Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1321 - 107: Bone Fortress

In the heart of the Sighing Desert, a strange standoff took place recently. On one side were the Undead; on the other, humans. The Undead, devoid of emotion and reasoning, and humans have always been in a kill-or-be-killed relationship, leaving no room for maneuver. Therefore, theoretically, the Core Area of the Sighing Desert should be filled with blood and death by now. The ground should be covered with dry bones and corpses, and the air should be teeming with the pungent smell of fresh blood. This is not an unfounded assumption. A hundred years ago, during the late stages of the Undead War, before Kyle led the heroes into the Realm of the Dead, this was exactly the scene here.

However, now there are no dry bones, no corpses, no blood—only a vast expanse of yellow sand and at its end, a colossal fortress. The fortress made of white bones was unprecedented, starkly conspicuous in the endless desert, and visible from miles away. As one draws closer to the fortress, its outline becomes increasingly clear. A ghastly array of skeletons connected end-to-end into walls, piling on top of one another to form solid external walls. Skulls from ancient giant beasts, set up atop the walls, turned into dense watchtowers, with holes where the beast’s eyes used to be serving as natural arrow slits. When driven in a particular way, the jaws of these beast skulls could open, allowing rocks to be hurled down upon those beneath the walls, fortifying the defenses even further.

Outside the walls is a circle of sharp rib-like caltrops. It seems that there are no protective measures in front of the caltrops, relying only on arrows from above the walls to stop enemies from destroying them. However, any experienced explorer could discover that in front of the caltrops lies a circular quicksand trap, a few meters wide, encircling the entire fortress. Using quicksand traps in the desert is a most cunning tactic, easily overlooked and then one could be swallowed up by the quicksand. Of course, being engulfed by quicksand may not be fatal to Upper Rank professionals, but not many soldiers in war are of high rank. Should these quicksand traps not be detected in advance, a great number of soldiers could perish beneath the walls. Moreover, in a real battle, aside from the quicksand traps, a rain of arrows would fall from above, with enemies wielding long polearms striking from behind the caltrops. Attempting to breach the quicksand to sabotage the caltrops would likely come at a high cost. Furthermore, no one could guarantee that the seemingly intelligent Undead hadn’t mixed other traps within the quicksand, undoubtedly increasing the difficulty of a breakthrough.

Of course, the battle had not yet erupted, so only a few skeletons stood atop the walls, motionless like real corpses, seemingly on sentry duty. But nobody knew if they were truly corpses or animate Undead. Elsewhere, some skeletons, constantly emitting a grating rattle, patrolled back and forth around the fortress. These skeletons were armed with bone bows and arrows and roamed between the caltrops and walls, vigilantly observing movements outside. Occasionally, they would clack their jawbones together, as if in conversation. Ignoring their appearance, the behavior of these skeletons was identical to that of soldiers patrolling the cities in the world of intelligent beings.

It was now the second day at noon. The scorching sun had ascended to the highest point in the sky, and the heat had taken over the entire desert. Above the sand, the air, distorted by the intense heat, made the scenery behind it look very strange. At this hour, within the encampment ten kilometers away from Bone Fortress, soldiers had returned to their bunkers to rest. Only the patrol soldiers were still braving the harsh sun and heat, walking back and forth. However, even they could not last too long; every hour, the patrol would change shifts to avoid heatstroke and dehydration from prolonged sun exposure. Yet, even a mere hour was a torturous ordeal for the soldiers. Even high-ranking elf warriors would return from their shifts looking depleted, needing a long rest to recover.

Yet the Undead were not affected at all by heat, sunlight, and dryness, the three most fearsome elements of the Sighing Desert. Only the sunlight could suppress the power of the Undead to a degree, but only suppress, not destroy. If the Undead were like they used to be, lacking self-awareness, they might instinctively avoid the sunlight. But for the sentient Undead, it was perfectly possible to resist the weakening effects of the sun and go about their normal activities. As for the heat and dryness, these had no effect on the Undead—who has ever seen a skeleton that feared heat or dryness?

"No wonder you insisted on trying your own plan," Catherine said, shielding her eyes from the sun and observing the Bone Fortress from afar. "If the two sides really go to war, it’d be alright at night, more suitable for battle. But during the day, I’m afraid it would be a one-sided slaughter. In such an environment, the allied forces could barely exert a third of their strength."

"If a war begins and the battle drags on until daytime, there will be a group of Mages who release a large dark curtain, trying their best to block out the sunlight. But even if the sunlight is temporarily obscured, the temperature on the ground will only drop a little and remain very hot," Pannis sighed. "So pushing the battlefield into the desert does indeed have many advantages, but at the same time, it also has many disadvantages, as the war a hundred years ago already showed. But there’s no helping it, we must push on to compress the battle lines."

"Once the war starts, who knows how many soldiers will needlessly die," Lina said, drawing a square in front of her chest, and sighed, "May the merciful deity bless them."

The party of six was now quite close to the Bone Fortress, although not yet within the Undead’s alert range, they could already make out the monstrous appearance of the fortress. One could imagine, if standing right in front of the fortress, the towering buildings and countless skeletons would bring what kind of terror and pressure to the observers. Even from a distance of one kilometer away, the girls could feel waves of palpitations brought on by the fortress.

"This must be the natural intimidation of the Undead architecture. Even with your Legendary Rank strength, you’ll still be affected a little," Pannis said. "Have you really thought this through? Do you really want to go in with me? There’s still a chance to turn back now, but once we go in, there will be no way to retreat."

"Heh, isn’t it a bit late to be saying this now?" Catherine chuckled lightly. "We’re definitely going with you inside, regardless of whether you take us or not, the outcome won’t change."

"So why exactly do you want to go in?" Pannis asked with a headache. "Honestly, you won’t be any help to me, you’ll just be a burden."

Although Pannis’s words were blunt and harsh, the girls were not at all upset. Catherine, with her eyes narrowed in a smile, said, "You still haven’t figured it out? If your plan succeeds, you will have killed their Deity. Then tell me, what do you think will happen to the five of us, surrounded by angry Undead without your help, if you wish to rest eternally beside Lady Nellie? Heh, this is our last safety measure, dear Pannis."