In the blink of an eye, the transformation of nearly a hundred bandits had been halted forever, thanks to the bombardment of two war chariots, five ballistae, and three stone-throwing catapults.
As the smoke from the explosives billowed over the battlefield, Faust mad roar rang out loud and clear: "Mages! Push the mage tower forward! Launch the ballistas! Move quickly!"
As Faust shouted orders left and right, the bandits beneath the tower pushed with all their might. The ballistae the bandits had transported were quickly brought up from the rear. Several bandits, iron shields in hand, stood in front of each ballista to clear a path.
The war chariots continued to spew flames with enthusiasm, while the stone-throwing catapults drew beautiful arcs across the sky before crashing to the ground with terrifying, earth-shattering rumbles. Each impact created its own unique pattern, a painting of blood and severed body parts. Six bolts darted through the air with each shot, slicing through cheap lives like cold, deadly blades.
Five hundred metres of the path leading to the gates of Brettel City had become a literal hell on earth. The bandits who had charged forward were met with overwhelming firepower. Anyone within range of the barrage had no chance of making it out alive.
"Spread out, spread out! You damned fools! How many times have I told you?!" Faust's shouts bordered on hysterical, but it was no use. The rumble of the war chariots drowned out his words, so that only the line of bandits behind him could hear him.
The Greenfire Bandits had a total of six thousand members, and Faust had certainly not planned to use his entire force at once. Therefore, the bandits who'd come to attack Brettel City were definitely not the true elite of the Greenfire Bandits.
Faust had only about a thousand trusted followers when he left the Narsen Duchy. The band had grown to their current numbers by recruiting during raids as they travelled. Thus, those who were currently charging towards Brettel City were the newest recruits, the ones whose strength Faust wasn't quite satisfied with. Their fighting ability was the weakest in Greenfire.
This was the case whenever a siege was attempted; the cannon fodder was always sent out first. In Fass's heart, these two thousand minions were completely expendable. As long as there were enough gold coins, he never had to worry about not being able to recruit more lackeys amidst the never-ending chaos surrounding the seven grand duchies. According to Faust's original plan, these two thousand minions would be more than enough to bring down Brettel City.
What really surprised Faust was Brettel City's defences. He'd expected to see the bombardment of the magic crystal cannons, but unexpectedly, he'd seen no sign of them and instead discovered other defensive positions weapons. Moreover, this array of defensive artillery was all time-honoured instruments of war. Once unleashed from the high city walls, their deadly spray cut through life like a scythe through corn.
Two thousand bandits approached Brettel City step by step under the massive artillery and rocket fire. After paying the price in four hundred more deaths, some of the bandits reached the city walls. They'd brought wooden ladders with them, and they quickly set them up against the wall, doing their best to avoid the heavy bombardment.
"Faster! Fill the bolts and load the goblin explosives into the war chariots!" Han Shuo's expression was indifferent, but the speed of his speech was extremely fast as he shouted orders to the soldiers around him.
These soldiers had only recently become familiar with war chariots and ballistae. Faulke had drilled them intensely for several days and nights and had barely taught them the basics of using chariots, ballistae and catapults. As such, they weren't very skilled, especially under the pressure of a chaotic battlefield. The lingering smell of death and bloody steel affected the speed with which these soldiers operated their equipment.
Kaka... kaka...
A strange sound suddenly caught Han Shuo's attention. He looked around in confusion until his eyes landed on little Fatty Jack. His lips were trembling and his teeth were chattering at an amazing speed to make that sound.
Little Fatty Jack stood beside Han Shuo as he looked around the battlefield where flesh and blood was flying. He saw boulders smashing bodies into a blur of flesh. He saw limbs flying from the explosions caused by the war chariots. He was transfixed as the raging storm of bolts tore through the bandits, literally throwing them into the air. He couldn't stop shaking.
"Wuu wuu, this is too terrible!" The little fat man's voice was a little hoarse, his little eyes bloodshot. He cried out involuntarily, his lips trembling, his whole being caught in a strange, dull state of helplessness.
"Ready! Pour the oil!" Han Shuo looked away from Jack. He didn't say a word when he saw that he was still beside him. Instead, he shouted loudly to the soldiers around him.
Han Shuo had already known before the battle began that little Fatty Jack, who had never seen such a scene, would definitely be frightened by the cruelty of war. Jack's expression of terror was well within Han Shuo's expectations, so he wasn't surprised in the least.
The Demonslayer's Edge could no longer resist the temptation and shot out from the back of Han Shuo's neck to hover high above the battlefield. Unseen by the battlefield, It began to forcefully absorb souls from the cacophony of agonised and desperate screams below.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The bandits finally unleashed their ballistae. A rain of bolts began to pour down on the defenders at the top of Brettel City's walls. Surprised by the sudden hail of death, several archers who had been aiming at the maelstrom below were instantly killed. The actions of the soldiers controlling the war chariots and stone-throwing catapults also became a little more frantic.
A low whistle accompanied one of the catapults, aimed straight at little Fatty Jack, who was leaning against the wall watching the tragic scene below. Hearing the screeching whistle, Jack was frightened to death as he cried out, "Bryan, save me!"
Han Shuo raised his left hand. Bloody lights shot out of his five fingers as if he'd suddenly grown sharp claws. When the bolt was only about ten metres away from Jack, the bloody light from Han Shuo's five fingers clenched around it, shattering the bolt into pieces.
"Step back, don't stand too close to the edge of the city wall!" Han Shuo shouted lightly, waving his right hand and causing the shield of a fallen soldier to suddenly crash down in front of Jack, covering most of his chubby body.
Creaking sounds suddenly filled Han Shuo's ears. He spun around to feel waves of magical ripples gradually converging in the distance, the sound of magical incantations becoming more audible. Several mages on the slowly approaching tower had begun chanting the spells of their respective elements, zealously guarded by the shield-wielding bandits.
"I've been waiting for you!" Han Shuo said mockingly. He reached out with his mind, and a bloody halo fell from the sky.
The Demonslayer's Edge executed the Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts under Han Shuo's guidance. The Demonslayer Edge, which was only slightly longer than a dagger, spun at a breakneck speed as it plunged straight down. Each turn of the Demonslayer Edge caused a dagger-like bloody light to shoot out.
The rapid rotation of the Demonslayer's Edge caused it to gradually blur into a ball of crimson light as it descended. Scarlet shards, increasing in number by the second, coalesced around it, forming thousands of blades. The countless blades swirled into a huge orb, swirling around the Demonslayer Edge in wide arcs as they intersected without interfering with each other. The light they emitted was a deep, rich ruby, an awe-inspiring sight that washed over the mages on the tower below.
From a distance, it looked as if a small, disc-shaped sun had been created, except that this sun was filled with sharp, spinning barbs of bloody light. As the vermilion sphere continued its descent, its rotation became even more violent. A palpable wave of carnage emanated from it even before it landed, striking terror into the hearts of the onlookers.
The blinding ball of slashing light landed in the middle of the mages on the tower. Despite being protected by iron shields and magical barriers of varying strength, the tower was instantly macerated. The wood it was made of was reduced to splinters and then dust amidst the agonised screams of the bandits and mages. Mangled flesh, blood and steel painted a scarlet portrait as the fragile mages and heavily armoured bandits were torn apart, the rotating blades of light glittering as they dealt death with equal parts beauty and ruthlessness.
No one on the tower had the strength to do anything in the face of Han Shuo's 'Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts'.
The ten thousand sanguine rays of the Demonslayer's Edge had vaporised everything it touched, be it the humans, the wooden tower or the iron shields. Faust had spent a great deal of money assembling this team of bandit mages, and now they lay scattered across the battlefield, too mangled to be recognised as human remains.
After being injected with thirty percent of his magical yuan, one strike of the Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts through all those people and the tower was far from enough to consume its power. The orb transformed into a giant scarlet spinning cactus, hurling blades of crimson light at the bandits around the tower. Like a hurricane, the Demonslayer Edge's 'Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts' raged unchallenged across the battlefield. A storm of blood in every sense of the word, everything it encountered was obliterated, be it human, ballistae or sturdy shield.
An unnaturally beautiful red drizzle of blood began to fall across the field. Not one of the hundred bandit corpses was whole after the Demonslayer's Edge made its circle, not one piece of flesh larger than an ear. Since even iron shields couldn't defend against the Demonslayer's Edge, it was no surprise that even bones were finely shredded.
"Damn it! Where's the tower? Where are the mages?" Faust had been paying attention to the wall of Brettel City and had missed the events around the tower. It was only when the crimson ball of light made its way to him that he discovered the tower was gone.
"Dead, all dead! It was that thing! It was all because of that thing!" A bandit at Faust' side had witnessed the whole thing. He pointed to the bloody orb responsible, his voice shrill with horror.
The horror of the bloody orb wasn't over yet. Deafening screams echoed across the battlefield once more. They belonged to the bandits who'd been attacked by the orb. All of them tried desperately to dodge, rolling and jumping, but to no avail. However, every bandit touched by the blood orb was instantly transformed into a shower of torn flesh, blood and bone. None were lucky enough to escape.
"Attack that thing, attack it!" Faust' heart was pounding, his panic barely contained. He hurriedly shouted commands to the bandits around him.
Dozens of sharp axes were hurled at the rapidly approaching, whirling Demonslayer Edge. . However, just as they approached the Demonslayer's Edge, the magical yuan that powered the Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts was depleted, and it vanished into thin air. Like a star of death returning to the universe after completing its mission, its disappearance sent the bandits reeling with relief.
"What is that thing?! Curse that necromancer! He must've used some kind of necromancy magic to create this damned monster. Don't be afraid, keep attacking! I think they're almost finished!
Humans have always feared the unknown, and Faust was no exception.
When he saw the death-bringing orb disappear from the sky, Faust' heart loosened slightly. Then he roared madly at the frightened bandits, as if to comfort himself.
It was as Faust had said. Even though the Demonslayer's Edge had thrown the battlefield into chaos by wiping out the magic users, the bandits still had the advantage in numbers. They had also begun to scale the city walls with their iron hooks and wooden ladders.
In all, only three hundred soldiers manned the walls of Brettel City. Of those, twenty had died so far, mostly from the ballistae's attacks. The remaining two hundred or so soldiers were frantically hauling boulders to load the stone-throwing catapults and reloading bolts for the ballistae. As a result, those soldiers who had been tasked with hauling boulders were now drained of energy and lying flat on the ground.
Some soldiers could barely bring themselves to pour oil on the walls, but they too were panting heavily and had little strength left. Of the original two thousand bandits, however, only about twelve hundred remained, and five hundred of them had already reached the base of the wall and were attempting to climb it.
"My lord, our men are really not enough!" A captain nearly burst into tears as he saw the wild bandits about to climb the walls, "What are we going to do? What shall we do?"
"Light the fires. We won't lose as long as I'm alive today. What are you all so worried about?" Han Shuo harrumphed coldly.
"Light the fires, light the fires! Burn these bastards to death!" The captain shouted loudly to the soldiers who had been waiting for the signal for a long time. Ruthlessly, they threw burning torches at the city walls, now drenched in oil.
Boom...
The sparks instantly set the slick oil ablaze, turning the surface of the wall into a flaming pyre for any bandits unfortunate enough to be caught on the walls. Horrible screams filled the air as the bandits were slowly incinerated.
Some of the bandits quickly jumped from the ladder when they saw the torch-wielding soldiers on the wall. The more experienced managed to pull the ladders out of the city, allowing the bandits to slowly climb down to safety.
This safety was short-lived, however, as the soldiers immediately unleashed a volley of arrows on the surviving bandits. Few sharpshooters managed to shoot the bandits supporting some of the ladders, causing the bandits on each ladder to fall to their deaths.
But the amount of oil they had was limited, and the walls were too wide. There simply wasn't enough ground to cover, and sure enough, a cadre of bandits had almost reached the top of the wall in one of those oil-free corners.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Han Shuo finally pulled out the bone staff and chanted the bone spear incantation. Bone spears shot out like arrows and tore through the dozens of bandits who had scaled the wall at one of the lightly guarded points.
The bandits at the foot of the wall also raised bows with flaming arrows. By the time the four hundred bandits had stabilised the speed at which they could release the arrows, the exposed soldiers on the wall could no longer withstand the onslaught. Some of the more careless were killed under the rain of flaming arrows. Even Han Shuo could not have saved them, he had already blocked as many of the arrows as he could, otherwise there might have been even more casualties.
"My lord, is it time yet?" Another captain was still relatively calm in the face of such odds. He'd personally seen Han Shuo summon a massive undead army, but as he watched his comrades succumb to the relentless attack, he finally opened his mouth to ask Han Shuo.
At that moment, the original two thousand Greenfire Cannon Fodder bandits were still charging forward blindly. Some had been burned to death by the fires, and another two hundred had been killed by the dozen soldiers who still had the strength to keep the ballistae firing.
Of the original two thousand bandits, less than eight hundred remained, of which some six hundred had reached the foot of the city wall.
The war chariots on the wall had also used up their goblin explosives, with only a hundred or so bolts left. All the colossal boulders within the city had been catapulted into the enemy ranks. After all, the number of soldiers who could stand upright on the walls of Brettel City didn't even number fifty.
If Han Shuo did not make his move now, the gates of Brettel City might actually fall to the bandits. Therefore, when he saw the bandits' fanatical excitement after finally reaching the foot of the city wall, Han Shuo clutched the bone staff and calmly said with a nod, "It is indeed time.
Faust of the Greenfire Bandits licked his lips as he looked at the tired defences of Brettel City. A low, sinister laugh bubbled out, and his voice grew cruel as he said, "Young city lord, you will pay a painful price for your arrogance! I will peel off your skin, remove your bones, and torture you so badly that you'll feel a pain worse than death!"
"Boss, he's a necromancer too, you should be more careful!" A bandit beside Faust suddenly remembered the rumours about Han Shuo and hastily reminded him.
"Haha, necromancer? A mage who can only summon useless skeletons? What can such a mage do in a frontal battle?" Faust turned to the bandit and continued, "Command a thousand more men to charge forward. Destroy Brettel City in one fell swoop!"
The minor leader waved his hand at Faust's command and said, "Tuku, you rush forward, flatten this damned Brettel City as soon as possible!"
Tuku had originally been Faust's personal guard and the leader of the Thousand Brigade. This brigade was different from the previous two thousand cannon fodder. Sharper weapons, sturdier armour and even a special five hundred man team in their ranks, riding fierce warhorses, also clad in full body armour. This was obviously a standard knight's brigade.
With a wave of Tuku's spear, the brigade charged across a ground full of corpses towards Brettel City. Below them, the five-hundred-strong squad, mounted on fierce warhorses, reached the foot of the city wall as fast as the wind. Brettel City's soldiers were exhausted and could only fire a disorganised volley of a dozen arrows at the oncoming force. It simply wasn't enough to hurt the fully armoured knights and warhorses.
Hahaha, they're finished! I knew it!" A cold sneer stretched across Faust' face. The light of victory was already shining in his eyes.
He'd even started to mentally imagine how he would slowly torture Han Shuo after capturing him?
"Huh? Where's the sun? Why can't I see the sun?" Upon reaching the city wall, the bandit knights suddenly felt the sky become strangely dark. An almost eerie darkness, uncharacteristic for a day barely past noon, covered the sky. There was no reason for it to go dark so quickly.
The originally clear and bright sky now had thunderheads that blotted out the sun like a green ink. Coming from who knew where, these green-black clouds formed a layer impenetrable to sunlight, choking the battlefield of any light it could find. As these clouds gathered, an eerie atmosphere descended upon the battlefield, and a dark foreboding began to grow in the hearts of the bandits.
"Don't make a fuss. The weather here has always been spooky. It's about to rain."
"The oil and fire will lose their effect when it rains. We must be blessed by the gods! Let's take this opportunity to massacre them!" Leader Tuku absentmindedly comforted his subordinates. Pointing to the group of bandits still madly climbing the city wall, he shouted, "Hurry! Kill all these weak, cowardly soldiers!"
"You really talk too much!" Han Shuo had finally finished his long incantation. He slashed at the air with the bone staff, releasing a thin layer of ash-grey mist. The mist, thick with the stench of death, slowly drifted down to the foot of the Brettel city walls.
The battlefield now reeked of a barren, morose stench. A thin, ash-grey mist drifted slowly from the centre of the battlefield, slowly creeping between and over the corpses. Several carrion crows circling the battlefield caught a whiff of the corpse scent carried by the faint ash-grey mist and took to their wings, as if something in the grey mist had struck a deep chord of fear in their hearts.
"Damn weather, black clouds and grey fog! It looks like it's really going to rain! Hurry, hurry! Ah, one of you is awake, hah!" Tuku lifted his head to look up at the city wall. He continued to shout happily, as if to encourage the bandits.
A crunching sound accompanied his words. The bandit, who had painstakingly avoided arrows and burning oil, had his neck nonchalantly twisted in an inhuman direction by Han Shuo. Like throwing out garbage, Han Shuo threw him at the bandits grouped below.
Crash...
The body of the first bandit to climb the city wall, his neck twisted for his efforts, made a huge noise as he was thrown down. The bandits below, desperately trying to climb the ladders, were shocked.
Then a more terrifying sight caught their eyes, something that was happening right in front of them!
As the grey mist drifted over the corpse in front of them, they first saw a finger twitch. Then the body rose slowly and jerkily to its feet, neck twisted and all. The pupils that had lost the light of life had given way to a dead grey colour. Despite its stiffness, the corpse's next move left no doubt as to its intentions. It leapt at a nearby bandit and stabbed him repeatedly.
The hysterical scream that came from the bandits was as if they'd encountered demons in the light of day. Faced with such an illogical situation, the courage of this bandit squadron melted away like water in the desert. Driven entirely by instinctive fear, they fled.
At the same time, more desperate cries spread from all corners of the battlefield, as if the screams were contagious. Bandits everywhere saw their dead brothers, one by one, open their fish-like grey eyes and struggle to their feet. Moreover, their dead brothers were even waving weapons and aiming to kill them. Mass hysteria had infected the living.
"This, this is, this is the lost legendary necromancy magic 'Corpse Reanimation'! My God! How did that damned evil necromancer master it?" The leader of the Greenfire bandit group was horrified as he watched the scene from afar. He, too, had heard of this ancient legend. His scalp began to tingle at the sight of the corpses rising to their feet.
As Faust shrieked in horror, more and more corpses rose to their feet with the last remaining desires of their lives. They began to ruthlessly attack any living creature in their path, unaware that the targets of their attacks were once their closest comrades, with whom they'd drank, chatted and laughed the night before.
The horror of the resurrected corpses instantly spread through the entire army of bandits attacking the town. The terrified bandits had no intention of continuing their siege. Their only thought was to escape from this evil place as quickly as possible. Incredibly, some bandits with blood-stained hands even began to sing the holy hymns of the Church of Light, as if commanded to do so by the gods and spirits. It was as if they thought it would be enough to purify the power of darkness around them.
It was a pity that the God of Light would never extend an olive branch to these atheists. When a zombie used his weapon to stab a hole in a singing bandit, the rest of the bandits, who were singing the holy hymn, immediately stopped their futile efforts. With incredible alacrity, they wheeled and ran, trying to escape.
"You want to run? It won't be that easy!" Han Shuo grinned like a madman on top of the city wall. He hovered above the city wall like a ruler of evil descending upon his kingdom, waving the bone staff in his hand. Acid swamps appeared along the path that Faust and his people were taking.
"Shoot him, shoot him now!" Faust pointed at Han Shuo and roared madly, trying to suppress the fear in his heart. He also pulled out a precious bow and aimed it at Han Shuo.
"Poor Faust, what if I played you? Look how many gold coins you've left for me, and all those weapons and armour all over the floor. Maybe there are even some gold coins on the dead bandits. How can I thank you?" Han Shuo laughed cutely as he squinted at Faust. He raised his right palm to the sky as a bright crimson light shone from the sky onto his palm. The beauty of the 'Bloody Radiance of Ten Thousand Cuts' slowly graced the bandits with its presence again.