Chapter 1425: Scheme and Counter-Scheme

Three of the seven walls had already been breached. The forces of the dark side had already reached the bottom of the fourth wall.

A patient person could endure hardship and humiliation, retreat, or even give up, but the human alliance had already retreated to the fifth wall. They could not retreat any further. If they did, they would just be digging their own graves.

At this distance, both sides had already entered each other’s attack range. Aziz picked off seven common soldiers in a row while remaining hidden. After that, the human alliance had no choice but to order a stop to the usual patrol, choosing instead to send their elites to deal with the elites.

They were already in dire straits and could not afford to lose any more troops. Each soldier they lost would not only cause a decline in their overall strength, it would also be converted into contribution points for the other side, widening the strength disparity further.

The human alliance had no good ways to deal with Party Ace’s aggressive assault except to mobilise some people to perform emergency repair. After all, except for the first wall of Minas Tirith, the rest of the walls had not been carefully maintained for hundreds of years. Was such an emergency measure useful? Of course! But it was hard to say to what extent.

Eviltusk had once again put on its thick armour and was walking up to the city unsteadily. Although crashing into the city walls was very “painful” work for Eviltusk, it was not the kind of work the Oliphaunt had never done before. Moreover, at least three MTs had buffed it up before it was sent forward.

So after an hour or so of rest, and under the temptation and persuasion of the ultimate killer, “the right to court a female Oliphaunt even outside of mating seasons”, Eviltusk once again came back to the stage full of vigour. When it got close to the fourth wall, it got ready to begin its run-up.

The fourth wall was mottled with stains and burn marks, traces left by the residents of Minas Tirith over hundreds of years. The cracks on it were quite evident.

Under the protection of the first wall, the peace here had lasted for a very long time. The residents living here had long regarded the inner walls as walls for their houses – to support the furniture, to segregate the sewage and to keep out the cold. The damage done to the wall by time and the residents had accumulated for hundreds of years. Now, it was time for them to pay.

Eviltusk’s heavy steps shook the ground. Another violent collision occurred. The fourth wall groaned in protest as broken stones rolled down from it. The construction materials which made up the fourth wall may have been indestructible hundreds of years ago, but now, after the tireless erosion of time, they could no longer withstand the destruction caused by a combination of metal and abnormal strength.

Of course, the human alliance could not just stand by and watch all this happen without doing anything. They instantly poured their attacks on the Oliphaunt. If the fourth wall was also knocked down, the enemy forces would reach their defensive line!

If the enemy’s plan was successful, the enemy troops would only have to travel less than 400 metres from the first wall to the fifth wall to attack them. But if the fourth wall remained intact, the enemy troops would have to detour several kilometres along a winding path to do the same thing.

It was now time to test the patience of both sides. The Corsairs of Umbar and the redeemed Orcs were the best cover one could hope for. They protected the Oliphaunt from either sides, absorbing the enemy’s attacks with their bodies. It took Eviltusk six slams and half an hour to break through the fourth wall. For this purpose, the dark side paid the price of losing 200 Corsairs of Umbar, 180 Orcs and four Trolls.

What followed was a typical night battle. The darkness may have no effect on Legolas, but it was still a major hindrance for most archers.

The first person to launch an attack was none other than Sheyan, who had abruptly appeared beneath the city wall. No one knew when he had even gone there. Although he lacked long-range attacks, the SARS virus that was spreading everywhere had successfully infected a large number of defenders on the city wall, giving rise to a constant stream of screaming and choking sounds. At the same time, the two remaining Ringwraiths swooped down from the air and unleashed their cries of terror to harass the defenders on the wall. The combination of the three had suppressed at least a third of the enemy forces!

While the city defenders were in chaos, Eviltusk had already smashed into the fifth wall!

The decisive battle of Minas Tirith had now truly begun.

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This was fated to be a bloody battle, a battle in which neither side had any room for retreat.

The intensity of the battle was evident from one point alone – Sheyan fell into a state of near death three times! Fortunately, every time it happened, he managed to run away thanks to the ‘Life-Link’ he shared with Reef.

And this had happened despite Sheyan possessing the terrifying ‘Hedgehog’ title and the enemy’s attacks were mostly made up of long-range attacks. Even in such a condition, it did not stop the enemy’s determination to focus their firepower on Sheyan.

That was because, every time he got close to the city wall, his Pestilence Aura would make the archers and shooters extremely miserable. If they did not immediately chase Sheyan away, it would greatly affect their side’s combat power.

In the beginning, it was due to their overconfidence that the powerful Eviltusk was able to slam into the fifth wall three times in a row. Large cracks were already forming on the wall. The wall would surely be broken through if they let the Oliphaunt crash into the wall one more time.

Therefore, they had no choice but to use the countermeasure they had prepared ahead of schedule – they used an ancient magic scroll to seal Eviltusk away. But thanks to Sauron furiously interfering with the sealing process, the seal would only last for less than two hours, and after being released from the seal, Eviltusk would return in peak condition.

This measure was akin to drinking poison to quench thirst. It means that within two hours, the defending side must beat the attacking side back and cause a heavy enough damage to them. Otherwise, Eviltusk would return with a vengeance and give them a devastating blow, and they could only further retreat to the sixth wall! But this retreat would cause their morale, that had only been built up after much difficulty, to hit rock bottom. More importantly, if they could not even defend the fifth wall for longer than half a day, how long would the sixth wall last?

Therefore, in the ensuing battle, both sides threw everything they had at each other. The battle was unbelievably intense. Every time the attacking side stormed the wall, at least five or six soldiers would be killed during the charge, but if they successfully climbed to the top of the wall, then every attacking soldier could kill at least three defending archers who lacked close combat abilities.

The bloodbath lasted until dawn. The human alliance had reached a consensus that the key to this battle was the demonised Oliphaunt, Eviltusk, as it was the only thing that could threaten the walls. Therefore, after Eviltusk slammed into and broke through the fifth wall, the long prepared human alliance launched a fierce counter attack, concentrating their efforts on bringing down the war beast at all costs!

Under Sheyan’s suggestion, the dark alliance took an uncompromising stance, matching the enemy’s ferocious attacks with ferocious attacks of their own. The end result was out of everyone’s expectations!

Eviltusk was successfully killed by the human alliance. Moreover, the human alliance did not lose any of their heroic storyline characters. Even the contestants had not suffered much casualties. On the contrary, they had even managed to kill a Ringwraith. Percival had also lost several of his subordinates.

The reason the human alliance had achieved such a magnificent result was not because the brains of those in the dark alliance had suddenly short-circuited. It was because the dark alliance had decided to use Eviltusk as bait to focus on wiping out as many of the ordinary soldiers as they could.

The human alliance had intended to use these soldiers as cannon fodder from the start. Therefore, during the early stages of the battle, they were really happy to see what the enemy was doing, smugly thinking that they had caught the dark alliance by surprise. But during the late stages of the battle, even after they had realised the enemy’s intention, they could no longer change their battle plan. Could they really give up on the half-dead Eviltusk and retreat? Could they really give up on the Ringwraith that had lost a foot and leave so resolutely?

Therefore, when dawn broke, the fifth wall of Minas Tirith had been dyed red with blood. Corpses could be seen everywhere.

The human alliance’s plan could be considered a success. Not only had they won the confrontation, they had also killed Eviltusk, the biggest threat to the city walls. They had also reaped a lot of extra benefits. In terms of statistics, they had achieved 113% of the established goal.

However, the price they paid was unbearably high!! At least 2500 city defenders had died in this raid! Their death was not in vain, of course, for they had gained a lot of precious time for the main force’s surprise attack. However, if given the choice, the human alliance would rather lose both Legolas and Gimli than lose those 2500 soldiers!

That was because they only had about three thousand soldiers to begin with!

The relationship between the powerful figures and the common soldiers was very similar to the relationship between the branches and the leaves. It did not matter if the leaves wither by the hundreds, for the branches were the foundational support structure. However, if the leaves of a tree were all gone, it would not matter if the trunk and branches were still intact; the tree would still die!

Sheyan’s plan was clear. He wished to trade the lives of their troops for the lives of enemy soldiers. He implemented this plan so thoroughly that he did not mind exchanging the lives of their own elite troops for the lives of common enemy soldiers, even if it seemed like a foolish thing to do.