On the wall, the Magical Cannons continued to fire at anything within their four kilometres range, causing the ground below to have many holes. The soldiers in charge of recharging the cannons hurriedly scrambled about grabbing Apprentice Level Beast Cores from the depository to load the cannons.
Although Mirage City was a small city, it was extremely close to the Desolate Beast Mountain Range where beast cores were abundant. Therefore, the amount of beast cores they had stored away were fully capable of empowering ten different cannons for up to one or two days of nonstop shooting.
Erza and the two envoys stood on the city walls along with other King Realm experts and Caesar. Not a single one of them ran to participate since these Apprentice and Knight Level Beasts could be taken care of by the mercenaries down below.
For now, they would wait for the Beast Kings to show up, so they would not squander their energy on the lower levelled ones. If they did, then who would protect everyone from the Beast Kings?
From the top of the wall, Erza looked at the sea of beasts with a look of lament, "There truly are many wild beasts gathered here."
Leo nodded his head in agreement, "Although this is the first time I've come to help Mirage City during a beast wave, I still think this amount of wild beasts is quite excessive. Take a look at the back, there's a few hundred wild beasts who haven't moved yet. Based on their presence, I can see that they are all Beast Kings!"
Surveying the back, Erza saw a wide variety of wild beasts of every size and shape waiting. They were not moving toward Mirage City at all and instead kept their distance. Erza was not as strong as Leo so she could not tell just how strong they were on a glance.
Despite the fact that several hundred Beast Kings sounded quite unbelievable, Erza knew that Leo would not lie about such a thing.
"These Beast Kings are equal to Early and Mid King Realm experts in terms of strength. If our Mirage City has a few hundred thousand men, then the amount of King Realm experts amongst them pales in comparison. There definitely isn't enough to fight against these Beast Kings."
"Right now we can only rely on the Magical Cannons. With Mirage City's four Middle Tier Magical Cannons, we should be able to do some damage to the Beast Kings. They're about 8 kilometres away anyway, that's within the range of those cannons." Leo spoke seriously before waving his hand to Caesar.
"Caesar! Have the four Middle Tier Magical Cannons aim at the back over there. Those are all Beast Kings, the cannons should be enough to kill some of them and the pressure on us will be lessened!"
"Yes, senior envoy!" Leo's words were like the command from a superior officer to his subordinate so Caesar could not disobey. Without hesitation, Caesar immediately ordered the four Middle Tier cannons to aim at the Beast Kings and fire.
*Bang!*
The cannons fired and the energy within seemed as if it was a shooting star that flew through the air toward the middle of the wild beasts.
The fortunate thing was that the group of Beast Kings were well within the range of the blast zone, and so the energy blasted the ground in the middle of the group, sending dirt flying everywhere as the wild energy wrecked havoc on everything.
Immediately, many wild beasts were sent flying twenty meters away from the impact zone along with some body parts. Blood spilled like rain down below. Soon enough, the body parts fell back down into the dust storm, making visibility zero.
"HOOUU!"
The Beast Kings all cried out in anger and the injured ones all glared at Mirage City dangerously. Their eyes were filled with hatred as they suddenly charged at the walls without the previous patience.
"Aim at that cluster of wild beasts once more with the Middle Tier cannons, keep firing!" Caesar called out with a hardened expression. From Leo's words, Caesar had guessed that large amount of beasts were of the Beast King level.
Compared to the large amount of the Beast Kings, the amount of King Realm experts within the ranks of Mirage City's soldiers and mercenaries was still far from the triple digits. At most, there were only a few dozen King Realm experts that could stand their own against a Beast King. So for now, the best way to deal with those beasts was to use the cannons to whittle away at their numbers.
Thanks to the change of targets by the cannons, the previously safe and sound Beast Kings in the back had suffered a tremendous loss. The Middle Tier cannons had brought about a disastrous amount of damage to their ranks, and with each new volley of cannon fire, even more lives were taken.
A large amount of the wild beasts began to retreat as the cannons began to focus their fire on them. The remaining few began to snarl and roar as they charged at the walls. Because of the cannons, they had lost all rationality and in their blood thirst, they threw the other beasts out of the way and even killed a few of the weaker ones in their rampage.
At that moment, each one of the wild beasts had broken free from the fearful control of the Peak Level Beast King.
The Middle Tier cannons continued to fire and fill the skies with sounds from each blast. Time and time again, crowds of Beast Kings went up in smoke, leaving a crater in the ground below.
However, the Beast Kings were incredibly fast. As the Middle Tier Magical Cannons fired the fifth volley, they had already arrived within 500 meters from the wall. Because of the cannons, their numbers had went from several hundred to around 150 and a great deal of them were injured to some degree as well. Despite the good news, the King Realm experts of Mirage City still had extremely serious expressions on their faces.
By then, before Caesar could say anything, the King Realm experts immediately leaped off the walls down into the crowd of wild beasts. Only they could defend against the Beast Kings. If those beasts were to fight against the Apprentices or Knights, then there would be catastrophic damages to the human side.
In a flash, the dozen King Realm experts were all engaged in deep combat. At that moment, only Caesar, Erza, and the two envoys were left on the walls without any other King Realm expert there.
Even the seven King Realm experts from the BLAZE were beginning to fight the Beast Kings.
The area around Mirage City had already become a bloody battleground with 200,000 mercenaries and armoured soldiers fighting by the city gates. They had already speared their way through a few kilometres and were soaked with the blood of a few wild beasts.
In the back, many of the supporters were busy moving back and forth around the battleground with stretchers. Archers and mages still focused their attacks to the backlines of the beasts. Very soon, the entire battleground was dyed red with blood as the greasy smell of battle wafted through the air and into the noses of everyone fighting.
Although the battle had only gone on for a small amount of time, the ground was littered with the corpses of beasts and humans alike. Every second, a person would get injured while the next second another person would die.
A hundred Beast Kings and a few dozen King Realm experts were fighting against each other, but the situation was not looking too well for the humans.
A Beast King required two King Realm experts to fight against, but at the moment, two or more Beast Kings were fighting against one King Realm expert. Luckily, many of them were injured to certain extent thanks to the cannons earlier.
For a short while, the King Realm experts would be fine, but if time dragged on for too long, then the situation would be hard to tell. Since beasts had a natural superiority, humanity could only rely on their treasures to fight against the beasts. However, once their stamina ran out, then their lives would be in extreme danger.
The ten Magical Cannons on top of the city walls never stopped firing, so the air was filled with the tremors and ear deafening blasts of explosions that claimed the lives of multiple wild beasts whenever they slammed against a group of them.
As the war went on for a longer period of time, the amount of injured people increased as well. The stretchers continued to weave in through the city gates with the injured men laying on them crying out in pain. Many of them were missing an arm or a leg, and so the amount of people fighting against the beasts began to lessen. Thus, the pressure began to increase on everyone; if this were to go on for any longer, then the surrender of Mirage City would only be a matter of time.
On top of the walls, lord Caesar looked at Erza and the two envoys with a troubled look. "This beast wave has more wild beasts than before and even more Beast Kings than anticipated. Their numbers far outweigh our King Realm experts, and if this goes on for any longer, then even if the Peak Level Beast King doesn't attack, the Beast Kings will be enough to trample Mirage City."
"I've looked at the records of the past beast waves and I'm afraid that this wave is definitely the most serious one. The amount of Beast Kings has never gone over fifty, but there are currently over several hundreds of them. Goddamnit, could all of the Beast Kings from the Desolate Beast Mountain Range have come running over?" Caesar wiped at his eyebrows to clear away the sweat.
The two envoys did not say a word so Caesar continued to speak. "Senior envoys, do you have any solutions on how to deal with this situation?"
Leo shook his head with an equally serious expression, "I've none. Right now we shouldn't make a move yet. That hidden Peak Level Beast King is extremely strong, so my brother and I must remain here and save up our strength until the moment of its appearance to ensure our best chance. If we waste our energy now, then when that Peak Level Beast King attacks, we won't have a chance of defeating it."
Caesar's face grew whiter and whiter as he listened to Leo's words. His entire body began to shake as he observed the battle ground below them. His eyes could not help but widen and tear up a bit as he muttered, "Could this day be the last day for my Mirage City?"
The two Peak King envoys were the greatest hope to Caesar's heart, but with Leo's words revealing that it would be difficult to deal with the hidden Peak Level Beast King even if he and his brother joined hands, those words were like a clap of thunder to Caesar's eardrums. By now, he was feeling a great deal of despair.
Seeing the look on Caesar's face, Erza let out a breath of air. "Then I'll go down to help. The threat of the Beast Kings is far too big for us to ignore anyways."
With that, Erza leaped down the fifty meter tall city wall. In midair, Erza's body began to speed up somehow like a speeding bullet toward the Beast Kings.