The second volume is called "One Heart" Chapter 43: Capture the thief and the king
According to the records in "Encyclopedia of Undead Creatures" and my observations, the Skeleton Archer actually has many weaknesses. The most obvious one is that the Skeleton Arrows it uses to attack cannot be fired indiscriminately, and the number of Skeleton Arrows equipped by each Skeleton Archer is limited.
The skeleton archer's weapon configuration is a bone bow and a quiver. The quiver is filled with twelve to twenty skeleton arrows. The number of arrows determines the strength of the skeleton archer. Each arrow shot out cannot be replenished quickly. The skeleton archer needs to concentrate and rest for a period of time before they can be replenished. During this period, they will be motionless, as if dormant. If I want to subdue them, I can only rush forward and cast the "Soul Contract" at this time. However, after the arrows are exhausted, they will generally only return to the core area of the territory to rest. There are many skeleton archers guarding around. If you want to rush in, you almost have to conquer the entire territory first.
I rode Taotao around and observed several nearby territories of skeleton archers. According to the distribution density, the smallest one would not be less than 2,000, and they were very strong. On the enemy's territory, I naturally couldn't be foolish enough to launch an undead war to forcibly conquer them. The enemy would respond in large numbers, and I would have fewer and fewer people. In the end, I would definitely fail. The most feasible and safest way is to keep an eye on a territory and harass it with small forces. This would not cause a large-scale conflict, and it would effectively consume their arrows. More than 2,000 skeleton archers can have about 30,000 skeleton arrows. I have more than 7,000 zombies under , and they will take turns to fight. As long as I am careful and plan properly, I shouldn't lose too many people. As long as I use up their skeleton arrows, they will just be a group of toothless dogs, and I can only slaughter them.
However, this method is too time-consuming and inefficient. It is better to continue to catch zombies. Although the seniority value increases less, with the help of old zombies, the efficiency of catching zombies is much higher. Moreover, old zombies cannot bear such detailed command. I can only command them myself, and I have no spare time to do other things. Even if I succeed in catching this batch, the next batch still needs to be tamed in the same way, which does not reduce the trouble at all. Comprehensive analysis shows that it is so time-consuming and labor-intensive, which is really not worth the loss! Now everyone is leveling up every minute and every second, and I don’t have so much time to accompany them.
After repeated consideration, I really don't want to give up the long-range attack method of the Skeleton Shooter. If I continue to go back to the old way of catching zombies, it seems to be going smoothly at the moment, but it is difficult to further improve the combat effectiveness, which is not conducive to sustainable development. Afeng once tampered with this sentence to encourage me: Playing games is like sailing against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat! Players who don't make progress will never have a future!
There is no shortcut. I stared at the old zombie for a long time and finally made up my mind. As the saying goes, to catch a thief, you must first catch the leader. After taming a thousand-year-old zombie king, my plan to tame it went much more smoothly. Facing the more difficult skeleton archers, it seems that I have no choice but to take a risk and challenge their leader directly. Fortunes are sought in danger. To achieve great things, you must take greater risks. There is no such thing as getting something for nothing in the world!
Although their levels are slightly higher, unlike zombies, skeleton archers mostly gather together spontaneously and rely on instinct to fight. They are not much smarter than skeleton warriors in thinking. Therefore, many groups are in a leaderless state, and not many intelligent individuals have evolved to serve as leaders. The individual strength of their leaders is not necessarily stronger than that of old zombies. This is one of the main reasons why I dare to take the risk. I will never do something that I know is going to die. The price of failure is the loss of 5% of my mental power limit.
Lao Zhuang and I searched separately, and with the help of spiritual induction, we finally found a target. Judging from the size, this is a territory with about five thousand skeleton archers. The territory is filled with a powerful force, which should be the leader of the skeleton archers - the Skeleton King.
Even if there is a king among the low-level undead species, they rarely take the initiative to invade and expand. They are too easily satisfied. There are even two large territories with a population of 10,000 people nearby, but the Skeleton King does not even think about conquering them. If its power is stronger, I really dare not challenge it rashly. Seven thousand zombies against five thousand skeleton shooters, and I have a thousand-year-old zombie king with outstanding strength under my command. Fighting in a group will definitely result in both sides being hurt. According to the system settings, when the strength difference is not big, the undead creatures often choose to fight in singles to resolve disputes, which is exactly what I need.
Although the old zombie still has the strength of a thousand-year-old corpse king, he has lost his kingship after surrendering to me and can no longer participate in the contest between kings. This battle can only be fought by me personally. Arranging the zombie army to line up behind me, I took a few steps forward, calmed down, and emitted an invisible spiritual wave, trying to communicate with the Skeleton King hidden in the dark.
It was called communication, but in fact it was just a repetitive expression of one meaning: challenge! After all, they were just low-level species with nascent intelligence, and they wouldn't understand if it was too complicated. All they had to do was make the Skeleton King feel hostile.
At the first contact, that spiritual fluctuation quickly understood my intention, and was immediately filled with a trace of anger, and immediately cut off communication with me. It didn't take long before the calm group of skeletons suddenly became agitated and began to move slowly, from far to near, gradually making way for a passage.
"Crack, crack", accompanied by the sound of bones rubbing, a two-meter-tall skeleton slowly walked along the passage, and the figure became clearer and clearer. At first glance, the body was not much taller than other skeleton archers, but the skeleton that made up the body emitted a faint phosphorescence, even the skeleton bow in his hand and the skeleton arrows in the quiver were no exception, and the eye sockets were not two empty holes, but two faint lights flickered inside.
Judging from the momentum of its appearance, it should be the Skeleton King. I paid special attention to the skeleton arrows in its quiver. There were thirty-six of them, loaded in two quivers. It is two to three times the number of ordinary skeleton archers. If its attack power is similar to that of the old zombie, I will definitely not be able to take much of it.
"I, the king of zombies, challenge you!" That's how the old zombie challenged me last time. I didn't know the rules, so I just copied them. Although I don't look like a zombie, my subordinates are all zombies, so I can only pretend to be the king of zombies. The old zombie has acknowledged my identity, so the Skeleton King shouldn't question it either.
The Skeleton King first looked me up and down, then turned his head to the old zombie on the side, paused for a moment, turned his head slightly again to scan my legion, and finally pointed his head at me again, "I, the Skeleton King, challenge you to a duel!"
"Okay!" Although I knew that I couldn't go back on my decision, I still gave an affirmative answer immediately and completed the agreement according to the rules. At the same time, I was relieved. I was really worried that it would choose the group battle mode regardless of the damage. In that case, even if it won, it would only be a miserable victory, and it would definitely be seriously injured. Even if it succeeded in subduing the Skeleton King, it would lose too many people and it would be difficult to replenish them in a short time.
The zombies and skeleton archers retreated to the back, leaving a wide area. I even privately ordered the old zombie to take the zombies back a little more, so that I could leave a wider space to dodge effectively. The opponent was the Skeleton King who was good at long-range attacks. There was no way to use the "Touch of Death" to deal with it like I did with the old zombie. I could only move quickly and use the "Undead Shield" to dodge the thirty-six phosphorescent skeleton arrows. It was much easier to capture the Skeleton King alive without weapons to attack.
Having never seen the Skeleton King attack, I wasn't very sure I could safely dodge those thirty-six phosphorescent skeleton arrows. However, I couldn't do it alone, and if Taotao was with me, my chances should be better.
According to the rules of the "Dead Soul Space", other undead creatures cannot intervene in a duel between kings, no matter how powerful they are. However, Taotao is an exception. Although it belongs to the Hell Skeleton Horse, its main identity is my pet. According to the "Pet Regulations", it can help me fight in any situation where it can be summoned. The "Pet Regulations" is a basic law that is common in "The World", and its effectiveness is absolutely higher than the challenge rules of the "Dead Soul Space". According to the basic rule of "if there is a conflict, refer to the setting with higher effectiveness to execute", in the duel mode, Taotao can fight with me as a pet, which is also the main reason why I finally chose the strategy of capturing the king first. Two against one, Taotao has completed another evolution, and his strength has increased a lot, so the chance of success should be greater. In this way, with it actively leading me to dodge, I don't have to be distracted to perform "One Ride Away" and "Undead Shield" at the same time. This is a long and fierce battle. If you do two things at the same time, it is easy to make mistakes.
The Skeleton King had already retreated far away and was ready to attack at any time. However, when he saw that I comfortably called Taotao and rode on him, making it clear that I wanted to fight two against one, his mental fluctuations suddenly became disordered, which seemed to be beyond his expectations. However, he calmed down immediately. I did not violate the rules, and everything still had to be carried out according to the agreement.
Riding steadily on the horse's back, I gently patted Taotao's big head. Although I am a highly educated atheist, at this critical moment I couldn't help but secretly pray to all the gods and Buddhas in the sky, and even the dead old man was not spared. After playing the game for such a long time, this is the first time I have taken the initiative to initiate a challenge, so please don't dampen my enthusiasm!
The duel finally began. I shouted first and urged Taotao to rush straight towards the Skeleton King, but it was just a feint. After running a few steps, I immediately turned my horse's head and retreated, just avoiding the arrow shot by the Skeleton King. After several advances and retreats, I not only wasted the Skeleton King's four skeleton arrows, but also roughly estimated its range and speed, and grasped a little bit of the truth. This is a protracted battle. If you want to successfully persist to the end, you must find out all of the Skeleton King's cards.
After several attempts, the Skeleton King learned his lesson and just bent his bow and posed, not shooting easily. I had no choice but to urge Tao Tao to rush forward slowly. As soon as he entered the range of 50 meters, an arrow shot at him. Without my command, Tao Tao jumped and dodged. Unexpectedly, another arrow flew over immediately. I hurriedly moved the "Undead Shield" to block it. With a "bang", my body shook twice. The energy of the "Undead Shield" was reduced by nearly half, which surprised me secretly. The phosphorescent skeleton arrows shot by the Skeleton King were really powerful. Judging from the power revealed, I could only withstand two arrows at most. Maybe the third or fourth arrow would kill me.
The arrows had not been shot completely yet, and three more arrows flew towards me quickly, leaving me almost no time to react. The first two arrows shattered the "Undead Shield", and I barely dodged the second arrow that flew out of the broken shield, but I was no longer able to dodge, and was stabbed in the shoulder by the third arrow, instantly losing one-third of my health. Fortunately, my purpose was still to fight in the free-range position, and I ordered Taotao to retreat when I was attacked. I had already opened up a distance of about 100 meters, and finally got rid of the attack temporarily.
I hurriedly released another "Undead Shield", feeling a little scared. This Skeleton King actually played a trick on me. He hid his strength in the previous few arrows and suddenly . If I hadn't been careful, he would have succeeded.
I was determined to defend and not attack, relying on Taotao's quick reaction and the protection of the "Undead Shield" to fight the Skeleton King and consume as many of its skeleton arrows as possible. Although there were dangers everywhere and I was repeatedly injured, I was even forced to get off the horse several times and had to escape by "riding away from the dust", but I finally persevered.
There were only nine arrows left, and my plan was about to succeed, but the Skeleton King suddenly became smart again. No matter how I teased him, even when I approached him to within thirty meters, he remained unmoved and did not shoot a single arrow. He just stared at me warily, which made me extremely angry, but I did not dare to distract myself and attack. On the one hand, it would not cause much damage to the Skeleton King, and secondly, I would not be able to focus on defense. Being so close to him, I would be easily hurt by him.
I had no choice but to slowly and carefully approach the Skeleton King to further tease it. As soon as I got within 20 meters, the Skeleton King suddenly moved, and not only the bow moved, but also the arrow was released, and the whole person rushed straight towards me, actually wanting to take the initiative to attack and kill me.
I was immediately startled and hurriedly blocked the first arrow, commanding Taotao to quickly dodge to the side and try to keep as much distance as possible from the Skeleton King. If it shot an arrow at close range, I would not have time to react at that speed and would definitely be dead.
The Skeleton King was chasing me closely from behind, shooting at me with skeleton arrows one after another. It seemed that he was going to make a desperate attempt. At such a close distance, my body was unable to dodge effectively, so I could only rely on the "Undead Shield" to block three arrows. Taotao dodged two more arrows by jumping left and right, but he was still hit by two arrows, and his health was less than one-third left.
Seeing that the Skeleton King still had two phosphorescent skeleton arrows in his hands ready to shoot, I dared not stay on the horse any longer and jumped off. At this time, I could no longer rely on Taotao's speed. What I had to rely on was my agility. If I was hit by another arrow, I would be dead.
