At that very moment, two plumes of fire—one yellow, one blue—erupted from the high platform. The archers, a combined force of humans and elves who had been deliberately positioned at the rear of the ranks, began their swift advance toward the main battlefield, sheltered by the heavily armored infantry.

Owing to Anna, the Elven Clan had, upon receiving Mo Han’s plea, immediately dispatched a vanguard force led by two Elven Elders to support the Tianlong Empire without hesitation. Although time constraints limited the number of elven archers—only a few thousand strong—each one was a divine marksman from their people, capable of matching the might of tens of thousands of human soldiers.

Soon, the rapidly moving Ghoul hordes closed within the archers' effective range. "Prepare to fire."

"Up!"

A general’s fierce roar echoed through the archer formation. Tens of thousands of longbows, organized into several columns of exactly ten thousand each, raised their weapons upon hearing the command, aiming their bows diagonally toward the distant army of the Underworld Race. "Fire..."

As the commanders bellowed the order, countless shafts of arrows carved graceful arcs across the sky, showering toward the Ghouls nearby. The archers who had just loosed their volley quickly retreated to the rear ranks, swiftly nocking new arrows for a second assault.

Immediately following, the second wave of archers, under their commanders' direction,

rapidly loosed their arrows and also withdrew from their positions to the rear. At this pace, nearly a hundred thousand archers discharged their entire quivers in mere moments, creating a relentless storm of projectile fire.

The surging Ghouls immediately suffered devastating losses. With every volley that descended, thousands of Ghouls collapsed beneath the arrows. After just one round, tens of thousands of Ghouls lay strewn across the battlefield like quills in a pincushion.

Following several successive waves of arrow attacks,

the massive Ghoul army, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, had diminished by nearly half.

By this time, the Ghouls had reached the archers’ encampment. The archers, having fulfilled their duty, slowly began to withdraw toward the central camp under their commanders' orders.

The heavily armored infantry assigned to guard the position immediately raised their massive shields, forming impenetrable shield walls.

These formations served to halt the advance of the Underworld Race’s army. Immediately following, countless sharp spears thrust out from the gaps between the shields, creating dense, terrifying forests of steel. The gleam on the spearheads was chilling to behold.

Simultaneously, the Ghouls of the Underworld Race finally reached the defense line of the heavy infantry. The leading Ghouls leaped forward violently, charging toward the armored soldiers hiding behind the shields. However, before they could even reach the shields, they were instantly impaled by the spearmen hidden within, howling tragically as they were flung backward.

In an instant, countless Ghouls repeated the same action, leaping toward the heavy infantry’s shield formation.

A cacophony of thudding impacts immediately erupted.

The sheer number of Ghouls was overwhelming. After sacrificing thousands of bodies, the speed at which the spearmen could thrust their weapons could no longer keep pace with the Ghoul assault. Even with the spearmen exerting themselves to the utmost,

they could not stop the suicidal attacks of the Ghouls. Quite a few Ghouls managed to secure a fierce grip on the shields using their razor-sharp limbs, then raised their jagged claws to strike at the shield-bearers behind. However, these heavy infantrymen were completely encased in hard armor,

rendering the Ghouls' claws largely ineffective, serving only to etch deep scratches onto the armor plates. Those Ghouls clinging to the shields were immediately skewered by the spearmen and fell away with mournful cries.

Even if a small number of heavy infantrymen were clawed to death, they were ultimately few, and their losses failed to inflict any meaningful breach in the overall defensive line of the heavy infantry.

Seeing this, Mo Han felt a profound sense of admiration for Murong Tian’s command capabilities. Mo Han had previously heard of Murong Tian’s renown but had never witnessed him direct a battle firsthand.

Now, it was clear that Murong Tian truly deserved his reputation as a famed general of the continent. By relying solely on the shield wall formed by tens of thousands of heavy shield soldiers, he had managed to completely halt the offensive pace of the hundreds of thousands of Underworld soldiers, effectively barring them from breaking through the line—a command ability that commanded utter respect.

Before long, the Ghouls had left tens of thousands of corpses outside the shield formation. These layers of fallen bodies piled up against the shields, gradually growing higher, significantly impeding the speed of the Ghouls pressing from behind.

At this rate, it seemed that even if every Ghoul perished, they would be unable to tear open this steadfast defense. Observing this, everyone atop the high platform turned looks of awe toward Murong Tian, including his former human adversaries.

Just then, several sharp, piercing sounds cut through the air from behind the Ghoul ranks. The Ghouls, who had been relentlessly attacking, immediately snatched up the corpses of their comrades and swiftly retreated a short distance upon hearing these calls. While the human allied forces remained perplexed, the sharp-eyed Mo Han spotted countless massive, dark silhouettes emerging from the rear of the Ghoul army.

Mo Han then clearly discerned that these silhouettes were machines resembling catapults. Soon, those on the viewing platform also registered the sight. Seeing this, the expression of everyone present drastically changed. Murong Tian's face hardened; while the allied forces did possess numerous mages, their effectiveness against large-scale siege weaponry like catapults was pitifully small.

The mages hidden among the allied troops immediately began diligently raising various magical barriers, tightly enveloping their units. The heavy infantry also started a slow, measured retreat toward the rear allied encampment.

At that moment, a shrill command rang out.

The numerous catapults behind the Underworld army began to launch their payloads furiously. Innumerable dark objects, leaving sharp, whistling trails as they sliced through the air, hurtled rapidly toward the human infantry formations.

"Dodge! Dodge!"

Accompanied by the frantic shouting of officers, the human infantry formations began to show signs of disorder. Then came a succession of loud, booming crashes as the dark projectiles landed precisely atop the protective shields cast by the human mages before exploding—seemingly like magical artifacts.

Mo Han and the others could now clearly see that these dark objects were not the giant stones they had initially imagined, but the energy contained within them far surpassed that of simple boulders, resulting in considerably greater devastation.

Under the bombardment of these unknown objects, the protective shields raised by the human mages shook violently. Numerous shields instantly shattered, allowing the dark projectiles to rain down into the infantry ranks before detonating upon impact.

Plumes of green smoke instantly erupted from the points of impact of these black objects, rapidly spreading through the human infantry formations. The human soldiers who came into contact with the green mist immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony. Instantly, the battlefield was filled with the screams of countless human soldiers.

"It's the plague of the Underworld Race!"

The leading Pontiff of Light shouted, his face ashen, "Order them to retreat quickly, or I fear these infantry legions will be entirely wiped out before they can even fall back to the camp!"

In just this single wave of attack, the human allied forces suffered losses amounting to at least ten thousand troops—the first major setback the alliance had faced since the battle commenced. However, reloading these catapults appeared to take a considerable amount of time; after one barrage, the activity ceased, and they saw the Ghouls busy loading the dark objects back onto the siege engines.

If they had been able to maintain continuous fire, it was likely that the entire human infantry formation would have been annihilated.

As it was, this only served to delay the infantry's demise. Due to their numbers, the lightly armored infantry, being quicker, fared better. But the heavy infantry suffered terribly; their cumbersome armor severely hampered their movement, making it impossible for them to escape the battlefield in time. Without an effective countermeasure, it seemed this core force of tens of thousands of heavy elites was destined for total destruction right there.

Everyone understood this grim outcome but felt helpless to alter the situation, turning their anxious gazes toward the overall battle commander, Murong Tian.

Murong Tian, his face grim, quickly addressed a nearby messenger: "Order the Mad Dragon Knights to attack with full force. Target: the enemy's catapults positioned in the rear. Destroy those catapults at any cost."

The messengers, upon receiving Murong Tian’s directive, dashed away swiftly to convey his orders. At that very moment, the second wave of attacks from the Underworld catapults descended upon the infantry, and the potent plague instantly claimed another ten thousand soldiers.

Leaping to