168: New Wizarding Military Fortress

These Abyss Corrupted Spirits caused considerable trouble for the army.

Druids, Holy Knights, and Priests stepped forward to provide support—

The Druids' "Dispel Magic" spell could directly send several Earth Wolf Spirits back to the Abyss.

The Priests used "Turn Evil," and even deployed the seven-ring divine spell scroll "Holy Word," which High Lord Ryan Black had purchased at a high price, along with Holy Knight Randel using "Holy Smite" beside them, to finally manage to eliminate this batch of Earth Wolf Spirits from the Abyss.

The Young Duke woke up the next morning and only understood the specific situation after receiving Randall's battle report from the previous night.

The army's southward march was even slower that day.

The further south they went, the more Gnolls appeared, and the more Gnoll spellcasters emerged.

The army inevitably suffered more casualties.

Today, a total of thirty-four people were injured, two were resurrected after death, and seven whose bodies were corrupted could not be resurrected.

All the injured were healed, and the seven deceased were cremated after being absolved.

That night, High Lord Ryan Black conveyed the relevant intelligence to the other commanders of the Allied Forces through the Dragon King.

At this time, Lai'en had led his team to the foot of Cloud Mist Peak, and across the east-west trade route, more Gnolls were continuously descending from the mountain.

In the mist, Lai'en ordered the construction of a Wizard Shack.

He drew simple magic runes inside it, and after enduring three hours of Gnoll attacks, the system successfully assimilated the Wizard Shack.

Subsequently, he retreated dozens of meters with his men and the mist, exposing the Wizard Shack to the Gnolls.

Not long after, a Gnoll Warlock cast "Corrosion Field" at the Wizard Shack.

The land surrounding the Wizard Shack was instantly corroded, but inside the Wizard Shack, it remained completely intact!

This was the result Lai'en wanted.

Subsequently, Lai'en led everyone in a counterattack, reclaiming the land where the Wizard Shack was located.

The Druids and Forest Nymphs cast purification spells, and the Dragon King then sprayed a large amount of holy water, obtained from the Priest Lord Kedas tonight, onto the corrupted land.

This land would most likely recover completely many years later.

In the mist, the Young Duke had the Druids and Forest Nymphs cast natural spells, generating a circular hedge wall with a radius of 120 feet using vines and thorns.

The Wizard Shack was enclosed within it, and then vines were used to connect the shack to the wall.

Lai'en then began to draw many more magic runes inside the shack and on the inner surface of the wall.

Due to the uneven surface, the Young Duke could only draw simpler runes.

The Druids, however, provided a natural magic defense ritual, making the entire wall stronger and capable of counter-attacking.

More than two hours later, this "large outpost," a new type of "Wizard Military Fortress" combining wizardry and natural magic, was completely assimilated by the system.

Lai'en opened a row of one-way holes along the top of the wall, on the force field ceiling, allowing abilities to pass only outwards.

Arrows and magic could both pass through these openings.

Then, the Young Duke had most of the first and second groups begin to rest, while the third group began to harvest the Gnolls who had entered the white mist maze.

The boy even handed over the management of the mist to the Dragon King.

As long as the outer mist defense layer was contaminated by disease clouds, the Dragon King would immediately cut off the contaminated mist.

It would separate them from the overall mist and then replenish them with new mist.

Even the outer mist constantly adjusted its form, and the internal dense mist maze also continuously changed.

Entrapping and killing more Gnolls.

It did even better than Lai'en, its master.

As for the attack methods of the other types of Gnoll spellcasters, Lai'en had specifically resolved them.

After a peaceful night, when Lai'en received Randall's battle report in the morning, nearly a thousand Gnolls had been killed last night, including over a dozen Gnoll spellcasters.

Only two of their own Siren had suffered minor injuries due to being overzealous, and they had already been healed.

Now, nearly 2000 Gnolls surrounded the mist, but none dared to enter it again.

Lai'en retrieved the soaked Pearl Dragon Scale Armor from the seawater grid in his system space, put it back on, came out of the shack, assembled the first group members, and had the archer cavalry replace the third group to rest.

He himself rode with Randall and a few others outside the wall, running a circle along the edge of the mist.

They saw four or five dense circles of Gnolls surrounding them, just an arrow's shot away.

And more Gnolls were descending from the southern mountain.

"After dawn, twice as many Gnolls come down from the mountain as at night," the Holy Knight said beside him, "Based on our estimate of the number of Gnolls we encountered yesterday, in a few hours, the flow of people descending the mountain will double again."

"Excellent, that's what we want, for them to be dense, the denser the better," the Young Duke said, "Have the subgroups of the first group take turns resting, and fire in small areas in different directions every five minutes. Prepare for a full-scale offensive in three hours."

"Yes, Grand Duke," Randall responded.

After completing the circuit, Lai'en also finished communicating with the Dragon King in his mind.

Last night, the Dragon King experimented with various ways to deal with Gnolls using the mist;

How to lure in more Gnolls;

How to adjust the maze and containment circles;

How to coordinate with the archers;

How to kill faster;

How to separate contaminated mist more quickly;

How to predict the enemy spellcasters;

Which peripheral mist changes had become ineffective against Gnolls;

...

Lai'en had quickly mastered all this information.

Now, when he manipulated the mist, he indeed felt more at ease and unpredictable.

Returning inside the wall, Lai'en and Randall arranged the shift schedule for several subgroups, explained the combat method for luring the enemy, and then went to attend to other matters.

Lai'en inspected the entire camp; except for the third group members who had just gone to sleep, all members of the second and first groups were in good spirits, indicating everyone had rested well last night.

The Young Duke had Druid Vivofenson send out his animal companion—a falcon—to check on the progress of the main army.

He sent the forest allies of the first and second groups to set traps at the edge of the mist.

After everything was set up, Lai'en led all members of the first and second groups outside the wall.

At this time, nearly 5,000 dense Gnolls had already surrounded the area outside the mist.

Before this, Lai'en had gradually reduced the mist's range, luring the Gnolls closer.

The Gnolls, who had already witnessed the terror of the mist last night, were initially hesitant to approach, but they couldn't resist the "brave" Gnoll groups that arrived after dawn, stirring and gradually approaching the mist's edge.

When the total number of the group was about to reach 5,000, the massive army further boosted their confidence, and they couldn't hold back from charging into the constantly shrinking white mist.

In their view, the shrinking white mist represented that this "monster" was weakening.

The howls of the Gnolls rose and fell.

Constantly, warlike and bloodthirsty Gnolls incited their companions to charge forward together.

If not for the high-level spellcasters among them suppressing them, they would probably have already charged over.

Lai'en, with about 200 people, had already formed their ranks in the mist.

At this moment, he saw a large group of Gnolls on the southern slope, surrounding three clearly spellcasting Gnolls, walking down towards the foot of the mountain.

A great battle was imminent.