Chapter 341 Northern War Theatre - Part 3
Neither the cultivators nor the goblins expected it. They thought everything was going to be just fine. The anti tank cannons had managed to shoot down the catapults, rendering them useless. The marksmen repeatedly fired their M1 Garand Rifles and managed to scored more kills than they ever had in their entire military career. Some of the marksmen had to shout at others to pass them some ammo since they managed to nearly burn through it despite the supposed cost. Even Jia Le, the Breathtaking Bellflower, and Luo Bo, the Illusive Rabbit Cultivator, shot out uncountable kunais and arrows until their hands hurt.
Yet, roughly half an hour into the battle, the Orcs in the front line had managed to reach the fort walls using whatever means possible or necessary to head towards their destination. Shields, dead Orcs, leftover pieces of armour. It seemed like a mostly one sided massacre; nevertheless, the overwhelming numbers gave them the sole advantage especially when they were pitting against a small number of goblins. At this time Spear General Argent started to notice a noticeable change in the siege formation. There were no Orcs who attempted to break down the front doors at all as if they were actively avoiding that place. This should not be the case since it was the weakest link of the defence fortification.
Instead, the Orcs were attempting to climb up the walls which were fifteen metres tall and they were doing it hastily. Each unit was carrying a ladder with them for that exact purpose. The first few orcs died under arrow and gun fire and eventually became the foundation for their rickety ladders. Some of the stronger or more agile Orcs used sickles and claws to climb up the walls instead. Others were successful in reaching the top and started distracting the marksmen from the regular orcs allowing more of the ladders to be placed. (Of course, those orcs were taken care of immediately.)
There were two castle towers at the side of Gob Gob Bu fort walls and the goblin militia that was not manning the fort walls as bowmen were responsible for transporting hot oil to be thrown over the walls. Because goblins were small in size, it was relatively difficult to throw those heavy pots of oil over alone. Luckily with the help of either Sandy the Sand Witch and Zhi Nu the Immortal Weaver who were at each side of the castle towers, the goblins managed to do so without getting scald by the hot oil pot.
Those orcs that were climbing up the siege ladders, however, could not avoid that. They had their skin melted off entirely and some of the less lucky Orcs had the hot oil running down along their throats, causing them to suffocate and die. Still, that was not the only purpose of the hot oil. The goblin militia bowmen lit up their arrows and shot the areas where they poured the hot oil. Some even just threw their burning arrows or empty quivers doused in oil and fire to burn the makeshift wooden siege ladders. Regardless, the orcs were not deterred at all by these horrors. It seemed as if the effects of the taboo magic that Spear General Argent had seen during the days of Goblin Rebellion was even more potent this time around. However, he did not have a clear look at the Orcs themselves to verify it.
"Damn it, they were branded taboo for a reason! How can they care so little for the life of their soldiers, those cold hearted bastards!" General Argent swore in a fit of anger. Overseeing the battle, he finally felt something was off when he accidentally noticed that there was a gap got larger in the orc siege formation. Never one to doubt his instincts he moved towards Luo Bo and asked if she could fire a few of her flare arrows towards the end of the mountain valley.
Luo Bo did not hesitate and shot the chi enhanced flare arrow breaking the looming darkness of the coming night. This particular flare arrow was somewhat special in that it released little flares periodically at every ten metre interval which provided General Argent with the vision he needed. True enough, the siege formation was split into two with the middle emptied just as suspected. As Argent was waiting for view at the end of the trail, the flare arrow disappeared when it was reaching the other side of the valley instead of burning brightly.
"Shit! They are using illusion magic! Whatever they are hiding can't be good!" General Argent immediately commanded the anti tank guns to shoot at what seemed to be the end of the valley and called out the militia to raise their shields up. Even Sandy's Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit went into full defensive mode.
However, before the anti tank gunners could pull off the next volley of explosive attacks, a large energy beam silently ripped through the optical illusion that was well covered in darkness and a ray of intensely bright light blasted through the centre of the valley. It instantly destroyed the fort gates and the subsequent makeshift barricades that had been created by the goblin militia.
The blast was strong enough to decimate and burn almost everything in its path, creating a hole not just through the fort wall but reaching the other end of the town as well. The M4 Sherman tank which was stationed at the 25 metres away from the fort walls took a hit too.
Fortunately, the Grade 10 thunder resistance inscription managed to protect the electronics and ammunition in the tank, but it was obviously more than the inscription could have handled alone before fading away along with the additional metal sheets plating of the tank. The tank was only able to survive due to the help of Sandy's Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit that had focused all eight shields and placed them as a layered defence absorbing part of the ray or else the beam would have eliminated not just the fort gates, but probably the entire town and whoever was inside it too.
"Tsk, I did not expect that foreign magical summon of theirs to be that strong. Even though it seems to be on the verge of disappearing, this is unacceptable!" Colonel Ayse was disappointed at the result of the attack as she looked through her binoculars at a distance. She did not hesitate to order her war wolf to devour the Orc officer in charge right in front of her for showing such poor results. Yet, she was equally excited. Her gut was telling her the Spear General must have survived if they had such a summon to protect the city. And if he did, that would meant she had the opportunity to slay him with her own hands.
"Shame it's a one time use, but its output is something that we can improve on." Colonel Ayse ordered one of her orc guards to get the caged humanoid responsible for researching these artefacts to write the details down before she continued to feast her eyes on the town.
In the meantime, Spear General Argent was the first to recover from the intense shockwave emitted from the energy ray attack. He looked at the portion of the wall that had the fort gates disappear completely. Rubble were littered all around the remaining sides of the fort and the goblins tried their best to recover from the shock too.
However, the Orcs were not giving them any quarters and had rushed forward through the opening while others continued to climb up any surviving makeshift ladders to the top of the fort walls. The victorious orc war cries lowered the morale of the goblins but it was not enough to break their spirit. The goblin marksmen reloaded their rifles and continued to shoot from the sides of the remnants of the fort wall, using whatever vantage point they still possessed.
The first thing the Orcs ran for was actually the metal box. They did not care if the energy ray attack destroyed it or not. The Orcs had witnessed its capabilities and would capture it for their own use and reverse engineered it if possible. The cultivators that were scouting around the houses recovered from the blast shockwaves and tried their best to return to the M4 Sherman Tank as soon as possible to provide support.
Bin Yong rushed to the open space and was horrified by the destruction brought by the enemy's siege attack. The ground was still scorching from the attack and everything in its path was burning. There was even one or two goblins militia being burnt into half while trying to avoid the attack. But what caught his attention was the orcs that were climbing up to the tank's cockpit.
Sad to say, those poor orcs did not know that Hou Fei was still in the cathedral tower sniping down at those who attempted to loot the M4 Sherman tank. The orcs that reached the cockpit and tried to open it with brute force were first in priority to be shot in the torso. (He knew a bullet of that calibre from the Barret Sniper Rifle would kill them almost instantly, besides time was of an essence. It was better to hit something than a miss because he wanted a confirmed kill via a headshot.) Blood and body parts were splattered all around the tank. Even though it did not deter them, their numbers were dwindling, giving Bin Yong ample time to rush towards the Tank.
Another reason their numbers were limited was because Zhi Nu. Her position was away from the fort gate giving her more time to assess the situation as compared to the goblins attempting to recover from the blast. She took the opportunity to 'decorate' the opening between the fort walls with her lovely deadly steel threads.
Such intricate decoration proved to be quite deadly for many of the Orcs Calvary. Their only large company of Orc Boar Calvary had waited for the fort gates to be broken and the town to be defenceless. They believed it was that golden opportunity to dash down the middle lane with overwhelming speed and power to occupy the town as soon as the gates were brought down.
Hence, the war boars rushed in. Unfortunately, due to the poor visibility with the coming darkness of night, they were unable to see those thin steel threads clearly. As expected, they were sliced into pieces by their own speed and momentum. Although the calvary subsequently noticed it, their speed rush made it difficult to stop in time, causing various accidents before the calvary behind finally realised there was something wrong at the front. The remaining calvary later notified the Orc infantries about the steel threads after and tried to cut them down but it proved to be difficult to pass through. Many were stuck which provided the goblin marksmen with perfect stationary targets.
That does not mean the goblins were recovering from the change of situation. With the Sand Shield Sentinel Spirit removed from the equation of the fort defence, the goblins were exposed to arrow fire and magical attacks and it also meant that they could no longer proactively continue to suppress the orcs, giving the Orcs the chance to climb up the fort walls too.
Bin Yong managed to activate his tank and Shi Zuo caught up to take the driver's seat. "Fuck! Will that beam thing happen again?" Bin Yong tried to zoom into the big laser cannon that was smoking at the end of the valley. If not for the infrared and night vision options, Bin Yong would not have been able to see it.
"Just concentrate on the defence first! Such big ass laser cannons definitely have either high cool down or a one time use. Let's just hope it's the latter for now! Implementing such a weapon in this Raid Instance, I can't be sure if this is madness or genius." Shi Zuo did not give a damn as he decided to push forward close to the steel threaded opening and Bin Yong took the chance to fire towards what he could see from the limited vision.
"Time to earn our points." Xiong Da said as he climbed up the fort walls along with the other melee cultivators like Bu Dong, Kong Xian, Deng Long, Ruo Ying and Se Lang. They smashed and slashed the orcs down and decided to take the offensive by jumping over the walls and force their way through.
The Orcs officers were not expecting a strike force from a defensive battle because that would be stupid to risk your already small numbered forces for an attack against a large army. But because of that mindset, Xiong Da and the others had a good time taking some revenge against the Orcs that killed some of the goblins.
Xiong Da being the leading vanguard of the group rushed in with his War Club and the Great Axe which he borrowed from Shi Zuo. In possession of two great weapons, he smashed and bashed his way through the siege formation, running as much as possible creating space for the other cultivators to fight too. (He was afraid he would accidentally hit one of the cultivators especially when his instinct was to kill everything on sight. )
Despite the attack by the humanoids, the orc frontline officers themselves were not to be underestimated. Their body size was larger than the regular orcs and they had activated their magical armours and weapons, making them strong opponents for the cultivators. They personally engaged with the cultivators and challenged them to a duel. (Needless to say, the other Orcs did not care, they would steal the kill if it means earning glory and rank from their higher ups.)
If one were to scrutinise the fights, they could see that almost every Pandawan was engaging with at least one Orc officer while fighting against their orc's rank and file. It was basically a free for all match against the cultivators. Fortunately, they were outnumbered but not outpowered.
Each of them pushed their limits to the max, activating the most powerful techniques they had mastered till then and did their best against the Orcs. Nobody had the mindset that this was just another dungeon instance. The fights felt too real to even think of taking a step back and hoping the difficulty would be lowered for them.
They could feel their hearts beating crazily when their weapons clashed with the Orcs. Bu Dong, the Angry Ape Cultivator even tried out new fresh techniques, hoping to drive his cultivation to the limit and achieve a higher grade. Kong Xian pulled taunting cry techniques against the Orc rank and file to cover Bu Dong's back while he tangoed along with the orc officers. Before this raid event, those high school brothers had continuously entered the Shaolin Football Arena for experience and they grew closer with better teamwork. (Sadly, the Savants remained unbeaten.)
"If only that traitor Yue Han was here." Bu Dong complained as he remembered Yue Han saying he would come as soon as possible after his date with Xing Li, the Hedgehog Cultivator.
"Just let him enjoy himself. They haven't seen each other for days because of his girlfriend's part time job. Don't worry you will always have a place in his heart." Kong Xian teased Bu Dong while asking him to be understanding as he cleaved a few orcs into half.
But the battles were not focused on just them as the objectives of each side did not change. Orcs that were not occupied with the cultivators tried their best to seize the town as commanded. The goblins on the fort walls were desperately keeping their wits together, fighting to ensure the orcs did not take over the chokepoints resulting a constant exchange of bullets, arrows and magic bolts causing damage to both the fort walls and orcs army.
Just when the cultivators' assistance started to turn the gears of war into a battle of attrition, that was also when the representatives of their army send in their specialities. Colonel Ayse commanded the Ogres to be sent out for battle instead of them just lying around doing nothing. Those Ogres were hastily outfitted with heavy makeshift armour on the spot and ordered to destroy the fort walls.
If the lost artefact laser cannon was unable to do the job, old fashion brute strength should finish it. The Ogres charged into the scene and did not care about their orc 'comrades' since mind control techniques had crippled their intelligence. In the meantime, the veteran Orc mages who were summoning the spawn of their Shaitan Noble Syldra finally succeeded.
Though the ritual consumed the lives of the orc mages, they gladly sacrificed themselves for the Shaitan Noble of Thunder. The spawn was smaller in size than their revered Thunder Serpent, which was aptly named as the Storm Viper by their followers. Like its name suggested, it cast supportive lightning magic to the Ogres and they started to move out at thrice the speed towards the fort walls. (Those Ogres were a bunch of creatures that did not like to move much. Three times the speed was equivalent to the speed of the charging war boars which was already commendable. Most mages' high level supportive movement magic would not be able to achieve twice the Ogre's speed.)
Colonel Ayse who became the highest ranked officer of this particular frontier army after they lost their initial chain of command from Luo Bo' attack, could not care less about the lives of these orcs which were trampled by the moving Ogres. As long as the walls were brought down, the fallen would receive their desired honour and that was all it matters.
She kept pointing at her personal pocket watch to the second most senior orc officer in the army who was in charge after his senior officer got eaten by Colonel Ayse's war wolf for being terribly 'incompetent'. "What are you wasting time for? Waiting for the Sun to come up? Quick, get the walls down with the Ogres! We are expected to welcome our General inside the city! I will ensure that you suffer a fate worse than your predecessor if we dally around! " Colonel Ayse bellowed impatiently. The Orc Officer could only bite his lip and nodded at his head reluctantly before scolding his own subordinates for not assisting the ogres that were rushing ahead.
At the same time General Argent had commanded his own Wyvern to appear which became the signal for the rest of the Dashing Wyverns to enter this messy War Theatre. The Wyverns were initially responsible for thinning the advancing forces once they took care of the range units. But with the Ogres advancing faster than they expected, General Argent had commanded his goblin riders to aim for them first.
Even Piercestriker joined the Dashing Wyverns too as he had taken over one of the surviving wyverns that recently lost its rider. Piercestriker thought it would be difficult to ride a wyvern tamed by another goblin rider, but the mind to mind connection connected almost instantly. It was as if the Wyvern had known him before and seen Piercestriker proving his worth. Regardless, the other riders even congratulated Piercestriker briefly during their uneasy rest time but they knew they had to heal up before going into battle again.
That was their plan until another large metal bird appeared within the sights of General Argent when he ordered his Dashing Wyvern unit to enter the fray. However, unlike previously where the large metal bird took off after dropping a few of Master Jin's comrades. This time around, the metal bird flew very close to the ground and the Pandawans inside were shooting the attached machine guns freely at the backlines of the Orc army, wreaking havoc amongst the remaining Archer and Mage units of the Orc army.
The most prominent figure in the C130 plane was standing at the edge of the plane when it opened its cargo doors. "Looks like they really do need help. Pandawans, when the plane does another pass along the valley, get ready to jump." Zeru folded his arms observing the situation while the 'third wave' of cultivators came in as reported by Kraft to Jin. Kraft initially wanted to send Peppers in but Jin had decided to use Zeru instead.
Jin's rationale was that he wanted Peppers to work with another Jin to prep for Operation Pompeii but Original Jin only sent out one Another Jin to work with Peppers because he was too tired to split anymore for the day. Peppers did complain about not being able to dispense some pent up stress on the Orcs but Jin assured her that if she did this operation well, she should be able to create a scene that could possibly be remembered for the ages.
"I will hold you to that! I am not going to care about the budget at all!" Peppers stuck her tongue at Jin as she worked friendly with the Another Jin.
"How does that even work?! I am that Jin too! It's as if he is another entity…" Jin shook his head as he saw them chatting so lively.
"Maybe the Other You has a personality that Peppers cannot resist despite it being controlled by your subconscious. It seems you have the potential to be quite the ladies man…" Kraft rubbed salt on Jin's wounds before returning to focus on the screen.
As the plane began to make its second descent, the orc army's ranged support was too thined out to even make a dent against it. Yue Han, the Blind Bat Cultivator, saw his mates and jumped when the plane made its descent. The aircraft was flying so low that Yue Han could execute his shadow sword and movement techniques with style and assist Bu Dong who was fighting against two Orc officers at once.
"Sorry that the hero is late!" Yue Han smirked at the two as he did a landing pose but instead of them being delighted, Kong Xian and Bu Dong actually found the time to push Yue Han down to the floor and kicked him a few times.
"Hero my ass! We are eating dirt and arrows while you have fun with Xing Li!" Bu Dong still had some residue feelings for her, the Hedgehog cultivator and he was throwing his punches of jealousy to Yue Han.
"I am just following what Leader is doing. Hehe!" Kong Xian kicked lightly whereas Bu Dong was more serious while still deflecting the blow from the remaining Orc Officer who thought Bu Dong lowered his guard.
"Come on you guys, give him a break." Yue Wen, the Healing Maiden Cultivator, arrived via the floating platform from the C130 plane and healed all three of them as Jing Ru the Gunning Giraffe cultivator covered their backs from the usual Orc Rank and file. Meanwhile, her friends Jia Ying and Shi Hui assisted Se Lang and Deng Long.
"BLEARGH! I AM THE FOURTH WHEEL AGAIN!" Deng Long shouted in agony as he smacked an orc with his baton repeatedly that its bleeding nose was flattened.
"Oh come on, bro. I did not expect them to come." Se Lang tried to smoothe his police partner's feelings but the two girls had to make it worse for him.
"But Big Brother Se Lang, if you do not fight with us…We might fight against each other for you and only you~!" Shi Hui, the Shadowy Swan Cultivator, sexily dance towards Se Lang and creating a sort of hypnosis dance that made the Orcs dizzy which Jia Ying, the Sanguine Stag cultivator, took the opportunity to clear them off with her spear techniques.
"My dear Shi Hui, I do not need to fight for him, he is already mine." Jia Ying winked confidently at Se Lang making him speechless and Shi Hui pouting.
"I get it! I GET IT!" Deng Long kicked one of the Orcs away and continue to fight through the orcs all by himself.
"Bro!" Se Lang was slightly hesitant since he really did promise Deng Long he would play this raid event with him even when his two girlfriends asked for his presence. That was when Shi Hui and Jia Ying finally broke into laughter at Se Lang's helplessness.
"Go Wolfie, we knew that you promised him but we did not expect to be in the same battlefield. Have fun with him." Shi Hui smiled and slapped his sturdy back hard, indirectly casting a support boost on him that increased his agility a little more than usual. "Shall we get back to our training? We cannot lose out to our boyfriend." Shi Hui said and Jia Ying smirked and nodded her head.
In the meantime, Zeru was busy occupying himself defeating the ogres with no techniques. Just mere brute strength against those blobs of meat and metal. All he did was to jump to their faces and a seemingly gentle hit with Zeru's wooden sword made the Ogres fell. Some of the Ogres got more aggressive after seeing their fellow kind killed, but they were the ones who got it worse from Zeru. Their faces were cut into two, spilling blood, saliva and contents of the brain out all over the battlefield. One Ogre even went into a raging fit when his head was separated from him.
This gave General Argent some breathing space as he and his Dashing Wyvern unit decided to head towards the Lost Tech Laser cannon, hoping to destroy it before it could fire once more. (They did not know it was defunct after that attack.) If not, the Storm Viper would be their other target.
However, when he got closer, a thin beam of purple electrical energy was released towards him and General Argent barely evaded it. That was when he noticed a bunch of heavily armed orc guards, that was distinct from the rest of the orc army or its officers.
"That uniform!" Argent's blood boiled as he could see a particular female Orc was smiling at him hysterically and with a snap of her finger, the Storm Viper who was standing around nonchalantly immediately slid up in the air towards them.
"Wyverns! Spread out and go with flanking formation against the Storm Viper! I will deal with the commander personally!" General Argent shouted as he charged in.
"Hahahhaha! ARGENT! It is nice to see you again 'Brother'! Adopted son of the Head Researcher Vox! Of all the people he treasured! You were the one that betrayed him so badly and still holds on to his treasured gun!" Colonel Ayse commanded her guards to attack Argent as he came down striking one of them.
"AYSE!!!!!" Argent roared as he and his wyvern swooped down towards the Colonel and her guards.