Chapter 648: Meaningless Deaths (Part 1)

When one was being burned alive, the pain was unimaginable. That was the reason why all the records related to hell in the Holy See’s Ancient Classics described it as a fiery place.

All non-believers would have to be tortured by the flames of hell.

The soldiers that were climbing the city wall were clearly believers of God. Flames were spurting out from between the cracks in their armor. These soldiers continued climbing anyway. They were numb from pain and single-mindedly wanted to continue climbing for God.

The city wall was thirty yards high. Even without the flames, it was not an easy task for the soldiers to climb the city wall successfully. Once the kerosene started burning, the sticky liquid on the soldiers’ gloves began to evaporate. More than one-hundred soldiers were about to reach the top of the city wall, but the sticky liquid on their gloves finally lost all effects and they fell back down again.

The spirits of the dead on the city wall used bows and arrows as their weapons. A rain of arrows was shot by the iron arrow vehicles, shooting down all the spirits of the dead that had dared to venture out. The unlucky spirits of the dead that were shot in the skull and the flames of their souls would dissipate with an explosion and they would fall onto the ground. No one knew if they would return to the death dimension due to their serious injuries or if they would just die on Myers Mainland.

Saleen did not mobilize all his forces, at least he did not order all the catapults to destroy the iron arrow vehicles. He was not afraid of dragging out the fight. In fact, the longer he dragged, the less tricks the enemy would have up their sleeves. He would allow the enemy to hold onto some hope first, hence he did not even allow the mages to release war puppets to kill the foot soldiers beneath the city wall yet.

The Tanggulasi soldiers that were covered in flames began to reach the top of the city wall successfully and fought with the spirits of the dead. The embrasure on the wall of Metatrin City was built very high. When the enemy shot their arrows at an angle, only the soldiers that revealed their heads would risk getting shot. Only by shooting in a lob would the people hiding behind the wall have a chance of being hit. This was when Saleen deployed heavy-armored soldiers to fight against the enemy.

In actual fact, there were only about three-thousand spirits of the dead within a circumference of two miles. Their main combat skills included archery and fighting with humans. Although their technique was terrible, their strength was on par with humans.

There were few knights in Metatrin City mainly because the training for riding was difficult. The number of heavy-armored soldiers had never been low because the barbarians and Caucasus people did not require any training to battle in heavy armor. Most of the soldiers recruited by Saleen were those that already knew swordsmanship. He rarely recruited peasant soldiers.

Saleen treasured these farmers very much. It was easy to learn how to plant seeds into the soil. In order for grain to be mass-produced, he would need farmers with at least a decade of experience, and magic fluid.

Under Saleen, even slaves could become professional soldiers.

There were five types of heavy armors and the ones that Saleen had just deployed were soldiers fully clad in metal armor. Such heavy armors were suitable for keeping the enemies at bay, but other than that, they were difficult to wear, bring around, take it apart, and construct. If they continued to stay on the city wall, these heavy-armored soldiers would be able to stop the enemy knights’ charge.

Full metal heavy armors would be able to stop normal crossbow arrows easily. Each soldier wielded a short blade in the left hand and a short spear in the right. The moment Tanggulasi soldiers climbed over the city wall, hundreds of heavy-armored soldiers charged forward to engage them.

These soldiers did not need to conserve energy. With the help of the mages’ potence spell, hundreds of soldiers ran at full speed. Even as they wore armors of more than fifty pounds and wielded metal short spears they crashed into the Tanggulasi soldiers.

The Tanggulasi soldiers were wearing light armor. The impact alone flattened more than one-hundred of the Tanggulasis soldiers that successfully climbed over the city wall. It was as if they were a tsunami that fattened everything in its wake. With thunderous footsteps, hundreds of full metal heavy-armored soldiers charged past their enemies. They then steadied themselves and turned back to get ready to charge again.

The Tanggulasi soldiers that had managed to climb over the city wall were already burning in flames. Their vision was blurred and they were no match for the heavy-armored soldiers who had also been boosted with a Potence spell. It was no wonder. Saleen’s side consisted of so many low-level mages and they were the defending side. Their city walls were thirty yards high and Saleen could suppress any of the enemy’s spells or divine spells. If they could not even contain the enemy from climbing over the city wall while they were at full strength, then they would be too useless.

Underneath the city wall, more than ten low-level holy priests combined their efforts to cast Glorious Impact. A beam of white holy light shot violently towards the city wall. Momentarily, a passageway that was more than fifty yards wide opened and the flames that were burning on the city wall were extinguished by the holy light.

The surrounding soldiers rushed towards these fifty yards of safety and climbed for their lives.

The spirits of the dead that were guarding this stretch of fifty yards were having a tough time now. Although they could shoot arrows much faster than humans, they were also less accurate. It was not surprising that low-level divine spells could extinguish fires. Even with the effect of Dante’s Sequence on the city wall, the Tanggulasis still screamed at the top of their lungs while charging under the holy light.

Five-hundred yards away, the iron arrow vehicles were still shooting. More than ten of these vehicles had also adjusted their angle and began to shoot at a lob. By doing so, they began to pose more of a danger to the soldiers on the city wall. Saleen was aware of this, but did not activate the knights. He knew that heavy-armored soldiers would not be hit so easily, but it was much easier to hit knights due to their larger surface area. Even if the arrows hit the warhorses instead of the knights, the latter could still suffer heavy injuries from the fall.

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More and more uninjured soldiers began to climb over the city wall, but were all stunned when they finally succeeded. There was a ten yard wide passageway on the city wall. This passageway was wide enough for warhorses and chariots to travel on. Behind the passageway was a cluster of complicated and strange buildings.

There were watchtowers at intervals of every five yards. Underneath them was the ten yard wide passageway, but on top of them were embrasures on the sides. Every soldier that attacked the top of the city wall would have to watch out for crossbow arrows from both sides.

Saleen saw that no arrows were shot out from the embrasures as the enemy consisted of only light-armored soldiers. More than ten low-level mages commanded war puppets to join the heavy-armored soldiers to engage the Tanggulasi soldiers.

Grand Bishop Nicholas saw that his soldiers had managed to reach the top of the city wall and had occupied an area that was fifty yard wide. He was pleased at first, but started frowning soon after. There was no way the enemy’s defense would start crumbling so quickly. Regardless of how many soldiers managed to climb up the city wall through this fifty yard wide passageway, the area they occupied did not expand.

All the soldiers that had climbed onto the city wall were contained within these fifty yards. This was clearly a plan to weaken their side.

“Kane, when will your soldiers join in the attack?” Grand Bishop Nicholas sighed to himself and called the Tanggulasi corp leader by a more intimate name even though the former’s identity was far superior than the latter’s.

The corp leader put down his alchemy binocular and said to Nicholas, “Bishop, as you can see, the enemy’s defense is tight and they are at full strength. Our arrow vehicles were ineffective and did not injure many of them. If we send out our main forces now, we will suffer heavy losses. It is better to wait until the enemy is tired out.”

“Kane, unless I have three-hundred-thousand men to attack from both sides and pressurize the enemy on a battle line of more than ten miles wide, the enemy will never be tired out,” Grand Bishop Nicholas explained his concerns.

There was no way there were lesser than fifty-thousand soldiers or ten-thousand residents in this city. All their information was wrong. If he wanted to take down this city, he would have to pin his hopes on the people from the supreme court. Unless he exhausted his own forces to a certain degree, those three fellows would only continue to watch from afar.

“Or else, we could request the Pope to send over high-level holy priests and heavy equipment.”

Nicholas laughed bitterly and said, “How far have we traveled? Twenty-thousand miles? Or was it twenty-five-thousand miles? Even if the Pope was willing to accede to our request, we do not have enough grain to survive till then.”

The corp leader became speechless too. They were too far away from his own empire. If holy priests flew non-stop without eating or drinking, would they be able to travel two-thousand miles in one day? There was no way holy priests would be able to reach them in half a month even if they had been boosted by divine spells. He knew that their grain would only last them for four days. In the end, they could only depend on themselves.

“Won’t those three fellows obey the Pope’s order?” The corp leader could not accept it. He was still hoping that the people from the supreme court would attack first. Once the jailers start to attack, his own twenty-thousand soldiers would follow behind and they would stand a chance of breaking through the city gate.

“What can I do if they choose not to obey? I’m only afraid that we will no longer be able to return to the Glorious Plains. Kane, you have to be willing to sacrifice your soldiers’ lives. Launch a big-scale attack tonight. I will discuss it with the three of them again.”

Nicholas’ words were depressing and the corp leader replied furiously, “My Lord, as a member of the Solomon family, we are not afraid to die in battle! Go and talk to the three of them. At ten pm tonight, I will rally my army to launch an attack. If they choose to watch from afar, I will never forgive them even if I’m dead!”

“Hmm, go and collect the holy medicine and let your soldiers rest first. Perhaps we should delay for two more hours and attack at midnight instead.” Grand Bishop Nicholas knew that even if they managed to enter the city, they would not have the upper hand in urban warfare. Based on the defense of the top of the city wall, there were more mages in this city than most of the other cities in Qin.

What Nicholas did not understand was that the way this city was built seemed to be a waste. The enemy could have used the same amount of resources to build ten cities of similar scale and even build up Broken Blade Pass to stop his attack. Instead, the enemy chose to concentrate all its resources on the white city instead.

Of course, he would never know that Saleen built this city in order to protect the dimensional teleportation portal. After Jason arrived, he would open up the teleportation portal that would lead to the interdimensional space. The importance of this teleportation portal surpassed that of ten big cities. If the teleportation portal was not secured, mages that entered the interdimensional space would never be able to return.

Saleen was even more confused than Nicholas. On the city wall, he saw that at the rear of the enemy’s armies were the main forces and the five-thousand strong black-armored army. They had not made any moves. Those three terrifying fellows had returned amongst the black-armored army and did not launch any attacks on the city wall.

The attacks underneath the city wall never stopped. Were they trying to tire out his soldiers? With the number of soldiers he had, they would be able to rotate with each other to defend this two-mile wide city wall. Even if they fought for half a month, his soldiers would not be fatigued.

Such tactics were ineffective against Saleen. The number of soldiers that could climb up to the city wall was few and far between. His mages could hide within the buildings completely and support the soldiers and knights in front of them. If not for the fact that the enemy still possessed a very strong main force, Saleen would not even have to be there personally.