Prince Stolas had no idea what was happening. One moment it was a giant creature being summoned disabling their air forces, then quickly disappearing. Then a series of barrages had incidentally damaged the safe zone shields, costing the lives of several mages due to the strain of shielding the wide area.
Subsequently, another barrage ensured the destruction of nearly half the siege weapons deployed. Stolas was very sure that the mages had calibrated sufficiently to reduce the artillery attacks into a mere nudge on the shields.
Yet, reality showed that they had been mistaken.
Before him, he saw the broken shield with a large hole in the middle and the surviving mages were scrambling to fix it. Unfortunately, they did not realise that amongst this barrage, one of the shells had not detonated yet.
Lord Wolte had sneakily thrown a special kind of armour piercing shell when he fired his three triple barrel 305mm guns towards the siege weapons as part of his calibration.
Disguised as an armour piercing round, it actually had an internal timer which would explode after a time delay set by either Wolte or alternatively the Captain of the battlecruiser.
So when the attack went through, all of the mages were hastily repairing the shield in case of another attack and overlooking the shell ticking off like an egg timer. (Considering with all the noise from injured people in the area, or people shouting for help, there was too little of a chance to notice it.)
As such, when the timer hit zero, a congregation of medics was unfortunately in the midst of aiding the ailing mages. The explosion wiped out every single help that had come in and caused further damage within the shield, resulting in the complete shattering of it.
It appeared that Prince Stolas’ guardian angel was working overtime. Like last time, he now had another close shave with death. Stolas ended up surviving as he was instructing the medics outside the safe zone and coordinating the remaining siege weapons.
Even as the shell exploded within the energy shield, the Raven Prince could feel the shockwave emanating out to him. In an instant, their entire temporary communication cum headquarters had once again been eradicated with a single blast and their pillar of protection had been dismantled.
“Fuck! How the hell does Moloch have access to all this technology, or magic or whatever shit!” Prince Stolas threw his cape down in anger as he gathered his magic to produce an updraft of the flames, hoping it would burn out as soon as possible.
There was no guarantee that a second bombardment wouldn’t arrive to finish the job but rescuing the remaining demons was his priority. If too many mages were killed, there would be no shield to protect the safe zone from getting more reinforcements.
But thankfully, it was a single strike, and its devastation continued towards the direction of the frontlines. Stolas felt as if he had enough. He wanted nothing more than to personally rip his mentor in tiny pieces. Why were his elder brothers and sisters still not here?
Were they perhaps afraid after what had happened to Princess Gaap? Where was the King when they needed him the most. Sure, Stolas might have proved to be a capable tactician, but the odds were completely against him right now. Moloch and his allies proved too capable and were too much to handle for him.
Was it because Baal knew that he could be outwitted and outplayed by Moloch, so he had instead banished him with as little resources as possible? If that’s the case, Stolas could understand the goal of revenge and yet it had been Baal who initiated the attack. Not Moloch.
Still, that did not stop the Prince from wondering how long the Demon Metropolis could hold if the situation would be flipped with Moloch the one to proceed with an attack.
——————-
“Most of the siege weapons were hit. Target now set onto the Mad Giant. The package is ready to deliver.” The sailor reported as he received word that the munition teams were locked and loaded.
“Don’t waste any time. Strike when it’s hot.” Gan Yang ordered and his second in command did not hesitate to give the signal to deliver the next barrage of attack towards the sky bridge. A series of far-reaching booms travelled to the sky bridge, and the cultivators instinctively took cover. Despite the battlecruiser being so far, it still threatened to shatter their hearing.
A blanket of smoke emerged around the Mad Giant had been standing on, and the blasts did catch his attention, especially since he lost an arm trying to protect himself from the cannon shot. “What the hell is that?!” Earl Barbatos was surprised by the long-distance strike, and when he recovered from the shock, everything around him was burning.
Hundreds of foot soldiers, regardless of their status and strength, had been obliterated instantly. “If the Giants further front were to be targeted, the invasion will become a complete loss.” He cautioned himself as he tore a piece of his undershirt to create a quick tourniquet in order to stop the bleeding.
“Any surviving Wights?!” Earl Barbatos shouted, and a dozen of them managed to respond. “Buff me! Buff me until you lose all your willpower, your mana, whatever lifeforce you have left. If we are going to win, I need your strength!” He demanded, and the Wights complied.
Individually, they knew they did not stand a chance to win this overpowering amount of strength. They clearly needed superior numbers which they lacked if they continued to fight on this bridge. Twice, they had believed they had the ability to outshine and break their defences down.
Still, the constant events clearly demonstrated that the Demons needed to create the secondary checkpoint so a more substantial number could overwhelm the defender’s technological advances or else this would be a failed invasion.
Judging from the situation, the Mad Giant believed Moloch wanted to lure him into hitting the ship since he knew he had the ability to do so. But this seemed to be a trap designed for Barbatos. Without him, the Giants would not have a leader. They might not be the dumbest, but their effectiveness severely decreased without the Earl, resulting in confusion in their ranks.
With such destructive powers on their hands, Barbatos deduced they would not use it near the defenders, and thus hitting the mid-portion of the army for maximum effect.
So, technically, the Mad Giant should be able to avoid getting bombarded if he was to run into the frontlines. Although there was a chance the metal ship would annihilate the defenders alongside the Giants, Barbatos was willing to take this bet based on his knowledge on Moloch’s attitude given their previous friendship.
“He might be a great tactician, but he is a softy at heart. He won’t sacrifice that many of his forces to deal with me! Come on Wights, don’t hold anything back!!!” All the remaining Wights continued to pour their powers into Barbatos as he prepared himself for the push for the end of the sky bridge. Indeed they did not hold back, and soon they began fainting one after the other.
Noticing that his stance was slightly different from afar and the lack of swift retaliation, Wolte deduced that Barbatos wouldn’t come. He was probably planning to actually go berserk by charging into the frontlines. (After all, he too was a crazed warring demon and knew that logic didn’t apply to them.)
“Not good. If little Barbatos were to charge forward, this ruse becomes useless.” Wolte thought to himself and sent the news to Qiu Yue.
“He might be trying his luck to get a checkpoint open at the end of the sky bridge.” Moloch agreed with Wolte, and so far, Qiu Yue and Kraft also concurred.
“His sacrifice would not be in vain if he manages to reach that far. Although we are planning to allow their troops to do that, I believe we have not reached critical mass in terms of the cultivators coming in.”
Moloch added in consideration of the profit for Jin’s shop. (Evidently, he was crystal clear about the shocking amount of money they had spent which they needed to recuperate from.)
“But if we don’t stop him now, he will find that something is afoot. And once he is up at the platform, Wolte will no longer be able to target him easily and the Giants are too much a hassle for the cultivators to handle.” Qiu Yue replied, and Kraft provided them with a possible solution.
“Oh, for God’s sake, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for. Just release the Krak- I meant. Release the Pandjila! ” Kraft pointed at the slumbering large clay monster in the sea on the war table.
