Prince William's army finally arrived beneath Konola City's walls. At the clang of the enemy soldiers' light armor, the disciplined army nearly came to a uniform halt. A path neatly opened through the center of the formation, and a burly man clad in heavily enchanted plate armor strode out. He dragged a dark-red spiked warhammer behind him, and the deep furrow it carved through the solid ground made the weapon's astonishing weight obvious. His dark bald head was crisscrossed with scars, one long scar running from his forehead all the way to his chin. As he opened his mouth full of yellow teeth, the scar twisted sinuously, giving him an indescribably vicious appearance. Moreover, judging from the aura he deliberately released, he was clearly a formal level warrior!
"Listen up, people inside! Come out and surrender obediently now. If I'm in a good mood, I might even let you die quickly. Otherwise, once I smash these lousy bricks to pieces, heh heh!"
After speaking, the burly man who appeared to be the army's commander suddenly swung his warhammer down hard. A huge cloud of dust was blasted into the air and hurled directly onto Konola City's walls. Sand and stones scattered everywhere. The breeze soon dispersed the dust, revealing a pit half a meter deep where the hammer had struck.
Watching the ordinary soldiers beside him tremble in fear, Punk grew even less optimistic about Konola City's defenders. Setting aside the enormous disparity in equipment and numbers, their mental fortitude alone was lacking—they were already frightened before the battle had even begun. Other than the advantage of defending a city, Konola City was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in every respect.
And... was this general, who looked more like a bandit chief than a military commander, really here to "persuade them to surrender"? Did he not know that such a damned offer, leaving them no way to live, would only force everyone to fight like desperate men?
Or perhaps... he was so confident that he had never intended to persuade them to surrender at all. His true goal was to slaughter everyone in the city. In the brutal Faerun plane, massacring a city to vent one's anger was all too common in war!
I'd better stay sharp once the fighting starts. If things go bad, I'll get out of here fast, Punk silently raised his guard.
The burly man's doomed attempt at persuasion naturally failed. The soldiers and professionals atop the walls showed no reaction beyond more resolute gazes. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly, ready to enter battle at any moment!
Seeing this, the burly man did not get angry. Instead, he burst into loud laughter. Scarlet battle aura flowed from his body and adhered to the armor covered in mysterious patterns. The silver armor instantly turned pale red and radiated intense heat, while flame-like battle aura spilled from its joints. Infused with battle aura, his weapon also rapidly turned deep red, becoming a terrifying warhammer that exuded an ominous presence.
"Hah!!!" The burly man suddenly roared, his thunderous voice making everyone's ears ring. A scarlet ring of battle aura exploded beneath his feet, while a deep-red shield formed from battle aura appeared before him. Accelerated by the battle aura, his body unleashed a piercing sonic boom and instantly became a streak of light, charging toward the city gate as if he intended to smash through space itself!
"Not good, he's going to smash through the city gate."
Punk immediately understood what he was trying to do. The earlier flamboyant provocation and pointless persuasion had all been preparation for this sudden "battering ram" strike! Once the gate was breached, Konola City, stripped of its final advantage, would undoubtedly be defeated!
But how could Mainesi, standing beside the city gate, allow him to succeed? Mainesi pointed a slender emerald-green staff at the gate. In an instant, amid repeated cracking sounds from the ground, dozens of thick vines over five meters tall, wreathed in pale green radiance, burst from the earth. Their tangled branches not only blocked the burly warrior's charge directly, but rapidly spread more than ten meters wide, completely eliminating any chance of him changing direction at the last moment!
The burly man shouted as he crashed into the vines. Large numbers of green vines were smashed apart and torn loose by his scorching red battle-aura shield, but even more vines wrapped around him, attempting to bind and strangle the burly man now that his charge had lost its momentum!
However, realizing that he could not breach the city in a single strike, the burly man did not press recklessly onward. With a nimble backward step utterly mismatched with his massive frame, he leaped back and easily evaded the vines' pursuit!
At that moment, Mainesi's second spell had already been cast. A small dark-green sphere containing a terrifying aura streaked through the air, leaving a faint afterimage as it flew toward the burly man's unarmored head. This was precisely when he had stepped backward into midair—after using his combat technique, his old strength was spent and his new strength had yet to arise, while he had nowhere to brace himself in the air.
Just as Mainesi's attack was about to hit its target, in that split second, the burly man suddenly roared again. He violently twisted in midair and slammed the dark-green sphere with his warhammer. Punk could sense that the sphere's Spell Structure, which contained explosive power, had been shattered and destroyed by the burly man's battle aura. The remaining Spell Ember was scattered in every direction by the warhammer. The once-powerful Formal Level spell could no longer harm a Formal Level expert.
The previously solid dark-green sphere burst apart beneath the burly man's heavy hammer blow, turning into scattered liquid that splashed across the ground and corroded the solid earth into black, worm-eaten holes.
The burly man twisted in midair and landed easily on the ground. Mainesi did not follow up with another attack, and the two Formal Level experts simply stared at each other for quite a while! Although the exchange had been complex and perilous, it had all taken place in just a few seconds. Those without sufficient strength could only see flashes of red and green bursting through the air. Only Journeyman Level professionals could tell just how... dazzling and terrifying the clash had been!
"Mainesi, I didn't expect a piece of trash like you to have improved a little after all this time. But you're still far beneath me. It's not too late to stay out of this mess. Get far away from that Nasya, and if I'm in a good mood, I'll pretend I never saw you!" The burly man rested his warhammer on his shoulder and shouted his "advice" at Mainesi.
"Lunka, it seems your tongue has improved after all this time. But you're not even worthy of carrying my shoes. It's still not too late for you to die. Hurry up and bury yourself in a shit pit, and if I'm in a good mood, I'll scatter two flowers over you!" Mainesi "mocked" him in a cold, low, yet clear voice tinged with amusement.
"Then there's nothing more to say." Lunka, who had been wild and unruly since his entrance, now wore a grim expression. He turned around and walked back into the army formation step by step, then leaped onto the command platform used by the commander. He gave a light wave of his hand to a knight beside him.
"Begin the siege~" With Lunka's seemingly casual gesture, the horns signaling the start of the siege and magically amplified shouts spread across the entire wilderness!
At the rear of the army, professionals carried ladder after ladder and raced toward the city walls faster than ordinary soldiers charging into battle. The dense rain of arrows fired from the walls could not pierce skin covered in battle aura, but devastating spells soon descended from the sky after the arrows.
Clusters of spell-fire tore across the sky, and bursts of battle aura bloomed across the ground. Amid earth-shaking battle cries and the clanging of armor, a magnificent battle... began!
The contract is signed, I'm happy. Where are the votes and recommendations?
Before you continue