The Defense of Eclahim (4)
Thud.
A massive, armor-clad body toppled over. The fallen corrupted warrior, nearly three meters tall, left behind a substantial amount of experience points.
“How… how did you take down a great warrior in one blow?”
“I watched from afar. He was rambling on and on. I thought he might be a spellcaster. You know, with spellcasters, you have to take out the head first.”
”…”
“Oh, were you planning to interrogate him by lulling him into a false sense of security? If I interrupted, my apologies.”
Craig’s eyes wavered, not because of the apology, but because he found himself smiling despite his confusion.
Yes, this is what adventure is all about, Craig thought. Dalen noticed the strange gleam in Craig’s eyes and chuckled softly.
”…”
With his insides torn and a potion poured over him, it was a wonder Craig was still conscious. Dalen decided to focus on his breathing and half-closed his eyes.
Dream Pursuit
Gray-White Map
In his mind’s eye, the vast battlefield unfolded like a black-and-white minimap.
The first wall had completely fallen into enemy hands. The wall, crumbling in places, had lost its function. The flag of the Tsar’s kingdom was lowered, replaced by the banner of the evil god, Suum.
Barbarians cheered atop piles of corpses. Their vanguard was already advancing into the densely packed city between the first and second walls.
‘Perfect timing.’
Confirming there were no survivors on the wall, Dalen pulled a crystal orb from his pocket. He spoke into it.
“Byorn, it seems the time is right. Are you ready?”
[The Gla… I mean, the Claymore operation? What a mouthful. What language is that?]
“My native tongue. All allied forces have retreated to the rear. The walls in the vicinity have fallen to the enemy, so prepare immediately.”
[Preparation’s been done for a while now… sheesh.]
From the other side of the communication orb, the grumbling of the one-eyed master craftsman could be heard.
[I thought I liked explosives, but you take it to another level. Using the wall as ammunition to set a trap… Is that the kind of madness needed to break through the fifth rank?]
“Enough chatter. Light it up.”
[Heh heh… Alright. A battlefield with a blizzard, perfect weather for a bomb.]
The communication cut off. Craig, who had been listening, wondered if his ears were deceiving him.
Using the wall as ammunition? Perfect weather for a bomb?
As he pondered, Dalen, who had pocketed the communication orb, approached. He extended a hand.
“I know it’s tough, but you need to get up. If you don’t want to die, we have to leave now.”
“What do you mean…?”
“I’ve realized something. Gaining experience isn’t about being a warrior or a spellcaster.”
Dalen muttered with a serious expression. His strong grip lifted Craig effortlessly onto his shoulder.
“I should have chosen a crafting profession. Poured all resources into gunpowder skills. It’d be even better if I could buy the Dwarf Rune Magic DLC.”
”…?”
“You might feel a bit dizzy. You’ve lost a lot of blood, so you might faint for a while.”
With those words, Dalen’s body shot upwards.
Boom!
The ground shattered beneath his feet as he soared, the sound of stone breaking following in his wake.
Boom―!
Before he could step on air again, a similar sound echoed from somewhere below.
“That’s quite the sound for a fuse,” Dalen remarked. Craig, clutching his dizzying vision, looked down at the wall.
The outermost wall, five meters high. Large rune symbols glowed on the inner wall.
“Is that…?”
Craig wasn’t a dwarf, but he knew a bit of runic language. The runes, densely inscribed along the wall at intervals of several meters, primarily signified explosive power.
Words that meant greater explosions, massive detonations.
“Oh, you can read runes?”
“Yes, a little…”
“Most shortcomings in gunpowder technology can be compensated with rune magic. Adjusting the direction was tricky, but the master craftsman is no ordinary craftsman.”
Dalen grinned. Who would have thought he’d use modern Earth’s trivia here?
“Once I explained the basic principles, he implemented them flawlessly. To be called a hero in these times with just craftsmanship, you’d need that level of genius.”
Even in a game with high freedom, there were applications that couldn’t be attempted due to various constraints.
As he climbed rapidly to a dizzying height, the grand landscape unfolded before Dalen’s eyes.
Thud…
The fuse, buried deep in the ground beneath the sewers, finally reached its destination with a series of explosions.
Crack…
The rune-inscribed wall ominously cracked, bulging outward toward the city.
Amidst the barbarians, confused shouts erupted, but it was too late.
Once set in motion, not even the one-eyed master craftsman could stop the outcome.
Rumble…
A sound more akin to thunder than an explosion echoed first from a section of the bulging wall.
Crack──!
The runes inscribed along the wall flickered wildly, signaling the final seconds of a countdown.
And then, the explosion happened in an instant.
Boom!!
The five-meter-high outer wall crumbled in a moment.
Thousands of tons of stone, accumulated over decades, became a storm of massive debris, surging outward from the city.
Even the barbarians, half-transformed by the power of the evil god, had no choice but to be swept away by the merciless wave of force.
Torn apart and swept away, becoming one with the storm.
Boom!!
Simultaneously, the aftermath of the explosion, which spewed thousands of tons outward, swept inward as a massive wave of fire.
The hundred-meter stretch of cityscape between the outer and middle walls.
The barbarians advancing there were suddenly engulfed by the fiery storm, reduced to bone fragments.
[Turam.]
[Valquer.]
[Statia.]
The wave of fire, not content with sweeping the cityscape, surged toward the second wall. It was halted by the combined spells of the royal mages.
Whoosh…
The moment the extreme frost wind from the wall met the massive wave of fire, the clash of cold and heat triggered a secondary explosion.
Boom…
“Argh!”
“Ugh, ugh!”
The corrupted barbarian survivors, half-melted by the heat, were reduced to dust by the renewed explosion.
Rumble…
The eight-meter-high middle wall. All that remained before it was a melted wasteland.
The outer wall had become a shrapnel bomb, the inner city a fiery inferno, belching deathly smoke.
At a glance, it seemed as if the Tsar’s kingdom was on the brink of defeat.
But sacrificing one wall to inflict near-annihilation on over a hundred thousand corrupted barbarians was not a bad trade.
‘The outer wall, lacking defensive measures, was of little use in a full-scale battle against the monster army.’
Standing in the sky, overlooking the burning land, Dalen gathered his thoughts and turned toward the rear wall.
The battle was far from over.
In the sky above, Suum’s dark clouds clashed with Charina’s domain, and to the north, where the surviving barbarians fled, the main demon army awaited.
Two direct subordinates of Suum, along with dozens of demons leading the monster army.
Having swept away the first wave of corrupted barbarians, they would soon advance directly.
And that would be the final great battle of this war.
Craig, perched on Dalen’s shoulder, had fallen asleep at some point.
“Officer, wake up.”
”…”
Or perhaps he wasn’t asleep. He didn’t respond when called.
Dalen left Craig with the nearby medical unit and moved on. He arrived at the innermost part of the triple walls.
Being the rearmost, it was the largest in scale, effectively a fortress in its own right.
Inside the thick stone walls were various support facilities, including supply depots and medical units.
This was also where Felber’s mercenary mage unit was stationed.
A grand hall where four hundred mercenary mages waited in teams.
Passing by the mages meditating in preparation for the battle, Dalen approached Felber, who stood by the window, watching the outer wall.
“Have you been watching all along, old man?”
“Indeed. It’s not that I didn’t trust you and Byorn’s plan… but as you age, you tend to worry about everything.”
Felber closed his eyes gently. Beyond the window he gazed through, the land beyond the middle wall lay melted, as if swept by lava.
“Facing such a massive army without magical support, I thought we might need to rush to aid. But once again, I underestimated you.”
“In your position, it was only natural to be prepared. So, what do you think after watching?”
“Impressive,” Felber replied.
“I knew gunpowder was a remarkable new invention, but I didn’t realize it could be this powerful until today. This could change the entire landscape of warfare.”
“Still, it’s not yet as efficient as deploying a battalion of mages or transcendents directly. Only someone like Bjorn, with the massive support from the Tsar’s nation, could pull off something like this.”
“True enough. And they had to sacrifice an entire wall to achieve it.”
Felber nodded, slowly lifting his eyelids.
“But things went as you planned. Thanks to that, our magical forces remain intact.”
His brown eyes scanned the mages waiting in the hall. Over the past week, Felber had spent most of his waking hours training and coordinating them.
The mercenary mage battalion was composed of mages from towers across the continent, or those who had come without any affiliation. Yet, their skills were undeniable. The very fact that they had made it to this distant northern land, navigating the chaos of war with their frail bodies, was proof enough of their capabilities.
Originally, they were meant to be deployed to overwhelm the endless hordes of corrupted barbarians with sheer firepower. The fact that this force had been held back until now spoke volumes.
“The key to this battle isn’t just wiping out the corrupted barbarians. It’s about how we handle their main force, centered around the demons.”
Unlike gunpowder weapons, which can be fired almost indefinitely, mages lose their combat effectiveness once their mental energy is depleted. However, unlike the purely destructive gunpowder weapons, mages offer endless versatility and specialized capabilities.
To conserve this power, Dalen had stationed only minimal forces at the outer walls, retreating them at the right moment to turn the walls themselves into traps.
In the days since they had shaken off the clutches of the Dark Moon Order, Dalen and Bjorn, with Charina’s approval, had been focused on executing the Cremaore operation, a trap they had painstakingly prepared.
Now, the time had come to use the forces they had so carefully conserved, to face the approaching main enemy force.
“The dust is settling,” Felber observed, looking out the window again.
The waves of stone had turned a vast area into a wasteland. The dust that had risen, blanketing the area for hundreds of meters, was finally beginning to settle. Two pairs of eyes, one golden and the other glowing with blue magical energy, easily pierced through the haze. Felber stroked his beard.
“They’re coming. Cautious, but showing no signs of retreat.”
“Then I should be going.”
“Are you really going through with that plan?”
“If we don’t want the walls and the city to be completely destroyed in a fight with the demons, it’s the only way.”
“Watch my back,” Dalen added lightly, quickly checking his weapons and armor before placing a foot on the windowsill.
Without hesitation, he leaped, his warrior’s form soaring through the air, clearing the dozen or so meters to the ground below.
The archmage watched him for a moment, then picked up the staff leaning against the wall. The crystal at its tip resonated softly with golden magic, awakening the meditating mages one by one.
As Dalen moved beyond the middle wall toward the shattered first wall, Felber murmured quietly, “I’ll create a battlefield where you can fight with confidence.”