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Chapter 106.1: Fourth Crisis\'s Battle Tactics

Seeing Wagner take off his helmet, the soldiers followed suit, pushing up their visors and loosening the helmet straps to expose their overheated heads.

Wagner surveyed the soldiers; aside from a few who usually couldn\'t keep up with training that were panting now, the rest still seemed to be in decent shape.

However… Even if the men were fine, the horses weren\'t.

The eighth month\'s sun was scorching, and with the frequent skirmishes without sufficient rest in between, even the sturdy and climate-adaptable lizard horses couldn\'t endure such exertion.

Wagner soothed his somewhat anxious mount by patting it on the neck while, at the same time, making sure to keep tabs on his surroundings.

Less than a hundred meters away, on the road leading to Weisshem, about a hundred undead were scattered around the fields on both sides of the road, glaring at them.

Wagner furrowed his brow. This batch of undead that was blocking the road was more crafty than the previous two. The recent charges of their cavalry hadn\'t produced any significant results.

Not only that, but there were even skeleton mages among these undead that would discreetly cast dark magic while hiding among the undead swathe. Just a moment ago, a soldier\'s horse was hit by a slowing spell and was lagging behind. If Wagner hadn\'t noticed the danger and swiftly turned to do a rescue, the soldier would have been dragged away by the swarming undead.

The attacks of the undead didn\'t pose much threat to even the horses clad in iron armor. It was only the appearance of skeleton mages that truly made Wagner wary.

Did Charlie Rex send these undead to keep us outside Weisshem? Wagner pondered over the peculiar circumstances. Is this illegitimate bastard really aiming to go against the Bartalis family? Or does Weisshem harbor some secrets that they don\'t wish for us to discover?

At this point, Wagner had the intention to call a retreat.

Given the commander\'s cold attitude toward him, it was highly unlikely that Wagner would be assigned an easy task to flaunt his abilities.

Dealing with these easily defeated undead was one thing, but Wagner had no interest in getting himself into more significant trouble.

Wagner eyed the undead remnants, then put on his helmet and gestured to his squad, signaling a withdrawal.

The heavy-armored cavalry squad\'s retreat was observed by the players…

"What the hell, monsters trying to run? Are they trying to leave from being out of combat for too long??"

"Don\'t go~"

"Leave the equipment behind~"

Players in the fields on both sides of the road chasing after the retreating cavalry squad shouted out loud and caused a racket.

Furious, Wagner turned his steed and once more led a charge against the undead.

The players at the forefront were instantly wiped out, and those behind scattered and fled.

"Damn, these monsters even know how to employ trickery!"

"Are you kidding! The level of this monster AI is simply cancer!"

Still, this bunch of undead fled too quickly. Despite several charges from the heavily armored cavalry, not that many skeletons were eliminated. Wagner, panting heavily, glared at the undead scattered everywhere, his face twitching with frustration.

They were delayed in this manner for a bit, and Wagner was astonished to discover that… yet another large group of undead were rushing toward them from the direction of Weisshem…

"Has Weisshem become a nest of the undead?!" Wagner was baffled. The information they received from people coming out hadn\'t mentioned that there were so many undead hiding in their town!

"Retreat!" Without a second thought, Wagner swiftly turned his horse.

The undead that had just scattered everywhere once again started the raucous "YAWAKAKAKA" cries and swarmed up again.

One significant advantage cavalry had over infantry was that four legs outran two. However, this advantage didn\'t seem to affect the players much—their skeleton frames weighed approximately just over 30 kilograms, even lighter than a large hound. As long as they didn\'t trip and fall apart on their own, catching up with four-legged creatures was relatively easy.

Soldiers falling behind were tangling with the undead, forcing Wagner to turn back once again to make a rescue.

While grappling with the undead, the "fourth batch" of undead arrived on the battlefield. The number of undead, which had finally been reduced to double digits, rose back up to triple digits…

Both sides seemed to have no solution against the other. And after a brief entanglement, they once more had a face-off while maintaining a safe distance.

Wagner felt a splitting headache just looking at the vast army of undead that couldn\'t be driven away, whereas, on the players\' end, they felt this was a very poor experience.

"Run for half an hour, battle for 30 seconds. Is this even a game?!"

"The weapon I just bought broke after two swings. I\'m so unlucky!"

"Is there a badass knight that can tank these monsters? We totally can\'t hold them up at all!"

"Tank, my ass! Everyone dies as soon as they go up!"

Amid the players\' complaints and grumbles, a melodious voice broke through the noise, "Qingyue, Qingyue, are you here yet?"

Unceasing Entropy had perished in the previous round of skirmishes and made the painstaking run back to the battlefield. She had only just joined back up with her team when she heard Blossoming Strokes\' voice and promptly responded, "I\'m here!"

Blossoming Strokes, with Give Me Medicine in tow, squeezed over to where Unceasing Entropy\'s team was and greeted familiar faces like Yang Ying and Tang Jia.

"Where\'s Ji Tang? Isn\'t Ji Tang with you guys?"

"No, he isn\'t. Ji Tang had matters to attend to," replied Unceasing Entropy.

"Alright." Blossoming Strokes also wasn\'t too bothered by Ji Tang\'s absence. "Qingyue, any thoughts on this bunch of elite monsters?"

"It\'s all cavalry, and we can\'t just confront them head-on. We have to get these monsters dismounted first if we want to fight them," Unceasing Entropy said. "These elite monsters aren\'t immune to Slowdown. Previously, I attempted slowing down the horses and having our members manually pull the monsters off their mounts… Unfortunately, we weren\'t successful."

"I saw that, too." Blossoming Strokes nodded enthusiastically. "Slowdown can only affect one target at a time. If we slow down only one target, the other elite monsters will come to the target\'s rescue. If we could slow down several simultaneously, those elite monsters wouldn\'t be able to rescue all, right? This way, we might have a chance to reduce the elite monster count."

The monsters in this game were different from those of traditional games; defeated monsters didn\'t respawn as quickly. It was challenging to deal with these elite monsters when they were grouped up, so gradually reducing their numbers was a strategy—this was a common tactic similar to clearing small monsters before tackling a boss in traditional games.

Without the slightest hesitation, Unceasing Entropy extended the hand of friendship.

Having recruited a reliable teammate in Unceasing Entropy, Blossoming Strokes now had five mages on hand (including herself and the healer player in their team that had just recently successfully done the job advancement) and enthusiastically went seeking out Brother Lahong.

Mage apprentices were considered the hardest among the professions available to players. Their job reputation was hard to earn; Lord Yang demanded expensive materials, and the job advancement quest was extremely difficult to clear.

Since the launch of "OtherWorld" one month ago, the number of mage players in the game could be counted with one\'s fingers.

Among these less than ten mages, there was still the reclusive Ou Huang, who never accepted group quests…

In any case, Blossoming Strokes managed to recruit the mages among unaffiliated players that she could persuade (Unceasing Entropy and Win By Grinding). Brother Lahong, who had only two mages on his side, had no reason to refuse. As soon as they met, an elite team was quickly formed.

"After the vanguard engages in battle, we seven mages will mix in the crowd and approach. From left to right, we\'ll each claim a target and simultaneously cast Slowdown. Remember, stagger the casting, and don\'t cast on the same target."

With the elite team assembled, Blossoming Strokes took command and immediately began drawing up the battle plan. "Next, Brother Lahong\'s knight team, try getting close to the monsters affected by Slowdown and seize the opportunity to strike."

"Don\'t worry!" Brother Lahong patted his chest confidently.

Due to Brother Lahong\'s early investment in the undead horse, their side had the most knight players with the best equipment—their knights could take turns leading the undead horse into Poisonous Marshlands to lure monsters, specifically targeting those who dropped abundant materials. In terms of both profit and efficiency, they were unparalleled compared to other monster-hunting teams. The responsibility of leading the knight team undoubtedly fell to Brother Lahong.

"Lastly, Sis Ying\'s warrior team." Blossoming Strokes glanced at Yang Ying. "The elite monster\'s commander is entrusted to you guys. Any questions?"

Players had used Identify on Wagner Pitt, and the information displayed in red above his head read "City Defense Force officer"…

Yang Ying didn\'t dare make claims that were too bold. "We\'ll do our best. That monster is fierce and has crazy good AI. I can\'t guarantee how long we can hold him back."

"Just buying some time for Brother Lahong\'s knight team is good enough. If they can pull away a few, the pressure on us in the next round would be significantly reduced," said Blossoming Strokes. "If nobody has any questions, let\'s get ready."

Having experienced the "torture" of the Inner Demon dungeon instance, being wiped out three times in succession was nothing but a trivial matter for players. There were no death penalties, no forced offline contemplation, and the monsters weren\'t unpleasant looking. Furthermore, their attack methods weren\'t surprising, and this event didn\'t seem like it had the possibility of causing psychological trauma.

Not only was there a lack of psychological trauma, but players also used their own experiences or witnessed the demise of their comrades to understand the "attack patterns" of these elite monsters. The heavily armored cavalry had the highest burst damage when charging in a group and, although powerful, could only run in a straight line.

As long as players avoided the frontal trampling of the hooves and evaded skillfully, they wouldn\'t be easily taken down.