Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 568: More Means, More Blood Still

The battle was not ending, no matter how many soldiers were mauled and maimed, more kept flooding in, Iliz noticed that the position from which the soldiers were emerging had been subtly moving down as the confrontation went on, allowing them to manifest into the realm with their feet on the ground.

All of the tall grasses had been cut down at this point, struggling to regrow even with the constant influx of spirit life, cut down again and stampeded, the priestess was feeling suspicious, the undead had managed to adjust the position of their passage, who was to say that they couldn't just suddenly move it a far distance away, allowing their living soldiers to pour out and pile up without being culled?

Though, the influx was still enough to allow many of them to be up and running at any given time.

"What a shitshow, huh?"

"Irlitimiz, is it time to switch already?"

"Already? You guys have been butchering soldiers for hours already- Seriously, how many do they have in stock? A thousand must have died already" the wolfish priestess gnarled.

"You look refreshed today, I take it that you are done with your heat?"

"Indeed! Now that my funny business is over, it is time to get up to the fun business instead" flexing her claws, the end of her sentence coincided perfectly with the sudden apparition of an emerald green portal, the unseen way suddenly becoming visible as it chaotically expanded, implying that passage was opened up for people to leave.

Which made the two priestesses believe that the remaining soldiers still standing would turn tail and retreat, as rational people would, but they didn't budge a millimeter and instead seemed to cheer as the amount of troops coming in increased dramatically, accompanied by constructs on wheels, which were of diverging sizes, materials and shapes overall.

One of them was a small wooden tower, upon which a singular soldier in white stood, nothing was differing him from the rest, save for the weapon he wielded, instead of the spear and shield all of them had been carrying until now, this one had some sort of wide beam of wood slung over his shoulder.

As if already aware of the situation going on here, he instantly set his sights on the two priestesses, poising himself up to handle the recoil as this unwieldy thing fired a bolt comparable to that of a ballista, despite the fact that this weapon, which was classified a crossbow, looked anything but accurate, the soldier's aim was true as it headed directly for the center of Irlitimiz's mass to maximise the chances of the bolt landing.

After all, when handling such a weapon, there was no need to target vital points, you just needed to hit at all to see good results, at least, that's what the marksman was used to, the average crossbow of this type could kill someone even if they were well hidden by a tower shield of durable steel, the sheer force capable of breaking their necks as they were flung back like a doll.

The priestess didn't move however, watching the projectile close in on her and then suddenly stop.

"How kind"

"You aren't supposed to allow yourself to get hit, you know? That would have damage your robes" Iliz instantly sent it back to the sender, the soldier's head exploding into a thin red mist, without even having the time to realise that the bolt had been intercepted by the priestess's thin tail and launched back before the bolt could break down from being in enemy's hands.

Iliz whistled loudly, signalling that it was time for them to leave the spot for others, even if full of vitality, everyone ought to be tired from constantly slaughtering endless waves of invaders.

It was a good thing that corpses were quick to disappear, otherwise the hill would be flowing with warm blood and several times higher from piled up cadavers, not a single beast worshipper had fallen so far.

And it wasn't likely to occur even with the arrival of living soldiers that seemed cut out of a finer cloth than the rest, many were still holding the same old set of weaponry, but quite a fair bit were also in possession of nifty-looking things, and that was without mentioning whatever all those constructs on wheels were about.

"How will you idiots even get those things down from the hill?" the priestess wondered, scratching the back of her ear as the worshippers under her watch went into the fray.

Irlitimiz, like Iliz just before her, was only here to take care of any strong foe that might show up, rescuing anyone that was having difficulties was the job of the sun worshippers, who could transport anyone away through sunlight.

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She glared at the troops in white, analysing every single thing visible, ears twitching incessantly whilst listening to all sounds.

The newer soldiers brought with them a fair bit of different ranged units, ranging from the ones carrying that same hefty crossbow to more traditional archers, overall, the living soldiers were composed of what essentially were knock-offs of various castes of the vanguard, they didn't have any special affinities for the weapon and tools they carried beyond knowing how to wield them, neither was the equipment on par with their greater undead allies.

One of the soldiers held some sort of metallic contraption that spewed some sort of flaming liquid, trying to set the environment alight, an action that warranted being split into two mushy red piles of paste as two beast worshippers instantly targeted him for the offence.

Another flinging small explosives around received expeditive treatment as well, kicked up into the air and then sent barreling to the ground by a winged worshipper.

'Heh… Those pyromaniacs and bomb slingers are diverting attention away from the rest' remarked the priestess, casually deciding to step in a little bit, pulling upon the wolf-like beast she communed with exclusively special power.

Zuoltr's were technically solitary hunters, resembling large black wolves, but they had the particularity of indulging in cannibalism purposefully, feasting on other's of their kind regularly, even seeking it out.

As they all had the mystical ability of turning fellow zuoltrs that had been cannibalised upon into a pack of some kind, it wasn't exactly clear how that worked out, but like a true zuoltr, Irlitimiz had eaten many of them.

With a simple thought, dozens of phantomatic zuoltrs emerged from the ground all around the battlefield, focusing exclusively on targeting the more regular soldiers, although the priestess didn't hesitate to summon some directly behind some of the soldiers shooting arrows from high positions as well.

Still, the amount of invaders was ridiculously high.