The Jatu were not finished with their preparations. A dozen or so people in ragged clothes stood in front of the battering ram, unarmed and wailing. The soldiers behind them forced them to shield its front as it slowly approached the gate.
These were villagers from nearby who had failed to escape and been captured by the Jatu soldiers.
Thus, to kill the Jatu beneath the siege engine, they would first have to kill the villagers in front.
A dilemma was laid before Odinburg's commander.
"Damn those Jatu Demons!" Kebi said through gritted teeth.
This was an overt stratagem. He had to decide now whether to destroy the battering ram at the risk of killing the villagers, or let it approach the gate and allow the Jatu soldiers to break in.
As the battering ram advanced toward the gate, the Jatu soldiers behind the arrow shields loosed arrows, providing covering fire to suppress the defenders on the walls.
Watching the battering ram draw ever closer, Kebi bared his teeth in fury, his clenched hands loosening several times.
Dick remained silent. He did not know what to choose either. The decision lay with Kebi.
A personal guard beside them hurriedly reminded him, "Young Master Kebi, mercy has no place in command. If the gate falls, all thousand-plus people in Odinburg will die!"
Hearing this, Kebi let out a long sigh, as though all his vitality had vanished with that breath.
But then he drew another deep breath and shouted, "All troops, heed my command! Concentrate all arrows on the battering ram. Do not hold back on account of the villagers in front, and take care to shield yourselves and dodge!"
The surrounding soldiers answered, and a hundred arrows swarmed like locusts, blanketing the ground below the walls in a dark mass.
Yet they were still not decisive enough. Some soldiers held back timidly, even shooting their arrows several meters wide of the battering ram.
Seeing this, Kebi snatched an arrow from a soldier and shot without hesitation at a Jatu soldier beside the battering ram below.
Seeing the arrow coming, the Jatu soldier immediately dragged a villager beside him to block it.
The villager gave a howl of pain, then collapsed, blood spilling from his mouth.
But Kebi did not stop attacking. He stepped forward again and loosed another arrow.
This time, the Jatu soldier could not avoid having an arm pierced. He cried out in pain, his steps slowing.
Seeing their commander act this way, the defenders no longer hesitated.
In an instant, arrows pierced every villager below the gate tower, along with some of the Jatu soldiers.
At the same time, however, two soldiers on the walls, long out of practice in battle, had their heads pierced by the Jatu archers behind the arrow shields below.
"Take cover!" Kebi shouted.
Then he issued another order. "The battering ram is deep inside. Our arrows can't reach the soldiers directly underneath pushing the wheels. Hit it with the catapults!"
"Yes, sir!" The messenger pounded into a corner tower and ran upstairs to relay the order.
A moment later, the catapults in the three corner towers began to creak. Three enormous stones were hurled into the air, aimed straight at the battering ram.
The first two stones swept down from above and missed, but fortunately, the third struck the center of the protective canopy over the battering ram.
Crack!
In an instant, the battering ram was smashed to pieces from top to bottom. The Jatu soldiers beneath it were not spared either.
Only then did Kebi's expression ease slightly. He turned his head, about to say something to Dick.
Suddenly, soldiers cried out from above the three battlements facing the battering ram's position.
Dick, too, noticed a boulder flying up from below the walls like a cannonball, aimed at a catapult.
It was not a lone boulder. Three or four came hurtling up in succession.
Boom!
The sound of impact came from above.
Dick looked up. Two of the three catapults had been smashed by the boulders.
Looking for the source of the boulders, he found the two Rock Trolls about a hundred meters outside the gate, lifting enormous stones from a pile beside them and rapidly hurling them at the walls.
It seemed the monsters had joined the fight after all.
"Quick, protect the last catapult! Shoot those two trolls!"
At their commander's order, the soldiers began concentrating their fire on the two trolls.
But at this, the trolls stopped throwing stones. Instead, they turned their backs and tucked their already short, forward-thrusting necks against their chests.
A series of clinks and clangs rang out. The arrows struck the trolls' rock-covered backs without doing any damage at all, bouncing off one after another.
Then, taking advantage of the moment when the archers were nocking their arrows, the trolls hurled two more boulders at the third catapult.
Boom! Crack!
The third catapult followed the first two, smashed to pieces.
Fortunately, none of the soldiers operating it had died. They had only been grazed by flying stone fragments, and now all came running down.
"My lord," a soldier said, clutching his bleeding arm, "those damned monsters have smashed all our defensive equipment."
"It's all right. Don't panic! As long as we hold steady, we can defend the city!" Kebi hurriedly reassured them at the top of his voice. He could clearly sense the soldiers growing dejected.
Dick nodded inwardly. He knew that when these soldiers' morale sank, they needed encouragement from their commander.
By leading through example, Kebi had managed to stabilize the situation for now.
But this was not over. Those trolls could actually lift stones weighing dozens of jin over their heads with ease, then launch them in a straight line like cannonballs.
Then they could also control their strength to lob those boulders in an arc and smash everyone, just as they had smashed the three catapults.
No, I have to find a chance to kill those two trolls.
Dick acted at once. Keeping low, he quietly moved to a gap between the battlements and peered down outside.
He reached for the compact crossbow at his waist and slowly drew it, preparing to wait until the soldiers had drawn the trolls' attention, then exploit that brief opening to send a bolt into a vital spot before they could react.
Although the trolls' backs were as well armored as steel, their fronts had nothing but powerful muscles.
As long as I seize the chance...
As he was thinking this, he noticed that after seeing all three catapults on the walls smashed, the two trolls grinned, baring their gums, and clapped their hands. Ignoring the pile of stones beside them, they instead trotted cheerfully toward the rear.
Behind them, he could faintly make out a group of Jatu soldiers holding up shields in a shield wall, protecting their commander, priest, and the Broom Witch.
Dick grew puzzled at the sight. Why had the trolls stopped attacking?
He gauged the distance between himself and the trolls with his eyes again:
A hundred meters.
My Witcher Senses can only hear up to sixty or seventy meters away at most.
But...
Dick stretched out a hand, feeling the breeze.
The wind is blowing straight from me toward them. With my improved physique, my Witcher Senses should be sharper too.
Let's hear what's going on.
Then Dick concentrated and activated his Witcher Senses.