Chương 198: 198：Piercing the Shadow Canopy

Hovering right where Zagar's face should have been, two orbs of ghostly blue soul-fire flickered. Through the dense mist, they locked onto the dancing torchlight atop the fortress walls in the distance. A raspy, grating laugh escaped the darkness of his cowl.

"Heh heh heh... Those greedy, bloated provincial bureaucrats must have already prepared the finest wines inside, waiting to welcome this Priest." Zagar was supremely confident in his shadow infiltration tactics. Warchief Blackstone's massive feint, mobilizing tens of thousands of troops, had flawlessly anchored the entirety of the human army's attention. In the eyes of humans, Orcs only knew how to push forward in massive, frontal meat-grinders.

They would never suspect that a micro-squad of a mere nine units was currently slipping silently into their absolute core heartland. Zagar could almost envision it: the moment he returned holding Grand Duke Valentine's white-bearded head, that usually haughty, untouchable nephew of the Governor-General would be groveling in the dirt, worshiping him as a god. The distance steadily closed. Zagar paused before the slightly ajar main gates of the fortress.

The raw-iron and solid wood surface bore a massive, charred breach, clearly blasted open by intense fire. Yet, Zagar wasn't the least bit suspicious. In the Misty Swamp, it wasn't uncommon for mutated, fire-breathing Demon Crocs to go berserk and ram into fortress walls. It was a mundane occurrence. Furthermore, atop the walls directly above the gate, a sentry draped in a heavy Orc pelt was leaning heavily against his spear, his head bobbing as he dozed off.

Such a pathetic display of laziness was the absolute, authentic hallmark of low-tier Half-Orc slave labor.

"Fools. They don't even know how to guard a gate. No wonder they're meant to be slaves for life." Zagar scoffed coldly. His incorporeal, shadowy form slipped seamlessly through the charred breach. Utilizing his dark mana, he commanded the eight towering [Sons of Titan] to methodically push the gates open and step into the courtyard of Bloodhorn Fortress. As the heel of the final [Son of Titan] crossed the threshold, the smug complacency in Zagar's mind was violently pierced by an overwhelming, primal alarm.

Something is wrong. It's too quiet! A fortress preparing to welcome an ultra-high-ranking inspection delegation—even in the dead of night—should have been echoing with raucous drinking and the restless snorting of Kodo Beasts. It shouldn't be so dead silent that he could only hear the falling rain. But the most critical anomaly was the scent drifting through the air. It wasn't the foul, unwashed stench of an Orc garrison. It was an overwhelmingly dense, metallic tang of rust... the undeniable scent of fresh blood!

"It's an ambu—" The exact microsecond Zagar's shadowy form violently vibrated, just as the shrill, bloodcurdling shriek rushed up his throat!

"FIRE!" A thunderous roar abruptly shattered the dark canopy of the courtyard! Bloodhorn Fortress instantly snapped into full-scale assault mode. Concealed within the two-story buildings flanking the courtyard and positioned atop the two colossal watchtowers, seventy Frontline Elites struck in perfect unison. THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! A dense, mechanical symphony of snapping bowstrings bled into a single, continuous roar. Seventy heavy repeating crossbows had their triggers squeezed in the exact same second.

At this point-blank range, the triangular armor-piercing bodkins unleashed terrifying kinetic energy. They formed a three-dimensional, intersecting net of crossfire, pouring relentlessly down upon the massive, broad torsos of the eight [Sons of Titan]! CLANG! CLANG! CRACK! Amidst the deafening roar of the volley, crossbow bolts slammed repeatedly into the hardened rock-shields enveloping the beasts' bodies, kicking up blinding showers of sparks and pulverized stone.

If one bolt failed to penetrate, a second and a third struck the exact same micro-fracture! Simultaneously, from the peak of the left watchtower, the heavy anti-siege ballista—which typically required two massive Orcs to operate—released its apocalyptic payload. The arm-thick ballista bolt tore through the air, generating a visible shockwave of white vapor! KABOOM! The bolt struck the leading [Son of Titan] dead-center in the chest!

The monstrously resilient rock-shield finally buckled under the devastating kinetic force of a true siege weapon, violently shattering to reveal a massive, jagged breach! The behemoth let out a deafening, agonized roar, its colossal frame physically nailed two steps backward by the sheer stopping power. But this was merely the tip of Soren's tactical iceberg.

"Elemental Symphony! Fury of the Explosive Flame!" Standing on the second-floor balcony of the main keep, Chief Mage Victor hoisted his staff high. He over-drew his Silver-tier mana reservoir, pushing his casting to the absolute limit. A hyper-compressed, dark red fireball—even more massive than the one used to blast open the fortress gates—materialized in the air. Radiating blinding light and flesh-roasting heat, it plummeted with pinpoint accuracy directly into the center of the Titans' formation! BOOM!

A catastrophic explosion detonated in the enclosed courtyard. Violent, magical hellfire swallowed the hill-like bodies of the beasts. The relentless physical bombardment had fundamentally compromised the structural integrity of the rock-shields. Now, the superheated magical detonation weaponized the principle of thermal expansion and contraction, utterly obliterating their apex defenses!

Accompanied by the continuous, sickening sound of cracking stone, the eight previously invincible monstrosities saw the yellowish-white shields encasing their bodies severely fracture and slough off in massive chunks, exposing the incredibly tough—yet no longer indestructible—corded muscles beneath. Caught on the very edge of the blast radius, the Shadow Priest Zagar was violently tossed by the shockwave. The concussive force nearly blew his incorporeal shadow-form apart in mid-air.

He barely managed to stabilize himself. The two orbs of ghostly blue soul-fire in his cowl danced frantically as he stared upward in sheer shock. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Illuminated by the raging fires below, a tall, imposing human commander stood proudly on the main balcony. Gripping a cyan, runic longbow, he gazed down at Zagar with the cold, absolute authority of an apex predator. That face...

Zagar would not mistake it if he lived a thousand years! Back at the Sunken Bone Shallows... this was the human who had leveraged the terrain to slaughter two of his [Sons of Titan], the very man whose arrow had personally annihilated Zagar's physical flesh!

"It's YOU! Soren!" Zagar unleashed a shrill, sky-tearing screech of pure hatred. In this territory, which belonged absolutely to the Orcs—within a stronghold specifically designated to host the highest-ranking officials—this human had somehow conquered it without making a single sound! And he, a grand and terrifying Shadow Priest, had walked completely unawares through the front door, stepping directly into a fatal trap laid out exclusively for him! A tidal wave of rage and humiliation threatened to drown Zagar.

But as a century-old monster who had survived countless slaughters, his battlefield adaptability was terrifying.

"Don't think the same parlor trick will work on this Priest twice! Today, I will personally strip the soul from your flesh!" Within the electrifying, split-second window of the initial crossfire, Zagar forcibly wrenched himself from his panicked stupor and rapidly adjusted his deployment. His incorporeal form violently spread its arms, spitting out an obscure, ancient Orcish incantation.

"Shadow Canopy! Veil our forms!" In an instant, a torrent of pitch-black mist erupted from beneath him, rapidly expanding to cover the entire courtyard in absolute, suffocating darkness. This advanced shadow magic didn't just devour all ambient light; it was dense enough to physically deflect projectiles entering its perimeter! It was a high-tier iteration of the classic Fog of War! The microsecond visual contact was broken, Zagar barked out a vicious, incredibly cunning tactical mandate.

"Number One! Number Two! Form a defensive stance in the center! Use your flesh to absorb the crossbow bolts and magic!"

"The remaining six, split into two teams! Hug the shadows along the left and right corridors! Scale the architecture and tear those human archers to bloody pieces, one by one!" Zagar's concept was a textbook, flawless anti-ambush deployment. He intended to use his toughest meat-shields to soak the frontal firepower, while utilizing the magical darkness to maneuver his main assault force through the blind spots on the flanks, executing a lethal pincer movement.

Once those four-meter-tall, close-quarters monstrosities breached the second-floor firing lines, the seventy ranged crossbowmen would be butchered in seconds! However, surveying the entire battlefield from the second floor, Soren merely offered a mocking sneer.

"Too cliché, Zagar." In the face of [Eagle Eye Perception]—a supreme talent that pierced through all illusions—Zagar's proud, impenetrable shadow magic was rendered entirely translucent! The six Titans attempting to use the shadows to creep toward the left and right stairwells were exposed with crystal clarity in Soren's vision. Soren knew the terrain perfectly. The inner courtyard only had three avenues of approach: the main center, the left corridor, and the right corridor.

As long as he locked down the flanks, the two Titans acting as meat-shields in the center would be nothing but target practice.

"Protect the shooters! Heavy Halberd Phalanx, lock down the flank stairways!"

"Victor, conserve your mana! Cease the area-of-effect bombardment! Leona, intercept!" Soren's ironclad commands echoed cleanly over the chaotic battlefield. Moving with terrifying discipline, the frontline elites instantly hooked their heavy crossbows onto their backs. Rushing to the narrow entrances of the left and right corridors, they rapidly assembled into two impenetrable defensive lines.

"HAH!" Dozens of black-iron heavy infantrymen seamlessly dropped into kneeling, half-kneeling, and standing stances, forming a compact, three-tiered wedge formation. The heavy hafts of their halberds were braced securely against the stone grooves of the floor behind them. A dense forest of razor-sharp steel tips jutted outward, utterly sealing off the narrow corridor access points.

When the three [Sons of Titan] executing the left-flank maneuver blindly charged to the corridor entrance, what greeted them wasn't a line of frail, lightly armored archers, but a bristling, impenetrable wall of armor-piercing heavy halberds! Without the protection of their rock-shields, the colossal bodies of the beasts crashed face-first into the wall of refined steel, carried forward by their own terrifying, frenzied momentum! SQUELCH! A sickening, muffled chorus of steel puncturing thick flesh echoed loudly!

"ROOAARRR!" Even the mindless [Sons of Titan] erupted into agonizing, bloodcurdling shrieks as multiple heavy halberds simultaneously skewered their abdomens and ribs. The sheer, catastrophic kinetic impact of the collision forced several of the frontline human infantrymen to cough up blood, their boots sliding backward against the stone.

But the soldiers in the rear instantly surged forward, pressing their shoulders against the backs of their comrades, burning every ounce of their strength to ensure the phalanx didn't shatter! They held the line. They did not yield a single inch. But the situation on the right flank was infinitely more explosive! Leona, Commander of the Crimson Moon Knights, vaulted completely over the second-floor railing, plummeting through the air.

"You ugly freaks! My hands have been itching for ages!" Leona roared, her voice laced with absolute, unadulterated battle lust. Reversing her grip on the hilt of her colossal greatsword, she angled the blade downward. Riding the sheer gravitational momentum of her descent, she brought the massive slab of steel crashing down, violently colliding with the leading [Son of Titan] attempting to breach the right corridor in mid-air!