120: Chapter 120 A Pyrrhic Victory!

Even knowing that war inevitably claims lives, and understanding that these new recruits were "hastily grown" using resources, they were still individual lives—living, breathing people who had called him "Lord" and held expectations for him.

But he had no time to sit there sighing and wiping away tears.

The beast tide had retreated, but heaven knows if this damned place would cook up more trouble during the night.

Lin Tian wiped the blood splattered on his face and roared. He couldn't resolve the high-level battles, but at least he could use this method to stabilize the situation little by little and boost morale.

The battle entered its most brutal and chaotic phase of defense and attrition.

Every inch of land was being fought over, and every spot was dripping with blood.

Epic units were fighting for their lives against gold and silver monsters, while ordinary soldiers were using their flesh and blood to hold back the frenzy of Bronze monsters.

Lin Tian transformed into a "firefighter" and a "morale booster," rushing wherever the danger was greatest. Although his efficiency in killing enemies wasn't high, he truly helped the crumbling defensive line hold on for a bit longer.

After nearly half an hour of intense stalemate, a turning point finally appeared.

As a 2-star gold Plague Poison Spider had its core pierced by over a dozen Golden Armored Spearmans who risked their lives to do so;

And as a 3-star gold Stitching Behemoth was firmly locked down by several Earth Spirit Guards channeling the earth veins to sprout wild stone stalagmites, only to be shot to pieces by Void Ranger... the scales of victory began to tilt, extremely slowly but firmly, toward the human side.

After suffering the tragic loss of over a hundred soldiers, the Epic-level units finally managed to laboriously and successively eliminate all the gold-level opponents!

Freed from their battles, they immediately turned into the sharpest daggers, diving back into the clusters of silver and Bronze monsters, unleashing a bloodbath!

The pressure began to ease.

But on the main battlefield, the most dangerous moment had arrived!

"Roar!!"

The Fear Demon Ape, unable to secure a quick victory and repeatedly harassed by Lin Yin's annoying cold arrows, was thoroughly enraged!

It roared at the sky, its dark corrosion demonic energy erupting like a volcano, and its body seemed to swell in size.

With one punch, it sent the Red Sun War God phantom, which had become almost transparent, shaking violently. Lin Feng spat out a mouthful of blood, falling to one knee, while the War God phantom flickered unsteadily, on the verge of dissipating!

Now is the time!

Every Epic unit that had just finished its opponent or managed to break free, without waiting for Lin Tian's command, spontaneously and frantically charged toward the Fear Demon Ape!

The Golden Armored Spearmans burned their "Golden Spirit Power" to execute a desperate Thrust, Lin Yan led the Earth Spirit Guards in a roar to activate "Earth Vein Cage" in an attempt to bind it, and the Pale Moon Hunter and Void Ranger fired their final, most powerful arrows!

They were using their lives to create an opportunity for that final strike! And to buy their commander a last sliver of breathing room!

"Lin Yin!" Lin Tian screamed, his heart in his throat.

At the top of the arrow tower, Lin Yin seemed to have merged into one with the moonlight longbow in her hands and the bright moon in the sky.

Her face was as pale as paper, and her aura was weak, but her clear eyes were shockingly bright, as if she had compressed all her energy, will, and all the moonlight into this one arrow.

The bowstring was pulled into an unprecedented full circle by her, as if it were about to absorb all the moonlight between heaven and earth.

The skill Full Moon Judgment was fully charged.

The bow body emitted an unbearable groan, and her fingers gripping the bow split from excessive force, blood flowing down the bow arm.

She didn't look at her comrades rushing to their deaths, nor did she look at Lin Feng, who was on the verge of collapse.

In her eyes, there was only that Fear Demon Ape, which had revealed a tiny opening due to the brief interference, and its heart—that pulsing core made of dark corrosion energy.

Her red lips parted silently, yet it felt as if a clear, resonant tremor echoed in everyone's soul: "Full Moon... Judgment."

She released the string.

There was no sound.

A massive silver arrow, condensed to the extreme, pure to the point of nothingness, and seemingly composed of the very "concept" of moonlight, glided silently across the battlefield.

Wherever it passed, the space left behind faint, lingering silver scratches that did not fade for a long time.

The space seemed to have been severed by this arrow.

A moment ago, the Fear Demon Ape was still roaring, swatting away several Golden Armored Spearmans who had charged in, its body tightly entangled by various skills.

It had no time to defend.

The next moment, that thin silver line entered the pulsing dark corrosion core in its chest without any obstruction.

The Demon Ape's movements froze.

It lowered its head, seemingly wanting to see what had happened to its chest. There, there was no wound, only a tiny, imperceptible silver light.

Then, "Hum..."

With that silver light as the center, moonlight, pure to the extreme, erupted from within its body like a supernova!

It instantly swept through its massive body, which stood over thirty meters tall! There was no explosion, no loud noise. Only purification and annihilation.

The Fear Demon Ape's twisted, formidable, and filthy demonic body, under the baptism of that majestic moonlight, rapidly became transparent and illusory like residual snow under the sun, eventually turning into countless scattering points of light, completely dissipating into the air. Along with it, its suffocating and terrifying pressure vanished into thin air.

On the battlefield, there was a momentary dead silence. Immediately following it were the terrified wails and rout of the surviving monsters! The death of their leader had disintegrated their final frenzy.

"Kill! Leave none alive!" Lin Tian roared with all his might, his voice hoarse.

More than an hour later, when the last silver-level corrupted beast was stabbed to death by a flurry of spears, the sounds of slaughter inside and outside Lin Tian City finally ceased completely.

They had won. A Pyrrhic victory.

Lin Tian leaned on his sword, resting wearily against a section of broken wall, and looked around.

Smoke and fire were everywhere in the city, with corpses strewn about—some were his soldiers, but most were monsters. The stench of blood and burning flesh permeating the air was thick and unyielding.

A rough estimate caused his heart to bleed. To hold back the Fear Demon Ape and create the opportunity for that arrow for Lin Yin, over a hundred precious Epic-level units (Golden Armored Spearmans, Earth Spirit Guards) had fallen forever.

The casualties among the ordinary soldiers numbered in the tens of thousands.

Lin Feng was severely injured and unconscious, and the Red Sun War God phantom had completely dissipated; there was no chance of recovery for some time.

Lin Yin was unconscious from exhaustion and had been carried away by her personal guards; that one "Full Moon Judgment" had almost drained her dry.

The price was too heavy. But regardless, the beast tide had been survived. Lin Tian City had pulled through.

Just as he was about to catch his breath and think about how to clean up the aftermath,

the report on post-battle casualties was like a dull knife cutting into flesh, stabbing at Lin Tian's heart with every word.

Of the one-hundred-thousand-strong army, after being gnawed at by three waves of the beast tide, only a little over fifty thousand were left standing and breathing.

Of the more than forty thousand who had fallen, most were the "fresh blood" recruited and created through Fusion just today; they had barely donned their armor and picked up their weapons before they were gone.

Lin Tian listened to the figures reported one by one by his subordinates... His face remained expressionless, but his hands behind his back were clenched so tightly that his fingernails were almost digging into his flesh. His heart truly ached.