We heard tw.a.n.gs again, but this time they came from inside the city, not our Black Tortoise Catapults. It was the Northern Alliance"s Fire Catapults launching their flaming rocks at us indiscriminately.
Bang bang bang!
The flaming rocks slammed into many magic knights" s.h.i.+elds and spilled burning oil all over the place. Several Dragonlight Cavalrymen had been sent flying into the air as their mount tenacity bars vanished, and their mounts let out painful whines before peris.h.i.+ng. Some of the riders were lucky enough to survive with a sliver of health, and they quickly withdrew to let Moon Dew and the other priests heal them back to full health.
Boom boom!
When the rocks. .h.i.t an archer party though, it was almost always a one-shot. Surviving was a matter of having enough health and not taking a direct hit as not even a super archer Beiming Xue could survive that. Long story short, it was a matter of luck. The good news was that Beiming Xue was as smart as she was swift. She shouldn"t have too much trouble spotting the projectiles and getting out of harm"s way with her high Agility.
……
The entire battle line was engaged in combat at this point. The Dragonlight Cavalry, Purple Dragon Cavalry, Silver Leopard Cavalry (Blazing Hot Lips), Black Water Riders (The Monarch Descends) and other elite cavalry were doing everything in their power to keep the enemy at bay, even when their s.h.i.+elds were turning red from the heat. The only reason they were still alive was because our priests were healing them with their spells.
The Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry and Behemoth Cavalry fared even worse than us though. Not only were they slaughtered in droves, they didn"t have their priests to support them. Although reinforcements kept pouring out of the gates, it was only a matter of time before they all became prey to our blades. Still, they kept coming, for they must die in order to buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive. After all, it didn"t matter how many troops Vienna had mustered on the forums if the city was breached before he arrived.
While this was going on, the enemy engineers set up ballistae on the walls to replace their archers. When they were ready, the command to fire was given, and countless steel arrows at least a meter long soared through the air. They were already plenty deadly on their own, but with a height advantage, their killing power was even greater than normal!
Squelch squelch squelch...
The steel arrows penetrated our frontliners and dealt an incredible amount of damage. One hit could deal over 100k damage if the victim was even a bit paper!
There was nothing I could do except to raise my arm when the volley of siege arrows. .h.i.t me. I was. .h.i.t three times in succession, and the Armored Ice Qilin Horse staggered backward in pain. My max HP was 250k right now, but at the end of the a.s.sault I only had 70k HP left, meaning that every siege arrow dealt around 60k damage. The power of siege weapons truly couldn"t be underestimated in large-scale warfare like this!
The good news was that our Black Tortoise Catapults were better than their ballistae. They dealt great damage to both men and walls with incredible accuracy!
Bang!
A Black Tortoise Rock hit a section of the walls and shredded the stone and the ballista right above it. However, the impact failed to cancel all of its momentum, so it continued to barrel into the city while killing a dozen or so archers unfortunate enough to stand in its path. The Northern Alliance players were absolutely flabbergasted by the sight. It was clear that the Black Tortoise Catapult was as strong, no, even stronger than the Fire Catapults in terms of single-point damage!
We expected the prolonged engagement to favor our side, and we were right. Less than an hour later, the stalemate was broken, and the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry started being routed. Already, their number of riders had decreased below ours.
"Withdraw to the city and defend inside!"
I didn"t know who was the one who gave the command, but the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry started receding back to their fortification like tidewater.
I hurriedly shouted, "Follow them! Push into the city in one go!"
I charged forward at the same time I gave the command. Behind me, Lin Yixin, Li Chengfeng, Purple Marquis, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Eyes Like Water and many, many more generals followed me as we rode fearlessly toward the city.
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
Cyan ripples appeared across Lin Yixin, Li Chengfeng and my body as we activated Great Earth Transformation. We cut down all the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry in our path with Burning Blade Slashes, Ice Flame Slashes, Reverse Scale Slashes and more. It was an experience the Northern Alliance wouldn"t be forgetting anytime soon.
……
Seeing that the situation was critical, a Heroic Bannerman on the wall finally waved his spear and shouted, "They"re about to make it in! Close the gate now!"
The hammer-wielding Heroic Bannerman on the ground immediately shouted back, "Wait! We"re not inside yet!"
"Irrelevant! The gate must be closed, or we"ll fall right into the Chinese"s trap! There"s no need to hesitate, do it now!"
The order was obeyed, and the gate was closed before the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry could get in. p.i.s.sed off by the betrayal, they pointed their fingers at the defenders on the walls and shouted, "You ungrateful sc.u.m! Just you wait, Vienna"s Sorrow will make you wish you were dead! We may die today, but you will be scorned for the rest of your life!"
However, the Heroic Bannerman on the wall was unperturbed. "Scorned for the rest of my life? If it means successfully protecting the city, then so be it! And stop using Vienna to talk down on us, you f.u.c.ker! Hero City belongs to all the citizens of the USA, he is just the current commander! If we can vote him into his position, then we can vote him out just the same! Now get ready, archers and mages! The battle has just begun!"
The archers immediately raised their bows and aimed beneath the city. The moment we got close, we were greeted by a faceful of Mountain Stagger Arrows!
"What do we do?" Lin Yixin looked to me for direction. "That"s a lot of firepower!"
My determination didn"t waver though. "Grant these Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry their wish and kill them all! We can retreat after that!"
"Okay!"
And so we rushed all the way to the gates and attacked the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry who had their retreat cut off by their own allies. I was determined to cut them all down even if it meant weathering the defenders" a.s.sault and losing some men. It would be worth it if we managed to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies.
"Ugh…"
Plenty riders of Purple Dragon Cavalry, Dragonlight Cavalry and Cyan Tiger Cavalry fell off their horses and died, but the Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalrymen in front of us were dying faster. At this point, blood and murder were the only things left in our minds!
Ten minutes later, we successfully killed all 30000 Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalrymen stuck outside the city and withdrew. While we lost almost 20000 of our own, it was worth the price. The entire point was to murder the elite cavalry right before the American players" eyes and send a chill up their spines, and I was sure that we had succeeded!
……
After we returned to our main army, I pointed at the walls again and shouted, "Continue the a.s.sault, Black Tortoise Catapults! Spare no ammo and smash those p.u.s.s.ies to the ground, understand!?"
Lian Xin and Beiming Xue hid a giggle as if they disapproved of my brash command, but the boys were of the completely opposite opinion. They shouted with increasing excitement as the walls of White Horse City grew flimsier and flimsier under our bombardment, "That"s right! Smash them with everything you got, people! It"s not like we"ll be attacking another city anytime soon after this one, so don"t hold back! Hahaha!"
It took 10 hours for a Black Tortoise Catapult to generate 1 rock, and each catapult could only hold up to 20 of these. With ammo being so precious, the guys were absolutely correct to say that we wouldn"t be attacking any city after this battle for three days at least. Only an idiot would attempt it without siege weapons...
……
Bang bang bang...
The Black Tortoise Rocks continued to rock the walls. It wasn"t long before the structure resembled a beehive more than a defense fortification. However...
Our 4S shopkeeper"s eyes suddenly widened as he reported, "f.u.c.k, we ran out of ammo, Lu Chen! Should we switch to normal catapults next?"
I grinned. "Sure, but I have a feeling that it"ll just be a waste of resources…"
Chaos Moon teased me. "Oh really? How do you want to push it down exactly?"
I replied, "You can do it if you"re that thirsty…"
Stranger of Three Lifetimes interrupted, "Please stop flirting in the middle of a serious war discussion. Now tell us what our next move is already."
Ling Xueshang also joined in, "Yeah, how should we do this?"
I looked at the walls again and said, "It looks like it"s going to crumble at any moment. Okay, I want everyone with an AoE skill to follow me! We"ll hit the southern wall with our AoE skills and send all its defenders to h.e.l.l!"
Li Chengfeng raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I like this plan!"
Lin Yixin agreed with a sweet smile. "Me too!"
"Alright, then we are all in agreement!"
I unsheathed the Cyan Netherworld Sword and shouted, "Brothers and sisters, now is the time to launch an all-out a.s.sault! We will destroy the walls, crush White Horse City and sever the only bridge between the Northern Alliance and the Chaotic 27!"
……
The ground rumbled once more as we rode toward the walls.
I entered Great Earth Transformation state and led at the forefront. Following right next to me, Lin Yixin offered kindly, "Little Cheat, use your Purple Dragon Howl. I"ll protect you while you"re weakened!"
"Mn!"
I rushed forward a bit longer before skidding to a sudden halt. As the Phantom Wolf King ravaged the wall in front of it with Purgatory Storm, I pointed my sword in front of me and unleashed Purple Dragon Howl!
Lin Yixin stood in front of me so that none of the enemy"s arrows could reach me. I didn"t want to get hit by an attack during the few seconds my Defense dropped to 0!
"Roar roar roar…"
The purple energy blew chunks of rocks away from the walls. Li Chengfeng also activated Great Earth Transformation and added his Dragonblade Revolution into the mix.
When the brutish Chaos Moon reached the walls, she used Rock Crush and crushed countless bricks exactly as the skill name might suggest. High Fighting Spirits also screamed like a madman and spun his warhammer into a devastating Xiezhi Howl. Finally, Xu Yang hit the wall with his Mountain Stagger Slas.h.!.+
In the end, the 25-meter tall wall couldn"t withstand our combined a.s.sault. An ominous noise affected the structure for a moment, and suddenly the whole thing crashed along with countless Northern Alliance players and city NPCs. We had backed off the moment we saw the signs, so no one lost even a point of health!
……
When the dust had settled, a giant gap at least 50 meters wide appeared in front of us. Finally, the southern wall of White Horse City had been destroyed. Throughout the siege, we hadn"t even bothered to touch the gate because we knew that their walls were their greatest weakness. The Northern Alliance knew that too of course, but it wasn"t something they could do anything about. Simply put, our Black Tortoise Catapults had far exceeded their expectations.
"It is done! Let us ride into the city!"
I waved my sword, and countless troops charged through the gap at once. The elite cavalry of all four guilds poured straight into the city!