worrying about concealing his hand, he brought out his final trump card, Jessie.

Yet no sooner had Jessie appeared on the battlefield than Neraka’s men split into two groups: one hurled itself toward Li Bin with reckless abandon, while the other abruptly turned and ran back into the city.

By the time Li Bin had finished dealing with those suicidal undead troops, the battle for the city before him was already over. Tide, the first to seize the city core, was reporting the losses and gains of the campaign to Li Bin.

Under Li Bin’s careful planning, this battle could be said to have gone very smoothly. But the gains were far from what he had expected. The city core had been secured, yes, but the negative energy contained within it, as well as the gold and records stored in the city hall, had scarcely been taken at all.

Li Bin naturally did not fear that anyone under his command had embezzled the spoils. According to the original estimate before the campaign, Neraka possessed the ability to recruit wild undead forces, so the city’s garrison had likely been drawn from the wilderness. That meant very few resources would have been consumed on troops.

If so, there was only one possible place for those resources to have gone: into Neraka himself, vanished somewhere within the city.

At the thought, Li Bin could not help feeling vexed. When Neraka had fled back into the city, he had not taken it as a matter of importance. He had assumed the undead city was only so large; no matter how far Neraka ran, where could he go? At most, he might escape from another gate, but how could he possibly outrun the pursuit behind Li Bin?

Yet after entering the city, Neraka had twisted and turned and then vanished without a trace. Gone with him were one of his heroes and one squad of rank-seven troops.

From the situation now, it was clear that Neraka had done this deliberately. Just as Li Bin had once lured Neraka out alone, Neraka had exploited Li Bin’s confidence, sacrificing some of his subordinates to successfully slip away from his grasp.

At that realization, Li Bin was seized by fury. “He can’t have gotten far!” he shouted. “Search! Find him for me, no matter what.”

At that moment, Lide suddenly said, “Master, have you noticed something strange about this city?”