Drive Back

After Ronan dealt with this enemy, the nearby defenders finally reacted and blocked the breach. Under Ronan's command, they picked up the stones piled in the corners of the wall and hurled them viciously down the scaling ladders. With the force provided by both the height and the stones' weight, the soldiers holding the ladders were smashed down along with their shields, their arms twisting into grotesque shapes—clearly broken. The unlucky ones had their necks broken outright.

Before they could send more men to steady the ladders, Ronan grabbed one of them, let out a low roar, and shoved it over with all his strength. Arrows shot from afar struck Ronan's plate armor without penetrating it at all, producing only a series of clanks.

Seeing what Ronan had done, the defenders at the other positions followed suit, and the scaling ladders were soon all overturned. The Valantis troops could only retreat for the moment, coming in a rush and leaving just as quickly. In less than two hours of fighting, Valantis withdrew after leaving behind several hundred corpses. Nearly a hundred defenders at Taiwei Four had also died, with even more wounded.

This had only been a probing attack. If the full Valantis army pressed forward and attacked from all directions, the situation would truly be grim. If the Eredar and Valantis forces joined up after a prolonged siege, there would basically be no way to hold out. After all, the thousand militiamen King of Terra had left behind were truly worrying in terms of combat strength. Most of them had received only basic training and had no actual combat experience at all.

Ronan had noticed today that quite a few people's hands trembled with fear when facing the enemy's attack. How could they fight if they could not even hold their weapons steady? Rexa had noticed it as well, so he decided that he would have to properly drill these recruits over the coming days. Otherwise, a major problem would arise sooner or later.

Rexa had the soldiers gather the corpses together, then lit pyres in an open area to prepare for cremation. They would be defending this place for some time, after all. If the bodies were not dealt with, they could very easily cause an epidemic. Then Taiwei Four would collapse without even being attacked.

The Valantis soldiers had also taken their corpses with them when they retreated. If an epidemic broke out, it would not affect only the defenders of Taiwei Four. At such close range, Valantis would not escape it either.

Ronan had already returned to his room and removed his armor. Several villagers temporarily serving as attendants were using rags to wipe the blood from Ronan's armor and greatsword.

"My lord, you must have killed quite a few enemies!" said the village woman cleaning Ronan's armor. She was only forty years old, yet she looked as aged as an old crone.

"Why do you say that?" Ronan asked curiously as he wiped his face with a freshly delivered towel.

"Because there is so much blood on your equipment. This must all be Valantis blood, right? My lord, you must defeat them soundly."

"You hate them that much?"

"Yes. If they had not invaded, we would not have had to leave our village, and my sons would not have had to enlist."

"Which unit are your sons serving in now?"

"Fortress Two, my lord. I wonder how they are doing now."

"They'll be fine. We'll defeat the enemy too." Ronan was about to say something else to the village woman when Mario's voice sounded from outside the door.

"Rodrit, Rexa has summoned us for a meeting. We're probably going to discuss the next battle plan."

Ronan smiled at the village woman, set down the towel, put on his shirt, and walked out. Mario was waiting outside, with Inella Phantom Feather standing beside him. Ronan gave them a couple of puzzled looks, wondering how the two of them had gotten mixed up together.

Mario called to Ronan, then turned and led the way. By the time they reached the castle's council hall, everyone else had already arrived. They were the last ones. Ronan took a vacant seat, while Inella sat beside him. He stole a couple of glances at her. He had to admit that, so far, he had not seen an ugly elf. They were basically all above average, and Inella could even be called beautiful. Still, like her younger brother Thursma, she gave off a cold and arrogant air.

Once everyone had arrived, Rexa spoke.

"Today's battle gave us a better understanding of Valantis's strength. The only troops they sent out today were their slave legions, while their renowned main force excels in cavalry. They may not be particularly strong at sieges. However, these slave soldiers are well-trained and fearless in the face of death. Valantis has clearly put considerable effort into them.

"At present, the only troops on our side with sufficient combat strength are the Xinteland forces we brought. Those thousand militiamen cannot be relied upon, so I intend to train them personally during this time. At the very least, they need to be able to serve some purpose.

"The Valantis soldiers have already begun building scaling ladders outside the city. Although I previously sent soldiers to cut down all the nearby trees, they still transported in a batch of timber from elsewhere.

"However, I already have a way to deal with those scaling ladders, so they are nothing to worry about. As long as nothing goes wrong, we will definitely be able to hold out until the troops finish assembling.

"To prevent the enemy from attacking at night, the walls and watchtowers must be manned around the clock. Each clan will be responsible for a section of the wall and arrange its own rotations. Likewise, the rest of the soldiers must be ready to fight at any time. My requirement is that everyone must be fully equipped and at their posts within ten minutes of the alarm being sounded. I hope everyone can make do with this."

Seeing that everyone indicated their understanding, Rexa nodded in satisfaction. After assigning the sections of wall each clan would guard, Rexa dismissed the meeting.

The Silver Moon Clan was assigned the northern wall. Mario handled all the watch arrangements, and Ronan was far too lazy to bother with such trivial matters. He only needed to be responsible for fighting.

The night passed peacefully. Valantis did not choose to attack at night, because elves had excellent night vision, and a nighttime assault would instead hinder their own archers.

For several days, both sides remained at peace, each busy with its own affairs. Valantis worked on constructing various siege equipment, while Rexa trained the militia. Under the pressure of death, the militiamen improved at a fair pace. After several days of training, their battle formations were beginning to take shape, and their archery had become considerably more accurate.

With nothing better to do, Ronan joined Rexa in training the militiamen. Ronan did not understand any training techniques; his combat skills had been directly instilled through the system template. Still, although Ronan could not teach them much, he could serve as a sparring partner to test their training results.

The facts proved that Rexa's training was somewhat useful. At the very least, the militiamen's ability to survive had improved considerably. At first, Ronan could knock them down with a single blow. Now they could use their weapons and shields to block several of his attacks. That counted as obvious progress, even though Ronan had not used his full strength at all.