Chương 122: The War of Siege and Defense (Part 4)

Once the iron hooks of the Cloud Ladders clamped onto the fortress walls, they became extremely difficult to remove. The tasks that followed were no longer the responsibility of the serfs, and the remaining thousand or so surviving serfs managed to escape with their lives. Dragging their exhausted bodies back to the military camp, they wanted to reunite with their wives and daughters.

Then, to their horror, they discovered that Count Fischer's soldiers had transformed into goblins themselves; everything that should and should not have happened had taken place. One by one, their mentalities completely exploded. A massive hatred accumulated within their hearts, merely waiting for the right moment to erupt. The human soldiers began to enter the field. The heavily armored soldiers entered the trenches first.

After completing their assembly, under the command of the military bugles, they rushed out of the trenches, charged onto the Cloud Ladders, and surged toward the fortress walls. Count Fischer had promised that if the city fell, he would reward the first person to ascend the wall with the most fertile land of his family and reward them with 100 gold coins. Other personnel who performed meritorious deeds would also receive rewards. The soldiers' morale was mobilized once again, and they shouted as they rushed upward.

With 17 Cloud Ladders came 17 storming points. A large number of heavily armored soldiers climbed up the Cloud Ladders. The musketeer goblins put down their bows and crossbows, picking up their more familiar muskets to begin shooting. The soldiers climbing the Cloud Ladders had their bodies completely exposed. Under the sound of gunshots, the heavy armor was easily pierced, and the climbing soldiers shrieked as they fell. But the enemy had truly lost their minds to frenzy, rushing forward very fast and resolutely.

The Cloud Ladders were very wide, allowing two people to rush up together. These soldiers held up their shields and brandished their swords, screaming one by one as they charged. After all, muskets did not have a fast rate of fire and could not achieve a complete lockdown under this kind of offensive, allowing some human soldiers to successfully breach and charge onto the fortress walls. However, charging up was where the true slaughterhouse began.

"The glory of the first ascent is mine!!" A human soldier howled, leaping onto the fortress wall. Yet in the next instant, he was pushed against the wall by over a dozen spears. Before he could even display his martial skills, a gun muzzle extended from among the group of Great Goblins wielding spears, firing a shot that killed him on the spot. More human soldiers jumped onto the fortress wall from the Cloud Ladders. Waiting for them were dozens of heavily armored Great Goblins blocking the wall.

They raised various weapons and delivered a heavy beating, knocking the enemies down until their center of gravity collapsed, after which they were killed by muskets pressed directly against their chests. Of course, this was still the best-case scenario; at least they died on the fortress wall. What was far worse was the soldier who had just poked his head out from the Cloud Ladder, only to see over 10 muskets pointing right at him, dying a worthless death the exact moment he touched the wall.

In another sector, surrounded by Goblin Incinerators, they hurled viscous fireballs onto the Cloud Ladders one by one. The Cloud Ladders were coated with thick mud, so for the time being, they were not afraid of being burned by fire, but the people were! Viscous fireballs detonated one after another right above the heads of the crowd, splashing sticky flames everywhere. The human soldiers covered by the flames howled and shrieked.

Their armor became scalding hot, causing agonizing pain to the skin in contact with the metal. More importantly, being on fire filled them with terror, and everyone wanted to extinguish the flames as quickly as possible. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Where would there be water on a Cloud Ladder? Those on fire wanted to run backward, but the people behind them desperately wanted to charge upward.

This created a bottleneck at both ends, leaving them with no choice but to jump off from both sides. From heights of 10 to 20-odd meters, they jumped down one after another like dumplings hitting a pot, breaking their legs and howling in absolute misery. Li Qinwu guarded a section of the wall where a Cloud Ladder had hooked on. Drawing his greatsword, he cut down a human soldier who had just charged up with a single slash, and then fiercely brought the heavy sword down onto the opponent's helmet-protected head.

The immense strength drove the heavy sword, instantly crushing the opponent's helmet flat and shattering his skull. The moment he killed one person, another enemy appeared on the Cloud Ladder. Just as the opponent was about to leap onto the fortress wall, Li Qinwu thrust his sword out, ramming the opponent right off the Cloud Ladder. From a height of 25 meters, the opponent let out a Wilhelm scream, smashing onto the ground dead.

His 15-point Control attribute allowed him to better mobilize his entire musculoskeletal framework, exerting force with superior movements. He single-handedly held down an entire pathway, his greatsword hacking left and right, slaughtering the surroundings until the field was littered with corpses. The fortress wall remained as solid as gold, while the Cloud Ladders became stairways to heaven—to ascend was to die.

After leaving behind more than 800 corpses, everyone became terrified, and their morale was on the verge of being completely emptied out. The nobles in the rear saw that this wouldn't do; if they kept fighting like this, morale would completely collapse. Count Fischer felt a deeply sour sensation in his teeth. Damn it! How could these goblins be so difficult to kill! Holy shit! He issued an order to his soldiers: "Bring Kosso up."

Before long, a Tiger Beastman standing 2 meters tall, with coiled muscles all over his body, covered entirely in yellowish-black fur, and bearing the head of a tiger, was escorted up by the soldiers. This fellow had shackles on his neck and hands, and he also bore a slave brand on his pumpkin-shaped shoulders. The Tiger Beastman named Kosso stared straight at Count Fischer. He was originally the minor chieftain of a certain Tiger Beastman tribe in the Beastman Kingdom.

Because he lost a war for territory against other beastmen, he and his clan were packaged and sold to humans as slaves. But how could a tiger willingly be imprisoned? Even though he was currently constrained by iron chains, his tiger eyes still stared straight at Count Fischer, as if he wanted to charge forward and bite him to death immediately. Count Fischer found a mage to act as a translator and then said to him: "Do you see the fortress wall in the distance? I will give you 500 sets of auxiliary soldier armor.

Take your 500 clansmen to storm the city. If you take it down, I will grant you your freedom, and I will even support you in fighting your way back to your tribal lands. How about it?" Kosso's tiger eyes lit up.

"Human, swear an oath to your god!" Count Fischer curled his lip, swearing an oath with a complete lack of sincerity: "Ah~ by the Goddess of Life above, as long as Kosso and his clansmen can assist me in breaking the city, I shall bestow freedom upon Kosso and his clansmen, and finance his return to his tribal lands. Is that enough?" His attitude toward the divine made Kosso furrow his brow, letting out a snort.

"A fellow who does not revere the gods, you will pay the price for your insolence in the future." Count Fischer gave a dismissive scoff. Gods were things that hadn't actively manifested in the world for thousands of years; if it weren't for the Chosen Undying still active in the mortal realm, the existence of gods would have long become a mere myth. Count Fischer waved his hand.

"Release his clansmen, give them armor and weapons." Kosso was led down by the soldiers to the rear of the military camp, arriving at a prison area. Inside the iron cages here were over 500 tiger-men, every single one of them tall and heavily muscled, each possessing 3 Nu or at least 2 Nu of strength, all naturally conditioned. The human soldiers unlocked the cages, letting the tiger-men out, and then threw down 500 sets of chainmail and lamellar armor.

Plate armor was custom-made and would not fit them, but chainmail and lamellar armor could have their sizes adjusted, making them suitable for large-scale equipment. Kosso's handcuffs and neck shackles were unlocked, and a human sergeant, straining under the weight, carried a double-bladed battle-axe over his shoulder and handed it to Kosso. Kosso took the weapon with a single hand and swung it effortlessly; a weapon that others found strenuous just to carry could be swung by him with absolute ease.

The sergeant pointed toward the distant siege battlefield.

"Go down into the trenches first to approach the fortress wall, then climb up the Cloud Ladders. Kill everyone inside, and you will be free... shit, forgot you brutes can't understand the Human Common Tongue." Kosso didn't listen to this fellow anyway. Having obtained armor and a weapon, he felt that he had once again become the king of all beasts. He raised his double-bladed axe and let out a thunderous roar.

"A BLOOD SACRIFICE TO THE BEAST GOD!!" The other tiger-men who had just obtained their freedom also raised their weapons and shouted at the top of their lungs.

"A BLOOD SACRIFICE TO THE BEAST GOD!!" Kosso led everyone as they charged toward the fortress wall.