Chapter 822 The Independence of Narcissus Principality
March 30th, Star Antimony.
The heavy snow continued to fall even after the winter upgrade.
The fighting on the Black Hawk battlefield on the front line has completely subsided - under this heavy snow that can block vision and sound, the execution of any tactics is impossible.
Often, as soon as you take a step forward, you'll suddenly be unable to see or hear anyone. But you can't just stop and wait for the snow to bury you...you can only wander around, lost. And then you'll easily stumble into the enemy camp and be captured.
The result is that the more the side tends to defend and not move, the greater the advantage.
The mages of the Narcissus Principality are already adept at positional warfare. They can also manipulate the power of this demonic snow, incorporating its power into their own spells.
The army, comprised of at least 70% of Black Hawks, was severely short of spellcasters. The warriors had no recourse but to employ ritual arrays to protect the camp and shield it from spellcasting.
With the roads blocked by heavy snow, supplies could not reach the front lines. The only water source had been frozen by distant mages, forcing alchemists to melt the ice and draw water. The demonologists were already straining their powers just to maintain the hidden ritual.
The alchemical puppets were also completely unable to be driven due to the lack of magic power source - the alchemist's own magic power alone was not enough to support the actions of so many alchemical puppets, not to mention that the heavy snow that could block their perception had made the alchemical puppets completely blind, completely unable to move independently and could only be operated manually at close range.
Even the power of those necromancers was greatly weakened.
Ever since the Winter Division's promotion... overnight, the mana required for most necromancy suddenly became water-attributed. Although the class's mana pool also changed from pure earth to half earth and half water, the chosen path characteristics could not be reversed.
Path traits built around a pool of earth-attribute mana... such as Earth Affinity and Earth Vessel, were instantly rendered useless. Earth-attribute mana could now only be used to cast Preserve and Petrify, not to animate the Undead. Wands and other equipment that increased earth-attribute mana also lost most of their purpose.
Although they were the attacking party, they felt like they were in a besieged city.
A week after the heavy snow, they hadn't been deployed for three or four days. The morale of the frontline troops suppressing the Narcissus Principality's rebellion had plummeted to freezing point, and they were only a step away from mutiny.
Normally, at this point, the military police should have dealt with these indisciplined soldiers to suppress the situation... but even the military police stopped and waited, seemingly developing their own ideas.
At this time, the messenger who had been lost in the snow for several days finally arrived and issued the retreat order.
They breathed a sigh of relief and began to prepare to retreat.
After they evacuated the camp, such a large-scale personnel mobilization allowed their specific location to be immediately detected by the Mage Tower.
Over a dozen kilometers away, the mages unleashed a barrage of attacks—using spells to whip up heavy snow, condensing it into a blizzard laced with invisible wind blades and an ice storm rife with high-speed boulders. They also summoned legions of elemental beings from afar, firing a continuous stream of ice spears to harass and intercept them.
Even with the Mage Tower's spell boost, spell accuracy at this distance was already close to zero. Only large-scale spells that didn't select a target were marginally effective. However, they could only provide a minor distraction, with actual damage approaching zero.
But the result is - too useful.
The retreating Star Antimony Army lost its last bit of morale due to this wave of spells, and was immediately defeated. It then quickly turned into a rout. All command was almost completely ineffective. Some spellcasters were even trampled to death, while many more spellcasters simply could not keep up with the retreat speed and were left behind, completely lost.
In addition to the spellcaster, many soldiers chose to disperse and move forward while fleeing because they were unclear about the direction and afraid of being left behind, and naturally got lost.
Compared to those who were directly killed by these long-range strategic spells, there were far more people who lost their way.
The first batch of soldiers who returned to the front fortress of Black Hawk Territory was less than one-third!
At this time, the chaos in the rear finally reached the soldiers on the front line.
Valentine VII and VIII died in quick succession—although Valentine VIII's excuse was that he was "seriously ill and needed to be bedridden for a long time," everyone knew he was being killed and about to transform into the Child of the Moon. His so-called illness was merely an excuse no one believed.
What the soldiers could not accept even more than letting a one-month-old son inherit the throne was the fact that Valentine VIII "died of illness" just one week after taking the throne.
We went out to fight once, and the monarch changed twice - so who are we fighting for?
In the most crucial battle to quell the rebellion, the entire army chose to retreat, and a rout occurred during the retreat, which also meant that the independence of the Narcissus Principality was unstoppable.
As a result, the generals of the Black Hawk Territory began to have their own ideas.
Compared to the Star Antimony's own army, they themselves constitute the bulk of the entire Star Antimony Army. Originally, they lacked upper-level transcendents, but now, with the reappearance of the "Warrior" profession, the number of transcendents and upper-level transcendents in Black Hawk Territory has suddenly increased dramatically.
Not long after this, Black Hawk had already produced two fifth-level warrior-type extraordinary people of its own, and the number of fourth-level extraordinary people had tripled!
Originally, most of them were hunters—a class exceptionally adept at long-range attacks, able to imbue their willpower and mana into ranged weapons for precise strikes and enchanted strikes. Whether it was bows and crossbows, or pistols, rifles, or even cannons, they all fell under this category of "long-range weapons."
They could transform the powerful but inaccurate artillery weapons invented by the alchemists into precision strikes. The alchemists also created powerful hand cannons for them as individual weapons. These weapons, completely lacking aiming capabilities, combined with the Hunter's professional abilities, could become long-range strikes with extremely high accuracy within a certain range... because the cannonballs could turn.
Just like the crosshairs will stick to people.
Although this tiny bullet absorption cannot guarantee a 100% hit rate at extremely high speeds, it is definitely sufficient in a battlefield environment.
However, a big problem is that... they are "hunters" after all.
They are extraordinary beings who have adapted to the Tao, and are hunters who are supposed to hunt wild beasts, monsters, demons, dragons and other wild entities.
While their abilities were suited to warfare, they didn't qualify as practicing the Dao, much less advancing their class rank... In other words, they gained no experience from this mode. The vast majority of hunters stopped at the third energy level—and by the time they graduated, they were already at the second energy level.
But now, a large number of hunters have transformed into warriors.
Although they had lost the ability to guide long-range weapons, the experience they had accumulated was not wasted. Warriors themselves possessed various abilities that were beneficial to combat—strong vitality and an innate mastery of weapons being the key.
After all, they had always been engaged in the work of soldiers, but there was no corresponding profession. Once they took up the job, almost everyone was a "genius".
Just like an old artist who has accumulated many years of artistic experience, if he has just embarked on the path of transcendence after he is over fifty years old, he will definitely be able to make continuous progress on the path of beauty.
Except for those who are at the front lines and where the fighting is most intense, who dare not advance because they are afraid of being attacked at night... basically, anyone else who has the materials to perform the ceremony can advance immediately.
The current Black Hawk Territory was completely different from before—they were no longer used as cannon fodder due to a lack of high-ranking transcendents. They were also no longer afraid of being attacked from both the Narcissus in the north and the Star Antimony in the south.
In fact, on the same day that the army withdrew... Narcissus Territory had already announced the re-establishment of the country.
The mages used their magic to immediately send this news directly to the surrounding nations. Avalon and Iris immediately posted messages, modestly expressing their congratulations.
Without sending anyone to inquire with Lionheart City, several military nobles from the Black Hawk Territory led their team to the Narcissus Duchy on the second day of the retreat to negotiate the release of prisoners in a diplomatic manner. Those spellcasters who were left behind during the rout and frozen to death in the snow were basically captured.
After all, for the Narcissus Principality, which has a large number of Moon Children, the biggest loss would be to let these high-quality blood sources die outside.
These military nobles did not encounter any obstacles or difficulties in the Narcissus Principality... Even though they had only officially withdrawn for a day or two, one-third of the soldiers had not even returned to the front-line fortress.
Because long before the order to withdraw troops was issued... they had already prepared for peace talks.
They just have to wait for the first batch of soldiers to arrive at the fortress before they can set out.
After all, these military nobles of the Black Hawk Territory all have scarlet eyes.
——And in the Narcissus Principality, the wizard lords who warmly welcomed them all had eyes of the same color.
Different from the Moon Children of Xingti's native land.
They do not believe in the feast master, nor are they so greedy for pleasure... but they believe in Sister Sasha and the Blood Sky Master.
Baptize everything with holy blood——
(End of this chapter)
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