Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

At this time, the defenders should dispatch their elite troops to charge the enemy beneath the city, but Jeska's squad no longer had the strength to strike out.

Mason was in charge of the northwestern Bastion, Bard was responsible for the southwestern Bastion, and Winters took charge of the western wall.

He carried a log with a spearman and knocked down a ladder.

The Herders on the ladder fell off, dusted themselves off, and climbed up again—the earthen walls of the Bastion were not high enough to be deadly.

For every ladder the Paratu People knocked down, the enemy would push up three more.

The enemy also pushed forward two devices resembling seesaws, and others directly scaled the fortress walls by hand.

Paratu soldiers, wielding steel blades and clad in heavy armor, surged onto the ramparts, and the battle turned into a vicious, face-to-face slaughter.

Both Paratu and Herders were clad in armor, making it exceedingly difficult to kill the enemy—for both sides.

People blinded by rage desperately stabbed at each other's faces, armpits, and groins—areas that lacked armor.

If anyone fell, they would be instantly stabbed to death through the gaps in their armor.

Winters fought furiously atop the wall, his curved blade having been replaced four times already, yet the number of Herders around him kept growing.

The Herders also realized that there was a Paratu soldier among them whose ferocity was unmatched, with no one able to stand against him in a single round of combat.

"[Herde Language] The Hailite Squadron, heed my command!" a Herder leader with Hong Lingyu feathers shouted from a high position, pointing his saber at Winters and bellowing, "[Herde Language] Quickly surround and kill that soldier!"

"QNMD!" Winters raised his hand and cast an Arrow Flying Spell.

The steel nail hit the helmet squarely, and the Hong Lingyu Herder was knocked over.

At the same time, two Herder strongmen charged at Winters. He dodged one but was hit squarely around the waist by the other.

"Release me!" Winters, pounding like hammering a nail, smashed the hilt of his knife repeatedly on the Herder's head, even hearing the sound of bones fracturing: "Let go of me!"

However, the Herder's arms were like a tiger's jaws clamped shut, strangling Winters around his waist. Winters' plate armor creaked loudly, even starting to deform.

"Ah!" With a savage roar, the Herder strongman used his wrestling skills to lift Winters, who weighed over two hundred pounds with his armor, with the intention of slamming him to his death.

"Release! Me! Now!" Winters, suspended in mid-air, roared like thunder, tore off the Herder's neck armor, and plunged his curved knife deep into his neck: "Die!"

The Herder strongman was killed instantly, but his arms still did not let go, and he fell along with Winters.

Winters was pinned under the body of the Herder strongman, as more Herders rushed toward him.

"Save the Centurion!" Xial, a dozen meters away, yelled in desperation, swinging his long halberd to carve a path to Winters. Stay tuned to My Virtual Library Empire

"[Herde Language] Block them!" But that Hong Lingyu Herder leader struggled to rise again, his face covered in blood as he shouted, "[Herde Language] Kill him!"

Several Herders immediately stepped in to block the rescuers.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

Three consecutive Arrow Flying Spells were cast with no reservations, nearly rendering Winters unconscious.

The Hong Lingyu only saw flashes of cold light before three of his sharp troops fell in response.

"[Herde Language] He's the Chosen One!" The Hong Lingyu finally understood, screaming like a madman, "[Herde Language] Kill him! Kill that Chosen One quickly!"

Hearing the Centurion's words, the Herder soldiers around him hesitated collectively, suddenly too fearful to approach Winters.

They hesitated for a whole second before they, gritting their teeth, flung themselves at the "Chosen One" under the Centurion's roars.

That one second gave Winters a chance to catch his breath.

But he had used up all his steel spikes, and the Herders had already closed in to within a meter of him.

In utter desperation—and in a flurry of urgency—Winters launched the Arrow Flying Spell directly at a Herder's head.

"Puchi!", "Puchi!"

Two eyeballs burst open.

"Ahhh!!!" The Herder let out an inhuman scream. The excruciating pain caused the strong man to roll on the ground; his eye sockets had turned into two indistinct masses of blood and flesh.

The other Herders were dumbstruck with fright.

Winters, too, was experiencing unprecedented phantom pain, even more intense than the pain endured by the Herder who had lost his eyes—it felt as if his body was placed under a stone miller, being ground over and over, inch by inch.

His body convulsed with the intense spiritual pain, having never channeled such a massive amount of magical power in a single breath.

But at this moment of life and death, he had no time to think.

If it worked, he would use it again.

The phantom pain came quickly and left just as quickly. The instant he recovered from the convulsions, Winters unleashed the Arrow Flying Spell towards the head of the second Herder.

This time, he completely abandoned all restraint and opened all the valves.

The Arrow Flying Spell taught to him by Major Moritz emphasized precision, but now Winters was casting without any restraint, direction, or control, simply pushing the output power of his magic to the limit—no, beyond the limit.

The second Herder's mouth gushed blood ceaselessly, clutching his throat as he staggered and tumbled down from the wall.

Then came the third.

This time, Winters had an epiphany. In a state of extreme casting, using the Herder's head as the medium, he launched the Arrow Flying Spell in two different directions at the same time.

The third Herder's head exploded on the spot, red and white splattering like rain.

"The Chosen One."

This phrase resounded in the minds of the Herders, and those around Winters who were still alive scattered and raced away.

The Hong Lingyu Herder leader fell into complete despair, trembling all over as he knelt on the ground, murmuring some scripture as if praying.

Winters extricated himself from the clasp of the Herder strongman's arms, leaned on the battlement, and moved beside the Hong Lingyu.