Chapter 656: Retrea (2/2)
“The first wave lasted three hours?” Qianye sighed. This far exceeded his expectations. This also proved just how mad the dark race offensive was. If it wasn’t for the heavy casualties to their viscount grade core fighting force, the dark race army might continue fighting until the entire fortress had been destroyed.
Qianye looked back at the fortress below and saw nothing but ruins. The wall was all but destroyed with no potential for temporary repairs. A large part of the stronghold had become a frightening mix of corpses and rubble. There were a number of Zhao clan soldiers among them searching for survivors. No one cleaned up the battlefield because the lucky survivors were taking this precious time to rest and wait for the next wave of attacks.
Qianye had formed a general idea with just a glance. He lowered his voice and asked, “Our casualty rate should be over half, right?”
Song Zining nodded and replied in a similar tone. “It’s sixty percent to be precise.”
“We won’t be able to survive the next wave at this rate. What do we do?” Qianye inquired.
The situation was so bad and even Song Zining had been wounded so gravely. Qianye alone couldn’t hold the entire fortress.
Song Zining wasn’t in a panic. “We do need a change of plans. I’ve requested reinforcements from the rear, support should arrive soon.”
Qianye nodded as he sped up his movements, removing several other pieces of metal from Song Zining’s back in one go. The latter couldn’t help but let out a cry despite his endurance. “Qianye, you remember this!”
His cries were soon drowned out in the sharp whistles and violent explosions occurring in the sky. Several assault airships were rushing over under the guidance of two corvettes, drawing the curtains of battle once more. On the ground, the reorganized dark race army arrived like the rolling waves. The entire fortress was soon drowned by the dark race tide.
Qianye patted Song Zining to indicate that he was done. Afterward, he jumped off the cannon turret and smashed into the dark race horde like a boulder. Everyone around him collapsed in an instant.
The slaughter had begun once more.
This time, the dark race assault was even more violent. This time, viscount grade experts operated in groups. After pushing Qianye back, they began uprooting the cannon turrets in the fortress. The new tactic was apparently quite effective—two turrets were destroyed in the blink of an eye and the situation became extremely perilous for the humans.
However, this wave of attacks had just rolled out when a peculiar whistle echoed in the sky, and numerous high-speed imperial airships appeared on the battlefield. They possessed great firepower and managed to destroy over half of the Evernight assault airships in a single volley. The remainder could only flee in desperation.
The dozens of cannons on these warships bombarded the ground ferociously and soon paved a pathway of corpses. The airships moved rapidly and soon arrived in the air above the fortress. One of them quickly descended and hovered above the fortress. Another high-speed transport quickly opened its hatch and released numerous mini-airships from within.
These small vessels looked rather crude and could barely fly straight. Some of them even swayed about and crashed to the ground. Once on the ground, the dark races swarmed over in an attempt to capture it. However, these airships erupted in an earth-shattering explosion just as they were tightly surrounded by dark race soldiers!
Blood, flesh, and limbs flew everywhere as numerous flaming balls arose on the battlefield, later turning into rolling smoke. After the explosion calmed down, numerous spaces had been cleared out on the battlefield—thousands of dark race soldiers had been turned to ash.
After witnessing this scene, the dark race soldiers who were about to rush toward the remaining small airships were frightened. They didn’t dare approach and only shot at them from afar.
The warships hovering in the air opened up their doors and threw down dozens of cables. The Zhao clan soldiers on the turrets climbed up the cables rapidly and in an orderly fashion. In the blink of an eye, all the warriors on the turrets had more or less boarded the ship—they even had the leisure to load those expensive ballistae onto the ships.
Song Zining boarded the warship at last and shouted, “Qianye, quick!”
Qianye scaled a cannon turret from the outside, leapt out dozens of meters, and grabbed onto a cable. With some more effort, he was soon standing inside the airship.
The airships quickly left the battlefield, leaving only a single airship to bring up the rear. Moments later, that powerful airship crashed, burning, into the Evernight army below. The explosion that followed was tremendous.
Even though the ship was minimally staffed, there were at least dozens of people on them. These soldiers were aware that they were destined to fall, but they still charged at the enemy without a second thought.
The airship was completely silent, including Qianye and Song Zining. Everyone was gazing at the ball of fire receding into the distance.
The retreat this time was extremely efficient. It was as though the surviving defenders had been snatched back from the bloody maw of the dark race army. At almost seventy percent, the casualty rate among the ordinary soldiers was fairly high. However, the force of officers and champions was largely intact. Most importantly, the two most important people in the fortress had returned safely. In the eyes of the upper echelon, this was called “basically no loss in fighting-power” and could be considered a victory for the defense force.
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