Chapter 453: Toppling the Castle
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In order to topple the Iron Edge Castle, the soldiers of the Dark Association were unafraid of death, charging forward despite the blanketing arrows and magic attacks. They climbed up in a frenzy after placing the ladders on the castle walls, as well as pushed the turrets against the heavy gates of the Iron Edge Castle. Another soldier would immediately take the place of a soldier that fell in battle, forming an endless chain.
“Charge, brothers, charge forward!”
“Break open the castle gate, one, two, three…One, two, three…”
…
Under the command and leadership of the captains of the small groups, the soldiers of the Dark Association did not care if they died. Some pushed the heavy turrets straight into the heavy doors of the Iron Edge Castle, clenching their teeth as they used all of their strength. Some bit on their blades as they freed up their limbs, climbing up the castle walls with ladders, engaging in intense physical combat with the Church’s soldiers guarding the area. Some charged forward with their horses, trying their best to suppress the archers on the castle walls with sharp crossbows of their own…
“Sir Daniel, why not lead the knights out to destroy their turrets and kill off the team attacking the castle?” Hearing the heavy, impactful thuds of the turret hitting the gate, seeing the soldiers of the Dark Association continue to scale the wall, a commander of the knights asked the Red-robed Cardinal Daniel loudly for an order.
“Hmph, now is not the time for us to actively attack. Atkins, relay my orders, get the Spellcasters to increase the intensity and radius of the Magical Towers’ attacks!” The Red-robed Cardinal by the name of Daniel let out a cold smile as he looked at the soldiers of the Dark Association insolently swarming over.
Even though a large number of elites had been mobilized away from the Iron Edge Castle, there was still a good fifty-thousand well-trained soldiers within the castle. He did not believe that the Dark Association would be able to charge into the castle with such little numbers against the powerful Magical Towers and tall castle walls. Over the millennia, the Dark Association had sacrificed countless elites around the radius of the castle, and this time would be no exception.
“Sir Daniel, increasing the intensity and radius of the Magical Towers’ attacks would expend a substantial amount of premium crystal ores. There are not many crystal ores left within the castle, do you think…” The commander of the knights by the name of Atkins was a little hesitant.
Using the Iron Edge Castle, the Church had lured generations after generations of the Dark Association’s elites to their deaths, schemingly expending the strength of the Dark Association. However, in order to keep the Iron Edge Castle running, they have had to exhaust an alarming amount of physical resources like crystal ores and Magical Beast Essence Crystals.
According to the rules, the Holy City would transport a large batch of premium crystal ores and Magical Beast Essence Crystals to the Iron Edge Castle every month; However, in order to defend the Space Cracks and prevent the demons of the other dimensions from teleporting over, the Church had had no choice but to mobilize many resources from various lands over this period of time, further suppressing the expenditure of the various lands. For this reason, the physical resources of the Iron Edge Castle have not been replenished for nearly three months. According to reliable sources, the supply team from the Holy City will reach by daybreak. They did not expect the Dark Association to suddenly launch a surprise attack at such a delicate time.
“Hmph, there are not many crystal ores and Magical Beast Essence Crystals left, but as long as we dispel this wave of attacks from the Dark Association, do you think that they would still have the ability to launch large-scale attacks such as this one?” Even though he knew that they did not have many physical resources such as crystal ores and Magical Beast Essence Crystals left, Daniel was unconcerned.
Over the years, under the great pressure exerted by the Church, the strength of the Dark Association had been declining steadily. Their sphere of influence had become increasingly smaller, as is the number of their followers. Their strength was declining year after year, and it was getting harder and harder for them to organize large-scale attacks. The other party had mobilized nearly thirty thousand soldiers for the first wave of attacks, which might be the greater half of their forces. As long as they managed to kill off that batch of soldiers, the rest of their forces would naturally be not much of a concern.
Seeing that Cardinal Daniel had made up his mind, Atkins did not speak any further and turned around to leave, relaying the order to increase the radius and intensity of the Magical Towers’ attacks to all of the Spellcasters. Soon, a terrifying ripple of energy gathered within the many Magical Towers as icicles, fireballs and Wind Daggers blanketed the forces on the ground, the radius of the magic attacks nearly doubling. The fearless soldiers of the Dark Association fell in droves within the radius of the attacks. Corpses piled up as blood flowed on the ground!
“Elder, what do we do?” Seeing the attacks of the Magical Towers get sharper and that the soldiers were getting mercilessly massacred, the commander of the soldiers loudly asked Elder Klive for his instructions.
“Relay my orders, the second wave of soldiers is to take action immediately!” Elder Klive’s expression did not change as he gave the order.
There was no turning back now. Since it has come to this, all he could do was continue charging forward. If they did not manage to break open the door of the Iron Edge Castle this time around, if they failed to take advantage of the chance given to them by the mutating Space Crack that only happens once every five thousand years, there might not be another chance for them to topple the Iron Edge Castle ever again.
“Elder Klive, wait!” Seeing that Elder Klive was prepared to mobilize all of the reserve forces at one go and forcefully crack open the gates of the Iron Edge Castle with the corpses and blood of the soldiers, Yang Ling shook his head and said in a deep voice, “You would suffer too much of a loss if you continue such a fierce offensive. Recall your soldiers and let the brave soldiers of my Magical Beast Territory give them a taste of the suffering!”
Yang Ling spoke as he shot a look at the general Ashnamov. The latter understood his intentions and instructed three thousand soldiers to push forward the Dragonbone Battle Carriages and set up the Magic Crystal Cannons produced specially by the Magical Beast Military Factory. There were only twenty Dragonbone Battle Carriages, but there were almost a hundred of the Magic Crystal Cannons.
Building a Magic Crystal Cannon was incredibly difficult, and they required premium crystal ores to power up. To an ordinary territory or empire, merely owning one or two of them was impressive enough. However, to the resource-rich Magical Beast Territory, it was not a difficult feat. With one cannon as a sample, Master Aaron and the Gnome Elder managed to manufacture one in just half a month. Through improvement after improvement, the radius and power of the cannons they produced were even more powerful than the sample they had used.
Over a hundred Magic Crystal Cannons?
Looking at the long row of fierce-looking Magic Crystal Cannons, Elder Klive had a glint in his eyes. Originally, he had asked Yang Ling to mobilize his forces with the intention of Yang Ling leading the experts of the Magical Beast Territory and helping him deal with the powerful fighters of the Church. He was extremely surprised when he saw Yang Ling lead three thousand elite soldiers into the battle. However, he was even more surprised when he saw the several hundred Magic Crystal Cannons. He was elated after recovering from his surprise, immediately ordering the soldiers to retreat.
“One thousand steps to the front, on your marks… Fire!” With Ashnamov’s order, over a hundred Magic Crystal Cannons rumbled in unison, fiercely pouring their firepower onto the Iron Edge Castle. Some of them broke the body of the castle walls, some blasted the Magical Towers high above into two, while others hit the heavy castle gates head-on.
After the first round of attacks, the cannoneers quickly adjusted the position and angle of the barrel under Ashnamov’s command. Soon, they launched another wave of fierce attacks, focusing their fire on the Magical Towers on the castle walls as well as the castle gates. One cannon, two cannons…Soon, all of the Magical Towers at the front of the castle walls were nearly destroyed. The Church’s so-called unbreakable castle gates looked ready to fall.
Originally, seeing the soldiers of the Dark Association beat a hasty retreat, the Church’s knights and Spellcasters on the castle wall laughed heartily, chiding the other party for overestimating their abilities. Unexpectedly, a nightmare approached them in the blink of an eye. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties under the attacks of the Magic Crystal Cannons. What was even more terrifying was that the Magical Towers were destroyed, the heavy castle gate about to fall. The barrier enveloping the castle had scattered quickly and the situation was getting more and more dire.
“Sir Daniel, what do we do?” Seeing the slowly advancing Magic Crystal Cannons of the other party, Atkins swallowed with difficulty. There were just too little premium crystal ores and Magical Beast Essence Crystals left within the Iron Edge Castle, causing the Magical Towers to lack in range, completely unable to pose a fatal threat to the other party’s Magic Crystal Cannons.
“Quick, mobilize all of the guardian knights. We must destroy the other party’s Magic Crystal Cannons, quick!” Seeing the other party’s Magic Crystal Cannons slowly approach them, gradually destroying the Magical Towers on both sides of the castle, seeing the castle gates that were about to fall, the Red-robed Cardinal Daniel gave a terse order. He did not expect the Dark Association to move Magic Crystal Cannons over this time around, nor did he expect a full hundred of them at one go!
Over a hundred Magic Crystal Cannons was enough to destroy even a large mountain, much less a castle with an insufficient source of energy!
“Soldiers, for the glory of the Church, charge!”
“Charge…”
After opening the castle gate, over ten thousand knights from the Church charged forward under the leadership of the commander Atkins, swarming toward the formation where the Magic Crystal Cannons were. Everyone knew that the castle would definitely fall if they allowed the terrifying Magic Crystal Cannons to freely approach them!
“Hehe, they’re asking for death!” Seeing the knights of the Church manically approaching them without care, Yang Ling let out a smile, waving his hand as he summoned the Magical Beast Army.
At the same time, Ashnamov instructed the soldiers to step forward and get into formation. The first to show their might were the twenty Dragonbone Battle Carriages with their thick heavy arrows were lacking in numbers but had an alarming penetrative ability. Each arrow pierced through a dozen soldiers before stopping and had a range of a thousand steps, instilling fear within the soldiers of the Church. Following the arrows, the enhanced Pear Blossom Crossbows in the hands of the soldiers showed off their startling destructive capabilities.
The three thousand soldiers formed three rows and attacked in succession, with basically a thousand people attacking each time. One Pear Blossom Crossbow could launch over a hundred sharp arrows at once, and one thousand of them shooting at once created a destructive scene that those not personally witnessing it could never imagine. A blanket of arrows shot outward as the undefeated knights of the Church fell. Even the warhorses got reduced to porcupines, much less the knights on their backs.
If the ten thousand knights of the Church could be described as a current, then the brave warriors of the Magical Beast Territory equipped with Pear Blossom Crossbows would be a red hot sheet of metal. Anyone would die if they pushed in toward them!
The knights of the Church suffered heavy casualties under the attacks of the war machines that were the Dragonbone Battle Carriage, Magic Crystal Cannons, and Pear Blossom Crossbows. No one could charge forward more than a hundred steps despite their heavy armor and insane speed. However, to them, the nightmare was just beginning.
Roar…
Under Yang Ling’s command, the Magical Beast Army unleashed a torrential offense. Two hundred heavily armored, impenetrable Giant Apes wielding giant obsidian clubs weighing fifty pounds were the first to charge out. They covered ten meters with every step, their heavy metal clubs reducing the knights of the Church and their horses to a pulp with every strike. They charged into the other party’s formations as if they were heavy tanks.
Under Yang Ling’s commands, the Giant Apes pounced toward the Iron Edge Castle not far away without pause. The Giant Ape King O’Neal had the greatest speed, reaching the front of the castle in the blink of an eye, completely breaking open the shaky castle gate with one strike before fiercely pouncing toward the reserve forces waiting behind the gates.
With the Ancient Siva Apes paving the way, high-level Magical Beasts like the Twin-legged Flying Dragons, Dark Dragons and Flying Spiders followed quickly behind, creating a path of blood. Behind them, the low-level Magical Beasts such as the Horned Bee Beasts and Self-destructing Bats attacked in formation, freely massacring the knights of the Church that were in disarray. Seeing the opportunity, Elder Klive waved his hand, personally leading his soldiers in launching a fierce offensive.
The castle gate had been destroyed by the Giant Ape King, and the ten thousand knights that had charged out of the castle had been heavily surrounded. What made the soldiers in the castle despair was that a Magical Teleportation Formation had suddenly appeared within the castle, enemies streaming out endlessly. They, after being caught off guard, were getting killed in droves by the sharp crossbows!
After the dozen Magical Towers were destroyed, the magical barrier enveloping the Iron Edge Castle had ceased to exist. Yang Ling easily teleported to the interior of the castle using his Earth Evasion Technique and quickly set up a Magical Teleportation Formation, attacking the castle from the inside.
The castle was about to fall!
