[T/L: Hi, everyone. Chapter 143 is around 3 times longer than a normal chapter, so we will be splitting it into 3 separate parts. This is part 1.]
The demons that came out of the hole were weremole, werewolf, weretiger, and even werebuffalo. Inside, Welner thought that the werebuffalo in this game was just a minotaur with a different name. In any case, all demons that came out of the holes must be eliminated here.
Welner shouted, “Don’t let the moles escape!”
The human soldiers immediately responded by swinging their weapons. The demons were taken by surprise with waves of humans rushing toward them. Although they hurriedly tried to counterattack, they were still at a huge disadvantage. Fierce fight broke out. One weretiger successfully bit the neck of a human soldier, but that weretiger was soon stabbed by the humans in succession, killing him on the spot.
Welner’s spear pierced the feet of a weretiger, severely limiting his movement. The surrounding soldiers immediately stabbed that weretiger from all directions, killing him. Near the other holes, Neurath and Schunzel led their men to kill the other demons one by one.
Unlike the town guards or the hastily created support troop, the governor’s soldiers were properly trained. In addition, they had gained plenty of battle experience by fighting the demons in the fort and the bandits. They also understood the superiority of group battle compared to one-on-one battle, so after killing a demon in a group, they rushed to support the other groups.
The demons here were not weak, rather, they were the elites chosen by Gezarius. Their aim was to open the gate from the inside or, if that wasn’t possible, they had to at least set the town on fire to cause chaos. Unfortunately, Welner was one step ahead of them. Despite that, if it was a one-on-one battle, the demons here wouldn’t have lost. However, they were still unfamiliar with the group battle led by Welner. As such, they were currently being pushed back by Welner’s army.
Although it was a one-sided battle, the demons still resisted fiercely. Perhaps they were driven by their anger toward Welner or perhaps they were driven by their fear toward Gezarius. Nonetheless, the demons that had infiltrated here fought fiercely until they were all wiped out.
“Fill in the holes. That should buy us some time.”
“Yes, sir.”
In a normal war, there were two common ways of dealing with this kind of underground tunnel. One, to make it unusable by pouring water into the tunnel. Two, to use the tunnel to attack the enemy instead. But in this siege battle, there was one other way to deal with the tunnel. That was to use corpses to fill the hole. After all, there were many corpses scattered here.
The soldiers proceeded to throw many corpses into the holes. Then, the holes were sealed by containers like jars or barrels. After that, the jars or barrels were filled with water, sand, or even garbage. With this, the holes were sealed.
If the demon army wanted to use the tunnel, they had to either destroy or move all these corpses, which was a mentally and physically taxing work. Moreover, even if the demons managed to destroy or move all the corpses, it would cause the containers to fall, making their content spill and fill the tunnel, thus making the tunnel extremely hard to use.
However, this way of covering the tunnel was used in battles between humans, so no one knew how effective it would be against demons. But at least it was better than doing nothing. Welner himself also joined the work. Immediately afterward, a faint roar reached the ear of Welner and his army.
“Welner-sama.”
“…Maybe there are still some demons inside the tunnels.”
Another possibility was that Gezarius, who had learned about the failure of his plan via the demons that were left in the tunnel, roared to give some kind of signal. Thinking like that, Welner left half of his men to continue handling the tunnels while he led the other half to the north.
Welner couldn’t help but complain, ‘The kingdom better give me overtime pay for handling this mess.’
When the north gate came into Welner’s view, he noticed a log had pierced one corner of the gate and hit a catapult. That catapult would now be unusable. Welner clicked his tongue while thinking that Gezarius succeeded in breaching the gate. He ordered some of his men to bring some wood to reinforce the gate from inside.
At that moment, the ballista was fired. The vibration was so strong that Welner and his army, who were still a bit distance away from the gate, could feel it.
As soon as Welner and his army reached the gate, they hurriedly climbed the stairs to the top of the wall as the countless stones came flying in from outside of the wall.
One of the stones hit the enclosure wall and managed to leave a big mark on the stone wall before getting destroyed by the impact. For a stone to be able to do that must mean that the demons were throwing stones with a great force.
The human army couldn’t let demons continue their attacks, as it may severely injure soldiers.
“At least the enemy chose a long-distance battle.” (Neurath)
“I never thought that the demon army would choose a long-range battle against humans.” (Schunzel)
“They must have no other choice.” (Welner)
While Welner was conversing with Neurath and Schunzel as the three were climbing the stairs, a huge bang resounded.
The ballista in the northwest direction of the stair was hit by a giant stone and was rendered unusable.
Seeing this, Welner increased his pace and after a short time, he finally reached the top of the wall where stones were raining down and many soldiers were lying on the ground. He looked around, searching for a person. When he finally found him, Welner called him out.
“Eickstedt. What happened here?”
“Your Excellency, great to see you safe. Once the log pierced the gate, the enemies’ movement changed. The enemies seemed to be planning to widen the gap created by the log in gate, so we fired the ballista as a response.”
“How is the ballista?”
“When the demon general tried to throw another log, I ordered the men to fire the ballast from the left and the right. One of the bolts shot by the ballista pierced the demon general’s shoulder, then he counterattacked.”
“Ah, that’s why that ballista is in that kind of state.”
Welner’s face turned sour as he saw the ballista that was destroyed by a giant stone. The soldiers who were operating that ballista also received the damage. Then Welner noticed something and turned back to Eickstedt.
“You said one of the bolts pierced Gezarius’s soldier?”
“Yes. I heard Your Excellency destroyed one of the demon general’s eyes, so maybe that was why the demon general failed to perceive the distance when the bolt was fired from that direction. However…”
“The bolt didn’t cause a fatal wound.”
“Yes. My apologies.”
“It’s not something you need to apologize for.”
Though, it was hard to say if the bolt that successfully wounded Gezarius was a blessing or disaster since because of that bolt, the enemies started to throw more stones toward the wall to the point that it became dangerous to stick out your head. Gezarius must be enraged.
“We can’t let this continue, sir.”
“We should launch a counterattack.”
Neurath’s words made Welner worry. Welner’s skill was [Spearmanship] not [Leadership], so he wasn’t that skilled in commanding the army at a siege war. That was why Welner gave the laser pointer to Kesten. Still, Welner couldn’t just hide and stay silent when the enemy was attacking the wall like this.
Right when Welner was about to make his decision, several soldiers rushed up the wall. For Welner, it was a pleasant surprise.
“Sir, you are Sir Kesten’s…”
“Yes. Sir Kesten asked us to support you.”
“As expected of a veteran. His decision making is fast.”
Welner muttered happily. After hearing Gezarius’s roar, Kesten must have noticed that the enemies’ pressure in his area had suddenly decreased. Kesten must have thought that the enemies were concentrating their attacks on the north gate, so he sent these men, the military instructors from the capital, here. Although there were only a few of them, they were all veteran soldiers capable of commanding the army.
“We will start the counterattack! Don’t let the demons get close to t
he wall!”
While the sky was still pitch black, the humans and the demons entered a fierce battle.
