CHAPTER 682

Game of the World Tree

【 CANNON FODDER 】

—

The Red Maple Kingdom army beneath the walls began to move, and the players stationed on the ramparts, along with the several thousand militia recruited through the efforts of the Heart of Nature missionary group, all took their positions behind the battlements, preparing to defend the city.

The ballistae were already drawn back to their limits, the barrels of the mana ore cannons were adjusted to cover the open field beyond the walls, and both magic firearms and bows were raised in unison as the defenders steadied their aim. A tense silence settled across the ramparts, as everyone waited for the enemy to move just a little closer, close enough for the order to fire to be given.

Yeye took his place among them and lifted his magic firearms.

Although his class was a warrior, making his mana capacity quite limited, that did not stop him from enjoying the thrill of firing a firearm while defending the city.

With wind howling past his ears and the red banners hanging high above the wall snapping sharply as the rising breeze caught them, the entire battlefield seemed to come alive.

Even the background music in the game, which had previously been a calm medieval city theme, shifted into the rousing melody of ‘For the Glory of the Goddess,’ making Yeye feel as though something deep within him had ignited, as if his whole inner being were suddenly surging with fire.

For a fleeting moment, he felt like the protagonist of this world, the sole hero of this war.

He tightened his grip on the magic firearm. His cheeks flushed with excitement, mixed with a hint of nervousness.

Although reason told him that this was only a game, the sheer scale of the approaching army and the raw primal impact it brought about still sent waves of adrenaline rushing through his body.

He could not help glancing at FacetheWind beside him and he found that the veteran was equally exhilarated.

“Brother Wind, didn’t you already participate in several wars like this before? You even fought in the war with the orcs. So why are you still this excited?”

Yeye teased him.

“Hey Coconut, this is different! We are fighting humans this time. Compared to the armies and cities of other races, fighting a human army is on a completely different level. Do you not feel that this is what a true medieval war should look like?”

FacetheWind replied while adjusting the angle of his ballista. Hearing this, Yeye subconsciously looked back.

His gaze swept across the medieval style scenery of Augsburg City behind him, then across the silhouette of Fort Forzel on the distant hill, and finally across the well equipped Red Maple Kingdom army gathering beyond the walls.

He nodded with deep agreement.

The entire scene was indeed breathtaking. It truly felt as though he were standing inside a movie, being part of the game’s grand and overarching storyline.

With that thought, he instinctively opened the system interface and pressed the screenshot button.

While Yeye was taking screenshots in rapid succession, he suddenly heard FacetheWind let out a low curse beside him.

“Damn it! As expected of humans. These NPCs are far smarter than the orcs.”

Yeye blinked, then followed the direction of the older man’s gaze. He saw that the Red Maple Kingdom army had halted before entering the effective range of the walls and the fortress.

Next, the human army began to change formation as rows of soldiers pushed wheeled wooden shields out from the formation and started advancing toward the city.

A quick glance revealed that there were more than five thousand of them.

Sheltered behind the makeshift shield carts, they steadily advanced toward the walls.

“Archers! Attack them once they’re within range! Ballistae units, target those shield carts and smash them!”

The commanding officer of the defense, All Stars Achan, shouted through the battlefield voice chat channel.

“Archers!”

Yeye steadied his breathing and held the magic firearms firmly as he prepared to fire.

The shield carts in front of the enemy formation continued to creep forward until they finally entered the range of the ballistae.

At that moment, Achan’s roar echoed once again through the voice chat.

“Ballista units, prepare to fire—Attack!”

With Achan’s command, nearly a hundred sharp whooshing bolts filled the walls.

The bolts streaked outward, each glowing with imbued skill.

While most missed their marks, but several successfully struck their targets.

The impacted shield carts shattered instantly, exposing the human archers behind them.

Even so, the enemies did not retreat. They either moved behind other shield carts or raised their shields and spread out as they continued advancing.

Soon, they reached the effective range for the archers.

“They are in range—Attack!”

The player commander issued the order.

Hearing the command, Yeye inhaled deeply and pulled the trigger on his magic firearms.

A chorus of thunderous explosions echoed along the ramparts, and streams of blue elemental projectiles shot outward alongside a rain of arrows toward the enemy archers below.

With the first volley completed, hundreds of human archers collapsed at once.

Even so, they did not stop. After advancing another hundred paces, they finally halted and began to draw their bows and began firing back at the ramparts.

Thousands of elite archers loosed their arrows in unison, and the players on the walls faced a terrifying hail of arrows.

“Holy crap! Guys! get a shield or find cover. Quick!”

FacetheWind jumped in fright.

Seeing the incoming arrows, Yeye and Nana scrambled to lift their shields as the approaching arrows darkened the sky.

When the arrows rained down, Yeye felt a heavy impact slam into his shield, nearly knocking him to the ground.

At that moment, he suddenly heard FacetheWind cry out beside him.

“Holy crap! Those are stone projectiles. Coconut, Nana, move!”

The urgency in FacetheWind’s voice made Yeye’s heart pound wildly.

A chill rushed up his spine as every hair on his body stood on end, as if something terrifying had fixed its gaze upon him.

A powerful sense of danger surged through him.

It was one of his skills, [Danger Sense.]

Without even lifting his head to see what was happening, he grabbed the girl beside him and threw himself to the side.

The instant they moved away, an explosive roar erupted behind them. A wave of scorching heat washed over him, followed by a storm of flying debris.

Yeye looked at the spot where he and Nana had been standing, only to see a large stone projectile had smashed into the wall, creating a deep crater. Bricks and stones were shattered, and cracks spread far across the surface.

Fragments of stone lay scattered everywhere with many still burning, as thick black smoke rose straight into the sky.

Seeing this scene, Yeye’s face turned pale.

He did not dare imagine what would have happened if he and Nana had failed to move in time.

Even though it was a game and he could resurrect, such a vivid and realistic scene brought him a shock that hit far deeper than what Yeye had initially expected.

Despite growing accustomed to the rhythm and brutality of the game after experiencing countless battles, but at this moment, Yeye still felt his throat tighten.

“It is a catapult. They are using catapults! Damn it, where is the city barrier? What is the guild doing?”

FacetheWind cursed.

Moments later, similar cries of alarm rose from every part of the wall.

Yeye looked up and saw burning objects streaking across the sky, trailing thick black smoke like falling meteors.

They arced downward and came crashing into Augsburg City with thunderous force.

Under Yeye’s stunned gaze, the projectiles slammed into various parts of the city. Entire houses collapsed in clouds of dust as explosions of fire blossomed in the streets and began swallowing everything in their path.

From the wall, the players could see the towns people running and panicking below them.

They could hear the cries of human NPCs, the wailing of children, and the screams of women.

Arrows continued to rain in from outside the walls and every now and then, a player or a militia member would be unfortunately struck down. The former’s bodies would slowly disappear, while the latter, would never move again after falling into a pool of blood.

Yeye even saw a few Silver-rankers, who normally toyed with magical beasts with ease, die instantly when arrows from unknown directions pierced their vital points.

Others suffered an even worse fate. Some were hit directly by the falling projectiles and not even a trace of their remains could be found afterwards.

The mix of blood and burning stench filled the air.

Looking around him, Yeye shivered and wiped away the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead.

He glanced at the players on the wall, still firing desperately toward the outside. Then he looked through a firing slit at the dense line of gray armored soldiers marching across the field.

He exhaled slowly, trying to calm the pounding in his chest.

At this moment, his hands were trembling.

Before the battle began, he had looked forward to this with great enthusiasm. Yet the moment it arrived, Yeye finally understood something…

When a game becomes real enough to blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality, the shock it delivers cannot be described with mere simple words alone.

In that moment, he felt a deep sense of insignificance.

In a war like this, no matter how strong a player was, in the end, they were still nothing more than another soldier among countless others.

Just then, as this all consuming despair began to overpower him, a loud cheer rose across the wall. Yeye instinctively looked in that direction and saw a golden pillar of light shooting upward from Fort Forzel.

The light surged into the sky and rapidly spread outward, forming a faintly golden barrier.

The barrier enveloped the entire city, leaving only a narrow gap of less than three meters in the vertical space above the walls.

Whistling sounds filled the air as more burning projectiles hurtled down. Fortunately this time, they struck the barrier instead, creating rippling waves of energy.

Moments later, under the glow of golden light, the projectiles disintegrated into ash and vanished completely.

“Hahaha. Thank goodness the barrier is finally up. Let us see how their catapults can do anything now.”

FacetheWind burst into laughter.

The older man looked up at the sky, then at the still stunned Yeye, and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Why are you standing all dazed Coconut? Get a grip! It’s normal to feel overwhelmed the first time you fight a big battle like this, you’ll get used to it soon enough.”

Yeye nodded.

He took a few steadying breaths, regained his focus, and lifted his magic firearms once more as he began firing again.

With the city barrier now active, the players on the walls felt far more at ease.

Although arrows still crossed the air in dense volleys, but at least they no longer had to fear something suddenly crashing down upon them from above.

Yeye fired wildly toward the soldiers below the wall.

He did not manage to hit anything and found himself regretting that he had not allocated points to the skill [Heart Arrow.]

After realizing their catapults could no longer damage the walls, the Red Maple army began to change their tactics again.

The sound of horns echoed, and their formation shifted once more.

A dense wave of soldiers broke off from the main army, carrying siege ladders as they marched toward Augsburg City.

“Heh. So they are now going for a direct assault? Not even using a siege tower? Coconut, get ready. This is the perfect time to rack up EXP points.”

FacetheWind laughed as he spoke.

Yeye nodded, took out a bottle of mana potion from his coat, and drank it in one gulp to restore his MP. Then he raised his magic firearms once more.

Outside the walls, the Red Maple soldiers charged toward the city at great speed.

They seemed almost crazed, shouting wildly as they rushed toward the wall.

Elemental bullets and arrows rained down from the players above. Human soldiers fell like wheat being harvested, yet even so, they did not slow their advance.

However, as the attackers approached the walls, Yeye frowned slightly.

The equipment on these soldiers was far inferior to that of the archers earlier.

Many of them were not even wearing armor. They were dressed in simple black, white, or gray coarse robes, with hoods or white headscarves. They carried only a single weapon in their hands.

“Is this a cannon fodder unit? Light infantry?”

Yeye muttered with a frown.

“Huh? These human armies use expendable troops for siege assaults too? Didn’t the intel say the humans typically conducted their sieges with heavily armored soldiers?”

FacetheWind beside him was also perplexed.

Here in Seigües, extraordinary power was the foundation of war. Thus, in most wars, expert combatants were always the core of an army.

Few sentient races used servants like goblins as expendable troops. Most races preferred heavily armored units composed of extraordinary experts when attacking a city.

This was especially true of humans, who were renowned for deploying heavily armored infantry units supported by siege towers.

Players had studied this in advance and therefore, had been fully prepared themselves for a bloody defense atop the walls.

So to see such poorly equipped soldiers now was entirely unexpected.

Even so, despite their crude equipment, the morale of these human soldiers was unnaturally high.

They seemed to have abandoned all fear of death. Even as they charged and died, not a single one of them turned back.

Their numbers were overwhelming.

One group fell, only for another to immediately take its place.

At last, whilst braving the players’ arrows and spells, the frenzied human soldiers reached the base of the walls.

They set up their ladders and began climbing upward.

“Coconut, get ready. They are coming up.”

FacetheWind warned sharply.

Yeye nodded, put away his magic firearms, and drew his longsword.

The first wave of Red Maple soldiers quickly clambered onto the battlements and engaged the players in melee skirmishes.

Yeye stepped forward instinctively, confronting a small, frail-looking soldier clad in a white headscarf. The soldier gripped a short sword and charged with a shrill, desperate cry.

Yeye’s eyes narrowed as he thrust his longsword forward.

To his astonishment, the blade met almost no resistance, piercing straight through the soldier’s chest.

Not an extraordinary expert…

This realization flashed through Yeye’s mind instantly.

A cold breeze swept across the battlements, lifting the soldier’s headscarf.

Beneath it, Yeye’s stunned gaze met an aged, wrinkled face.

It was an elderly face.

And it belonged to a woman.

The soldier he killed just now was actually an old woman.

Her eyes met Yeye’s with fear, despair, madness, and a faint trace of relief.

She coughed twice, before her body slowly dissolved into ashes.

Watching the ash particles drift into the air, Yeye stood frozen on the spot, gripping his sword.

The attackers were not battle hardened infantry at all, instead…

—They were civilians.