33: The surprise attack by gnolls

“Since that is the case, we cannot back down. Give the order to equally distribute the two hundred thousand untrained recruits among the four city walls. If the veterans truly die out, they will take their place!”

Since Arthur's army was outside David's command, David, having quickly finished giving his orders, immediately turned his gaze toward Arthur.

In response, Arthur spoke up voluntarily:

“I heard the report just now, which stated that the northern city wall is facing the most attacking Gnolls—nearly fifty thousand!

Then the army under my command will go to the North City Wall. Leave that to me, and the original troops on the North City Wall can be transferred to other directions to strengthen their forces!”

Hearing that Arthur alone was willing to take on the most challenging defense task on the North City Wall, the leaders of Northern Bulwark City, headed by David, all looked upon him with goodwill.

Arthur returned their gaze with a smile.

The battle was urgent, so everyone stopped lingering. Arthur also led his army of over eight thousand toward the North City Wall. (The extra four thousand were the Shield Soldiers David had promised Arthur!)

Knowing that the Gnolls were serious this time, the people of Northern Bulwark City were no longer stingy, using all kinds of magic items and scrolls for illumination.

This caused Northern Bulwark City to look as bright as day. At least regarding visibility, the advantage held by the Gnolls was now negligible!

This significantly boosted the morale within Northern Bulwark City!

Then, as Arthur led his eight thousand troops on a forced march through the brightly lit Northern Bulwark City toward the North City Wall, something confusing happened: the Gnolls who had already charged onto the wall suddenly began to retreat!

Arthur initially thought that his conspicuous achievements during the day had scared the Gnolls away.

But the subsequent news revealed that the Gnolls had retreated from all four city walls!

This momentarily stunned Arthur; it was different from what he expected!

He then guessed that this was merely a feint by the Gnolls, but this hypothesis was quickly dismissed by Arthur himself.

Because half an hour later, Arthur, who had taken over the defense of the North City Wall and was still on the wall, noticed that Northern Bulwark City, which should have been as bright as day, was significantly dimmer than it had been thirty minutes prior.

Arthur immediately understood the reason: Light Magic Scrolls and some illumination items have a time limit.

Therefore, the Gnolls' previous retreat was because they did not want to give up their night vision advantage. They wanted to wait until the moment the illumination items inside Northern Bulwark City were exhausted before launching a real attack!

But even if Arthur understood, it was useless, because soon after, the Gnolls attacked again.

Their attacks were genuine, but as soon as the Light Items in Northern Bulwark City were used to a degree that minimized impact on human vision, they would retreat again.

This could be called an Open Conspiracy! It continuously consumed Northern Bulwark City's Light Items.

But the people of Northern Bulwark City dared not stop using the Light Items, because if they didn't, the Gnolls, who held the visibility advantage, would inflict huge casualties upon them.

As time moved into the latter half of the night, the Gnolls had already attacked and retreated six or seven times, consuming most of Northern Bulwark City's Light Items.

The rapid consumption of Light Items was mainly due to the fierce nature of the Gnolls' attacks tonight—they truly looked like it was a fight to the death!

Much fiercer than last night!

It was impossible to tell that they were capable of continuous retreats.

This forced the people of Northern Bulwark City to constantly maintain the brightness around the city.

As for Arthur, his Portable Shop did not carry illumination products, nor had he purchased many such items himself, so he had no good solution!

As time entered the latter half of the night, the illumination around Northern Bulwark City was forced to dim significantly!

Outside the city, Kenchi saw that the time was ripe, and with a fierce look on his face, he said ruthlessly:

“Proceed according to plan!”

“Yes!”

Responding to Kenchi were eighteen Gold Knights. They were all leaders of various tribes within the Gnoll Legion, and currently wore expressions of readiness to die.

Following that was a brief silence, and then the silent pack of wolves departed in groups!

On the city wall, Arthur, Karona, and Chris stood together.

Four thousand Crossbowmen and Shield Soldiers were evenly distributed across several miles of the North City Wall.

The newly summoned Gold Knights and twenty Golden Sharp Berserker Cavalry served as support troops, constantly patrolling the North City Wall, rushing to reinforce wherever the attack was fiercest.

The two Mountain Giants, Zog and Zoffy, stood directly outside the city wall, intercepting the attacking Gnolls as much as possible.

This formation allowed Arthur to withstand wave after wave of Gnoll attacks tonight without a single death, only a few dozen Shield Soldiers and Crossbowmen were injured.

The Gnolls, however, sacrificed at least ten thousand men; the achievement was remarkable!

Of course, this was normal for Arthur's lineup, perhaps even low!

But Arthur couldn't help it; the Gnolls also had brains. Seeing that Arthur's side was extremely strong, they didn't fight to the death.

Instead, they split off twenty thousand of their original fifty thousand troops and transferred them to other directions, rendering moot the idea that Arthur was specifically defending the North City Wall where the most Gnolls were concentrated.

In response, David and the others had nothing to say about the suddenly increased number of enemies, only accepting their bad luck.

Afterward, the remaining thirty thousand Gnolls in the north didn't fight desperately, even seeming somewhat perfunctory, which resulted in Arthur's battle achievements not being overly brilliant.

Therefore, even though the illumination around Northern Bulwark City was now considered dim, Arthur had no special reaction to the Gnolls attacking again.

He continued to watch their attack calmly.

But a few minutes later, Arthur sensed something amiss and asked the two people beside him:

“Are there fewer experts among the Gnoll troops?”

Arthur's strength was still somewhat low; although he noticed something was wrong, he couldn't be sure.

So he sought confirmation from Karona and Chris, whose strength was greater.

Hearing this, Karona and Chris felt a chill run down their spines, and at the same time, they carefully probed the auras of the twenty thousand-plus Gnolls currently attacking.

The final conclusion shocked them:

“There isn't a single Gold Knight level individual, and only two Silver Knight level ones!

The last attack had two Gold Knights and nearly twenty Silver Knights. How could so many be missing all at once!”

After saying this, Karona and Chris realized the situation was serious. The Gnolls had likely gathered their strong individuals for a sudden assault on a specific city wall.

And the most likely place for the sudden assault...

The South City Wall had consistently been attacked by only twenty thousand Gnolls, so the defense personnel there were the fewest and the most relaxed.

Thinking of this conclusion, the three spoke in unison:

“The South City Wall!”

Guessing that the South City Wall was highly likely to be suddenly attacked by the Gnoll experts, Arthur quickly took out the magic communicator he hadn't yet returned to David and called him.