Chapter 242: Start of The War (3)
The spell-casting tower was actually more of a magic gathering device. The whole tower was constructed with magical runes around it. Spellcasters only needed to use their own concentration to activate the runes, which would then fire out the readied spells.
High-level spell casting towers could actually wield very powerful magics, but it was regretful that they were short on time and could only erect the simpler towers; even that was only thanks to the engineers working at their maximum pace.
Xiao Lin gently touched the black and glossy metal that the magical guidance unit was made of. The magical guidance unit used magic to hone in on enemies. The principles were all part of third year courses, but Xiao Lin did not need to understand the theory behind it at that moment; he only needed to know how to use it.
They had received a crash course on how to operate it from the engineers two days before. It was not hard to use. Xiao Lin put both his hands on the sleek metal board, and after a flash of light, the magical guidance unit started to heat up.
The unit’s point of fire was also very unique. It looked nothing like a cannon, but rather like a flat and long silver piece of metal. The inside of the magical guidance unit was rapidly changing, and in the blink of an eye, the piece of metal had turned red. The color rapidly deepened and was very bright. After that, Xiao Lin felt his hands, which were on the metal plate, start to shake as a shocking stream of air gushed out from behind the tower.
If it was not for the fact that the top of the tower was sealed off, Xiao Lin felt like he might have been blown away by the air. He could not help but remember that the engineers had reminded them that due to the lack of time, the spell-casting towers lacked a lot of parts, such as cushioning devices.
As the firing plate began to glow with enough brightness, the deep red light shot out of the plate. Just like a laser, it exploded among the orc soldiers.
At least four to five of the orcs splattered in that moment, their flesh scattering all over. The thick armor that they wore seemed like paper against an attack from the spell-casting tower.
The offensive power of the tower had shocked the new students, even invoking a great deal of curiosity in them as they started to head out of the fortress and toward the towers.
However, the spell-casting towers were very limited, only consisting of less than one-fifths of the defensive towers around. Most of the towers were archery towers, which were equipped with large crossbows or rapid firing bows. They were less powerful than spell-casting towers and also had less radius of attack.
However, the archery towers could attack rapidly and, in comparison to spell-casting towers, had complicated mechanisms that needed the metallic plates to be switched around after every shot. Captain Yu, the engineer, had told them that the metal plates for these lower level spell-casting towers were perishable, and needed to be switched often or they would overheat, causing the next shot to have a higher chance of destroying the tower and killing the user.
Xiao Lin was definitely not willing to take that risk, hurriedly beginning the reloading process after he shot the first shot. It was the first time he did it, and his movements were clumsy. The metal plate that had just been used was extremely hot. Even if they had prepared clear water in the defensive towers, the reloading process was still quite c.u.mbersome.
After Xiao Lin had led the way, the other defensive towers started to join the attack. The archery towers were much easier to use, sending large arrows into fray. The ones operating the crossbows were all archery course students, so their accuracy was far better than everyone else. However, the large crossbows had a major inconvenience, which was that they were slow to move. Thanks to the fact that the orcs started to cover a wide area after dispersing their formation, the archery towers did not need to move their bows a lot.
The rapid firing of their arrows somewhat mitigated the lack of area damage the arrows provided. Thanks to the fact that they discovered a huge stock of large arrows in the supplies, they did not even need to think about conserving their ammunition.
Even though the spell-casting towers had a long delay between each shot, every attack dealt a shocking amount of damage. These spell-casting towers primarily used fire magic, so the burning effect had set the tall gra.s.s on the plains aflame, delaying the advance of the orcs.
Those standing in the fortress were not idle either. Everyone started to use all the long-range weaponry they had. Even those who did not take any archery courses were utilized, since they could at the very least pull a bow. As long as they fired en ma.s.se, the accuracy did not matter. The orcs had a few thousand troops, and as long as they shot toward the sea of orcs, they could still randomly hit a few enemies.
The orc army was just as frenzied as earlier. Xiao Lin had personally witnessed quite a few orcs with arrows stuck in their bodies, one of them even missing an arm, still charging up the hill undeterred.
On the surface, it looked like Xiao Lin and everyone else had managed to suppress the orcs the entire way. Even if the wolf cavalry had used up their traps earlier, the orc foot soldiers that followed did not seem to have antic.i.p.ated that they would be faced with such a concentrated attack. The orcs probably never antic.i.p.ated that they would be able to erect so many defensive towers in just a few days.
Dawn Academy definitely put in a lot of preparation for this mission. The engineers that followed them were all the elites of Dawn Academy. On one hand, they were sent there to build the resurrection tower, and on the other, they were perfectly willing to divert a portion of their resources toward defending the fortress. The other students all knew how difficult and important the examination was, so no matter how much they complained, no one dared to slack off during the construction.
Without a doubt, the orcs seemed to have antic.i.p.ated Dawn Academy’s amphibious a.s.sault. However, they did not seem to have antic.i.p.ated such a fierce defense. They were definitely very formidable, and the orcs did not show any signs of stopping for the entire afternoon. Wave after wave of them continued to attack as the corpses on the road started to pile up.
Xiao Lin did not know how many metal plates he had gone through, but he had long used up water in the tower. He was definitely unable to retrieve any water in the heat of the battle, but he suddenly remembered the Water Shield spell he learned before the examination.
The spell used a solidified water shield to defend himself, but using the water shield to cool down the metal plates was actually a lot more convenient. If the shield did not get attacked, it could sustain itself for several minutes, and Xiao Lin could even use it continuously.