Chapter 325: Breech

The siege machines of the Eldor army continually battered against the sturdy walls of the City of Syan. Each hit sending tremors through the reinforced material, each hit weakening its durability just a touch more.

The defenders tried to destroy the large weapons, yet the soldiers of Eldor were no fools. They held back some of their more potent defensive treasures and warriors to protect the siege weapons, knowing that their survival was imperative to the swift success of their assault.

At the same time the towering siege towers drew ever closer to the walls. The defenders tried to focus fire on them, they tried to foul their tracks, to set them ablaze. Yet their efforts were foiled at every turn.

The attacking army was competent, they knew their weak points and as such they knew how best to both utilise and protect them.

And so eventually the massive towers reached the walls of the city, their drawbridges lowered and human soldiers came rushing forward to clash blades with the defenders.

They surged forwards, spearheaded by a formation of Lords and backed by a stream of tier 3 fighters and mages.

The Lords were there to secure a foothold, to take the punishment that awaited them when that drawbridge was lowered and allow for their weaker brethren to conduct the main assult.

Naturally the defenders understood the ramifications should Eldor managed to secure a foothold on their walls. As such they ensured that they would have appropriate forces to deal with the incoming attack.

Around each siege tower a cohort of powerful Lords and multiple teams of tier 3’s awaited the arrival of the soldiers. When the drawbridge was lowered they unleashed hell on those that dared to invade their city.

The air crackled with magic as attacks were launched, explosions rang out along the walls.

Steve, the scout that was a part of Masin’s team, stood atop the walls as he stared at the siege tower that had just now stopped before him, its drawbridge lowering to slam into the parapets in front of him.

He had been assigned to defend against this tower, alongside 9 other Lords and dozens of tier 3’s. His bow was raised and drawn, a powerful alchemical enhanced arrow knocked.

His magic swelled as wind swirled around the drawn string, moving to encompass the entirety of the arrow alongside it. When he finally laid eyes on the soldiers emerging from within the tower Steve released the string and watched with grim satisfaction as his arrow shot forwards.

Steve had aimed to strike behind the front line, wanting the explosive aspect of his arrow to hit the front liners in the back whilst maiming or hopefully killing several of those stacked up behind them.

His plan worked out perfectly.

The front line stood strong with shields raised, they had expected a rain of attacks to strike them, they had not expected for attacks to intentionally avoid them to hit those behind them.

That proved to be a fatal mistake for those closest to the impact point.

When the arrow struck the second line of attackers the inside of the siege tower was suddenly lit up in incandescent blue flames. The arrowhead he had used was formed from a rare material found in the core of volcanoes, it contained the concentrated heat of said volcano when exposed to sufficient force.

That threshold was more than met when the arrow stuck the breastplate of the tier 3 soldier.

The eruption of incinerating heat washed over the entire assult group. 4 of the 10 Lords instantly found themselves burnt to a crisp, the rest only suffered anywhere from major to moderate burns as their metal armour turned crimson with absorbed heat.

The tier 3’s, they were the true casualty. Over 30 tier 3 warriors had lined up on the top floor of the tower, ready to charge out. Not a single one of those men was left alive, with over half of them being simply reduced to ash from the wave of incinerating heat.

A moment of silence rang out at that section of the wall as the defenders looked on in horrified awe at the sheer level of destruction wrought. That daze was broken when the cries of pain started from the maimed Lords still alive.

Steve, who had been equally horrified by the level of destruction that arrow had caused, snapped out of his daze the fastest, instantly calling out to his men and fellow defenders.

"Finish them off! We cannt have them reclaiming this tower!"

At his words the Syan defenders rushed to respond. Steve himself knocked another arrow, this time a regular arrow and fired it at one of the Lords with the least burns, his arrow slotting into the eye slot of his helm and putting the man down.

From there his section of the wall managed to push into the tower, holding the ladders leading up and preventing the humans from gaining any foothold here.

Saddly this situation was not a common occurrence along the wall.

In some places it was the soldiers of Eldor that held the advantage, they had managed to push out onto the wall. Their Lords able to hold back the concentrated fire long enough for their rank and file to pour out in great enough numbers to pose a significant threat to the defenders.

Those section of the wall swiftly became a blood battleground. Tier 3’s being thrown into the proverbial meat grinder, Eldor sent its men and women forward with reckless abandon. Seemingly uncaring of how many of their soldiers die, so long as they secured a foothold the Lords commanding them did not care.

Out of the 8 siege towers only 2 managed to secure a solid foothold on the wall propper. 3 of the towers were fully repelled and the defenders successfully held back the assault in their section. The last 3 however, showed no clear sway for either side.

The battles in those last 3 towers was and even stalemate as tier 3 soldiers died whilst the Lords held the line.

That was also the time when the battle in the air began to change for the worse.

Whilst the flying beastkin put up a commendable fight, they were simply outclassed when fighting a battle against the true rulers of the sky. The might of a trained dragon and their powerful riders was too much for the Syan elites to withstand by themselves.

Soon they began to drop from the sky one after the other. Their numbers rapidly dwindling as they fought desperately to hold the swarming dragons long enough for the two dragons on Syans side to defeat the lead dragons themselves.

Of the two friendly dragons, Vithrax was struggling to finish off his opponent. Not to say that he was weaker than the yellow dragon, quite the opposite in fact. With Olivia’s defensive abilities coupled with his own image fire, the yellow and his rider were near incapable of truly harming either of them.

What was causing the issue was simply how slippery the yellow was in the air. Vithrax was unable to close the distance fast enough to catch the dragon in a mele fight.

The yellow constantly managing to stay just out of reach of Vithrax’s mighty form. The acid dragon was still taking damage, both Vithrax and Olivia able to send out a few potent spells, but neither of them specialised in ranged combat, allowing the yellow to mostly withstand their assult, at least long enough for reinforcements to likely arrive.

It was Rhyana that was having the most success in her own battle.

Thanks to Susan’s dome of bubbles, the silver dragon was unable to successfully escape, whilst no reinforcements could successfully enter without suffering severe damage to themselves.

That coupled with the silvers seeming lack of options to deal with Rhyana’s rapid movements and powerful attacks, caused the silver to rapidly accumulate damage at an alarming rate.

It would not be long before the second dragon of the battle would be fallin to the ground. This time it would be one of the two commanders of the dragon flight.

All this time the siege weapons continually attacked the city walls.

Where originally they had aimed all across the wall to maximise damage dealt to the barrier, now they were beginning to narrow in their aim to a single point.

That point being the eastern gate.

The gate had been heavily reinforced prior to the battle starting, layers of stone had been risen from the ground to block off the enterance.

However, mundane stone, even when summoned forth with a skill or magic. Was simply incapable of withstanding the concentrated fire of over a dozen siege weapons for any length of time.

It did not take long for th first layer of stone to be shattered, unveiling the grand wooden gates that stood flush with the walls.

Then the stones and ballista bolts impacted the gates themselves.

The enchanted gate doors endured for some time. Yet by the time that Rhyana stuck the finishing blow on the silver dragon, roaring in triumph, the gates could withstand no more.

With an explosion of magical force the gates practically imploded as their enchantments failed.

A gaping hole now stood in the wall, a gaping hole that the soldiers of Eldor would not allow to remain empty for long.