Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 518: The Siege Attrition War

Was it worth trading two hundred Crimson Knights for two Overlord-Class Siege Transports?

There was no longer any need to calculate this ledger.

The long-range attrition between both sides continued. Great Fireballs, Medium Fireballs, stone projectiles, and ballista bolts poured down like a violent storm, destroying those two Overlord-Class Troop Carriers. The soldiers inside scurried out as if fleeing a disaster. On a battlefield like this, they were like ants; a single stray ballista bolt could take out a whole swathe of them.

At this moment, the remaining three Overlord-Class Troop Carriers suddenly halted. Huge, sharp spikes began piercing into the ground around them to stabilize their hulls.

Simultaneously, above the troop carriers, the enchanted giant ballistae began to charge. At a distance of only 1,500 meters from the fortress, this was a prime attack position.

Before the fortress forces had any attack capable of piercing the Sequence Five Magic Defense Shield, these were the perfect gun turrets!

In an instant, the sixty enchanted giant ballistae atop the three Overlord-Class Troop Carriers fired a synchronized volley, directly blowing apart sixty enchanted giant ballistae within the fortress.

This kind of strike was fatal, because ten seconds later, another synchronized volley struck, and sixty more enchanted giant ballistae were destroyed.

This was a nightmare for the garrison, forced to watch helplessly.

They could only wait as long as possible, waiting for their own Great Fireballs to blast through the enemy's defenses. Of course, they could perhaps try using thick steel plates to block the front, but the problem was that the enemy had more than just this one method of attack.Right now, in the Maclay Legion Main Camp, rows of bizarre Magitech Machinery were being wheeled out, their purpose unknown.

After the giant ballistae on those three Overlord-Class Troop Carriers had fired four volleys, inside the Karndorf Fortress, Mountain Eagle Parker finally found the losses somewhat unbearable. He issued an order to lower thick steel plates to protect the giant ballistae and trebuchets on the city defenses.

But just as the order was given, the low blaring of war horns echoed out. The twenty thousand infantrymen in the Maclay Legion Main Camp began an all-out charge, along with the remaining troop carriers.

Yes, this was the moment they had been waiting for.

Or rather, both sides understood the arts of siege and defense thoroughly. There was no guaranteed winning option. This was a forced piece-exchange tactic—you either lose this, or you lose that. Make your choice!

And the weapons that posed a threat to large-scale infantry were the numerous enchanted giant ballistae, which could punch through a hundred men in a single breath.

At this moment, what choice would you make?

As it turned out, Mountain Eagle Parker chose to continue biding his time and not exchange pieces. Although these infantrymen were numerous, most of them were captured routed soldiers and auxiliaries, or second-line troops, or conscripted mercenary players, destitute small three-star lords, and the like. They were by no means true elites.

They didn't even have shield carts, nor did they carry siege ladders, yet they launched such a frenzied charge.

They allowed Medium Fireballs to continuously fall, taking away a dozen or so lives with each strike, and they didn't care.

After all, they could still resurrect after dying, but if they could snatch the merit of being first-to-scale and capturing the city, then it would be a massive profit.

When this batch of twenty thousand infantrymen charged in one breath to a spot five hundred meters from the fortress walls, the road ahead disappeared. Pits and the moat lay everywhere ahead; the dense array of traps had already completely consumed those one thousand Tier 3 Gargoyles from earlier.

This required either piling up human lives to fill the gap, or thinking of another way.

Sure enough, the remaining fifty siege troop carriers of the Maclay Legion charged over at this moment. Ignoring the pits and the moat, they plunged headlong, using themselves as bridges.

In a short moment, five passages leading straight to the base of the wall were paved.

At this time, many soldiers also cast a large amount of plant seeds and magic potions toward the space between the five passages. Then, in a short span of time, massive amounts of vines grew out from underground. Ignoring the traps and the moat, they rapidly wove into a colossal vine carpet, ultimately forming a siege passage over a thousand meters wide.

Amidst cheers and battle cries, a large number of soldiers rapidly charged across. However, in the next second, clusters of heavenly fire, like molten lava, fell from the sky, not only burning away a vast amount of vines but also incinerating an unknown number of soldiers.

But there were simply too many soldiers—over twenty thousand of them. Across a distance of less than five hundred meters, as long as they were fast enough, they could still charge across. Reaching the base of the wall, they rapidly withdrew various simple, easily assembled shield carts or tortoise-shell carriers from their resource cards, using them as platforms to temporarily dodge the impact of the blazing lava.

However, none of them rushed to attack. Instead, they focused on securing a firm foothold at the base of the wall. In a short time, at least ten thousand soldiers successfully established themselves at the base of the wall.

Throughout this process, the defending side completely didn't dare to show their heads; showing their heads meant instant death!

The suppression brought by those three Overlord-Class Troop Carriers was simply too ferocious.

However, the defending side naturally wasn't without their own methods; they were likely still waiting.

Sure enough, after about fifteen thousand soldiers had established a foothold at the base of the wall, accompanied by a synchronized roar, that strange Magitech Machinery within the Maclay Legion Main Camp actually launched a special contraption over two thousand meters into the air.

This was a device that could only hold two people per unit, resembling a large battlefield scooter. It possessed excellent gliding capabilities and propulsion, capable of rapid-descending toward the battlements at speeds approaching a hundred kilometers per hour!

Airborne troops!

A total of one thousand units meant two thousand elites!

As expected, this method was too formidable.

Almost simultaneously, the siege soldiers at the base of the wall rapidly withdrew simple components from their resource cards and quickly assembled them into sixty-meter-high siege ladders.

These siege ladders came with a type of magical grappling hook that could automatically and firmly grip the city wall, so the soldiers only needed to climb at full speed!

Moreover, it was roughly one siege ladder for every ten soldiers. For a time, the fifty-meter-high walls of the Karndorf Fortress looked as if they were covered in a thousand giant blood leeches sucking onto it!

And those rapidly climbing siege soldiers were like the squirming bodies of those blood leeches.

Seeing that they were about to climb the fifty-meter distance all the way to the top, suddenly, cold light flashed, and all kinds of magic traps erupted on the facade of the city wall. Wind blades, ice blades, and ground spikes killed to their heart's content!

Those soldiers climbing rapidly were completely caught off guard, transforming into mists of blood that filled the air.

This single wave instantly annihilated at least over five thousand men.

At the same time, the thick steel plates blocking the enchanted giant ballistae inside the fortress were rapidly pulled up. Then, hundreds of enchanted giant ballistae locked onto the elite airborne scooters flying rapidly through the air. Swish, swish, swish! A single volley blew up nearly a third of them.

Over six hundred elite siege troops were instantly killed in mid-air before they even saw the city wall.

However, in the next second, the enchanted giant ballistae on those three Overlord-Class Troop Carriers fired a synchronized volley, directly blowing apart another sixty giant ballistae.

After that, there were no more. Whether attacking or defending, neither side could launch a second wave within ten seconds.

Meanwhile, those elite rapid-descent scooters completed their drop within a few seconds!

These people, acting as true elites, first threw out at least five hundred Tier 3 Gargoyles the moment they landed. They used the gargoyles to start a killing spree in the front while they followed up to finish off the stragglers from behind.

Unfortunately for them, the garrison had the same idea.

Furthermore, the garrison's city wall was not a flat, ordinary wall; it was sloped. It didn't accommodate stationed defenders at all and was covered in mechanisms and traps. For a time, the light of magic flickered, and the roar of mechanisms laughed wildly. Meanwhile, the garrison stationed inside the second-tier terrace wall frantically poured down a rain of arrows. This was a complete slaughterhouse, fraught with deadly peril and without any blind spots!

If they hadn't had those five hundred Tier 3 Gargoyles blocking the front, those thousand-plus elite airborne siege troops would have absolutely been slaughtered completely within minutes.

But right now, they were able to calmly retrieve from their resource cards—what? Their resource cards couldn't be opened?!

Surprised? Unexpected?

Relying on the Tier-2 Mage Tower, Mountain Eagle Parker had implemented Spatial Interdiction within the fortress!

Resource cards couldn't be retrieved. Without the supplies inside the resource cards, attempting to establish a beachhead was absolutely impossible.

However, this didn't seem to exceed the expectations of the attacking side either. In the next second, two 4th-Tier Mages used Blink to teleport from the rear camp onto two Overlord-Class Troop Carriers. These two troop carriers were rapidly advancing forward. When they pushed to a distance of only one kilometer away, they simultaneously unleashed the Sequence 5 Fire Meteor!

One of the Fire Meteors was instantly intercepted and deflected, but the other couldn't be blocked. It solidly bombarded the fortress's second-tier terrace wall. In an instant, a massive gap was blown into this sturdy wall, and the garrison inside was killed instantly!

At this moment, the soldiers of the attacking and defending sides finally had the chance to engage in close-quarters combat.

Presumably, at this moment, it was a sigh of relief for both sides.

They would rather engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat and hack at iron than be wiped out by a Mage's ultimate move.

But in reality, that was impossible.

Ordinary soldiers were reaped wantonly like dregs on such a battlefield. However, those elite legion squads felt like fish in water instead. Operating in teams of fifty, they not only possessed extremely high magic resistance, but they could also unleash Legion Skills based on the situation to block the damage from fireballs, and then frantically advance.

Then they crashed into the enemy's elite legions. Such offensive combat was not relaxing in the slightest.

And up to this point, just to charge up and occupy the battlements, the Maclay faction's casualties had already exceeded ten thousand.

Now they had sent out practically their entire army, seeking only to conquer it in this one wave.

There was no helping it. This wasn't an ordinary mortal siege battle. The destructive power brought by magic was too great and too strong. There was no opportunity or affordable cost for trial and error.

Both sides were risking their lives!

Meanwhile, inside Siyuan Keep, Li Siyuan suddenly led a thousand soldiers charging out of Siyuan Keep and onto the Great Bridge, entering from the other city gate of Karndorf Fortress. They were going to join the fortress street fighting as well.

But Li Wei's side couldn't move, nor did they want to move.

Being able to pin down Baravid's cavalry on the opposite side was already playing a massive role in this battle of attack and defense.

It was just unknown what other crazy maneuvers the opposing side might pull out, or... Falcon Karl, where was your Main Legion?

This thought couldn't help but flash through Li Wei's mind. The tragic and brutal siege battle across the river truly left him terror-stricken. He didn't know what he would do if he encountered such a situation in the future.

Whether attacking or defending a city, could he afford such casualties?