Chapter 406

Attacks of various forms wove into a web of destruction in the sky.

The acid breath of biochemical giant beasts, the energy beams of alchemy constructs, the meteor summoning of elemental giants—the cannon fodder units under the wizards erupted with the first round of volley at the same time.

The scene was spectacular, hundreds of millions of attacks dragging tails of various colors, rushing toward the black insect tide like a meteor shower going against the current.

But Jie Ming's heart sank.

Just 0.3 seconds before the attack was about to hit, the black ocean "came alive."

It was not the movement of the whole, but precise node-style avoidance.

Just like the area he was facing directly, tens of thousands of Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals suddenly scattered to both sides, their movements so neat that it was creepy, revealing blank areas in the black tide.

The wizards' attacks whistled past, but only hit the air and the earth.

Explosions sounded in the blank spaces, fire, frost, acid, lightning—various energy impacts spread out.

But the next second, the Sickle-Skull Tribe around moved again, revealing the giant individuals embedded with complex patterns behind them.

Those patterns began to glow, and the attack power that was spreading rapidly weakened rapidly, finally only leaving behind the elemental storms that overturned the surrounding Sickle-Skull Tribe.

"They are absorbing energy!" Beside Jie Ming, a more experienced Tier 5 wizard exclaimed, "That's the basic pattern of the joint spellcasting array! They want to use our power—"

Before the words fell, the brightness of the patterns on the giant individuals increased sharply.

The absorbed energy turned into light streams visible to the naked eye, spreading along the ground and injecting rapidly into the carapaces of the surrounding Sickle-Skull Tribe.

The luster on those carapaces became visibly deeper, but the light in the mouths of the surrounding Sickle-Skull Tribe climbed rapidly.

"All cannon fodder units, deploy protective barriers!" Frost's voice came through the magic network, carrying an unquestionable urgency. "Prepare to absorb the impact!"

Jie Ming issued the order almost simultaneously.

The Black Giants raised their hands in unison, the liquid metal layer on their bodies rippling, starting to construct an energy absorption field.

But it was too late.

The Sickle-Skull Tribe's counterattack came faster than expected.

Those giant individuals that had absorbed energy tilted their heads back in unison—if that mantis-like head could be called "tilting"—and sprayed concentrated energy beams from their mouthparts.

Tens of millions of light beams fired in unison, gathering into a web of destruction covering the entire front line in the air.

The first row of cannon fodder units evaporated in the light beams.

The flesh of biochemical giant beasts, the metal of alchemy constructs, the energy cores of elemental giants—all were as fragile as paper in front of those light beams.

Just in the first wave, the cannon fodder units of the wizard legion were shaved off by a whole layer, and at least one million units disappeared in an instant.

"Damn it!" Some wizards cursed out loud.

"Second round of attacks, scattered strikes!" Frost's voice remained calm. "Target: the area around the absorption units, don't hit them directly!"

The wizards adjusted rapidly.

This time the attack was not concentrated, but sprinkled like raindrops across various parts of the insect tide.

Indeed, some Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals were hit, black carapaces exploded, and green body fluids splashed.

But the battle results were limited.

More terrifyingly, just as the wizards in another area were preparing for the third round of attacks, collectively chanting wizardry models—

Behind the Sickle-Skull Tribe, another batch of special individuals appeared.

They were smaller in size, but their heads were unusually developed, and eerie spiritual light flickered in their compound eyes.

Just at the critical point when the wizards' wizardry was about to take shape, these individuals released spiritual shocks simultaneously.

Not indiscriminate spiritual attacks, but precise frequency interference.

Jie Ming felt a sharp spiritual wave pierce into his mind, hitting exactly on the key node where he was constructing the wizardry model.

He groaned, forcibly stabilizing his spirit, and pointed the Li Huo Mie Jue Divine Light in his hand—

A dark golden beam of light shot out, turning into a fan-shaped light curtain in the air, shrouding tens of thousands of Sickle-Skull Tribe individuals within it.

Wherever the light curtain passed, carapaces, flesh, and bones all decomposed into basic particles.

But Jie Ming looked around, his heart colder.

Except for him and a few wizards with particularly strong spiritual protection who successfully released wizardry, most of the wizards' spellcasting was interrupted.

Spiritual backlash made many people pale, and some even had blood seeping from the corners of their mouths.

"They even know our spellcasting rhythm—" Jie Ming muttered.

This was not something that simple prediction could achieve.

Only deep understanding of the wizard combat system—knowing when wizards would collectively cast spells, knowing which wizardry models were most fragile during construction, knowing what frequency of spiritual shock to use to interrupt—could achieve this.

This required massive amounts of actual combat data.

Required one—after another—loop.

The battlefield fell into a strange stalemate.

Jie Ming hovered on the observation platform at high altitude behind the battlefield.

This place was protected by three layers of energy shields, the position was just right to overlook the entire battlefield, yet far away from the front line.

"Truly—not polite at all." He looked at the one-sided battle in the distance and shook his head helplessly.

Frost had "protected" him.

Not letting him go to the front line to take risks again, after all, the value of the item in Jie Ming's body that could immune the time loop had already far exceeded the combat power of a Tier 4 wizard.

Jie Ming had no opinion on this.

He was happy to be idle, after all, he didn't have to do anything, military merits were still taken, who wouldn't be happy with such a good thing?

Spiritual sense swept through the internal cave heaven, confirming that all Black Giants had been recovered.

"Can't afford to lose." Jie Ming thought.

Every cycle, the units taken out from the cave heaven would not return.

The scale of the Black Giant legion had dropped from 5,000 in the previous cycle to 2,500 in this cycle, and if it continued to be lost, he would really become a commander of a bare pole.

Of course, he wasn't really idle either.

After confirming safety, Jie Ming took out a special recording crystal.

He aimed the crystal at the battlefield and began to record.

The pictures of the battle between the two sides, energy fluctuations, law disturbances—all data that could be perceived were recorded without a single error.

"Sickle-Skull Tribe night raid tactics." Jie Ming named the file in his spirit. "Adopting a mode of feinting to lure the enemy plus main force flank breakthrough, but the core is still relying on preset time nodes."

He switched perspectives, focusing on the Sickle-Skull Tribe's command system.

That Tier 6 tactical calculator was frantically adjusting the formation, trying to break out.

But every adjustment was predicted and blocked by the wizards in advance.

Chaotic data streams began to appear in its compound eyes—that was a manifestation of computational overload.

"Sure enough, when tactics are completely understood, their response ability will drop sharply." Jie Ming recorded this observation. "The loop gave them 'foresight,' but also stripped them of their 'creativity' when facing the unknown. This is a fatal flaw."

"But it's very strange, under normal circumstances, having such means as a loop, they shouldn't be stingy with their own lives to open up paths, but the facts are exactly the opposite, it seems my assumption in the previous loop was correct, the loop also has a considerable cost for these guys—"

The battle lasted less than an hour.

When the last Sickle-Skull Tribe individual turned into ashes in the artillery fire, the battlefield suddenly fell silent.

Only the humming of energy overload and the slapping sound of flames burning corpses remained.

The losses of the wizard legion were negligible.

Cannon fodder unit losses were less than 5%, and wizard body casualties were zero.