Chapter Thirty-Six: Siege (One)

  The first watch, late at night in the second watch.

  On the fifteenth day, twelve irregular hundred-man formations and one regular black formation appeared under the city of Tabriz.

  A few days of concentrated drilling had only made this rabble slightly more obedient to orders. As for formations, that high-level skill was beyond their reach.

  Of the twelve hundred-man squads, ten were equipped with their own cloud ladders, and two had massive logs serving as battering rams. They formed a straight line facing the walls of Tabriz, their momentum even stronger than that of the swarm of bees on that day.

  On the city wall, water vapor mixed with smoke and dust slowly rose. Compared to the first defense of the city, there were now over a hundred archers, fifty crossbowmen, and two hundred infantrymen hiding behind the battlements. They would be responsible for pouring boiling water, pushing rolling logs, and fighting against the enemy.

  At the city gate, 200 riflemen were waiting in a tight formation. Another 50 soldiers served as a reserve team, ready to reinforce at any time.

  With a long and mournful sound of the horn, the siege officially began.

  First, they walked slowly, then quickly, and finally ran. One thousand two hundred miscellaneous soldiers came towards the city wall, with a cloud of dust rising behind them. On top of the city wall, archers drew their bows and shot arrows into the crowd. People kept falling to the ground, either killed by an arrow or trampled to death by their comrades. However, this did not stop the soldiers from advancing - behind them were wolves holding crossbows, and behind the wolves were three vertical crosses with corpses that had already begun to rot and could no longer be identified, but these people had witnessed the process of these men turning from living beings into dead bodies.

  The long-range attack on the city wall was quickly suppressed by the Wolf's powerful crossbow. Several archers dodged and were directly pierced by multiple crossbow arrows, flying backwards. Just like the first siege, the Wolf's crossbow arrows flew towards the city wall as if they were free, pinning them to the wall or whizzing over people's heads.

  But the wolf indeed has the capital to do so. Each soldier has five bags of crossbow arrows on his body, one hundred and fifty arrows. Before dying, it's not possible to shoot them all off.

  The arrows rained down on them like a swarm of locusts, but the morale of the miscellaneous soldiers suddenly surged. They shouted and charged towards the city wall. When they reached the foot of the wall, they hastily set up ladders and began to climb up. After so many days of practice, their speed had increased significantly.

  At this moment, on the city wall, at the place where the ladder was set up, a piece of wooden board suddenly stood up, and many arrows were nailed in an instant, making a loud noise. The miscellaneous soldiers who were looking up at the bottom of the city wall were puzzled, and then they saw pots of water pouring out from the gaps between those boards.

  Water?

  A blood-curdling scream echoed through the air, and the soldier who was climbing covered his face and fell from the ladder. The people under the city wall were also scalded and cried out in disorder.

  Noticing the change on the city wall, the crossbow arrows began to focus on those wooden boards.

  The soldiers who were splashed with water in the face fell to the ground, and the people around them looked at their twisted and helpless struggles, as well as the bright red faces of these poor men.

  The siege continued, and this small setback could not stop these soldiers. After a slight hesitation, people began to climb up again.

  This time no one noticed the change on the city wall. It wasn't until the first log fell that some careful people knew why those planks moved to both sides.

  This scene was even more shocking than boiling water. Those who were lucky enough to climb to a high place crouched on the ladder, narrowly escaping disaster, and looked down with trepidation. Just as they were rejoicing, another log flew out, and it was the same with ladders everywhere, taking away many lives and leaving behind a pile of twitching corpses.

  Even with the protection of wooden boards, the soldiers on the city wall still suffered considerable losses. Behind several splintered wooden boards were piles of corpses. Fortunately, there were enough doors and other materials requisitioned to replace them, otherwise that section of the city wall would have fallen immediately.

  The continuous rolling logs made the soldiers at the foot of the city somewhat afraid, and some people in the back row slowly retreated backwards, turning around to escape. Just taking two steps, they were shot down by a flying crossbow arrow. This commotion attracted the attention of the miscellaneous soldiers around the ladder.

  "Don't want to die? Then hurry up and attack!" Dacia, the wild wolf assigned to train these soldiers, shouted loudly.

  The sound didn't carry far, but the cross on his back and the row of black-clad men holding powerful crossbows behind him had already conveyed the message. The soldiers frantically climbed up. They had discovered that it was safer to be on the ladders. Those terrifying giant logs drew a beautiful arc, but couldn't hit the ladders at all.

  When the first Laissez's soldiers climbed onto the city wall, the two hundred people at the gate were still desperately pounding on the gate. The gate shook and swayed under the impact, as if it was about to be knocked open, but it remained tightly closed. Boiling water was poured down from the top of the city wall, and rolling logs fell, causing a burst of mournful cries and wails at the gate, but the miscellaneous soldiers continued to batter the gate without ceasing - behind them were over a dozen corpses nailed to the ground by crossbow bolts.

  On the other side of the gate, the original wooden door with a slope retreated rhythmically to the back. What the soldiers had to do was to work together to put more wood on top of the gate. But even so, the door bolt was still gradually deformed.

  The attack on the city head had already stopped after the enemy attacked both sides of the city wall. The wild wolf's crossbow arrows no longer needed to suppress the city wall, and instead focused on the gate above. The erected wooden boards were soon nailed with arrows, and then burst. At the cost of twenty people, the defenders on the city head could only hide behind the crenellations, and did not dare to show their heads again.

  The battle on the city wall was bloody and cruel. The first mercenary to jump onto the city wall had barely looked around before being pierced by three swords and falling down. The following peasant soldiers met the same fate. However, among these soldiers, there were still some strong ones. Finally, one guy withstood the defenders' first attack, stood firm, and allowed his comrades behind him to continuously climb up the city wall. In the end, a gap was torn open, and nearly ten of Laissez's soldiers gathered together, desperately defending the small position they had just opened up. The same situation occurred in other places, with varying numbers of casualties. The only difference was Odala's defensive position. A giant sword came crashing down from the side, with an unstoppable force that was not something those low-ranking mercenaries and unranked peasants could withstand. If a Laissez soldier had barely caught this sword, another longsword on the other side would have ended his life.

  Joni was also fighting hard on the city wall. He didn't have Odara's bravery, and although his weapons were just as sharp, it was much simpler to fend off his attacks. The battlefield was extremely crowded during the defense of the city, so Joni couldn't use those horizontal slashes and side strikes that he had practiced well, only constantly raising, chopping down, raising, chopping down... That inlaid armor that had saved him many times before performed its duty again this time, blocking a number of fatal attacks for him.

  The mages and artificers were not idle. At this time, the city wall was in chaos, and the wolf's crossbow arrows no longer paid attention to this side. Under the cover of the sword shield infantry around him, Nicholas released two oily spells on the long ladders on both sides of his position. The soldiers who were climbing hard fell down one after another, smashing into the crowd, causing a commotion. Taking advantage of the fact that the movement here had not yet attracted the attention of the wolf's bow and crossbowmen, he recited the twisted text again, raised his hand and pointed, and a huge fireball fell to the ground below, exploding in the crowd. After doing all this, he quickly hid behind the city wall. The soldiers who covered him nearby shook their heads helplessly, shouted "Take cover!" and also squatted down.

  The massive explosion at the foot of the city wall directly killed more than 20 people, and another dozen or so soldiers were burned. The sudden loss of nearly half of the troops made the morale of the soldiers plummet. Although they didn't dare to run away, they looked flustered and at a loss.

  The massive explosion also drew the attention of the wild wolves. They began to cover this section of the city wall once again, and a hail of indiscriminate arrows killed some of the Dalrasian soldiers who had not managed to dodge in time, as well as some of Lycia's miscellaneous troops who were still fighting on the walls. The comrades falling from above with arrow shafts stuck in them dealt a heavy blow to the already chaotic army below, and morale plummeted.

  On the other side, Jerry Nisas also made his move at almost the same time. As a curse-type mage, his method was somewhat nauseating and more eye-catching - two stinky cloud spells enveloped the bottom of the two long ladders, under the green smoke, enemy soldiers covered their mouths and noses, some people vomited on the spot. Gradually, two no-man's lands were formed under the ladders.

  The hail of arrows also covered this stretch of wall. Because Jerry's safety was in the hands of his brother Tom, the soldiers on this stretch of wall received no warning and suffered heavy casualties for a time. The survivors glared at both brothers with anger.

  However, in a war, an individual's power is ultimately limited. The situation for the city of Tabriz remains very unfavorable.

  [bookid=1649432,bookname='Online Game: Infinite Excitement']