Leo paused for a moment to allow Erza to process his words so far before continued to speak, "A Peak King is separated evenly between the cycles. A First Cycle Peak King is as far away from a Third Cycle as an Early King is from a Peak King Realm expert."
"There is no chance of victory for the Early King, and even if my brother and I were to join hands, we both are only at the first level. If we were to join hands, then we would be able to fight against a Second Cycle Peak King. However, against a Third Cycle Peak King, there is no chance. After all, our opponent is a beast."
Hearing Leo's explanations, Erza could only nod her head with a serious expression on her face. With this, she had finally understood just how wide the differences were between each cycle of a Peak King. At this moment, Erza could not help but be anxious as she thought about Mirage City's chances of surviving the wave.
Although Mirage City was not her home and she had no feelings of it, Erza had no desire to see the entire population of a city succumb to a wild beast invasion. She would try her best to help the people of the city, of course without risking of exposing her true identity.
Mirage City's gates had long since closed and the traveling merchants still on the road had been notified of the wild beast wave long ago. So they had all taken a lengthy detour around Mirage City's vicinity before taking shelter in a nearby city and waited for the wave to be over before continuing on with their travels.
Far away, the dense crowd of wild beasts continued to stamp in a slow trail toward Mirage City. Aside from the heavy stomps of their feet, not a single roar could be heard, and from the looks of it, it seemed as if these wild beasts were just soldiers practicing a drill.
"HHHOOOOOOUUUU!"
Suddenly, a massive roar of a wild beast came reverberating from the depths of the Desolate Beast Mountain Range. Its roar was so loud that even the stones on top of the gates started trembling from the sound.
This sudden roar had jolted the tens of thousands of wild beasts whose eyes suddenly grew fearful. Immediately, the wild beasts suddenly stopped where they stood in unison five kilometers away from the city walls.
Looking at the crowd of wild beasts stopped right in front of the city walls, Leo let out a breath of air. "This hidden Peak Level Beast King is very intelligent. It must have fought against humanity multiple times and knows how our Magical Cannons work. At this distance, the beasts are just outside the range of our Magical Cannons."
Leo immediately looked to his still silent brother Leon, "Leon, our opponent is far stronger than what we thought. By now, it is too late for Black Snow Imperial City to send anymore reinforcements, so it is up to us to defend the city behind us."
Leon nodded his head without a single break in his expression. His eyes still pointed far ahead as if he was trying to find the Peak Level Beast King. Ever since in the garden, Erza only heard him spoke a single phrase.
"Throw down the armored wall!"
Suddenly at Caesar's command, a large sheet of steel plating suddenly dropped down from the city walls and fully covered the entire city. From far away, it looked as if Mirage City had been fully encased by a steel plating.
This steel plating was a meter thick and were connected to one another by a steel chain. With each steel plating being so thick, it would be able to repel any beast below the King Realm with no problem.
Seeing how the steel platings were descending down from the walls, Erza could not help but sigh in admiration. With a steel plating like the one right in front of her, then the defences would be extraordinarily strong and could withstand a large amount of force for some time. This truly was another example of how Mirage City's defences could be said to be on par with a first rate city.
"Commence the firing of the Middle Tier Magical Cannons!" Caesar barked out an order.
Straight after his command, Leo had an astonished look on his face, "I didn't think Mirage City would have a Middle Tier Magical Cannon. Haha, they truly do deserve to be so near the Desolate Beast Mountain Range. How rich, a Middle Tier Magical Cannon can fire up to a range of ten kilometers; that's double the range of a Primary Tier Magical Cannon and can definitely hit those wild beasts."
The soldiers began to scamper here and there to follow Caesar's command. The Magical Cannons were constructed so that they would take in the energy from the beast cores and would then fire out a special type of energy. Of course, the energy source was not only limited to beast cores. However, since Mirage City had massive amount of beast cores, then it was definitely the best choice to use them.
On the Northern Continent, there were three types of Magical Cannons; Primary Tier, Middle Tier, and Advanced Tier. A Primary Tier cannon used Apprentice Level Beast Core as an energy source, while Middle Tier cannons used Knight Level Beast Cores. As for an Advanced Tier cannon, it required a King Level Beast Core at the very least to supply the energy.
On average, a Primary Tier cannon had a range of four kilometers while an Middle Tier cannon had a range of eight kilometers. On the other hand, an Advanced Tier cannon could shoot up to a terrifying range of twenty kilometers.
This was the best offensive and defensive besiegement weapon. Magical Cannons were welcomed to every country and city on the Northern Continent with Primary Tier cannons being practically universal.
Each and every major city had a few ready for use while always hoping to come across an Advanced Tier cannon. Each fortified stronghold by the empire borders had a few Advanced Tier cannons, but with it requiring King Level Beast Cores, they could only fire it once or twice. Thus, they preferred to use it in a disastrous situation or as their last resort, and no attackers would dare try to survive one of those shots head on.
Another reason was that with each shot of the Advanced Tier cannons, it was the equivalent of shooting away money.
After the Middle Tier cannon was charged up, an extremely tremendous amount of explosive energy began to stir within the cannon, making people feel as if it was about to explode. For those with a small amount of courage, they would not dare to get any closer.
In truth, there had been many cases where the cannon was not able to handle the extreme amount of energy stirring inside. And when that happened, the energy would explode from within, causing massive damage to everyone around. However, this was a risk that every empire was willing to face for the sake of a better chance of winning.
A few breaths later, the Middle Tier cannon was finally done charging, and with another order from Caesar, the four cannons mounted on top of the walls fired immediately.
*BANG!*
With an ear deafening blast, a gigantic blast of energy shot out from the Middle Tier cannon at an incredible speed toward the crowd of wild beasts five kilometers away.
*BOOM!*
Following a loud resonating blast, a large cloud of dust filled the air as the explosive energy destroyed anything within a thirty meter radius. Bits and pieces of wild beasts could be seen flying through the air in every direction.
The might of a Middle Tier cannon was extraordinary and could destroy a Knight Level Beast with ease. Even a Beast King would not be able to take a blast like that easily. If hit directly, they would be instantly fried and a Peak Level Beast King would at the very least be injured to some degree.
The four Middle Tier Magical Cannons laid claim to at least thirty Knight Level Beasts and a hundred Apprentice Level Beasts; a good start. As if this was the start of the battle, the wild beasts instantly grew restless and slammed their fists and legs where they stood while snarling angrily.
"Reload the Middle Tier Magical Cannons and fire straight for the higher levelled beasts!" Caesar thundered at the soldiers near the cannons.
"Yes, My Lord!!"
At the same time, another heaven shaking roar came from the Desolate Beast Mountain Range. This roar was louder than before and spanned for seemingly twenty kilometers so that even Erza's ears began to ring afterward.
Following this roar, it was like the wild beasts had received an order. With an explosive roar, they all began to charge recklessly toward the city walls.
Thousands of wild beasts charged at the walls with reckless abandonment, causing those on the top of the walls to pale for a moment. Even those at the top of the wall could feel a slight tremor growing stronger and stronger.