It had only been just over an hour into the fight and Grim had used over a million mana, if the battle continued at this rate, they might win, but Grim would definitely be out of mana after 6 hours. Issue was, it was almost definitely going to take Felix more than 6 hours to give up on fighting the Kraken. Grim, now that he knew it was a kraken, was certain Felix wouldn't be able to kill it, he was pretty sure he would be able to survive though. The only question was, how long before he retreated and would he consider that giving up, if he did, his soul would shatter and he would likely die. Grim didn't see that as giving up though, if Felix retreated on his own terms, he was the one with the power, he had made the decision. Realizing he couldn't kill it wouldn't be giving up but Grim was pretty sure Felix would see it that way. He just hoped Felix survived.
Though the sun had set, the battle was bright. No one had trouble seeing as fires raged and explosions blinded across the field under the radiant light of a full moon. The debris from the ramp had been removed, with a lot of effort, and it had been replaced by another battering ram. This time, it was stalled for half an hour as it's shell was hit by a barrage of shells and iron balls until it finally crumpled and the log rolled off to the side. Another tunnel had been created and took much longer to deal with than the last as people grew weary and became more easily distracted. Grim himself had to help deal with both gliders and explosive carts that had gotten too close for comfort. The former he set alight in the air and the latter he launched back into the enemy and had snipers with flaming arrows set it alight.
Though Felix's spells were great, they were expensive as hell for a normal caster and most of them had been rotated out by now. Grim was trying to pick up the slack but he wasn't able to cast nearly as quickly as Felix could and there were simply too many targets to take out. The enemy had also began using casters of their own but they were quickly sniped snuffing out that idea for now.
Over the next hour they managed to take out 3 trebuchets, 2 catapults and 5 ballistae along with 4 carts of various contents and 8 galleries. The towers were being held far back though, lying in wait for something to happen. Grim had expected them to try and throw everything out all at once to overwhelm the defenses but instead they went for a staggered approach, which was beneficial for him. It did cause a sense of foreboding in Grim though as he figured they must be waiting for something.
It took another hour of Tri-Peak struggling until Grim figured out what that was. The people on the walls were rotated again and their defense had picked up. There was an obvious slump after the second tunnel had circumvented the wall, but everyone seemed to have found a groove now and the attacking army was being repelled on all fronts. The first major hiccup though was when Broxus and his party glided over the wall using flame retardant parachutes. The archers had injured them as they descended but they were well armored so the damage was minimal. Benjamin and his team arrived to meet them and engage.
Broxus was a machine though and his tank, Sophia was an unkillable wall that seemed to shrug everything off like it was nothing. Lucas kept Broxus topped up at all times and James tipped the fight in their favor with well aimed arrows. They managed to chew through four different ground teams while Benjamin fought them. Although everyone around him was being taken out, he was still there, still fighting, the entire time. Finally Grim managed to break away from the wall and dropped a Fire Ball down onto Broxus' party, Sophia though, reacted almost instantly and leapt inhumanly high into the air to block the Fire Ball with her shield.
Grim grumbled and waited for 5 seconds before casting a Lightning Bolt directly on Broxus. The spell hit nearly instantly giving Sophia no time to block it, Lucas though protected Broxus with a bright yellow shield and healed him back to full. James had noticed Grim at this point and began firing arrows through his robe. Grim scoured the inside of the walls and spotted the perfect individual. He found Henry standing nearby, watching the battle unfold with gritted teeth and clenched fists. Grim fluttered over to him with his shredded robes and dropped the prototype cannon Felix had created into his arms.
Henry's eyes lit up and he immediately took aim. The cannon instantly fired a massive lightning strike that instantly dropped Sophia with smoke pouring out of her armor and even arched to the other three stunning them for a few seconds as well. Benjamin was also hit, but on a tertiary arc so he recovered almost instantly and leapt forwards planting his icy axe into Broxus' collar bone. Some of the archers that were on break nearby instantly peppered James and Lucas with as many shots as they could get in making them easy targets when they recovered.
Though Broxus was a menace, he had only actually killed two people with the rest unconscious or too injured to continue. Benjamin had noticed Lucas healing both Broxus and his victims as they fought to keep them alive when he could. Benjamin made sure they lived and were firmly restrained before limping over to the medics to deal with his shoulder. He didn't know it was possible, but he had dislocated it. Embarrassingly, he had done so right at the end when he had struck Broxus.
The medic told him he likely wouldn't be recovered for another few hours so Benjamin sat against a building and moped. He watched as others battled and fought, as they sustained injuries and took losses. As he sat, his sadness turned to anger but then suddenly, a bag was dropped in his lap by Felix flying by, "A gift from John."
Then he was gone, like a ghost. Benjamin reached his good arm into the bag and pulled out a ball he wasn't sure what to do with. He figured it was likely a special medicine so he rubbed it on his shoulder. When that did nothing, he tried to eat it. It was hard though and he couldn't seem to bite through it. He stared at it curiously when an enemy that had tunneled in snuck their way over to him.
Benjamin thought it was rude that they would target an injured man instead of the infrastructure or those running supplies. He may be injured, but he wasn't going to just die like a dog, so he lobbed the medicine at the warrior. They simply swatted it with the back of their hand, but as soon as it made contact, he exploded in a shower of frozen chunks. Benjamin looked down and gulped at the idea of eating the mystery balls from John.
Grim was happy to see Benjamin back on his feet, instead of moping about, using the grenades to thwart the attacks as they came. He had figured out the whole John situation when Felix mentioned he had spent time in Bastion and knew Benjamin. When Broxus and his party had dropped in though, the siege equipment began to move. He was clearly intended as a distraction so the siege engines could make it to the wall. Unfortunately for the enemy, though it did occupy almost the entire ground crew in an area, Broxus' party didn't really have any affect on the people atop the walls.
As the enemy committed another tower, battering ram and six carts, the people on the wall acted as quickly as they could. Instead of the winches, the towers were taken out entirely by well placed turtle cannon shots. The battering ram managed to strike the gates three times, piercing the first layer but they never had a chance to strike the second because Grim took it out with a very overkill Fire Ball. He had made the entire structure explode and managed to take out a large chunk of infantry and carts around it.
The battle raged on as Grim's mana depleted itself. After about two and a half hours, Grim had used half of the 6 million mana he had started with and had given out the cannon, grenades and half of the wands to weary casters. The tunnels had slowed and the siege equipment being committed lessened. The battle was mostly being fought between the archers, the infantry, the cannons and the siege equipment. Once they had taken out, in total, 8 trebuchets and 12 catapults, the next distraction revealed itself.
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All of a sudden, 6 tunnels burst open in unison at the base of the wall revealing Mole-Ants followed by warriors in matching black leather armor. There were 6 of them per tunnel with one of them being Scott, the leader of The Grove. The ground crew ran up to meet them, fighting in formation to try and slowly whittle them down. At the same instant they had appeared, the remaining siege equipment began rushing the walls. All of the remaining siege equipment. There were two towers on either side of a ramp with ten carts sitting a top it. Around the base of the towers were five carts each. As they approached, the remaining ballistae, trebuchets and catapults, which had previously slowed their fire, all fired at once.
The winches were being cranked but were getting picked off by ballista bolts and stones. The archers were slowing down the animals that were towing the structures, but they had more behind them pushing as well. Grim was down to less than a fifth of his mana and knew that if he dealt with these structures, he would be using up the rest of it. Down at the base of the wall, Scott and his black leathered warriors were tearing through everything that was thrown at them. The only ones that were taken out were the odd ones here and there by Henry and Benjamin using the tools Grim had given them.
Will had given up on defending the top of the wall and dropped down to deal with Scott directly. If anyone was going to give him a decent duel, it would probably be him. Will approached wearing his simple leather armor with no dye and his glass edge rapier he had received as a gift. Scott was an average looking man in his forties with a scruffy chin and slicked back brown hair. He held two short swords and the most carefree and arrogant smile Will had ever seen, it disgusted him. Will walked up to him and flicked his wrist, cutting Scotts cheek before he could react. Scott turned to him and smiled, then pulled his blades back and pounced forwards.
Alan had seen Will dash off the wall and watched over his shoulder as he engaged Scott. Alan had known Will for a while and he knew that Will specialized in one on one duels. Alan gave up on firing upon the army and lent his arrows to his friend. As the other black leather bound warriors tried to flank Will, Alan helped pick them off. He planted an arrow in their knee or shoulder to stop their advance and the remaining ground crew finished them off.
Benjamin too, had noticed Will engage Scott and did his best to keep others away from the fight as much as possible. He did his best to kite the enemies into groups so his grenades would be more effective and draw them away from the duel.
Henry had made his way back to the top of the wall and picked up where the casters were slacking. He wasn't sure how many more shots the cannon had, but his eyes were wide and there was a smile plastered to his face as he fired doom and destruction down upon his enemies. He alone took out a tower and half of the supports under the ramp before the cannon died.
Five shots wasn't bad at all, but Henry was back to being just a smith in a battle. He did what he could, throwing barrels over the wall and loading cannons and ballistae when the other's were too weak to do so. He helped, but he wanted to fight. When this battle was over, no matter who won, he had some thinking to do about changing his class to something that used magical cannons. He figured his profession should be able to make something similar, at least he hoped.
On the ground, Benjamin and Alan continued to take out warriors as they could, but the real star of the show, was Kenneth. He had been in the city for most of the fight, which Grim hadn't even noticed. Though he represented and trained the casters, his specialty was a little closer ranged than expected. Alan and Benjamin quickly moved to support the bald terror as he danced through the fight punching his enemies with flaming fists. He was surrounded by up to 5 people at any given time, but each and every time, he kicked and punched his way through them like it was a dance. He almost looked like he belonged in a circus. They eventually managed to chew through all of the black leather clad warriors and then worked to get the tunnels trapped and sealed as best they could.
Will found Scott to be the messiest fighter he had ever encountered. He was sloppy and aggressive in every strike he made, but he was unrelenting and fast. He was a flurry of slashes and stabs that Will deflected and dodged. Every once in a while, Will would land a strike, a shallow cut here and there, but not once did Scott land a strike on Will. Eventually, the shallow cuts added up and Scott slowed, the fight ending quickly from there. Will disabled him with a couple of precision strikes then made sure he was restrained before resuming his place a top the wall. On his way up he nodded in acknowledgement of Benjamin and Alan, offering them both a warm smile and the latter a shrug.
The second tower reached the wall while the cannons focused on the ramp as the higher priority target. Will moved to engage the people as they exited but was instead launched off the wall by a loud explosion as the top of the tower detonated. Grim flew downwards as fast as he could casting Feather Fall on him just a few meters from the ground. Grim made sure to send a medic to him then flew back to the top of the wall to assess the damage.
The top floor of the tower was split into two, with the front section lined with metal plates to act like a cannon and direct explosions. It was a disgusting tactic that angered Grim greatly. He knew he didn't have much mana left, but he didn't care much at all. Grim flew up on top of the tower and, just as the people inside began to charge, used almost a million mana to cast a lightning bolt directly downwards.
Grim wasn't intentionally feeding Felix's image as the god of lightning, but he did so anyways. The lightning obliterated the tower completely incinerating the people inside and shattering the wood construction into a million pieces. When it was over, there was blackened splinters sprayed out across the ground in every direction and a hole in the ground beneath it. Everyone on the wall was silent for a few moments before the cannon fire resumed to try and take down the last siege engine the enemy had. The concentrated effort from everyone a top the wall resulted in the ramp, with all of it's cargo, to crash to the ground just two meters shy of the wall.
The only remaining equipment the enemy had were 4 trebuchets, 6 catapults, 6 ballistae and 12 galleries that they never had a chance to use. There was also the majority of the army left standing, most of them waiting to use a ramp, tower or the gates to enter the city. None of them ever had a chance to do so though so they mostly manned the ranged equipment.
They continued to fire for almost an hour before they started to slowly give up and walk away. It was becoming evident that without their other siege equipment, they didn't really stand a chance of getting in. Even if Tri-Peak let them free fire on the walls, they didn't have enough ammunition to punch through. Once they realized that, the rest of the army began scatter in the wind. No one stopped them, but no one celebrated yet.
They stood a top the walls vigilant until Grim decided to use the rest of his mana to take out the remaining structures one by one. He used efficient spells to ensure he could take them all out then flew back to the walls where the people had begun to sit against the parapet, lie on the stone and lean against each-other. Noah kissed Amelia and Alan mimicked them and moved to kiss the now recovered Will who slapped him as Benjamin laughed.
Someone went and told the civilians who left the bunker and joined in the celebrations. There was a lot of cleanup work to do, but Stone Giant's Living Stone seemed to be handling most of the repair work. Grim was also happy he didn't have to use Tropical Storm or Griffin's Protection. He wasn't sure where the latter could have been used in the battle as it would have allowed siege equipment to roll up without resistance. The former was just unnecessary. It would have killed off a bunch of the army, but they had just scattered at the end anyways. During the fight itself, they didn't do much of anything so killing them didn't help anyone.
Overall, Grim was happy with how the battle had turned out. There were minimal losses with a good number of injuries that would all disappear in a day of bedrest thanks to vitality. The wall itself was regrowing and the damage to the buildings was minimal. The worst part was the diseased corpses they tried to inflict, luckily those were quickly incinerated and Grim didn't think they had done any damage.
The only question left, was if Felix was still alive. It had been almost 5 hours now. . . . . .