Badge in Azure

Chapter 725: Execution (Part 1)

Chapter 725: Execution (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Qin army only possessed 24 catapults but their accuracy surpassed that of the 100 catapults set up by winged skull. The catapults in the city were clustered so after two rounds of both sides heaving rocks at each other, Qin has already lost half of their catapults while 52 of those in the city were destroyed.

Fortunately, the catapults in the city were made of bones and not of metal components so when they were crushed, there were no wooden shards flying around.

The bone catapults that had been crushed became a dismantled pile of components. Only those soldiers that were hit by the rocks directly were unfortunately killed.

At this point in time, the side that had more catapults gained the upper hand. The city was only left with 50 or so catapults while the Qin army was left with 12. As both sides continued to launch rocks at each other, it was clear that the Qin catapults would never be able to match the speed of those in the city, no matter how quickly they threw.

In the end, there were 13 bone catapults left within the city while only two remained outside. These two catapults no longer posed a threat to the soldiers in the city while the 13 bone catapults were also ineffective in stopping the enemy soldiers from advancing.

Very soon, Qin’s attacking equipment reached the bottom of the city wall. The 13 catapults were unable to destroy the iron rams. After killing a number of soldiers, the gigantic iron ram crashed into the city gate. The city gate was crushed by the sharp ram that was two meters long.

A small door opened at the bottom of the ram and Qin light-armored foot soldiers charged through the city gate. More than a hundred soldiers were hidden in the gigantic ram. Another door opened at the back of the ram. The Qin soldiers would be able to make use of this iron ram, that was more than 10 meters long, to charge directly into the city.

All the equipment that Antos has prepared for this attack specifically targeted this small town. The town’s city wall was very thick and would not be destroyed even by magic catapults but its city gate was made of wood and an external layer of red bronze.

Red bronze were usually difficult to tear apart due to their high resilience but the Qin ram was a formidable equipment. The Qin soldiers continuously placed hardwood underneath the ram in place of metal tracks. Even the hardwood that were a foot thick were crushed. Under the effect of the magic array, the huge metal chain pulled at the gear, allowing the ram to crash at the city gate at a speed of more than 30 miles an hour.

The catapults and arrows could only kill the soldiers placing the hardwood, but they were unable to stop the metal ram.

Cuisi led three demons to the city gates and clashed into the Qin foot soldiers entering the city. There were 50 light-armored and heavy-armored foot soldiers each and they guarded the entrance of the city gate, paving the way for those behind.

Lola pulled out his horse-killing sword and was about to attack when Cuisi held onto him and said, “Don’t bother. That skeleton let the enemy in on purpose.”

Lola took a closer look. Indeed, there were quite a number of soldiers around the city gate but only slightly more than a hundred skeletons rushed forward to engage the enemy. The Qin foot soldiers guarding the city gate used metal heavy shields to block off the skeletons without any intentions of retaliating.

What the Qins planned to do was to allow the soldiers from behind to enter the city through the ram. They would quickly take over the advantageous terrains before attacking all the way up to the top of the city wall. By attacking from both inside and outside, they would be able to take down this small town.

“What should we do?” Lola saw that winged skull had his own ideas and asked Cuisi.

“I will go and see Bing. The three of you will continue to keep watch nearby. Aiwa, if the enemy sends heavy-armored foot soldiers and may be too overwhelming, go and stop them for a while. Don’t lose this place for real.”

“Yes.” Aiwa took out his new weapon, a huge meteor hammer. This meteor hammer had a four-meter long chain and the diameter of the hammer was about half a meter. On top of it was a triangular metal spikes that were a foot long. This meteor hammer of Aiwa’s would be able to crush most metal shields.

Tolesi retreated carefully with his six mages. Under such circumstances, he had no wish to charge at the front because the Qins might bring along big crossbows that could kill mages.

The six white-robed mages were nervous as well. They would never be able to cast spells on their own companions. Fortunately, the demons did not force them to do so, only to watch from afar. 100 foot soldiers blocked the city gates while batches after batches of foot soldiers rushed towards the metal ram.

At the end of the metal ram was a door that was three meters wide. Its interior would allow for soldiers in full armors to pass through. More than 10 smaller metal rams soon appeared to form a wall to allow soldiers to enter the passageway without being attacked by the arrows.

Cuisi walked up to the top of the city wall and saw winged skull looking down the city wall with his subordinates. The skeleton soldiers were shooting downwards very slowly and disinterestedly.

“Bing...”

“Cuisi, I am going to assassinate the battalion commander in that army. He will have a sorcerer by his side so it will be a little troublesome. Will you go with me?” Winged skull spoke to Cuisi with his back turned against him.

“Okay, do you want Lola and the rest to come up too?”

“No need. The two of us will be enough.” Winged skull grabbed his giant axe with one hand and pointed at a distance with the other and said, “That battalion commander is still four miles away. Once he is within a mile, we will go.”

“1,000 meters... I can’t travel so quickly.” Cuisi hesitated. His flying abilities were not as good as winged skull’s.

“Surely you can reach in 30 seconds? The enemy only has a grade seven mage. He will not be able to prepare any spells of a large scale in such a short time. But he will have the chance to release a scroll so my plan is...”

“I understand. In order to release a grade eight scroll in 30 seconds, it must be an attack on a single target. As for which one of us will be attacked, it will have to depend on luck,” Cuisi said coldly.

“Hmm, after casting a grade eight scroll, this sorcerer will use up all his mental strength. Whoever is not injured by the attack will kill the sorcerer while the one attacked by the grade eight spell will kill the battalion commander.”

Seeing Cuisi’s hesitation, winged skull asked, “You don’t dare?”

“Why not!” Cuisi’s ego was pricked. The enemy was only a grade seven sorcerer. He would not fear going against him one-to-one. The only thing was that the enemy also had a few other grand mages. If they were also able to cast grade seven scrolls, then he might be in danger.

Nevertheless, this probability was small. After all, not everyone was as rich as Saleen to be able to use so many high-level scrolls to attack. Since the enemy was an elite army, it was entirely possible that the grade seven sorcerer would possess a grade eight scroll.

“Then we will just have to gamble on our luck.” Winged skull could see from a distance that the Qin army kept advancing. There were also two catapults that were seeking the coordinates of the catapults in the city. The battalion commander was also advancing with the rest of the army under the protection of the sorcerer.

This battalion commander was cautious. The entire army moved as one under his command. He was a talent. Unfortunately, he opposed Master so it would be better if he was dead.

Just as winged skull had guessed, the battalion commander was originally harboring thoughts of retreat. If their metal ram had failed to successfully crash the city gate, he would have ordered his army to retreat. However, it seemed as if the death sorcerer that Mu En was disguising as had used up all his mental strength since he no longer casted any more high-level spells. Instead, he only used low-level death spells to attack the soldiers closest to the city wall.

Now that the city gate has been damaged, more and more foot soldiers entered the city. They began to use heavy axes to hack away while a low-level mage managed to sneak in and cast a fireball, hoping to increase the size of the hole in the city gate.

Even so, the death sorcerer that Mu En was disguising as still did not interfere.

The Qin battalion commander thought an opportunity had presented itself so he commanded the entire army to advance towards the city gate on the north side. The Qin army possessed sufficient equipment and the foot soldiers were not clustered together. Each one of them held a shield to protect themselves against arrows. All sorts of chariots spread out to provide coverage for the soldiers that were advancing. The big crossbow arrows shot out from the chariots became very effective when they were within two meters of the city wall.

These two-meter long crossbow arrows could penetrate half of the city wall. As they lodged themselves within the city wall, the Qin foot soldiers began to make use of them to climb up the city wall.

If the town was to depend on the new recruits without winged skull, there was no way they could repel the Qins’ attack.

Everything was done in order. More than 20 chariots even shot out big arrows lit with flame towards the arrow tower within the small town. This arrow tower was made of wooden blocks instead of metal. Although all wooden materials have been processed to ensure that they were not flammable, the gigantic fire arrows were too powerful. They created a crater in the arrow tower and the entire tower began to burn.

The fire arrows carried fuel so even if a building was built from rocks, it would still burn. Kerosene began to splatter in all directions and the soldiers in the arrow tower all scrambled out like mad. Just like that, the town lost its arrow tower in the north.

Winged skull did not seem to care. The big crossbow in the arrow tower would not pose a threat to the enemy. He ordered the jade skeletons to monitor the death archers closely so that they would protect the alchemy crossbow and not allow it to be destroyed by catapults. He turned back to look at Cuisi and said, “Another 200 meters. Let’s get ready.”

Cuisi nodded. His beautiful looks began to transform as his body expanded continuously. A gigantic metal armor sprang out from his belt on his waist and covered up his chest and back. Cuisi began to grow up to more than eight meters tall.

Winged skull was in awe of the power hidden in Cuisi’s body. A demon’s body was really resilient. Surely a huge figure like this would attract the attention of the sorcerer?

He had already thought it through. If he flew over with Cuisi at the same time, the enemy sorcerer would surely target Cuisi because his figure was too intimidating. There was more than 90 percent chance that that grade eight spell would strike Cuisi.

The Qin battalion commander was almost 1,100 meters away. At the back of the armor worn by winged skull, a pair of bony wings grew and extended out from both sides. Black death runes began to move on the bony wings. Winged skull picked up his big axe and said, “Another 100 meters. Hurry up!”

A pair of gigantic wings sprang out from Cuisi’s back as well. The spirits of the dead around him were all nudged away. The pair of shoes on Cuisi’s feet had vanished and in their place were a pair of feet with sharp toes that hooked onto the city wall.

“Cut the crap!”

“Go!”

The rage in Mu En’s shout was so clear that almost all the Qin soldier underneath the city wall heard it.

“Kill them all!” Mu En was close to losing his voice from all the shouting. Winged skull and Cuisi flew up as he shouted. They flew towards the center of the Qin army and their target was that grade seven mage and the battalion commander.

The enemy’s attack would stop immediately once they defeated these two people and no matter how many soldiers entered the city, it would be useless.