Chapter 97: Atad City’s Offensive and Defensive Warfare in the Rainstorm Night (Part 1)

Chapter 97: Atad City’s Offensive and Defensive Warfare in the Rainstorm Night (Part 1)

In order to prevent Demon Princess Andrea from triggering evil spirits to descend from the sky, Sacred Moon Knight Verly controlled her mount silver dragon to soar into the sky and fight against Demon Princess Andrea mounted on a three-headed demonic dragon. At present, both parties were in a mutual confrontation. The dragon knights themselves had yet to make a move, and it was only a contest between their mounts. The three-headed demonic dragon and silver dragon used magic attacks that collided against each other, creating magnificent magical explosions. Because of the foul weather on this night, the residents of Atad on the ground basically didn’t notice this scene.

The silver dragon was not good at physical attacks; thus, it deliberately kept a distance between them. From the beginning to the end, it maintained a certain distance from the three-headed demonic dragon and used magic to fight a guerilla war against its opponent, giving priority to kiting tactics. Although the three-headed demonic dragon wanted to close the distance, it was unable to keep up with the silver dragon’s speed, so the battle rhythm was controlled by the smaller, weaker silver dragon. The flight speed of the three-headed demonic dragon was similar to the silver dragon’s, but its two extra heads caused it to be slightly inferior to the silver dragon in terms of agility. By employing lots of tricks, the silver dragon was able to maintain a lead. If it wanted to catch up with its silver opponent, it could only seize a chance when the opponent made a mistake.

Demon Princess Andrea was a Demonic Dragon Knight. She was a famous general of the Demon Race who had led many expeditions throughout the years. It was very difficult for an ordinary human Dragon Knight to occupy any advantage against her. Verly, however, was one of her old opponents, so she could persist far longer. If an ordinary Dragon Knight mounting a flying dragon had been in Verly’s place, then Andrea’s mount, the three-headed demonic dragon, would have easily killed the opponent’s mount.

“Verly, while you are desperately guarding everything up here, the people below have already started killing each other. Is this worth it?”

“Shut up, you demoness. Don’t talk nonsense.”

“I’m telling you the truth. Sometimes, demons are a lot more straightforward than you Human Race. At least, we disdain lies. Besides, even if I have no chance of triggering evil spirits to descend, the city below will be destroyed because of an Undead calamity. This is predetermined. You are powerless to change it.”

“I don’t understand what you are saying. Sorry, I am an ordinary Dragon Knight, nothing more.”

In the end, Andrea was unable to cause Verly’s mentality to waver; thus, she could only fight against her to the end. Because there were no other human Dragon Knights in the vicinity, Andrea had dared to penetrate deep into enemy territory without any of her subordinates accompanying her. She herself was accustomed to this. In the past, Andrea had carried out a sneak attack on a human fortress by herself. She took advantage of the gap when human dragon knights had gone out to patrol and inflicted heavy losses to the heavily-guarded human fortress by herself, which had become a topic of discussion among the human armies on the frontline. Afterward, the Dragon Knights had stopped patrolling and permanently stayed behind in the base camp to guard against this fearless Demon Princess.

The “celestial battle” in the sky didn’t affect the ground battle for Atad. Steinbeck Fief’s army took advantage of the foul weather and heavy downpour to initiate their attack on Atad. The later generations would call it the War of Atad. Atad’s suzerain, Earl Harrison, had over 20,000 defending troops in his hands. They were well-equipped, twice in number than Steinbeck Fief’s troops, and with the addition of arrow towers and those fortifications, originally occupying an absolute advantage.

However, the abominable rainstorm made the defenders on Atad’s city wall slack off, and many sentries went to take shelter from the rain. They stayed indoors and warmed themselves by fires; basically, they didn’t pay any attention to the defense. The arrow towers and Magical Chemical Cannons were drenched by the rainwater, losing their efficacy in the short term. As for the few diligent guards still standing on the city walls, shadows quietly approached them and used daggers to cut their necks from behind. After being beheaded, they would directly fall from the city walls, but because of the rainstorm, the sounds of falling corpses was not heard by anyone.

The assassin team led by Miss Jenny used hook claws exclusive to the assassin profession to successfully climb up the walls and quickly kill off those few guards who were still scrupulously fulfilling their duties. Their progress was faster than expected. If there had been no rainstorm, Jenny might not have been able to kill so many guards without suffering any casualties. In addition, she would also have been unable to assure that they wouldn’t be discovered by the defending troops.

“You few will come with me to Earl Harrison’s residence and prepare to reinforce Lord Clyde. As for the others, go open the gate. Even opening just one would be enough. After the gate is opened, ignite a torch above the city gate to give directions to our people. Our victory or defeat will depend on this.”

“We subordinates understand.”

According to the plans decided beforehand, Jenny quickly divided the labor. She dispatched most of the members of her assassin team to go open the city gate. Then, she led her trusted assassin maids towards Earl Harrison’s residence. Clyde had especially instructed her to only bring her female subordinates. After learning the matters of Hal’s mysterious basement, Miss Jenny could roughly guess the intentions of Clyde’s arrangements.

The assassins didn’t need to spend too much effort to successfully open the city gate and ignite the torch to signal since there were no defending troops left on duty. They had probably thought that just closing the city gate would be enough in this kind of foul weather. Immediately, Steinbeck Fief’s army outside the city saw the flame signal and began to march towards it. Princess Natalie pulled out her sword and raised it to signal for the entire army to begins its path to war. Thus, under her command, the army entered Atad.

Although there was over twice a two times difference in numbers between the two sides, Adelaide Kingdom’s defending troops were spread out over a defensive perimeter. In addition, because Earl Harrison was hosting his birthday banquet and Young Master Hal’s wedding, a lot of influential officials of Clark Alliance had come to participate. In order to protect these honored guests, more than half of Earl Harrison’s troops had been assigned to the suzerain’s residence. In fact, there were only roughly 10,000 troops or so defending the city walls, which was the same number as that of Steinbeck Fief’s army. Furthermore, as a surprise attacker, Clyde’s side had the initiative.

“Who... ah!”

“Damn it! It’s an enemy attack. Quickly fire the signal.”

“The haystack is wet. It won’t burn.”

“Sound the alarm bell. Quickly!”

The troops defending the city walls finally noticed Steinbeck fief’s army; however, it was already too late. At this moment, half of Steinbeck Fief’s troops had already entered the city, with a good portion spreading out to take over the city. When the defending troops finished climbing the arrow towers to block the advance of these intruders, they discovered that their fancy arrow towers were useless since all the bows and arrows were drenched. In addition, those Magic Chemical Cannons that had originally been used to deter even the most fearsome enemies had all been eroded by the rain water, making them useless for the time being. Because of their carelessness, they had missed the best phase to block this attack, so both sides could only fight a melee battle.

Under the baptism of the rainstorm, the troops of both sides began to fight in close quarters in the vicinity of the city walls. After losing their defensive works and facing similar numbers of troops, Atad’s soldiers now stood on the same starting line as Steinbeck Fief’s. Princess Natalie led her troops to make a breakthrough in one direction. Taking advantage of the moment when Adelaide Kingdom’s defending troops had yet to completely encircle them, she struck the unreinforced defending troops at this area.

The intense collisions of cold steels were covered by the rainstorm. Although the battle experience of Adelaide Kingdom’s defending troops was far richer than Steinbeck Fief’s troops, in the dark, rainy night environment, their superior experience couldn’t be displayed. In addition, since they had suffered a surprise attack, they didn’t have any advantages against these new recruits of Steinbeck Fief.

The melee battle between the two sides had nothing to do with experience, it was purely a primitive battle without any military tactics. Soldiers would attack anyone they saw with the enemies’ uniforms. Princess Natalie brandished her knight sword, slaying dozens of Adelaide Kingdom’s soldiers who blocked her way. During the entire process, she didn’t even bat an eyelid; there was no hesitation at all on her part.

Princess Natalie carefully looked around her. After staying beside Clyde for a long time, under his subtle influence, she could sense resentment auras. Now, a large number of corpses had already appeared on the battlefield, and the resentment of both sides’ soldiers was ever increasing. With so much resentment, it would be very easy for an evil person with ulterior motives to initiate a black magic ritual. In the past, Clyde had told her and Jenny that Atad’s Earl Harrison’s third son Hal was an Undead Shaman. If he utilized all this resentment, it would be troublesome.

“Lady Natalie? The enemy troops are encircling us. Should we disperse pr meet them head-on!”

“Eh, sorry. I was just thinking about something else. There’s no need to disperse. Just push forward towards the Earl Harrison’s palace. Make them follow our tempo.”

The subordinate’s timely voice brought Princess Natalie back to the battlefield. Princess Natalie immediately gave her next command. After clearing up her head, Princess Natalie felt that she might be overanxious. Even if an Undead calamity was truly triggered or even some other black magic was used, the strongest dark existence here was, without a doubt, her Master Clyde. When the time came, Clyde could easily settle everything, Princess Natalie didn’t need to worry about it. Her primary duty was to concentrate on the battle against the defending troops of Adelaide Kingdom.

In Earl Harrison’s residence, Clyde stared at the night sky from the open corridor, watching the battle between Demonic Dragon Knight Andrea and Sacred Moon Dragon Knight Verly. He was the sole spectator of these two princesses’ battle. He had to admit that watching the battle between two beauties was a peculiar enjoyment, especially when Demon Princess Andrea’s entire body was such a beneficial sight. Fighting in the rainstorm, they were already wet, and their drenched appearances easily made people involuntarily think crooked things.

Clyde acted very leisurely. In accordance with the planned schedule, Miss Jenny should be just arriving at the palace. Glancing around, he could sense that the troops guarding Earl Harrison’s residence had suddenly increased their patrolling rounds. Those soldiers who had originally wanted to take shelter from the rain were in an alert state due to the strict orders of their superiors. The matter of the city walls encountering a surprise attack had already been transmitted to this place. After all, with a battle involving 20,000 or so people, it was very hard to remain oblivious to it.

“Lord Clyde, I have led my people here.”

“Jenny, you came. Is the operation going smoothly?”

“Everything is going well. Merely... the battle has already started on the city walls. After we snuck in, the guards’ vigilance around this place was greatly strengthened. In fact, we were almost unable to reach here. What is the next plan of action? I have brought a few dozen people.”

“Come with me. I already have a plan.”

Clyde turned around and saw Miss Jenny wearing an assassin profession-specific black nightdress as well as all those beautiful female assassins following her. These maids held the concurrent position of being bodyguards and assassins. At that time, they had submitted and pledged allegiance to Clyde, following Miss Jenny’s example. Under the baptism of the rainstorm, Jenny’s party was also drenched; fortunately, they wore black nightdresses. Even though they were drenched, they weren’t exposing too much, just the rough outlines of their alluring figures was drawn.

When Clyde looked at Miss Jenny and others, they were somewhat nervous. Their faces covered with night veils become bright red because their embarrassment. Clyde wouldn’t want them to do strange things, would he? Now, Jenny was wearing those exposed appeal style gem undergarments Clyde had gifted her, which increased that shameful feeling.

“Lord Clyde, you...”

“Jenny, you can all come to my room. There’s no need to be nervous. It’s not a strange request.”