Chapter 480: Fall and Temporary Retreat

The failure of the first round of curse probing—a loss of combat power equivalent to one Tier 7 wizard and over forty Tier 6 wizards.

The failure in the struggle for fate lines—a loss of three Tier 7 wizards.

Just because of this insignificant loss of combat power, when facing the traps set by the Vanguard Legion of the Plane Nuolun workshop, their side's breakthrough speed was a fraction slower.

And this fraction allowed the Vanguard Legion of the Plane Nuolun workshop to set up three more rounds of traps.

These three rounds of traps slowed their side's advance by another 1.2 seconds.

Then came the second round, the third round, the fourth round...

"One step slow, every step slow."

Mo Erdi opened his eyes, his gaze filled with bitterness.

In the end, they were a full four minutes and seventeen seconds late compared to the scheduled "optimal attack time."

It was these four minutes and seventeen seconds that allowed the defensive line of the Plane Nuolun workshop to change from "initially formed" to "impenetrable."

It was these four minutes and seventeen seconds that turned this offensive battle, which should have been a lightning raid, into a cruel war of attrition.

And now, with less than twenty minutes into the war of attrition, their side's cannon fodder units had already suffered losses exceeding three billion.

Although the vast majority were low-level grunts below Tier 3, this number was still shocking.

Even more fatal was that on the high-tier wizard battlefield, in order to suppress Ke La Ke, those Tier 6 wizards who took turns releasing high-intensity attacks were nearly depleted of their spiritual power.

At most five more minutes, and a large group of Tier 6 wizards would lose their combat effectiveness due to high-intensity spiritual power consumption.

And what about the Plane Nuolun workshop side?

Their defensive line was becoming increasingly stable, and the roar of artillery fire was becoming more and more intense.

Mo Erdi even noticed an abnormal artillery frequency at a certain location in Fortress No. 7 through battlefield monitoring: these bastards were getting more energetic the more they fought, and their spiritual power intensity had actually broken through during the battle!

"This initial battle..."

Mo Erdi took a deep breath, his decaying chest cavity emitting a hiss like a bellows.

"We have lost."

The moment he made this judgment, he did not hesitate at all.

Retreat.

Retreating now would still preserve most of their effective strength.

Although the high-tier wizards were exhausted, they were basically all still alive.

Although the cannon fodder legions had suffered heavy losses, the core high-tier cannon fodder units had lost less than ten percent.

Continuing to fight would only cause losses to keep expanding, eventually potentially evolving into a rout.

"All units..."

Mo Erdi's voice, through the highest-authority spiritual network, spread to every wizard of the coalition between the Chaos Secret Sect and the Tower of Extinction:

"Execute the 'evacuation' contingency plan."

"High-tier battlefield, maintain suppression, retreat in echelons."

"Mid-to-low-tier battlefield, cannon fodder units cover the rear, wizard bodies prioritize evacuation."

"Repeat, execute the evacuation contingency plan, starting now..."

The moment the order was issued.

The wizards besieging Ke La Ke experienced an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible "stutter" in their attack rhythm.

It was not intentional, but a biological instinct.

When hearing the "retreat" order, tense nerves would involuntarily relax a bit, the will to attack would weaken by a fraction, and the focus of power accumulation would drop by a hair.

For ordinary battles, this bit of stutter was irrelevant.

But for an existence at Ke La Ke's level...

"Opportunity."

Ke La Ke, who had been in a state of passive defense, saw a sharp light flash in his calm eyes for the first time.

This was the moment he had been waiting for.

At the very same instant the besieging wizards' attacks stuttered...

Ke La Ke moved.

Facing the composite attack torrent released simultaneously by thirty-seven Tier 7 wizards in front, which was enough to instantly annihilate a plane cluster, he took a step forward.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!!!

The terrifying attack instantly submerged his figure.

In the energy turbulence, a teeth-aching tearing sound came.

The next second, Ke La Ke's figure rushed out from the other side of the attack torrent.

But at this moment, he was like a different person from before.

His black wizard robe was mostly shattered, revealing his body underneath, which was covered in deep, bone-visible wounds.

His left arm was completely gone from below the elbow, and his right leg was also missing from below the knee; he hovered in the air, his incomplete body swaying slightly.

On his face, there was also a hideous wound crossing diagonally from his forehead to his jaw, the flesh and skin flipped open, revealing the silvery-white bone underneath.

Seriously injured.

Undoubtedly seriously injured.

But Ke La Ke's expression remained terrifyingly calm.

He didn't even glance at the wounds on his body.

His gaze penetrated the chaotic battlefield, penetrated the layers of protection, and precisely locked onto Mo Erdi.

At this moment, the distance between the two was only 1,200 meters.

For a Tier 7 wizard, this distance was no different from being face-to-face.

"Where do you want to go?"

Ke La Ke's voice sounded abruptly in Mo Erdi's ear.

It was as if this sentence had been carved into Mo Erdi's soul from the very beginning, only to be "played" at this moment.

Mo Erdi's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of needle points.

Because the moment he heard this sentence, he also saw it.

That black-robed wizard had appeared in front of him, he didn't know when.

The distance was less than three meters.

That scarred face was almost pressed against his own.

Ke La Ke's only remaining right hand was slowly raising, his index finger pointing at Mo Erdi's glabella.

"... You!!!"

Mo Erdi wanted to roar, wanted to counterattack, wanted to teleport away.

But he discovered in horror that his body... could no longer move.

His brain issued the command to "raise hand," but the moment this command left the consciousness level, it disappeared without a trace.

His soul roared to "release wizardry," but every rune constituting the wizardry model self-disintegrated the moment it formed.

His soul was wailing, his existence was trembling.

At such a close distance, facing an existence that could instantly defeat seventeen Tier 7 wizards in its prime, even if the opponent was already seriously injured, it was absolutely not something he could resist.

Ke La Ke's index finger gently tapped on Mo Erdi's glabella.

The movement was very light, very slow, just like touching a fragile piece of porcelain.

But the moment the fingertip touched the skin...

Mo Erdi's body began to "disappear."

Like a pencil drawing erased by an eraser, he was instantly wiped out from the level of "existence."

Starting from the contact point at the glabella, skin, muscle, bone, internal organs... layer by layer turned into nothingness.

Then the limbs, the torso, the head.

Finally, not even a shadow of his soul remained, completely annihilated in the void.

The whole process was silent.

In the end, this commander of the Chaos Secret Sect became the first Tier 7 wizard to fall in this war!

Not until Mo Erdi completely disappeared did the other wizards around react.

"Lord Mo Erdi!!!"

"Kill him!!!"

Roars of anger, shock, and fear erupted like a volcano.

Nearly a hundred violent attacks slammed into Ke La Ke at the same time.

But Ke La Ke didn't even look back.

He just looked at the position where Mo Erdi disappeared, a thoughtful light flashing in his eyes.

In his field of vision, at that position, in the void, there was vaguely an extremely faint "mark" flickering.

It was a complex three-dimensional symbol composed of thirteen threads of different colors, which was slowly dissipating at this moment.

"A resurrection item, huh..."

Ke La Ke, relying on his level of alchemy, quickly distinguished what this was, thinking to himself, his incomplete right index finger moved slightly.

With his current state, it wasn't impossible to completely destroy that resurrection mark.

But he thought for a moment and then lowered his finger.

No need.

The "Coordination War" rules established by the Star Ring Alliance were very clear: wizards who had "died" within the arranged battlefield—whether they truly died or were resurrected through resurrection items—were not allowed to re-intervene in the same war.

In other words, even if Mo Erdi could be resurrected, this war had nothing to do with him anymore.

Since that was the case, there was no need to kill them all.

After all, this war, in the final analysis, was a "Coordination War" conducted under the supervision of the Star Ring Alliance, not a war of civilization extinction where one side had to die.

Doing it too thoroughly was inappropriate.

Thinking this, Ke La Ke's figure was once again submerged by the violent attacks released by the wizards who had reacted.

But this time, the besieging wizards were clearly much more cautious.

They dared not relax at all, maintaining dense attacks to suppress Ke La Ke while starting to retreat in an orderly, stepped manner.

The new command of the coalition between the Chaos Secret Sect and the Tower of Extinction was quickly handed over to a peak Tier 7 wizard of the Tower of Extinction.

That tall, thin figure wrapped in a grey shroud issued the same order as Mo Erdi in a dry voice:

"All troops, evacuate."

"Maintain vigilance, prevent pursuit."

The order was strictly executed.

On the high-altitude battlefield, the wizards besieging Ke La Ke began to cover each other and retreat.

On the mid-to-low-tier battlefield, the cannon fodder legions began to shrink, with high-tier cannon fodder units covering the rear to cover the evacuation of the wizard bodies.

The whole process was methodical, showing the extremely high military literacy of the coalition of the two major forces.

And on the Plane Nuolun workshop side, there was no intention to pursue.

Dionysius Spencer hovered above Fortress No. 7, watching the enemy troops retreating like a tide in the distance, and shook his head gently.

"Do not pursue a desperate enemy."

His voice spread throughout the command network of the Plane Nuolun workshop.

"Consolidate the defensive line, treat the wounded, count the battle damage."

"We won this initial battle. But the war... has just begun."

Inside the fortress, Jie Ming slowly loosened his hand on the console.

He opened his eyes and found that his whole body was soaked in sweat, his face was pale as paper, and his brain was sending waves of needle-like pain.

But the corners of his mouth couldn't help but lift into an arc.

Won.

Although it was only an initial battle, although it was only a victory in a positional defense battle.

But won.

Jie Ming took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

Outside the window, under the lead-grey sky, the smoke of gunpowder was slowly dissipating.

Above the earth were the remains of cannon fodder units piled up like mountains.

In the sky were the figures of the enemy troops slowly retreating.

And behind the steel defensive line stood the fortress that still stood tall.

The first battle of the Coordination War thus came to an end.

But everyone knew...

This was just the beginning.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 481 =====