Divine magic cannot directly eliminate the fear and pressure in people's hearts. What it can do is just to "cover" them with courage and glory.
Once the magic is lifted, the previously accumulated negative emotions will burst out in an instant.
At that time, if the cannon fodder army directly fled, it would be a small matter. But if they directly lost their minds on the spot and became "madmen" who could not distinguish between friend and foe, it would be a fatal matter.
The pastor cannot let this kind of thing affect his future.
But for some reason... I was clearly out of the range of the elven longbows... Those elven longbowmen should have been defeated and were fleeing deep into the forest...
Why do I still have a bad feeling in my heart
The priest fell into deep thought, while the captain of the crusade beside him said that if they didn't move forward, the soldiers in the front would soon be out of the range of the divine magic.
"Wait a little longer, wait a little longer. Anyway, my range of influence is estimated to be more than a hundred meters deep inside... Wait a little longer. I always have a bad feeling. Do you think that the elves can only shoot longbows this far?"
"Yes."
"Okay, wait a little longer."
The priest muttered, ordered the bearers of the sedan chair to carry him forward a few steps and then stopped.
He was testing whether an arrow would go straight to his head. To this end, he had reduced the output of area-of-effect magic and held a single-person magic barrier in his hand to save his life at any time.
He waited for two minutes but saw no arrows. Even though the legion's archers had already shot all their arrows at the Monster Forest, the elves did not launch any dangerous attacks on him.
Then what about the ominous premonition in my heart
The priest pondered, while the elven commander, who had nearly ordered the riflemen to fire, shouted in relief.
The enemy priest was still outside the accurate range of the rifle, and he was stuck in that position, and as expected, he had powerful magic in his hands to protect himself - fortunately, I didn't give the order to open fire.
He breathed a sigh of relief, but the sight of the Redemption Army soldiers pouring into the forest below still made this experienced commander feel tingling.
These guys were more like demons than humans. Their eyes radiated a green light more terrifying than the most terrifying beasts. They were obviously in a state of hallucination, and they didn't even regard the corpses of their companions on their shoulders as human shields as their former teammates, which left a very deep impression on the elf commander.
He shook his head and turned to check the condition of the riflemen - a few unlucky guys had their barriers pierced by arrows, but fortunately the arrows did not cause damage to vital parts. As long as the wounds were stopped from bleeding in time, survival would not be a problem.
The commander secretly watched the wounded elves bandaging their wounds with cloth with the help of their companions. Below them were the surging Redemption Army soldiers, while the priest in the distance still had no intention of moving forward.
The Elf Commander was already wondering if he had been exposed. If things continued like this, the Redemption Army soldiers at the front would soon pass through the ambush circle and discover the ambushers hiding deep in the rear.
If they cannot kill the priest and bring these lunatics with the highest morale to the bottom of collapse, then even with the help of golems, the coalition of elves and demons will suffer huge losses.
If the priest is determined not to move forward, the commander can also try to attack the Redemption Army below to create chaos and confuse the priest's judgment.
But if he did that, he would never have the chance to accomplish the original important goal of killing the priests and the crusaders.
To fight or not to fight
At this moment, the Elf Commander was making a difficult choice between the "most important goal" and the "most conservative result". In the distance, the priest was finally unable to sit still.
If this continues, the soldiers at the front will be out of his protection. His inexplicable foreboding premonition might be a "warning" that he has done too many bad things.
At worst, I can offer a virgin to the God of Light to atone for my sins when I return. With this thought in mind, the priest ordered the bearers to move forward.
However, he still ensured at least two layers of single-target divine magic barriers for himself, and then concentrated the rest of his divine power on range-enhancing divine magic.
He needed the soldiers to advance tirelessly with the highest morale, he needed the warriors of the Redemption Army to gain glory and wealth for himself, he needed many things - and those things could not dirty the hands of the priest.
Let you become the sinners who commit murder for my money—the priest's body swayed slowly along with the sedan chair, and the knights of the Crusader Army beside him followed him with a serious expression.
He was no longer afraid of that inexplicable premonition.
And his proud and confident look as he moved forward finally gave the elf commander an opportunity!
The fat guy sitting in the sedan finally fucking moved forward!
He raised his head, raised his hands high, and then pulled them down suddenly.
Then all the elf riflemen raised their guns according to his instructions. They pulled the bolts with the slightest movement and pushed the bullets into the chambers. They used their extraordinary strength and the most sophisticated sights to aim at the swaying figure on the sedan chair. At this moment, the Redemption Army cannon fodder that had entered the depths of the forest had already penetrated 300 meters.
The soldier, who was far away from the range of the priest's magic, felt a little tired. He sat down on a large rock shallowly buried in the ground, panting.
Because he was too far away from the priest's grace, the illusion of heaven disappeared from his eyes, and was replaced by a forest that seemed inexplicably quiet, the trembling of his own pounding heart, and the taste of blood on his hands.
He wants to rest for a while.
The priest's advance injected divine power into his body.
He once again felt full of strength, and once again the angels' guidance and the nearby heaven appeared before him - but in the next moment he smiled and prepared to fight for the Lord.
—
The world suddenly stopped.
Thunder roared in their ears, and the heaven in front of them was shattered. Before the soldiers of the Redemption Army could react to what was happening, or why there was thunder above them, in the eyes of the elf commander, the priest sitting on the sedan chair was probably dead.
400 shooters, with more than 300 12.7×108 mm caliber rifles, aimed their sights at the priest's entire body.
With a volley of telepathic shots—the priest was dead.
Under normal circumstances, the two layers of single-target divine shield released from his body can prevent the elven archers from firing more than ten rounds of full-power shots at close range.
But it is obvious that facing 300 seemingly small but powerful bullets fired by the so-called "rifles", only two layers of single shields to deal with archer shooting are far from enough.
His body was still in shock at the moment before the barrier broke. His knight followers had not yet reacted to what the thunder coming from the forest meant when the priest's divine barrier was shattered.
The shattering of the barrier allowed the remaining bullets to penetrate his body recklessly. In the eyes of the elves, his body would expand unnaturally every time a bullet penetrated it, and finally exploded suddenly, breaking into pieces, while allowing the subsequent bullets to hit the head of the Knight of the Skitarii following behind him without any obstruction.
The bullets penetrated the armor of the Skitarii Knights, blowing up their heads or shoulders. The worst-hit one was even hit in the chest and abdomen by more than a dozen bullets at the same time, and was cut in two in front of everyone.
The upper body flew into the air under the impact, while the lower body remained on the horse. The mutilated body splashed with blood on the spot, and finally made the knights realize the problem.
"Reverend Pastor?!"
They were shocked to see the fat corpse torn into pieces on the sedan chair with its intestines scattered everywhere.
And in the tree, the elf commander just roared excitedly: "Keep going!!"
Bang-
Another round of volleys, accompanied by the Crusader Knights being thrown to the ground, the priest's magic finally became completely ineffective.
The moment the magic failed, the beautiful paradise in the eyes of all the Redemption Army soldiers turned into a broken mirror.
They looked up blankly at the white smoke rising from the trees, then looked down at the muddy, blood-stained soil streaked with arrows.
Without the magic, the fatigue from the whole morning's march came directly to their heads.
Having lost their divine powers, the fear they had originally faced from the rain of elven arrows filled their hearts the next moment.
Without the magic, they no longer had the courage to face the dark forest and the thunder in the sky—
At this moment, someone turned around and looked at the chaotic Skitarii and the half-dead body on the sedan chair and shouted in fear:
"Reverend Pastor! The Reverend Pastor is dead! We lost! Run, run quickly!"
boom-
The order collapsed in an instant. Before the cannon fodders running back could squeeze into the crowd, arrows shot from behind pierced their heads.
The overwhelming rain of arrows further exacerbated the chaos among the Redemption Army soldiers in the trap area.
Before they could raise their shields with screams and howls, the sound of cannons like a volcanic eruption in the distance and the stone bullets from the sky not only shattered the shields in the soldiers' hands, but also directly shattered their last bit of luck.
They panicked and didn't know where to go, and one of them bumped into the golem that rose from the ground, and was knocked to the ground by the stone giant's big head, turning into a meat paste.
Some Redemption Army soldiers who were far away from the trap area turned back and tried to escape from the forest, but before they had run far, axes from deep underground cut off their ankles.
"Aa ...
The wounded soldiers howled in agony, covering their severed tendons. As they stared in horror, the demons wearing cheap cross necklaces crawled out of the tunnel and stared at the howling soldiers with their scarlet eyes filled with hatred.
The soldier saw the demon wearing a cross necklace, so he quickly took out the cross in his arms and shouted:
“Fellow believers! Fellow believers! I am also a believer of the Church of Light! Misunderstanding, this is all a misunderstanding—”
The demon chopped down the axe in his hand.
After chopping the soldier alive into countless slices, he raised his axe high and roared in the demon language:
"We don't believe in the God of Light! We only believe in light!"
Chapter 6: The Fall of the Redemption Army
At dawn on June 15th, in the deepest darkness before dawn.
When the messenger of Bishop Stephen's Crusaders arrived at the Redemption Army camp, he was shocked to find that except for a few dozen baggage soldiers who were still sorting baggage such as arrows, the entire camp of tens of thousands of people was empty.
"Where are they?!" The messenger grabbed a baggage soldier by the collar, "Where is the priest?! Does he know that this is disobeying the orders of Bishop Stephen?!"
Bishop Stephen strictly ordered that the Redemption Army must wait for the Northern Expeditionary Force to move north before launching large-scale military operations.
But it is obvious that although Bishop Stephen has military acumen, it does not mean that the group of priests under him also have such a mind.
He probably couldn't imagine that the biggest reason why the priest was unwilling to abide by the commandments was because he could see that the core of this northern expedition was for profit, and only secondarily for victory.
In this case, the best outcome for the Redemption Army was to be used as slaves.
The worst result would be that they would be used as food reserves. For the priest of the Redemption Army, this meant that he would not receive a single cent in this great expedition.
In order to avoid ending up with nothing, the priest chose to take a risk and set out to march in the middle of the night when even birds were silent before the arrival of Bishop Stephen's messenger.
In order to raise the morale of his 80,000 elite soldiers, he also ordered the cook to add all the addictive drugs to the breakfast prepared in advance today...
Naturally, they were gone when Bishop Stephen’s messenger arrived.
Not only had they already set off, this massive army had even marched more than ten kilometers along the road.
The soldiers were panting from the long journey, but the drugs in their bodies provided them with a constant supply of almost insane morale.
"God of Light bless you! God of Light bless you!"
Every soldier was praying loudly, every soldier had red eyes, and when every soldier looked at the dark monster forest in the distance, there was no fear in his eyes, but greed as if he was looking at a vault with its doors wide open.
The priest and his crusaders were in the safest back-middle section, where he was arranging the final work.
"When the time comes, you will follow me and serve as commanders outside the range of the elven longbowmen. After ensuring that everything is safe, I will reduce the thickness of the divine barrier and provide these hungry soldiers with area-of-effect divine spells." The priest chattered on and on, with the emphasis on "safety."
"Group shield, tranquility to prevent morale collapse, pain relief to ignore pain, and berserker to make them attack more violently... In this way, even if the elves still have arrows in their hands, they will not be able to withstand our attack."
"But this way we can only enter the Monster Forest. The Elf Forest is still a mysterious place for us." The captain of the Crusader Army reminded, "Once we get there, the Elf Mage Group will occupy it."
"Hmph! Elves won't release strategic magic that will cause large-scale damage in their own forests! All of you listen to me, all of you listen to me—
Also, that bankrupt chief of Scuol Village, keep an eye on him. That cowardly guy will definitely try to sneak back with all sorts of excuses, so we can kill him right away and save him from having to share our spoils."
"yes!"
The priest enjoyed the orders from the crusaders immensely.
It was just at dawn, and the bright sun shone from the east onto the marching formations of the Redemption Army.
The priest sitting on the sedan chair smiled, raised the wine glass in his hand and said: Even the God of Light is celebrating for us. It seems that victory is inevitable this time.
"With the blessing of the God of Light, we are sure to win!"
"For victory!"
The crusaders also raised their glasses, and as the red-purple wine poured, they drank it all and prayed for today's war.
On the other side, in the Monster Forest, an army of more than 10,000 elves and demons was making intensive arrangements in the forest.
5,000 swordsmen of various types and colors who volunteered to join the demon army were digging pits, and then carefully watched the golems made of cheap stone and soil enter the pits, and then buried them.
Then they painted their skin with green and earth-colored paint to enhance their concealment in the forest. Under the command of the elves, they went to an underground passage system called the "Monster Forest Trail" about 600 meters away from the edge of the forest and waited.
Those were tunnels left behind by some demons who lived in underground caves. After being strengthened by the elves with magic, these tunnels became huge underground shelters that could accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers.
The tunnels were improved and connected in all directions, just to cause chaos to the Redemption Army as quickly as possible after they stepped into the trap.
However, the elven commander in charge of directing the on-site operations knew very well that the key to whether the tunnel would be effective lay in whether the "beheading" of the priests and the crusaders could be successful.
"Quick, quick, quick! All riflemen, stand by in the trees immediately, and prepare yourselves to cast magic barriers to defend against arrows! Before the priests and the Skitarii enter our range, we must not open fire and expose our positions!"
The commander ran around in the elf formation, asking the elf archers holding the Gappa 1404 to go to the treetops and hide and wait.
"Don't forget the hidden magic! There's enough magic here, so don't think about saving it! Hurry up! They're coming!"
The core of this battle is to take advantage of the parish's current lack of understanding of the elves to launch a perfect ambush.
The key point of the ambush is to use bows and arrows to confuse the parish's judgment in the early stage, making the parish mistakenly believe that the elves are still in the previous bow and arrow period -
Once the parish makes a wrong judgment, the priest will underestimate the enemy and go to a place beyond the range of the longbowmen to wait and prepare for divine spells.
At this time, the longbowmen had to retreat slowly to give the Redemption Army the illusion that the elves were retreating.