"Bone Bomb!" said Shaun with a shudder, seeing the white ball appearing above the wall.

As it did, the enemy leader and their powerhouses fell back, while the undead restricted the movements of our powerhouses.

Without the support of their powerhouses. They won't be able to stop us for long, but they only need to stop us for only a second.

BOOM!

The bomb exploded. Not giving even a chance for our people, to move a few steps.

Its blast immediately covered the entire area with the white wave, while we all watched in horror.

I thought something would happen. Some skill would work and stop the explosion, but it didn't.

The bone bomb exploded as the enemies intended it to.

"We need to prepare for immediate retreat. If Commander Stone and our powerhouses suffered, the fatalities," advised Azalea, rational even in horror.

I didn't reply to her and kept looking. Hoping they would survive.

Seconds passed as Azalea gave various commands, while I kept watching the wall.

Hun!

Finally, the white dust began to clear up, and I noticed something that made hope leap up in my heart.

A second passed, and it became clear, and a big smile appeared on my face.

…

Wayne

"Fuck!"

The pillars cursed around me, seeing the bronze dome, covering the large area.

Protecting the elder blood and every person in the dome. The protection is strong enough that not a single shard was able to pierce through it.

It is a powerful protection, considering how easily those shards pierce through the Grade IV shield spells.

The dome had come out of the halberd in his hand. The broken artifact, that Vris'alud had officially declared their property.

I cursed with the people around me, but in my heart. I am relieved.

I don't want the enemies to suffer losses and be defeated.

Till a few hours ago, I wanted the same thing, but now things have changed.

I have received a message from my contact, that Carmen has been caught. Within an hour of that, I received a summon to come to Ashton Harbor.

They might say, the summon is for punishment of losing the battle, but I know better.

I can't go there, once I did. It will be the end of me.

I know, what they do to the spies. I would rather die than experience that, but before I do, I must try different routes of survival.

Earlier, when I had received the message. I had been planning to escape.

I knew Yegson had started keeping eyes on me, but I was still willing to take the risk, I had stopped, upon hearing the news of the enemy coming.

Escaping during the battle is much easier. They won't be able to dedicate much force to chase me while fighting with the enemy.

Though, that bitch Rynra, is being careful. There is always Lv. 30s around me; even the position I got is with the Lv. 30's.

I have enough confidence, in my abilities, that I would be able to escape successfully, but then what?

I am surrounded by the enemies. It will be really hard to hide from them.

Surrender is a better option, and it might work. I have information, they desperately need to win this battle.

'Let's hope, it works,' I thought and sent a secret message to elder-blood, with the hope, that he would believe me.

…

Stone

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'It worked,' I thought, looking at the bronze dome.

There was less than a 25% chance, it would, but it did.

I had been feeding it the energy for the past seven months. It had also drunk, a lot of emotion essence. It didn't heal it, only the emotion essence of Grade IV and above could do that.

It had helped it enough, to recharge one of its abilities, which was already working, barely.

The cost was huge, but worth it, seeing the number of people, it had saved.

"I thought I would die," said a lieutenant beside me, with tears streaming out of her eyes. She isn't the only one, I too had thought, many would lose their lives.

A second and a half passed when the dome flickered and disappeared.

Hun!

I opened my mouth for a command when a message hit me.

I was about to push it away, thinking of being the strategy of the enemy; overwhelming one with messages is a strategy. It works well.

I realized whom it belonged to and opened it. immediately, my expression changed drastically.

'It is enemy strategy,' I thought, but didn't completely dismiss it and instead informed Lord Silver about it.

It will be up to him how we will respond to the message.

"Occupy the wall!" I commanded.

Immediately, the army moved and began to occupy the wall. There is no resistance. Most of the undead have got off the wall, the ones that remained were quickly dealt with.

I looked at the leader of the enemy, who was staring back at me.

There is a smile on her face, and it feels genuine. Like, she had wanted this to happen.

I didn't feel good about it.

I pushed those thoughts away when focused on commanding the army when I received another message.

It is not from the enemy, but allies.

Though, it didn't bring good news. It is bad news

…

I stepped into the wall from the siege tower. I could have gone through the door since it was in our control, but I wanted to try the siege towers.

Our army had occupied the entire wall, including the gates.

It is a stage, where one again 75% of victory, but it didn't feel like it. It seemed like, we were where the enemy had wanted us.

Soon, I reached Stone, who was looking at the preparation.

"Congratulations on taking the wall," I said to Stone, and the man shook his head. "There is no need to congratulate me; the enemy wants us to have a wall," he replied.

He felt it too; it was too easy. Even with the bone ball. If they wanted to, they could have given us a lot more trouble instead of handing us the wall.

"They have planned something," I said, turning to the city.

I have a good view of it, but I couldn't spot even a single person. It looked deserted, but far from it. The enemy is hiding, and so are the citizens.

It wouldn't be wise to go inside without a proper strategy.

"The two hords," added Azalia with a sigh.

A few minutes ago, we received the intelligence from the merchants.

The horde, that had reached the Almin from Ashton Harbor, is now coming toward the Panar. Norke had also sent the fifty-thousand undead toward us.

They did it, the moment we occupied the wall. It is not a coincidence.

"It should be a pressure tactic. They would not leave their cities weak," I said.

"It might be, but it might be not. There isn't anything, that could harm their cities in the region. So, they could send, them to reinforce the horde here," Stone stated.

My head started to hurt hearing that.

"So, we have to decide quickly whether to retreat or attack," I said, and he nodded.

"That leads us to Wayne's offer," said Azalea. "Who we couldn't trust," I added, but felt the eyes of the two of them on me.

Wayne had offered us intelligence. Information about Rynra's plan, which he thinks would wipe us out.

He is willing to give us intelligence, but in exchange. He wants immunity from persecution and also a few other things.

The things are big, but we could provide them.

The question is whether this is a plan of the enemy or a genuine request. If we make a wrong decision, we might pay heavily for it.

I thought for a few seconds before sighing.

"Contact him, tell him. We agree with his conditions," I said.

Stone nodded and moved to contact him.

He had left elaborate instructions on how to contact him. Messages could be detected and read. Wayne is being extremely careful about this.

It will take a few minutes.

Seeing that, I looked at the preparations but didn't dare to walk down the wall.

We have taken control of the wall, and some areas close to it, but it is far from enough. The enemy is still capable of launching a swift attack on us if they want to.

They had been occupying the city for over eight months and I hope, they had been as careless with the other parts of defenses as they were with the walls.

The intelligence did say that everything was unchanged, but things might have changed in the past few hours.

Nothing could be said when it comes to the undead. Their massive numbers allow them to do anything.

They did something. Even an idiot could see when looking at the city.

Many had underestimated them, but I wouldn't take such risks. I wouldn't mind retreating. If I had felt like, we would not win this battle.

Everyone is alert, doing the job they had been assigned.

Like the group of people, trying to convert the space for the cannons. We would place our cannons here if we decided to attack the city.

Their support will be invaluable.

Currently, only the arrangement is made for the cannons.

If we decided to attack, they would bring the cannons to the wall, which had already been brought to the base of the wall.

'The reply had come,'

Stone's voice rang out in my head. It is not leveled as it usually is; it must be really serious.

"So?" I asked as I reached him.

"According to Wayne, they had created a net across the city. If we attack, they will envelope us in hundreds of little nets," he replied, and a frown appeared on my face.

"This isn't news. We had expected it," I said, and he nodded.

"There is skill involved. A powerful one; it will give them a massive advantage," he replied.

"What skill?" I asked, and the name rang out in my mind. As I heard it, my eyes widened.

It is from the wish list of any commander. I wish Stone or I had such skill.

It would make a huge difference in the battle.

"Can we believe what he is telling us?" I asked. "It would be a mistake to completely believe it, but not believing it would be just as big a mistake," replied Stone.

"It will make things a lot riskier than we had expected. Cutting any way of retreat; will be either victory or complete defeat," I said.

He is a general. It is up to him to decide, whether to attack or not.

"We should attack." He replied finally.

"The skill will affect them as it would affect us. Now that we know about it, we will be better prepared to deal with it if she uses it,"

"Good, prepare then," I ordered.

Placing the full trust and lives of my army, into the hands of my general.