Chapter 443: Storm the Fortress!

“Hah! Green-skinned monsters? Laugh now! Keep laughing! Now you’re scared, aren’t you?”

This time, it was Mi Gen’s turn to gloat.

He straightened his back and burst into mocking laughter.

"Damn two-legged sheep, just wait and see! Our beast tribe army will slaughter every last one of you!" The orcs on the fortress wall had taken cover but showed no real fear of Gervas’s group.

Upon hearing the orcs’ reply, Gervas frowned slightly.

In the past, these orcs, faced with such provocation, would inevitably burst out of the fortress and engage the human forces in open battle.

But these orcs were holding back, merely shouting from the walls.

This meant his plan to lure them out with taunts had failed.

Indeed, for the next few minutes, no matter how much Mi Gen continued to jeer, the orcs inside the fortress showed no intention of charging out.

“My lord, what do we do? These orcs won’t come out!” Lei Meng asked.

“If they won’t come out, then we’ll attack inside!”

If the orcs had charged out willingly, that would have been ideal.

But since they wouldn’t, Gervas had other ways to take this fortress.

So Gervas decisively activated Plan B!

“Storm Legion, prepare for battle!”

Immediately, Gervas began outlining the battle plan.

The orcs on the wall, witnessing this, exclaimed in surprise: “These two-legged sheep are actually preparing to storm us?”

“Yes! Even though that strange weapon caught us off guard, do they really think seven hundred men can take a fortress defended by two thousand of us? That’s pure fantasy!”

“Exactly! With just seven hundred humans, even three hundred of our warrior orcs could crush them and make them scream for their mothers!”

“True! If it weren’t for the Beast King’s strict order forbidding us to leave the fortress, I’d have already rushed out and torn those two-legged sheep apart!”

The orcs’ chatter and pointing above quickly reached the outside.

Hearing it, Mi Gen and the others gritted their teeth.

“Don’t rush. Follow my orders, and these orcs will be finished soon!” Gervas reassured them.

“Yes, my lord!”

“Good. Did you all hear clearly? If so, begin!”

“My lord, we’ve heard clearly!”

Then the battle commenced: three cannons and twenty crossbows were brought forward.

“That’s the same weapon—there are so many of them!”

“So what? Even with these strange weapons, they can only suppress us!”

“To take our fortress, they must send soldiers to climb the walls!”

"If they really try climbing, hehe, that’s when we’ll tear them to shreds!"

Watching the commotion outside, the orcs remained unconcerned.

Though the crossbows gave them pause, crossbows couldn’t replace siege engines—they weren’t afraid.

“Cannons, fire!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

But the orcs’ smiles would vanish soon.

Three thunderous roars suddenly erupted from outside the wall.

The orcs, caught off guard, shuddered, nearly wetting themselves.

The explosions were deafening.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Before the orcs could comprehend what had happened, a series of muffled impacts followed.

Looking out, they saw a section of the wall parapet struck by something—stone chips flew everywhere; the sturdy wall built of gray stone had simply exploded apart.

The two orcs and several slave soldiers hiding behind it were caught in the blast.

Their faces were mangled with blood and flesh; some lay motionless, others writhed on the ground screaming.

Of course, the other two muffled impacts hadn’t yet been located by the orcs on the wall.

Because those two shots had targeted the fortress gate.

Now, the sturdy gate bore two holes the size of basketballs.

Still, given the gate’s thickness, these holes caused only limited damage.

“What… what is this? Why do those iron tubes make such noise? Is this human magic?”

“But we didn’t sense any magical energy just now!”

The orcs snapped back to awareness, staring in terror at their screaming comrades.

After all, the unknown was the most terrifying thing.

But the Storm Legion outside didn’t care what the orcs were thinking.

Immediately after the first cannon volley, the second reloading began in earnest.

Soon, the second volley was loaded.

“Cannons, fire!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three more roars echoed out!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As before, one shot struck the wall, the other two hit the gate.

The two shots on the gate still showed little effect—only adding two more large holes.

But the shot on the wall struck again, blasting away another section of parapet.

Several orcs and slave soldiers nearby were once again mangled and collapsed.

“Damn it! This is human magic!”

“Chief, what do we do now? We have no shamans here—we can’t counter it!”

“Have the slaves watch them. We’ll retreat further back. When the humans actually start climbing, we’ll move forward!” The squad leader dared not stay on the wall any longer.

The other orcs agreed—it made sense.

Though the humans’ magic was powerful, as long as they stayed off the wall, they’d be safe.

So the orcs immediately retreated behind the wall, leaving the slave soldiers to continue watching the Storm Legion from behind the parapets.

Gervas had never intended to win by throwing men’s lives away, so the orcs would wait in vain for the Storm Legion’s assault.

Instead, the cannons fired over ten more times.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Stop!”

When the thirteenth explosion rang out, Gervas raised his hand to halt.

“Enough! Chain crossbows!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Quickly, two crossbows were pushed to the front, aimed at the fortress’s towering gate.

Now, after enduring twenty-six cannonballs, the iron gate hung precariously.

Though sheer manpower alone could hardly topple it,

a proper siege army with a massive battering ram might still have a good chance of breaking it open.

Of course, Gervas had no such battering ram.

Nor did he have time to build one.

So he had already prepared a substitute!

“Crossbows, fire!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Thud! Thud!

Two dark streaks shot out and embedded firmly into the gate.

These arrows were specially made—not only were their tips wedge-shaped armor-piercing heads, but their shafts were forged of iron.

Thus, the two arrows pierced the thick gate and locked solidly into the sturdy door.

The orcs inside, seeing this, were utterly baffled.

Yet, even as they stared in confusion, further changes unfolded outside.

Suddenly, the sound of hooves rang out from beyond the wall.

“Storm Cavalry, charge!”

Amid the shouts, forty Storm cavalrymen surged toward the gate.

In an instant, they reached the fortress gate.

But they didn’t attack—instead, they swiftly dismounted and fastened two thick chains to the tails of the crossbow bolts embedded in the gate.

Once the chains were connected to the bolts, the soldiers secured the other ends to their saddle buckles.