The convoy traversed the green landscape to the palace. There was surprisingly pretty much no resistance in the area. It could be because they were gathering and revamping their defenses in the Wisterian palace. But it was fine for the Empire, Wisteria’s effort was pointless either way.

The elf, Alruwin, had joined back in with the imperial main assault team after running rampant in the city. He had to thin out the Wisterian forces to smoothen their movement through the city, lessen the resistance. And it was easy, humans were in general not particularly strong. Perhaps the most troublesome were those from the Wisterian church. But in the end, even they fall.

At any rate, now, the Empire should certainly be able to take complete control over the city.

When the palace was finally in range, the siege weapons started lining up. Just far away that the palace’s weapons shouldn’t be able to reach them. While the rest of the army stood and lined up far back.

The imperials loaded their siege machines. The ballistas aimed at the protective wall, while the catapults aimed within the wall.

“Fire!” the commander gave the order.

And the weapons opened fire. The giant metallic javelins hit the wall, while the balls of fire streaked through the air. But then, golden barriers formed above the palace, covering half of it. But it was enough to protect themselves and hold off the projectiles. The fireworks exploded, but of course did no damage to its intended targets.

They loaded and fired the catapults again, but the explosives failed to shatter the barrier.

“It must be the church casting it,” said the commander.

He glanced at the elf archer and cocked his head. The elf nodded and raised his loaded bow and aimed at the barrier. After pouring magic into the arrow, he fired. The arrow streaked through the air and crashed against the shield. Two tides of magic clashed, the arrow bursting with power, trying to push through the barrier. A moment later, the barrier started to crack, and as the arrow was losing its fuel, the protection completely shattered.

Immediately, the catapults opened fire, and fireworks exploded and rattled within the walls, destroying their surroundings. But at the same time, more than a dozen priests rushed towards the imperials with tremendous speed, they must be intending on destroying the siege weapons. One of them was an old man holding a pair of golden spears, and as a few imperial knights advanced and attacked him, the old man easily cut through and eliminated them. And he successfully destroyed one catapult.

Alruwin frowned and turned towards one of his allies. “It’s the high bishop. You take care of him.”

The dual wielding elf grinned. “Another church member, very well!”

And Alruwin glanced at the hooded elf. “Support him, the high bishop will be a tricky opponent.”

“Understood.” And the elf caster moved to attack the high bishop.

“At most, drive him away from here,” Alruwin added. He would prefer if there was no big inconvenience during their assault. The high bishop had the potential to be a significant inconvenience.

The dual wielding elf charged at the high bishop, and their weapons met. They glared at each other.

“Elf.”

“Human. I killed a golden spear wielder, too. She was skilled, but that didn’t save her.” The elf grinned.

The high bishop’s eyes widened. “What?”

Thorny vines sprouted from behind him, and the high bishop quickly leaped away just as they whipped at where he stood. The sword elf lunged at him with his blade, giving the bishop no time to breathe. But the latter defended and immediately extended his weapon to strike back. Wind slashes shot out towards him from afar, and he quickly parried and blocked them.

Their fight encompassed a large part of the open field. Their battle was so intense and so fast that even the elite knights of the empire had a hard time following their movements. And most surprising, the high bishop was able to keep up with the attacks coming from two different directions. He would parry an incoming sword, and move out of the way as a magical slash of wind and thorny vines lash out at him.

At any rate, despite all that, the elves were becoming successful in pushing and driving the bishop away from the siege weapons. And the high bishop was, of course, irritated by it. But he couldn’t do anything to get back. These two were just incredibly strong. One mistake and he’ll perish.

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He cut through a pile of vines coming at him and fired a beam of light at the elf caster. But a wind barrier blocked the spell. The bishop clicked his tongue.

Alruwin watched and nodded, turning his gaze at the other priests, the imperial knights facing them, holding them off while closely defending the siege weapons. They shouldn’t be a problem at the moment. He returned his gaze to the palace, as the siege weapons continued to open fire.

Explosives attached to the javelins, exploding on the walls. The catapults fired again, the others aiming for the wall protecting the different sides of the palace, one could see glimpses of knights trying to shield, but damages were hard to avoid. Surprisingly, the Wisterian knights have yet to leave the palace to directly attack. They must be anticipating for the imperial forces to attack the palace, and considering that they have sent the church fighters, they couldn’t strip more of their security and defenses.

And they were right, the imperial forces will send their men soon, at least until their siege ammunitions have run out. But, it will take a while. Alruwin imagined that the palace will be mostly obliterated before that happens.

The catapults fire again, heading for the severely damaged palace. But then as they got closer, crimson hexagonal shaped constructs appeared, assembling together in groups. Each group then moved to intercept the trajectory of the incoming blazing projectile. And they exploded before even reaching their targets.

Alruwin narrowed his eyes.

The catapults opened fire again in different directions. But the barriers moved again to intercept, and was once again successful in not letting any through.

“Do something about those shields!” shouted the human commander.

With an annoyed groan, the elven archer aimed at one of the barriers and promptly let his magic filled arrow loose. Immediately it made contact, and magical energy burst out. Unable to sustain any longer, the barrier shattered.

But another group immediately appeared to fill its place.

“That’s annoying,” the commander remarked.

And then strangely, all the barriers spread away to the side.

“What?”

A moment later, their eyes widened to see something quite unexpected. On the other side of the wall, numerous magic spells came rising to the sky, propelled like catapults, and they appeared to be heading towards the imperial forces. They consisted of balls of flames, sharp bodies of ice big and small, and plain magic. It was as if the Wisterians themselves have siege weapons prepared.

“Look out!”

“Take cover!”

“Protect the catapults!”

“Shield!”

Alruwin cast a barrier of wind around himself.

And the barrage of spells fell upon them. The ball of flames erupted and burst in a wide area, setting the grasses on fire. There were even those that got through the knights’ defenses, searing their unprotected body parts, even turning their armor incandescent, and the knights frantically tried to get them off. The burning grasses filled the area with flames, producing smoke making it hard to breathe, and temperature rising. The flames reached out for the siege weapons.

The bodies of ice, on the other hand, mostly fell upon the position of the siege weapons, shattering some barriers protecting them. Some of the knights were crushed under their tremendous weights.

The plain damaging magic with no attributes stormed the field like hail. Crashing and falling unto the enemies surrounding the siege weapons. As if they were meant to cause as much damage and chaos as possible. They even reached the frontal parts of the lined up army from behind, forcing them to disperse from their positions.

Alruwin watched his surroundings as magic hit his barrier. It was surprisingly powerful.

And then, amidst the bursting and spreading flames, the ammunition of their siege weapons was suddenly ignited.

“Agh!”

“Keep your distance!”

Fireworks exploded around them. Wounding and injuring those caught up in the initial explosions. There were knights that had their legs shredded, arms ripped, others got gravely burned. Subsequently, the entire field was lit up with all kinds of bright colors that caused all kinds of chaos and demise. Knights were deafened, others blinded, others severely wounded.

Shortly thereafter, the barrage stopped, and Alruwin looked around to check the casualties. The area was clouded with smoke as men crawled miserably on the ground. Others limped as their blood dripped. The most unlucky perished, their body ripped apart by the explosions. Humans groaned and moaned in pain and agony.

Even so, most hands were still accounted for. The casualties they sustained were mostly from those that were operating and guarding the siege weapons. Still, it was surprising what the Wisterians did.

They used our weapons against us.

The spells themselves didn’t cause significant damage, their own explosives did. And it achieved what could be Wisteria’s main goal.

“The wheels broke! We can’t properly aim with this.”

“Catapult’s busted!”

“Here too!”

“Weapon’s shredded!”

“My ballista is wrecked!”

“H-Help me!”

“Shit! It burns! Get these off me!”

As the surviving operators reported their weapons’ condition, some other imperial men quickly moved to recover the wounded. There were also others trying to salvage their weapons. But, perhaps, that would just be a waste of time.

All weapons were incapacitated.

The human commander looked with an angry scowl on his face. Alruwin dispelled his wind barrier and approached the commander.

“Send in your soldiers.”

“Tch! Guess there’s no other choice.”

“But first…” Alruwin turned towards the archer. “Fire several arrows, overwhelm them. Even if you have to deplete your mana.”

“Understood.”

The archer nocked two arrows and aimed his bow upward. The magic filled arrows flew through the air and eventually came descending to the palace. He nocked another two, aiming for the walls, then another two to the palace, then another to the walls further away. He fired a pair, and another, and another, and another. Just quick and numerous attacks.

The crimson barriers tried protecting the palace, but they failed to move and shield the protective walls, causing heavy damage. As more arrows descended to strike, the barriers were getting overwhelmed, unable to keep up, letting one and two slip through. And eventually, an arrow shattered a barrier, and another barrier after that. More and more arrows hit the palace, gradually damaging it further.

And at the same time, the imperial forces charged towards the palace as the surviving members of the Wisterian church quickly retreated.