Chapter 136: Fmes S into the Sky
The bs hummed as the arrows shot forth.
The sharp arroierced through the horde of berserk fishmen, easily killing oh a single shot.
Some arrows even pierced through two at once!
However, the fallen berserk fishmen were quickly repced by even more of their kind.
Their bloodshot eyes gleamed as they crowded together in a dense mass.
The cart pushers, who had been incredibly te first, were now overwhelmed by exhaustion after repeatedly drawing and firing their bows.
Even though each of them had ed a ma potion, the iy of the battle had caused their arms to tremble untrolbly.
They grew increasingly numb, meically drawing and releasing their arrows.
Adam Smith furrowed his brow, realizing they were reag their limit. Taking advantage of the remaining strength they had, he relutly said:
"Cease fire, rest where you are."
For now, they couldn’t rely on the archers fed support.
Without the efficy of arrows cutting down the fishmen, the pressure on the wall’s defenses grew heavier and heavier.
The soldiers and adventurers couldn’t swing their swords fast enough to keep up with the number of berserk fishmen charging at them.
Moreover, the corpses of the dead berserk fishmen piled up higher and higher beh the wall, allowing the remaining oo reach the top even faster.
Seeing one of the defensive positions growing more dangerous, with the pile of berserk fishmen reag half the wall,
The soldiers manning the defense grew increasingly anxious.
They watched the berserk fishmen leaping and g at the ironwood walls, their shrill scratg noises only adding to the mounting psychological pressure.
With a deafening "boom,"
A fireball exploded at the rear of the berserk fishmen's corpse pile.
The terrifying bst tore the approag fishmen to pieces and scattered the piled-up corpses.
A shower of dirt and gore rained down, and the foul stench of blood mixed with the s, oddly boosting the soldiers' morale.
"The Arist still fight!"
Naturally, this gave all the soldiers renewed fidence.
What the soldiers didn’t know was that Matthew, who had just wiped out dozens of berserk fishmen with a single fireball, was now frowning.
This was because the rewards from killing these fishmen were abysmally low.
For each fishman Matthew or the soldiers killed, they received a measly 1 point of experience.
But that wasn’t the main issue—what worried Matthew the most was that
the mana feedback from the kills was also minimal.
Matthew had reached Arist Level 4.
When he used a third-circle fireball scroll, after the 10 mana points deducted for using the scroll, he only o spend an additional 10 mana points.
With his Mana Absorption at Level 2, granting him a 50% ce to recover 10 mana points,
This meant that, on average, as long as each fireball killed four enemies with suffit soul energy,
Matthew could cast fireballs without any mana loss, being a berserk spell-casting mae.
But now, even after killing over 20 berserk fishmen with one fireball, he had only recovered 10 mana points.
Every time he used a fireball scroll, Matthew was losing 10 mana points.
With his current mana cap of 290, he could cast an unmatched 29 fireballs pared to most spellcasters.
However, with an unknown number of berserk fishmen before him, those 29 fireballs wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Matthew specuted that the berserk iion potion had caused drastic ges in the fishmen's bodies and souls.
The disappearing soul energy was like firewood burning, making them stronger and more monstrous than usual.
This meant Matthew was abs far less soul energy from these ehan from others he had fought before.
As a result, Matthew couldn’t recklessly use fireball scrolls like he had when fighting trolls.
What made it worse for Matthew was that
even if he used skill points to upgrade his Mana Absorption, this camp illusion e wouldn’t ge immediately.
So Matthew didn’t cast fireball after fireball as he had before.
He only attacked when the berserk fishmen piled up and breached the defenses of the wall.
His well-timed interventions gave the impression of a calm and posed veteran ao the soldiers and adventurers, though only Matthew khe real struggle.
Fortunately, thanks to Matthew and Adam Smith's thh preparations, the dozens of wagons filled with supplies were stocked with bat essentials.
Swords, shields—o say more.
Crossbows and arrows—endless in supply.
Realizing that in close bat, their damage output was g, and their attack power insuffit,
Hundreds of men switched to sturdy spears, and there were still plenty more in the wagons.
Even with mana potions replenishing their strength, the soldiers were growing increasingly fatigued.
Despite Matthew’s timely interventions, the pressure on the defensive lines tio build.
A berserk fishma onto the wall.
It only had time to let out a shrill cry before a massive fist crushed it into a pile of mush.
Matthew didn’t wait any longer. He Adam Smith across the wall:
"Do it!"
Relieved, Adam Smith exhaled and called out to the 30 heavy infantrymen in reserve:
"Throw the oil barrels out, aim for 5 meters ahead."
Crack!
Whoosh!
The hundreds-of-pounds oil barrels smashed into the crowd of berserk fishmen, crushing a few unlucky ones into pulp.
The thick, bck oil spread, its pu smell even masking the stench of blood.
Watg the shadows moving in the mist, Matthew raised his staff without hesitation.
First-circle spell—Scorg Ray!
Whoosh!
Fmes quickly spread outward, transf into a monstrous bze.
The fire formed a massive circle, enclosing the entire hillside.
The bzing inferno easily ighe skinless berserk fishmen.
Like burning logs, the fishmen were charred to ash in an instant, being nothing more than fuel for the fmes.
The scorg fire gradually spread outward, ing more and more of the horde.
The berserk fishmen knew nothing of death or fear.
They rushed headlong into the fmes, only to be set alight and reduced to ashes after just a few steps.
The sky-high fmes illumihe dark red horizon, and the thick mist artially dispersed by the twisti.
With no more reinforts arriving, the soldiers quickly dispatched the remaining berserk fishmen.
Adam Smith even had the s jump down from the walls, pushing the piles of fishmen corpses into the bonfire below.
Only then did everyone finally let out a breath of relief.
Staring at the 3-4 meter tall wall of fire and the now-cleared slope, the figure hiding ients finally uood.
"The Thorn Mert Caravan was well-prepared all along!"
FAL
