Chapter 173: Achilles' Heel (1)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The horn to attack sounded at dawn.
When the sky just started to turn bright, the coalition armies of Roland started its first siege.
Dozens of stone catapults had been assembled and then, following a whistling sound, big and small stones flew into the sky. These stones ruthlessly smashed into Thunder City.
The magicians of Thunder City immediately drifted into the sky. Several hundreds of magicians, at the same time, using the same method, propped up a huge air shield above the city wall. Numerous stones hit the air shield and immediately bounced off.
However, the size of the air shield had a limit. Those boulders that smashed into the city destroyed a few buildings and caused the nearby people to scatter and hide. However, from time to time, there were some unlucky ones who got crushed to death.
Rody stood on the walls and looked coldly at the flesh and blood fly everywhere. He had a solemn expression and his eyes were devoid of emotion. He was now on the battlefield and, mentally, was a steely commander who had spilled blood in the Northwest, the commander who had dealt with the rebellion in Westwood province and the commander who had suppressed the mutiny in the South.
"There is no easy way out of siege warfare. We just have to keep defending." Milo stood beside him and also had a cold expression.
A catapult was finally then pushed out from within the city. This catapult was different from the Roland army’s catapult. This catapult did not throw stones but flaming earthen jars. The flames on the jars hissed and the strong smell of oil tickled the nose of the soldiers. Rody turned to see that the catapults were ready and then he nodded his head. Sieg then waved his hand and the catapults were released.
One after another, balls of fire were thrown into the sky. With long and flaming tails, they crashed into the Roland army’s formation. After that, there were brilliant sparks and red flames flashed from time to time, in the middle of the Roland army's formation. When the sparks splashed on the soldiers, they started to scream.
Buckets filled with sea water were then brought and poured onto the flames. However, the Roland army was surprised as the flames did not extinguish. Instead, it grew bigger.
Many soldiers were swallowed up by the flames, while the others scattered and retreated due to fear. Flames that could not be extinguished with water1! That strange scene caused many of the Roland army to become frightened. Were the heathens of the Radiant continent really being protected by the devil?
The dazzling and blossoming sparks burst within the Roland army’s formation. Even though many of the Roland army’s catapults were not hit directly, but as long as they were splashed with a little bit of the sparks, they would immediately start to burn. The fire grew more and more intense and could not be extinguished.
"Fools!" Tiger stood at the back as he looked at the flames and shouted. "If water cannot extinguish those flames, then use sand instead! Just pour sand from the top!"
Rody stood on the walls and sneered as he watched the Roland army getting themselves burned. "Looks like Dandong’s words were true. Water cannot extinguish the flames created by this black oil. Instead, the flames become more intense."
Sieg laughed and replied, "Well, the Roland army had actually learned about the catapults from us two hundred years ago. They always imitate us."
The Roland army had a lot of soldiers and the beach had a lot of sand. They kept pouring sand over the fire and the flames were eventually extinguished.
The Roland army's sorcerers finally started to act. Hundreds of white-robed and senior sorcerers floated in the sky and started to chant together. The magical elements in the air started to become violent. Large tracts of dark clouds suddenly appeared in the originally calm sky. The scary black clouds grew denser and thicker. Occasionally, there were several huge flashes of lightning in the sky and faint thunders were heard.
The clouds started to descend and completely covered the sky above Thunder City. However, the sky above the distant ocean remained clear and even the sun was still bright.
"Damn, what sorcery is this?" Rody frowned.
Although this kind of lightning sorcery was common, such a large-scale made it look strange. At that moment, suddenly a lightning ruthless struck part of the wall and caused an explosion. The sturdy wall seemed to tremble and a dozen soldiers were engulfed in flames and charred to death. Many of the surrounding soldiers fell. Many of them became paralyzed and dropped their weapons.
"Where are the magicians!" Rody roared loudly. The magicians in the city immediately prepared large and small air shields to cover up the wall.
However, soon even more horrible things started to happen.
Lightning crackled among the dark clouds in the sky. There was a loud thunder as lightning struck down. Before the thundering sound disappeared, another lightning struck again. In a blink of an eye, a series of lightning continuously struck the city wall.
A huge thunderous roar blasted the ears. A huge lightning lighted up the entire sky. The city wall shook. The air shields created by the Empire's magicians started to get dim. Finally, blood spurted out from the mouths of a few of these magicians and some fell from the sky. As the lightning strikes turned more violent, the remaining magicians could no longer endure anymore. The wind in the sky turned more and more violent, as more and more magicians started to fall from the sky. They could no longer maintain their air shields above!
Finally, even the Bishop Elder started to sweat and slowly descended from the sky. Eventually, a lightning broke the air shield and a magician was struck by lightning. He did not even show any kind of reaction as his body was torn apart by the lightning and burned up. On the city wall, hundreds of soldiers fell. Black smoke emitted from their bodies which were soon charred.
"What is going on?" Rody shouted. "Even if they were sorcerers, they should not be so powerful!"
As the thunderous sound grew louder, Rody suddenly roared and pulled out his Dragon Fang sword. He then rushed towards the sky.
As the lightning struck, a golden fighting energy instantly burst out from Rody’s body. The Dragon Fang sword glowed with a golden light and fiercely slashed out some flames to deflect the lightning. The lightning then struck the ground outside the wall and blasted a deep hole in the ground.
"Spread out!" Rody’s golden flame grew more than two meters high in the sky. The Dragon Fang sword suddenly emitted a dazzling ball of light. It was so bright that even the distant sun looked pale. There was a whistling sound as a huge blade of light fiercely shot towards the thick dark clouds in the sky.
As the flow of air turned violent, the blade of light struck the seemingly solid dark clouds and caused a crack. As the wind blew violently, a hole appeared in the clouds. Rody’s golden fighting energy became more intense and then he cursed, "You are not the only one who knows how to strike in succession."
Rody continued to shout madly as he kept swinging his Dragon Fang sword. Countless large blades of light shot out from his sword. After a series of explosions, the dark clouds in the sky started to disperse. The sky gradually grew brighter, and there was no longer any lightning...
From the distant barracks, the Roland army’s sorcerers saw what happened and were stunned. One of the old men, with a white beard, could not help but murmur, "That… Is that guy human?"
"This is the Dragon’s power." Rody felt surprised. He did not feel well. He knew that he had used too much power and had aroused the Mystic Dragon. He took a deep breath and suddenly, clenched his fist before hitting himself fiercely in the chest. After that, he spat out a mouthful of blood and the boiling feeling in his chest eased off.
Rody slowly fell above the city wall. Sieg immediately rushed up to support Rody. Rody shook his head as he wiped the blood from his mouth and said, "I am alright." He then paused and said, "There is something strange about our opponent’s sorcerers. Even their Saints do not have such terrifying spells... such intensive lightning."
Tiger had a gloomy expression as he looked at the exhausted sorcerers. He then ordered the barracks to deploy the huge arrow towers. Each tower was ten meters tall and had heavy wheels at the bottom. Countless soldiers started to push the towers. The towers creaked as it slowly moved towards the city wall. These towers were wrapped with layers of thick leather to protect itself from the enemy arrows and fireballs as it slowly moved towards the walls.
A big group of soldiers with heavy shields moved forward. From time to time, there were miserable cries from the fallen soldiers, lying on the ground. However, the Roland army did not stop and trampled on their companion’s carcasses as they slowly approached the wall.
The Empire's soldiers on the wall aimed the arrows at their enemies. They were waiting for their enemies to get closer to the wall. Big stones were also thrown, raining down like hailstones.
However, this time the Roland army had dispatched the regular infantries. These soldiers were much stronger and more skillful than the soldiers from the previous day. They had high morale. They were also brave and decisive. After trampling on the corpses of their companions, they finally arrived at the gate. They then threw away their heavy shields and took out a large log kept beneath the shields2. Numerous soldiers then used this large log to ram the gate. The loud pounding sound ruthlessly hammered the hearts of the Empire’s soldiers.
After heavy losses, the bulky towers finally reached the edge of the wall. Other than a few towers that were smashed by the Empire's catapults, the archers on the remaining towers started to shoot arrows at the soldiers on the walls. The heights of the towers were about as tall as the city walls. One side of a tower broke open and a large plank fell from it, crashing on the top of the battlement. The iron hooks on the ends of the planks tightly caught onto the wall. Hundreds of heavily armed Roland soldiers then charged out from inside the tower.
Sieg had already pulled out his sword and shouted, "Drive them down!"
The soldiers from both armies roared and clashed against each other. The sounds of the swords clashing were endless and accompanied by tragic screams.
The Roland soldiers who came out from the arrow towers were carefully selected elites. They were all strong but they were disadvantaged in numbers. The defenders of the Empire summoned all their courage and stepped forward. The city wall was like a bloody hell, with broken limbs flying and occasionally miserable cries of people falling off the wall.
Rody had lost track of the number of people he had killed. However, the opponent's infantry reached the top of the city wall. Long siege ladders had already been erected. The soldiers joining the assault from the arrow towers had taken the pressure off the soldiers climbing the siege ladders. More and more of the Roland soldiers managed to climb the walls.
The magicians of the Empire were exhausted after continuously shooting out fireballs. The large number of Roland soldiers did not give them the luxury of resting.
Rody's Dragon Fang sword was like a weapon specialized in taking lives. Those enemies who met him were not able to resist his sword. Rody cut down a Roland soldier, in front of him and at that same time that soldier dragged down with him another soldier who had just climbed the ladder. Rody then stepped forward and slashed the ladder, causing all of the soldiers on the ladder to fall...
Rody felt a sharp wind behind him. He turned around and blocked an attack that came from behind. In front of him was an armored Roland knight. He held a long cross-shaped sword3 in his hand. This sword was dripping in blood. His face was also covered in blood. From the appearance of the knight, it was evident that he was a Senior Knight of the Roland army. That man gritted his teeth and said, "Your Excellency is…"
"Get lost…" Rody did not spare him a glance and swung down his Dragon Fang sword. The knight raised his sword to defend but then his cross-shaped sword split into two like tofu4. That slash by Rody cut through the knight's shoulder, including the armor. Rody then kicked the body aside and quickly shouted at Seig. "Now!"
After saying that, Rody jumped down from the city wall and created a deep hole where he landed.
Among the Roland coalition armies outside the city, Tiger looked at the fight on the wall with a dignified expression. He watched the groups of densely packed infantries moving towards the wall and the fierce battle on top of the wall. The Radiant Empire's archers were no longer able to stop the infantries from advancing.
Tiger then thought to himself. Perhaps we would be able to capture Thunder City, today.
However, at that moment, a shocking scene took place.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound of a horn from the city. The huge and heavy gate opened slowly and the soldiers, who were ramming the gate with the giant log, were shocked by the situation. They then showed an expression of fear and despair.
Tiger could see clearly something black and metallic rushing out from the city gate. The cavalry that rushed out of the gate immediately ripped the soldiers apart with their spears.
It is the Lightning God’s Whip!
Countless horseshoes thundered on the earth, announcing the black armored cavalry. They were divided into two teams and charged to the sides of the city gate along the walls, Kill! Below the city wall, the coalition infantries with swords in their hands, were shocked. Not until the cavalry’s spears had pierced their bodies and after they screamed, did the other infantries suddenly realized that their enemies had opened the gate to counterattack them.
The most miserable ones were the soldiers holding the ladders in place, under the city wall. They had already used up most of their strength to hold up the ladders and were already exhausted. When their enemies charged at them with their spears, they could only close their eyes and wait for their deaths. Many of the coalition infantries, below the wall, were scattered as they were being chased by the cavalry. The infantries used for the siege had no armor. They were light infantries. That was because heavy infantries would become a fatal burden when climbing the wall. However, now that they were attacked by the enemy cavalry, the lack of any defensive abilities had become their fatal weaknesses!
The battle under the wall continued. However, the Lightning God’s Whip no longer chased along both sides of the wall. Their target was those Roland infantry formations approaching the gate.
The thunderous sounds of the horse's hooves drowned out the cries of killing. Numerous Lightning God's Whip emerged from the gates, like a steady flow of steel, forming a triangle charge formation and raced ahead. The horses continued to run towards that formation and the trampling shook the sky.
As the horses trampled the dust flew up and the heavy armors of the cavalry issued crisp clashing sounds.
The Roland infantries, who were ready to move forward to the city wall, were stunned. They subconsciously stopped when they saw the large cavalry suddenly charge out from the city.
A cloud of dust grew nearer as the black cavalry approached the Roland infantry, the horsemen bent forward into their saddles, their weapons pointed forward like a forest of sharp spears.
"Kill!"
Tens of thousands of voices shouted, at the same time. The front charging cavalry easily pierced through the shields of the infantries and their fragile bodies. Blood splashed and sprayed all over as they screamed tragically.
The charge by the Lightning God’s Whip immediately ripped apart the follow-up charge formation of the Roland coalition infantries.
Although the Roland coalition infantries advancing in front was huge and densely packed, but when faced with the attack by the Lightning God's Whip, their formation exposed a strange weakness. After the front lines were broken through, scattered deserters obstructed the way. That was because the formations were too dense and the defeated deserters ended up toppling their own soldiers behind them.
The Lightning God's Whip's charge had scattered the Roland infantries. The armors that they wore and the long spears in their hands were fatal to the coalition infantries. The coalition infantries often slashed at the cavalry only to find that their blades could not harm their enemies. On the other hand, the cavalry's long spears could easily impale their bodies from afar.
Tiger’s face was livid. He drew out his sword and shouted, "Knights, stop them! You just need to stop them and we will capture the city today!"
Translators Note:
1. Safety tip. A fireman taught me that we should not use water to put out fires (Especially if oil catches fire.). Most fires would only grow bigger. Make sure to use a fire extinguisher.
2. This is what the raw says but did not sound right. How did the soldiers carry heavy shields and hide that ramming log beneath the shield?
3. A knight’s longsword. The longswords used in the Empire, jiandao, 劍刀, are basically just normal swords that are long. The swords the Roland knights used are the classic medieval longswords/Swiss longswords.
4. Soft white blocks made by coagulating soy milk. Also known as bean curds.