Desolate World

Feeling the guardians' warm-up was enough. Cloud thought it was time to quicken the tempo of the battle. She, Sampson, and Ace had discussed shortly after their ambush plan in the town failed. As they couldn't bait them to town, they had thought of 2 scenarios. 

First, the undead would avoid walking near the town because of carefulness. 

Second, the undead would walk directly outside of the town wall. Because they thought the town was safe.

However, whatever the undead would choose, they must still fight outside of the town. 

So, Ace then sent Jordan to investigate which route the undead would choose. So they could prepare it in advance. Then they knew that the undead chose to walk through the Southside of the town.

Then they executed plan B. First, they had to separate the skeletons and zombies. Because the number of the skeletons was frighteningly large, if they were led by the ghouls, then Ace and the others would have difficulty in defeating them. And fortunately, that phase could be executed perfectly.

The next phase was to defeat the skeleton army as fast as possible before Ace and the others couldn't hold the zombies anymore.

"Doom, don't hold back anymore. Make the skeletons attack more aggressively!" Cloud said.

The lich then turned his head to Cloud and said, "I know."

Cloud then saw Doom open his mouth, but no voice was heard. She had been used to seeing it. It was his means to give instructions to the skeletons. She secretly called it 'silent scream'.

The allies skeletons then as if going berserk. Without caring of defense, they intensified their attacks.

Sampson, who felt the tempo of the battle became more intense understood the meaning of it. 

"Brothers! Meat grinder strategy. Full force!" Sampson then shouted. 

""YES SIR!!!"" All guild members then shouted.

The tanks in the frontline then abandoned their defense and actively attacked the skeletons. They neither parried nor blocked the attacks of the skeletons. They exchanged damage with the skeleton without flinching. In a sense, the guardians had 3 times more HPs than the skeletons at the same level. So, they could kill two to three skeletons before dying. However, they had healers at their backs.

They just had to trust their lives in the hands of the healers. And if for some reason their HP was reduced to below 30% before the healers could heal them, they could just retreat. Then, the second line DPS would replace them to fight the skeletons. Although their defenses and HPs were weaker than tankers, they could last until the tanks were healed. Then they would exchange places again. 

At first, if there were some people that watched the way of their fighting would think that it was reckless and suicidal. But, that was not the case. Sampson called it the 'meat grinder strategy'. By using the strong defense and the thick HP of the tankers, they would push the enemies with an aggressive attack. The key of the strategy was to always push the enemies, without stopping. 

This strategy was only effective if they wanted a quick battle against opponents that were weaker than them. Because, once the formation was breached, it would be difficult to restore it, and they would likely lose. And if it became a protracted war, they also would lose their momentum bit by bit and finally, they would also lose.

As the guardians could maintain their advance, the friendly skeletons' number was dropping at a rapid pace. Doom also didn't bother to restore their HPs like before, as it would be meaningless. Even some level 36 skeletons had fallen. But as a result, the opposing skeletons also continued to be killed rapidly. 

Eric, Erica, Red, Blue, Orochi, and the flying turtle also continued to barrage the opposing skeletons with their attacks. However, for some reason, they seemed not to attack with all the strength they could muster like the others.

***

Meanwhile, At the other side of the earthen wall, the golems could still maintain their defense towards the attacks of the zombies and the undead guardians. In fact, only zombies that dared to approach the line of defense of the golems, as healing spells from 21 shadow priests including Andre dealt deathly damage to the zombies.

The close combat guardians were still hesitant to fight. It was because even though most of them had levels higher than the zombies', their HPs were only one or two thousand higher than the zombies. Looking at the amount of damage that the shadow priest could deal with their healing spells, they knew that they couldn't survive their barrage of spells for a few seconds.

Vesper the ghoul lord was still standing in the back with two elite zombies. However, it was clear that he couldn't bear it anymore, as he had sent three ghoul elites to join the fight. 

It seemed the three elites wanted to deal with the undead guardians first. As after the three of them came to them and said something, one by one of the guardians showed determined or bitter looks. Then with the leading of the three elites, they joined the battle. At the moment, the number of zombies was around 600. With the arrival of the guardians and the elites, the zombies' attacks seemed to be crazier.

Two of the elites were close-combat fighters and the other one was an archer. Ace then checked their information.

[Dallas] (elite)

Race: Ghoul (swordman)

Level: 39

[East] (elite)

Race: Ghoul (blade dancer)

Level: 34 

[Lander] (elite)

Race: Ghoul (archer)

Level: 36

Ace then found that East and Lander wanted to become spearheads as they walked in front of guardians. He knew that the fight ahead would be more difficult. He then looked at Peter who was still waiting in the back.

"Peter, we can't afford to lose. Please face Dallas," Ace said.

The shadow knight then looked at Ace and nodded. He said, "Leave it to me. But how about East and Lander?"

Ace then smiled. He then turned his head to two flying angels above them. He then shouted, "Uriel, come here!" 

The two angels then looked at Ace. However, as it was Uriel, who was called, Hunt only nodded his head to Ace, after that, he continued to attack the incoming zombies with his spells.

As for Uriel, knowing Ace wanted to talk with him, he went down to the place Ace and Peter standing.

"Is there something you want to talk about with me, Director?" Ace then asked.

Ace nodded. He then pointed in the direction of the undead guardians, and said, "Can you see the elite ghoul with the name Lander?" 

Uriel then looked in the direction that Ace had pointed out. He then nodded. He asked, "The archer?"

"Yes. His level is almost similar to yours. And as an angel, you should have an advantage over him. I want you to face him. What do you think?" Ace asked.

Uriel couldn't help but show an excited expression. He then nodded and said, "Leave him to me. If I can not deal with that filthy undead, I don't deserve to be an elite angel."

Ace only smiled when hearing that. As for East, he had another plan for him.

***

Hugo was really uncomfortable. After he and the other guardians were ridiculed and then scolded by East, he couldn't help but join the fight. He knew that he was not the only person who was uncomfortable. Many ghoul guardians also showed unwilling expression.

After all, joining the battle now was the same as suicide. Once they died in the battle, they wouldn't be able to complete the mission. After all, the mission was to escort Vesper to the battlefield in the East, where the main army of the undead was facing the parasites. So, if they couldn't arrive at that place with Vesper, it was the same as they had failed the mission. And they would waste their time for nothing. So, everyone's goal at the time was to survive this battle.

Hugo cursed in his heart. He had learned that he must pay attention to the words that were used in the mission description. 'Escorting' and 'protecting' missions looked the same, as the two required the guardian to ensure the safety of the target. But, in fact, they weren't.

But while protecting mission only required the target to be saved at some period of time or until the target arrived at a certain place. Escorting mission required the guardians to take the target to a certain place.

In 'Protecting' mission, even if some guardians were killed, as long as the target was successfully protected by the other guardians, the dead guardians would still get the mission completion. But in the 'Escorting' mission, they must survive till the end to get the rewards.

Also, He and the others had never encountered such a situation in front of them. He still couldn't believe that the spells that were cast by the shadow priests were healing spells.

How could healing spells deal damage to zombies? And weren't they undead? How could they heal the golems but harm the zombie at the same time? How could they do that?

Such questions filled his brain and he couldn't find the answers. However, he couldn't think of them anymore, as he was already near the area of bombardment of the healing spells. As he wanted to summon his blood armor, he then saw Dallas and East dashed to the golems' formation. Even Lander had started to support them by releasing his arrows. 

The close combat guardians then rushed following the Dallas and East, and the range attackers start to take action. Only him who was in the back hadn't done anything. 

He then got an idea. He was still walking towards the defending golems, but he took a route different from the other guardians. He went to an area where no guardian was there. After making sure that no one noticed him, he turned himself into bats and scattered them among the densely packed zombies.

***