Chapter 402 - 274: Decisive Battle (2)
The first volley from the Magical Cannons was both precise and fierce.
It tore several massive gaps in the surging, blood-colored tide!
Holy Light Power was a natural counter to Dark Creatures.
As such, when the projectiles engraved with Holy Light Runes landed within the Vampire Army, they instantly evaporated the dark energy shrouding the Vampire Clan. Even with the empowerment of the Blood Moon, the vampires let out miserable shrieks!
The Vampire Vanguard Army’s charge faltered.
The lightly armored Vampire Corps at the very front fell in droves.
Although the Vampire Corps in the rear continued to press forward in a ceaseless stream,
the momentum of their charge had been broken!
On the temporary War Fortress, the Magical Cannons, under the command of the goblin operators, never paused for a moment.
If a barrel glowed red-hot, it was immediately cooled with Magic.
As long as they could still fire, the shells and Magical Beams would not stop.
There were 200 Magical Cannons on the fortress walls,
not because only 200 had been transported to the front lines,
but because the walls could only accommodate that many.
Ever since the technology of the Magical Civilization had officially begun to integrate into the lives of the Clans in Zhang Yi’s Divine Realm,
his Divine Realm had sprinted straight into modernization!
Corresponding production lines were established, allowing for assembly-line manufacturing.
As long as resources were sufficient, producing ten Magical Cannons a day was a limit imposed by the insufficient number of skilled Rune Craftsmen, not the limit of their production capacity!
The din of battle shook the heavens.
The blood left behind by the fallen members of the Vampire Clan stained the already reddish soil of the Blood-colored Plain an even more vivid crimson!
It perfectly complemented the scarlet moon hanging in the sky.
Witnessing this scene,
seeing the enemy’s offensive temporarily halted by his own forces, Copperbeard Ironhammer, who was in charge of the defense, seized the opportunity to boost morale.
"Defending soldiers, do you see this?" he roared.
"Those bat spawn on the other side are nothing!"
"As long as our cannons don’t stop, the enemy will never breach our walls!"
「Two days prior.」
Legion Commander Feiyana had already briefed them on the general situation of this great war.
All the Heroic Clans and the defending generals knew that the most critical moment of this War would last only one day!
As long as they held out for this one day,
the initiative to attack or defend would be in their hands.
Therefore, no opportunity to raise morale could be wasted.
At this moment, the supreme commander of the fortress defense, Copperbeard Ironhammer, was seizing this chance to do just that!
However, the Vampire Counts had not relinquished command of their corps for no reason.
This was a calculated move!
The Vampire Corps had lost a thousand soldiers.
The Vampire Viscounts commanding the four Elite Corps from the north, south, east, and west immediately changed their formations.
The Middle Level Vampire Soldiers quickly spread out, reducing the density of the cannon fire’s damage.
At the same time, the High Level Vampire Knights and Vampire Mages hidden within the army,
empowered by the Blood Moon, felt their auras surge as their bodies radiated a bloody light.
Braving the scattered cannon fire from the walls, they launched a second, even fiercer charge!
Meanwhile, countless Vampire Bats, giant Blood Bats, and the Stone Golem Puppet Army swooped down from the sky, flying toward the fortress walls in an attempt to harass the defending soldiers.
"For the Progenitor, raze this place to the ground!"
These were the words spoken by a Vampire general, who had been promoted to Baron after successfully invading other Small Magic Planes, as he sat atop a giant Blood Bat.
Behind him were more Blood Bat Cavalry, also mounted on giant Blood Bats.
Seeing this, the supreme commander of the fortress defense, Copperbeard Ironhammer, was completely unfazed.
Not only did he make no new deployments to counter the Blood Bat Cavalry descending upon him,
he instead had his adjutant order the Elf Snipers on the wall to aim down and fire at the Vampire elites mixed among the common soldiers!
The Vampire Baron leading the aerial Blood Bat Cavalry had been wondering why the enemy’s aerial forces from the first battle of the counter-invasion into the Blood-colored Plain were nowhere to be seen.
He found his answer when he flew within two kilometers of the temporary War Fortress walls.
A peculiar gravitational force pressed down on him, pulling him toward the ground!
He had entered the range of the Anti-Air Array.
The pull of this gravity was so irresistible!
Before he could even react, his flight altitude had already been halved.
When he grabbed the reins, trying to make the giant Blood Bat beneath him fly a little higher or at least slow its descent,
his altitude halved again.
He then realized it was completely useless!
When he transformed into a Vampire Bat to try and escape,
he discovered that even with his Seventh Level strength, he couldn’t fly!
And so, he could only watch, powerless, as he plummeted to the ground!
The Aerial Cavalry began to drop uncontrollably from the sky upon entering the two-kilometer range of the temporary War Fortress.
Not only did the Vampire Viscounts commanding the four armies see this,
but the Vampire Corps soldiers on the offensive below also witnessed it.
For the commanding Vampire Viscounts, the sight was a source of frustration over the enemy’s Anti-Air Array.
For the attacking Vampire Corps soldiers, however, it meant they had to be wary of friendly fire.
After all, a Vampire Soldier falling from a hundred meters up,
landing on their heads,
and crushing them to death was no laughing matter!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The aerial Blood Bat Cavalry slammed into the ground. Most of them died on impact;
the few who survived were crippled.
When the Stone Golem Corps hit the ground, however, only a few lost their combat capabilities.
Even if they couldn’t fly, they could still serve as heavy infantry on the ground.
However, the fall of the Vampire Corps’ Aerial Cavalry only intensified the battle, pushing it directly into a white-hot stage!
In a Large Dark Plane, a full Blood Moon could last for an entire day.
And so, by the time the morning had passed,
the five-kilometer defensive line extending from the temporary War Fortress and the two large barracks had been pushed back by two kilometers.
In an instant, two-fifths of the buffer zone was lost.
And at this distance, the Vampire Corps’ siege engines could finally be used!
It wasn’t that the Vampire Corps hadn’t wanted to use them before;
it was that they weren’t needed in the initial skirmish.
And in the second battle—the current decisive conflict—
they were initially useless because their range was shorter than the Magical Cannons’, turning them into sitting ducks.
Now that they were within the three-kilometer range,
the Flesh and Blood Catapults and Blood Crossbow Cannons in the rear of the Vampire Army, crafted from bone and Dark Magic, could finally be put to use!
Giant, rotting chunks of corpses, burning with green ghostly fire and looking as if they might explode at any moment,
were launched into the sky by the Flesh and Blood Catapults, soaring in arcs to smash against the walls of the two barracks and the temporary War Fortress.
These chunks of flesh were disgusting to look at. Upon landing, they not only exploded but also spread the effects of plague and decay,
inflicting continuous damage on the Defender Army!
At the same time, crossbow bolts the size of siege towers, inscribed with the unique dark runes of the Vampire Clan,
shrieked through the air and slammed violently against the fortress walls, which had been contributed by the Dwarf Clan and coated with a special paint.
One or two attacks were not enough to leave a crack in walls built by the combined efforts of the Dwarf, goblin, and Elf Clans.
But when the attacks continued for an entire afternoon, all landing on the walls of the two barracks and the temporary War Fortress,
even walls coated with special paint
began to show cracks under the relentless assault of the Vampire Corps’ siege engines.
And the cracks grew larger, leaving behind deep dents and fissures!
This caused the pressure on the three defending Clans on the walls to multiply.
The Dwarf Clan on the walls were forced to raise their Giant Shields to block the impact and plague from the exploding corpse chunks!
The goblin operators also had to be careful,
wary of the wooden splinters sent flying when the giant, blood-red crossbow bolts exploded against the walls.
All of this interfered with the firing frequency of the version 2.0 Magical Cannons, and holes began to appear in the defensive line of fire they had established.
The commanding Vampire Viscounts seized this golden opportunity and pressed the ground forces forward once more!
Especially the thick-skinned and tough-hided Blood Beasts!
The Blood Beasts charged forward, enduring the continuous bombardment!
A few that managed to reach the base of the fortress walls began to ram them with their own bodies!
And this was the first time the defending soldiers suffered direct casualties!
The intensity of this divine war was clearly far more ferocious than any battle Zhang Yi had experienced before!
If they held on, they would gain an Elite Corps forged by a Thousand Hammers and Hundred Refinements.
If they couldn’t hold on...
Legion Commander Feiyana refused to believe that would be the outcome!
"Hold the line! Dwarf Heavy Armor Corps, hold the line!"
"Elf Archers, fire rapidly!"
The supreme commander of the fortress defense, Copperbeard Ironhammer, roared one command after another.
Seeing this, the Elf Mage Corps in the rear immediately began Casting Magic to support the Defender Army.
「And so, halfway through the afternoon.」
The battlefield on the Blood-colored Plain was split into two parts.
One part was the artillery duel between the defensive and offensive siege engines.
The other was the battle between the Defender Army on the walls and the Vampire Clan that had charged to the base of the walls to attack!
And in the unseen shadows, Vampire Assassins and Dark Elf Assassins engaged in life-or-death duels!
Both sides were desperate to win!
By the time evening arrived,
of the four armies, the eighty thousand elites of the Vampire Corps, more than half had already fallen!
But at the same time, the two large barracks were on the verge of collapse, and the Defender Army within had begun to retreat.
The front wall of the temporary War Fortress had also been shattered once,
and was only repaired when the Mage Corps intervened.
"Report! The eastern wall of the War Fortress has also sustained severe damage!"
"The structure has taken a heavy blow and is about to collapse!"
Legion Commander Feiyana’s expression was grim. The entire afternoon, the walls had been the enemy’s primary target!
’This can’t go on!’ she thought.
’The Elf Mage Corps still needs to use Combined Spellcasting to deal with the enemy’s high-end combatants!’
"Relay my orders! Have Pioneer Corps Commander Eric lead the Blood Elf Berserkers and the soldiers of the Dwarf Heavy Armor Corps out of the city to meet the enemy!"
"We can’t let their scheme succeed!"
Legion Commander Feiyana gave the order decisively.
"Blood Elves and Dwarf soldiers, charge with me!"
Pioneer Corps Commander Eric, who had long been waiting for orders in the temporary War Fortress,
became the first Ninth Level Heroic Clan member to be deployed in this great war!
Seeing this, a newly promoted Vampire Count ’wanted to make a move as well!’