Chapter 785

Gurgle, gurgle...

A large number of bubbles appeared in the lava below the fortress, and the Imperial army also noticed this change.

Carlos smiled; the situation was proceeding according to his planned schedule.

"Waited so long, finally ready. Anna, go."

Carlos didn't know who he was talking to.

"Hmm."

An ethereal female voice came; there seemed to be an invisible woman near Carlos.

After about a few dozen seconds, the lava below the fortress, which had been bubbling profusely, stopped churning and began to show signs of solidifying.

Crack, crack.

Cracks appeared in the solidified lava, but these cracks weren't messy; instead, they formed a large, linked alchemical array.

Boom, boom, boom...

The ground for over a dozen kilometers around began to shake.

Bang!

The already solidified lava layer ruptured. From the cracks in the lava layer, lava with even higher temperatures surged out, and those cracks sprayed lava outward like fountains.

Gurgle, gurgle...

The lava flowed down the slope, and the Imperial soldiers not far from the lava immediately retreated.

The lava continued to surge to higher ground and flow down the slope. In just over a dozen seconds, a rolling lava slope had formed below the fortress.

At the rear of the battlefield, Carlos's adjutant stood on high ground, watching the lava slope. He held a black stone slab in his arms, on which a very precise alchemical array was carved.

"The height is still not enough."

The adjutant's masseter muscles bulged. He clearly saw that the lava flow below the fortress had already begun to swallow the Imperial army, and screams merged into one.

"Still not enough."

Adjutant Luo Na's gaze was somewhat fierce. At this moment, a large number of Imperial soldiers were being swallowed by the lava.

Informing these soldiers in advance could significantly reduce casualties, but if that were done, the plan would likely be exposed, which would only lead to more deaths.

The screams of the soldiers burned by the lava traveled very far. Not to mention the ordinary officers of the Empire, even the tribal army on the fortress was stunned.

"Carlos, that madman!"

The Minotaur Amu Shi's cheeks twitched. Although he understood some of Carlos's ruthlessness, he didn't expect Carlos to be this ruthless; this was using soldiers' lives to execute a plan.

Gurgle, gurgle...

The higher the lava surged, the more lava flowed down the slope, and the heavier the casualties of the Imperial army became.

Soon, the tribal army on the fortress felt the scorching heat of the lava, and their hair and beards began to singe. They began to retreat; if the lava surged onto the fortress, they would be dead.

The Minotaur Amu Shi didn't retreat because he believed that no matter how crazy Carlos was, he wouldn't let the lava surge onto the fortress. Once the lava solidified, it would produce hard rock. If the lava surged onto the Black Soil Fortress, the tribal army would at most escape down the stone slope on the other side, and the casualties wouldn't be too great.

If the lava solidified on top of the Black Soil Fortress, not to mention the damage to the overall structure of the fortress, just cleaning up the rocks later would be a massive project. At that point, the Black Soil Fortress would be effectively ruined for a kilometer, and the tribal army would strike again from this weak point.

Just as the Minotaur Amu Shi imagined, when the lava surged to be level with the fortress, Adjutant Luo Na at the rear of the Imperial army smashed the stone slab in his hand.

With a crack, the stone slab shattered, and the lava surging below the fortress stopped instantly.

There was a reason Carlos didn't let the lava surge onto the fortress. The difficulty of cleaning up the rock after the lava cooled was one aspect; on the other hand, to kill the tribal army on the fortress, there was no need to let the lava surge up, as that would only alert the enemy.

After the lava level with the fortress became still, the Minotaur Amu Shi on the fortress breathed a sigh of relief; this was the same as he had anticipated.

"Run!"

A thinner shout came from the side. The Goblin inventor ran wildly toward the other side of the fortress on his two short legs, jumping behind the stone slope built by the tribal side on the other side to continue escaping.

At first, the Goblin inventor thought the alchemical array in the lava was a "Heat-Cold Exchange Alchemical Array," but the truth was not so.

Seeing the Goblin inventor's reaction, the Minotaur Amu Shi's hair stood on end.

"Retreat from the fortress."

While the Minotaur Amu Shi roared, he also ran toward the stone slope on the other side of the fortress, but unfortunately, he was a bit slow.

The color of the lava that had stopped surging began to change, from scorching red to blue-black, and a layer of ice crystals quickly clung to the surface of the lava.

With such a drastic alternation of cold and heat, the lava slope, which had already become semi-solid, quickly cracked.

Hiss!

Cold and heat touched, and a large amount of steam rose. This wasn't ordinary water vapor, but superheated steam far exceeding the critical point.

Steam filled the air, and coupled with the fact that it was a westerly wind tonight, the large amount of steam quickly enveloped the Black Soil Fortress. Tonight was the weather Carlos wanted most.

"Ah!!"

Heart-wrenching screams came from the fortress. Four "dishes" appeared on the fortress: Steamed Orc, Steamed Goblin, Steamed Dwarf, and Steamed Troll.

The thirty thousand tribal troops guarding the fortress roared in pain within the steam. The terrifyingly hot steam corroded their skin, and once they breathed, it would also erode their internal organs.

In just a few seconds, the fortress was dead silent, with only a vast expanse of white steam. The tribal army on the fortress was wiped out.

A scent of cooked meat drifted over, and some new recruits recently drafted into the Imperial army began to dry-heave.

Silent, cruel, terrifying—this was what the Black Soil Fortress looked like now.

"Blood debt must be paid in blood. The fortress built by my ancestors, those tribal scumbags shall not take it."

Carlos said this word by word. This was Carlos: brave, bloodthirsty, and more ruthless than anyone at critical moments. Only such a person could guard the frontier. Those so-called heroes couldn't keep the tribal army out of the fortress. There was no such word as "despicable" in war; as long as one could kill all the enemy troops, what did it matter if it was despicable? The dead wouldn't say the enemy was despicable, because they were already dead and couldn't speak.

The steam lasted for a full four hours before it began to thin, and the sky began to brighten.

On the battlefield, Carlos said something else to the invisible woman.

At the same time, Adjutant Luo Na at the rear of the Imperial army ordered the troops to regroup, and the order was quickly conveyed to the entire army.

In just a few minutes, over two hundred thousand Imperial troops had reorganized their ranks. The hesitation in the soldiers' eyes disappeared, and their determined gazes made one doubt if they were the same semi-routed rabble that had been desperately squeezing backward a few hours ago.

Thousands of soldiers carrying large water barrels lined up in neat rows and ran quickly toward the Black Soil Fortress. When these thousands of soldiers rushed to the solidified lava slope, they unstrapped the half-person-high, thick water barrels from their backs and poured the water inside onto the bottom of the slope.

Hiss~

Water vapor rose, and the temperature of the slope after being watered gradually dropped, its surface becoming gray-black and honeycomb-shaped.

Barrel after barrel of water was poured on, and the temperature of the lava slope cooled rapidly. Thousands of people gradually pushed upward, continuing to pour water.

When thousands of barrels of water were poured, the lava slope was still a bit hot to the feet, but it was barely tolerable.

Boom, boom, boom...

The sound of war drums came from across the fortress; it was the tribal army regrouping. Both sides were separated by the fortress, but there were slopes on both sides of the fortress. One side was formed after the lava cooled, and the other side was prepared in advance by the tribal army. This was to prevent the Imperial army from retaking the fortress. With this slope, the difficulty for the tribal army to attack the fortress would be greatly reduced.

Although the Imperial army didn't retake the fortress, they had created a slope leading directly to the top of the fortress.

In this way, the Black Soil Fortress was like a mountain, and both sides could easily charge onto the fortress. Now it depended on who could knock the other side back.