Niel was surprised to see the large ball of mana that was gathering above New Grenton. As the mana ball grew bigger it then started to be surrounded by a layer of thick ice. The moment Niel saw what was happening he shouted at the mages. "Mages form up! Hit that with the strongest fire spell you know!" The mages tried to attack the orb of ice with fire but due to the rain, all of their fire spells were weakened. Lara who was finally done with her chant unleashed the giant orb of ice upon the enemy army.
As the orb of ice was getting nearer Berold with his large s.h.i.+eld enveloped himself with mana and jumped towards the giant orb of ice.
"Hmph!" Upon contact with the giant orb of ice, Berold felt how dense and heavy it was. He then used every ounce of his power to push it back. The orb of ice slowly cracked from the pressure of Berold"s s.h.i.+eld and as it was about to break Berold noticed an arrow heading his way. Unable to dodge the arrow Berold decided to take the hit and destroy the giant orb of ice. The arrow pierced Berold"s shoulder which was only a few inches away from his neck. Berold was finally able to destroy the giant orb of ice and landed on the ground.
...
Lara who has exhausted a great deal of mana lowered her bow and sighed. If it wasn"t for her fatigue after using such a huge spell the arrow she shot would"ve killed Berold. After that one shot, Lara needed to retreat for the moment as she tried to restore some of her mana.
...
After landing safely on the ground Berold pulled out the arrow that pierced his shoulder. He then retreated back to Niel"s side.
"Can you continue?" Niel asked Berold who looked pretty exhausted. Berold shook his head as he answered.
"I"m sorry my liege, even if my wounds are healed I won"t be able to fight for some time. I have exhausted too much of my mana and my internal injuries are more severe than I thought."
"Very well, concentrate on regaining your mana. I will call for the healers." Hearing what Niel said, Berold went into a lotus position and started to replenish his mana. While watching Berold go into a meditative state, Niel couldn"t help but sigh as he ma.s.saged his temples.
"Hmmm, that girl called Lara was stronger than I expected. Based on the rumors and the reports of the spies I placed there"s another person within New Grenton that was stronger than her. Valdel, someone who has a legendary weapon that could absorb mana. If he joins the fray this might become a bit more difficult. The only ones that could match him on my side would be my personal guards."
Niel then looked at his personal guards, aside from Berold there were three more. A tall man holding a lance in his right hand and a halberd on his left, this person was called Ansger. The one standing next to him who was smiling happily looking oblivious as to what was happening before her, was another one of Niel"s personal guard, Roheisia. Her weapon of choice was a two-handed sword that was larger than her.
The last among the four personal guards was Carak. He was a silent man who uses concealed weaponry. Each of Niel"s personal guard had the same strength and level of skill as Berold.
Seeing how strong Lara was, Niel could presume that to be able to successfully fight Valdel who was rumored to be stronger he needed to use three of his personal guards.
"If Valdel shows up I"ll either be forced to use the card that I was saving for Ren, or I can hope that three of my personal guards could handle him... This would"ve been easier if that foolish older brother of mine was here."
Niel was getting a bit anxious as he watched the boulders loaded into the catapults. .h.i.t the walls of New Grenton. The walls that have been reinforced were able to withstand the attacks for a bit before showing signs of cracks.
...
Iselv who was watching the battle saw the cracks on the reinforced walls. Seeing the cracks he knew that they needed to destroy those catapults. At first, he and Galius had ordered the men to fire arrows at the ones reloading the catapults, seeing as they were the only ones close enough to shoot. But for every man they killed another quickly replaced them. They then tried to use heavy-hitting spells to destroy the catapults but the mages on the enemy"s side would counter. Though some of the spells were able to hit some of the catapults, it wasn"t enough.
"Kithra stop defending and start attacking." Kithra who was blocking some of the incoming boulders heard Iselv"s orders and clicked her tongue. Hearing Iselv order her around made Kithra feel a bit irritated, but she decided to accept their current roles. She then started to switch from defense to offense. The mage corps she led also changed from defense to offense as they targeted the catapults.
...
The moment Kithra and her mage corps stopped blocking the boulders, the other mages who were left defending had a difficult time and were unable to block most of the boulders. Now some of the smaller boulders had reached the inner s.p.a.ces within New Grenton.
Valdel who saw this gathered his mana and sliced the incoming boulders. Rachel and Natasha also helped in destroying the incoming boulders, while Kuro guided the citizens away from the danger zone.
...
Seeing the catapults being destroyed one by one, Niel signaled the foot soldiers and mercenaries he hired to charge forward.
As the incoming wave of soldiers were nearing New Grenton a shower of arrows fell from the sky killing the charging soldiers. Still, even as their companions who were running beside them died in waves the soldiers continued to charge forth. In their minds, they all had the same manic thoughts.
"As long as I get near the walls it would be safer!" The moment some of the soldiers reached the walls they were indeed safe from the arrows, but then were greeted with boiling oil being poured down on them. The other soldiers that were able to reach the wall had brought ladders and started to climb. The other soldiers tried using a battering ram on closed gates.
...
Seeing some of the soldiers were climbing up the walls, Stephan and his men started to burn the ladders. If some soldiers were able to climb up, Stephan and his men would kill them with their swords.
This chaotic battle continued on for hours before Niel and his men stopped their a.s.sault and retreated for the day.