Badge in Azure

Diyabannersa was trying to fool Saleen, but Saleen had already long decided to kill Diyabannersa. Once this king of spirit of the dead could no longer be controlled, Saleen would be in danger. It was only because of the Holy See’s army that Saleen still needed to depend on these three fellows. Killing them now would do no good for the city’s defense.

Saleen led some men to patrol the city and felt fortunate that his teacher had given him a diagram of the design of this city. Without Dante’s Sequence and magic towers, even a thirty yard tall city wall would not be able to hold the Holy See’s army back.

There were a number of holy priests outside the city. Some of them were even more powerful than the black Deacons and black Bishops that Saleen had encountered before and were only slightly below Genesis. Genesis was an oracle and a grade-9 opponent whose god punishment spell would be able to kill even those of the same grade. If not for Lex and her God’s ring, Genesis might have been able to beat anyone.

There were more than ten holy priests outside of the city who had already reached sorcerers’ standards. Such a high number of holy priests flying to the top of the city could potentially be fatal.

With Dante’s Sequence, all the buildings in the city had formed a different magic array and had surpassed the magic array’s Element Control Sequence. With the support of the magic array, flying would not be possible within ten miles of the city wall.

The holy priests would not dare to be within the vicinity of the city wall. Saleen thought about it and said, “Deploy more barbarian archers. Everyone shall be equipped with twelve flying axes. Enemies that would be able to climb up the city wall would be slain warriors that were either heavy-armored or clad in many layers of armor.”

The enemy had no intentions of deploying soldiers to attack the north side of the city wall. The west side of the city wall was already eight miles wide. If they split up their forces it would be difficult to gather life strength. The Holy See had miscalculated slightly. They had thought that they would be facing a battle line of two miles wide. Saleen predicted that the enemy would concentrate their attacks on two to three areas and not attack from both the west and the north.

Saleen looked at the enemy below him and felt less nervous. At least his prediction was partially correct in that the enemy did not possess much large equipment. When the enemy lost their catapults and stepped wagons at Broken Blade Pass, they resorted to cutting down trees and using them to build another version of a catapult. In order to increase the range of this type of catapult and to prevent it from being destroyed by the city’s own catapults easily, the expedition would build these catapults to be enormous. It would take a long time, so it was unable to exert pressure on the city.

The expedition created approximately one-hundred catapults. These catapults required at least fifty soldiers and five horses to operate them.

Saleen did some calculations in his mind and knew that these catapults could only fire once every half hour and would not be able to fire in a spread. The only limitation for the soldiers within the city was that they would not know where the projectiles would land. Catapults like these would fire at a very slow rate. There was no way it would hit any swordmasters. It would probably strike some auxiliary soldiers or unlucky swordsmen.

When the soldiers retreated from Broken Blade Pass, they did not leave behind too much equipment. Saleen saw hundreds of big crossbows and some small alchemy crossbows. The big crossbows were created in Qin, but the alchemy crossbows were imitated by the holy priests. Their range would definitely lose out to the real alchemy crossbows that Saleen possessed.

“Give every mage on the city wall twelve scrolls of the grade-3 fire cloud spell, twelve scrolls of the grade-3 wind blade spell, and two scrolls of the grade-2 sour rain spell. Hmm, everyone will also collect a scroll of grade-3 icicle magic from the temple.”

The grade-3 icicle magic scroll that Saleen mentioned was actually a scroll that he created on his own. Its powers were the same as a grade-3 spell, but even grade-1 mages would be able to use it. He once used restorative icicle magic to kill up to one-hundred people in one go. It was probably the most powerful low-level magic.

The mages on the city wall were not of very high levels. If not for the fact that Metatrin City’s walls were so unique and could protect these mages, Saleen would not have allowed them to come up. The most common problem that low-level mages faced was insufficient magic chords, hence their ability to cast spells was also limited. This was the reason why Saleen prepared so many scrolls and diluted magic liquid to sustain the low-level mages’ mental strength to battle for a long time.

There were many low-level holy priests amongst the enemy’s warriors while Saleen had also deployed many low-level mages. Saleed had the upper hand as he also had Metatrin City’s wall while the enemy only possessed some pathetic stepped wagons and ladders.

Fortress hammers were ineffective against Metatrin City because Saleen had sufficient magic catapults that could easily destroy the enemy’s large equipment.

The enemy began to construct their catapults three miles away. The catapults in the city began to bombard the enemy without waiting for them to complete their construction. Gigantic rocks flew towards the structure of the catapults. Saleen was well-prepared and chose to use normal catapults instead of magic catapults.

There were more than two-hundred of the catapults which were also built at the last minute. It was built to deal with the enemy’s foot soldiers when they attacked the city. When Saleen discovered that the enemy had constructed one-hundred catapults, he decided to use his catapults for this purpose instead.

More than thirty gigantic rocks were unleashed in the first wave. The mages were able to accurately provide the locations of the targets. More than a thousand barbarians were operating the catapults. They moved the beasts and adjusted the winches, launching the gigantic rocks away.

More than thirty catapults were hit and more than twenty of them were destroyed instantly. The last fifty catapults fired again and more than ten of the expedition’s catapults were hit.

Just like that, half of the expedition’s catapults were destroyed. Grand Bishop Nicholas knew that it would not be possible to use the catapults to put pressure on his enemy.

The Tanggulasis were never well-versed in such long-range attacks and most of their equipment to be used for attacking cities had already been sent to the frontline at Luolan. The Pope also did not expect to face a city like this. As such, Nicholas found himself in such an embarrassing situation. As the attacking side, his ranged attacks had been completely stopped by the enemy. He could only depend on soldiers to climb over the city walls now.

It did not matter who commanded such an attack. There were bound to be many casualties.

Saleen decided to return to the main door of the west side and watched the battle take place. He was already a grade-6 mage so his effect towards defending the city would be great. Saleen’s soldiers would definitely need time to adapt when the enemy launched their first wave of attack. Fortunately, the second and sixth battalions had already battled the expedition before so they would be able to continue to stay calm.

With Saleen by their side, the soldiers’ morale rose drastically.

Holy Rock City’s effect could also be felt. Saleen had already spread the news that Qin had deployed an army of one-million to repel the Holy See at Luolan. Many of the residents in Metatrin City had relatives in Holy Rock City. As long as it was not destroyed, these residents would not lose hope nor surrender.

Saleen’s catapults would be able to launch the second wave of attack in ten minutes. It was clear that the enemy’s catapults were much slower. In the end, only slightly more than ten of the expedition’s catapults were still intact and managed to launch gigantic rocks at the city. These rocks were not smoothened out so they would not roll after landing on the ground. Its ability to destroy was limited. Even if it landed amongst a crowd, only a few would be killed.

This was unlike the high level of preparation in Saleen’s city. Every rock that was launched was oval in shape. Once they landed, even if they did not hit their target, they would roll in a curve and kill or injure many people.

More than ten gigantic rocks flew over three miles and landed in the city. One of them struck a metal watchtower and crushed one side of it before landing on the ground. The soldiers quickly fled from its landing spot, but a few auxiliary soldiers were so scared that they stood rooted to the ground. Luckily, they were saved by the swordmasters beside them.

The rest of the rocks struck the ground and rolled for about ten yards before losing momentum.

Thousands of soldiers approached Metatrin City’s wall under the coverage of vehicles. The magic catapults were immediately activated and launched many gigantic magic stone shells. These magic stone shells were launched at an upward angle and depended fully on gravity to fall. They would split apart in mid-air and strike below.

More than a hundred vehicles were destroyed by the magic catapults instantly. The foot soldiers were clustered together as they were approaching the city wall and many died as a result. Those that were protected by the holy priests around them remained unscathed. The holy priests quickly retreated. These low-level holy priests could defend against rocks that were the size of a fist, but were helpless against arrows.

There was no accuracy to these magic stone shells. They were created purely to disrupt enemies that were clustered together.

The expedition’s first attack was foiled by the magic catapults. Saleen discovered the Holy See’s biggest weakness and was pleased. Their long-range attacks were poorer than Qin’s and coincidentally, all the techniques that Saleen possessed were invented by Qin. The Tanggulasis’ catapults and stepped wagons were ineffective.

No wonder the Holy See spent more than a year at the border of Luolan to put out the noble families’ rebellion even though they possessed so many armies. The way they attacked was basically an exchange of lives for victory.

“Ask the craftsmen to produce the stone shells quickly. Use everyone.” Saleen had so many arrows that he could afford to fight for half a year without replenishing them. On the other hand, he did not have enough stone shells. He only discovered now that even though stone shells were not as destructive as arrows, the former was much safer. A soldier would have to reveal half his head in order to attack with a crossbow. There was no safe place to shoot an arrow. As for catapults, if the enemy was unprepared, one could basically launch attacks without risking his own safety.

Narnia suddenly said from behind, “Saleen, don’t.”

“Alright, we will stick to the original plan. Try to replenish the stone shells as quickly as possible though. There are high-level holy priests among the main forces of our enemy. Attacks like this will be ineffective by then.” Saleen immediately changed what he said, but his thoughts were clear. Narnia was right. If he relied on catapults to force the enemy back, his own soldiers would never gain the experience and courage of fighting against enemies head-on.

Indeed, the enemy changed the way they attacked. They spread their foot soldiers everywhere. They carried ladders and charged towards the city wall. A few hundred iron arrow vehicles were spread apart and shot at the city wall with stiff crossbows with the goal of suppressing the archers within Metatrin City.

Without the protection of vehicles, these soldiers braved the rain of arrows and finally began the real battle. By this time, the catapults’ effects were limited. It could only launch once every ten minutes or so and would only strike a small surface area. The enemy was attacking along the battle front that was two miles wide. Saleen’s catapults had yet to sync with the magic tower and could not be moved around quickly enough to stop the enemy.