My Kingdom Building Done Right!
Chapter 255: Flame Catapults Of The Darkmane Tribe
The chant of the Aslan Tribe thoroughly drowned out the war chant of the Darkmane Tribe.
Even Leone had to admit that Kael had outdone himself with this performance.
Godwin, Hagen, and Malik were also looking at the shaman with great interest. After staying in the Aslan Tribe for several days, they learned one thing about Kael.
He was a bootlicker.
In their eyes, he was the perfect subordinate. They wanted to poach him more and more every time he did something that surpassed their expectations!
’I guess if the Aslan Tribe loses, I could bring him over to my side.’ Hagen smiled faintly. ’Such an exceptional man must not perish in this battle.’
Godwin was also thinking along the same lines. Even Malik had to admit that having someone like Kael as a subordinate would make him look good in the eyes of others.
Vlad and the members of the spectator tribes were also very impressed by what they were hearing.
After all, they were nearer to the Darmane Tribe. And yet, Kael’s voice, as well as the voices of the Aslan Tribe, reached them.
A feat only possible thanks to Daedalus magnifying their voices many times.
"Forward!" the commander of the Darkmane Tribe’s siege weapon division shouted.
They had created fifteen of the Darkmane Tribe’s famous Fire Catapults, powered by shamanic magic.
The plan was to bombard the defensive walls of the Aslan Tribe from a safe distance. With that, the army’s main role was to protect the catapults so the outside forces couldn’t destroy them.
As the Darkmane Tribe approached the scorched forest, Otto had climbed up to the fourth floor of the mountain, where the villa of the Ravage Tribe was located.
Castor and Pollux stood behind him, ready to assist him at a moment’s notice.
At the center of the balcony was the Skybreaker Ballista, the special weapon Leone had bought for Otto, allowing him to annihilate any threats from afar.
As long as Otto was touching it, the power of the Horizon Archer would activate, making this weapon’s attack range a threat to anything his eyes could reach.
The bolt of the ballista was as long as a spear, while being twice as thick. It was a weapon originally meant for killing monsters. But right now, the Horizon Archer planned to target something else.
After taking aim, Otto pulled the lever and sent the bolt flying across the air.
The Darkmane Tribe was still marching and had no idea what was about to hit them.
Then, it happened. Soon, they heard the whistling of wind, and a second later, something fast pierced through the tight-knit formation.
The spear pierced through the bodies of half a dozen warriors before embedding itself in the last warrior’s chest.
Those who had been pierced in front of the warrior sprayed blood from their bodies before collapsing to the ground.
Their life was gone. Just like that.
Everything happened so fast that everyone had yet to react to what had just occurred.
Some only broke out of their daze due to the warrior’s last scream before he, too, collapsed on the ground, the bolt still sticking out of his body.
To no surprise, the warrior’s scream brought back memories of the trauma they had developed during the long march.
This tragic moment brought out the trauma the warriors had tried to bury within the deepest corners of their hearts and minds.
And the sight of their comrades dying so miserably brought this fear back to reality.
"Raise your shields!" the commander in front shouted. "Rai—arrghhhh!"
A bolt pierced through his upper right chest before flying toward the warrior behind him, killing a few more on its path.
In response, everyone stopped in their tracks and hastily raised their shields.
Some even hid behind their Fire Catapult’s body, hoping it could block the attacks coming from the fortress.
While this was happening, Castor and Pollux were working together to load the third bolt onto Otto’s ballista.
Once it was properly loaded, the Horizon Archer didn’t hesitate to bring death upon their foes once again.
Soon, the third bolt pierced through the wooden shield of a warrior and passed through his body.
Though this time, instead of killing seven people, only three people died.
The shields did help stop the bolt’s momentum. However, thanks to Otto’s special ability that ignored defenses, he still managed to take three lives with a single bolt.
"What are you all doing?!" Jafar shouted. "Charge! We’re only facing one archer!"
His shout broke everyone from their dazes. The warriors then gritted their teeth and marched forward, pulling the catapults with their shields raised high.
Another one of Otto’s bolts found its targets, killing those who were pulling one of the catapults towards their domain.
But just as Jafar had stated, there was only one archer threatening them right now. Even if dozens died, as long as they could bring their catapults within their attack range, there was nothing the Aslan Tribe could do to them!
Leone and the Orcs watched as their enemies approached their defensive lines.
The catapults perched on the ramparts of the first wall had a range of seven hundred meters.
On the other hand, the enemy’s catapults had a range that was a little over a thousand meters.
In short, Leone’s defensive siege weapons couldn’t reach their targets. Though Leone wasn’t too worried.
"Load the catapults!" Leone ordered.
"Load the catapults!" Logan bellowed, his voice booming across the ramparts.
The Orcs then carried the heavy round stones piled up beside their catapults and waited for the signal to strike.
Daedalus had warned its Master about the range of the Darkmane Tribe’s Fire Catapults earlier and offered a solution to counter it.
However, putting that solution into practice was hard since it needed precise calculation on their part.
Just as Otto continued to rain bolts of death from the mountain, the Fire Catapults of the Darkmane Tribe finally stopped their advance.
"Load!" Jafar ordered.
The warriors responsible for loading ammunition in their respective catapults moved, while the rest raised shields in order to protect them.
Each catapult had six shamans operating it, ensuring that every unleashed attack would devastate their enemies.
The ammunition started to burn with shamanic flames, while wind magic activated to increase its range and firepower.
When all the catapults were ready, Jafar raised his hand and gave a command.
"Fire!"
The Fire Catapults roared as they sent their payload hurtling towards the air.
Soon, fifteen giant fireballs flew toward the walls of Aslan Soleil.
When they were only a few hundred meters away from the walls, Leone gave out his order.
"Fire!"
Their own catapults hurled their attacks toward the incoming fireballs. Some stones managed to collide with it, while others missed completely.
The impact of the stones managed to stop a bit of the fireballs’ momentum, and a handful of them fell a few meters away from the wall as planned.
Unfortunately, the majority of the fireballs still managed to hit the wall.
Loud explosions spread throughout the surroundings, while columns of fire rose from the places hit by the catapults.
The defenders hurriedly ducked behind the ramparts, with Logan and Khan standing in front of Leone to shield him from any harm.
The Darkmane Tribe’s bombardment scarred several sections of the outer wall.
Craters nearly three meters across were gouged into the stone, their surfaces blackened by the shamanic flames.
Cracks spread like spiderwebs around the points of impact, while chunks of stone tumbled from the ramparts to the ground below.
Cheers erupted from the Darkmane Tribe when they saw that the majority of their attacks had hit their designated targets.
"It worked!"
"Break their walls!"
"They won’t survive another volley!"
Jafar narrowed his eyes instead of celebrating.
The flames slowly subsided, revealing the towering wall still standing proudly before them.
Despite the damage, the thirty-meter-tall fortress, with walls fifteen meters thick, remained as immovable as a mountain. It neither crumbled nor showed the slightest sign that it would collapse anytime soon.
Jafar then gave the order to load the catapults for the next bombardment. Meanwhile, those at the ramparts had finally regained their bearings.
’Daedalus, damage report!’ Leone ordered.
’The damage is negligible,’ Daedalus reported. ’They can break the wall. It isn’t impossible. But they have to hit the same spot eight more times. If this is the most damage they could unleash, we can do this all day! Also, I’d love to get those catapults. Let’s try to get one so that we can reverse engineer it.’
After assessing the situation, Daedalus made sure to only give Leone the most accurate report. Because of this, a faint smile appeared on the young man’s face as he watched the second bombardment from the Darkmane Tribe collide with their walls.
The flames rose high up in the air, while the cracks that had been created earlier widened.
Troy and Jafar were feeling pretty good after this development, with both looking forward to seeing the walls that served as the Aslan Tribe’s first line of defense crumble after it could no longer endure their bombardment.
However, breaking the walls that Leonne built wouldn’t be easy.
Why?
It was because Leone could just repair it!
The moment the flames from the second bombardment dispersed, Troy and Jafar noticed something wrong.
The scorched stone they had battered moments ago was no longer blackened.
The spiderweb-like cracks had also vanished.
Even the massive craters gouged out of the wall had disappeared without a trace.
The towering walls of Aslan Soleil stood before them once more, pristine and unblemished, as if they had never been struck in the first place.
"Impossible..." one of the shamans operating a Fire Catapult muttered in disbelief. "This... this has to be some kind of illusion."
It wasn’t just him.
The same thought flashed through the minds of countless warriors as they stared at the seemingly indestructible fortress.
Before the shaman could recover from his shock and prepare the third volley, the warrior shielding him suddenly grunted.
A split-second later, a bloody hole burst through the shaman’s chest.
"Thi—rghh..."
His eyes widened in disbelief before he collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Otto had started shooting once more, targeting the shamans being defended by the warriors in front of them.
While he couldn’t see them because of the shield wall, he could guess where they were.
"Keep on firing!" Jafar ordered. "Bring that wall down, no matter what!"
Yet, no matter how they tried.
No matter how many times they bombarded that towering wall, it still remained pristine, as if it was mocking them for even trying to put a dent in it.
Godwin, Hagen, and Malik couldn’t help but look at this turn of events with solemn expressions on their faces.
After nearly two hours of non-stop bombardment, the Darkmane Tribe was forced to retreat, leaving the corpses of hundreds of warriors and a dozen shamans on the battlefield.
Their first assault had ended in complete failure.
This unexpected result had greatly lowered their morale, while the cheers of the Aslan Tribe spread across the mountain, making their enemies grit their teeth in frustration.