Siege Assault

Valantis's people didn't keep Taiwei Four waiting. After establishing their siege camp, the Valantians began mustering their troops. The slave army of Valantis was trained from child captives acquired by Valantis from various places. From a young age, they were trained by their masters to use weapons and instilled with the absolute obedience to their masters' will, no matter what.

These slaves were normally responsible for farming and labor, but during wartime, they would take up arms and become Valantis's vanguard. When the number of slave soldiers became too large, Valantis would sell some of them to other city-states to alleviate pressure and earn a profit. These slaves were castrated from a young age to curb their desires. Their lives were numb and they generally didn't live past forty, dying either on the battlefield or from arduous labor.

At this moment, these slaves had donned their sleeveless leather armor, girded short swords at their waists, and gathered with jet-black round shields in hand. Thousands of them assembled, forming a dense, oppressive mass.

The slave soldiers slowly pushed out five catapults from the rear, while the soldiers in the front rows carried siege ladders, holding their shields overhead.

Since the enemy was attacking from only one direction this time, Bamba had already arranged for the villagers to hide on the west side of the castle. This way, any stones or arrows that broke through later would not cause them any harm.

The horn blew, and the enemy army began to move slowly, then faster and faster. The slave soldiers in the front ranks, carrying the siege ladders, moved with incredible speed. Once within arrow range, the archers from both sides began their exchange of fire. The defending soldiers on the city walls were arranged in three ranks. The first rank held spears and shields to protect the battlements, while the two ranks behind them, archers, alternately fired from the cover of the front rank's shields.

A dense rain of arrows crisscrossed the air. The defenders still held a significant advantage in this situation. Apart from a few unlucky souls whose heads were pierced by arrows through the gaps while firing, most of the arrows were blocked by shields and battlements.

The defenders had a longer range and larger targets. Many of Valantis's slave soldiers were wounded by arrows falling from the sky. Their round shields offered limited coverage, and their bare arms, exposed by the sleeveless leather armor, were easily hit by arrows. However, these slave soldiers seemed to feel no pain. Even with bloody gashes on their arms, they remained unfazed.

After more than ten volleys of arrows were exchanged, Valantis's casualties were clearly higher than those of Taiwei Four's defenders. However, the slave soldiers finally reached the base of the city wall, carrying the siege ladders. Leaning them against the wall, the slave soldiers slowly erected the ladders against the crenellations. Simultaneously, more than a dozen soldiers at the bottom firmly held the base of the ladders, preventing the defenders on the wall from tipping them over.

The arrow rain continued. The slave soldiers, holding their shields overhead with one hand and steadying the ladders with the other, began to climb. The defending archers extended themselves from the battlements and shot downwards. Although most were blocked by shields, a few slave soldiers who were not adequately protected were shot and fell to their deaths.

The defending infantry also used their spears to thrust downwards. A few slave soldiers who had just reached the top had their hands no sooner touched the battlements than they were forcefully pushed back down by the defending soldiers using their shields.

As the siege ladders were placed against the battlements, the siege engines were also deployed. A group of soldiers gathered and pushed a siege engine out of the formation. Rexa immediately noticed the siege engine and quickly signaled the archers to focus their attention there. However, the slave soldiers had excellent protection, with most arrows being blocked by shields. Occasionally, when a few soldiers were shot down, others would immediately fill their positions.

Rexa frowned and ordered the defenders on top of the city gate to prepare hot oil and fire arrows. Taiwei Four's city gate was reinforced with iron, so it was fireproof. However, the wooden battering ram of the enemy's siege engine was not.

The siege engine was slowly pushed forward. Slave soldiers beside it shouted slogans and forcefully rammed the battering ram against the city gate. But after just one impact, they were doused with hot oil poured from the wall. The slave soldiers let out screams and rolled on the ground. The feeling of being covered in scalding hot oil was terrible, not to mention the fire arrows that were immediately shot down. The siege engine was instantly ignited, and the nearby soldiers who had been doused with oil also caught fire.

Burning all over, they screamed and rolled on the ground. But the fire, fueled by the oil, was not so easily extinguished. In the end, they could only turn into charred corpses with their flesh and armor melted together.

As the defenders began to deal with the siege engine, Valantis's catapults also commenced their attack. Most of the stones launched by the catapults hit the city walls, while a smaller portion flew into the city, hitting the castle and open spaces within. However, Taiwei Four's walls and castle were very sturdy. The stones only managed to stir up a cloud of debris upon impact, causing no significant damage. Perhaps if they bombarded the walls non-stop for a year, they could break them.

Yet, even if they couldn't shake the walls, the vibrations caused by the stones hitting the battlements made a few unsuspecting defenders fall. Valantis's slave soldiers took this opportunity to ascend the battlements.

Another stone accurately pierced a crenellation and struck above the city wall. A soldier holding a shield and thrusting with a spear was directly sent flying, falling off the wall and becoming an indistinguishable mass below.

More and more enemies climbed onto the battlements under the cover of catapult fire and arrow rain. Close-quarters combat began. Several slave soldiers climbed up near Ronan. Seeing this, Ronan directly thrust his spear forward like a javelin, piercing a newly arrived enemy soldier through and through. The immense force even sent the enemy flying back more than a meter before crashing into another soldier.

Ronan drew his greatsword, which was leaning against the battlement, and brought it down with a powerful swing, forcing a soldier blocking with a shield to kneel. Ronan then kicked him forcefully, striking his face with his sturdy iron boot, breaking his nose. This sent him to the ground, kneeling with his upper body thrown back. Ronan pressed his advantage, bringing his greatsword down to pierce his neck.

Then, Ronan gripped the sword blade in reverse, turned, and struck fiercely. The counterweight ball at the end of the hilt slammed into the shield of a soldier who had just climbed the battlement and hadn't stabilized himself. It dented the shield and sent the soldier tumbling down the wall to the ground below.

He gripped the sword blade with both hands, blocking a short sword swung by an enemy. He forcefully pushed the enemy against the wall. As the enemy's back bounced off the wall, Ronan immediately thrust his sharp handguard into the gap of the enemy's helmet, piercing directly through his eye and into his brain.

At this moment, an enemy who had just climbed up struck Ronan's back fiercely with a short sword, but it only left a scratch and a few sparks on the thick plate armor. Ronan roared, pulled out his greatsword's handguard, gripped the blade with both hands, turned around, and thrust fiercely, piercing directly into the slave soldier's abdomen. Ronan's arm muscles bulged as he exerted force, lifting the soldier and then throwing him powerfully over the city wall.