Chapter 445 - This Is My Last Resort

Chapter 445: This Is My Last Resort

The ‘direct approach’ in question was a simple but brutal strategy: Zakum the fox lunged at the undead and swung its claws and its tail, knocking over those rushing towards the trio. When hit, the undead fell as easily as the pieces of a torn paper. The tentacles behind the fox lashed out at the undead like angry vipers, blowing away the undead that Zakum missed.

Mr. Bear joined the trio and barrelled through the undead; its attacks were a force to be reckoned with. Unlike the flashy attacks doled out by the trio — Zakum the fox, Potter the owl, and Sunny the sunflower — Mr. Bear’s attacks seemed basic. It only performed sweeping motions with its claws and howled — techniques that could performed if one rolled their face over the keyboard, pressing every button on it. However, due to the bear’s immense strength, the seemingly mundane attacks wrath terrifying levels of devastation. The undead were like stalks of wheat being cut down by a sharp sickle.

After Mr. Bear’s transformation and massive growth spurt, its skin hardened a great deal; the attacks it received from the undead felt like soft pats. Be it Revenant, Skeleton soldier, or swarms of Phantoms, nothing could bring harm to a hair on Mr. Bear’s skin.

The undead were at a massive disadvantage. It was as though a state-of-the-art tank had been deployed to fight pre-historic cavemen. The undead continued to rush at Mr. Bear, and the bear continued to rack up more kills.

If one was to watch the onslaught from up high, they would see a lot of undead surround two behemoths and get slaughtered after charging towards the latter. This scene was reminiscent of goons dealing zero damage to two endgame bosses.

Some distance away from the area were the students, who were rushing forward with their fastest speed, eager to reach Mr. Bear. However, the gap in the speed between them and Mr. Bear was so vast, whenever they manage to catch up with the bear, all that would remain of their enemies were bones.

The Northern students ran the fastest, so they were able to see the two huge beasts in the distance slaughter the army of undead. At first, the students were alarmed when they saw the undead swarm towards Mr. Bear, but their expressions soon changed to that of shock.

“Dae ye reckon oor best fighter cuid dae something lik’ this?” A Northern student murmured.

The leader of the Northern students, who was running in front of the group, did not immediately respond. After thinking for a while, he said, “Oor best fighter might be as tough, but thay wull be hopelessly outmatched in endurance. ‘Tis has always bin th’ bane o’ oor particular fightin’ style, nae? But look at those beasties. How lang hae thay bin fightin’?”

“I guess the Southern Continent has been hiding its true power from us, aye?” Another student chimed in. “We really should have come here sooner. It’s a shame that so many of us still refuse to acknowledge their power; this bunch has resigned to the belief that Southerners are prissy mudlins.”

“Mm. ‘Tis nae at all wise tae look doon on anybody who managed tae survive a world o’ strife, aye? Ne’er underestimate anybody, for thay may be a hero in disguise.” The leader of the Northern students smiled and moved even faster. “C’moan, we git tae hurry. We should also show thaim how we Northern lads protect oor mukkers.”

The undead marching from the west of the city was still the second-largest in number and power. When the Zombie King got word from its scout that the undead on the west side were being taken out at an alarming rate, it sank into contemplation. A few moments later, the Zombie King let out a few bloodcurdling shrieks while moving its hands about.

That was an expression of fury and a change of battle commands. The black wave of undead moving in from the north came to a sudden halt. Instead of heading towards Arfin City, they turned around and rushed east, seemingly intent on overwhelming Mr. Bear by sheer numbers!

The fleet of skeleton dragons that the Skeleton King sent earlier as reinforcements had arrived. The Zombie King, who was neither delighted nor displeased, commanded the skeleton dragons — by shrieking at them — to fly directly to Arfin City and attack from the sky!

Although skeleton dragons were rare, they were not reliable. Their strength was mediocre, but they were impervious to bows and javelins — equipment suitable for taking down flying units.

The only way to harm a flying skeleton dragon was to strike them with something as powerful, expensive, and slow — like a ballista, but this was not needed if one could perform magic. Unlike regular dragons, which were naturally resistant to magic, skeleton dragons were weak to light-based magic. It was very effective against them, dealing critical damage whenever it struck.

A skeleton dragon’s draconic breath contained a lethal toxin that could corrode flesh. This could speed up the process by which corpses become mere skeletons. With this breath, the skeleton dragons could increase the speed at which new undead join the already existing undead.

According to the Lich Walker — the leading expert in necromancy and undead — skeleton dragons were hard to utilize. They were mainly used to incite fear, show off a Lich’s power, and speed up the creating of skeleton soldiers. If a skeleton dragon was commanded to leave the protection of the ground troops, skeleton mage, or the Lich itself and start an air raid, any troop from the Church would be able to make that skeleton dragon understand the meaning of the word ‘regret’.

This was why the Lich Walker would never send a skeleton dragon to the frontline unless that skeleton dragon successfully activated its Territory. This was the case for the skeleton dragon it had commanded back when it battled the Sage-Emperor of the Magi. The only time that the Lich Walker broke this rule, the skeleton dragon it commanded was shot down by the Fairy Walker. This angered the Lich Walker so much, it began to fight the Fairy Walker, and eventually, her Caudillo Butterfly bow sent the Lich Walker to the Void. The Lich Walker had regretted that ever since.

Back then, the Lich Walker had little experience, as it spent most of its life in hiding. It had acquired a dozen skeleton dragons only after much trouble. The undead army from Duat, on the other hand, would not care about this; after all, they had an abundant number of skeleton dragons.

With enough dragons, a collective exhale of draconic breath would incinerate an entire city, instantly killing all who lived in it!

Tisdale was let to deal with this challenging situation, alone. She had only just learned that Mr. Bear had charged out of the defense perimeter in a fit of rage, and the students under its care had gone after the bear, intent on guarding it.

However, the enemy had suddenly changed tactics, sending a horrifying number undead to overwhelm Mr. Bear and the students. As if that was not enough, a vast number of skeleton dragons had been sent towards Arfin City. No one knew if the Engineer Walker’s marionettes would be enough to hold off the aerial assault or aid Mr. Bear and the students.

Arfin City was already at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and now, this was even more obvious. If the city took a more aggressive and proactive approach by mobilizing all its troops to fight off the skeleton dragons, they might succeed, but the marching undead would invade the city. If that happened, Arfin City would meet its end!

When Vidomina received the latest battle report, she panicked even more than Tisdale. As she watched the skeleton dragons and the marching undead approach the city, she could feel Arfin city being backed into a corner.

Tisdale suddenly bolted up from her seat and asked, “How much longer do we have before the skeleton dragons reach us?”

“Fifteen minutes at most,” Vidomina replied. “What are we going to do?”

“Please ask Professor Engineer and Professor Aya to slow them down as much as they can while I activate our last resort,” Tisdale replied, turning around.

“Last resort? You mean we have backups?” Vidomina exclaimed in shock. She thought that Da Xue had deployed all of its forces. All they should have left were students with average capabilities.

“Of course we do,” Tisdale said, grinning. “Don’t you understand Sir by now? He’s always crazy-prepared, with an eye for details. You don’t think he left for a new realm without leaving behind some trump cards for us, do you?”

“I thought that his trump card was Grandpa, who, we all know, no longer inhabits his suit of armor,” Vidomina said, wearing a smile of confusion.

“Don’t worry. Sir has a lot more friends that can solve this crisis as easily as Grandpa can,” Tisdale replied and flew out the window, rushing towards Baiyi’s Magus Lab.

Baiyi’s lab was no longer the small basement from ten years ago. Followed his master’s example, Baiyi had created a small pocket dimension using Spatial Segregation. Its entrance was in the basement of his chalet.

As Tisdale bolted towards Baiyi’s chalet, she sped past a huge garden containing plants in animal-themed pots and knocked a few of them down accidentally. She did not spare time to pick them up, though; instead, she kept running till she was at Baiyi’s window. The glass was smashed as Tisdale leaped in through the window. The moment she landed she yanked her pendant off. It was made from a very pure blood tearstone.

Tisdale pressed the pendant on the wall leading to the basement, and a bright light flashed throughout the house. When she recovered her sight, she found herself in Baiyi’s new Magus Lab.

The interior was so lush, once would think it was a treasure vault. Its walls and pillars were golden, and rows of academic treatises, books, scrolls, and rare materials adored the lab. One look was all that was needed to tell that Grand Principal Bai’s items were very precious. He had acquired many of them from nobles eager to get their kids into Da Xue.

Only a few people could enter Baiyi’s Magus Lab without his permission: his master the First Voidwalker walker, the Huffing Piggies, and Tisdale.

Even Little Mia, who he dotted on greatly, could enter his lab, and this was her fault. There was a time, during a festival, that Mia wanted Baiyi to accompany her to go shopping, so she quietly snuck into his Magus Lab with her key-pendant.

What greeted her was the scene of Baiyi staring intently at a nude Fairy Walker, caressing certain parts of her body repeatedly as he stared at her.

Baiyi had tried his best to explain to Mia that he was only finetuning the Divine Leathersuit, but Mia did not buy it. She returned her pendant to Baiyi, declaring that she would never enter his lab again.

Fortunately for Baiyi, Tisdale had not seen that, or else she would also have refused to enter his lad ever again. If that happened, she would have been unable to activate the final trump card Baiyi left for the academy.

Tisdale remembered what Baiyi had once told her, and she opened a safe hidden behind some rare materials and brought out several black, murky orbs. Within these orbs, black, crystalline fluid could be seen splashing around. The fluid was pitch black.

Baiyi had warned her not to break the orbs, so she carefully carried them to a room where several coffins laid. She made her way to the coffin with a number “2” carved on its lid, and she placed five black orbs on it, arranged into a pre-drawn formation carved underneath the number.

The formation activated by itself. The black fluid within the orbs poured into the lines of the formation, and the empty orbs shattered into pieces.

The lid on the coffin began to tremble violently, and a hand slipped out from the edge and pushed the lid aside.