61: Defeating the Orcs

Minotaur Kote, observing the sudden situation from a thousand meters in the sky, couldn't help but frown.

The number of Grand Magus on the human side was even smaller than the Sky Knights, with only two, so the probability of encountering them in war was very low.

The Beastmen's trebuchets had almost always been successful in previous battles against humans, provided they didn't encounter a Grand Magus.

Now, they were actually being suppressed by Mountain Giants!

After careful consideration, he sighed, realizing that Mountain Giants were simply too rare. They hadn't seen them before, so they lacked detailed corresponding intelligence, and never expected Mountain Giants to be capable of such tactics!

Moreover, judging by the speed at which the Mountain Giants threw a stone sphere—one every five seconds—there wouldn't be time for the trebuchets to reload two minutes later.

It was estimated that more than half of the fifty trebuchets on the north and west sides would be destroyed by those two Mountain Giants.

Compared to the displeased Kote, Flynn, who was also in the sky, laughed heartily:

"Haha, I knew this kid would have a way!"

...The Beastman commanders on the north and west battlefields of Initial City, upon seeing the Mountain Giants' rapid, five-second attacks,

knew that the trebuchets were no longer very useful. If they weren't withdrawn quickly, they would be completely destroyed, resulting in a huge loss.

Knowing that these massive items were difficult for the Beastmen to manufacture, they quickly ordered the trebuchet units to withdraw them.

A little over a minute later, the Beastman trebuchet units on the north and west sides managed to retrieve the trebuchets into their spatial equipment, at the cost of nearly twenty machines.

Seeing this, Zog and Zoffy quickly headed toward the south and east battlefields of Initial City. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, the Beastmen's trebuchets in those two directions had also mostly been withdrawn.

It seemed the Beastman commanders understood that continuing to use the trebuchets was worthless and wasteful, so they had all been put away!

However, even without the trebuchets, the Beastmen's attack did not stop. They quickly rushed to the defensive trench fifty meters outside the city walls.

Water was scarce in the Barren Plains, so Initial City did not dig a moat but instead dug a defensive trench fifty meters wide and fifty meters deep.

The defensive trench encircled Initial City. The bottom of the pit was filled with sharp wooden stakes three meters long. If a regular Beastman fell in, they would either die or be seriously injured.

However, even though this giant pit was like an abyss, it couldn't stop the Beastmen's advance. They had long prepared countermeasures from previous battles with humans.

Although there were no magic-based classes among the Beastmen, meaning they lacked Advanced Earth Elementalists who could cast spells to fill the pit.

But spatial equipment perfectly solved this problem. As long as enough rocks were placed inside the spatial equipment, they could walk up to the pit and dump the rocks in, thereby filling the giant pit.

At the same time, Arthur's Earth Element Masters and some Earth Elementalists in the city would not watch the Beastmen fill the giant pit.

Once the giant pit ceased to be an obstacle to the Beastmen, they would cast spells to remove the filling rocks.

Just like this, both sides continued their tug-of-war!

However, because the mages' magic power was limited and recovery speed was slow, they would not remove the rocks in the pit unless the situation was critical.

Only when the Beastmen crowded every corner beneath the city walls would they remove the rocks in the pit, cutting off the subsequent flow of Beastman reinforcements for a period of time.

This meant that after half a day of fighting, the Beastmen's attack on Initial City was still inconclusive.

Only a few Silver rank and higher Beastman experts managed to charge onto the city walls, but they were quickly repelled or killed by corresponding human experts.

Furthermore, during this half-day period, Arthur's twenty thousand crossbowmen shone brilliantly.

The gale repeating crossbow requires half a minute to load, after which it can fire three rapid shots consecutively.

During the five hours of the Beastmen's attack, if the twenty thousand crossbowmen fired at full capacity, they could shoot a total of twelve million bolts.

Yet the total strength of the Beastmen this time was only two million.

Even though the new Boar-people and Minotaurs were tall and strong, the bolts shot by the gale repeating crossbow, as long as they didn't hit vital spots like their heads or hearts.

A hole the width of three fingers might not be fatal, leaving them enough strength to continue attacking, but three shots would certainly be enough to kill one Beastman.

Such fierce firepower meant that when the Beastmen charged up to the walls of Initial City, virtually every one of them died.

Out of the three hundred thousand Beastmen who died in battle this half-day, more than two hundred thousand were killed by Arthur's crossbowmen.

This caused the Beastmen to resent the crossbowmen of Initial City to the extreme, and even generated a certain degree of fear. After half a day, the Beastmen were already somewhat afraid to charge.

Previously, the Beastmen naively believed that Arthur's magic crossbows could not fire continuously for long periods, but now, after suffering massive casualties, that naive idea was finally exhausted.

Seeing this, the Beastman commanders knew they could no longer force the attack. They sounded the retreat, preparing to study a way to counter Arthur's crossbowmen before fighting again.

Seeing that the Beastmen were actually frustrated and retreating, loud cheers erupted throughout Initial City.

The people next to Arthur, including David, the other lords, and some soldiers, all looked at him with eyes full of admiration.

Because they knew that the Beastmen's massive losses this time were primarily thanks to the twenty thousand crossbowmen under Arthur's command.

Furthermore, the number of human casualties this time was much smaller than expected, totaling less than ten thousand.

Besides the ferocity of the crossbowmen, this was also due to the twenty Magister-level Life Mages Arthur had dispatched.

These were items Arthur had duplicated before he even arrived at the Barren Plains.

Life Mages were excellent healers. With them present, as long as a soldier wasn't killed instantly, they could generally be saved once brought down from the city walls.

However, due to the intensity of the war and the preciousness of the Life Mages' magic power, the injured soldiers were only healed by sixty percent.

The remaining magic power was saved to rescue more people.

This measure also significantly increased Arthur's prestige in Initial City.

Arthur comfortably accepted the gazes of the crowd, then said:

"While the Beastmen are retreating, quickly arrange for rotating shifts, and let the soldiers who fought for half a day and expended a lot of energy go rest and eat a meal."

"Yes!"

Compared to the joyous crowd on Arthur's side at Initial City.

On the Beastman side, their generals were gathered in a huge tent, all looking grim and depressed, as if their parents had died.

In just half a day, the Beastmen had actually lost three hundred thousand people. This meant that if they continued fighting like this, they would all be wiped out in less than five days!

In this oppressive atmosphere, the Beastmen's temporary commander, Gnoll Henke, spoke:

"We must find a way to counter the humans' magic repeating crossbows, otherwise, we won't be able to break through relying only on ourselves!"

All the Beastmen understood this principle, but how easy was it to block the attacks of magic weapons? Silence fell over the tent once more.

If they had abundant resources like the humans and could manufacture huge iron shields, they might be able to block the attacks, but they lacked the necessary metal resources, so this method wouldn't work.