Chapter 11: Fronts Shifting
Front Line Battlefield
The battle at the castle walls significantly intensified in just a few days, hundreds of siege towers slowly crawled toward the walls as the castle defenders frantically hurled projectiles and magic alike towards their enemies.
Even when the first siege tower reached the walls the defenders stood fast awaiting for the doors to open and face their enemies, but the siege towers just stood there while returning fire towards the castle. Thick barrier spells continued to flow around the siege towers protecting them from most harm and any damage it currently has are no more than superficial damage that could just be ignored.
It was only when there were over a dozen siege towers that has reached the walls did their doors opened, the Lavant Wizards cast their spells as the Magic Knights also entered the fray but the castle defenders did not stand by and charged with their own Wizards and Magic Knights.
It did not take long for the walls to be bloody as soldiers hacked and slashed at one another, corpses piled up so much so that it had to be pushed off the wall even the living soldiers too weak to move were cast aside to make room for combatants, it was simply a sight of carnage materialized in front of the officials observing.
While soldiers, wizards, defenders and invaders slaughter each other on top of the castle walls the Eastern Cultivators approached the massive gates protected by barriers created by the mages, several bulky men donned in very thick armour they made a horse stance while doing what looked like a breathing exercise.
They then gathered their strength and energies on their fists and unleashed them towards the gates. “HUAH” they shouted as they struck the gates making the surrounding area shake and leaving a large indention at the gate that you can actually take a peak inside at the middle.
The defenders at the walls and towers were stunned at the sight but when they tried to shoot down the group magical barriers blocked all of their offensive efforts, The eastern cultivators charged their techniques again starting from the horse stance to repeat the cycle.
“they intend to throw bodies at us and hope we drown in blood” said one of the soldiers inside the tower
“reinforcements would come soon enough, the can’t breach the gates so easily even the mages would run dry before the hour is over” replied another
“can you two shut up and shoot some arrows!? if the captain hears you we don’t need them to breach the gates he’ll kill us just for slacking” Reprimanded by the archer while taking aim and loosing the arrow
“but still. Why are the Elves and the Dwarves taking so long to come shouldn’t they have arrived here first I heard some of them were alive during the closing years of the war”
“it’s because it takes great effort on logistics, an army does not just move out willy nilly without proper destination, equipment and supplies, now can you both shut up and start shooting each one we kill is one less enemy trying to kill us!”
During the intense locked battle over the castle walls an army of fifty thousand soldiers peeled off and had made a roundabout turn towards the allied back lines cutting off the castle’s reinforcements, but of course this did not escape the eyes of the defenders and have hurriedly sent the urgent message for aid.
Seeing that their defensive advantage is loosing its effect because of the siege towers, the castle defenders staked their lives to storm the enemy and sent all of their reserved elites. The siege towers themselves became host to a slaughter house, with cramped spaces the amount of soldiers only served to increase the nauseous smell of blood and death that filled its confines.
The battle has been going on all daylong. It was only when sundown has come that half of the siege towers were were burning like a beacon in the fast approaching night that the Lavant and Eastern Immortals decided to retreat for the day.
Some of the siege towers despite not being destroyed were left at the mercy of the allied defenders due to being stuck at the pile of corpses and the soil muddied by blood that filled the area, the defenders did not waste anytime to burn the towers so that the enemies would be forced to attack the front gate which is heavily defended.
On the last siege tower an adventurer team could be seen dismantling the top most layer. The Dwarves did the heavy lifting and the Elves served as the lookout.
“can’t you guys hack at it any faster? I am starving” grumbled Verde
“if you shut up and help instead this would be a lot faster” replied Gramel
“but there are still lavant forces lingering around, not to mention those cultivators from the Eastern Continent”
“just keep your voice down and don’t let them hear us. This siege tower is quite sturdy, its critical parts are all made of steel”
Luckily the invading forces of Lavant and the Eastern Cultivators did not create a commotion as they were dismantling the siege tower for over an hour of hard labour.
At the invading side, at the main campsite in a luxurious tent stood a round man simple robes big round nose, most of his hair is skin shaved except for a long topknot, this man in none other than General Yohmu of the allied forces from the Eastern Continent.
He is a General of the Fou Empire and has been sent here at the Continental Isle to lead the shaky alliance of the Sects of the Eastern Continent. He is staring at the map of the nearby area surrounding the castle they are currently assaulting and thought to himself “the Dwarves and Elves should have already been informed of our presence, yet aside from small adventurers hired by the defenders none of their armies could be seen, not even a shadow of it”
General Yohmu’s thoughts worried him, with their main army yet to arrive they are currently shorthanded. In case the Continental Isle came at them in full force, but he brushed that idea aside as mortals would always be mortals. Perhaps they would send some of their forces but it is inevitable for them to hold back their elites, after all this is not 800 years ago when their people were mostly united compared today.
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He the ordered the faction called Mystic Puppet Sect to join and reinforce the army that peeled of towards the defenders back lines, it is imperative that their reinforcements be cut off if this war is going to be profitable, otherwise even in victory the cost of this war would be staggeringly catastrophic.
Kaladia City State
Several days later Sera Hawke is currently in a dilemma, as she watched through the eyes of Ashura she can see an encampment of fifty thousand foreign soldiers digging a long line of trenches and erecting a stone wall.
She was supposed to send her golem army to the front lines. But now there is a sizable enemy army between them,which means that if this army managed to entrench themselves here the front line castle would no longer be front line but … a castle behind enemy lines.
Quite a dilemma indeed, if she send her golem forces towards the castle it would be stuck behind enemy line, but if she attack this army worth fifty thousand soldiers in front of her. It would be again another reckless charge like the last time.
Sera had the golems on standby as she left the tower to meet Mayor Dalton to get a hold of Marianne for consultation, currently the city holds two hundred thousand soldiers including adventurers and soldiers from the allied forces.
But the City itself is not actually fortified because there never was any reason to. In the past the nearby kingdoms would harass and eventually repel the Lavant army while the participants would enjoy a huge discount on minerals such as iron ores and jewelry.
But now that even the Eastern Continent got involved the fortification on the city of Kaladia has been going nonstop albeit in a hurry as long as it has thick and high enough walls.
While walking towards the Mayor’s mansion Sera gets distracted from time to time as she sees the people going about their lives despite the possibility of the destruction of their city. The market is lively as ever and children run around being chased by their parents or friends.
Followed by the cloaked Banshee and Medusa she would always attract attention in every street and in every corner of the city, her status has skyrocketed in the recent months even though she in not exactly a top beauty she still has the above average features, although known as an eccentric she is currently one of the most wealthiest individuals in the City perhaps even beyond.
Her Steel wagon became a favorite of merchant travelers, adventurers and even rich young masters who have simply nothing to spend their money on, if it had not been known about her accomplishments in making Golems or the fact that she is always closely shadowed by Golems, then many suitors would have came forward to confess their love to her.
Sera could already read their minds, back in the middle ages of earth marriage was pretty straight forwards you only need to be pleasing to the eyes and have enough benefits to give one another in pretense of good background of breeding and the marriage of high society would already be sealed.
As she approached the Mayor’s mansion she is greeted by the guards and escorted on the guest room “Lady Sera would you like some tea and snacks while you wait? The mayor is currently in a meeting with several Generals of the allied forces”
“its fine I can wait”
“well then. Please wait for a moment while I prepare the refreshments”
It took only a few minutes for her snacks and refreshments to arrive, she can clearly see from the looks on their faces and body language that she is being treated as a VVIP, probably it was Marianne’s idea or Dalton’s.
After one hour has passed by the attendants behind Sera are already sweating bullets thinking “where the hell is Dalton! A VVIP is here to see him Lady Marianne is going to strangle us!” they thought, like Dalton they are also retainers of Lady Marianne Vi Kaladia from the shadows.
After waiting patiently for another thirty minutes Sera is already getting annoyed she thought “why is it taking so long?” she was about to leave when Dalton arrived.
“my most Sincere apologies Lady Sera!, the talks about the lodging of the allied forces took more time than I anticipated. How may I be of service?” he said sweating, he rushed down the stairs almost instantly the meeting was over hauling his fat body across the mansion.
“my golem army has been stopped by a fifty thousand strong enemy soldiers and by the looks of it they have already prepared the groundwork to fortify the area behind the Castle on the front lines, if nothing is done the entire front line would be isolated leaving the rest of the territory vulnerable. I was hoping Lady Marianne can assist in the situation and send some forces to repel them”
Sera was concerned not because she cared for the people but because if the invaders are not stopped her safety becomes an issue… again, and right now Sera Hawke is being more proactive in preventing any and all dangers coming towards her before she is caught unaware.
“o-oooh. I see…. well I am glad to say that would not become an issue Lady Sera, although I can’t say the specifics the message has already been received several days prior and we have already made arrangements about it… therefore you should not worry about these matters Lady Sera” Dalton said with a smile and relief thinking that something urgent Sera Hawke needed him for.
“hmm” with a sigh she said “I see… it was a unfortunate waste of my time but I am glad to hear something is being done, very well then I will be on my way” with that Sera left the mansion and walked back to her tower.
Exercising her legs has become part of her painful chores, her legs are weak and needed to be moved otherwise her muscles would atrophy and had it not been for her exoskeleton concealed in her dress she would be like a drunkard walking about… always stumbling.
That evening Sera still cannot fathom what kind of plans could they have formulated to quickly counter such a force, a force being entrenched no less. It was another night of work for her as she ordered and supervised the golems do their constructions. The underground laboratory is being expanded using steel from the ore mines underground.
Technically its stealing but… with war going on such resources sitting around won’t help their cause, therefore Sera helped herself with the iron ore and other mineral deposit deep underground which have been secretly dug by the golems.
The so called underground laboratory is now starting form a giant plane with two sets of wing, with each wing having three large engines. Currently only the outer shape of the plane is still in its middle stages while the interior has yet to begin its construction.
Every part of the plane has been magically reinforced by various enchantments to overcome metal fatigue. All of this buried underground and if this ship is to fly, the entire ground would have to be dug out, but Sera is hoping that it would never come to that because she’s finally starting to feel at home.
She already abandoned all notions of returning to earth, by now she is on the international watch list most likely. Therefore she would rather repel the invading army rather than her relocating on another unfamiliar location that may or may not have a local boss that she has to tolerate… at least Marianne just leaves her alone.
That same evening at the abandoned mines where Sera Hawke made a stand against a monster horde and a company of Lavant Soldiers could be seen an armada of airships coming down from their high altitudes half of the airship armada maintained their altitude above the skies.
While the rest dropped down supplies and soldiers, a commander could be seen looking over the warriors estimated to be one hundred thousand Dwarves, they wasted no time to enter and clear the mines of its resident creatures which took no less than 3 hours before starting their mining operations.
When the mines were cleared the officers went on a meeting to plan their next step, the officers are gathering from allover the place some just coming out of the mines while the other are from the ships that landed hours ago, they gathered inside one of the cleared mine shaft.
Inside the mine shaft a hastily makeshift table has been prepared. on it is the local map of Kaladia given by its Mayor Dalton, surrounding the table are officers watching the commander’s pointing stick.
“time is short so this meeting will be brief. First as you can see here, the front line castle has been cut off and now is considered behind enemy lines”
“then here is the position of another army estimated to be at least fifty thousand troops that peeled off and are currently constructing a fortified position heavily entrenching themselves in between the supply route towards the castle, now if we were to supply the castle we risk the convoy being robbed”
“but high command ordered us to ignore the castle for now” after the commander said those words loud murmurings could be heard amongst the officers.
“are we going to leave over fifty thousand allied defenders to the enemies just like that!?” said one of the younger Dwarven officer.
“NO! No… we would not be leaving them just like that of course, there is the plan which were are currently discussing right now. We have been ordered by high command to fortify this abandoned mines which is currently just 5 miles south west of the peeled off army, if we can bolster our defenses enough HERE we will become the new front line all while threatening any form of assault this peeled off army would do”
“so basically we have them checked and that makes them also behind enemy lines?” asked by another officer
“yes, that is correct. Therefore we will allow them to finish their fortifications that would trap them in that location unless they decided to break out, in which case we would be attacking their backs on their retreat”
“ooohh!” could be heard in the room as it would seem that they have been enlightened
“but the castle defenders? What about them do they have enough supplies? Even if they were left alone supplies could not last long for that big of army there”
The commander replied in confidence “worry not, the castle have been left with quite a substantial amount of supplies before the encirclement happened and we estimate that they could hold out for at least 6 months before running low on supplies, by then we would have come up with something to push back the invading forces. After all the main force of the Eastern Immortals have a long ways to go to come here, not to mention the elves guarding the coastlines”
The plans were agreed upon and followed by the officers as they left the room to do their designated duties. While the other Dwarves have hastened their mining operations. Low quality mana stones as they may be this abandoned mine is quite full of them and they will be quite useful in the war effort.
Meanwhile Sera Hawke’s Golem Army has now moved out and decided to go to the nearby villages to see if there were still residents that failed to move out or simply to get rid of bandits emboldened by the war, right now Sera is itching to get a semblance of control to her safety… but with so many unknown variables that keep popping it only made her more anxious now more than ever.