Chapter 162: Attack and Defense of the Fortress 4

Chapter 162 – Fortress Attack and Defense Battle 4
Duke Dodge looked at the battle above the fortress with a cold face.

The current situation was greatly unfavorable, and the defending side was clearly being pressed by the rebels.

After careful consideration, he ordered, “Send out a reserve force to receive the soldiers in front and withdraw into the inner wall.”

The trumpeter on the side immediately raised his horn and whimpered in a special rhythm.

The old duke said to an officer behind him, “Bring out our secret weapon.”

The officer was shocked, “My lord, that is our last killer weapon! We can’t use it until it’s absolutely necessary!”

Duke Dodge let out a bitter smile, “Can’t you see? It’s already the time of last resort right now. Or rather, if we don’t show this bottom card before it’s too late, we won’t be able to suffer until the last resort.”

A wave of bitterness spread across the officer’s face as he nodded and responded, “Yes, my lord.”

Then he turned around and flew away.

……

“Retreat into the inner wall!”

“Retreat into the inner wall!”

The officers who were fighting with the soldiers on the outer wall of the fortress were relaying orders to their men.

The defending soldiers immediately gathered around their respective officers and covered each other by moving towards the inner wall.

As a complete defensive fortress, Thorn Fortress had two layers of walls, with a distance of 15~20 meters between the outer wall and the inner wall, and the inner wall was higher, thicker, and more difficult to attack than the outer wall.

The rebel soldiers who ascended the wall were in hot pursuit, they could not stop to rest at this time, if they allowed the defenders to retreat into the inner wall, it would bring a lot of trouble, the battlements on the inner side of the outer wall were short and small, and the defense against bows and arrows from the inner wall was very ineffective.

But the inner wall of the gate suddenly opened, rushed out a large number of soldiers, this group of garrison reserves have been in the rear of the elite, looking at the outer wall of the killing fists, the duke’s order a moment they are in no hurry to rush out.

Reserve soldiers immediately replaced the front of the battle brothers, attacked the fortress rebel soldiers fought a long time, has long been showing fatigue, under the haste of the garrison’s reserve was a backlash suppressed on the outer wall.

But the reserve team did not love the war, after all, their side is still in the numerical disadvantage, in the cover of the retreating brothers withdrew, also immediately returned to the inner wall, and then closed the door to death.

“Lord Samar! The outer wall has been taken by us!”

“Good!”

Samar was overjoyed, not expecting to take the outer wall of Thorn Fortress so quickly.

“Immediately have the second wave of city troops press on!”

“Yes!”

The rebels who captured the outer wall braved the arrows and crossbows of the defenders on the inner wall to open the outer wall’s gate, and a large number of rebels rushed in carrying boarding ladders and battering rams, and the attack on the fortress’s inner wall started immediately!
The soldiers wearing enchanted leather armor were still in the lead, they bit their sabers in their mouths and struggled to climb up the ladder towards the inner wall. After the previous battle, there were still about 300 of the original 500 soldiers left.

There was also a group of soldiers gathered at the entrance of the city, using battering rams to vigorously hit the gate.

But strangely enough, the defenders only hindered them as they climbed the ladder, and since there was no cover from the siege wagons, the rebels lost a lot of men to rocks, kerosene, and the like, but when they jumped onto the wall, the defenders who had fought so hard to stop them just now all of a sudden dispersed on both sides, and a large chunk of that area near the siege ladder was left empty.

“What are they up to?”

Holding such a question, the rebel soldiers who ascended the city wall froze for a moment, but they still raised their weapons and stood on full alert to cover their subsequent companions as they ascended the city.

Just like that, the number of rebel soldiers who ascended the inner wall increased.

“Kill!”

After they had gathered a certain number of them, not caring about the doubts in their hearts, they all roared in unison and charged towards the defenders.

Someone among the defenders suddenly shouted, “Aim!”

Then a number of soldiers holding strange weapons in their hands drilled out from the back, the front end of the weapon facing them, that …… seemed to be a nozzle.

“Fire!”

Only to see those strange “nozzle” suddenly sprayed a long tongue of fire, straight toward the rebel soldiers.

In an instant, the inferno descended!
By the time the tongue of fire reached the place where the rebels were gathered, it had already turned into a huge pillar of fire, and a large number of soldiers were hit by the spray, and their bodies immediately burst into flames.

“Ah~~!”

Terrified, agonized cries immediately rang out amongst the rebel soldiers.

If anyone looked closely, they could see that what the defenders’ strange weapon was ejecting was actually a line of burning liquid, which splattered on the bodies of the rebel soldiers, fueling the flames and ultimately igniting the clothing on their targets.

The soldiers who were on fire panicked and flailed at the flames on their bodies, their companions around them also helped to flail at the flames, and there were also soldiers with larger fires who directly flailed at the ground and rolled around, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t extinguish the flames on their bodies, and could only watch the flames consume their bodies painfully, and with their eyes wide open.

What’s even more frightening is that those who helped to extinguish the fire also caught fire on their hands, and they flung their hands or put their hands on the wall stacks and rubbed and touched them, which extinguished the flames.

No one dared to help those who were on fire to extinguish the fire, and could only watch them being consumed by the flames.

Even the defenders who watched were stunned, including the “fire-breathers” who created this scene with their own hands; they had never imagined that the weapon in their hands would be so powerful.

Those who stayed with the Spitfires subconsciously separated themselves from them.

“What are you waiting for? Keep spraying!”

The officers were the first to wake up from their shocked state, and loudly urged their subordinates to carry out the second wave of attack.

“Yes!”

The fire-breathing soldiers reacted and continued to unleash the “pipes” in their hands, and a dragon of fire once again ferociously pounced on the rebels. The gate of the inner wall also suddenly opened, the rebel soldiers gathered at the gate were just about to rush in, but they were greeted by a dragon of fire ……

The tragic scene came again.

……

“What happened?”

From a makeshift wooden tower, Samar and Scott stared in disbelief at the scene unfolding on the inner wall.

In their eyes, all they saw was a flash of fire on the wall, and then fires broke out on the soldiers of their own side, and those who were on fire struggled helplessly in the flames until they collapsed never to move again.

The soldiers who were lucky not to be burned have withdrawn from the wall, and climbed down the ladder desperately, but when the whole ladder was strung into a human string, the defenders on the wall immediately saw the opportunity to spray a flame straight down, the ladder burned from end to end…….

Samar descended from the wooden tower in exasperation and ordered one of the knights, “Go see what’s going on!”

Before the knight could set off, he saw a large group of his side’s routed soldiers pouring out of the fortress.

Following them were the cavalry from the fortress, the defenders’ cavalry hacking and slashing indiscriminately while their own soldiers were so routed that they couldn’t organize any effective resistance, but just ran one way or another to their side.

Samar immediately ordered, “Formation!”

There are still many soldiers around him, immediately forming a tight square formation, pointing the spears in their hands diagonally in the direction of the fortress, aiming at the enemy cavalry as well as …… their own routed soldiers.

A knight with a loud voice shouted loudly to the routed soldiers fleeing back, “Those who dare to charge the formation, kill without pardon!”

The routed soldiers knew this was no joke and scattered to run to the sides.

The rebel cavalry also began to spur their horses into a trot to cover their flanks.

The defending cavalrymen who had rushed out saw that the remaining enemy troops were heavily guarded and withdrew back to the fort after pursuing them for some distance.

Samar breathed a sigh of relief as he immediately ordered the routed troops to be gathered up and sought out one of the officers who had escaped to question him closely.

The officer, with a shocking burn on his arm, said in shock, “The other side does not know what means, and sprayed an unextinguishable flame at us, so many …… many brethren were burned to death.”

“Unquenchable flame?”

“Yes my lord! Unquenchable!”

The officer’s face showed an expression of horror and disbelief.

“There is a small pool of water between the outer and inner walls, and some of the brothers whose bodies were on fire jumped in to extinguish the fire! But …… but ……”

Samar asked sternly, “But what?”

“But …… but the fire on them is getting bigger instead!”

“How is this …… possible?”

Even Scott, who was standing beside Samar, suspected that he had heard wrongly, water overcomes fire, this is common sense that a three year old child knows.

Encountering water instead of burning more and more vigorous flames, even the mages proud of the magic can not do, those mortals how to do it?
At this moment, Samar was exceptionally calm, he let the officer go down to reorganize his team, and then ordered with a taut face, “Withdraw!”

“Withdraw? No, my lord!”

Scott didn’t want to retreat like this for nothing, but he had high hopes for this attack.

“It’s just some fire-starters, what with a fire that can’t even be put out by water, it must be an excuse made by those deserters out of fear of death.”

“Shut up! My soldiers are fighting to the death in front of them, how dare you denigrate them like that?”

Samar suddenly yelled at him, the general turning red from face to neck, clearly enraged.

Scott was stunned by him and was baffled, not knowing what to say.

“I’m sorry! Mr. Mage, I was a bit impulsive just now.”

Samar calmed down.

“I know that officer, by no means is he a coward and afraid of death, otherwise he wouldn’t have been chosen to command the assault unit. And …… do you know about ‘Hellfire’?”

Scott heard the word for the first time, and a puzzled look appeared on his face, “Hellfire?”

Samar nodded, “Hellfire, a terrible flammable liquid. On the battlefield a long time ago, I think it was during the era of the Gubera Empire, hellfire used to run rampant.”

“It is said to be a liquid made from a black viscous grease, mixed with a certain proportion of sulfur, asphalt, resin, and other flammable substances; not only is it very flammable, but it can float on water and burn, and cannot be extinguished by any amount of puffing. But what that black grease was, and what the exact recipe was, was ultimately lost because it was kept too secret.”

Scott’s eyes widened, “There’s such a magical substance?”

“It’s a plague that can’t be undone except by the God of Heaven, and the only way to get out of it is by doing nothing more than bending our knees and praying for heavenly salvation whenever our enemies attack us with hellfire – that’s how it’s described in the legends.”

Samar sighed, “Alas! I didn’t expect this long lost weapon to resurface in the world, and I even happened to come across it.”

Scott reluctantly asked, “Isn’t there a way to restrain Hellfire?”

Samar shook his head, “Maybe there is, but I don’t know. For now we can only retreat and continue to keep an eye on the fortress, I can’t take a second chance with the troops that the Grand Duke has entrusted to me, if there’s a slip-up, it will cause a great deal of trouble to the Grand Duke’s plan to unify the south.”

Scott twisted his head to look at the Thorn Fortress and said with endless regret:
“Alright! I will comply with your arrangement!”

Hey, guess what the Hellfire is based on?

(End of chapter)