The Sword and The Shadow

Wall Breaking (1)

"What did… you say?" Alissanda looked like he had seen a ghost. What did Annelotte mean by opening another gate?

"How many magic cannons does the force have now?" She didn't answer his question.

"We took around 20 with us this time around," he said, taken aback.

"Have the cannoneers stop randomly firing. Focus it on the walls--" She pointed into the distance. "--I want to hit that spot. Make sure they concentrate fire!"

"But… Miss Annelotte, that's solid wall, you know. Are you certain…"

"Yes, she plainly said, "Just give the order."

Seeing how confident she seemed, he turned hesitant.

Fort Kesta was built in a crucial and strategic location. Stok had built the fort according to the strictest defensive protocols. Apart from the weakness of not having a spatial disruption formation, the defenses of the fort was top notch. Other things aside, the walls that were tens of meters in height alone was enough to make the enemy relinquish the thought of destroying it by just looking at it.

Yet, Annelotte seemed to be saying she could use a couple magic cannons to destroy a whole wall.

It didn't seem like it could work out at all, but instinctually, he felt there was a possibility.

After all, he was dealing with a miraculous prodigy. From the information he had so far, there was nothing beyond her at the moment. Even the crimsonflame fiend, Saron, had died by her hand, so what else could possibly be beyond her reach?

Perhaps there would be some things she couldn't do, but at the very least, anything she was certain about was likely to be the case. Since she said she could destroy the walls.

Should I trust her? If it worked, all was well. If not, not only would they waste large amounts of firepower, they would have an even harder time driving back the enemy forces who were trying to retake the gates. In other words, failure to destroy the walls meant failure to take the fort back and their losses would no doubt be horrendous.

What choice should he make?

"If you hesitate even longer, the members of the strike team will all be gone. Lisana aside, I'm worried that even you will come to danger. Make up your mind!" She ignored him after saying that.

Alissanda looked at the waves of Stokian soldiers and grit his teeth as he settled on a decision.

He took out a jewel from his dimensional pocket. It could be used to transmit messages. While he was now in the strike team, he still had command over all the forces in the area and he could give concise orders with the aid of the jewel.

"You should know that this is no game we're playing, right?" he yelled her a warning.

"If you think I'm playing around, feel free to stay here all you want." She could leave at any time with her students using a transference spell anyway. Had it not been for Leguna's request, she wouldn't have bothered helping Alissanda out at all! She was clearly no fan of trouble.

Though he didn't feel too good about being chided like that given his princely status, his years of upbringing kept him from throwing a tantrum. He gave it a little more thought and decided to go with her suggestion.

He whispered some orders into the jewel.

"So it's in place?" Annelotte dictated Oxen Might and Leopard's Speed for the strike team to help them with their defense. She sounded really calm as if she didn't care much for his questioning and doubt at all.

As she had predicted, every single member of Goldeagle was his precious subordinate. Given that the ones that joined the battle were all elite members, the death of each one would be nothing short of torture to him. They were his brothers in no stretch of the word.

So, he accepted her suggestion after five minutes of thinking things through. After all, she wasn't someone who was all bark and no bite. She had confidence and proved herself with actual action.

That was why he was willing to go with the bet. He knew that she was most likely correct anyway, at least, he believed Annelotte would deliver on at least nine out of ten promises. The odds were good enough.

"That's right. I've got it done. Ten minutes later, you'll gain command of those 20 cannons," he replied calmly. One strength of his was he wouldn't regret a decision after making it and instead focus on perfecting the situation with all he had.

"Alright. Tell the cannoneers to shoot towards the bright spot on the walls."

"That's all?" Hearing that only made him feel less confident about the whole thing.

"That's all. Fire at the spot nonstop and break part of the wall's structure. Leave the rest to me. Each cannon only has to fire about three times," she said before she used the flight spell and flew towards the location she wanted to bombard.

"What in the world is she…" He still didn't get what she had planned. The firepower of the magic cannons was limited. There was no way the walls could be breached with them alone.

He continued to casually slash away at the Stokian soldiers absentmindedly. Then, he saw a bright white light covering the location Annelotte mentioned beforehand.

It was a level-three blast flash spell. It was quite effective against the dark elves in their domain, and now, it made a good target for the cannons to fire at.

The magic cannons' roar resounded a few minutes later. However, they weren't firing randomly at buildings. This time around, they focused all their shots on one spot.

The crimson-red fireballs flew through the skies like meteors towards the point Annelotte specified. They collided and exploded into a cloud of smoke and dust.

The effects of the cannons weren't that pronounced. Fort Kesta was built with the toughest kind of stone, so they weren't that damaged despite the seemingly terrifying barrage.

Annelotte used another blast flash spell, which signalled that she was satisfied with the first barrage. They only had to continue doing the same thing.

The 20 cannons fired one after another nonstop at the walls. From afar, it seemed like a meteor shower was raining upon them.

Another flurry of explosions rang out. The night sky was so brightly illuminated it almost seemed like noon.

Though Alissanda had seen the power of magic cannons first hand quite a number of times, he still felt a little taken aback by the power of the cannons Annelotte had a hand in modifying. He even started to believe that they could actually pierce the walls.

However, he had underestimated something apart from the toughness of the walls and the strength of the cannons.

When the series of explosions waned, he saw strong flames burning and covering the walls. Thanks to further innovation by Annelotte, the formations the magic cannons were equipped with had an additional burn effect. The flames would last until the magic energy was all used up.

Yet, however strongly the flames burned, the walls wouldn't crumble from just that. Despite the cracks all over the walls, he knew that no man would be able to cross it through them.

There were only two ways to achieve something like that: sheer power and intricate control. One had to be able to control the cannons like their own two hands.

Without control, perhaps one would need absolute destructive power. He was really curious what tricks she had up her sleeves.

Just as he was trying to imagine all sorts of scenarios, an icy blue figure rose into the skies. Annelotte looked at the walls as if she was trying to analyze something. A few minutes later, she began her dictation.