Each grenade cost the Wolfing gang a tidy little sum. They are consumables that cannot be reused, unlike rifles that can be repaired and pa.s.sed on. Naturally, they would want to use them only when necessary, and would not want to waste them.But to use some to kill a dangerous 2nd stage cultivator, should not be a waste, right?
The remaining 2 bandit officers charged into the red water. They sprinted across the moat as fast as they could, while being on guard against Seth"s arrows.
As for the arrows fired from the crossbows of the city"s soldiers? And the ballista bolts from the ballistae? Unless their eye of forewarning death tells them anything, they would just ignored those. The accuracy of a common archer should not have any chance of finding the gaps in their armor while they"re in motion, and they do not believe that a mere mortal city like Haradur city could have more than a few good archers, or that all their good archers would be placed at a single wall.
When it comes to shooting down targets, moving targets are always more difficult to kill than stationary ones. That applies to both beginner and expert snipers.
Although he is better than the common cultivator, Seth does not specialize in using the bow. He too, finds it difficult to target the small gaps in the armors of those sprinting bandits, and he does not have enough of those arrows designed to pierce through armors to spare them for weakening his opponents.
Seth could guess that his opponents are up to something, but he decided to wait and see what they would do.
When they reached about 50 meters away from the wall, the bandit officers reached into their waist pockets and pulled some things out.
When Seth saw the bandits bring out pineapples to toss, he laughed. This is a chance for him to do some target practice!
The bandit officers tore the safety pins off of their grenades, and threw them with all their strength!
The grenades flew at Seth. Having been thrown with the full strength of some early heroic bearings stage cultivators, they would only take a few seconds to travel the full 50 meters!
"Cover your faces and back away!" Seth yelled to his soldiers. Having already shouted a warning, he no longer cared to look after them. Instead, he nocked an arrow onto his bowstring as quick as he could.
He aimed at a grenade, shot, nocked another arrow, and shot at the another grenade. He does not have the skill to fire two arrows at the exact same time, but he was accurate enough, and he was fast enough, that he was able to strike the two grenades in the air before they could reach him.
BOOM BOOM
The 2 grenades exploded into clouds of black smog in mid air, nearly 15 to 20 meters away from Seth. Their blasts were unable to reach him, but some fragments did land onto the wall, causing some slight injuries to both the soldiers defending the wall, and the bandits climbing up the walls.
Dobe did not care about the friendly fire. He commanded, "Keep throwing!"
The bandit officers automatically obeyed.
They tossed more pineapples through the air, one after another, or in this case, since there are 2 throwers, 2 at a time.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Seth continued shooting at them. Black clouds appeared like fireworks one after the next. Honestly, the clouds of smoke lingering in the air are making it difficult for Seth to see each subsequent pineapple.
CLACK
"Huh?" Seth heard something land somewhere next to him.
There, less than 15 meters to his left, a pineapple had landed atop the city wall. The soldier that it landed in front of threw himself to the ground.
At that instant, time seemed to stop.
Then, it resumed.
BOOM!
Dust and stone debris burst out along with the smoke.
Seth felt some bits and pieces of the pineapple bounce off of his body, but he still had the gall to mock, "Hah! You missed!".
Then, he felt something amiss.
"...Strange, I don"t feel anything below my feet."
Seth looked down. There is red water, and some bandits looking up at him. Apparently, the blast had pushed him off the ledge. He was now standing on air.
"...So, it really did happen after all. You should never underestimate death flags... Aiii~!!"
SPLASH!
Frantic screams erupted from atop the city wall. "The young master fell!", "Ay, this was why I told him to get away from the ledge!", "Someone, quickly go save the young master!"
Yet, no one went down...
The soldiers just looked at that blinding red water, and those bandits that are swarming up from below with reddened eyes. ...Wouldn"t jumping down there right now, be sending themselves to die? It would be unlikely for them to save their young master, while it would be more likely for them to get surrounded and chopped to pieces.
They would rather wait to face the anger of their lord. At least, that way they would be able to live a bit longer...
Suddenly, they saw another splash, this time from below the red water.
"I"m okay!" Seth yelled. He who had risen back up from the moat of red water, wiped his closed eyes and then opened them. A layer of red covered his vision, and he saw... a bunch of bloodthirsty bandits, staring at him with maddened expressions.
...
What goes around comes around.
Unfortunately, that saying does not apply to every evildoer, as a lot of villains actually get away with their crimes, receiving no punishment whatsoever, with very few people even knowing of their deeds.
The villains whose deeds are known, some of them even get praised in the history books as heroes, despite all the suffering and deaths they caused.
Seth however, is not one of those lucky villains.
"The moat that I designed to make people suffer, I myself fell into. Muddy water, p.i.s.s, sh*t, blood, tears, and the hot sauce that I had those ladies back home make... No, I am not going to blame the slaves that moved on my orders, nor am I going to blame myself for playing with death flags... But I can still get mad, right? RIGHT!?" Seth, who feels that he got dirtied for no reason, exploded in anger. All of his suffering, all of his dirty laundry, is the fault of these hateful invaders!
The bandits, whom were originally swarming at Seth like hungry wolves that had met meat, are now screaming and fleeing away from him.
"Monster! He"s a freaking monster!"
Seth"s blood covered hands pierced through the armor of another bandit and into the flesh. Exerting some strength, he ripped, causing the bandit"s top half to separate from his bottom half.
Swords and sabers slashed at Seth"s body, but did no damage at all. The blades that aimed for his head, all missed. Seth was jumping around, pouncing like a panther, and leaping like a monkey. Any bandit whom he encountered got ripped into two.
"Go, young master!" "You can do it, young master!" "Young master, kill them all!" The soldiers atop the wall cheered.
"D*mn cheerleaders! Do your work!"
Catching Seth"s reprimand, the soldiers quickly went back to work, shooting arrows and moving to prevent any bandits from successfully mounting the wall. Due to the previous grenade having scattered a section of the soldiers, some bandits had finally gotten a grip on that section of the wall! A fierce melee immediately broke out there, only to calm down soon after.
The bandit vice-chief, Dobe, didn"t care about the near successful attempt at getting atop the wall just now. His eyes were narrowed, and he was staring at Seth, who is viciously tearing apart his troops, causing blood and organs to fly everywhere. Meanwhile, his troops could do nothing in retaliation.
A frightening smile could be seen on the boy"s face, as if he was truly enjoying this slaughter from the very bottom of his heart.
"So young, yet so vicious. If we let him escape and grow up, he could become a danger to our gang... Everyone! To me! We must kill that brat NOW!" Dobe rallied.
Soon, almost 500 bandits, altogether, swarmed at Seth, trying with all their might to kill him...
...
Night arrived.
The wolfing gang"s bandits regrouped.
They began to talk about the progress of today"s battle around some campfires. Many barrels of beer were brought out, as well as a good number of female toys for the men to vent their stress from today"s battle on.
The western side, northern side, and southern side, all had moments where their troops managed to get atop the walls, but none of them were able to get a stable foothold. The bandits that managed to get up, quickly got killed by the quick reactions of the soldiers. Even so, they were able to get their enemies to waste a lot of their consumables.
When the vice-chiefs on each side went into action, a good number of those enemy soldiers were even shot down.
For a start to a siege battle, this was not bad.
The eastern side however...
"You had over 500 troops. Yet less than 200 managed to return? You even lost all of your officers?" Ronold Wolf could not believe his ears. But when he looked at the vice-chief who he had sent over to the east side, Dobe, he felt that it was believable.
He wanted to punish this incompetent subordinate of his by ripping off a layer of his skin, but... seeing the missing arm and that claw mark in place of an eye, he felt that might be unnecessary.
Instead, he asked in a grim tone, "Who did it?"
As far as he knew, the strongest combatant on the enemy side, a peak heroic bearing stage martial artist named Merab Zefer, was on the western wall. Ronold Wolf had spotted him himself.
Another name came to his mind. "Was it that leader of the Amnon family, Karlan Amnon?"
It was clear that Ronold Wolf knew of all of the peak heroic bearing stage cultivators in Haradur city, as cultivators of that level are still capable of presenting a slight threat to him if they band together.
However, his information is outdated, as he does not know that Karlan Amnon had already been killed.
He thought it made sense that the Amnon family would work together with the Zefer family to protect the city. As for the Bilin family that he had managed to coerce over to his side? The fact that they had not opened the gates for him earlier this day, means that they have most likely been destroyed.
But even if Karlan Amnon were there, it was unlikely that his late heroic bearings stage vice-chief could suffer like this. There were after all, over 500 bandits there with him. If Karlan Amnon were to jumped off the wall to engage his subordinate in combat, even as a peak 2nd stage martial artist, he would die after getting surrounded. That is something that even a 3rd stage martial artist like Ronold himself, would not risk doing.
Is it possible that... his subordinate had stupidly run up the wall by himself, gotten surrounded, and was then nearly killed?
The injured Dobe began talking, but he was clearly agitated. "I met a devil. Sword and sabers couldn"t cut him. Bullets couldn"t kill him. We all swarmed him, but no one could hold him down. I had grabbed him with my right hand, but he clawed out my eye and ripped off my arm... If it weren"t for my subordinates getting in his way, he would have..." By the time he finished speaking, Dobe began trembling.
Ronold Wolf"s expression became even more gloomy. He thought back to what he had heard over a month ago, about a kid that likes ripping people apart, with hands that can pierce through even armor. He asked, "Was it a brat?"
"...Yes!" Dobe acknowledged. Shame was in his voice. He felt shame for having lost to such a young brat. But even more so, in his voice, there was fear.
"...Look like that treasure he has not only covers his hands, but also his entire body. I want it." Ronold Wolf said.
Then, he gave out his orders. "Tomorrow, we will be using the thing given to us by the Alchemic School. Keep an eye on that brat and make sure he does not get away."
...