And finally, Tuban capture battle commenced.
The commander is ‘Violent Runner’ Fernel. From different clans, she had brought fifteen hundred soldiers.
The reinforcement is the Queen of Vampires, Mereen. She is partic.i.p.ating with her three hundred Grave Wax soldiers which were summoned in advanced.
Teacher, the Great Sage Gomoviroa is also partic.i.p.ating along with thousand skeleton troops.
I too followed bringing my treasured two thousand skeleton troops.
Total count is close to five thousand troops.
The population of Tuban we are facing is five thousand.
The bow cavalry, who also work as palace guards, are estimated around one fifty to two hundred. Because I defeated fifty of them previously, so they had a considerable reduction. The bow cavalry can’t be replaced so easily.
Although there would be quite a number of citizen soldiers, but the total number is unknown.
a.s.suming half of the population to be males, and if further half of them are healthy young men, then at least there would be a thousand more.
From what I have heard, Tuban citizens know how to use crossbows, and so it is a gathering of archers.
And so, the first problem is the impregnable fortress, which Tuban is proud of.
It is higher than the castle walls of Ryun Height, and everywhere it is filled with large crossbows. It can fire large arrows consecutively, and easily shoot down anything, be it a horse or a castle siege weapons.
I want to say as expected of an industrial city, but is it even possible to capture it without a surprise attack.
“It seems the encirclement has been completed.”
Beside me, Technical Officer Krutz mutters. He is responsible for handling the gunpowder, the one they call as ‘Dragon’s Breath’.
To blow up the castle gates at the critical moment, I had him come.
This town is thoroughly secretive, so to monitor the comings and goings of the people, there are only two, one in the north and the other in south. So it is enough to predominantly block each.
The one to capture the north gate are the sacrificial thousand pieces of skeleton soldiers and three hundred Grave Wax soldiers. And following which, the one thousand five hundred Jinba soldiers would rush inside the city.
Mereen-senpai should be looking after the two thousand skelton troops encircling the north gate.
The moment encircling was completed, Fernel sent the messenger recommending them to surrender.
But before the Jinba soldier carrying the letter of Fernel could reach the castle gate, he fell receiving concentrated attacks from crossbows.
I see, they don’t seem to have any intention to discuss at all.
As the unarmed messenger was killed before their eyes, the Jinba race soldiers are in a rage. It seems like they won’t stop until they see blood.
Fernel is waving her spear from a little distance away.
“Senpai! Bone, please!”
… Behave a bit more like a commander. Well it’s fine.
Nodding, I make hand signs and chant the spell.
“Returned from the gates of Gevena, you who, declined from the gates of Hauran.
Behold my right hand. This becomes the freezing sun.”
It’s the usual chant to use the dead.
By the way, Gevena is the world of darkness filled with the dead, and Hauran is the world of light leading to rebirth.
I don’t know which one is better, but let me have them do one thing.
When the skeleton soldiers responded to my voice, I order them to advance.
“Group number one, prepare s.h.i.+eld in advance! Anti-air defense formation!”
All the sounds become uniform, the skeleton soldiers put up their s.h.i.+eld.
“Target, Tuban North Gate! a.s.sault with highest combat speed!”
The five hundred skeleton soldiers holding spear and s.h.i.+eld, simultaneously started attacking.
Immediately, arrows were fired from the castle walls of Tuban. As feared, the firing range is long. It would hit. It would hit.
The skeleton soldiers are holding up the s.h.i.+eld in defense but that s.h.i.+eld itself was skewered. However invulnerable the skeleton troops may be, once the spinal cord is smashed, they can’t move their body.
But even if the ribs are broken to the extent of shattering they should still be able to move without any inconvenience, so they have a good compatibility with the arrows.
Since they were slow, half of them were already defeated as they barely managed to reach the castle gates, but this is not a big loss.
If the same had been done by the Jinba soldiers, then it would have been worse.
“It’s a war of attrition.”
Because Krutz muttered anxiously, I nodded.
“For now, we have to endure, but little by little we will follow next.”
After confirming that Fernel is waving her spear again, as planned I ordered the second wave of attack.
The second group advances towards the place where the first group has gathered near the castle gate.
Somehow, I remembered the tower defense game I played a lot in my previous life.
Although right now, I am on the attacking side.
The first group of skeleton soldiers is half destroyed with the violent counterattack from enemy, but the second division did not receive such resistance.
It would be like that only. Even the large crossbow string is stretched with human power. If they shoot too much, they would be tired and eventually there would be failures.
And then in the second group, Mereen-senpai’s specialty Grave Wax soldiers… in other words white waxed zombies are slipped in.
More and more it is like Tower Defense, but these guys are the leading actors this time.
The Grave Wax soldiers, being dehydrated, are a variant of the zombies with possibility of long term preservation. But there is a disadvantage that they are easy to burn.
However the defect can become the strong point.
The Grave Wax soldiers that reached the castle gates escorted by the skeleton soldiers, started self-destructing according to the prior setup.
Since it is far from here, it is not clearly visible, but it surely is a splattering scene.
Perhaps the great door of the castle gate is sticky with oil.
Since it is a large dried plank of a tree, it should absorb a lot of oil.
But I can’t still be careless.
It would be bad if the Tuban side know what we are planning. If they make the gate wet with large amounts of water, our plan would go out of order.
That’s why, deliberately using this kind of roundabout way, we are showing that we are attacking pointlessly.
I can’t do these kind of things with live soldiers, but with bones and zombies, no need for any reservation.
They don’t have feelings or soul, they are just corpse puppets.
Since the groups I command are already gone, along with Krutz, I regrouped with Fernel’s Jinba troops.
“Senpai, thank you!”
“So far, it is going according to the plan. Also, stop calling me that way.”
It just remains to set fire to the oily castle gate, but because of the shooting range of arrows, we can’t get close to shoot fire arrow.
There, it’s Teacher’s turn.
Firing a lightning attack, she would ignite it with electricity.
At least if there are copper wires, it would be much easier, but it can’t be helped since there are none….
The Great Sage Gomoviroa, in not more than a few minutes, with a difficult expression on her innocent face, is chanting the spell.
“Vaito-dono, what is Gomoviroa-sama doing?”
Unable to control his curiosity as a technician, Krutz asks me in a low voice.
The spell Teacher currently chanting is not the lightning spell.
To tell you the truth, the destruction magic in this world is not much useful.
Mostly because the magic is ‘Centered at oneself’ and ‘Follow the general laws of physics at the time of activation’, if someone uses without thinking, then the user himself would receive most damage.
To prevent that, various spells are required to control it, but compared to doing such a sluggish move, it’s faster to strike with a sword.
I didn’t understand the contents of Teacher’s spell, but can roughly make a guess.
“She is creating a path for the lightning.”
“Path of lightning, is it?”
I have heard that just before the lightning strikes, in between the thundercloud and earth’s surface, path of lightning is made by the ionised atmosphere.
Inside the thunder cloud, the electric charge is divided up and down verti… what was that? Forget it.
At any rate, if lighting magic is casted without any thought, it may strike someone’s armor in the demon army. That’s why it should be guided.
“She is at the point where she is defining the aim such that it would exactly hit the castle gate. If it isn’t done, then it is unknown where it would strike”
“I see…”
Technical Officer Kurtz enthusiastically started taking memos.
“Vaito-dono, can you use that magic?”
“It was impossible…”
Please don’t make me remember that.
“Hmm, yes. It’s time.”
Finally securing the path of lighting, Teacher started chanting the lightning magic immediately.
This took just an instant. It’s sufficient to just tamper with the magic in the surrounding, and convert it to electric energy.
As she finished chanting, Teacher waved her wand.
Along with a bluish-white light, a thunderous roar, which can make the atmosphere vibrate, mowed down the surrounding.
