An eagle soaring in the clear sky folded its wings and landed in the military camp of the Ayyubid Empire.
He stretched out his arm to let the eagle perch on the horsehide arm guard, and the military commander untied a small copper tube several centimeters long from the eagle's ankle and hurriedly ran towards Saladin's tent.
Saladin took the copper tube from the guard, opened the seal, and carefully read the note inside. His previously furrowed brows relaxed.
"It has finally come."
Standing to his left, Ilem asked in confusion, "What's here?"
"According to reports from scouts in the north, the Kingdom of Muxi has dispatched a cavalry regiment of three hundred men, which has crossed the border and is rushing toward Lonely Rock City."
Ilam curled his lip: "A cavalry regiment of three hundred men? Sending such a small force to charge Latib's army is a sure way to get them all back."
Saladin looked at him with amusement: "What if these three hundred cavalrymen were all those black-armored knights you've seen before?"
Elam's expression froze.
Saladin looked at his general and said earnestly, "Now you should understand why I insisted on preventing you from taking Lone Rock City, right?"
Ilem suddenly realized: "You want to use the Kingdom of Muxi to get rid of..."
"If you know, then stop talking nonsense!" Saladin slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "Notify all troops to prepare for a general offensive!"
Elam stood up excitedly and replied loudly, "As you command!"
The long, drawn-out sound of horns rang out from the Ayyubid Empire's army, instantly spreading throughout the entire battlefield.
Meanwhile, on the inner walls of Lone Rock, Regent Jennings was discussing the upcoming battle with Randall. A sudden horn call forced them to stop their conversation and turn their gaze to the Imperial army at the foot of the mountain.
“I saw flags waving there. Could the Southerners be gathering troops?”
After hearing Randall's words, Jennings shook his head, quite puzzled: "Those guys down the mountain have been very quiet lately, there's no reason for them to suddenly..."
Before he finished speaking, a barrage of artillery fire came from the foot of the mountain, and a few seconds later, countless black dots flew into the sky.
"It's artillery fire!" Randall grabbed Jennings by the collar and pulled him behind the city wall.
Before anyone could react, iron balls the size of bowls rained down from the sky, creating a "rain of cannonballs" over the inner city.
More than a dozen guards who were unable to dodge were smashed to pieces on the spot, their flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Jennings sat behind the city wall, dodging the flying pebbles, and shouted, "Take cover! Archers, up to the walls!"
After a round of shelling, the sound of muffled war drums and orderly footsteps came from the foot of the mountain. Randall looked through the peephole and was immediately shocked by what he saw, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Hundreds of towering giants, each two meters tall, wearing masks resembling demons and carrying massive iron shields weighing thousands of pounds, walked step by step up the winding mountain steps toward the inner city gate.
"Are these soldiers really human?" Jennings stared in disbelief at the giants, approaching the city gate step by step, and hurriedly ordered his troops, "Archers! Slings! Attack the soldiers with shields!"
A dense rain of arrows poured from the city walls, cascading down upon the massive, densely packed soldiers on the mountain path. Most of the arrows were deflected by the iron shields; occasionally, one or two would slip through the gaps in the shields and pierce the giants' bodies, but they could not cause any real damage, not even slightly slowing the attackers' advance.
As for the stones that hit the giants, they were like acorns falling on an elephant; at most, they could only make the soldiers sway slightly, and could not harm them at all.
The shield-wielding giants slowly made their way to the foot of the city wall amidst a hail of arrows and stones. They stood their massive shields upright to defend against the attack, then took spherical objects from their waists, lit them, and tossed them onto the wall.
As a round, smoking, and sparking iron ball rolled to his feet, Randall's eyes widened, and he shouted, "Bomb!"
Moments later, a series of intense explosions rang out on the city wall.
Caught off guard, the defenders suffered heavy casualties in the flames and the onslaught, with human remains and limbs covering the entire city wall.
Randall, who possessed the dragon bone parasite, shielded Jennings at the moment of the explosion, allowing them to roll down onto a haystack below the city wall and escape unharmed.
Soon, a second wave of projectile explosives was thrown onto the city wall, and the successive explosions completely shattered the defenders' will to fight.
Seeing this, Jennings stood up, looked at the tower atop the city wall, and shouted to Randall, "Take the remaining soldiers and civilians and retreat into the royal city; that is our last hope!"
Randall watched as Jennings rushed up the steps and ran quickly towards the tower, and hurriedly called out, "Sir, where are you going?!"
Jennings' voice faded into the distance: "Go buy you some time!"
Randall got up from the ground and saw two unexploded bombs not far away. He picked them up and put them in his pocket. Then, he found the remaining soldiers and told them to immediately inform all the civilians to retreat to the capital city of Lone Rock at the top of the mountain, which was the last refuge of the city.
Fifteen minutes later, Randall, standing at the gate of the royal city, watched as the inner city gate was engulfed in flames, his face pale and silent.
"Lord Jennings once ordered us to bury a large amount of oil beneath the inner city gates. This was meant as a last resort to take the enemy down with us..." a soldier with his head wrapped in bandages said sadly as he looked at the fire.
Barbara, her face covered in dust, walked up behind Randall and asked softly, "Lord Jennings, is it...?"
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com