"Gavinrad, old fellow, have you counted the situation on your troop position today?" Uther swallowed a piece of dry jerky and swallowed it with a bowl of water.

The glow of the campfire made the tiredness and sadness on the face of the leader of the Knights of the Silver Hand and the highest field commander in Eastern Lordaeron particularly apparent, and Uther, who had passed middle age, already had a lot of gray hair, which made Gavinrad Doom, who was sitting with him, feel a little desolate.

"It's about the same as yesterday, and although the losses are great, it still limits the attack of those disgusting abominations. Gavinrad didn't have the same appetite as Uther, he just ate a few pieces of white bread and then stopped eating, although he knew that this was a bad sign for a man who was one of the commanders and attackers on the battlefield, but since he was struck by Arthas's evil magic, his internal organs had not been completely damaged until now, even though several of their old paladins were using the Holy Light to speed up his healing.

"It's a pity, the Hammer Dwarves' air cover can be somewhat useful during the day, and at night the griffins will not be able to fly smoothly over the battlefield, otherwise we may be able to sleep well with their cover. General Alfred Abydis also complained.

Now, the Andohar region has contained almost all of the military forces of the Eastern Lordaeron Kingdom, most of the members of the Silver Hand Knights commanded by Uther, the soldiers who escaped from the undead barrier and brought bad news, the reinforcements of Icewind Heights, the militia of Daron County, the recruits of the Hand of Tyr and several watchtowers, a total of more than 50,000 people, of which only about 15,000 are regular troops, and even fewer are paladins, 1,500 people.

Dathohan took 1,000 paladins to clear out the undead in Strathomli, and Uther also reinforced 500 paladins to Garissus in order to balance the defense of the undead fortress.

Having lost an effective means of attack, Uther had no choice but to lay his position on the line of the Sodoril Bridge, and his idea was to be a nail in the coffin, and to further unite with the Keldaron and the Hammer Dwarves to protect the region of Eastern Lordaeron, which had not yet been severely damaged.

But now, the Hammer Dwarves have answered the call to be allies, but the city of Keldaron, ruled by the Barovs, is eerily silent.

Originally, in the face of 7 or 800,000 undead in Andorhar, relying on the tactics of Sodoril Bridge, Ice Wind Hill, Undead Fortress, and Fireplace Valley alone could indeed make these undead pressed by the dead in the Andohar region not spread, and even the human side fought several beautiful annihilation battles, destroying the living force of the undead army in large numbers, even if the hidden necromancers of the cursed sect came out to control the army, it was difficult to get benefits in the hands of these old soldiers who had fought for half their lives.

However, the return of Arthas, who became the king of the Death Knights, not only destroyed the royal city, but even the fortress of the undead built specifically for the undead was frozen and destroyed by that wild evil magic, and Uther learned from the deserters that Marshal Gallisus of Lordaeron and Baron Rivendell, who was in the local council, also died in the horrific massacre.

Arthas then brought with him an army of death, and the two veteran paladins became one of his knights...... Moreover, during the days of fighting, Uther even saw the faces of many juniors and colleagues appear in the opposing camp, and they were not able to free themselves after death, and even their bodies and souls were desecrated by the evil necromancy and became death knights...... Watching former comrades-in-arms become accomplices of death is a very angry and sad thing for all living people.

The defenders of the Undead Fortress had been routed so quickly that it was too late for Uther to receive the horrific news, and he could not find any way to deal with the sea of corpses other than to hold on to this vital location.

The armies of the undead do not need to rest, they do not need to eat, they only need to awaken the corpses through evil spells, and then the higher beings give them higher powers, the more people die, the stronger Arthas's power becomes, and the stronger the army he "makes"! They have almost no disadvantages as an army except for the waiting time between being destroyed and being reawakened.

However, the defense line of the Sodoril River has too much terrain to use, and even millions of undead cannot all rush up, and this narrow bridge deck and the turbulent river that is now the flood season are good defensive terrain. Narrowness means that the area of engagement is small, and it can be held with only a small number of men, and the defenders have to rotate as necessary, and the fast-flowing river itself is a huge nemesis for slow-moving zombies, and undead monsters trying to swoop through the shallows are bound to slow down, making them excellent targets for musketeers and mages waiting on the shore.

However, the undead are not the same as the living, the living can be tired, hungry, afraid, and lose confidence, and since Arthas came to the front line, Uther has not only united with several experienced paladins such as Gavinrad and Alfred to fight him every day, but also the few remaining high-level mages, and Nathanos, the only Ranger Lord of the human race who was recruited back to assist in the defense. With such a luxurious configuration, a worse situation was temporarily avoided, and if it weren't for the efforts of the other paladins of the Knights of the Silver Hand to maintain the battle line, I am afraid that this line of defense would have collapsed long ago.

After a short period of battle, Uther had to face a battalion full of wounded soldiers, and the recruits and militia transferred from the hands of Tyre and other towns were not able to fight, but they had to maintain the number and thickness of the front, so they could only hastily mix them with the veterans in the phalanx, hoping that they would grow in the war.

After all, militia and recruits who have not experienced such a brutal war can easily make mistakes in battle, and making mistakes is equivalent to death, and it will involve many people to die together, and then their death will bring more and more sufficient troops to the undead! But in order to defend this place, even if you know that this is tantamount to chronic suicide, you must do it, so it is like forming a dead circle.

"Vanessa, how long are you going to stay? Didn't that kid Edlan send you to get information? Enough, right? Go back and get back to your life!" Uther feigned anger at Vanessa, who was silent.

The old fellows were very friendly to this skillful little girl, who had come at great risk, and not only brought the news that Lordaeron's restoration was still promising, but also that Edlan was rearming and harassing the undead army in the rear.

For the former, these elf old guys naturally know that it is a good thing, and at this time, how can they care whether Tirio comes back or not, his comeback is a good thing, with him protecting Princess Kalia, the guys in the Stormwind Kingdom will not be too embarrassed by her; , it may not even be possible to harass the rear, and it may be even more difficult to support your own main force.

Vanessa, who has always been a little outspoken and a little venomous, didn't defend anything this time, she hesitated for a moment before saying, "Mentor...... No, Lord Uther, are you really not going to let him come for reinforcements?"

"Haha, it's worth it to hear you call me a mentor again, but it's a pity that you are destined to be favored by the shadows, the holy light is not your destination, make good use of your talents. ”

In the past, Vanessa was able to train under Uther with Adelan and Arthas, the two boys learned the practice of paladins, and Vanessa practiced as a priest and eventually learned some basic healing spells of the Holy Light, but looking at her current appearance, she still embarked on the path of the Assassin favored by the shadows.

But fortunately, Uther, who had experienced the ruin of his country and his family, now felt that since the Holy Light could not give more people strength, it would be good to serve the country in other ways, so thinking about it, coupled with Vanessa's long-lost call to call him a mentor, this made Uther's mood seem to be better.

"But, Vanessa, it's not as simple as you little ones think. Go back and tell Edlan that if we old fellows fail, let him leave with his subjects, go to that Miss Proudmoor, or if Princess Kalia can find a place to stay in the Stormwind Kingdom, let him take his subjects with him. This can be regarded as preserving the spark of restoration for Lordaeron, don't be rash, the current Arthas is not something he can deal with. ”

"But we can't just watch—"

......The rapid sound of the alarm shortened the short conversation.

"Damn! the undead cubs are coming up again!" General Alfred grabbed his weapon and ran in the direction of his own defensive line, turning back and shouting, "I'll go and appease the recruits first!"

Alfred's side is indeed full of recruits, and the Hand of Tyr, who had already drawn a round of capable soldiers in the previous battle, has long become a training camp for recruits, and now Uther has no way to recruit people from there, which leads to Alfred's only remaining skilled soldiers brought out from the Hand of Tyre are almost all gone, dead and wounded, and now the highest proportion of recruits and militia is his defense area, if Arthas finds this weakness and storms it, the consequences will be unimaginable.

At first, Uther also sent a few teams of elites to support Alfred's defense area, but then the battle in the middle was tight, and they were transferred back, which made Alfred's militia die at a geometric rate, and in desperation, Uther could only select some good recruits from the reserve team to put into the battlefield over there, and temporarily curbed the decline over there with a phased numerical advantage.

"Vanessa, go!" Uther explained, and immediately went to his star officer to confirm the latest situation.

Vanessa gritted her teeth and whispered, "Good luck and may the Light bless you, Mentor......," and she left the bright campfire and quietly disappeared into the dark night......

......

Fighting in the dark of night was destined to be very bad for the living side, which caused the musketeers to not be able to aim accurately, but under the attack of the undead monsters, they did not need to aim, and basically stood on high ground and fired directly in the direction of the enemy.

However, it was only less than 4 hours between the last battle, and the human defenders, who had been tired all day, were already full of fatigue, which undoubtedly made the commanders on the human side full of worries. What's even worse is that those mages who were not considered battle mages in the first place couldn't raise any mental strength to fight after a whole day of brutal fighting, and they were usually pampered, so they went to sleep after eating hastily, and after the battle began, it took several groups of logistics personnel to call them up.

On the other hand, on the undead side, they who have obtained the undead vision will not lose any combat power at all because of the darkness, which makes them even more comfortable when dealing with the living.

"The Light will cleanse you of your sins!" Gavinrad has come to the front line to buy time for his old buddy Uther to line up his troops, he wields a war hammer full of holy energy, one ghoul after another falls under his holy power, even those banshees who want to sneak up on occupy and control the human soldiers have not escaped his eyes, as soon as those evil things appear, he will immediately use judgment and sanctions, and even undead superpower to completely purify those high-risk undead units that dare to break into his line of sight.

Gavinrad's efforts were worth it, the human defenders quickly calmed down under the command of officers at all levels after the initial panic, and now, Gavinrad, one of the first generation of paladins, is on the front line to fight with the soldiers, which undoubtedly greatly boosted the morale of the human defenders.

"Uh-poof, bum-bang!" Gavinrad's successive sweeping attacks swept away the undead in front of him, and at the same time allowed him to temporarily break away from the large army.

This was a normal thing, because after that, Gavin Rad's guards would immediately follow, covering the old paladin, who had fallen into a relative slump after a round of outbreaks, and retreated a little, returning to the array to wait for the next round of undead to pounce.

But this time it seemed to be a little different, because it was dark, there was no air support from the dwarves, and there was no light from the mages, which meant that there was no means to gain insight into the enemy situation in the distance, and Gavinrad, a risky but morale-boosting tactic that he rarely used during the day, planted the bitter fruit of his defeat.

Gavin Rad was as usual, after this outburst, and after the end of his devotion skills, there was not a single undead standing within 20 meters of him, and he took this opportunity to start slowly retreating, and he could also hear behind him, his guards were catching up and preparing to form a shield formation to cover their retreat into the array.

But the sudden sound of breaking wind made Gavinrad feel bad, because this kind of sound can be heard in the daytime, which is the hook and chain in the hand of the abomination!

When did they get here?! Gavinrad was shocked, lost effective detection and early warning, and was only discovered until the enemy was almost in front of the defensive line, and this was the first time that a large-scale night battle with the undead had taken the human side by surprise in various ways.

"Bell!"

"Be careful!"

Gavinrad's war hammer knocked off the hook chain that came at him, but he spoke a little late, although the guards behind him were stronger than ordinary soldiers, although there were also paladins, and the strength level was not low, but in the first battle in such a harsh environment, they still seemed so unprepared, the light source of the torch was destined to be limited, when they heard Gavinrad's prompt, as soon as they came back to their senses, they found that their bodies became lighter, and they were pulled away by a huge force in an instant!

Then almost all the paladins who were pulled away subconsciously turned on the Holy Shield Technique, which did keep them alive temporarily, but when their faint holy light illuminated the surrounding environment, they were shocked to find that they had fallen surrounded by countless undead, no matter how they slashed and used a wide range of damage skills, and no matter how many undead they killed in an instant, in the next second, there would be the same or even more undead reappearing, until the holy light on their bodies dimmed......

The battlefield shrouded in the clouds of the plague bloomed with a few bright red blood flowers......

Gavinrad's eyes were torn, the holy light surging on his body was like a "lamp" that attracted "moths", and countless hooks and chains were coming in his direction, which made him too tired to deal with it, and he couldn't rescue his guards at all, but could only watch them being besieged to death by those undead!

"Ahh

"Boom, boom, boom......"

"What's going on?"

Whether it was Gavinrad or the array of soldiers in front of him, they all felt their bodies shaking, to be precise, the ground was shaking violently, making it impossible to keep standing!

The more violent shaking made Gavinrad feel the danger again, he thought of the information about the rout that had escaped from the undead barrier a few days ago, and the possibility that Arthas had brought a new monster from Northrend provided by Edlan brought by Vanessa, and he yelled at the soldiers who were staggering and even some had fallen to the ground: "It's a monster underground!

But Gavinrad's reminder was obviously too late, and a few soldiers who fell to the ground were very passive due to the darkness of the night, the confusion of formation, the panic of the unknown and the poor ability to respond to emergencies, and the most important thing was that their team of more than a dozen people fell into such a chaotic situation as a whole, not him alone, which led to the fact that the soldiers, a group with a strong sense of community, were very passive after falling into this chaotic crisis collectively, and they urgently needed the support and pacification of other friendly units to get through this difficulty.

But now......

When the first Crypt Demon, a half-human, half-spider monster, came out of the ground, when the first unlucky ghost was torn apart by the front paws of the Crypt Demon that had just broken through the ground, and when the first person in the group of soldiers was corroded into a puddle of rancid flesh by the acid of the tiny dark worm......

The fatigue of the days and the despair of the undead that could not be killed exploded through the chain reaction of this fear.

Although these elite soldiers who can assemble and rush to the front line to fight in the dark of night are all good and veterans, in the face of such unknown fears, even if their commander tells them what the characteristics of this monster that comes out of the ground are, how they will attack, and how we should deal with it...... Nor can it be reversed from the rout of the soldiers due to multiple pressures and fears, especially in this almost one-sided slaughter.

More and more crypt demons came out of the ground, and the shaking of the ground began to subside, which gave some soldiers the courage to kill the nearest monster, but then, like pieces of paper, they were killed by small poisonous insects attacking from behind along with their heavy armor......

"Get out of here!" Gavinrad picked up the hammer from the bottom up, and slashed diagonally, swept left and right to unleash a set of four consecutive hits, and with his fast movement, he crashed into the group of those crypt demons at once, killing four disgusting spider monsters.

But when he was panting and wanted to continue to get close to his own battle line, and hoped that Uther and the others would come to save the situation, Gavinrad was shocked to find that it was not only the dozens of disgusting monsters in front of him who had come to attack here, but also countless monsters that had emerged from the ground in the bright, crowded camp, and under the light of the campfire......

When a monster resembling a hill pack appears in the back of the camp, Gavinrad realizes that it is a giant carapace creature called Anubarak that Vanessa's information has conveyed, which is comparable to a dragon!

Finished!

"Oh, look at who this is, the guy who survived my orchestrated attack, well, worthy of the first generation of paladins, you are worthy of being one of the best warriors of the Holy Light......"

The sound of Gavin Rad falling into a bottomless ice cave sounded behind him, and he also completely despaired.

Dressed in the evil armor of Saffron's Evil Iron, Arthas rode on a skeletal horse, strolling through the gaps of the undead on both sides like a tidal wave, still alive but the King of the Death Knights, he mocked the original paladin with a vicious gaze full of despair in his eyes, and then he sneered, and the blade of Frost Sorrow pointed directly at Gavinrad, "...... But from now on, you will be my warrior, the third right-hand man of my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!"

“...... Don't think!" Although Gavin Rad is old, he is still a strong-willed paladin, but just when he wants to reflexively run towards this culprit, the time of the Holy Shield on his body has arrived, and the Holy Energy in his body is falling into a period of lack of success.

Not good!

That was the last thought in Gavinrad's mind, and the last image of his life was to see the resentful and cold magic sword piercing into his chest......