Chapter 996： Directional ignition

On the front line of Winter Wolf Castle, the flames of war have been ignited on this land and are still burning.

On the east side of the defense line, the narrow river valley area just ended a fierce battle. A Typhon Transcendent Legion attempted to attack the Cecil’s supply line in a concealed way from the valley, but during the march, it alarmed a temporary stationed nearby. Mobile Corps-fierce fighting broke out in the encounter between the two sides. An army of transcendents and ordinary people armed with steel machines ignited the entire area. Three hours later, the remnants of Typhon retreated, and Cecil suffered certain battle damage. The Corps rested on the commanding heights of the river valley and kept on guard until the rear reinforcements arrived.

A young officer with a bronze skin came to this battlefield where gunpowder smoke was still in the air. The cold north wind roared across the river valley, and the wind engulfed the pungent smell of scorching the earth and carbonized flesh and blood. All this made the young man trusted by Maryland couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly.

He looked up in the direction of the end of the ramp and saw three destroyed tanks lying in the explosion pit, thick smoke billowing under the twisted armor plate, and farther away you can see. Soldiers at the event-soldiers are cleaning the battlefield, putting their bodies in body bags.

When the Typhons retreated, they were not able to take all the corpses away—these dangerous remains are best taken back and burned completely, leaving them here, not knowing what troubles might happen.

A company commander wearing a second-generation mana armor and a blue heraldic ribbon on one shoulder came to the high ground. He gave a military salute to the young officer with bronze skin: "Sir Payne, the corpse is closed The work is over."

"Well," the young officer named Payne nodded, then frowned slightly, his eyes fell on the destroyed tanks, "...The Typhons are gradually mastering the skirmishes against the tanks. The way...you don’t have to rely on Legion-level spells, their Transcendent troops can also fight our tanks."

"It seems to be the case-their tactics have improved rapidly, and they have been learning from us," the company commander nodded and said, "now they no longer use melee units to attack tanks head-on, but rely on various extraordinary The units cooperate with each other in squad operations-when conditions permit, they will use various magic traps, and when conditions do not permit, they will use powerful knights to form teams of five to ten people to resist one. In the two shelling attacks, the wizard quickly cast spells with the help of cover, trapping the chariot with quagmire or rock spells, and at the same time using counter-type spells such as arcane impact to try to destroy the magic circulation in the vehicle, and the stalker performed close-range blasting , Or rely on multiple wizards to cooperate with the attack...

"At present, these tactics of Typhons often require large casualties, and they can only deal with small stocks of tanks and multifunctional tanks, but it is a fact that their tactics are constantly improving-and they are still doing Some powerful'new gadgets' have come out, such as explosives used by stalkers, they are very threatening."

"...Is it so difficult for a mixed force formed by the extraordinary..." Payne couldn't help frowning, "It is clear that they were unable to do anything against our steel chariot in the encounter not long ago..."

"Before the war with Typhon, we had never seen such an opponent that could use the extraordinary as ordinary soldiers," the company commander said straightforwardly, "not even mentioned in the historical archives of Changfeng Fortress. This kind of mixed forces and tactical changes-this should have been developed by Typhon in recent years."

"We haven't seen the'Extraordinary Army', so we were caught off guard," Payne couldn't help but sighed. "And Typhon had never seen the'Ordinary Army' using steel machines, and they were also caught off guard... this is a game. An eye-opening war for both sides."

His gaze swept across the battlefield, and Typhon's black flag fell on the cold ground, stained with mud and ashes, and the red lines on its surface were particularly eye-catching.

Typhon ushered in this war when he was weakest, which made him feel sincerely grateful-this idea may not be "chivalry" enough, but Payne knew that the era of chivalry had passed.

After a few moments of thinking, he retracted his gaze and looked at the company commander beside him: "Have the corpses undergo a preliminary inspection? What is the result?"

"Yes, the inspection has been carried out, and the results are basically in line with General Philip's prediction," the company commander said immediately. "Several enemy commanders have signs of physical mutation and can be identified as'fully infected.' The body of the knight and some of the auxiliary soldiers also showed greater resilience and resilience than ordinary people, and could be identified as a'spiritual alienator'. All the enemies mentioned above retain their sense. As for the entourage mages... they don't seem to be contaminated by the spirit of the God of War. "

"...So, among these Typhon troops sent to attack the Winter Wolf line, the proportion of mentally contaminated personnel is increasing, especially the officer class..." Payne nodded slowly and said in a deep voice, " When the Winter Wolf line of defense just fell into our hands, only about half of the officers who came to counterattack were spiritually contaminated..."

"Isn't this normal?" The company commander was a little confused. "This shows that pollution is spreading in Typhon's army. More and more soldiers and officers are affected by the madness-their infection is on the verge of getting out of control."

"No," Payne shook his head, with a serious look on his face, "You made a mistake-although we call this a'mental plague', its pollution speed and range are actually It was limited from the beginning, and it is now unlikely that such a rapid infection will occur.

"This'spiritual plague' uses the belief in the God of War as the basic medium. According to the analysis of the above scholars, only when the belief in the God of War reaches a certain level of piety can humans be infected by it-so if you are not a devout believer of the God of War , Then you will not be infected anyway, and if you believe in God of War, then you will have been affected as early as the first few days of the outbreak of this plague."

The company commander listened to his leader’s explanation, and finally reacted slowly: "In other words, the number of'infected' in Typhon’s army should have entered a stable state a few days ago. In theory, this should not happen. An abnormal increase... But what happened to those infected suddenly?"

"...I don't know," Payne shook his head, staring into the distance, "but we should figure it out soon."

...

To the east of Winter Wolf Castle, in the snow forest near an unnamed mine, several hazy figures are swiftly passing between the forest and the snow.

Those figures are as agile as beasts in the forest, and their bodies are covered by a kind of constantly changing magical halo. Under the action of the magical effect, their figures are almost completely integrated with the surrounding environment. Only by watching attentively can they be aware of one of them. The flashing outline—they quickly crossed the border of the snow forest, bypassing the trails that even hunters rarely touch, and finally stopped at a secret hiding spot deep in the forest.

A giant tree that has been dead for an unknown period of time fell here. The huge tree trunk formed a wooden wall covering the wind and snow after weathering and decay. Several other soldiers wearing white light armor and white blouses stood guard here. When the team that was going to investigate the situation returned, these fighters first instinctively increased their vigilance, but soon they confirmed the identity of the incoming person through the identification stamp they carried with them, and relaxed a little.

"Safe, you can turn off the Quguang Force Field."

A low voice seemed to sound out of thin air, and then those figures who returned from outside the snow forest lifted their camouflage one by one, revealing the same attire as the remaining soldiers in the hiding place.

This is a team of steel rangers who have penetrated into Typhon territory-in this snow-covered land season, they put on equipment that is convenient for maneuvering in snowy areas, and they all carry a curved light force field that can hide their body. generator.

They have been active in this area for two days, and at the same time, there are several teams active in several other areas nearby.

"Where is Chief Solderlin?" The team leader who returned from outside Xuelin glanced at this clear hiding place and asked curiously. As soon as his voice fell, a magnetic voice almost disappeared from his eyelids. The message came from the bottom: "I am here."

The blonde Solderlin stood up from a stake next to him-the soldiers didn't even realize his existence before he made a sound and moved!

The silver elf's high-level ranger does not even need to use any extraordinary skills to be "invisible" in front of ordinary people. This incredible ability makes the team leader a little in awe. Then he hurriedly paid a military salute to Thorderlin. Said: "Sir, we have returned from Songlin Town, and the action is fairly smooth."

"Tell me about your findings," Soldering said-his elegant temperament always seemed to contain a trace of melancholy. "The other teams have not replied yet. You are the first to complete the investigation."

"Yes, sir," the team leader nodded immediately. "The informant's intelligence is accurate. We saw that several buildings in Tifeng Barracks near Songlin Town had their coats of arms on the outer walls replaced. Judging from the structure , That should be the resting place for the noble officers and knights. In addition, we have seen several large-scale personnel entering and exiting. There was an army assembly at a junction in the southeast. Judging from the flag and coat of arms, it should be from A certain National Knights Order in the Central Region..."

Listening to the organized report from the team leader, Solderlin nodded slowly: "Very well, you have seen something very important."

"It's a pity that we can't go further to the southeast," the team leader shook his head regretfully, "The magic sentry over there is too tight, and there are so many eyes of wizards everywhere—the magicians do not need money, even the entrance of the village. There are wizards on guard, and our light force field may fail over there."

"...It's not that the magician doesn't want money, but Typhon has always been very rich," Soldering curled his lips and couldn't help commenting in a sentence that Gawain once said, "This is how the money can be."

As he spoke, the handsome blond elf seemed to have a more melancholic temperament between his eyebrows, but soon he shook his head: "The next time I communicate, I will compare the information you found with the information I collected last time. And send it to the back. During this time everyone will take a break-after that we will move again."

After the confession, the high-ranking ranger turned around and left the hiding place, and swiftly came to a large tree nearby. He concealed his figure by the leaves that did not fall in the winter, and was half alert and half resting among the branches. Sat down.

"Is the sir in a bad mood today?" The team leader couldn't help but glanced over there, and said to his comrades beside him, "I feel like he is frowning."

"He's been like this lately, it's okay," a Steel Ranger warrior said casually, "Well, the elves are said to be very emotional. Maybe you see the snow scenes, dead trees, barren mountains, and so on, and you will feel emotional... "

The team leader thought for a while and nodded in agreement: "Oh, it makes sense..."

The soldiers suppressed the conversation sound very low, but these voices still couldn't hide the keen ears of the elves.

The ears of Solderlin sitting on the tree branch trembled, but he did not pay attention to the boring chats of his subordinates. He only adjusted his posture slightly, which hardly caused any tremor of the tree branch, and then raised his head with a touch of melancholy. Looking obliquely at the clear blue sky in winter.

After a long time, he sighed softly: "...Why don't they have hair?

"What's changed... can it still count..."

...

"This is the latest intelligence from the front line." In the study of the Cecil Palace, Heidi put a sorted document in front of Gawain. "The Winter Wolf Fort defense line has stabilized, although the Typhons counterattacked once. It was more fierce than the first time, but we added our troops in time, and the Zero and Earthly Python arrived in the shadow swamp in time, and the soldiers finally stopped there."

Gawain took the document handed by Heidi, and while listening to the other party’s report, he swept his eyes quickly across the paper. Soon, his gaze slowed down, and he said to himself after Heidi’s voice fell. Saying to himself: "Sure enough... the proportion of'polluters' in Typhon's army has increased..."

"Theoretically speaking, the spiritual pollution spread by the chain of faith cannot have such a'surge'-unbelievers will not be polluted, and the devout will be heavily polluted at the beginning. Between these two groups of people, the spiritual pollution of the gods There is no "human-to-human transmission" phenomenon," said Heidi, "so... the situation really makes you right."

"Yes, I got it right," Gawain said with a smile, with a complex and subtle expression. "Look here, these signs of transfer, these complex, subtle and rapid reorganizations..."

He sighed, not knowing whether he was crying or laughing.

"These'new' infected persons were gathered and dispatched from the rear. Rosetta Augustus is launching his huge ruling machine and war machine, and in a series of personnel adjustments, the soldiers who are affected by the **** of war are constantly being adjusted. Sent to the front of Winter Wolf Hold-he is using our power to purify this pollution, maybe... is still using this to eliminate his political enemies."

Listening to Gawain's words, Heidi's expression also became weird.