A sword's bright light split the rainy night, lifting a skeleton with half a shattered torso from the ground, twirling it into the air before it plummeted into the mud.

The Lion People, tall in stature, swept their double-headed swords left and right, carving a trail of silverlight through the skeletons, causing them to collapse in heaps.

In the darkness, several bone spears flew, but before they could get close, a golden shield of light flared up around Reed, its delicate mesh pattern deflecting the spears. The Paladin looked around and saw only a curtain of rain, with countless undead creatures staggering towards them.

He stood firm, raising his double-headed sword above his head and loudly praising the name of the valiant Lady Marlan, then plunged it into the ground.

Behind him, the Magic Guided Reactor glowed brightly, and Ether Magic Power spilled out from the Main Crystal, gathering like countless golden light points on his sword blade, and with his movement, forcefully injected into the ground.

A dazzling network of light, centered on the towering Lion Person, spread out in all directions along the cracked ground, then golden flames burst through the earth into the air, forming column after column of light.

In the Sea of Light, countless undead vanished into ash. Reed's fiery red mane was brilliantly illuminated, looking like a blazing flame, and the copper bundled rings in his mane shined a clear bright light.

After the Holy Flame Technique cleared the area, the prone form of the elderly knight was finally visible. Atira then dashed from behind Reed to the knight's side and swiftly lifted him by the arm.

"Be careful, Lady Elf," Reed cautioned her from behind. Atira looked up just in time to see several more tall figures with spears, staggering behind a small cluster of shrubs nearby.

Skeleton Warriors.

Unlike those trash undead of just two or three levels that appeared in large numbers, Atira recognized these as elite undead further strengthened by dark Negative Energy; their presence suggested that higher-level undead might also be present.

For instance, Witch Puppets.

The Skeleton Warriors stepped forward, hurling their bone spears at Atira with a high-pitched shriek as they cut through the air, far more formidable than the feeble attacks of those earlier bare skeletons.

But the Elf Girl merely stepped back, allowing the bone spear to thunk into the ground beside her foot.

About several dozen meters behind her, the Beast of Burden Platform mounted on the Gey Ridge Burden Beast fired again, the bullets whizzing past the heads of her and the Lion People, raining into the shrubs like Light Rain. At close range, one could see that the accuracy of the Fortress Walker was not high, with only occasional hits.

The bullets that did hit sparked a golden arc on the chest plate of the Skeleton Warriors, shrouded in a murky black glow, and were deflected aside. The Skeleton Warriors, being Level 7 Undead Creatures, had Negative Energy Armor that was difficult for Fang Hong's Flexible Construct to break through.

Yet, the impact was still effective, hindering their ability to mount an attack. Parker fired Explosive Crossbow Bolts, and the explosion's light interrupted the undead's path again, allowing Reed to step forward and take the knight from Atira's hands before retreating with the Elf Lady.

The two did not plan to pursue the victory because looking around, the Forest was filled with an endless sea of undead, clearly beyond human capabilities to overcome.

Not many in this world knew the cause behind the Tide of the Undead, possibly associated with fluctuations of the Negative Energy beneath the Abyssal Sea. However, the riot of Undead Creatures tended to subside before dawn, dissipating the Negative Energy and returning to the dust.

Yet, there were also those persistent Undead disasters that lasted for years, capable of turning thousands of miles into barren wasteland upon their outbreak. Even armies paid a great price to quell such disasters, so Adventurers, when encountering undead, usually chose avoidance.

After Atira and Reed brought back the unconscious Chief Protector, Fang Hong ordered the Beast of Burden Platform to retreat. As with them, the undead had little good method against them, and similarly, the armed Beast of Burden Platform could easily cut through the sea of undead several times over.

Fang Hong watched as they gradually moved away from the main battlefield, then turned back to ask Chris if anyone was left behind. But the latter could not provide a clear answer—the people of the logging site had scattered at the outset, and they were just one of the groups.

In fact, his father had stayed at the logging site, declaring he would share its fate.

"My father is stubborn; everyone says he's a blockheaded old man. He's probably in Elpaxin by now," Chris explained, and only then did others learn that this young man was the son of the logging site's owner. He carefully checked the condition of the Chief Protector—Reed had placed him in a Papalarian's bed which was a size too small, but Big Cat stubbornly refused to share his "nest" with anyone, as he called his curled up bed.

After realizing that the elder knight was unconscious only due to weakness and excessive blood loss, the young man sighed in relief. While such injuries were deadly for ordinary people, a Level 10 Knight's self-healing ability was sufficient to handle them. "Chief Protector has been through the Battle of Bain, and he sacrificed himself in the wolf disaster the year before last; I'm not sure if he has another chance of revival—I was supposed to be the one to cover our retreat, but unfortunately, I was too useless.""

All Fang Hong could do was offer him some comforting words.

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