Chapter 930
These bishops bear the heavy responsibility of praying to the gods for power.
After the Purple Cloud Holy Son made these arrangements, the distance between the two armies narrowed to five kilometers.
It looked like two black seaweeds, each over a hundred kilometers long, about to collide.
"Our catapults have an effective range of three kilometers. Issue the order: advance one more kilometer, deploy the catapults, and give them a big surprise!"
The Purple Cloud Holy Son issued another order.
Now, in the Purple Cloud Empire's army, no catapults were visible—but upon closer inspection, one could see that between the front row of battle formations and the second row behind them, there was a gap of at least one hundred meters.
Across this hundred-meter gap, only a few soldiers were marching.
But each of these soldiers carried specially crafted magic bags.
Those were the magic bags containing the catapults!
By using magic bags, the catapults—capable of long-range fire—could be deployed directly onto the battlefield, catching the enemy off guard.
Before Lin Yan's transmigration, catapults in his world typically had a range of only three to four hundred meters; even the longest-range ones reached no more than seven or eight hundred meters.
But the catapults built by the Purple Cloud Empire through magical means had an effective range of up to three kilometers—this was already terrifying.
These catapults did not launch stones.
They launched magic projectiles: iron-cased shells that could easily pierce through defensive arrays; once they exploded, their power was immense.
In past wars, the Purple Cloud Empire's catapults had always allowed them to win easily.
After a few volleys, the enemy's front battle formations would collapse completely, then the Purple Cloud Empire would launch a charge and easily shatter the enemy's front lines.
The front row of battle formations was usually the strongest; the collapse of one or two formations was tolerable, but if all of them collapsed, it would destabilize the formations behind, leading to total rout.
The simplest logic: once the front row collapsed, the fleeing soldiers would charge into their own formations.
To kill them was impossible—they were comrades; not to kill them meant the formations would be shattered by their panic, giving the enemy an opening.
But the Purple Cloud Holy Son had not anticipated that the moment he finished uttering "big surprise," he saw a vast number of flying ships suddenly rise from behind the Flame Empire's army.
The number of these flying ships exceeded imagination.
They were small in size but highly agile, and in an instant, they flew over the Flame Empire's army.
"Huh? How are there so many flying ships!"
The Purple Cloud Holy Son let out a surprised exclamation.
After flying over the Flame Empire's army, the flying ships halted.
The Purple Cloud Holy Son clearly saw that each flying ship carried numerous crossbows.
"Do they intend to attack us with these crossbows? Interesting—what kind of crossbow can shoot beyond five kilometers? Even if they could reach five kilometers, our soldiers' shields are more than enough to block any heavy bolt."
Beside the Purple Cloud Holy Son, the Purple Cloud Empire's Imperial Prince spoke with disdain.
Then the Imperial Prince saw that the tips of those crossbow bolts ignited with blazing flames.
"Flames? Even more interesting."
The Imperial Prince sneered.
His soldiers carried iron shields over one centimeter thick—what flame could not be blocked by such shields?
As for the penetration power of these bolts themselves, it was nothing to fear.
The two armies were still five kilometers apart; even if the bolts could fly five kilometers, their force would be spent by then.
Immediately, under the Imperial Prince's sneering gaze, the crossbows on the flying ships fired en masse.
In an instant, ten thousand arrows launched simultaneously, hurtling toward the Purple Cloud Empire's battle formations at terrifying speed!
At five kilometers, these bolts reached their target in mere seconds!
For crossbow bolts, such speed meant only one thing.
That these bolts carried immense power and terrifying penetration.
During the latter half of their flight, the fire on the bolts "whooshed" into fiercer flames.
For ordinary fire, attached to bolts moving at such velocity, the wind would have extinguished it long ago.
But the Bursting Flame granted by Lin Yan's Divine Core would not.
Bursting Flame was a sub-flame bestowed by the Divine Core.
In its nature, it was identical to Lin Yan's own flame.
That is, as long as energy points were not exhausted, it would not go out.
Hmm, sub-flames only retained the non-extinguishing trait for a short time; energy consumption was minimal, but over time, combustion would still drain energy points and eventually extinguish.
"Raise shields!"
In the Purple Cloud Empire's battle formations, every commander screamed at the top of their lungs.
"Shhh!"
In an instant, the soldiers of the Purple Cloud Empire raised their shields in unison, holding them overhead.
The entire process took less than a second to complete!
These soldiers were indeed highly trained.
"That speed is incredible!"
Seeing how fast the bolts moved, the Purple Cloud Holy Son felt a sense of dread.
But such a vast barrage—even if all the Saint Domains, Legends, and Forbidden Spells combined their efforts—could not block much of it.
After all, this was a battlefield over a hundred kilometers long.
And their reaction time was far too short!
In the blink of an eye, all the bolts landed within the Purple Cloud Empire's battle formations.
The defensive arrays offered almost no resistance to these bolts, nor could they block Bursting Flame.
After all, before exploding, Bursting Flame appeared quite harmless.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
When those crossbow bolts landed among the Zi Yun Empire's battle formation, flames erupted instantly within it!
A fireline over a hundred kilometers long appeared in an instant within their battle formation!
The explosive flame within the bolts was terrifying; each ballista had warriors assigned to pray for the explosive flame—a One Second-Rank warrior, after one prayer, had his spiritual energy drained nearly completely, taking days to recover.
One could imagine the power of these explosive flames.
The front line of the Zi Yun Empire's battle formation was instantly blown apart over a vast area.
Even heavy shields could not protect them!
But this was not over.
Immediately, the second volley of crossbow bolts arrived!
"Block them!"
The Zi Yun Holy Son shouted.
He took the initiative, raising his hand to unleash a powerful wind magic.
But it was too late—the bolts came too fast.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
"…"
Deafening explosions rang out again.
Once more, warriors in the Zi Yun Empire's battle formation were blown over.
But this still was not over.
Immediately, the third volley of crossbow bolts arrived.
This time, the Zi Yun Empire's mages finally moved—even the Saintly Gabriel acted.
As soon as Gabriel acted, he revealed the overwhelming might of a Saintly Realm.
But the time was too short; even he could protect only a region less than ten kilometers wide.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
"…"
End of Chapter
