The sight was terrifying as all the surroundings were full of beasts and it was not only twelve thousand like the guard said, it was more like forty to fifty thousand and they ranged from normal beasts up to the fourth stage spirit and magical beasts.
The only good news was that the fourth and third-staged beasts were scarce so they were manageable but the biggest problem was normal beasts and stage-one beasts as there were thousands of them.
-If they attack all at once the barrier won't last for long.
Fei Fei said with fear in her voice.
There were many more enemies than they anticipated and there were only around four to five thousand defenders in the town.
Even if the beasts paid with ten of their own for every human then this town would fall and then it would be a massacre as the civilians had nowhere to run.
-Judging from the distance they will arrive at the barrier in around an hour.
Paul said with a grim voice.
-This is impossible, we would need artillery or something similar to take them all out.
Anna said in despair.
Paul suddenly hugged her in a much better mood.
-Anna you're a genius.
He said happily.
Her words gave him an idea of how to even the odds a bit.
Letting her go he ran down the stairs to talk with the guards.
-Where is your captain?
He asked the first guard he encountered.
-The captain is there under the gate.
Paul thanked him and rushed to the officer.
-What do you want?
The captain was in no mood to hear some complaints from a cultivator especially one this young.
-I need some items and if you help me find them and prepare a few things then maybe we will be able to survive this mess.
This surprised the older man as he was already out of ideas about how to save anyone from this town.
-Tell me your plan.
He said.
Whatever the idea was it was more than he could think of so he would at least listen to it.
Paul hurriedly explained his idea and the captain was shocked.
-Do you think that it will work?
-In the worst-case scenario we will just lose some time and materials but if it works then we will have a chance to survive.
Paul answered.
-Guards.
The captain called.
When two of his men arrived he handed them a piece of paper.
-Get everything on this list as soon as possible, take more men with you and I don't care if you have to rob someone to get it just hurry up.
-Yes sir.
Both men shouted and ran out to carry out their orders.
Soon guards were bringing the required items en mass as there were many merchants in town and they were more than happy to give their merchandise to have a chance to survive.
Paul also wasn't sitting around doing anything.
He gathered every fire mage he could find and showed them a spell they had to inscribe on the ceramic jars that the guards were bringing.
-Young man these spells are too weak to do much damage, even a normal beast could survive them.
One of the older mages expressed his doubt.
-This spell won't harm the beasts because it's not meant for that but if we inscribe them on the jars and fill them up with nails, iron balls, glass, or even small stones it will propel the contents of the jars to a great speed which will be able to take out or at the very least wound many beasts.
This is something I just thought about and if this works then we should be able to reduce the numbers of normal beasts and maybe even some stage-one beasts.
Everyone thought about it and came to the same conclusion.
-We can't win this battle conventionally so what do we have to lose?
They thought.
-We will do as you say young man and I hope it works.
The older man said and everyone nodded.
The spell itself was simple to draw and once it was ready some guards filled the jars with whatever they found before closing the lid and tying it with a rope.
Some of the jars were even filled with lamp oil to serve as incendiary explosives.
The jars were then brought up the wall and the Qi warriors were instructed how to use them and to be careful because the spell was set to detonate once the jar broke.
Paul never was in the military but he sometimes played games and watched some movies that entailed this sort of explosives and now he wanted to use them to save the town if he could.
He even took a few jars and carefully dropped them next to the walls using ropes just in case the barrier would be broken.
This would take out some of the beasts that would try to climb the wall.
They managed to finish just before the first beasts entered the archery range.
Some of the mages were still creating more of the bombs while the rest along with Paul came back to the walls to take part in the battle.
-Paul did you just teach them how to create fragmentation bombs?
Anna asked when he came back.
-Yes and it was all thanks to you.
He smiled at her.
Only then did she understand why he called her a genius.
-You mean that my rumbling about artillery gave you the idea?
She asked surprised.
-Yes, and also I always liked to learn the history of the world wars on earth and the people of that time used artillery and grenades all the time.
He explained.
-Well I just hope that this kind of weapon won't spread too far.
You should remember that there were the guys called terrorists back on earth and some of them might have survived.
Anna said.
She didn't want to see this world becoming even more chaotic than it already was and releasing the weapons from Earth into this world would turn it upside down.
-You worry too much.
This kind of weapon is dangerous to normal beasts and the spirit and mana beasts of the lowest stage.
At most, it would injure a second-stage beast but that's it.
As for cultivators, anyone higher than the first stage would survive it and anyone above that would not even bother to block it since their energy would repel the shrapnel.
Also about the terrorists, if they didn't smarten up then they are all dead by now.
This is not Earth and people here don't negotiate, also if you kill someone's family member, you can be sure that they would want revenge.
Add to that the lack of laws preventing it and any terrorist who kills or kidnaps someone risks not only his life but the lives of all his family members.
Paul explained.
In his previous life, some morons kidnapped a three or four years old daughter from a powerful clan and demanded ransom.
They received it and released the girl but a few days later all of the culprits were found and they had to watch as their whole families were tortured to death before they experienced the same treatment themselves.
This was enough to scare any would-be terrorist, kidnapper, and the like from attempting anything stupid.
While they were talking the beasts started charging at the town.
-Throw the jars!
Paul commanded and a few dozen of the bombs were thrown by the Qi warriors landing in the most densely packed areas and exploding.
The explosions sent hundreds of pieces of shrapnel all around killing hundreds of beasts on the spot and wounding many others.
Everyone was shocked at the effectiveness of these weapons against the weaker enemies.
The beasts were also terrified, not only by the casualties they suffered but by the loud explosions.
This was enough for them to turn around and run away.
Normal beasts were not intelligent and they operated mostly on instinct unless something much more powerful subdued them to its will.
But even then if you could terrify them enough, then they would run away.
The First and second-stage beasts were only a bit smarter but they also could be terrified.
However, the stage three and higher tier beasts were not so easily intimidated and they were much more intelligent.
Everyone on the walls was happy seeing the beasts retreat in fear.
Some people even started to cheer every one thanked Paul for saving them.
-This is not the end.
Paul said loudly.
His voice worked like a bucket of cold water for everyone.
-We managed to scare them away for now but they will be back and sooner or later they will get used to the bombs so we have nothing to be happy about.
This brought everyone back to reality.
Looking at the beasts that died or were left wounded after the explosions they bearly killed a few hundred out of tens of thousands of them and to achieve that they used a third of their bombs.
The mages were making more of them but they soon ran out of mana and had to stop to replenish it
They managed to repel the first attack but Paul had no idea if they could do it for a second time.