Heshima still hesitated. "But although your Catapults can shoot a long way, they can only throw small stones. They'll barely damage the enemy fortress!"
"But if we don't pull them back, these throwing engines will be nothing but sitting ducks for the enemy's Catapults, destroyed one after another!"
Keledu's words finally persuaded Heshima. Seeing more and more Catapults catch fire, Heshima was unwilling to let these machines, built at enormous expense, be destroyed just like that.
He therefore sent orders to the front lines to withdraw all the Catapults.
By then, however, it was already a little late. Even as Heshima gave the order, nearly thirty percent of the Barbarians' stone-throwing engines had already been destroyed by the fortress defenders' Catapults.
Fortunately, once the frontline troops received the order, the crews operating the Catapults reacted quickly. Perhaps they had long wanted to retreat themselves, for the moment the order arrived, some Catapults began moving back.
The fortress defenders' Catapult crews also noticed the movements of the Barbarians' Catapults. Knowing they intended to retreat, they seized the time to attack the withdrawing machines.
Moreover, the Barbarians' archers had now moved beyond the Catapult units' range, leaving the Catapults assigned to suppress them without targets.
Under Capor's unified command, these Catapults shifted their fire to the Barbarians' Catapults. Now every Catapult belonging to the fortress defenders began launching Fire Oil Bombs at the enemy machines, sending streak after streak of fiery meteors hurtling toward them.
Under this bombardment, the Barbarians' Catapults suffered devastating losses. In the end, fewer than forty percent of the original machines managed to withdraw, leaving only thirty-odd Catapults. More than half had been destroyed by the Two Rivers Legion's Catapult units.
The officers of the Barbarian army witnessed all of this, and everyone, Heshima included, was furious.
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