“Bring forth the catapults!”
Lety ordered, and the unit she was in charge of pushed some big machines on the walls.
They looked like towers with a big, inclined pole as their summit. The extremity closer to the ground was spoon-shaped, while the other one had a big block with various cords fixed on it.
The soldiers started to load various bags while some of Raiz’s monsters took their place under the cords.
Some of the operators were even four-legged and worked fast, but despite their admirable speed, it took a while to finish the preparations.
“Fire!”
The monsters jumped simultaneously while grabbing the cords, and as they fell, the block swung down like a seesaw.
The moment they landed, they let go of the cords and the pole rotated quickly, propelling the bags in the air, that exploded into clouds of powder on impact.
When the approaching monsters inhaled that, they went berserk and started to attack whatever entered their field of vision, starting with their very comrades.
“Hey, it’s working! They’ve started to attack each other!”
Reported the lookout, and the adventurers started to scream with joy and laughed at that sight.
“I knew that Matango’s spores would work!”
“I’m sure it sucks to be in their shoes now, though!”
The monsters’ strange behavior was caused by Matango’s spores, a strong hallucinogenic.
While the hungry beasts were probably seeing their comrades as food right now, the adventurers and soldiers were imagining what would become of them if they met the same fate.
Oh, this is unrelated, but the drug created from that powder was widely known in the world.
“Reload!”
Lety issued another order, but this time the bullets were simple rocks.
Matango couldn’t produce too many spores, since he was still a living being, so they had to switch to normal projectiles. It was the catapults’ moment to shine.
“Fire!”
As Lety pointed her finger in front of her, countless rocks were shot in the sky.
Not only they were deadly weapons, but they also became hindrances once they landed, and the more they piled up, the more difficult was for the monsters to get closer.
Creating a battlefield filled with obstacles was the second stage of the plan.
“The enemy is dispersing again!”
Once the monsters changed their pattern of movement, they once again tried to aim at the walls.
When they got too close for the catapults to hit them, the archers were the only ones that could attack the monsters.
“Deploy the lancer and monster units!”
The veteran adventurers who were waiting in front of the walls followed Trow’s orders, let go of their bows and embraced their lances.
“Charge!”
The first line of monsters noticed the assault and reacted with thunderous roars, but when they tried to attack the approaching lancers, they couldn’t move.
Their legs were trapped by vines and ivy that were rooted to the ground, and remained shocked from finding out that they were completely stuck.
“Take this!”
The monsters tried to attack with their claws, but they couldn’t reach the adventurers and soldiers, and were soon annihilated.
Killing unmoving targets was like taking candy from a baby for the adventurers, who then moved against the next wave of monsters, that found itself rooted to the ground like the previous one.
“It is proceeding smoothly, is it not?”
“Yeeeah.”
Dryad and Treant talked from the nearby trees.
As arboreal monsters, they could control plants, and ordered them to block their targets.
Although it wasn’t a direct attack, that tactic proved to be working.
The average adventurer wouldn’t feel much difference, but the more experienced ones could finish their targets the moment they saw a gap in the enemy’s defense.
Their contribution drastically decreased the number of monsters on the front lines.
“It would be better to act in a more direct way, though…”
Dryad complained in a soft voice.
“Can’t help iiit!”
“I know. Master wanted us to support from the shadows, given how dangerous the situation is right now.”
Actually, they couldn’t do more. If they drew too much attention and were killed by accident, there was the chance that Raiz would decide to destroy the city instead of defending it.
That’s why the tamer restricted them to support the others like that.
Of course, Trow and those who had some experience in fighting knew how useful they were and hoped to maintain a friendly relationship.
Still, Dryad and Treant weren’t the only two who were supporting their faction.
In their enemy’s ranks, werewolves were roaring as they recklessly attacked the foes accompanied by noromas, monsters specialized in high-speed strikes. Together, they penetrated the front lines and started to decimate their victims before being noticed.
The werewolves didn’t blindly attack whatever crossed their path, but aimed at specific targets.
They sent normal wolves, who had little bodies and could move fast, ahead to attack and block the target, then they sneaked up to it and finished it off.
The adventurers were their top priority, given that the wolves could just slip into the lances’ defense, but when they tried to run under them, they were suddenly cut to pieces.
The werewolves couldn’t understand what was going on, but the lances had many thin strings fixated on them. Those were Arachne’s threads.
She could expel various kind of threads from the tip of her tail, and one of them was the beheading thread, which she used to hurt the preys that were trying to run away.
Honestly, it wasn’t something particularly frightful, as it only needed to be removed to prevent deep cuts.
The wolves were unfortunate, since they charged directly under the lances, thinking of taking advantage of their speed instead of getting around them, so it was as if they jumped at high-speed on a wall of sharp knives, which cut them into a bunch of noodles.
They were killed by their own speed.
That wasn’t the only unfortunate event the enemy had to face, though.
Since they couldn’t move under the lances, the werewolves thought that jumping over them would be a better move, but they landed on traps that collapsed under their weight, and they fell into holes filled with slimes’ acid.
They tried to get out of them, but the ground was too slippery, and they ended up falling again.
The unluckiest ones found their feet consumed before trying to do anything.
The speed was their strength, but now that they could barely move, the adventurers took the chance to finish them all.
Their lack of intelligence brought them to their end.
◆
“I see the boss in the distance!”
The lookout yelled, and the guards prepared themselves.
“Is it coming?!”
Trow stood up from his chair and looked in the midst of the horde, where a monster way bigger than the others was advancing.
“That’s quite big… There’s no doubt, it’s the horde’s boss!”
The decisive battle was looming on the city.
“Bring forth the catapults!”
Lety ordered, and the unit she was in charge of pushed some big machines on the walls.
They looked like towers with a big, inclined pole as their summit. The extremity closer to the ground was spoon-shaped, while the other one had a big block with various cords fixed on it.
The soldiers started to load various bags while some of Raiz’s monsters took their place under the cords.
Some of the operators were even four-legged and worked fast, but despite their admirable speed, it took a while to finish the preparations.
“Fire!”
The monsters jumped simultaneously while grabbing the cords, and as they fell, the block swung down like a seesaw.
The moment they landed, they let go of the cords and the pole rotated quickly, propelling the bags in the air, that exploded into clouds of powder on impact.
When the approaching monsters inhaled that, they went berserk and started to attack whatever entered their field of vision, starting with their very comrades.
“Hey, it’s working! They’ve started to attack each other!”
Reported the lookout, and the adventurers started to scream with joy and laughed at that sight.
“I knew that Matango’s spores would work!”
“I’m sure it sucks to be in their shoes now, though!”
The monsters’ strange behavior was caused by Matango’s spores, a strong hallucinogenic.
While the hungry beasts were probably seeing their comrades as food right now, the adventurers and soldiers were imagining what would become of them if they met the same fate.
Oh, this is unrelated, but the drug created from that powder was widely known in the world.
“Reload!”
Lety issued another order, but this time the bullets were simple rocks.
Matango couldn’t produce too many spores, since he was still a living being, so they had to switch to normal projectiles. It was the catapults’ moment to shine.
“Fire!”
As Lety pointed her finger in front of her, countless rocks were shot in the sky.
Not only they were deadly weapons, but they also became hindrances once they landed, and the more they piled up, the more difficult was for the monsters to get closer.
Creating a battlefield filled with obstacles was the second stage of the plan.
“The enemy is dispersing again!”
Once the monsters changed their pattern of movement, they once again tried to aim at the walls.
When they got too close for the catapults to hit them, the archers were the only ones that could attack the monsters.
“Deploy the lancer and monster units!”
The veteran adventurers who were waiting in front of the walls followed Trow’s orders, let go of their bows and embraced their lances.
“Charge!”
The first line of monsters noticed the assault and reacted with thunderous roars, but when they tried to attack the approaching lancers, they couldn’t move.
Their legs were trapped by vines and ivy that were rooted to the ground, and remained shocked from finding out that they were completely stuck.
“Take this!”
The monsters tried to attack with their claws, but they couldn’t reach the adventurers and soldiers, and were soon annihilated.
Killing unmoving targets was like taking candy from a baby for the adventurers, who then moved against the next wave of monsters, that found itself rooted to the ground like the previous one.
“It is proceeding smoothly, is it not?”
“Yeeeah.”
Dryad and Treant talked from the nearby trees.
As arboreal monsters, they could control plants, and ordered them to block their targets.
Although it wasn’t a direct attack, that tactic proved to be working.
The average adventurer wouldn’t feel much difference, but the more experienced ones could finish their targets the moment they saw a gap in the enemy’s defense.
Their contribution drastically decreased the number of monsters on the front lines.
“It would be better to act in a more direct way, though…”
Dryad complained in a soft voice.
“Can’t help iiit!”
“I know. Master wanted us to support from the shadows, given how dangerous the situation is right now.”
Actually, they couldn’t do more. If they drew too much attention and were killed by accident, there was the chance that Raiz would decide to destroy the city instead of defending it.
That’s why the tamer restricted them to support the others like that.
Of course, Trow and those who had some experience in fighting knew how useful they were and hoped to maintain a friendly relationship.
Still, Dryad and Treant weren’t the only two who were supporting their faction.
In their enemy’s ranks, werewolves were roaring as they recklessly attacked the foes accompanied by noromas, monsters specialized in high-speed strikes. Together, they penetrated the front lines and started to decimate their victims before being noticed.
The werewolves didn’t blindly attack whatever crossed their path, but aimed at specific targets.
They sent normal wolves, who had little bodies and could move fast, ahead to attack and block the target, then they sneaked up to it and finished it off.
The adventurers were their top priority, given that the wolves could just slip into the lances’ defense, but when they tried to run under them, they were suddenly cut to pieces.
The werewolves couldn’t understand what was going on, but the lances had many thin strings fixated on them. Those were Arachne’s threads.
She could expel various kind of threads from the tip of her tail, and one of them was the beheading thread, which she used to hurt the preys that were trying to run away.
Honestly, it wasn’t something particularly frightful, as it only needed to be removed to prevent deep cuts.
The wolves were unfortunate, since they charged directly under the lances, thinking of taking advantage of their speed instead of getting around them, so it was as if they jumped at high-speed on a wall of sharp knives, which cut them into a bunch of noodles.
They were killed by their own speed.
That wasn’t the only unfortunate event the enemy had to face, though.
Since they couldn’t move under the lances, the werewolves thought that jumping over them would be a better move, but they landed on traps that collapsed under their weight, and they fell into holes filled with slimes’ acid.
They tried to get out of them, but the ground was too slippery, and they ended up falling again.
The unluckiest ones found their feet consumed before trying to do anything.
The speed was their strength, but now that they could barely move, the adventurers took the chance to finish them all.
Their lack of intelligence brought them to their end.
◆
“I see the boss in the distance!”
The lookout yelled, and the guards prepared themselves.
“Is it coming?!”
Trow stood up from his chair and looked in the midst of the horde, where a monster way bigger than the others was advancing.
“That’s quite big… There’s no doubt, it’s the horde’s boss!”
The decisive battle was looming on the city.
