Fairy Tale Survival with Ability Copying

The smooth gray-black walls reflected a cold metallic sheen beneath the dusk sky.

The barbican gates were sealed shut, and the arrow slits looked grim and menacing. More than a hundred soldiers from the Greatshield Battle Group stood guard atop the walls according to their assigned posts, holding bows and spears.

Mist Swamp was the kind of cursed place outsiders dared not enter and the magical creatures inside rarely dared to leave. Only adventurers with a death wish would venture in. None of these soldiers could understand why their lord would spend such an outrageous price to build such a gigantic wall.

But honestly...

Now that the wall was finished, it really did make people feel safe.

The original walls of Coldwind Keep Town had been so low and flimsy they looked like a farmer's fence—something that would collapse the moment anyone charged into it.

But the colossal wall beneath their feet now...

Even if an army of thousands came attacking, there would be nothing to fear.

As the soldiers stood there letting their thoughts wander, a chaotic eruption of shrieks suddenly exploded from deep within the mist!

The guards froze for a moment. The quicker-reacting soldiers had already snapped their heads toward Mist Swamp ahead of them.

Then they saw it—

Like a black tidal wave, countless kobolds poured out of Mist Swamp in a full-scale swarm. They surged from every stretch where the swamp connected to the circular wall, densely packed beyond measure, numbering in the thousands.

The kobolds of Mist Swamp were hunched creatures covered in rough gray-green hide. Some wore ragged beast pelts, some wore torn leather armor. Some carried stone axes and bone spears, while others simply raised claws gleaming with a cold metallic shine. Their muddy crimson eyes locked onto the circular wall ahead as they charged forward with frenzied howls.

Hooves and claws pounded against the ground, kicking up clouds of dust with terrifying momentum as they attempted to smash through the barrier blocking their path.

In the blink of an eye, the kobold tide reached the base of the wall.

Instinctively, they raised their sharp foreclaws and began frantically clawing at the wall, trying to climb through gaps in the structure.

But in the very next second, despair overtook every kobold present.

The entire wall had been smoothed and polished flat with cement from top to bottom. Levi had even secretly cast Synthesis on it, fusing the bricks and packed earth into a single seamless whole. There was not the slightest crack, not a single depression—there was nowhere to gain leverage whatsoever.

The claws of the Mist Swamp kobolds scraped against the wall, leaving behind only faint white scratches. They simply could not find anything to grip onto.

But the kobolds in the rear had no idea.

They continued charging forward wave after wave, crushing the kobolds trapped at the very front beneath the mass of bodies piling against the wall.

Only then did the soldiers atop the walls finally react.

They shouted as they rang the warning bells provided by the lord's manor.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Rune rushed over with reinforcements. The moment he saw the endless kobold horde stretching across the land, he sucked in a sharp breath.

If not for this wall, nobody knew how many of the territory's people would have died from this single assault alone.

"As expected of Lord Levi... nothing can escape his foresight."

Rune cast a deep glance toward the castle behind them before turning back with a cold expression to assess the battlefield below.

Even without footholds, the kobolds still could not climb the wall.

But they adapted quickly.

Using each other as ladders, they stacked themselves together like a grotesque tower of flesh, attempting to force their way over the walls through sheer numbers alone.

Some kobolds also rushed toward the barbican, attempting to smash through its gates and break into the interior.

Rune naturally had no intention of allowing the kobolds to besiege the city unchecked.

He calmly issued commands. He had drilled the soldiers rigorously, and their bodies had long since developed conditioned reflexes to his orders.

"Archers, prepare!"

"Fire at will!"

"Loose!"

More than a hundred archers stepped up to the crenellations and began firing into the densest clusters of kobolds below.

Aside from the hunters who had touched bows before, most of these men had held a bow for less than ten days. They had merely learned how to shoot—but as for accuracy, only the heavens knew.

Fortunately, in a situation like this, these rookie archers did not need to worry about aiming.

As long as they fired an arrow, it would hit a kobold eventually.

A lucky shot pierced a kobold's skull and killed it instantly.

A worse shot struck a thigh, claw, or even an ass cheek, and the kobolds would simply snap off the arrow shaft and continue fighting.

After firing more than a dozen volleys, the hundred archers were already exhausted. Their arms trembled violently.

The arrows remained.

But they no longer had the strength to keep shooting.

In novels, archers always seemed tireless.

Reality, however, had limits.

Especially for a group of rookie archers like these.

By the standards of real archers, they were honestly unqualified.

They were only good enough to bully unprepared kobolds.

Rune waved his hand and ordered them to withdraw and rest.

Still, those hundred archers had inflicted several hundred casualties upon the kobolds and disrupted the momentum of their siege.

But for a half-maddened horde numbering in the thousands, such losses meant almost nothing.

Once they realized the arrows had stopped, the kobolds howled even more ferociously and charged forward with even greater madness, piling themselves into towering masses of flesh that were already close to reaching the top of the wall.

And at this point...

They had finally entered spear range.

Thus, Sky Knight Rune issued another command. The spearmen began thrusting through the crenellations at any kobolds that entered their attack range.

Meanwhile, the swordsmen patrolled along the walls, remaining mobile at all times. The moment any stragglers managed to climb up, they would immediately move in to finish them off.

Most of these defenders had once been refugees. They had never witnessed such a brutal battlefield before. At first, every one of them looked pale, their hands trembling uncontrollably as they gripped their bows and spears. Quite a few had weak knees, terrified the kobolds might break through the walls. Fear filled their hearts.

But as they watched these savage nonhuman creatures struggle uselessly at the base of the wall, able to do nothing except endure attack after attack, the fear in their hearts gradually faded away.

Their courage rose rapidly.

And little by little, they adapted.

"Thrust!"

Spears shot viciously through the gaps in the battlements, targeting the densest clusters of kobolds.

Without the danger of close-quarters combat, the soldiers fighting from above grew bolder and bolder. Their battle cries shook the heavens as they continuously harvested lives.

On the kobold side, bodies collapsed in waves. Miserable shrieks echoed across the wilderness as corpses piled into mountains beneath the walls. Casualties mounted at an astonishing rate, and the battle had completely turned into a one-sided slaughter.

Yalina, the wolf-eared girl Little Red Riding Hood, Nightingale Miss Odelle, and the others also rushed over. The moment they saw the scene before them, their faces turned pale, yet they simultaneously let out huge sighs of relief.

Rune, meanwhile, looked completely relaxed. This level of slaughter meant nothing to him. He casually spoke to the women while smiling.

"Thankfully, Lord Levi learned in advance that these kobolds would attack and built this incomparably sturdy wall. Otherwise, nobody knows how many people in the territory would have died!"

Yalina and the others nodded repeatedly, their eyes full of relief and gratitude.

As for the wolf-eared girl Little Red Riding Hood, the sight of blood covering the battlefield gave her a far more complicated expression. A faint crimson glow briefly flickered deep within her eyes.

But nobody else noticed.

Yalina glanced at the battlefield and asked worriedly, "There are so many kobolds... will they manage to climb up here?"

Her concern was not unfounded.

The walls were indeed extremely tall—nearly eight meters high, equivalent to the combined height of four or five adults.

But there were simply too many kobolds.

The bodies of the dead were piling up layer upon layer, growing higher and higher.

The surviving kobolds were already standing atop the mountain of corpses, getting closer and closer to the top of the wall.

So Yalina worried that once the corpse pile reached a certain height, the kobolds might simply leap onto the walls directly.

And if that happened...

Things would become dangerous.

Without the protection of the wall, these barely trained soldiers might not be able to stop such a massive number of savage kobolds at all!

Hearing her concerns, Rune nodded.

"Miss Yalina, don't worry. Lord Levi left me a trump card we haven't used yet."

"These kobolds definitely won't break into the city."

The moment they heard that, Yalina and Odelle relaxed considerably.

Rune then turned his gaze back toward the kobolds below, his expression growing serious.

"But something is strange. These kobolds aren't acting normally. Their casualties are already this severe, yet they still haven't collapsed."

"That's not right."

"It's almost like they've been affected by wizardry."

The moment he said that, his sharp eyes caught sight of something within the faint mist—

Several dozen kobolds appeared in the distance. They were noticeably larger than the others, draped in beast pelts and holding bone staves.

These kobolds possessed scales unlike the others—dragon-like scales that radiated a faint draconic pressure. Some had many scales, while others had only a few.

The kobolds with more dragon scales had stronger auras and appeared to hold higher status.

Those with fewer scales were clearly weaker and lower in rank.

Among them was one kobold whose head had mutated so drastically it no longer resembled a normal kobold at all. Instead, it looked more like the head of an evil dragon from ancient statues.

The appearance of these dragon-scaled kobolds immediately revitalized the morale of the kobold army, which had been on the verge of collapse.

"Kobold Shamans!"

Well-traveled and highly knowledgeable, Sky Knight Rune instantly recognized their identity, and his expression became solemn at once.

According to legend, kobolds possessed a trace amount of draconic blood within them, though it was extremely thin. Once they awakened that bloodline, they became Kobold Shamans and gained abilities similar to spellcasting.

The strength of those abilities depended on how much of the bloodline they had awakened.

Some Kobold Shamans were dangerous enough that even the Church's archbishops had to treat them seriously.

Others could not even defeat a Great Knight.

But no matter what, the appearance of several dozen Kobold Shamans would have a tremendous impact on the battlefield.

Because it meant the primitive kobold forces now possessed ranged attack capabilities as well.

And just as expected—

The moment these Kobold Shamans appeared, they raised their bone staves and began chanting spells. Their eyes glowed crimson, while faint grayish-green magical radiance spread around their bodies.

Very quickly, spell-like abilities such as Acid Splash, Thorn Bind, and Weakness Curse blasted toward the soldiers atop the walls.

Sky Knight Rune himself barely had time to react, let alone the soldiers.

Caught completely off guard—

Acid splashed onto the soldiers' bodies, instantly corroding through leather armor and flesh alike.

Thorns burst from the cracks in the walls, binding soldiers' arms and legs.

Those struck by curses felt weakness spread throughout their bodies, drastically reducing their combat strength...

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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> /TitoVillar

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