Close Combat Mage

Chapter 221 – Main Force Dispatched Pt.1

Dangerously narrowing his eyes, the Alliance leader said, “I also don’t think we’ll lose. However…it’s still best if we remain on our guards. The force of their archers is very powerful, and they are very skilled at controlling their arrows. We must not, under any circumstances, be careless. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck in an irreversible situation that we will surely regret!”

Karuda nodded in agreement and laughed, “Once we reach the battlefield, there is no way I’d ever be careless. These soldiers are all men that I’ve trained very carefully for many years. If it is possible, I don’t want to lose a single one of them!”

“However…” Karuda narrowed his eyes and glanced at Dawn’s city walls. He said in an overcast tone, “At the moment, even though we aren’t attacking, we have to start. Give us the responsibility of charging at the bottom of the walls, while your Thief Alliance’s soldiers should use their speed to rush to the top of the walls!”

“Ok…” The Alliance leader nodded in agreement, “That’s not a problem. All you need to do is successfully escort us thieves to the bottom of the walls, and then you can leave everything else to us. With this level of steepness, we’ll just charge straight up.”

Karuda nodded in satisfaction, then waved his hand as he loudly commanded, “Armored chariot soldiers in the front, swordsmen in the back, advance! Make sure to watch out for the enemy’s rain of arrows!”

Following Karuda’s orders, 10,000 armored chariot soldiers carefully pushed the large wooden chariots slowly forwards. Behind them were 20,000 swordsmen with their shields lifted high and war blades in hand. Like a wave, they charged forward towards Dawn City’s walls.

Originally, they had ladders that were going to be used for besieging the city. However…Dawn’s city walls were just too tall. How could a ladder possibly reach the top of a wall that was over 10 meters high? It would only be able to reach halfway, which would be completely useless.

Seeing the army gradually approach closer to Dawn, Karuda suddenly put his hand up. Two large, wooden chariots began to move closer to the gates. These chariots were around 5 meters long and 2 meters tall; these were attacking vehicles that Karuda specially designed to attack the city gates!

On another side of the walls, Suo Jia and General Jason exchanged smiles as they watched the slowly advancing armored chariots and the swordsmen behind them. Although this pattern was extremely dependable and troublesome for the enemy with regards to this impending war, it was useless in face of Dawn’s army.

Just like that, the two of them let the armored chariots and the swordsmen reach the city walls; during the whole journey, they hadn’t once encountered any obstacles. It was as if they were smoothly strolling down a wide street. All the soldiers found this extremely strange; wasn’t this a war? How come nobody was stopping them? Could it be…that the enemy was absolutely helpless? Even if they weren’t able to do anything, they had to at least pretend to attack, right?

“Kacha…kacha…kacha…” Just as everyone, including Karuda and the Alliance leader, were currently standing there in confusion, a sound came from the top of Dawn’s city walls. Long, slanting planks slid out from the roof of the walls. These stretched out for more than 2 meters from the walls before stopping.

Within Dawn’s city walls, the soldiers were quickly bustling about. They all gathered enough tree oils to spread on head-sized rocks. These were their secret weapons against the armored chariots.

General Jason narrowed his eyes at the enemy, who had already reached the attack zone. He raised his right hand imposingly and roared, “Light up the Torch Rocks…and attack!”

The messenger soldiers corps, which had now expanded to 100 members, immediately blew their iron horns and wildly shouted. In the next instant, all the city walls lit up with fire’s blaze and a thick smoke began to pervade the air. The oiled Torch Rocks were gradually ignited, one after another, and they were thrown out of the openings in front of the walls.

After going through the opening, each Torch Rock would quickly roll down along one of the long channels. After increasing in speed for around 3-4 meters, they would suddenly be flung off the plank. They would float in the air for a period of time, before landing on the ground with a bang.

If it was training just like before, that would be the only result. However, it was different now; this was definitely not a training, but a war. At the moment…the ground beneath the walls wasn’t empty, it was filled with people. 30,000 enemy soldiers were currently standing in the path of the Torch Rocks.

After hundreds of practices, the landing points of the Torch Rocks had already been calculated carefully. The accuracy of these falling rocks was already within the nearest meter. Enemy soldiers also just happened to be standing right at this specific point. In only a moment, the entire battlefield’s arrangement had drastically changed.

Originally…if they were just ordinary rocks, then perhaps there was nothing to worry about. After all…there were armored chariots. However…these rocks were dripping with thick tree oils; after the rocks collided with the chariots, the oils would stick to them and fiercely begin to burn. In an instant, the armored chariots were all set on fire.

A single wave of attacks had instantly submerged the thousands of chariots into a sea of flames. As they were roasted by the raging flames, the soldiers in the armored chariots and the swordsmen obviously didn’t remain still; they hurriedly retreated in a sorry state, trying to avoid being burnt to crisp by the great fire.

At that moment, a second batch of Torch Rocks came tumbling down from the top of the walls. Under such a powerful force, the enemy had no choice but to retreat further and further. The line before the city walls had become an ocean of flames. Anyone that got too close was severely burned, so they couldn’t do anything but move back.

While the enemy was panicking and starting to have doubts, the 10,000 regular slave soldier archers all aimed their bows at the enemy soldiers that had already retreated into the distance. These guys had their backs exposed, they only cared about evading the flames and they had completely forgotten about the archers on the wall. Thus, they had absolutely no defense when they exposed their backs to all the archers.

“Fire!” Following General Jason’s roar, a glittering rain of arrows whistled through the air and ached down towards the scattering enemy soldiers. The powerful ear-piercing sounds vaporized the enemy’s courage. This was definitely not a sound that an ordinary arrow could possibly make!

People had actually tried dropping a refined iron arrow from the walls before. Without exerting any force, the heavy refined iron arrow would bury itself deep into the ground upon landing. This represented the gravitational pull on it in addition to its mighty speed. It could be said that these arrows shot from above would have a greater destructive power.

At that moment, these 10,000 refined iron arrows, that were half a meter long and finger-thick, carried the force from the bowstrings. In addition to the acceleration from dropping down from such heights, the amount of damage it could inflict when it landed was something that no ordinary person would ever be able to imagine. Hard leather armors would obviously be pierced through easily, and light metal armors wouldn’t be spared either.

Outside the city, 400,000 soldiers watched a bright rain of arrows cross the skies. The armored chariot soldiers that had retreated the furthest, as well as some of the swordsmen, were instantly knocked down by the arrows. Pitiful howls, cries, and ear-splitting screams filled the air.

It had only been the first round of attack, but the armored chariot soldiers had pretty much all been injured. A small portion of the swordsmen had also been shot to death on the spot. Fortunately, a human’s instincts kick in when they are in a moment of panic. All the swordsmen immediately turned around and raised their shields. After their bodies were safely behind the large shields, they knelt to the ground in fear, their bodies were shaking violently as they stared at their companions in shock. However, none of them dared to reach out to help each other; who knew when another rain of arrows would come pouring down!

Up until now, Dawn’s army had attacked in three waves total: the first wave of attack destroyed the armored chariots, the second wave of attack forced the enemy to retreat, and the third wave of attack directly injured thousands of enemy soldiers. What could the fourth wave possibly be?

In the opinions of Karuda and the Alliance leader, the first wave of attack was a loss due to their stupidity. But generally speaking, the first wave had already completely stopped. Any further attacks would be meaningless; swordsmen that had successfully raised their shields weren’t figures that arrows shot from a long distance would be able to pierce. How could it be called a shield if it couldn’t even block an arrow?

Of course, the two leaders had considered the possibility of Dawn City dispatching soldiers to pursue their party. However…this idea was instantly overruled. If Dawn City was really willing to fight outside the city, it would be a beyond hilarious event. Something that beneficial to the enemy was something they wouldn’t be able to obtain, even if they begged. It could be said for certain that if Dawn’s army was willing to come out, they definitely wouldn’t survive!

Despite seeing the miserable state of the first line, Karuda wasn’t discouraged. Wars were just like that; soldiers that always won didn’t exist. As long as the military campaign hadn’t ended, there was still a possibility of reversing the situation. They could get a second chance for everything that had happened. What they needed to do now was to gather the scattered swordsmen, and then organize a second wave of attack.

While Karuda was contemplating this, 36 red figures suddenly appeared on the city walls. The most eye-catching part was the gold diagrams on their red cloaks. Who were they? Why were they on the city walls?