Chapter 125 - Evacuation

Zaos waited for his turn, but the siege weapons didn't move. While his spells probably could reach the targets one kilometer away, the real problem was the accuracy. Zaos had zero confidence that he could hit them.

It didn't take long for the mercenaries to reach the wall and began to attack the gates and put ladders on the walls. Most of the archers began to fire at the army in front of them, but some others dropped stones on those that tried to climb. They also tried to drop the ladders, but some snipers were hidden among the mercenaries and firing arrows specifically at them.

"Attack them, Zaos," Verkan said. "There is no point in saving mana when they are this eager to climb the walls so soon."

Zaos nodded and immediately picked the location of several snipers. Hitting them was quite difficult since after firing, they would disappear amidst the army. Still, Zaos could do something to solve that. Zaos fired a strengthened Fire Sword, and when the projectile hit a random mercenary, it exploded, and the flames began to burn several soldiers nearby. Slowly dying thanks to fire was quite dreadful, but that idea didn't stop Zaos.

When the number of snipers decreased, some archers began to target Zaos, but he escaped from their sight by moving above the wall. He could easily escape from their radar just by moving around while crouching.

When the climbers began to approach the top of the wall, some soldiers dropped hot oil and boiling water on them. Some archers also fired fire arrows, and that quickly spread the destruction. Zaos tried to forget about that, but the smell of human flesh burning made him sick.

"I don't have time to think about this, when I am the one putting dozens of them on fire," Zaos muttered.

While Zaos was thinking about that, he saw some soldiers carefully moving a battering ram amidst the army. They didn't want to make the weapon to be noticed, but that was quite impossible. Zaos concentrated and fired a strengthened Fire Sword to the siege weapon, and he hit it. However, the weapon didn't burn… but it emitted a lot of steam.

"Fire it again, they used water and snow to wet the wood," Verkan said.

Zaos obeyed, and even though some soldiers tried to block his path, they failed. The Fire Sword hit the battering ram, and it quickly began to burn. Zaos sighed in relief, but then he felt shivers again when he saw a rain of magic arrows flying toward his position.

Verkan acted fast and protected them both with a shield, but some others didn't have the same luck. Some followers of the demon god were hidden amidst the mercenaries, and it looked like they wanted to get rid of some troublesome archers, captains, and soldiers like Zaos.

"Sir! The mercenaries entered the town!" 

"What? How?" Verkan asked.

"They crossed the frozen river while we were focused too much on the battle near the gates."

"… Take twenty men and go guard the place, choose another twenty and make them follow the other side of the wall," Verkan clicked his tongue and then said it."

"Things aren't good, sir," Zaos said. "What can we do to change the tide of the battle?"

"Nothing aside from what we are already doing," Verkan said. "A siege is a battle of endurance, kid. If we endure for long, we win, if not… There are no magic tricks that can change the tide of a battle of this scale. Just focus on doing what you are doing."

Although Verkan looked as if he was trying to calm down Zaos, he also looked quite troubled, as if he knew the mercenaries still had tricks up their sleeves. Regardless, Zaos resumed his position and tried to eliminate troublesome groups of enemies with his strengthened Fire Sword. Still, while dozens were killed thanks to his flames, the tide of the battle didn't change even a little bit. Fewer soldiers in the walls began to die, but the resources they were using were about to run out. Rocks and the oil they had separated to use had already been used to its last drops. The only thing they had in droves were arrows.

Upon noticing that the invasion was taking longer than expected, the enemies decided to use their siege weapons. Three siege towers approached, but Zaos made those burn. In the end, they decided to use the maximum range of their catapults. After three tries, Zaos managed to burn one, but two others fired a weird ball of flames that exploded when it hit the ground inside the town. Dozens of soldiers were caught in the flames…

Zaos hurried to take them out, but before he managed to do that, many other soldiers and places inside the town were on fire. Even without a battering ram, the mercenaries were causing plenty of damage in the Eastern gate, so it was only a matter of time before it fell and the fight inside the town started.

After losing a few siege weapons, the mercenaries decided to put them away since Zaos already destroyed some, and until now, the soldiers were unable to kill him. At the same time, the soldiers that were close to the walls assumed defensive positions. The battlefield became a sea of shields, while the mercenaries close to the gates were still attacking with clubs and other massive blunt weapons.

"Give the order to everyone to evacuate," Verkan said to a random soldier. "We will fight inside the town now; it is unavoidable and we don't want to let civilians get on the way."

Soon after, Verkan made Zaos and half of the archers on the walls to leave the walls. The soldiers positioned themselves in several groups alongside the area because it would be easier to fight the massive wave of enemies if they decrease their numbers by creating several human fighting barriers.

Then it finally happened… The gate was destroyed.