CHAPTER 118: MECHANIZED ASSAULT FORCE

Half an hour later, the first cannons began firing on the north wall.

The enemy force had moved within cannon range, preparing to set up their siege weapons while the troop transports were still racing toward the city, intent on using a mechanized charge to try to get the advantage of a shock assault.

It took time to redeploy troops who had to run across the city on foot, but the entire Natural Sons’ Regiment was already in place, and once the Dagos Army started getting close, gunfire joined the sound of cannons from the wall, and the whole north side of the city slowly vanished into a white haze of gun smoke.

The firing rate wasn’t slowing, and the smoke was getting thicker. But the flag men were relaying messages to the interpreter in the window, who was making notes for the Nobles and the advisors in the room.

"They’re nearly at the wall now. The riflemen targeted drivers as much as possible, but there wasn’t enough warning of the invasion to get more than the basic defences erected around the city." Marquis Burton lamented.

That meant the moat, which was surrounded by a ditch, which had been oiled, in preparation for being set alight, and the simple fence of spiked poles dug into the leading edge of the bulwark in front of it.

Those should stop the trucks effectively enough, preventing any tactic that involved ramming the walls or directly flipping up siege ladders. It wasn’t optimal, but when the soldiers unloaded, they would be vulnerable to the defenders on the walls, as the fortification had been set with an archer’s accurate range in mind.

"The enemy has autoloading crossbows." The interpreter relayed, not entirely certain he had read the signal correctly.

That did sound like it could be an issue. Rate of fire was the great downfall of crossbows, so if they could fix that, their effectiveness could be close to that of a rifleman.

The man at the window shrieked in fear, and Dominic froze for a moment, wondering what was going on. Then, he activated an [Area Barrier] over the north side of the Keep, just in time for a massive stone to crash into it.

Then another, and another.

The booming of stone shattering against the barrier shook the air inside the Keep, and Dominic focused on keeping the barrier active.

The spell was in his book, along with the few others that he knew, so it was at Level 7 right now, which was enough to call it proficient, but he had never actually needed to test it before.

Channelling mana to bring the barrier up to full strength wasn’t too draining. But Dominic’s brief training in noble etiquette had reminded him that the bombardment could continue for days before all the good stones were depleted.

Some of the stones were missing their mark and landing in the city, others crashed against the outer city walls, lobbed by weapons set further back, out of range of the cannons.

A mage ran into the room, holding a staff with a large golden gem at the top.

"Oh, good. Someone has a barrier up already. I will trade you." He nearly shouted, adrenaline fuelling his actions as he placed a secondary layer of barrier behind Dominic’s.

"That works for me. I will leave that one up. At least until the stones break it. That should buy you at least a few minutes to catch your breath." Dominic agreed.

The Mage nodded. "What level of [Area Barrier] did you use?"

"Level seven. That should be enough for now, I hope."

The mage’s relief set Marquis Burton at ease. The standard for their magical troops was level five on the major combat gems. So, while most of them were at or above the level that Dominic had set, none of them should be significantly below it.

Which meant that their location was safe.

For now.

That didn’t stop the bombardment. Neither side cared that there were Techno Mages present, blocking much of their weapons fire. Much more of it on the Cygnia side, but that was largely due to the difference in armaments.

The Dagos Army was using rapid fire crossbows to return fire at the soldiers on the walls, but the city’s Mage units also had magical barriers up, and the crossbows were firing mundane arrows.

From what Dominic could gather from the messages, it looked like the Dagos Army had gotten enough stolen knowledge to upgrade the weapons in time, but they hadn’t understood that it was necessary, or hadn’t had the manpower to do all of the ammunition as well.

That was a direct contrast to the Natural Sons’ Regiment, whose high-powered magitech rifles were regularly punching through weak spots in the Dagos barrier, and the front lines of the assault had lost multiple mages already.

It was impossible to tell just how the battle was going, or even get a feel for the intensity of the struggle at the walls, through the cloud of white smoke. But the repetitive cannon fire and the crashing of stones against stone walls and barriers was enough to know that it wasn’t slowing down.

Then, a pair of Cygnia airships descended from the clouds.

Not falling, but a controlled descent which put them in position to bombard the siege weapons of the Dagos mechanized army.

Though sixteen cannons was not a significant force, fewer than a tenth of what the Dagos Army was preparing to move forward into firing range, attacking from above let them fire from well out of range of any sort of return fire that that Dagos force could muster.

The Cannonballs exploded all through the back lines with the reserves and the artillery, destroying vehicles, shredding cannon support frames and reservist bodies alike.

That much Dominic could see from the window of the Keep’s top floor.

"Why are they not sending more down? They’re magnificently deadly." Marquis Burton cheered.

"Because their primary advantage is altitude. If they are ambushed from above by the Dagos fleet while they attack the ground force, they will be shot down behind enemy lines.

While their bravery is saving many lives on the walls right now, it could cost them everything if they’re caught." Princess Alexis explained.

The Marquis took a deep breath and nodded. Aerial combat came with a whole new set of concerns he had never been trained for.