"Roll the boulders! Pour the burning oil! Stop them, now!"
Kumo's head had been left ringing and muddled by the thunderous cannon fire, but under the crushing pressure of the steadily advancing Blood-Clad Army, he finally came back to his senses.
His eyes split wide with fury as he stared fixedly at the crimson flood surging through the breach in the city wall. His teeth ground audibly as he exhausted every ounce of strength to roar out his orders.
The Donghu soldiers atop the walls had long since been scared out of their wits by the Blood-Clad Army's savage courage. Hearing his command was like clutching at a lifeline, and they immediately shoved with all their might at the massive stones piled behind the battlements.
Dozens of millstone-sized boulders came rumbling down the steep wall with howling winds in their wake.
Meanwhile, several wooden barrels filled with scalding oil were tipped over. Black oil poured down like waterfalls, spreading across the open ground below the wall and erupting into roaring flames, as they tried to raise an impassable defense of fire and stone.
Facing the shrieking boulders, the Blood-Clad Army warriors showed not the slightest fear. Their steps did not slow in the least as they raised their refined steel shields in unison.
"Clang—! Clang—!" A string of deafening crashes rang out. The boulders smashed viciously into the shields, scattering blinding sparks across the sky.
Amid the flying sparks, the millstone-sized boulders struck the Blood-Clad Army's steel shields. Drawing on their tremendous strength to redirect the force, the soldiers each retreated several paces and knocked the boulders aside.
Yet only a few shallow white marks remained on the shields' surfaces. They could not shake the Blood-Clad Army's advance in the slightest.
Scalding oil splashed onto the Blood-Clad Army's heavy refined-steel