Chapter 246: Xiao Lin’s Supervision of the Battle
At dawn the next day, everyone was still fast asleep when the low and rapid sound of war drums rang just before the sun came up. Amidst the loud drumming, the well-prepared orc infantry had already begun to advance towards the foot of the mountain from the plains.
Although there would always be people who expected the orcs to give up the siege due to the heavy losses, their hopes were quickly dashed. With shouts and yells, they woke everyone who was still asleep and quickly put on their equipment before heading to the fortress wall.
Based on the decision of the previous day’s meeting, the number of people sent out to board the defense towers were two instead of one. The additional person would be responsible for a.s.sisting in replacing and cooling the firing port’s metal pieces. The archer tower also required a.s.sistance, with additional manpower tasked to pull the bowstring so the person shooting it would only need to aim and fire. That way, their efficiency would be greatly improved.
Xiao Lin was injured, but after waking up in the morning, he actually felt that the pain had subsided considerably. However, he was unsure whether it was due to the effectiveness of the healer’s medicine or if it was the healing effect of his own primary dragon blood. Simply put, he felt able enough to join in the battle, but many people stopped him from doing so.
Xiao Lin had bravely volunteered to battle the day before, causing many of the acting monitors to feel as though they lost some of their pride. If he was allowed to enter the battlefield with injuries, everyone else’s admiration for him would probably skyrocket to levels of worship.
For members of one’s own cla.s.s to admire another acting cla.s.s monitor was utterly unacceptable, at least in the eyes of someone like Han Manman. For that reason, they tried their best to stop Xiao Lin from going out to battle again that day.
Meanwhile, individuals like Cheng Ming, Chen Dao, and the others, did so out of kindness. The battle had only just begun and Xiao Lin did not have to be so desperate. Chen Dao even pouted and remarked, “You underestimate us a little too much! If your absence means this fortress can be breached, there’ won’t be any need to continue the exam anymore. We can just surrender and go back to the academy!”
In the end, Xiao Lin heeded everyone’s opinion and chose to supervise the battle from the top of the wall. In fact, he was still rather worried that the incomplete recovery of his injury would affect his use of swordsmanship. As a result, he did not dare to loosen the bandage before he was completely healed, so the only role he could do was supervise the battle.
The orcs lost nearly one-fifth of their troops a day ago, but they still poured in after spreading out the area they covered. They still had an absolute advantage in terms of numbers, but compared to the previous day, the freshmen on the fortress were much more mentally prepared. No longer rookies who barely survived the battle’s early stages, they no longer have the same panicked look they had a day ago when they saw the huge number of orcs.
Xiao Lin’s duty to supervise the battle was only nominal. Most of the time, he could only choose to watch the battle silently from one side. That was the cause of embarra.s.sment for most melee specialists, and also formed the reason for the willingness to ascend the defense tower to help out. The previous day’s battle made them realize that Planet Norma’s people were not pushovers. One could not hope to finish them off just by taking a bow and arrow to them.
The orcs’ special physique afforded them defensive strength, even when their skin was bare. If a layman—someone who was not a professional archer and had insufficient strength to fire arrows—tried to shoot, the result would hardly have any lethal effect.
Xiao Lin did not take archery courses and was therefore unable to express any opinion on that. He observed the orcs’ attack and found that it did not weaken at all compared to the previous day. In any case however, the number of individuals were lesser, and even though there were fewer archer towers, the flame b.a.l.l.s and arrows raining from the sky was still capable of suppressing the orcs.
The orcs in the front row were directly blown into bits by the oncoming flame b.a.l.l.s. Any remaining orcs that were still alive became hedgehogs after a slew of arrows pierced them. Those arrows were fired by the large crossbow and was even sharper than an épée, capable of piercing the orcs’ hard skin without any difficulty.
Xiao Lin looked back at the endless turquoise sea. The silver fleet that was suspected to be the elves has not moved at all since the earlier day. The acting cla.s.s monitors began to believe that the fleet really was just watching everything in safety while the others engaged in the fight.
Even so, Xiao Lin did not dare to let his guard down. Regardless of how the other cla.s.ses dealt with those elves, he always arranged someone from his own cla.s.s to keep watch of the fleet even if that meant the person would have to ignore the attacking orcs.
Gu Xiaoyue had only learnt the Ice Bullet as her offensive spell, but it was incredibly powerful because of her own strength. In fact, its effect was no weaker than the strongest low-level spell, which was the Flame Ball. The slowing-down effect produced by the ice bullet could effectively contain the momentum of the orcs’ charging vanguard.
In addition, Gu Xiaoyue’s method of casting spells was simple and quick. She could complete several complex gestures in the blink of an eye. Whether in terms of spell casting efficiency or destructive power, she was more or less as effective as ten other ordinary students.
When Xiao Lin shifted his gaze from Gu Xiaoyue to the other spellcasting freshmen, the sight was too horrible to endure. Xiao Lin casually observed a few people and saw that their casting actions were all wrong. A direct consequence was that either the gathered elements became less dense, or the formation was defective after everything was combined. The impact on the spell’s power was significant, and failure to cast spells was a very common sight.
Xiao Lin finally could not stand it anymore, and moreover, he felt that he should at least be doing something. The simulation battle was just as important to everyone else as it was to him, and simply watching without doing anything made him feel very uneasy.
“Hey, your moves are wrong. You have to straighten your forearm, otherwise you won’t be able to gather enough elements!”
“Tell me, why are you chanting so softly! Are you from a family of mosquitoes or something? The fire element is a violent one. If you don’t manifest it more carefully, you won’t succeed in casting the spell!”
“For heaven’s sake! Don’t close your eyes when you throw the flame ball. You may be a girl, but you can’t be that scared right? Your perception level isn’t high enough that you can accurately aim your spell with your eyes closed!”
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The other acting monitors were helpless when they found that Xiao Lin was zealously beginning to perform his duties in supervising the war. In fact, many of them might not necessarily be unaware of such a basic principle: mistakes in the course of a tight situation might be excusable, but the kind of mistakes they made would be difficult to change later on if such bad habits were not corrected.
Everyone was fully engaged in the battle after the battle started, and there was really not much time to pay attention to everyone else. However, since Xiao Lin was only a bystander for the time being, many of those mistakes were swiftly corrected after he gave them a reminder.
That was not enough to satisfy Xiao Lin. Since he had learned the modified Flame Bomb and also studied the original Flame Ball, he personally felt that the original spell’s casting method was too c.u.mbersome. Even if he did not simplify the Flame Ball to the level of the Flame Bomb, it was still beneficial to improve it slightly.