Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales It seemed like he had no choice but to activate the Sanguine Domain. Laurist smiled bitterly as he looked at the three hundred-man formations that were less than thirty meters away from him. The four ballistae on the two towers on the walls had lost their support. Not only were their bolts getting slower and slower, but their accuracy was also getting worse. This was why they did not dare to get close to Laurist's formation.
Just now, when the spearmen were fifty to sixty meters away from him, the four ballistae on the two towers had launched an attack. Unfortunately, only one of the ballista bolts had struck the hundred-man formation on the left, resulting in two deaths and three injuries. However, the heavy armoured spear soldiers quickly filled in the gaps, continuing to form a tight formation as they closed in on Laurist.
The other three bolts made Laurist not know whether to laugh or cry. One of them hit the wall of a house on the side of the street, causing a large piece of stone to fall off. The bolt also broke in two. Another bolt flew over the heads of the three hundred-man formations, but cries of alarm came from behind. Laurist did not know if there were any casualties. The most dangerous bolt actually brushed past Laurist's body and landed on the bloody ground in front of him, leaving a large hole in a headless corpse. Laurist was given a fright, and the guards behind him turned and cursed at the tower.
This was not a mistake, but the result of the four ballistae on the two towers being overloaded for half an hour. The bolts had loosened, and the crossbow arms had lost their strength. It was very normal for the bolts to miss their targets by more than ten meters. This was one of the weaknesses of the old ballistae, and the guards who had fired the bolts could not be blamed.
"Woritch, when I move, carry your wounded comrade on your backs to the left, and run to the stone staircase of the battlement, to the left, remember?" Lollister retreated two paces, and whispered to Woritch, who stood behind the barricade.
Just now, Laurist had already seen the battle at the stone staircase on both sides of the city gate. The battle on the stone staircase on the right was in a stalemate. The attacking heavy armored spearmen and guards were still entangled in the middle of the stone staircase, and there were still more than a thousand heavy armored soldiers who had suffered hundreds of casualties. The stone staircase on the left side of the city wall had been pushed up to the top of the city wall by the heavily armored spear soldiers. The battle was more intense, and the casualties were greater. There were less than a thousand heavily armored spear soldiers left.
Laurist did not know what had happened on the city wall, nor did he know that the Ferocious Tiger Ross, Malek, and Jost had just worked together to kill a Great Swordsman from the Visia Merchant Group. Now, he had to find a way for his guards to escape. Given the current situation, Laurist's only thought was to activate the Sanguine Domain and scatter the heavily armored spearmen in front of him in the short span of fifteen minutes. Then, he would charge over a hundred meters and scatter the enemies still attacking from the stone staircase on the left. He would then cover the guards and himself to return to the city wall. This was not an easy task, but it was the only choice at the moment.
"Your Highness, don't we need a vanguard and a rearguard?" Walic asked.
"No need. Leave everything to me." Laurist shook his head. "Your mission is to bring your injured comrades to the city wall. You don't have to worry about the rest."
The heavily armored spearmen in front of him were getting closer and closer. The three hundred-man formations all maintained the same speed and distance. Laurist knew that the enemy had learned their lesson from the first battle formation that he had destroyed. The three battle formations cooperated with each other, attacking and defending. Laurist could no longer break into the battle formation like the first time.
Fifteen meters, thirteen meters, eleven meters. Laurist's hand tightened on the hilt of his sword, veins bulging. As long as the enemy came within five meters, the Sanguine Domain would immediately activate. It couldn't be helped. The Blood Slaughter Domain that Lollister could control was only ten meters in radius, and it could only last for fifteen minutes at most. Meanwhile, for a hundred-man battle formation, the best distance for a spear thrust was three meters. Laurist was confident that he could make these enemies taste despair within a two-meter distance!
Just as Laurist was about to activate the Sanguine Domain, he suddenly heard a familiar voice yell, "Fire!"
A mournful whistling sound passed over their heads, followed by continuous screams of pain coming from the hundred-man heavy armoured spearmen in front of them. The three hundred-man formations that were arranged neatly were in a complete mess under the attack of the steel crossbows, and there were heavy casualties. The hundred-meter distance was within the range of the steel crossbows at the top of the city wall. The large iron shields at the front seemed to be made of animal skin, and they were pierced by the special crossbow bolts. One crossbow bolt could even skewer three or four heavily armored spearmen …
This was a massacre. Laurist heaved a sigh of relief and closed his eyes. Behind him, the surprised cheers of Walic and the other guards could be heard. The whistling sound of the crossbow bolts passing over his head continued, and it seemed to be spreading into the distance. The screams did not stop.
Laurist had to admit that his family's steel crossbows had been developed to the extreme in the Galinthia Continent. They could fire at least ten times in a minute, and they had a long range, high accuracy, and great power. Perhaps in a field battle, the enemy could use logs to create a large shield carriage to counteract the threat of the steel crossbows. But at this moment, the attacks of the steel crossbows were unsolvable to the Visia Trade Association's heavy armored spearmen …
When Malek commanded the Flying Tiger Corps soldiers to line up the dozens of steel crossbows that had been hoisted to the top of the city wall and began to fire at the hundred-man formation of heavy spear soldiers in front of Laurist, the failure of Visia Trade Association's plan to use a heavy spear squad to recapture the north gate and city wall was inevitable.
If Malek had not gone up the city wall, perhaps the Norton Family's armed forces would have been entangled with the Visia Trade Association's heavy armored spearmen for a while longer. Laurist might have suffered some injuries, and the guards would have suffered even greater losses. But everything changed when Malek went up the city wall. Among the 16 Gold Knights of the Norton Family, the Ferocious Tiger Ross was the bravest and best at fighting. Bofinger was the steadiest and best at defense. He was known as the Immovable Mountain, and people called him the Monolith. As for Malek, he was good at making prompt decisions and seizing opportunities.
Malek was a military judge, and his nickname was Iron Face. He had always been expressionless and cold-blooded in the army. Years ago, when he was guarding the capital of the Sigler province, Alice City, he had once ordered a massacre of rioting citizens, causing tens of thousands of casualties in Alice City. He was known as the Iron Face Butcher. But this matter was suppressed by Laurist, and he trusted Malek even more.
After Malek went up the city wall, he first killed the heavy armored spearmen on the city wall and stabilized the situation. Then, he put up a siege, forcing the Great Swordmaster of the Visia Merchant Group, who was fighting fiercely with the Ferocious Tiger Ross, to panic and die to Jost's arrows. Then, Malek immediately ordered the ballistae and firing teams that had been hoisted up the city wall to line up along the city wall. They immediately fired at the heavy armored spearmen in front of Laurist, resolving the crisis that Laurist was facing.
The ballistae that the Norton Family armed were originally installed on the chariots, and the main force was on the support pillar below the ballistae. It was very simple to remove the ballistae from the chariots and install them on the sleds. They had the same base structure, and the support pillar could withstand the force. And these ballistae were removed from the sleds and hung up on the city wall, unable to be used. The most ridiculous reason was that there was no wooden base structure on the city wall, and the support pillar could not withstand the force. Unable to fix the ballistae, the firing teams that had already gone up the city wall could do nothing but panic.
Malek's idea was very simple. He immediately ordered the lancers of the Flying Tiger Army to get down on the ground in groups of four and hold onto the support pillar below the ballistae to prevent them from falling. Then, he ordered the firing teams to immediately shoot, turning the tide of the battle in one fell swoop. But the lancers who were lying on the ground and holding onto the support pillar of the ballistae clenched their teeth in pain when the ballistae were fired …
As the vice-commander of the Monolith Army and the commander of the ballistae, Malek had his own way of commanding the ballistae. The chaos on the city wall was quickly sorted out by him, and everything became clear and orderly. The Ferocious Tiger Ross was sent to the stone staircase on the left to launch a counterattack, while Jost assisted the guards in defending the stone staircase on the right. Then, he assigned the lancers and guards to help move the ballistae and lift the ballistae, while he commanded the ballistae on the city wall to attack. When there were more than a hundred ballistae lined up on the city wall, the fired ballistae finally formed a storm that swept through the entire street in front of the city gate …
When Laurist opened his eyes again, what appeared in front of him was a tragic forest of arrows. The lower part of the forest was filled with the corpses of heavily armored lancers, all the way to the corner of the street. The bright red blood formed a few small streams on the dirty snow, flowing quietly. The entire street was deathly silent, with only the cries coming from the corner of the street in the distance, as well as the weak moans and cries for help from the dying …
When Malek ordered the head of the dead Great Swordsman to be hung above the city gate, the two thousand heavily armored lancers on the stone staircase on the left and right finally put down their weapons and raised their hands to surrender. After they were stripped of their armor and equipment, their task was to clean up the corpses on the street. These frozen corpses formed two tall and long corpse walls on both sides of the street.
"Your Highness, we are late." Malek and the Ferocious Tiger Ross stood in front of Laurist and placed their hands on their chests in a knight's salute.
Laurist waved his hand, indicating that they did not need to be overly courteous. "You have done well. Let us first think of a way to open the city gate below. Also, Redi, Aire, and Great Swordsman Hugh, what is the situation on both sides of the city walls? Send reinforcements immediately. "
Dolais, who was outside the city, gathered all the soldiers waiting to enter the city to gather snow to make snow bricks. They then piled up the snow until it was as flat as the city walls, allowing the main force to climb up the city walls. Laurist, the Ferocious Tiger Ross, and Malek worked together to cut off the metal bolt at the top of the city gate within half an hour, and the city gate was opened. Dolais fell head first onto the snow slope and muttered, "Isn't this just toying with us …"
The Norton Family's main force entering the city did not mean that the Visia Merchant Group was willing to surrender. On the contrary, the city's alarm bells rang continuously, and the Visia Merchant Group's forces surrounded the area a few hundred meters away from the north gate. They started to set up a barricade and chased the citizens along the streets out, turning their houses into small fortresses for defense. At the same time, the Visia Merchant Group, who had already understood the enemy's situation, started to gather reinforcements and reserve forces, heading towards the north of the city.
The Flying Tiger Army that entered the city, under the leadership of Ferocious Tiger Ross and Dolais, took advantage of the fact that the enemy's reinforcements had not arrived to launch two attacks on the enemy's defensive line, and occupied two more streets. However, in order to stop the Flying Tiger Army's advance, the Visia Merchant Group actually poured a large amount of kerosene in the north of the city. In a short period of time, the north of the city was covered in thick smoke and flames.
"Stop the attack for now. Evacuate the poor citizens in the north of the city, gather them up and send them out of the city. Build them igloos and tents. The Visia Merchant Group may not care about these hundred thousand poor citizens, but they do not treat them as their own. We cannot ignore them. After all, they are our citizens. "Laurist had no choice but to stop the attack.
Redi, Aire, and Hugh had also returned. Redi and Aire had taken down nine towers, all the way to the west gate. They might have been able to take over the west gate, but when they took down the ninth tower, one of the guards in the tower woke up at night and went to the other side of the tower to pee. Redi and Aire had disguised themselves as patrols and did not notice the guard in the shadows. In the end, they were exposed when they attacked the sleeping guard, and the guard who went to pee sounded the alarm horn.
Hugh had only taken down six towers on the north wall, and when he attacked the first tower on the east wall, he was exposed due to Redi and Aire's warning. After that, Hugh defended a tower by himself and engaged in a fierce battle with the Visia Merchant Group's armed forces. After killing the two Gold-tier swordsmen who broke into the tower, the armed forces of Visia Trading Company hated Hugh the Great Swordsman who was in the tower. They used their longbows to block the entrance of the tower, released poisonous smoke, and even tried to burn down the tower, but Hugh the Great Swordsman stopped them. But in the process, more than 20 guards wanted to reinforce Great Swordmaster Seuss, but they were all shot dead by the enemy's archers on the city wall.
Redi and Aire's side was about the same, but Redi killed a level 1 swordsman. The level 1 swordsman who charged into the tower killed five guards and fought Redi. After a few dozen moves, he knew he was no match for Redi and tried to run away. Redi chased him out of the tower and cut him in half, then retreated back into the tower under the rain of arrows. His shoulder and buttocks were hit by an arrow each. Only when the situation on Laurist's side was settled and they sent their troops to reinforce Redi, Aire, and Hugh did the Visia Merchant Group's armed forces that surrounded the two towers retreat.
On the 31st day of the 1st month of the year 1787, the Norton Family's armed forces attacked the capital of Felicia at night and took over the north gate and city walls. The Visia Merchant Group suffered heavy losses. Two level 1 swordsmen and several Gold-tier knights died in battle, and the heavy armored spearmen of the merchant group suffered heavy losses. In order to prevent the Norton Family's armed forces from pursuing them, the Visia Merchant Group's armed forces set fire to the houses in the north of the city. The fire burned for three days and two nights, turning the entire city into ashes. Tens of thousands of innocent people were burned to death, and it was a terrible sight to behold.
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