White Emperor, Reynold Lambert Siegmund, was aroused from his rest by his personal guards.

Without anyone seeing him move, the man already disappeared from sight, and the next moment he appeared on top of the southern walls dressed in full armour.

His long silvery hair danced in the air as his feet lightly landed on the parapet.

“A Blitzkrieg formation against a cliff? How odd…”

The way the Saint Empire Vanguards are positioned looked like the letter ‘W’ from the top. Behind the vanguards, the second, third, fourth groups, and so on, are all in the ‘V’ position.

This formation is good for hitting an enemy hard to penetrate their lines and cut them into three groups.

Following that, the soldiers will encircle the middle group and isolate them.

It’s a good tactic on an open field with two armies facing each other but using it in a siege is unheard of.

While the army charged, the Frosthral defences were activated.

Cannons were pushed out of port holes in the body of the cliff and they fired without aiming.

Each cannonballs is inscribed with runes that increases explosive radius and noise amplification as traditional ones will have. When a cannonball hits, it aims to cripple as many enemies as possible. A dead soldier means a single enemy neutralised, but an injured one will require friends to bring him home, medics to heal him, and that isn’t even counting the dread and anxiety he will create from looking at him as a product of strife.

The Snowdrifts and their army are located at the middle of the ‘W’ formation. Looking at them leading at the foremost, the White Emperor’s lips curled up into a vicious smile.

“Looks like that traitor had been telling the truth.”

The ‘traitor’ is of course the charred man who left the Snowdrifts in the night and secretly joined the Ku Kang Camp.

When Tommy completed the traditional promotion trial, he became bound under the Superior Pact whereby he must follow Tommy into battle as a Warrior Lesser. Instead, he scurried away to join an opposing faction, thus any warrior worth their two grams of salt would be ashamed to associate with him.

That man might have brought back valuable war information but he is nevertheless a betrayer.

Saint Empire citizens might find it hard to understand, but the Feudal State still considers Tommy who came out of Avalon as one of their members and a Warlord. In fact the Snowdrifts’ participation in this battle is recognised as an internal strife among the Frosthral warlords.

Of course, the Saint Empire troops commanded by Esley are still invaders.

This sounds complicated, but the Feudal State is ruled by tradition and the Superior Pact is absolute.

As long as Tommy’s background is recognised and he did not become a traitor, he is a member of their nation. Therefore, the despicable one is the charred man.

As for why he and his Warrior Lessers aren’t considered traitors despite attacking the Ku Kang Camp together with Esley’s soldiers, it is all because of what Tommy said as he took his trial.

His intention, as declared, is to unite Gaia. This is an ambition respected by the fellow warriors, and it makes everything different.

If Tommy had fought as a soldier of another nation, Frosthral will resist until the end. But, as long as he does not intent to harm a single non-combatant – those who had yet to pass through their adulthood ceremony or those who retired as warriors due to childbirth, age, or other infirmities – he will be respected as a Warlord, a Warrior Superior. In the future, if he manage to defeat all the others and conquer the whole north, he will be their new Great Khan that replaced Yesugei-in Temujin.

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Of course, this doesn’t mean that they will go easy on him. It’s kill or be killed on the battlefield and the Frosthrallers take their wars seriously.

It was early morning as their troops came within cannon range. From that point on, the soldiers ran at a sprint while keeping their formation intact.

The fired cannonballs shot towards them, howling like banshees in the wind.

Yet, there was no one who slowed down their pace. Only the very best are at the front in the ‘W’ formation.

*BAAAM!*

Ash and debris rained down upon the soldiers running. A colossal fist struck an incoming cannonball with such force that it disintegrated the entire thing.

*GOAAAAAHHHHHHHHH*

War is a deafening trade, yet an inhuman roar pierced through the noise sounding like a war horn.

“Only a giant could sound like that...,” White Emperor Reynold noted with furrowed brows.

The plateau stood fifty meters high, while usual walls are between twenty to thirty meters and Giants are around six to seven people tall, which is roughly ten to twelve meters.

Usually, this height would prevent most cultivators and war beasts, but the presence of a giant would make things tricky.

“Aim the cannons at it.”

The plateau is only around five times the height of this creature. Even its corpse will serve as a good ladder.

The order was carried out swiftly and lots of cannon fire were focused on the Armoured Giant, but the roaring beast did not falter.

Instead, a large bubble appeared around the creature and protected it. Running next to the creature is Watts Yournae who held a small formation plate in his hand. This treasure is the anti-projectile barrier that he wanted to use against Kairos during the competition but was defeated before he had a chance.

When the cannonballs hit the surface of the bubble with great force, the barrier increased in viscosity so quickly it nearly turned solid.

As the projectiles push forth, more of the liquid turned into a gooey and sticky paste that quickly slowed them down to a halt.

More and more cannon fires struck the bubble until it eventually broke, but a new protection quickly took its place.

A circle of protection appeared around the giant and five shields floated around it. Each shield is in one of the five elements of creation, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal.

Running behind the giant is Lucas Flare with five runes forming a glyph shining brightly on his shoulder.

The shields fly around, protecting the giant from any cannonball that comes close as it led the charge. Each time something struck, the shield weakens considerably, but another element will slowly replenish its strength.

Unless one could destroy this formation in a single blow, it persists rather well. Although, with the number of cannons firing at them, it wouldn’t last long.

A couple of minutes later, the Five Element Shields broke and the giant was pelted with cannonballs.

*GOAAAAAHHH!*

The armour on the giant dented and bent, but it only made it angrier. The beast slammed its fists into the ground creating a small hole, then it grabbed the ground and hurled it at the cliff. They are now close enough, close enough to return fire. The cannons were trained on them from more than five thousand meters away. At full charge, this distance will only take the average practitioner a couple of minutes, five at most. However, it took them closed to fifteen minutes when under heavy fire, because even while charging they must stay in defensive formation.

Fortunately, thanks to the giant attracting most of the cannon fire, there were far fewer casualties amongst the soldiers.

They are now really close now. Only a little over a hundred had died, but now things are difficult. They have a tall cliff to scale. One that is fifty meters tall.

Although the natural rock is rough and might be scaled from climbing, the Frosthral fortifications over the years had largely removed that weakness. It wouldn’t be an easy siege.

The two forward points of the ‘W’ formation separated east and west.

These two groups are fully made up of the Wispy Willow members, and they quickly took up their places. They charged into the hail of cannonballs and head into the lanes. They quickly got into place between the cliff and the fast river. The moment they arrive, cannons rained down at them from the top and the side.

At the same time, the soldiers formed nine hand seals while chanting a mantra.

Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Chin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!

Heavenly warriors descend, stand yourselves before us!

A crimson barrier appeared shielding them from the cannon fire from the top and the side.

Then, across the river, ambushers lying in wait attacked. They held longbows and flaming arrows and they fired at the invaders without reserve.

When the arrows touched, a red barrier also appeared on the left, causing the missiles to burst into flames.

Underneath their feet, fire and lightning runes were triggered in an attempt to cook the Saint Empire soldiers. No doubt the same thing is happening over at the other lane as well.

Above, below, left, right, and front, they are attacked in all directions but the cubic barrier managed to resist.

The moment the barrier was setup, the second team behind in the ‘V’ formation charged to the west and entered the barrier, the third team went east to the other lane, and the rest of the teams alternated.

Reynold laughed, “Hah, I see, they are using the blitzkrieg formation to reach for our gates. Naïve. Tell the gun master do not be distracted and to continue focusing the front cannons on Snowdrifts.”