15: Chapter 15 Beast Tide Siege
Lin Hanwen patted Tang Mo's shoulder, "It's good that you're back!"
Saying that, he pulled out a Beginner Skill Manual from his robe and said, "This is the school's reward for you. I should have given it to you yesterday."
"Who knew you'd run off so fast? I couldn't even catch up to you."
Lin Hanwen chuckled as he handed the Skill Tome to Tang Mo.
Tang Mo knew this was the principal's goodwill, so he didn't refuse and accepted it directly.
"Hurry back. There's likely going to be a fierce battle here. It's not something someone of your level can participate in."
After saying that, Lin Hanwen climbed back onto the city wall.
He began preparing for the imminent beast tide.
Looking at the Beginner Skill Manual in his hand, a new thought occurred to Tang Mo.
"If I can learn a long-range attack skill, wouldn't I be able to join this battle too?"
Tang Mo was quite confident in his poison damage.
Even if he couldn't insta-kill those high-level beasts, he could still have some impact on them.
Besides, poison damage could be stacked.
As for the limit, since the skill description didn't mention one, it meant there was no limit.
Just imagine how terrifying the damage of an infinitely stackable poison debuff would be.
"Please, give me a long-range attack skill!"
Tang Mo muttered under his breath, then released his mental energy to envelop the tome.
Subsequently, the Skill Tome transformed into a shower of light and entered Tang Mo's body.
[Obtained Common-grade skill: Poison Rain.]
[Poison Rain (Lv1): Releases toxic rain, dealing continuous poison-attribute damage to enemies within a 10-meter diameter. Damage is stackable. The damage dealt, duration, and range are influenced by Spirit and skill level.]
Skills are categorized by quality: Common, Rare, Legendary, and Epic.
Beginner Skill Manuals have a small chance of granting Rare-grade skills, but most yield Common-grade ones.
Although it was only a Common-grade skill, fortunately, it was a long-range attack.
Although Level 1 Poison Rain only covered a 10-meter range, Tang Mo's Spirit was already over 70.
The Poison Rain he could actually cast now had a range of about 20 meters.
The casting range of Poison Rain was around 500 meters, with a duration and cooldown of 30 seconds each.
While not very far, it was enough to deal with the beasts charging at the base of the wall.
Tang Mo found a spot at a corner of the city wall, preparing to fight the incoming beasts alongside the high-level figures on the wall.
Some of the soldiers guarding the city saw Tang Mo's actions, but none of them tried to stop him.
Protecting one's home and country is everyone's responsibility—this was never just an empty slogan.
Tang Mo even received a medical emergency kit from one of the soldiers.
"Thank you."
After the intense preparations came the waiting.
Outside the city wall, dense traps and triggerable skills had been set.
Once the beast tide triggered them, they would suffer greatly, if not die outright.
After waiting for about three hours, the ground began to tremble more and more violently.
The signs of the beast tide were now visible from the city wall.
After a stampede of several hundred kilometers, the beast tide had grown in scale, a massive dark mass surging toward the walls of Jiangkou City like a flood.
The traps outside the wall were triggered one after another, instantly igniting into a sea of flames.
The traps were soon exhausted, but the beast tide behind them continued to charge toward the wall in overwhelming numbers.
When the beast tide was five or six hundred meters from the wall, the high-level human Professionals guarding the wall began their assault.
Instantly, dazzling magic and arrows covered the entire area.
Tang Mo also seized the opportunity to cast Poison Rain.
A dark green cloud, about 20 meters in diameter, suddenly appeared above the beast tide.
Then, black raindrops silently fell from the cloud. The lower-level beasts in the tide collapsed and died instantly upon contact with the rain.
Only the higher-level beasts could rely on their superior Endurance to charge out of the Poison Rain.
Even so, those with low poison resistance still lost more than half of their Endurance.
Tang Mo calculated that passing through the Poison Rain would stack at least three layers of poison, while slower beasts could accumulate four or five.
Each layer of poison lasted for 8 seconds.
Although resistance could negate some damage, without around 200,000 Endurance, it was impossible to survive the Poison Rain.
Notifications of kills began to ring continuously in Tang Mo's ears.
[Killed Lv42 Flame Bird, Exp +6124, Poison Damage +2, Endurance +0.01]
[Killed Lv39 Ice Soul Zebra, Exp +5813, Poison Damage +2, Endurance +0.01]
[Killed Lv40 Vajra Ape, Exp +6014, Poison Damage +2, Endurance +0.01]
...
Although the range of Poison Rain was extremely limited, because the beasts killed were high-level, Tang Mo's experience points naturally soared.
Despite the continuous skill usage by the high-level human Professionals on the wall, they couldn't stop the beast tide's advance.
Many high-level beasts still reached the vicinity of the wall.
A Level 90+ Two-Headed Giant Rhino charged fearlessly at the wall, its two massive heads slamming violently against it.
A ripple of energy was instantly stirred on the city wall.
"A formation?!"
Tang Mo suddenly realized that the wall must have been reinforced with formations by a Formation Master; otherwise, it wouldn't be able to separate worlds like this.
Seeing its first strike fail, the Two-Headed Giant Rhino shook its heads, preparing for another blow.
How could the city guards let it have its way again?
Although the wall was protected by formations, it couldn't withstand constant attacks indefinitely.
Over a dozen guards immediately aimed the massive city-defense ballistae at the Two-Headed Giant Rhino.
The city-defense ballistae were crafted by high-level Professional Blacksmiths.
They also featured buffing formations placed by Formation Masters, making their lethality extremely high.
It was said that they had once shot down a Level 100 giant python that was about to transform into a dragon.
With a whiz, a massive bolt pierced through the air and directly through the body of the Two-Headed Giant Rhino.
Moo!
The Two-Headed Giant Rhino let out a deafening roar of pain, then immediately turned back to ram the wall again.
This strike actually failed to kill it outright.
Due to the massive size of the city-defense ballistae, reloading took a significant amount of time after each shot.
The other ballistae had also exhausted their bolts and were currently being reloaded.
Seeing this, Tang Mo immediately fired a Venomous Arrow at the Two-Headed Giant Rhino.
Thirteen arrows formed from venom flew toward the Two-Headed Giant Rhino's noses, eyes, and wounds.
The Two-Headed Giant Rhino was solely focused on ramming the wall, completely ignoring those attacks.
The Venomous Arrows easily hit the Two-Headed Giant Rhino's noses, eyes, and wounds.
The venom quickly seeped into its body through these weak points.
The Two-Headed Giant Rhino continued its charge toward the wall, heedless of everything else.
Seeing this, Tang Mo fired several more Venomous Arrows at it.