A new day arrived, and with it, a new battle!
As the sun had only just risen, Constantine and Alfonso once again led an army of forty thousand troops in a fresh assault on the walls of the Yanmo Tribe.
This time, they carried even more siege ladders.
Just like the previous day, they first endured a volley of giant crossbow bolts, followed by a barrage from the massive catapults. This time, however, the catapults hurled real stones. Suomo had also abandoned the use of lime bombs, and since there was very little fish oil left, he was unwilling to waste the remaining fish oil bombs at this stage.
Once they came within two hundred metres of the city wall, they entered the range of nearly twenty thousand defending archers, and a true storm of arrows descended upon them.
This time, however, the arrows caused far fewer casualties. Every soldier of the Silver Alliance now carried a shield.
The shields were simple, nothing more than thick wooden boards, but they were enough to block most of the arrows.
After suffering around two thousand casualties, the Silver Alliance’s forty thousand soldiers reached the city wall once more. Over a hundred siege ladders were raised against the wall again, and the soldiers swarmed upwards like a rising tide.
It had to be said that the barbarian warriors were incredibly brave.
The previous day’s losses had been horrific, yet today they climbed the walls just as fiercely.
Thanks to yesterday’s victory, the defenders atop the Yanmo Tribe’s walls remained calm.
They shot arrows at the climbers, dropped rolling logs, and hurled massive stones.
But today’s results were not as good as yesterday’s. The Silver Alliance soldiers all carried shields that blocked many of the arrows. The barbarians were also extraordinarily tough. Unless struck in a vital spot, they continued climbing without hesitation.
Moreover, unlike before, the Silver Alliance troops attacking the walls had also brought bows this time. They fired upwards from below, inflicting significant casualties on the Yanmo defenders.
Because fish oil bombs were in short supply, Suomo deliberately restrained their use, relying only on arrows, stones, and rolling logs to stop the enemy’s advance.
Unfortunately, it was not enough.
Together with the ladders left from yesterday, there were now well over a hundred, almost two hundred, siege ladders leaning against the walls.
At the same time, more than three or four thousand barbarian soldiers had climbed onto the walls.
Meanwhile, twenty to thirty thousand barbarian troops below continued shooting arrows upwards.
In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand enemy soldiers were about to gain a foothold on the battlements.
“Fish oil bombs, attack!”
At Suomo’s command, the eager soldiers hurled jars filled with fish oil.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Countless clay jars shattered, splashing fish oil over the attacking barbarians and the siege ladders.
Then…
Flaming arrows streaked through the air.
Once again, blazing flames engulfed the walls and consumed almost every siege ladder.
The familiar, heart-rending screams echoed without end.
Hell itself descended once more upon the Silver Alliance army.
The entire wall was covered with burning barbarian soldiers.
Suomo sighed inwardly.
Fire attacks truly were devastating. Fish oil bombs were unbelievably effective.
The barbarians’ fierce offensive was halted immediately.
Not only that, the towering flames and thick black smoke prevented the soldiers below from aiming their arrows, eliminating the suppressing fire against the defenders on the walls.
These fish oil bombs were truly divine weapons for defending a city.
Unfortunately, there simply were not enough of them.
Over an entire month, the Yanmo Tribe had rendered two hundred and eighty thousand jin of fish oil. They had believed it was an enormous quantity that could never be exhausted.
Yet once real battle began, it disappeared astonishingly quickly.
The battle gradually repeated yesterday’s pattern.
Even carrying shields was useless for the barbarian troops. In fact, it made things worse, because the shields were made of wood. Once they caught fire, they became fuel for the flames.
Once again, the hundred-plus siege ladders beneath the seven-li-long wall became a fiery hell that devoured lives.
The city wall became another gigantic meat grinder as the Silver Alliance continued piling up bodies.
Three thousand casualties.
Five thousand.
Seven thousand.
Had this been a human kingdom’s army, it would have collapsed and fled long ago.
But these crude yet fearless barbarian warriors continued charging forward like endless ants.
They poured water and threw mud to extinguish the flames.
Wrapping wet animal hides around their hands and feet, they gripped the burning-hot ladders and climbed upwards.
…
An hour later!
Of the Silver Alliance’s forty thousand assault troops, only about two-thirds remained.
The corpses beneath the walls were piled over two metres high, filling the air with the sickening stench of burnt flesh.
Every corpse had been burned beyond recognition.
Yesterday’s three-hour battle had consumed two hundred and ten thousand jin of fish oil, causing fifteen thousand enemy casualties.
Today, in just one hour, seventy thousand jin of fish oil had already killed or wounded over ten thousand enemies.
The accuracy and effectiveness of the fish oil bombs had improved tremendously.
However…
The bad news everyone had expected finally arrived.
The fish oil bombs had run out.
Although several thousand women inside the city were still boiling more fish oil, it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
The real test for the Yanmo Tribe had begun.
The true crisis had arrived.
Very soon, they would be forced into close combat.
…
The battlefield was like a balance.
As long as the Yanmo Tribe still had fish oil bombs, victory tilted towards them. Once the fish oil bombs were exhausted, the balance gradually shifted in favour of the Silver Alliance.
First, the flames on the siege ladders slowly died out.
Then more and more barbarian soldiers climbed onto the walls.
Throwing stones, rolling logs, and shooting arrows was no longer enough to stop them all.
Fifteen minutes after the fish oil bombs were exhausted, the first barbarian soldier climbed onto the wall.
Although he was quickly killed and his body thrown back down…
The second came.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
More and more barbarian soldiers poured onto the battlements.
Suomo, Gangtuo, Duoduo, and Duolong, the four greatest warriors, each defended nearly two li of the wall.
The Yanmo Tribe possessed roughly thirty Great Martial Masters and around three hundred Martial Masters.
Their finest warriors stood at the very front, guarding the most dangerous positions.
Wherever there was a siege ladder, there was the greatest danger.
“Brothers, the time for blood has come!” Suomo roared, drawing his great sword and slashing fiercely at the climbing enemies.
In an instant, two barbarian soldiers were cut into four pieces.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The elite warriors of the Yanmo Tribe all drew their blades.
The battlefield entered its most brutal and bloodiest phase, close combat.
…
Kill!
Kill!
Kill!
Wave after wave of barbarian soldiers climbed the siege ladders, only to have their heads severed or their bodies split in two before falling back down.
The Yanmo elites guarding the ladders swung their swords relentlessly, harvesting lives without mercy.
Three enemies.
Five.
Ten.
Fifteen.
When a blade became blunt, they kept fighting.
When it chipped, they kept fighting.
Whenever a sword was ruined, another sharper one was immediately handed forward.
They fought tirelessly, slaughtering without pause.
At the beginning of the melee, the Yanmo Tribe clearly held the advantage.
After all, only their elite warriors fought, while enjoying the defensive advantage atop the walls.
With only a hundred or so siege ladders, merely two or three hundred enemy soldiers could climb onto the walls at once.
The battlefield remained a terrifying meat grinder.
The Silver Alliance’s second wave of forty thousand troops suffered staggering casualties once again.
…
“Use grappling ropes!” Constantine shouted.
The fires had all been extinguished. It was now safe to use the ropes.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thousands of soldiers below threw hooked ropes onto the battlements and began climbing desperately.
“Cut the ropes!”
The Yanmo defenders swung their blades furiously, severing the ropes.
One barbarian after another fell to the ground.
But there was an endless supply of grappling hooks.
More and more enemies climbed onto the walls.
More and more joined the brutal melee.
Blood covered every section of the walls.
Severed limbs lay everywhere.
Corpses were piled high.
The Prince Consort of the Rakshasa King, Naishu, and the Silver Alliance leader narrowed their eyes as they watched the savage battle.
They had never expected the Yanmo warriors to be so valiant and so full of fighting spirit.
They had assumed that once their soldiers reached the walls, the defenders would collapse immediately.
Instead, the fighting was evenly matched, and in fact, the Silver Alliance was suffering even greater losses.
…
Meanwhile, Lanling and his six thousand centaur cavalry watched everything clearly from the forested mountains several kilometres away.
“Master, your people are truly brave,” Khan Xieli said.
Lanling nodded.
The Yanmo defenders had fought with far greater courage and strength than he had expected.
He had believed they would immediately fall behind once the battle became close combat.
Instead, they had matched the enemy blow for blow, even gaining the upper hand.
“Master, the time is almost right. If we wait any longer, your people will suffer terrible casualties,” Khan Xieli said.
Lanling raised his hand and shook his head.
Not yet.
He wanted to appear only when the Yanmo Tribe had reached its deepest despair.
He wanted them to experience the feeling of true destruction and hopelessness.
Only soldiers who survived absolute despair would become mentally stronger, calmer, and braver when facing future crises.
…
The savage battle continued.
Wave after wave of assaults were repelled.
Even the Yanmo Tribe’s finest warriors no longer knew how many swords they had worn out or how many wounds covered their bodies.
Fortunately, under Suolun’s orders, every elite soldier wore thick armour. Otherwise, countless more would already have died.
Time continued to pass.
The sun climbed to its highest point.
Both Lanling and Naishu had believed yesterday that the battle would end at noon.
Yet now it was already noon.
The brutal fighting still continued.
The Yanmo Tribe’s walls had still not fallen.
Their morale had not yet collapsed.
The corpses beneath the walls had piled three or four metres high.
The walls themselves were also littered with bodies.
Not only had the Silver Alliance suffered enormous losses, but the Yanmo defenders had also paid a heavy price.
Lanling forced himself to remain cold-hearted.
These were his own people.
His own soldiers.
Yet for the sake of tempering his army, he watched them fall one after another.
Focusing his spiritual power, Lanling looked towards the city wall.
The scene instantly magnified before his eyes.
He saw clearly that even the Yanmo Tribe’s elite warriors had become numb.
There was no fear.
No emotion.
Only mechanical killing.
Their expressions remained savage, yet completely lifeless.
The time had come.
If he waited any longer, the casualties would become unbearable.
At that very moment…
Naishu suddenly shouted,
“Sound the retreat!”
The bell rang.
The enemy soldiers fighting on the walls froze in confusion before stumbling backwards.
The Yanmo defenders were equally stunned.
Then their legs gave way.
Many collapsed onto the ground.
Some even dropped their weapons.
The Silver Alliance leader asked,
“Prince Consort, the enemy is clearly on the verge of collapse. Why retreat?”
Naishu replied,
“They’re still fighting through momentum alone. Once we withdraw, the tension in their bodies and minds will disappear completely. By the time we attack again, they won’t even be able to lift their swords. That will be the moment to slaughter them.”
The Silver Alliance leader immediately flattered him.
“Brilliant, Prince Consort!”
When the second assault force returned, they counted their numbers.
Out of forty thousand troops, only ten thousand remained alive.
Today’s battle alone had cost them thirty thousand casualties.
Combined with yesterday’s losses, the Silver Alliance’s original army of one hundred and twenty thousand had already lost nearly fifty thousand men.
Only a little over seventy thousand remained.
No one had imagined such a result.
Attacking a fortress defended by only twenty thousand Near Human soldiers had cost them fifty thousand casualties, and they still had not captured it.
Half an hour later, around three in the afternoon…
Naishu gave the order.
“Beat the war drums. The entire army advances. Capture the Yanmo Tribe within half an hour!”
The thunderous war drums echoed across the battlefield.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Silver Alliance’s seventy thousand troops surged towards the city walls like a black ocean.
…
On the walls of the Yanmo Tribe…
The original twenty thousand defenders had been reduced to barely thirteen or fourteen thousand.
Every defensive supply had been exhausted.
The fish oil bombs, stones, rolling logs, even the arrows, were almost gone.
Seventy thousand barbarian soldiers surged forward like an endless tide.
The final battle had arrived.
Suomo drew his battered great sword and roared,
“Prepare for battle!”
More than ten thousand Yanmo soldiers struggled to their feet and raised their broken swords once again.
Almost every one of them was wounded.
Their brief rest had restored none of their strength.
Instead, every ache and every pain now flooded through their exhausted bodies.
They had almost no strength left.
Looking at the endless sea of enemy soldiers, the defenders exchanged glances.
In one another’s eyes they saw despair.
They also saw determination.
Suomo looked painfully into the distance and murmured,
“Xiaoling… if you don’t return now… the Yanmo Tribe will be destroyed.”
The coming battle could no longer be defended.
The moment of despair had arrived.
Suomo roared,
“Brothers, live or die with the walls! Live or die with our tribe!”
“Live or die with the walls! Live or die with our tribe!”
…
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In only a few hundred metres, the seventy thousand barbarian army reached the city walls.
Like a black tide, they sought to drown the Yanmo Tribe completely.
Inside the tribe…
Gouli took a deep breath.
The final moment had come.
The Yanmo Tribe was about to fall.
It was time to act.
She would seize Lanling’s daughter and his wife, Dina, as hostages.
She would use his daughter to force Lanling to hand over the antidote.
She would offer the pregnant Dina to Naishu, the Rakshasa King’s son-in-law, as her gift of allegiance.
After all, Dina was Lanling’s wife, and she was carrying his child.
Besides, Gouli was now completely confident in her own beauty.
She believed she could easily become Naishu’s woman.
“Lanling, every man lives for himself. Heaven destroys those who do not!”
With that, Gouli rushed towards the cave where Dina and Little Yaya were hiding.
…
“The time for slaughter has arrived!”
Naishu sneered and shouted,
“Exterminate the Yanmo Tribe! Leave no one alive! Kill them all! Burn everything! Loot everything! Take every woman!”
“Long live! Long live! Long live!”
The seventy thousand barbarian soldiers charged like men possessed.
Looking at his battered army, Suomo said quietly,
“It has been the greatest honour of my life to fight beside all of you. Brothers, we’ll meet again in the next life. Kill! Kill! Kill!”
“Brothers, we’ll meet again in the next life!”
“Live or die with the city! Kill!”
The moment of death and destruction had finally arrived.
The warriors of the Yanmo Tribe did not fear death.
At that moment, only one thought remained in their hearts.
Where was their Chieftain?
Lanling took a deep breath.
“The time for destruction has come. Kill… destroy every one of your enemies!”
Drawing his battle blade, Lanling mounted his gigantic warhorse and led six thousand centaur warriors charging down from the mountain.
In that instant, the earth shook and the heavens changed colour.