Chapter 783

Boom, boom, boom...

The stirring sound of war drums came from behind the Imperial army; at this moment, the Empire's force of over three hundred thousand was advancing toward the Black Soil Fortress.

Facing those towering, pitch-black walls, the Imperial soldiers showed no fear, instead maintaining orderly ranks and advancing at a steady pace.

At the very front of the Imperial army was a large row of heavy shield-bearers, their shields held at an upward slant; no enemy would appear directly in front of them, as the lethal attacks would surely come from the fortress walls, tens of meters high.

The troops behind the heavy shield-bearers were quite unique; they wore light armor and carried no weapons, each with a bamboo basket on their back filled with irregularly shaped stones of various sizes—these stones were the key to this battle.

The Imperial army's front was composed entirely of these types of formations: a row of heavy shield-bearers, followed by transport soldiers carrying stones, then another row of heavy shield-bearers, repeating in this cycle.

As the Imperial army pushed forward, the tribal troops on the walls of the Black Soil Fortress tensed their bodies.

Mounted along the edges of the fortress walls were large siege crossbows; these crossbows were like artillery batteries, forged entirely of metal. To reload them, one had to use a crank, which looked somewhat like the starter handle of an old-fashioned hand-tractor, only scaled up in size.

Click, click, click...

The sound of the crossbows being cocked merged into one; these large siege crossbows could not be cocked in advance, as the powerful tension of the bowstrings would warp the crossbows if they remained cocked for more than a minute, which showed just how terrifying their power was.

Dwarf soldiers were busy on the walls, with three dwarves assigned to each crossbow: one responsible for firing, one for reloading, and one for cranking the tension. Their movements were synchronized, and in less than ten seconds, over three hundred crossbows on the wall were cocked. One should not assume there were only these three hundred crossbows on the Black Soil Fortress; looking out, there were at least a thousand, but the battle line was only so long, and the others could not be used. These mobile crossbows had already filled this section of the wall.

Before the Imperial army could reach the Black Soil Fortress, it was almost a one-sided slaughter by the tribal side; as for counterattacking with volleys of arrows, it was basically ineffective.

This terrifying weapon of war was known as the "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbow," invented and crafted by the dwarves.

If the "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbow" only fired ordinary large bolts, the tribal side wouldn't use it to defend the fortress. No matter how powerful the bolts were, they would only attack a single point, which would have little effect on a battlefield of hundreds of thousands. However, the attack range of the "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbow" was not a point, but a vast area.

"Ready."

A dwarf, almost entirely encased in iron, stood on high ground, holding a small red flag.

As the dwarf flag-bearer raised the small flag, the Imperial army had reached the foot of the fortress. The soldiers carrying the bamboo baskets charged out, unstrapping the baskets during their charge, intending to dump the stones inside at the base of the wall. As long as they completed this "simple" task, they could retreat to the rear of the army.

Unfortunately, they never got the chance.

"Charge!"

Soldiers rushed forward one after another.

"Fire!"

On the fortress, the dwarf flag-bearer swung down the flag he held high, and the dwarves behind the three hundred "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbows" pulled the triggers with all their might.

Boom, boom, boom...

The crossbow strings emitted a muffled thud; it wasn't that the strings had snapped, but that the force was so immense, the sound was caused by the strings rapidly rubbing against the air.

Bolts over three meters long were fired. These bolts didn't have pointed tips, but oval-shaped heads, like giant matches. There were rows of reverse-facing air vents in the middle of the bolts; once the bolt reached a certain speed limit, this killing weapon would reveal its ferocious side.

The entire shaft of the bolt was spiral-shaped, so after being fired, it began to rotate at high speed.

Ding~

A large bolt unfolded a circle of "feathers" in mid-air. These were no feathers, but tiny, double-edged blades, each three meters long.

The bolt was already rotating at high speed, and once the double-edged blades unfolded, each bolt became a high-speed rotating reamer.

Hum~

A piercing whistle sounded as hundreds of high-speed rotating bolt-reamers struck the Imperial soldiers below the fortress.

The bolt-reamers flew into the crowd and began to shred human bodies; armor could not protect against this at all. Blood and flesh splattered as over a dozen soldiers were instantly turned into pulp. And that wasn't all—because the tips of the bolt-reamers were rounded, they continued to shred enemies after hitting the ground. If the angle was just right, the thing acted like a spinning top.

Mud splattered and severed limbs flew; after one volley from the tribal army, a massive pile of corpses appeared below the fortress.

"Hahaha."

"These scumbags."

"Come again."

As the dwarves on the fortress laughed loudly, the second volley was already being prepared.

Below the fortress, Legion Commander Carlos had a cold expression; beside him lay a bolt-reamer that had been shattered.

"Continue."

Carlos roared. Hearing their Legion Commander's voice, the soldiers carrying the bamboo baskets roared and charged forward. Their Legion Commander was watching them; he was the man they worshipped.

Boom, boom, boom...

The second volley began on the fortress. Although the Imperial soldiers suffered heavy casualties, under the leadership of Legion Commander Carlos, wave after wave of soldiers charged forward, fearing no death.

In less than two minutes, the stones below the fortress had piled up a meter high. Of course, stones alone wouldn't have this effect, but it was different when combined with the shattered corpses.

While the dwarves on the fortress were busy reloading, the Elven archer squad at the rear of the Imperial army had been ready for a long time.

Whoosh~

A dense rain of arrows was fired in a parabolic arc toward the top of the fortress. Seeing this rain of arrows, the dwarves on the fortress didn't care at all. The original purpose for which the "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbow" was invented wasn't actually to defend the fortress, but to counter the Elven arrow volleys. It was just that this thing was difficult to transport and not very effective against the mobile Elven archer squads.

But now it was a siege battle, and the "Fortress-Guarding Heavy Wheel Crossbow" demonstrated its ability to deal with arrow volleys.

Before the dense rain of arrows in the air could fall, the bolt-reamers had already moved to meet them.

Crack, crack...

The arrow rain was shredded into a sky full of wood chips. Not only that, but those bolt-reamers flew toward the middle section of the Imperial army.

The bolt-reamers hit the ground, and a large number of soldiers were shredded into pulp before they could even scream. The situation for the tribal army was looking excellent.

Was that the truth? Not at all. Once the pile of stones and corpses below the fortress reached a certain height, the Imperial army would charge onto the fortress and begin hand-to-hand combat.

Strangely, no large-scale magic appeared in either side's army; things like Fire Rain or Gale spells hadn't appeared at all.

It wasn't that there were no mages in either camp, but that the spellcasters of this world didn't have strong group-combat capabilities. One-on-one, their abilities weren't weak, but as for large-scale magic, that hadn't appeared since the founding of the Empire, for unknown reasons.

Nowadays, spellcasters rarely participated in wars; they preferred to explore magic, meaning they didn't get involved in power struggles. As for Tier 2 Qiyuezhe mages, the possibility of them mastering large-scale magic was even smaller. Large-scale destructive magic couldn't be obtained at this stage, and the mana cost for large-scale magic was an astronomical figure. Tier 2 Qiyuezhe mages would at most toss some small-to-medium-scale spells at the fortress.

The backbone of this world was the army; every soldier's physical fitness was not weak. Under the pressure of a massive army, even the strongest spellcaster could only pack up and run.

At this moment, Su Xiao was in the middle section of the Imperial army, on a small hill with higher terrain, holding the Spider Queen.

Although the Spider Queen's appearance in this world was a bit out of place, under the disguise of the Reincarnation Paradise, other soldiers just thought it was Su Xiao's special ability, similar to alchemy or magic.

Of course, Su Xiao wasn't the only one using a sniper rifle on the battlefield. In a battle with such special circumstances, the influence of Qiyuezhe on the war began to show.