For the army, the real trouble was never the small Corpse Ghosts transformed from ordinary people, but the giants that were usually rare to encounter yet now stood in a row, swinging bone clubs at the Great Wall.
Crossbow bolts loaded with gunpowder could blast large holes in the giants’ bodies, but at the cost of soldiers’ lives. Moreover, the nature of Corpse Ghosts meant they wouldn’t collapse from a few holes. The holes ordinary soldiers stabbed were even smaller; to the giants, spears were like steel toothpicks, only causing brief pain. Oh, and they were Corpse Ghosts, so they probably couldn’t even feel pain.
Setting aside the fifty-meter-tall Strange Ghost and the one seated atop a Giant Mammoth, Lita already knew who her greatest enemy was now. She couldn’t use the Dream Demon’s abilities, but she had another part of her power available, and against Corpse Ghosts, it was a dimensional crushing blow.
Thinking this, Lita ran toward the nearest giant. A golden mist coated her Silver Sword with a thin layer of light. With a swift swing of her sword, one of the giant’s legs was severed at the knee joint. The power of the Crest eroded the wound, making the giant let out a painful howl as it raised its hand to slap at Lita.
Lita had already turned around while the giant was falling, meeting its swinging hand head-on. She brushed closely past the giant’s hand, and its fingers were sliced cleanly off at the root by a streak of gold and silver blade light. The thick fingers fell like stone pillars, crushing a group of Corpse Ghosts. Before the giant could react further, Lita jumped onto its neck and thrust her sword into its spine.
The giant struggled a few more times, but its movements had slowed greatly. Seeing the giant on the verge of death, several sergeants immediately gathered around, using spears and sharp swords to pierce its skin, revealing white bones underneath. The soldiers tore open the giant’s flesh and dislocated its joints, leaving it only able to howl incessantly, kicking up snow dust, until it finally stopped moving.
Done. Although they had only taken down one giant, it was a good omen.
While Lita attacked this giant, the several Rangers were not to be outdone. They galloped past the giant’s feet, circling their sharp swords around the giant’s ankles. With its leg muscles severed, the giant’s foot gave way and it fell to the ground. The Rangers returned again, each adding more wounds to the giant’s body. In just a few passes, one giant had been dismembered into pieces.
Amazing. Lita’s judgment of these Rangers had not been wrong. The name “Rangers” sounded like small fry, but in fact, the Northlands had only over a dozen Rangers in total. By sending a full four to escort Saixiliya, Leanna had shown great respect. If the Holy Knights were one of the kingdom’s highest combat forces, then these Rangers could definitely be called the Holy Knights of the Northlands. Although their individual combat power might not be as strong as these Crest Knights, they were still the elite of the elite.
Setting aside these Rangers, Shirley’s battle was also worth Lita’s attention. Unlike Leanna who used a Longbow, she used a pair of Armored Gauntlets. Fighters who used gauntlets usually won by strength, but human strength was insignificant before giants, completely incomparable. Even so, Shirley used her unknown Monstrous Strength to tear apart a giant with her bare hands.
Even though the soldiers had suffered heavy losses, with Shirley, the Rangers, and Lita joining in, the battle situation wasn’t too terrible. But it was only not too terrible; judging by the soldiers’ shouts, the current situation was still far from optimistic.
“Damn it, reinforcements? Reinforcements?!”
“They’re blocked! Coming down through the Arrow Slits like this is too slow! Many brothers died before even reaching the battlefield!”
“Can’t you open the gate? Open the gate!”
“No! Once we open the gate, the Corpse Ghosts will flood in!”
The giant Strange Ghost over fifty meters tall was still attacking repeatedly. Although its attacks wouldn’t actually cause the Great Wall to collapse, each impact greatly hindered the soldiers on the wall from counterattacking and providing support, and most of the newly deployed Defense Equipment had been damaged.
‘Damn it, these guys came prepared. Isn’t this combination sealing off all our defensive routes?’
That’s right. Unable to use Defense Equipment and unable to open the city gate, the battle situation was still too passive. Moreover, the Strange Ghost holding a Battle Axe and adorned with bones hadn’t made a move yet, forcing Lita to allocate some attention to guard against its sneak attack, making the battle feel restrictive.
Although Lita wasn’t very knowledgeable about military tactics, she had experienced several battles, large and small, and deeply understood the impact of the enemy’s strategic intentions on her own situation. The commander of the Strange Ghost side must have planned ahead, specifically to create this situation.
But where was Lord of the City Brandon? And Second Princess Rosalia and her Personal Knight Brownie? Why weren’t they here? As Lita fought, a chill more biting than the cold around her rose in her heart. Could it be that even their absence had been accounted for?
“Lord Snow! The enemy’s offensive is fiercer! We can’t coordinate front and rear! What should we do now?” A Ranger pierced a giant’s eyeball with his sword, directly pulling the ice-blue orb with nerves out of the giant’s eye socket, and took the opportunity to ask loudly.
“What about the Commander? Hasn’t the Commander come up with a strategy yet?” Shirley gritted her teeth, swinging her fists with all her might.
“No! There’s no response from over there!” a soldier replied.
“At this rate, we might be dead for sure!” another person said with a trembling, tearful voice, but never put down the weapon in hand.
To be honest, under the premise that the Defense Equipment was temporarily unusable, directly climbing over the Great Wall was an option, but definitely not the optimal solution. The advantage was that the giants’ offensive was temporarily halted; although many giants still attacked, they had bought a little time. As for the disadvantages, staying here was absolutely the most dangerous—being drowned by the wave of Corpse Ghosts or being hit by the prepared Defense Equipment—either was fatal.
“For the Northlands, even dying like this is worth it!” Shirley wiped her sweat with her frozen-hard sleeve and raised her Armored Gauntlets high.
This might be a romantic way to die, but Lita didn’t want to die here like that. There was a way not to die, and it wasn’t that hard—if she used her Wings, the twenty-meter-high arrow slit was no problem. However, the consequences of doing so were something Lita couldn’t bear.
‘Tch, I’ll just have to fight it out first.’
Whooom.
The sound of the War Horn rang out above everyone’s heads again.
“Retreat? Where can we retreat to in this situation?!”
“Look! Ropes! Ropes are lowering over there!”
“Are you an idiot? Climbing up the ropes would make us easy targets for the giants!”
“The city gate isn’t even open! That’s impossible to retreat!”
At the same time, almost all Arrow Slits simultaneously dropped ropes, and several soldiers had already grabbed them to descend. This action naturally did not escape the giants’ eyes. The Corpse Ghost giants roared and swung their bone clubs at the Arrow Slits.
Crash, crash.
They were easily smashed to pieces by the giants’ bone clubs, and black fuel oil splashed all over the giants. But what flew out from them were not people, but huge barrels. Several barrels had already fallen on the snow, crashing into fragments in a jumble.
Seeing what was inside, Shirley’s pupils immediately contracted.
“Get down! Everyone! Retreat to the foot of the Great Wall! Get down!”
As if responding to Shirley’s words, another melodious but low war horn sounded, and then Flaming Arrows poured down from the Arrow Slits. Explosions echoed continuously, instantly blowing away several nearby Corpse Ghosts. The flames ignited the giants’ bone clubs drenched in Black Oil, and immediately spread to the entire giant’s body.
The flames, completely incongruous with the ice and snow, began to rise, dispelling the bone-chilling cold and bringing a completely opposite scalding heat. For a moment, they added a speck—no, a patch—of orange to the world of silver white and blood red.
Several giants all let out roars, wanting to continue attacking, but were forced back by the Wall of Fire that had risen on the ground, stretching between the soldiers and them. Another retreat war horn sounded. This time the soldiers did not hesitate, grabbing the ropes and kicking off the icy wall of the Great Wall to climb up with all their might.
“You go! Rangers, cover the rear!” Shirley shouted commands. Lita could tell she wasn’t cut out for command, but in such an emergency, she still stepped up.
A full seven Rangers responded to Shirley. The others Lita didn’t recognize were presumably the Garrison originally stationed near the Great Wall. Including Shirley, the eight of them spread out, brandishing their weapons to hold back enemies trying to cross the Wall of Fire. Shirley’s judgment was reasonable—let the strong cover the rear to preserve the full force as much as possible.
“Lita, you go back first.” Shirley stood beside Lita and found that Lita said nothing, simply gripping her sword and standing next to her ready to resist the invading enemies. She couldn’t help but be slightly surprised.
“It’s fine. I can’t die.” Lita replied.
Shirley displayed the typical forthrightness of the Northerners and nodded firmly. “Good!”
The fire grew smaller, but only a few Rangers had climbed up the wall. Lita and Shirley’s combat abilities were outstanding, and as long as the two Strange Ghosts didn’t act, Lita had full capability to protect herself, while the pride of the Northerners made Shirley unwilling to hide under others’ protection. Therefore, the two stayed until the end.
“Go!”
“Good!”
The two acknowledged each other and were about to retreat when they saw a huge fist coming straight at them, completely covering their original path. It was that Giant Strange Wight—it had also noticed their formidable combat power and wanted to keep them here.
The huge fist dragged on the ground, raising a layer of icy mist. Not to mention retreating, even seeing the scenery ahead was extremely difficult. When the icy mist from the fist subsided, the ropes had been crushed into thin strips by the force, probably unable to bear the weight of two people anymore.
What’s more, thick snow dust was rising in the distance. Something was continuously approaching the Great Wall from afar.