Chapter 236 - 146: The Fall of the City
Below the city wall, the Northern Expedition Legion swarmed up the walls in a ceaseless tide.
On the city wall, Wang Peng’s soldiers were gradually suppressed, forced to retreat step by step by the Northern Expedition Legion’s assault.
Seeing that the time was right, Wang Peng ordered, "Second level of the city wall, now!"
The next moment, countless holes opened up on the city wall with a series of CLICKS and CLACKS.
Streams of hot oil poured down the face of the wall.
The Northern Expedition soldiers below were immediately drenched in hot oil. The soldiers with lower stats instantly shrieked in agony from the burns, while those with higher stats were largely unharmed. They warily tried to fall back, but their path was blocked by the crowd behind them.
Immediately after, torches, fire arrows, and Fireballs... a variety of flames ignited the oil.
The crowded soldiers below were instantly set ablaze. They screamed in pain and tried to run back, only to set fire to the soldiers behind them.
Nearby troops from the Northern Expedition Legion collectively scrambled backward, triggering a massive stampede. An untold number of soldiers were trampled to death.
The stampede lasted for several minutes until Water Mages were brought up from the rear. They summoned a raincloud that doused the flames on the soldiers, finally halting the panicked legion’s retreat.
However, the fire at the base of the wall was fueled by a special incendiary oil, and this kind of flame was not quenched by water. Thus, the Northern Expedition Legion’s melee forces could only wait for it to burn itself out.
Their ranged units, protected by Shield Soldiers, supported the soldiers on the wall from a distance.
The sheet of flame burning at the foot of the wall blocked the Northern Expedition Legion’s follow-up scaling forces.
The Northern Expedition Legion’s fierce momentum on the city wall was immediately checked.
"Personal Guard Team! You’re up. Kill as many as you can."
"KILL~ KILL~ KILL~"
Wang Peng held nothing back. He deployed his final trump card: six thousand legendary troops—the Exoskeleton Mobile Warriors.
The Exoskeleton Mobile Warriors were units Wang Peng had recruited from his legendary-grade Recruitment Office, the Mobile Fortress.
They wore a set of powered exoskeletons, covered by a suit of light Mecha.
Their weapons included two Wave Swords, a Spiritual Energy Gun, and a Gauss Gun. They were extremely fast and could even make short-distance leaps.
High attack, thick armor, and incredible speed—that was them in a nutshell.
The Mobile Warriors took off from the plaza in front of Wang Peng’s Lord’s Mansion, flying rapidly toward the city wall.
Upon reaching the wall, they coordinated in three-man teams, swiftly reaping the lives of the Northern Expedition Legion soldiers.
With their support, and reinforced by the territory’s reserve forces, the number of Northern Expedition Legion soldiers on the wall decreased at an astonishing rate.
By the time the flames below the wall died out, all the Northern Expedition Legion soldiers on the wall were already dead.
Meanwhile, the Mobile Fortress in the inner city took flight, hovering a hundred meters in the air. Several cannons extended from its underside, firing large, unstable energy spheres toward the Northern Expedition Legion outside the city.
However, the innate energy attacks from the building didn’t deal very high damage. Their advantages were their wide area of effect and low cost.
Although the Shield Soldiers below the city wall, covered in buffs, weren’t afraid of these energy spheres, other types of units would still take damage.
Therefore, the Mages of the Northern Expedition Legion outside the city had no choice but to cast protective shields on the soldiers preparing to attack at the front, to prevent any squishy soldiers from being injured by the AoE.
"Keep pushing!!"
The Northern Expedition Legion lords in the rear were furious. They hadn’t expected the first ranked lord they attacked to put up such strong resistance.
To reduce their losses, the lords who had just attacked began to withdraw their troops, letting the lords who hadn’t yet attacked take over the main assault.
Once the adjustments were made, the new forces launched another attack on the city wall.
Wang Peng’s troops used the same old trick: let the enemy forces climb the wall, then use burning oil to kill large numbers of them, cutting off reinforcements and finally clearing the soldiers off the wall.
This time, however, far fewer soldiers were killed by the burning oil.
The lords of the Northern Expedition Legion had learned their lesson. Under their commander’s direction, they reduced the number of soldiers clustered at the base of the wall.
...
And so it went, back and forth, as both sides clashed fiercely on and below the city wall.
Three hours later, all of Wang Peng’s defenses were exhausted. The oil was gone, the machine gun pillboxes had been shot to pieces, his soldiers and heroes were worn out, and the Mobile Fortress had depleted its energy, returning to the ground from the sky.
The Northern Expedition Legion had rotated waves of lords to lead the siege.
"Brothers, he’s out of ammo and supplies! It’s getting dark. Let’s push hard and try to rest here tonight...!"
The commander of the Northern Expedition Legion had now advanced to a position not far from the base of the wall. After shouting the slogan and seeing the soldiers’ morale soar, he gave the order, and the legion began to attack the city once more.
Just like the previous assaults, under the suppression of a massive number of Archers, the soldiers on the wall all hid in bunkers or behind the rubble.
The melee soldiers seized the opportunity to scale the city wall using the siege and rope ladders that were already in place, engaging in fierce combat with the guards on the wall.
The commander waited for a while. The Northern Expedition Legion’s soldiers now occupied half of the wall, and still no burning oil came from within.
He was certain that the defenders had truly exhausted their defensive resources.
So, he confidently notified the lords in the rear.
"Everyone, rest assured, the enemy is out of burning oil. You can send in the heroes now."
Not long after the message went out, heroes of Excellent grade began to arrive at the foot of the city wall.