Many thanks to Ji-Yuehua's Sorrow for the tip. You have my deepest gratitude. Here comes the fourth update! As for the fifth, it will arrive a little after midnight. Please bear with me.
The entire stretch of the city wall was thick with the choking smell of gunpowder. The musketeers had enjoyed firing away, but the odor they left behind was not so easy to disperse.
Watching the Kobolds climbing steadily upward, Rex heaved with both hands and overturned the entire scaling ladder. The Kobolds on it clung desperately to the rungs like ants on a chopstick. As the ladder toppled, it crashed straight into the sea of Kobolds below. Those Kobolds did not die from the fall; instead, after being thrown down, they were trampled to death by their fellows, reduced to a mangled, bloody mess too gruesome to look at.
Rex gulped down air, frowning slightly at the briny odor blowing in from the sea. He panted heavily. In that short time, he had covered the entire northern wall and overturned every scaling ladder he could see. His strength was immense, but his stamina was not limitless. The sustained exertion left him breathing like an ox.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Rex surveyed the situation. Before the Kobolds had reached the walls, the musketeers must have shot at least two thousand of them dead. With their Third Rank strength, the advantage of high ground, and their superior range, it was perfectly normal for the Musketeer Guard to kill two thousand Kobolds with volley after volley of covering fire. The reason was simple: the Kobolds had no defenses whatsoever. Those in the front did not even carry shields, and their weapons were a motley assortment. These Kobolds were cannon fodder. Under ordinary circumstances, such a staggering death toll