Chapter 407 - 19: Conquering 5 Cities
On the walls of Brelli’s cousin’s city, Al’s army swarmed over the ramparts using various scaling tools. The two sides clashed in close-quarters combat, and the battlefield echoed with deafening war cries.
The ramparts were a crush of bodies, a press of steel against steel. In such a densely packed melee, combat techniques were useless. It all came down to which side had better coordination, superior equipment, and higher stats.
Most of Al’s army was newly recruited, consisting of low-tier and low-level soldiers.
Though they charged fiercely with staggering momentum, they suffered heavy losses.
Brelli’s cousin watched his men easily fend off the attack from Al’s army and burst out laughing. "Al, where are those High-Tier Soldiers of yours from before?"
"Why aren’t you sending them up?"
"Afraid they’ll just be throwing their lives away?"
Al ignored his taunts, silently commanding his army to reduce the intensity of their assault.
According to his intelligence, Brelli’s cousin’s domain had amassed the largest army. Al was here to pin down those forces and prevent them from reinforcing their allies, not to actually send his men to die.
Therefore, while his army’s assault appeared overwhelming, few soldiers were actually rushing onto the walls.
Gradually, the momentum of Al’s siege faltered, and fewer and fewer of his soldiers managed to reach the top of the wall.
Once the soldiers who had reached the ramparts were all dead—or had feigned injury and tumbled back down after a brief skirmish—Al’s army slowly retreated. They stopped a short distance from the city, reformed their ranks, and faced the defenders on the walls.
A wave of cheers erupted from the city walls as the defending soldiers celebrated repelling the enemy’s attack.
"Hahaha, you’re killing me! Is that what you call an attack? And with *that*, you had the gall to demand my surrender?"
"What are you even here for? To feed my soldiers experience points?"
Brelli’s cousin doubled over with laughter. After careful observation, he saw that the troops who had previously routed his Heavy Armor Warriors were nowhere to be found among the attackers. This emboldened him, and he cranked up his taunts.
Al paid his taunts no mind and commanded his men to continue their slow retreat.
Brelli’s cousin watched cautiously for a moment. He saw Al’s army pulling farther and farther away from his walls, their pace quickening.
He hastily ordered the city gates opened and marched his army out, arranging them in formation beneath the walls.
"What’s the matter, Al? Trying to run?"
"What do you think this place is? Somewhere you can come and go as you please?"
"Didn’t you say you wanted to take my domain? Well, come on! My army is right here, and the city is undefended. So why don’t you come and take it!"
At his shouts, Al’s army halted its retreat. They rallied and pressed forward once more.
"Hahaha, that’s more like it! Come on, let’s have another round!"
Seeing that Al’s army was no longer fleeing, Brelli’s cousin took the initiative and launched an attack.
This time, he once again sent out his Heavy Armor Warriors. He put them at the head of his army, intending for them to spearhead the charge and split Al’s forces.
He had seen from the earlier battle that the army Al brought this time was rather weak. All it would take was one powerful charge to break their formation and scatter them.
Then, he could slaughter them—just as Al’s elite troops had done to his Heavy Armor Warriors a little over ten days ago.
On the plain below the city, the two armies clashed once more in a chaotic melee.
This time, not only did Brelli’s cousin have more troops than Al, but they were also stronger. They quickly gained the upper hand, and Al’s hundred-thousand-strong army was steadily beaten back by their assault.
Just as Brelli’s cousin was gleefully preparing to press his advantage and pursue them, the unexpected happened.
As Al’s army was being beaten back, their retreating lines seemed to part, revealing a contingent of cloaked figures poised and waiting behind them.
The Heavy Armor Warriors at the forefront of the charge caught sight of these cloaked figures. Seeing their noticeably taller frames, the Warriors reacted as if they had come face-to-face with their mortal enemies.
With a great shout, they poured through the gap in the line and charged toward the cloaked figures.
These cloaked figures were elves from Lin Yu’s domain. Not only was every one of them a hero-level unit, but they were all of the Druid class.
Seeing the charging Titan Race Heavy Armor Warriors, the Druids made a gentle gesture with their hands. Tendrils of Spiritual Energy flowed from their fingertips into the ground.
A dense, rustling sound emanated from the hard-packed earth.
The next moment, countless brown thorns erupted from the ground in front of the Druids.
Empowered by Spiritual Energy, these thorns were preternaturally sharp, easily capable of piercing the armor of the Heavy Armor Warriors.
Instantly, the first few Heavy Armor Warriors in the charge were impaled, their bodies hoisted into the air on the thorny spikes.
More and more thorns surged toward the Heavy Armor Warriors at incredible speed, like a great, spined dragon lunging forward.
Seeing the gruesome fate of their comrades ahead, the Heavy Armor Warriors hastily tried to scramble out of the way.
But Al’s soldiers were waiting for them on either side. They had been prepared for this moment and had no intention of letting the Heavy Armor Warriors escape as they wished.
Even if their raw strength was no match for the Heavy Armor Warriors, by giving it their all, they could still hold them back for a dozen seconds.
And in those brief dozen seconds, the dragon of thorns swept past them...
"No—my elites... my newly recruited Heavy Armor Warriors..."
Brelli’s cousin watched helplessly from the rear. The charging contingent of Heavy Armor Warriors had been a full forty thousand strong, and in the face of the thorns’ assault, more than half of them were killed outright.