Chapter 48: Crumbling Defeat

As professional soldiers, the Black-Armored Soldiers knew all too well what the appearance of a high-level Knight meant on such a battlefield—it meant a mobile human-shaped healing artifact had emerged in the enemy’s ranks. As long as that Knight continued to radiate the 【Life Song】aura, the soldiers on the opposing side would never suffer from exhaustion or fatigue, especially on such a narrow stone bridge terrain. With a high-level Knight appearing among such brutal, beast-like enemies, the consequences were obvious even to the dullest Black-Armored Soldier—it would be a one-sided slaughter!

At that moment, many Black-Armored Soldiers who had tried to muster courage and rely on numbers to turn the tide suddenly felt their legs go weak. The courage they had just gathered melted away like thin snow under the scorching sun, quickly evaporating into mist and vanishing into the air. They couldn’t help but start thinking about retreating again.

However, Sun Fei did not give these guys any time to flee.

Roar, roar, roar—!

He stomped his feet repeatedly, and a miracle occurred once more.

A green aura blossomed from within Sun Fei’s body, covering an area of about ten meters, enveloping all the armored tough guys behind him. Instantly, Pierce and Drogba felt as if their strength had doubled. With each swing of their weapons, the enemies became extremely fragile, like delicate porcelain—they would collapse upon impact, their resistance plummeting abruptly. They were simply no match anymore.

The Paladin skill 【Might】 had made its appearance in the world.

“Oh no, damn it, that’s the 【Double Strike】 Battle Aura Ring…”

“Heavens, it’s a dual Battle Aura Ring… That guy has mastered a second Battle Aura Ring, a dual Battle Aura Ring… How terrifying!”

“Retreat quickly… We can’t hold them off… Archers! Damn it, where are the archers? Hurry up and shoot them down…”

The Black-Armored Soldiers’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Witnessing this scene, they completely fell apart.

The situation on the stone bridge quickly descended into greater chaos.

If the earlier golden aura had merely shaken the Black-Armored Soldiers’ resolve to resist, then the green aura bursting forth from Sun Fei’s body shattered them completely. They lost every last ounce of courage to fight back.

On the Azeroth Continent, the Knight class held extraordinary deterrence due to the presence of the massive Holy Church. Many professional Knight orders occupied significant positions within the complex web of forces on the continent. Not only could Knights form legions to overwhelm opponents in coordinated assaults, but their individual combat prowess was also formidable. With powerful recovery abilities and a variety of mysterious auxiliary Battle Aura Ring skills that combined healing, damage, curses, and other miraculous effects, they could effortlessly become the central figures in any conflict—nightmares for any type of military unit.

Thus, the moment Sun Fei unleashed his Paladin skills, the entire Tower Shield and Dragon Spear Formation abandoned all resistance and began an uncontrollable rout.

The Paladins of the World of Diablo shared many similarities with the Knights of the Azeroth Continent. Some of the Paladins’ special skills, both in effect and execution, closely resembled the Knight skills known as 【Battle Aura Ring】 on the Azeroth Continent. This directly led the Black-Armored Soldiers to mistake one for the other. Instinctively believing Sun Fei to be a Knight who had mastered the Knight’s Battle Aura Ring skills, they crumbled instantly.

The formidable deterrence of the ‘Knight,’ combined with the loss of their highest-ranking commander, Black Knights【II】, whom Sun Fei had kicked to death—leaving them leaderless—sent the Black-Armored Soldiers fleeing like mice spotting a cat. They dissolved into chaotic disarray: some leaped off the high bridge in panic, others ran in terrified confusion toward Shampoo City, only to be turned into pincushions by arrows raining down from the walls…

More soldiers turned and scrambled backward. The disorder was unstoppable; even another formation protecting the Siege Ladders was thrown into confusion by their own retreating comrades.

“A perfect opportunity—strike while they’re down! Charge!”

Seeing the Black-Armored Soldiers crumble and flee desperately after he unleashed the Paladin skills 【Prayer】 and 【Might】, Sun Fei didn’t understand the reason, but he recognized a golden chance for a charge. With a loud shout, he led the helmeted tough guys, sweeping along with the routed soldiers as they hacked their way forward. In no time, they smashed through the Tower Shield and Dragon Spear Formation.

Soon, this defense formation, reputed to withstand heavy Knight charges, lasted barely two minutes under the frenzied, desperate assault of Sun Fei and his strongmen. It disintegrated into heaps of severed limbs and shattered metal fragments from weapons.

The narrow stone bridge had transformed into a bloody road of death.

“Pierce, Drogba, quickly push the Siege Ladders into the river…”

Amid the bloody rain, Sun Fei fought his way forward, carving a path through the enemy. He finally reached the Siege Ladder formation; they had advanced over sixty meters along the stone bridge. Sun Fei single-handedly held back the enemy surging forward like a black tide, allowing Pierce and Drogba to swiftly organize their men and destroy the Siege Ladders.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The two tough guys, built like giants, responded promptly. They swung their weapons like windmills, smashing several Black-Armored Soldiers in front of them into the air. Then, like enraged lions with blazing eyes, they charged fiercely toward the several Siege Ladders…

Boom, boom—!

The Black-Armored Soldiers desperately guarding the Siege Ladders struggled helplessly and were soon cleared out. Two massive Siege Ladders were swiftly toppled off the bridge by the strongmen, creating huge columns of water in the river below. The spray shot skyward, as if a Magical Beast were churning the waters—a truly awe-inspiring sight.

The strongmen’s morale soared. Having overturned two Siege Ladders, they pressed on with relentless momentum, like a pack of hungry wolves roaring as they charged toward the remaining four. Destroying all the Siege Ladders would mean they were halfway to completing their desperate mission.

Just then—

Moo, moo, moo!!!

From the southern bank of the Zuli River, loud military horns suddenly sounded.

A series of orders, conveyed through horn calls of varying lengths and melodies, clearly reached the Black-Armored Soldiers engaged in bloody combat on the bridge. However, the soldiers looked at each other in confusion, unable to carry out the commands. This sequence of orders was directed at the Tower Shield and Dragon Spear Formation, but by then, the formation—once hailed as the Black Armored Army’s top defense—had been completely annihilated under the frenzied charge of those gods of slaughter.

No one could have imagined that a mere twenty men could obliterate an entire hundred well-trained Tower Shield and Dragon Spear soldiers. Though the transmission of orders took only about two minutes, it was now utterly meaningless.

Too late!

In just two minutes, a powerful defense formation had been swiftly destroyed.

In stark contrast, the twenty-three enemies had suffered no casualties at all. On the narrow stone bridge, they continued their tireless, frenzied slaughter, advancing at an unstoppable pace.

The narrow stone bridge had become a death corridor connecting to Hell. With the God of Death summoning and cold steel flashing, the Black-Armored Soldiers had no means of resistance. Step by step, amid wails and screams, they marched toward the end of their lives.

Soon, the remaining four Siege Ladders were also toppled off the stone bridge by the strongmen, falling into the river hundreds of meters below. They were swallowed by the rolling waves, vanishing completely, utterly destroyed.

“Kill—!”

Twenty-three furious roars merged into a soaring aura of menace. The strongmen, their homeland cruelly ravaged, burned with fervor. Led by their King, they pressed forward fearlessly. These twenty-three gods of slaughter seemed to have clawed their way up from the bloody depths of Hell, dripping blood from every part of their bodies—a sight that struck terror into hearts.

The twenty-three men swiftly advanced another four to five hundred meters along the two-thousand-meter stone bridge.

Having destroyed the Siege Ladders, ahead lay the Giant Stone Catapult formation.

However, the farther they advanced, the narrower the stone bridge became. Gradually, the bridge’s width reduced to less than three meters. At the very center of the stone bridge, there was a section about a meter long where the width was even less than one and a half meters. This was the most perilous part of the entire stone bridge. Roaring torrents surged below, and for some reason, massive whirlpools formed on the water’s surface, generating a powerful, strange suction from time to time. An ordinary person walking there, if even slightly inattentive, would be sucked into the river’s heart, dragged away and devoured by the furious waves, leaving no trace behind.

The battle raged on intensely.

Sun Fei led his soldiers, step by step, advancing forward, gradually drawing closer to those six Giant Stone Catapults…

In the distance, joyous cheers erupted from the walls of Shampoo City.

Soldiers of the Royal Guard and civilians who had joined the battle temporarily cheered wildly, using all their strength to send their voices across the blood-soaked stone bridge battlefield.

Before anyone realized, even some elderly, weak, women, and children who had been hiding fearfully inside the city had climbed onto the city walls. Holding various makeshift defensive tools, they watched their King and their loved ones cutting through the enemy ranks like a tide. That scene was seared into their souls; perhaps even at life’s end, many would never forget it.

The beautiful Angela and the blonde little Lori Gemma even covered their eyes, peeking through their fingers at the battle on the stone bridge—much like girls in a past life nervously watching a horror movie in a Black Room. At perilous moments, they couldn’t help but gasp and scream. Then, seeing Sun Fei’s incredible valor repeatedly turning danger into safety, the two would hug each other, jumping and cheering.

Lampard, Shampoo City’s top expert, stood as straight as a spear on the city wall.

Though he remained outwardly calm, inwardly, he was swept by uncontrollable waves of astonishment. From Alexander descending the city, the battle commencing, to shattering the Tower Shield and Dragon Spear Formation—as a Three-Star Warrior, Lampard gleaned far more information than others. Clearly, Alexander possessed at least three strange and powerful forces: terrifying physical strength, a silver icy power, and a noble, majestic force akin to that of a Knight. This further confirmed the conjecture Lampard had previously found hard to believe—the person who had successively displayed four different types of power in the Watchtower stone room was none other than the young King Alexander.

“What exactly happened to Alexander, that not only did he become normal overnight, but his personal strength advanced by leaps and bounds? Could it truly be that the God of War favors him…”

Lampard was utterly perplexed.

Yet, deep down, he hoped this Alexander could maintain such miracles. Suddenly, he felt a surge of complex emotions. Raising his head, he gazed at the clear, azure sky, as if seeing a familiar face once more. A wave of comfort washed over him: Old friend, up in the heavens, you must have witnessed your son’s magnificent display of power? Perhaps one day, he might truly grow strong enough to help us find the missing Helen.