Chapter 790: I Wouldn’t Know
Arrows rained down around Virve as she charged, but at a range of one hundred paces, she had little to fear from the human defenders firing down at her from atop the wall.
Unlike Ollie, Virve had faced the attacks of archers before. Where Ollie stopped to raise a defensive barrier, Virve kept moving, dodging to the left and right or stopping suddenly to break the rhythm of her dash as she advanced on the stairs that led to the top of the wall.
Compared to the uncanny aim of the Glass Eyed Clan or the sudden ambush attacks of the Heartwood Clan’s archers, the human defenders were merely adequate, rather than exceptional, and only an exceptional archer could have hit the evasive Oak Witch as she charged.
Her efforts to evade the archers didn’t come without cost. In the time it took for her to cross fifty paces, five soldiers carrying shields and heavy, flagged maces had descended from the walls, spreading out to form a human barrier between Virve and the stairs.
"Hold!" Sir Cathal shouted from atop the stairs. "Hold the line! Archers, fall back to the far side of the gatehouse! Rally at the gate to fire on the giants when they breach the inner gate!"
At this point, Virve and Ollie had achieved their first mission. With the archers withdrawing from the walls, the men of the Black Wolf Brigade were free to dash across the open field and charge through the gate as soon as Captain Ipiktok’s men broke through. Between the Tuscan Giants and the Golden Eyed elite skirmishers, the Summer Villa was certain to fall.
But Virve wasn’t content to frighten her enemy into abandoning their posts. She had come for blood!
"RAAAAARRR!!!"
With a bellow so loud that it frightened the defenders into taking half a step back, Virve charged the center of the soldiers’ formation, lashing out with darksteel claws. Empowered with the strength of Oak, the iron-bound and reinforced Sally Gate had shattered and splintered under her claws. When she attacked a simple shield with the same fury and force, the result was even more devastating.
-CRACK-